Ok everyone, We all know what happened. I'm here to fix it. We all want the game to move forward forever even though it wasn’t fiscally sound for FFG and everyone knows that Antigoth has been doing a great service to the gaming community for years in keeping his favorite games alive. I think that not only can we do the same for UFS, but we can go one step further.
Below is my outlined proposal to fix UFS and prepare it for a fan run committee and fan sourced infrastructure.
- Legacy support – Everyone has been sitting on dead cards in their house for years now. We all remember the fun we had with these cards, even the overpowered ones. FFG failed to provide real support for legacy, or really any attention to legacy as a format because of the workload it would have taken. My recommendation is that the standard format become the legacy format. Since there will not be any new cards (in an official capacity) at least for some time the card pool will be too small to support simpily block 4 cards. Before everyone freaks out please read the rest of the points I make to see how I will handle balance issues
- Updated Banned list – Simple enough. Game needs an updated banned list if we are going to integrate all of legacy into the game. What cards will be on it I do not know. It should be maintained in a central location (hub website or something to that extent.) and it should be created and regularly reviewed by an open council. The goal of the ban list is 2 fold. 1 is to remove broken or problem cards from the game (things that don’t work as intended such as enlightenment) and 2 is to promote a balanced environment where multiple deck types are viable on a competitive level.
- User sourced but Centralized hub - Everyone can and should have input into what goes on the banned list as the game will be an open source project, but much like open source models a centralized hub with a council will help add order to the project and set the baseline for play. Users can modify the rules as they see fit for themselves but players still need a central rules structure. The beauty of a CCG is that with centralized rules you can play against anyone you meet. This will also help establish a base for new releases for cards (more on this later).
- Highlander or EDH model – One of the larger problems with UFS was the Grey wall problem (games were not about attacking). This problem was compounded by a few design faults, such as attacks never having controls above 3 without crazy exceptions and foundations typically around 5. The root of the problem however was redundancy. Most cards of varying power were still fine in a vacuum, but when compounded with other like cards, themselves, and redundant and consistent strategies in a 4x15 style deck, became broken. You could run 1 attack x4 and all foundations and have a consistency to your deck that rivaled a non random game. By forcing the game to a highlander style (where every card is limit 1 per deck), you not only give value to otherwise unplayed cards, you increase the skill needed for deck building and play and make the game more about the play than who has the rarer cards.
- Do not allow licenses or fansets – This sounds crazy I know so I need to elaborate. Everyone loves SF4 and Guilty gear and all that, we know. You have all your ideas for user generated sets and how it all works. But in order for new cards to be made they need to be universal, meaning everyone needs access to them. Most of you are going to be biased in your design, other will have fine designs but they won’t work well with other cards that other isolated players design. In order for the game to continue to be fresh but balanced, the game needs new sets that still go through playtest, community vetting, etc. The central hub site should function to serve as the location for set releases. All players can contribute but it still needs order to releases. Why no licenses though? Because we aren’t paying for them. Granted no profit will be made, but at the same time why exclude the game from ever being picked up again but a real company or having it be resurrected.
- Only do this with FFGs blessing – Seriously. It’s their game. If they want us not to use it like this we should respect that.