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Author Topic: Project cards--level them up  (Read 2408 times)

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Violet CLM

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Project cards--level them up
« on: December 08, 2016, 11:52:22 pm »
+2

This mechanic probably has some preexisting name on these forums somewhere, but I searched for "level" (the most intuitively associated word) and all I found was a bunch of talk about rankings on online Dominion games and a topic about borrowing City's interest in the number of spent supply piles. (Since then, Poacher has also arrived on the scene.) In any case, I was thinking about Adventures earlier and its use of +1 Card, +1 Action, etc. tokens to make supply piles better, but only for individual players. Those tokens are all pretty generic because they have to be, but what if you could tailor the tokens to specific supply piles? So I whipped up a few quick illustrations of that idea.

Project cards are works in progress. The archetypal Project card starts out weak but can be made strong by repeatedly investing in it. When you buy a Project card, you have a choice: either you gain the card as usual, or you add one of your Project tokens to that card's supply pile. (This still counts as buying a card for the purposes of e.g. Merchant Guild or Contraband.) The number of Project tokens each player has on a given supply pile is referred to as that player's level of that pile; each supply pile therefore starts out at level 0. There is no hard limit on how many Project tokens a player can have, in total or on any given supply pile, though specific cards may stop accruing benefits after specific levels.


Redecorate is a Remodel that starts out almost useless (although the "you may" wording means it can at least kill coppers) but can be built up to an Expand or beyond.
Entourage spends a while burdening you with junk (its on-buy effect is triggered when you put a Project token on it) before letting you gain it two at a time, or better.
Boom Town gradually becomes a village or better, but also helps you with anything you may be specializing in.
Initiate is cheap but mostly useless until level 4, when it becomes a bargain Market with potential to grow even further. May be worth gaining before leveling.
Arsonist allows you to mess with whatever cards your opponents have been leveling.
Sellsword is less effective than Militia but gains drawing abilities if other players compete with you for it.
College is a drawer that wants you to buy expensive cards before you start playing it.
Caravansary needs at least one token on it before you start, but then carries money indefinitely into the future until you finally want it.
Sunken City, like Encampment, disappears after you use it, but the moment you place a token somewhere you've got any number of sunken cities back in your deck again.
Ore is as straightforward a project card as it gets, a criminally overexpensive Copper that can be made better than Gold.
Smeltery turns coins into coin tokens, but only if you invest in it first.
Tithe gives you a lot of money in short order, but slows down the moment you get too greedy with it.
Memorial is a pricier Gold that turns into a cheaper Province.
Ramparts is a self-contained bidding war.

edit: fixed Ramparts link
« Last Edit: December 09, 2016, 01:26:37 pm by Violet CLM »
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tristan

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Re: Project cards--level them up
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2016, 02:58:19 am »
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Entourage seems extremly weak. YOu'd have to invest two times in it and then buy the card, i.e. spent 3x 4$, in order to get a Peddler which can gain a 2$.
Same with Boom Town, you'd have to spend 3X 4$ just in order to have one Village.
Arsonist is also far too weak, you'd have to spend 3X 5$ just to have a weaker Legionary and in addition to that everybody might be deterred from investing into it because their levels can be decreased.
Sunken City is also far too weak. You have to spend 4 for a Lost City and an additional 4$ every time you wanna use it again.
Same with Ore, you'd have to spend 3x 6$ just in order to have one Gold in your deck.

Cards like Initiate, Smelty, Tithe or Memorial are interesting.

The general idea is cool but many of the actual cards are too weak.
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GendoIkari

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Re: Project cards--level them up
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2016, 11:29:15 am »
+1

Not gonna find the thread now, but someone posted a similar idea a while ago, Building Cards. I think with his, you could just spend money to increase the level of your building card, it wasn't a "buy". And I think they weren't in your deck, but more like Hireling or Prince or Champion.

I think this is a neat idea.

*Edit* Ok, here's the thread: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=14910.0
« Last Edit: December 09, 2016, 12:50:08 pm by GendoIkari »
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Violet CLM

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Re: Project cards--level them up
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2016, 01:31:23 pm »
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Same with Boom Town, you'd have to spend 3X 4$ just in order to have one Village.
It's not "one Village," though, it's potentially a Village that gains you a Village every time you play it. Or some other card. The gaining is important.
Quote
Arsonist is also far too weak, you'd have to spend 3X 5$ just to have a weaker Legionary and in addition to that everybody might be deterred from investing into it because their levels can be decreased.
This could be true--removing other people's tokens is an obvious extension but clearly tricky to get right. I'll say though that it might be only 2x $5 depending on how you use its own Setup effect, and also, if someone does level their Arsonist up to level 2, chances are low I'm going to want to attack it for them and let them attack me again.
Quote
Sunken City is also far too weak. You have to spend 4 for a Lost City and an additional 4$ every time you wanna use it again.
If you buy only one Sunken City and it's the only Project card in the kingdom, sure. It's better to have several, so that adding a Project token (and maybe to a different pile) gets you all of them back in your deck at once.

Quote
*Edit* Ok, here's the thread: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=14910.0
Ooh, neat, thanks!
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tristan

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Re: Project cards--level them up
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2016, 07:23:47 am »
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Same with Boom Town, you'd have to spend 3X 4$ just in order to have one Village.
It's not "one Village," though, it's potentially a Village that gains you a Village every time you play it. Or some other card. The gaining is important.
I gotta spend 3X to have a level of 2 and one Boom Town that now functions as an ordinary village that potentially gains.
Cantrip gaining sounds hyperstrong but in order to make Boom Town actually gain a card besides Boom Town you first gotta invest into the respective pile which is quite commital (what if somebody else levels the respective Project card?) and expensive. Now you could gain Boom Town but it is likely that everybody will level Boom Town if they require a village so no gaining going on here either.

This is incredibly weak, probably even too weak at 2 or any price. As I said, the mechanic is cool but the actual implementations of many cards are far too weak.
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