Heart of Crown FAQ

[Fattierob]

This post contains Frequently Asked Questions and how to resolve them. If you still need help with anything there are always helpful people in the Discord server.

Just how the heck do I play this game anyway?

There is an in-game tutorial function that gives you the basics. You can activate it at any time by clicking the question mark button in the lower right corner of the screen. I recommend you start a CPU game using the "Beginner" set and go through the tutorial

https://i.imgur.com/x8JOcSA.jpg

These cards are small how do I view them bigger?

Hold right click over a card to see it in a much larger view. You can do this pretty much anywhere a card is displayed (unless you're choosing something where right click is to cancel).

I played the tutorial but that stupid Apprentice Maid didn't really explain one of the following:

First off the Apprentice Maid tries her best but she's only in training, cut her some slack! Let's see here...

What is a "Common Card"?

A Common Card is any card from the Market. This doesn't include Farming Village, City, Large City, Apprentice Maid, Royal Maid, Senator, Duke, or Curse as those are "Basic Cards".

How do I back a Princess?

In the top of the screen you'll find a button that says "Back Princess". You'll need 6 gold to back a princess not already backed by another player. Just click on the "Back Princess" button to back the one you want!
Be careful when you back a princess as 3 of the Territory cards you used to back her will be used to create her "Domain". You'll lose these cards from the deck but you'll be able to use them to "keep" Action cards in them from now on.
Also any Victory Points these cards are worth (including negative for Farming Villages and such!) will count towards your total victory point total.
In short: Try to back a Princess with City or Large City Territory cards, unless you have a specific strategy in mind.

How do I activate a Princess's Ability?

Click on the Princess Card on the left side of the screen. This will activate their ability if they have one and you meet the requirements!

How do I score Victory Points?

To score Victory Points you need to drag the card from your hand on top of your princess. Once you do that, you'll score the points the card is worth (either negative or positive) and it'll be removed from your hand to stay with your princess for the rest of the game. However be careful: You can only score Victory Points from your hand *OR* buy cards from the market during your turn. You can't do both, so be very careful in your decision making!
(You can still play Action cards on your turn of course)

You mentioned something about "keep"ing cards?

One of the most unique and important mechanics to Heart of Crown is being able to hold onto Action cards for a later turn. Remember how your Princess's Domain is composed of 3 Territory cards? You can place 1 Action Card underneath each Territory Card to "keep" that card for later. Simply Drag and Drop the Action Card over the Territory of your choice (The card will glow when you can do this!). When you want to retrieve the card, simply click on it as it's peeking out from underneath the Territory.

https://i.imgur.com/pcrWlsO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LlZEFtJ.png

However, to "keep" an Action card the cost of the Action card must cost less or equal to the cost of the Territory.
For example, a City costs 3 coin to buy, so you could place a Post Horse Action card, which costs 2 Coin, underneath the City Territory Card. However you couldn't place, say, an Alchemist Action card, which costs 5 Coin, underneath a City Territory card.

Bonus: Any Defensive Action cards you "keep" can be used to defend against Attack Action cards as though they were in your hand. This can be extremely useful!

The "Random" deck option just picks a random deck. Is there a way to get a truly random deck?

Yep! Select "Random" and then select "Custom". All the cards should now be randomized completely!

How do I review past turns and what my opponents did?

Click the "Log" button at the top of the screen to view the log of the game. You can use your scroll wheel to move the log up and down. The log will move to the end of the log (the most up-to-date part) after you open it for the first time (The first time you open it the log will be at the beginning).

Help I can't connect to a game/ I can't host a game / I get error messages about ports

Try these following steps first:

• In the config menu, make sure "Automatically open port using UPnP" is enabled.
  
• Click on the port number next to the "Port to use: " option.
  
• Type in 12900 (This is the default port number for Heart of Crown. You can try others if you want and know what you're doing)
  
• Wait and see if you get a "Port was successfully opened" message. If you do, you should be all set to play in multiplayer!

If you don't, you may need to open the port manually on any firewall you have. It's also possible your ISP might be blocking the ports.

If you keep getting popup errors about not being able to open ports, or the game hangs for a long time on trying to connect to a game and then complains about closed ports, try enabling the "Skip Open Port checking" option.
This should, at the very least, squelch those error messages.

