The Next Hearthstone Expansion Will Add Over 100 New Cards

[Steven Bogos]

The Next Hearthstone Expansion Will Add Over 100 New Cards

Just when you thought you had collected every card...

Fans of Blizzard's online Trading Card Game Hearthstone had pretty much nothing but praise for its single-player focused Curse of Naxxramas [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-escapist-presents/9607-Hearthstone-Curse-of-Naxxramas-Plague-Quarter-Guide-and-Playthrough] expansion set. But, as cool and as fun as it was, it only added 30 actual new cards. Blizzard says that to remedy this, it is currently prepping a full expansion for the game, that will contain over 100 new cards.

"I think we're going to mix it up a little bit with this next release, which will be our first expansion," Hearthstone production director Jason Chayes told Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/30/6874049/hearthstones-expansion-add-on-100-new-cards-blizzard-pc]. "It will have a lot more cards. We're talking about more than 100. We are going to have a central theme for how that will all fit together. That'll be the next thing coming up."

Chayes explains that in order for a TCG, even an online TCG such as Hearthstone to thrive, it takes a constant influx of new cards for players to acquire and master. He says that Blizzard is closely monitoring the game to decide just how often they will allow new cards to trickle into it.

"One of the things that we spend a lot of time talking about is pacing," said Chayes. "Not just the pacing of the game as it is, but pacing of the rollout of new content. We really want to make sure the pacing is great not just for seasoned Hearthstone players but for new players coming into the game too."

Indeed, no-one wants to come into a game as a fresh new player, and discover that there is a gargantuan pile of content they have to acquire before they can butt heads with the veterans (I'm looking at you, League of Legends).

Chayes added that if the upcoming expansion works out well, "we could imagine a future where we do a combination of [single-player] adventures like Naxxramas and [card-focused] expansions kind of intermixed to have different sorts of experiences going out over the course of a year."

In terms of non-card related ways to expand the game, Chayes said that the team had an "idea to expand and have new modes where players can play in different ways," but stressed that this was more of a long-term project.

As for when this expansion will launch, Chayes wouldn't offer more than the trademark Blizzard "Soon".

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/30/6874049/hearthstones-expansion-add-on-100-new-cards-blizzard-pc]

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[Erttheking]

Just be extremely careful Blizzard. You don't want to fall into the power creep trap.


(Level 1 minions for Paladin plox? He doesn't exactly have the best line up there.)

 

[babinro]

You can guarantee there will be power creep.

There is absolutely no way they'll release 100+ optional cards that in no way improve any deck in any meaningful way. We won't see 100+ Fen Crawler quality cards...no. You'll see plenty of cards that push the power level like Sludge Belcher and Mad Scientist.

That said...it would interesting to see if Hearthstone could come up with hundreds of incomparable cards over the coming years to prove me wrong. It won't happen (IMO)...but it'd be fascinating.

 

[Kahani]

Indeed, no-one wants to come into a game as a fresh new player, and discover that there is a gargantuan pile of content they have to acquire before they can butt heads with the veterans

One of the things I think Blizzard have done extremely well with Hearthstone is managing exactly this. The matchmaking system, even with non-ranked games, means casual players like me don't just get constantly annihilated by people willing to put more time and/or money into the game. And arena mode means everyone has the opportunity to play with every card available on an equal footing. No matter how many new cards they add, as long as the game continues to work in the same way there really shouldn't be any problem.

You can guarantee there will be power creep.

There is absolutely no way they'll release 100+ optional cards that in no way improve any deck in any meaningful way. We won't see 100+ Fen Crawler quality cards...no. You'll see plenty of cards that push the power level like Sludge Belcher and Mad Scientist.

That said...it would interesting to see if Hearthstone could come up with hundreds of incomparable cards over the coming years to prove me wrong. It won't happen (IMO)...but it'd be fascinating.

What I'd hope to see it's lots more synergies. For example, beasts are mostly pretty bad looked at in isolation, with plenty of cards with the same cost and stats that also include useful abilities. But together with a bunch of other cards that work with other beasts either by buffing them or getting buffed by them, a dedicated beat deck can be very effective. Murlocs are similar, but with fewer choices and less class focus. And now Naxxramas added a bunch of extra deathrattle stuff that allow you to build a deck focussed on that mechanic, which wasn't really possible before.

If they add new cards that are not that powerful on their own and only come into their own when used in a properly synergistic deck, there's plenty of scope for adding a ton of extra cards that don't actually affect the overall power level. I'd particularly like to see more class-based options for this sort of thing. As it stands, hunters get beasts and that's about it. Some classes benefit more from spellpower, healing, or various other mechanics, but no other class has the same amount of neutral cards that allow them to build a synergistic deck not available to any other. Adding in more cards that work with mechanics like overload, divine shield, and so on, could give options to everyone while allowing specific classes to really build a deck based around them.

