Astral Duelist | 2011-05-11 15:38:47 |
Has anyone played Spectromancer? If you have, let me know what you think about the game compared to Astral Masters. Aside from it's great artwork and graphics, is the core gameplay better?
Dreamteam67 | 2011-05-11 19:18:15 |
I have played both games, and to say one is better than the other is being unfair to both games. The shared names of some of the cards aside, they are completely different games.
Astral Masters is a deck-building game, where you narrow your choices down to a select few cards and never quite know what you are going to be dealt. Nevertheless there are many diverse strategies to force the odds so your prefered cards will appear as the match develops. Spectromancer is more about timing, where you have complete overview and control of when to deploy what card.
Each game features both hand-development and board-control, but in quite different ways. Each game requires the player to make intelligent choices as the match progresses in order to be able to develop into a powerful winning position.
In SM you can suss-out what cards are in your opponents hand, and practiced players will even be able to anticipate their opponent's moves. In AM you never really know what is going to happen next, although practiced players will develop their hand so as to be able to capitalize on whatever fate throws their way.
I find the pace of AM is mostly fast, while SM is slower and more methodical. To me, AM is more like playing gin-rummy, while SM is more like playing chess.
Personally, I actually prefer the display and abstract artwork of AM, over the display and more detailed artwork of SM, but that's just my own opinion.
That said, I never play Classic AM, as you can see by people's scores that it is truly a 50:50 luck of the draw as to who is going to win. All of my above comments apply to Custom and/or Roundtable duels. If I could "fix" one thing in AM, it would be to issue challenges so that they are linked to MP deck-cost. In this way, low level players could much more confidently issue challenges to much higher level players, and it would encourage more player interaction of different skill level. I don't have enough experience with SM to have determined if anything with that game is "broken", although I have seen some comments about luck of the draw in cards determining who has the advantage.
They are two different games, really, each scratches a different itch for me. Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-05-11 20:48:22 Everybody Lies | 2011-05-12 07:40:31 |
IMHO Astral Masters is better. Spectromancer is boring game.
Astral Duelist | 2011-05-12 14:43:17 |
Pros: Good graphics/artwork. Career, League of Heroes and Drafting your own tournaments are a great addition as well saving your duels to view at a later stage. Multiplayer is also enhanced being able to observe other duels. Different classes reminds me of Hereos of Might & Magic and that’s a good thing.
Cons: I think the main problem that I have experienced with Spectro is that overall control of “sacrificing” creatures is lost and growth of the elements is determined by the computer in the beginning of the duel (+1). In saying that, can’t activate some creature’s abilities at your own discretion (automatically activated) when summoned. Lack of cards makes the game somewhat repetitive, especially with a limit deck of 20 cards per duel compared to a deck of 30. The game is painfully slow-in astral masters you can do more in one turn than you can in Spectro ie summoning one creature or one spell at a time. Music can also get monotonous but that isn’t a major issue.
Whether the cards are properly balanced remains to be another issue. It at times feel that some of the more powerful cards have much less cost than some in hierarchy of it’s class. For me Astral Masters is still a better game. It’s complexity is what makes it much more satisfying than Spectro. I’m hoping that Astral Masters will develop into a much bigger hybrid (RPG/Card Dueling) like Battleforge.
yachsmit | 2011-05-13 07:26:40 |
imho Astral Tournament is the best! tl;dr Modified by yachsmit on 2011-05-13 07:28:30 ZVERyAi | 2011-05-21 12:40:57 |
Astral Masters is the best of the best game!
gerryq | 2011-06-04 12:07:09 |
DreamTeam wrote: "That said, I never play Classic AM, as you can see by people's scores
that it is truly a 50:50 luck of the draw as to who is going to win."
It is not so simple. Chess grandmasters only win 50% of the time also,
because they play against other grandmasters. In AM Classic, people
with high levels play against people who have higher levels on average.
I think if there were matches between level 10 players and level 3
players, the level 10s would score *much* higher than 50%.
Anyone who plays knows there is room to make mistakes or good plans.
NightsChild | 2011-07-15 04:47:51 |
I personally prefer Spectromancer, as it is much more professional than Am. For the simple Reason, that all Cards-Draws are visible and available from the Start, which makes high Lv Games extremely skill-based, while AM contains big Parts of Luck and Chance. Additionaly, the balancing in AM is pretty bad. And finally, Spectromancer is much more complex, and contains a lot of additional Options and Opportunities... Modified by NightsChild on 2011-07-16 10:26:24
Astral Masters is the best
Astral Masters is the best
NightsChild | 2011-07-27 11:51:30 |
After playing several Games, i can add new Impressions: What i definitely not like about Am, is that more experienced Players have the stronger/more expensive Decks. This really takes the sense of playing them. There may be a Point where it doesnt matter anymore, but at the beginning, and with currently 875 Astral Power, its a great Factor. What i dont like either, is the poor Developement-State of Am. Compared to Spectromancer it feels like an Alpha-Version. A big Expension with new Cards, Modes and Balance-Changes could change that, but i dont think this is going to happen. What i definitely like about Am, is that more than one Cards can be played per Round, that Creatures have Abilities, and that theres the big strategical Aspect of Astral Power/Removing Cards. It surely is a Game with great Potential, and I cant wait for the Sequel!
Modified by NightsChild on 2011-07-27 11:58:14
I have played SM at the beginning and I remember that i didn't buy it because AM is better in the game mechanics. Spectromancer is just more beautiful in colors and more ergonomics maybe because it's recent.
I much prefer AM. But it needs to be update !
astral masters is the best
makotoshishio | 2012-11-03 15:38:59 |
I prefer spectromancer, because I think that it has less luck involved, in astral master you can have a very good plan, but a bad card draw often spoil it.
For me personally, the Astral Masters-Concept is as perfect as it could be. It feels like an improved Version of Magic the Gathering, with less luck (by universal Mana) and the options to build decks or play random.
If it only had more options (f.e. an observer Mode) and better balancing, it think I'd never play anything else. I have never waited as much for a game as for Astral Masters 2.
Spectromancer is a great game as well, but it still didnt catch me. Personally, i think that it would be a better game if all Cards were available to both players, as i really miss the existence of strategy games without luck and randomness, and because in the current form, i personally feel that there are just better alternatives to spectromancer...
henricuz | 2013-12-15 19:56:29 |
I like the random cards you receive in astral masters I've played a lot of both astral masters and spectromancer, but I always preferred the first one.. magistrmerlin | 2014-02-09 13:15:40 |
конечно астрал bestgeimer | 2014-03-21 15:20:15 |
Astral Masters is the best of the best game! Supporting him, is the very best of the best))
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