Even after trying everything I can't open any port ...

That should still be okay - you just won't be able to host any rooms or games. You should still be able to join a game!

Whenever I join a room I get kicked out when it starts and replaced with CPU, why? / What do I once I’m in a game lobby / How do I start the game?

When you first join a room you'll be an observer in the room with your name in green text. You'll need to click the blue "Join" button above the list of players to actually join the room. See the picture below for help:

https://i.imgur.com/fYuXa0I.jpg

Once you've joined the game your username will be in blue text and you'll have a P1/P2/P3/P4 next to it. You still need to "Ready up" to allow the room host to start the game.

https://i.imgur.com/LehwKJ5.png

Click the blue "Complete Preparations" button to ready up. You'll notice that you now have a [READY] next to your name to indicate you're ready to go.

https://i.imgur.com/EuQOwks.png

If you ever need to change something or back out of the lobby just click the yellow "Redo Preparations" button to change any of the room settings, but only if you're the host.
If you are the host of the game click the "Start" button in the lower right to start playing! It'll make an error noise if not everybody is ready so don't worry about pushing it ahead of time.

What's the difference between "Normal" and "Guest" Ranked mode?

"Normal" Ranked means you will host the room if you are able to do so. "Guest" means you will only search for ranked rooms waiting for people.

What is this "Alternatives rules" Option in the lobby?

The alternative rule option changes how the starting hand works. Your starting deck always consists of 7 Farming Villages and 3 Apprentice Maids. In a regular game these cards are shuffled and you draw 5 cards randomly for your starting hand. However the Alternative rules specify that during your first turn, you pick the number of Farming Villages in your starting hand (from 2 Farming Villages to 5 Farming Villages). The rest of the cards will make up your second draw. So, for example, if you pick 4 Farming Villages your first hand will consist of 4 Farming Villages and 1 Apprentice Maid while your second hand will consist of 3 Farming Villages and 2 Apprentice Maids.

https://i.imgur.com/joKfZ8a.jpg

Each player makes a choice at the beginning of the game (not on the start of their first turn!) so make sure to choose wisely if you're not the first player. Whoever chooses the least amount of starting coins goes first (and then in order of least number of starting coins). Besides this change to the beginning of the game nothing is different about the gameplay. These rules are normally used for Tournament play because it is less random but that doesn't mean you "should" use them. It's an optional rule for a reason!

How does drawing campaign cards work?

It's a bit complicated but the following three rules apply:

• You can draw up to 20 cards per day, without closing the client
  
• If you draw a card and close the client, you cannot draw any more cards, even if you're below the limit
  
• The cost per draw doubles every draw for that day

If I try to select a resolution that is my native resolution the game doesn't enter fullscreen mode properly?

There's two ways to fix this:

• Select the resolution you want. When the game goes wonky, click the "Is your resolution okay?" dialog box in the middle of the config menu. Hit ESC to leave the config menu and then push CTRL+ALT+Q to quit the game. When you restart the game you should be in full sceen mode at the resolution you want.
  
• Set the resolution to one lower than you want. Navigate to where Heart of Crown is installed. Open the Crownpc.ini file and find the line of text that says WindowSize=#. Change the number to one higher then whatever number you have in there and save the .ini file. Open up Heart of Crown and it should be at the resolution you wanted in full screen mode.

I’m sometimes seeing random stuff in Japanese?

That means you’re connecting to a player from Japan! Since we’re all using the same Heart of Crown server the Japanese players are using their Japanese Title and, if they are hosting a room, Japanese names for their deck sets. We’re working on a solution that’ll fix this for the English Client but unfortunately right now it’s not implemented yet.

Some of these Hidden Achievements are tough to find...

Lucky for you here are some hints:

• Just how fast can you back a princess?
  
• Don't forget about the maids you start with!
  
• Draw the most important skit!
  
• Laolilly's ability lets you draw *up to* 5 Royal Maids? Hmm...
  
• Sometimes the best Domain is the one with the most crops.
  
• Draw a skit about a very lonely duke.
  
• Make the lonely duke's dream come true (after drawing his skit)
  
• Something about the config menu seems a bit redundant....

If you still need help, there's a good achievement guide here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227992833