Pirates War - The Dice King
Monopoly-like Digital Boardgame. I am playing the beta, and not a final product. Around 3 years ago, a Korean friend of mine introduced me to craze that was happening on f2p mobile - Everybody's Marble. I didn't understand the text but the gameplay was simple enough, using the monopoly formula with a few changes where players can pay the fines but also contest the property and overtake it. Landing ultimate times on the property you can upgrade it, making it harder to overtake - up to a 'hotel' level where it can no longer be taken (3 upgrade The 'go' money is based on how many properties you have - it is a fine balancing act of buying as many properties and upgrading them, but having enough in the bank in case you land on an opponents. There's a few other things like roll to move places, minigames where you can win money etc - but the core was simple and any mainstream player who has played monopoly would easily understand how to play. To win, take your opponent's money, or earn 2 monopolies (2 streets of where you own all the property) or have the most money at the end of the turn limit. Thematically was very close to those monopoly city themes, go to France and get all the famous French landmarks, and customisable avatars, in true cartoonish/East friendly style. However, I was wondering when there would be a version in the West.
Pirates Dice is a Western themed version, using pirates in cel-shaded comic style. The board is a bunch of islands where you are sailing a ship to. They've added a lot of the meta-systems seen today in f2p - card collection to upgrade heroes/abilities and account based level progression.
Core: Turn limited, 3 players. To Win, get 2 monopolies, eliminate opponents by taking their gold to 0, or have the most gold at the end of the turn limits. Board has; a 'jail', a day/night cycle guard (in the day it is strong, and will remove one of your crew members, at night you can bust them out), a random buff/nerf, 2 utilities (2 properties that cannot be fought for, so first one there can take it for the game), a teleporter to choose where you want to go, and a random blind pick game. Pirates offer stats (atk/def which are added to the dice roll), and abilities that can be passive or active. They have a cost to be placed in your crew, so higher strength pirates cost more to have in your crew than lower. They also have combination benefits if you have the right pirates in your crew.
Meta/Progression: Level your account by playing games. A level up earns your pirate a stat change, and also increase your crew count, allowing you to expand your crew and get bonuses or add stats. It's fun trying out new pirates and abilities (although paying to recharge on a timer is a wierd thing), the best I have found is getting crew combination pirates and getting a passive that helps you all game rather than active abilities. Each pirate can be upgraded if you have enough cards of that pirate - much like those systems found in common f2p ccgs (clash royale etc). There are PVE and PVP tracks, with VS friends and ranked play coming soon. Match Making times for PVP was surprisingly quick for a small beta and Australian times - so I wonder if there is logic in there to throw bots when no one is found.
Monetisation/Currency: There are many currencies - energy to play, gold to spend on upgrades, gems for chests/speeding timers, and bolt for daily spins. Energy replenishes over time, Gems are earned through account level ups, and daily logins, but otherwise bought. You can only find pirates if you are lucky through a daily spin but primarily they are found in chests that are bought for gems (also there’s a free daily chest). Getting x amount of a pirate allows you to upgrade it, getting better stats and abilities. When entering a game, you can buy pre-game boosts for gold, (eg. first roll is always a double) and are really useful and always worth buying since the advantage helps, and one can be given to you for free for watching an ad. You then can be a pre-game pirate which adds a crew member for stats (and is usually stolen first by the guard so it doesn't affect your bonuses/abilities for at least one fight) - and like boosts, always worth buying. These however are on cooldowns and timers can be removed using gems (and then paid for with gold to use). Game is rather generous in gem flow but maybe this is only in the beta. Had a good time collecting pirates and found a good combination - would like to see if I can replicate this luck and combo in a final build.
I played a few games and enjoyed it, and is a good take on a years-ago craze adopted for the West with modernised f2p elements. Will be interesting to see what the market is for this kind of game once it's released in the wild.
