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6601

Dominion General Discussion / Re: House rule for reducing luck factors?

« on: November 25, 2012, 02:35:49 pm »

I am vehemently against any rule that 'reduces luck' in a game. I can see the reasoning behind wanting reduced luck; you're a competitive player and it sucks losing games to weaker players because you get unlucky. You want that to happen less often.

But when the community surrounding a game starts to embrace that kind of rule, it can easily become a slippery slope, and I don't use that expression lightly. If you want proof, look at the competitive online Pokemon community. Pokemon (the video game, not the TCG) is the game I played competitively before Dominion. It could be a great game, with deep strategy and lots of potential variety, two of the things I also love about Dominion. The problem with Pokemon is that it's built to be unbalanced. Little kids just love their legendary Pogeymons! So in order to make the game interesting, certain things had to be banned. Among those things were some moves that the community felt "promoted luck over strategy".

I won't get too far into the details, but suffice it to say that this sort of rule pretty much just breeds discontent and frustration in the community once you have a bunch of player-created rules for minimizing luck. Is Stash too powerful using this new rule? Let's just ban Stash. No big loss, right? What, 30% of the players don't like that Stash is banned? Etc., etc.

The beauty of Dominion is that it's a great, balanced game where every card can shine given the right circumstances. Although I understand the desire to "improve" it, I'd prefer to play it as is and leave the metagame design for other, less-balanced games.

6602

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Why isn't Hoard on-gain?

« on: November 25, 2012, 03:36:14 am »

Except, actually, now that I think about it more, you can't really have a rule that says "when you buy a card, put it on top of your deck" because you're being asked to put "it" on top of your deck at 'buy' time, and at 'buy' time you haven't gained "it" yet. So this is trying to count your blue dogs before they're hatched, or something.

Bingo. Exactly the point I was making. On-buy effects can't really move the bought card without opening a can of worms rules-wise.

6603

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Charms

« on: November 25, 2012, 03:34:06 am »

Life Charm -> Growth Charm restores your handsize back to what it was originally and yields no extra actions. This seems incredibly weak.

Right, that's why I suggested that Life Charm also produce +$1. However, I can seem how that could get out of hand quickly when playing each Charm gains another Charm.

What if Life Charm was +2 Actions/+$1, but only Illumination Charm gained another Charm when played? Right now, Illumination Charm is normally the one you want the fewest of. This would give you more incentive to take them and play them even after you're done trashing. Perhaps also reduce the number of cards you trash to 2?

6604

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Stupid Pet Tricks

« on: November 25, 2012, 01:00:57 am »

Here's a cute thing that I didn't realize until recently: you can activate a Market Square with Hovel. On turn 3 or 4 my hand was something like Necropoilis/Copper/Copper/Hovel/Market Square and I was cursing my luck. Then I realized that I could buy an Estate, trash the Hovel, and discard the Market Square to gain a Gold. I don't know for sure that it's a good combo, but it sure was fun to do.

6605

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Why isn't Hoard on-gain?

« on: November 24, 2012, 05:38:38 pm »

I doubt that version of Hoard would be overpowered... So why not on-gain?

I don't remember the specific reason, but at the time Haggler was like "when you gain a card other than via a Haggler," which would have obv. been a problem. It's not so compelling in general to have a treasure have "while in play, when gain" rather than "while in play, when buy" since there are few ways to gain cards during the buy phase. Royal Seal was "while in play, when buy" for a while, but changed to line up with Watchtower.

This allows you to Royal Seal a Hoard'd Gold.

It also avoids crazy situations like buying a Gold, putting it on top of your deck with Royal seal, then revealing a Trader. What would happen?

EDIT: To specify, Royal Seal is on-buy rather than on-gain in this example.

6606

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Charms

« on: November 24, 2012, 05:03:04 pm »

This is a new card idea I was toying with...

Rules note: When you elect to play with Charms you put in all 3 piles of six cards each. This counts as one kingdom card pile. If all 3 of the Charm piles are gone during the game, it counts as one pile gone.

Illumination Charm
Action-Charm
$3
Trash up to 3 cards from your hand. Gain a Charm.

Growth Charm
Action-Charm
$3
+2 cards
Gain a Charm.

Life Charm
Action-Charm
$3
+2 actions
Gain a Charm.


Charms are a bit zany, but I feel that there are some playable strategies with them. They are perhaps even OP? Any ideas are welcome.

This is the kind of idea that I would have dismissed immediately before Dark Ages came out. Now that I've seen what kinds of wacky things are canon, though, this seems like an awesome idea!

I'd consider making Life Charm +2 Actions/+1 Coin. Regardless, this is the kind of idea that has to be playtested to figure out how it would work out.

6607

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Goko Survey

« on: November 23, 2012, 02:15:46 am »

so "Goko exclusive" to me conjures fond memories of the Pokemon TCG for game boy, where you had random numbers and other things that wouldn't make sense in a physical game.

Until you recall GB-Ninetales, which required 8 excruciating coinflips every time it attacked. Ugh.

But GB-Vaporeon was pretty sweet. It was like a very slightly worse Scyther.

Having played the Pokemon video games extensively and having never touched the TCG, I find the idea that a Vaporeon could be anything like a Scyther to be utterly baffling. It'd be like saying, "Possession is like a very slightly worse Trading Post."

6608

Dominion General Discussion / Re: How much Dominion do you actually own IRL?

« on: November 22, 2012, 09:40:08 pm »

Everything including the promos and two copies of the Base Cards set.

6609

Goko Dominion Online / Re: All of Dark Ages now on Goko

« on: November 21, 2012, 03:19:54 pm »

- I still want a text log of what the hell is going on

You probably already know this, but you can bring up a log by clicking one of the buttons in the lower-right corner of the page.

6610

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Goko Survey

« on: November 21, 2012, 03:09:00 pm »

"New Unique Dominion Cards"


...Wheres that refund button?

Well, Donald has stated that Goko can't create their own cards without him. I hope that still holds true. That being said, there are a few scenarios in which I'd be OK with Goko-exclusive cards.

1. Cards that wouldn't work in real life. Donald has said that this is the only way he would create online-only cards. Since Dominion is a card game, I'd prefer not to see cards like this, but I wouldn't be upset if they existed, especially if they did cool stuff.

2. Cards that Rio Grande doesn't think it's cost-effective to print. After Guilds, I wouldn't mind seeing a few online-only promo-style cards as long as Goko only had an exclusivity window. So Rio Grande would be able to print them eventually, either as promo cards or in a future expansion. They'd just be Goko exclusives for a while.

6611

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Rouser: Self Sabotaging Draw+An attack attacker

« on: November 21, 2012, 10:46:22 am »

I would think that all the faq problems would be solved by having it be similarly defined to Moat and Lighthouse, just in reverse; you play a virtual copy of the card, but you are not affected by it, only the player who discarded the card is.

Therefore:
*You can trash their treasures with Thief and Noble Brigand, but you don't gain them after they go to the trash.
*With Pirate Ship and Minion, you can choose for either nothing to happen, or the attack portion of the card. If you choose the Pirate Ship attack and it hits, you still don't get any tokens on your pirate ship mat.
*You can't gain any cards with Jester, but you can make your opponent gain cards.
*You can block Young Witch and Mountebank attacks using the methods specified in their cards.
*Mercenary does nothing, because the card doesn't affect you, so you can't trash the 2 cards necessary to activate the attack.
*You can't start a cultist chain with someone else's virtual cultist.

Man, that may seem simple to you, but trust me, it's confusing.

More importantly, I think this card is going to have the same issues as the oft-suggested Reaction that reflects attacks onto the attacker. What will happen is that people won't buy Attacks in order to avoid being hit hard by Rouser, and therefore nobody will buy Rouser either.

6612

Goko Dominion Online / Re: All of Dark Ages now on Goko

« on: November 21, 2012, 09:34:04 am »

The mark of a good card: some people saying that it is insanely powerful and some people saying that it isn't.  Just proves that no card should be so good that everyone loves it.....except Wharf.....

And Hunting Party.

6613

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Username?

« on: November 21, 2012, 01:35:04 am »

I'm playing through Facebook.  The Goko main page allows me to change from my real name to my normal username.  However, that is not reflected in the Dominion part of the site.  It still has my full name.  Why is this?

