14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard Entertainment is currently working, among other things, on an upcoming expansion pack for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, which will add more than 100 new cards to the popular collectible card game.
The developer's biggest challenge is figuring out how to introduce such a large number of new cards to the game without disrupting the way users play it, or at least without disrupting it too much, as Lead Designer Eric Dodds tells MMORPG.
"We don't want to create this large number of cards and overwhelm players, but at the same time, with this new expansion, we want to provide a large number of cards with additional options for the hardcore. So, exactly what those cards are and exactly what those ratios are, partially we're still working on them, and partially we'll be talking about that in the future," Dodds explains.
As previously stated, the new cards will be introduced in the form of random card packs similar to the ones already purchasable in the Hearthstone in-game shop, instead of going the Curse of Naxxramas route and awarding them to players who manage to best the challenges of a single-player advantage.
Many players complained about Warlocks being overpowered, with their hero ability, that allows them to draw a new card at the expense of two life points, offering them too great an advantage, which resulted in some asking Blizzard to either change it or nerf it somehow.
The reason it is currently regarded as too powerful is the synergy it offers Zoo players, who build their decks out of powerful, low-cost creatures, that quickly overwhelm opponents when used in tandem with the Warlock's card-drawing ability.
"We have no plans right now to change the hero power, because the hero power has ramifications, but after we do additional investigation, nothing is off the table, it's just that our first step to try to make balance right is introducing new cards and our second, more extreme, set would be changing something," Dodds says on the matter.
"Changing a hero power is kind of crazy talk, but on the other hand, it's certainly, to make the game great, we're not taking everything or anything off the table," he adds.
Usually in card games, whenever the creators see certain archetypes of specific decks dominating the competitive scene for extended periods of time without having any worthwhile opposition, they design silver bullets meant to take down some of the most powerful cards, offering gamers an opportunity to come up with new deck ideas or to make second tier ones competitive.
"Some things, like, for Zoo, I expect it to be strong for a while, it's been kind of a staple for a while, so we're probably going to have to poke at it some more, but we certainly want to let it run for a while and then talk about do we need to add additional cards in the meta game and then we'll talk about more extreme things. So, we're still talking about it," Dodds explains.