Otaku said:
Also, a good way to demonstrate how "fast" it is would be to mention what you are comparing it to. The thing that scared a lot of us off in the beginning was reports from multiple sources stating that the game was so much slower than apprentice. If you have never played apprentice, everything is almost instantaneous (unless something is of course wrong).
Apprentice is definitely faster than Lackey but there are reasons for this.
1) Simply put, there's more to Lackey than Apprentice. Lackey has built in functions that Apprentice does not. Apprentice is similar to the WhiteBoard on MSN Messenger in that you are working with a canvas and it is not truely interactive. Where as Lackey is completely dedicated to CCGs and is intended to actually look and feel like you are playing a real game. The "room" you are in is 3D (somewhat), there is a zoom function, a tilt function, soon we will have physical damage counters, and the list goes on.
2) Another great feature is the ability to highlight and drag items. It works in Lackey exactly the same as it does in standard Windows programs, where as Apprentice lacks that ability and you are forced to move cards 1 at a time.
2) On the subject of cards, Lackey plays with REAL CARDS!! Nothing will ever trump that. You see the cards in your hand and you can look across the table at the card backs of your opponents hand. When you Quick Search or use Celio's Network, you look at the cards in your deck, you can physically SEE what is in play, what is in the discard pile. It is infinitely more realistic that Apprentice in that way and that does cause some speed problems.
What I suggest you do when playing Lackey - until it is officially released, that is - is to take your time and go through all the motions thuroughly. For example, when playing Potion or something, don't drag a card onto the table as quick as possible and then do it again with a 2nd Potion (ie click, drag, click, drag in less than 1 second) this could cause problems and its not like an extra second will kill you. Many people have said it before but I'll reitorate: Click the card, hold it for 1/2 a second then drag it at a moderate speed to where you want it, then let go. You should have no problems playing this way.
Another tip is to go to Deck Editor and click "Load All Images" or "Load All Cards" whatever its called. This takes 3 seconds and will load all the card scans and make the game and deck building much smoother.
P.S. One great thing about Lackey that you might not notice or encounter depending on the decks you play with & against is performing a function on multiple cards. For example, Sand Damage or Wide Laser can both be accomplished by highlighting all cards or Ctrl+click all affected cards. Then Right Click -> Add damage. This will put 1 damage counter on all highlighted cards, as opposed to Apprentice where you have to Right Click 20 times to accomplish the same task.
Oh yeah, and Lackey has a built in Prize function so you don't have to drag Prizes onto the field anymore.
There are a lot more things that I can't think of off the top of my head. Its easier to build decks via sorting and so forth but I think PokePedia and the Pokemon website are best suited for that. There are up to 30 filters you can use when searching for cards, which makes things very easy.
You get your own icon, which is nifty.
Best of all, it gets around firewalls without the hassles of Apprentice. And for all the computer savvy individuals, you can choose which Ports you want to be used for each function, which is extremely helpful for even the most difficult of firewalls. And in the near future, a dedicated server should be hosting games and tournaments, something that Apprentice will never do.
The program is solid, its well built and getting better every day. I can see it being purchased by one of the bigger corporations and being used to host their game(s) exclusively. Though Nintendo would be better off writing their own program from scratch.
I'm sure there's more to say on Lackey's behalf but that's all I can think of now. There are plugins for almost every game including 10-15 that I didn't know existed so you Neopet freaks can play on Lackey too.
I'm starting to think about it and it shouldn't be too hard to set up traditional games on Lackey. Scrabble would be easy, Uno shouldn't be a problem, Sorry, maybe Monopoly. Interesting to think about.
okeball: