It has been slightly mentioned in other threads, but I'm dropping the whole idea here.
The programming effort needed for this feature is quite low, while the impact on newcomers can be considerably high.
Avatars are visual stuff, but they are a component that will make the players want to keep playing to unlock.
The Avatar is an image that represents the player. When a player plays a PvP, it should see the name of the other player AND his avatar. Besides, you can see other players' unlocked Avatars watching their Libraries. The available images are so far the cards' art.
Avatars are stuff the players 'collect' by gaining 'achievements' (gold, amount of won matches against a certain level, win a tournament or forum event, arena stuff, quests, colosseum streak, levels, whatever).
How to choose your avatar:
Somewhere in the menu there should be a 'Choose your Avatar' button that leads to a submenu.
This submenu has:
- A text box (explained below)
- An 'Exit' button
- The unlocked Avatars
- The locked avatars
- A 'Chosen Avatar' place that shows your current avatar.
This submenu shows the avatars the player unlocked PLUS the ones locked. When the player mouseovers the avatars, its name and the description of how to obtain it is shown in the text box. When clicking on an unlocked Avatar, the 'Chosen Avatar' becomes that one.
'Common' avatars will be easy to obtain and will keep the players unlocking them at a fast peace when they start playing, while rare Avatars should be harder to unlock, like rare cards, Shards and Nymphs.
An unlocking system for some avatars can be designed pretty quickly if there's support for this idea.
The avatars mechanic will need the game to record some things:
1- End-game state for single-match rewards, like the current bonuses do
2- End-game state for multiple-match rewards, like "Win against 10 Mages with X condition"
3- Mid-game events for single match rewards, like "Win a game using Lycanthrope's ability 6 times in one match"
4- Mid-game events for multiple-match rewards, like "Inflict 200 poison counters on your foes"
Some Avatars unlocks:
- Edit a deck
- Win games with certain conditions (this can also be an implicit introduction to bonuses)
- Win X matches against Commoners
- Win X matches in a row against Commoners
- idem before but with other AIs
- Upgrade X cards
- Win a Community Tournament
- Win Quests
- Make an Arena deck that reaches Rank X
- Win X Colosseums in a row (Different Avatars for different Colo levels)
- Particular or harder challenges for particular Avatars, like a Shiny Skeleton for winning a match against a Champion after summoning 100 Skeletons.