Try clearing your cache and reloading the site. Or just log out and back in.

6614

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Cost of playing with all the cards? $30

« on: November 20, 2012, 06:50:37 pm »

Conveniently for us playtesters, two $20 purchases should get you everything.

230 + 230 + 40 (playtesting reward) = 500 points.

200 (Intrigue/Seaside/Prosperity) + 110 (Dark Ages) + 40 (Cornucopia) + 70 (Hinterlands) + 40 (Alchemy) + 40 (Guilds) = 500 points.

6615

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Stupid Pet Tricks

« on: November 20, 2012, 06:15:10 pm »

Can anyone think of a way to gain Victory cards with HoP without trashing it (excluding the obvious gain BV trick)

Not exactly what you asked for, but if you play Counterfeit - HOP, you can gain two Victory Cards from one HOP.

True, although after you play the Horn of Plenty to gain the first Victory card, it gets trashed from play. So when you play it the second time, unless you had another Horn of Plenty in play, the cost of the card you can gain goes down by $1.

6616

Goko Dominion Online / Re: All of Dark Ages now on Goko

« on: November 20, 2012, 03:15:33 pm »

Well, I've only had time to play a few games so far, but I'm happy! It's really good to finally have all of Dark Ages available to play online. Other than the titular Procession and Band of Misfits, the Parade of Misfits set is a bit lacking in exciting, standout cards. Vandals and Vermin was a significant step up with both of the expansion's Reaction cards (Beggar and Market Square), Feodum, and especially Rats. However, I didn't get to play it much before the private beta closed. Knights and Knaves really has the highest saturation of cool cards. Knights, Squire, Counterfeit, Poor House, both cards that gain from the trash (Rogue and Graverobber), and both cards that turn into other cards (Hermit and Urchin). I finally had my first game where I made a winning Poor House deck! (King's Court helps a lot.)

So thanks, Goko, for finally releasing all of Dark Ages.

6617

Goko Dominion Online / Re: All of Dark Ages now on Goko

« on: November 20, 2012, 12:09:27 pm »

With no private beta? Interesting.

Does anyone want to put their rep on the line and say I should give it another shot?

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

Regardless, I plan to buy all of Dark Ages now that it's finally out. Other than the Chrome crashes (which are much less common than they were just after that one patch), Goko's pretty good these days. The game even runs smooth as silk on my laptop, which is a huge improvement. I hope it's not just due to decreased traffic.

6618

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: The Contest Set Card List

« on: November 19, 2012, 02:53:39 pm »

rinkworks hasn't posted since Oct. 24. I wonder where he has gotten to?

It's quite possible that this whole contest wore him out. It's also possible that he's just losing interest in Dominion. WanderingWinder hasn't logged into the forums since early October.

I think rinkwork's cares enough about us that he would let us know if he was leaving.

Eh, that's not really the way to think about it. It's not like someone decides, "Welp, that's enough of this hobby. Better let everyone know I'm done!" It's a gradual thing. It's easy to say to yourself, "I'll post something tomorrow. I'm not really feeling up to it today." But then you don't really feel like it tomorrow either. Eventually you just forget about it entirely. If he doesn't post again, I wouldn't take it personally.

6619

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: The Contest Set Card List

« on: November 19, 2012, 01:33:20 pm »

rinkworks hasn't posted since Oct. 24. I wonder where he has gotten to?

It's quite possible that this whole contest wore him out. It's also possible that he's just losing interest in Dominion. WanderingWinder hasn't logged into the forums since early October.

6620

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Floodgate

« on: November 19, 2012, 10:53:46 am »

As written, can't I buy four in a row and end up with my whole deck in my hand?

Minus at least 4 monies worth of action and treasure cards, yes.

Plus the Floodgate you just bought and whatever else you bought that turn.

I think the wording would be clearer if you make this a Victory-Duration and set it aside as well.
Otherwise you have a bunch of cards laying face down and no other card to tell you to pick them back up.

Make it like Haven and it's ok, I think.

After doing some more playtesting, I agree that it's an issue. However, the issue seems to be resolved simply by setting the cards aside normally (face up) rather than face down. Once I started doing that, I never forgot to pick them up.