 

[gardian06]

I'm hoping that these new cards will be available via Arena play whenever it is they come out. Maybe do something where they either intermingle them in with the boosters you get or let you pick which type of booster you get. I earned my full set playing arena almost exclusively and spent pennies on the dollar compared to what it would have cost me to get them in boosters.

I like your ideas here, but I can think of both cases being negative, or positive. if there is a noticeable value to the new cards verses the old cards,

if the player is not able to choose which set booster they get then they will need to figure out at what percentage to give new verse old cards in a booster (assuming that the user is new, and has done some of the card lists), and then for the people that have gotten all of the cards currently (either by crafting, or booster-ing) then they will need to buy more boosters (either through gold, or real-money) which could be viewed as frustrating.

as an aside what does the game do if it was to give you a card in a booster that you already have 2 of? (technically this would only be knowable for someone who has all of the cards, and buys a booster)

the other way is if the player is able to choose which booster they get then the extrinsic balancing needs to be directly taken into account. if the new cards are extrinsically better (extrinsic refers to noticeable/numerical advantage/disadvantage where intrinsic refers to believed/subjective advantage/disadvantage) then a new player will more often then not purchase the new packs over the old packs which the only way to make it more advantageous to purchase the old packs instead of the new packs would either be to lock out the new packs until a player has obtained all of the old cards possible, and then unlock the new packs. this would then feel frustrating to new players being that they now have to wade through the old content to reach the new content, or they will feel they need to purchase old content with real money to catch up. the other way they could combat the rush to the new cards with separate packs if there is an extrinsic advantage is to have them at a different ergo higher price point (either gold, real-money, or both), but then we start getting into slippery slope territory of if set C is x times more powerful then set B then it should cost Y more to obtain.

 

[Jeremy Dawkins]

I'm hoping that these new cards will be available via Arena play whenever it is they come out. Maybe do something where they either intermingle them in with the boosters you get or let you pick which type of booster you get. I earned my full set playing arena almost exclusively and spent pennies on the dollar compared to what it would have cost me to get them in boosters.

I like your ideas here, but I can think of both cases being negative, or positive. if there is a noticeable value to the new cards verses the old cards,

if the player is not able to choose which set booster they get then they will need to figure out at what percentage to give new verse old cards in a booster (assuming that the user is new, and has done some of the card lists), and then for the people that have gotten all of the cards currently (either by crafting, or booster-ing) then they will need to buy more boosters (either through gold, or real-money) which could be viewed as frustrating.

as an aside what does the game do if it was to give you a card in a booster that you already have 2 of? (technically this would only be knowable for someone who has all of the cards, and buys a booster)

the other way is if the player is able to choose which booster they get then the extrinsic balancing needs to be directly taken into account. if the new cards are extrinsically better (extrinsic refers to noticeable/numerical advantage/disadvantage where intrinsic refers to believed/subjective advantage/disadvantage) then a new player will more often then not purchase the new packs over the old packs which the only way to make it more advantageous to purchase the old packs instead of the new packs would either be to lock out the new packs until a player has obtained all of the old cards possible, and then unlock the new packs. this would then feel frustrating to new players being that they now have to wade through the old content to reach the new content, or they will feel they need to purchase old content with real money to catch up. the other way they could combat the rush to the new cards with separate packs if there is an extrinsic advantage is to have them at a different ergo higher price point (either gold, real-money, or both), but then we start getting into slippery slope territory of if set C is x times more powerful then set B then it should cost Y more to obtain.

When you get more of a card than you can put into a deck you have the option to disenchant it and it will give you dust based on the card's rarity. This dust can then be used to craft a new card, the rarer it is the more dust it costs. If you want to craft a gold card, then it costs even more.

 

[gardian06]

so blizzard said that it would be coming out soon.....

....the last time they uttered those words Diablo 3 came out the next year.

 

[Methodia Chicken]

Blizzard: turns out Titan isn't happening because our devteam spent their entire time and budget playing hearthstone.

the good news is that they came up with 100 new cards!

 

[ThatQuietGuy]

Damn, the 30 new cards already really shook the meta, 100 will shatter it, though I guess the meta becomes more stable as the total amount of cards gets higher.

 

[MerlinCross]

Damn, the 30 new cards already really shook the meta, 100 will shatter it, though I guess the meta becomes more stable as the total amount of cards gets higher.

That can actually be a good thing though. Several games need a large shake up from time to time or they get stale(Looking at you League). Magic and Yugioh have this problem solved by having sets/blocks come out. Though magic tends to try resetting the power curve after a block is done.

So yeah 100 cards this is gonna fun to watch.

 

[Rblade]

What I wonder is if, and if so how much, gold I'm going to have to save up to get a piece of this sweet future pie