A few posters have said iPhone will come. Have downloaded and played the first chapter. I have to say this is a very slick game and well worth sticking with. I bailed out on HS too early and regretted it so I'm keen to stay with this one as it scratches all the CCG itches I have. (Ingame name PaganF0x)
No offline functionality. Competitive CCGs rely on central databases to prevent cheating, maintain progression, collect metrics, etc. Outside of VERY limited practice modes (such as Magic Duel's limited offline functionality), you'll probably never see an offline-enabled digital multiplayer CCG (at least not one with functional competitive multiplayer). (But you should definitively file a feature suggestion for an offline practice mode with Bethesda, though!) It seems unlikely you need worry about your collection going down the unplugged sink any time soon, however. Legends has been received very well, mostly. It already has a very dedicated community of content providers, fans and competitive arrangements, has the backing of an industry giant, and sports all the trappings of a budding CCG esport. It enters a market space that is highly lucrative, shows no signs of losing its appeal to gamers, and that might as well remain a relevant gaming paradigm for as long as any other genre. Yer in luck! iPhone and Android tablets and phones as well. Yeah, that's the question that keeps me up all day (when I should be sleeping after playing Legends all night) as well. I so do hope Dire Wolf don’t take cues from Blizzard’s inexplicably antagonistic decision to have us tap our hands before we can tap to drag cards from it on the iPhone.
It is still amazing. This beta is going on for a long time now though, with maybe only one or two updates a month. I'm not sure if DWD is putting all of their time and effort into Eternal at the moment, or really what they are working on next for tesl. The limited art bundle, madhouse collection, and chaos arena (all in December) make me hopeful for the future though.
Online CCG Confirmed Thanks for making this clear, Magic 2013: Duel of the Planeswalkers actually had both online and offline functionality without limitations. After Magic 2014, most developers started incorporating the online-only DRM in CCGs. In any case, I was very fortunate to have been able to play the BETA on PC last year; hopefully the game can do well on iOS as well.
Yes. MtG: DotP 2009-2013 was never actually a competitive CCG (even if it did have some of the trappings of one); there was no freeform deck building, no full card collection, and online play was casual by comparison (to today's esport inclinations of Hearthstone and TESL). As you might recall, when Stainless Steel gradually transitioned to a full CCG (into the expanded but still limited deck building of DotP 2014-2015, into the full Magic Duels client), offline play was first relegated to a few modes without gold gain/progression, and eventually to only practice mode. This happened because there is simply no convenient, secure way to do a full CCG with full offline capabilities without compromising both the competitive aspects, player progression and developer revenue. Agreed, I hope the iOS release becomes TESL's defining moment! It's the finest evolution of the Hearthstone paradigm to date. TESL brings in enough other influences and innovations of its own to create the killer app of quick and accessible but also quite sophisticated and highly strategic CCGs!
Have to agree Ayjona, arena is electric, I'm having so much fun. I actually find the bot opponents quite challenging, some going for swarm others using denial tactics, makes for some tasty matchups. One question, do you know if there will there be anymore story mode expansions (iPad)? I'm going to look at downloading the PC version, steam I assume, so that I can purchase the starter bundle. Do,you think it's worth it? Thanks for the in depth posts......
Have sunk some money into some packs and the madhouse cards via the PC route but finding time to play is hard after so many new games came out this week! Still no official news on global iOS release but it can't be far off as the game is stable as anything.
Glad you're enjoying it! I still think it is one of the best CCG experiences out there. But the stability of the iPad client (and PC client for that matter) probably does not mean it is close to release, as it has been this stable on both clients for seven (eight?) months now... In case you missed this from reddit or the forums, you can earn 300 crystals per day from practice games. Other methods of crystal acquisition have no limit and are not counted towards this total. You can finish this quickly each day by winning 20 expert AI games, or 30 intermediates if the cheating AI is too frustrating for you. That's a legendary or 3 epics every four days, and that is a fairly generous way of building up your collection.
Thanks for the info @Tinsel I won my first solo arena yesterday...got a lovely legendary as a reward. My collection is at 61% and that's only after 10 days playing! The rewards are generous, though I wish there were more weekly deals.
Yes it is by far the most generous card game I've played in recent memory. I wish they would have more of everything: more expansions, more deals, more modes, but hopefully we'll see something new soon.
I was pants in the (draft) chaos arena event this weekend, 3 straight losses LOL. Still playing everyday and loving it though.
Huge patch just released! You must go back to the App Store you downloaded this from originally to see it. They balanced a lot of cards and fixed an enormous amount of bugs. They really focused a lot on some long standing iOS errors. The iPad sound issue has been fixed, as well as the deck building and collection shenanigans that could sometimes occur. No word yet on Android or iPhone release but this patch has to be a huge step towards both of those releases.
I missed out on your reply entirely. Perhaps I was busy playing, oh... a card game or two. One, likely Yeah. While the bots have their idiosyncracies (did you really need to drop that Heavy Battleaxe on a creature you intended to trade one for one and that did not survive as a result anyways, mr. robot?), some strategies they have down pat. And together with the scaling rank difficulty and artificial advantages, they provide a very nice difficulty framework. (And if rank 1 becomes trivial, you at least have a very nice farming source of 3 packs + gold + rare-plus card in return for a 150 gold ticket ) Bethesda/Dire Wolf do intend to release more story expansions down the lane! They've even prepared the shop interface for the feature. No word on when-where-why yet. I imagine it's the kind of addition that'll hit us a few months after release. As much as some reviewers proclaim story additions to CCGs redudant, I think the unique lane conditions combined with the absurdly detailed lore of the ES setting could provide some really awesome battles. The starter bundle is awesome value (half a dollar per pack, plus a guaranteed legendary, plus alternate art and a title!), and the absolute best starting point for any real-life investment into TESL! (After that, if you want to part with some more of yer hard-plundered pieces of eight, spring for the discounted regular card pack - plus awesome Hive Defender alternative artwork! - bundle introduced during the Madhouse event, if that offer is still around. The actual Madhouse Collection itself can wait until you have need of those particular cards/have grinded enough gold to buy it without chewing through the bottom of your wallet.) You are very welcome! I enjoy discussing Legends like few games before it. And just holler for more info and thought exchange. Against SO much better judgement I'm a frequent Redditor in the TESL subreddit, watcher of streams aplenty, browser of decks esoteric and reader of many an absurdly detailed meta review article. I'll gladly gateway that stuff in TA's direction. Once release hits, I was planning to write up a beginner's guide for this thread (mainly me acting smart by pawning off the wisdom of others through neatly formatted links). Do remind me if I don't and you believe it could be of use.
Ipad release date is set for March 23rd! Source: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/elder-scrolls-legends-launches-on-pc-today-coming-/1100-6448566/?ftag=GSS-05-10aaa0b
Directly from the source, with plans for the future to sweeten the deal. And the upcoming expansion offers some serious flexing of those design muscles.