As for an actual separate in-play reminder that you need to pick up the cards on your next turn, Horse Traders doesn't have that, so there's some precedent for it.

My playtesting so far has revealed that I should set a limit on how many cards can be set aside (right now, the limit is 5 cards). This solves the issue of being able to set aside most of your deck (which gets a bit silly), and also of having to set aside a huge number of cards face up (now that I've changed that wording). Here's the current version:

Floodgate
Types: Victory
Cost: $4
Worth 2 VP.
--------------------------------------------
When you gain this, set aside up to 5 cards from your hand. At the start of your next turn, return them to your hand.

6621

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: November 17, 2012, 09:47:03 pm »

Fortress: When you trash this, gain a Fortress, putting it in your hand.

Those will run out fast. Why make this change?

6622

Variants and Fan Cards / Floodgate

« on: November 17, 2012, 05:20:14 pm »

I originally posted this card in the Power Grid Promo thread. Today I decided to playtest it in a few games against myself and see how it worked. I was pleasantly surprised. Here's the card (slightly altered after playtesting):

Floodgate
Types: Victory
Cost: $4
Worth 2 VP.
--------------------------------------------
When you gain this, you may set aside all of the cards from your hand face down. At the start of your next turn, return them to your hand.

When I designed the card, the idea was a sort of one-shot Tactician effect. I figured that you'd buy them near the endgame in order to save your unplayed Treasures for next turn, or in the mid-game to put together a combo (like Treasure Map or Tournament/Province). And you can do those things.

But it turns out the real power of the card is to keep your unplayable cards (pure Victory cards, Curses, etc.) from being shuffled back into your deck. As long as you manage to buy a Floodgate every turn, you can perpetually keep these undesirable cards out of your draw pile. It's sort of like a mega-Island. However, if you ever fail to buy a Floodgate (or the pile runs out), bam! Your deck is immediately flooded with crap. The idea is to time it so that you end the game before that happens.

It's a real game-changer of a card. It's interactive in that you can mess with your opponents' timing by depleting the pile. It's unique in that it's a pure Victory card that you'd buy to help your engine.

I think it'll need more playtesting in order to determine whether it needs a cost tweak or a limit as to how many cards are set aside. I like the concept, though. Let me know how you feel about it and if it creates any game-breaking combos I haven't yet thought of. Thanks!

EDIT: Second iteration:

Floodgate
Types: Victory
Cost: $4
Worth 2 VP.
--------------------------------------------
When you gain this, set aside up to 5 cards from your hand. At the start of your next turn, return them to your hand.

6623

Dominion Articles / Re: Bishop

« on: November 17, 2012, 02:30:49 am »

In the "conflicts with" section, you might consider including draw-up-to cards, especially Library. Taking advantage of free trashing from your opponent's Bishop? Valuable. Taking advantage of free trashing and decreased handsize? Priceless.

6624

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: A Press-Your-Luck Card

« on: November 16, 2012, 03:11:11 pm »

How about something like...

+1 Action

Reveal the top three cards of your deck. If they are all

- Treasure cards, +$3, +1 Buy.
- Victory cards, set them aside (return them to your deck at the end of the game); and +3 VP.

Put the revealed Action cards into your hand. Return any remaining cards to the top of your deck.

I was considering some other rewards for getting three of a kind, as you suggest. The problem is that if you reward revealing three Treasure cards, that's going to incentivize players to buy only a Gambler or two and Treasures. On the other hand, people already love building decks full of Actions. I really don't feel the need to further incentivize that by making a super-lab just for Actions. Scrying Pool already has that covered, for the most part. A reward for three Victory cards seemed the only logical option. I do like your 'set them aside and return them to your deck at the end of the game' bit, though. I'll have to remember that.

6625

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: A Press-Your-Luck Card

« on: November 15, 2012, 06:13:39 pm »

Hmm, you make some good points. I hadn't really considered the Wishing Well parallel all that much, mostly because I was trying to avoid it being too close to Menagerie. I suspect that it may play sufficiently differently from both to be interesting in its own right, but playtesting is the best way to determine that.