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Author Topic: Weekly Design Contests #1 - #100  (Read 1546207 times)

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scolapasta

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7875 on: December 19, 2020, 02:01:32 pm »
+4

My entry is missing from the list. Not because you missed it, but because I haven't posted it yet! :)


An updated version of a past contest entry, an Event and an Artifact for Alchemy:



Feedback welcome (and encouraged!).
(especially since we have lots of new people on the forum since the earlier version was posted)
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gambit05

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7876 on: December 19, 2020, 02:21:34 pm »
+1

What is the idea for "Play any number of Treasures from your hand"?
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fika monster

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7877 on: December 19, 2020, 02:35:50 pm »
+2

ive decided upon using this (sorry for any confusion)
"way of the hamster
+1 coffer"
« Last Edit: December 19, 2020, 02:39:03 pm by fika monster »
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scolapasta

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7878 on: December 19, 2020, 02:36:55 pm »
0

What is the idea for "Play any number of Treasures from your hand"?

Good question: the idea is to allow you to play your now "infused" (by Cauldron) potions. For example:
• first play one potion
• buy Infusion, trash a treasure and take the Cauldron
• now play the rest of your potions and choose the +$3 option

As a side effect, it would also combo with Treasures / Events that have you draw cards (from other expansions), e.g. using a Scepter to replay Smithy.
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gambit05

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7879 on: December 19, 2020, 02:45:11 pm »
+1

What is the idea for "Play any number of Treasures from your hand"?

Good question: the idea is to allow you to play your now "infused" (by Cauldron) potions. For example:
• first play one potion
• buy Infusion, trash a treasure and take the Cauldron
• now play the rest of your potions and choose the +$3 option

As a side effect, it would also combo with Treasures / Events that have you draw cards (from other expansions), e.g. using a Scepter to replay Smithy.

Yes, I thought something like that. This can be really strong. I would probably ignore the +$1 per $2 of the card cost early on and rather trash my Coppers for the Cauldron. The thing I like is that it encourages players to gain more than just one Potion.
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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7880 on: December 19, 2020, 03:35:30 pm »
+3



A Project for poor old and easily forgotten Hinterlands. The strongest comparison here is, in my opinion, the other Project, Fair, which simply gives you an extra Buy no matter what. Here, you can rack up more Buys than with Fair, provided that you collect Silvers in your deck. Hence why the pricier cost of , as opposed to Fair.

Why Hinterlands? Well, because it has a little bit of focus on Silver gaining. I also feel like Hinterlands is scarce in +Buys, so there it is. The theme here is that porcelain is a luxury obtained in other countries, like chinaware is.
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Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7881 on: December 19, 2020, 04:01:22 pm »
+1

What is the idea for "Play any number of Treasures from your hand"?

Good question: the idea is to allow you to play your now "infused" (by Cauldron) potions. For example:
• first play one potion
• buy Infusion, trash a treasure and take the Cauldron
• now play the rest of your potions and choose the +$3 option

As a side effect, it would also combo with Treasures / Events that have you draw cards (from other expansions), e.g. using a Scepter to replay Smithy.

Yes, I thought something like that. This can be really strong. I would probably ignore the +$1 per $2 of the card cost early on and rather trash my Coppers for the Cauldron. The thing I like is that it encourages players to gain more than just one Potion.

I like that Cauldron is an Artifact rather than a Project, as it also keeps the power level in check.  It can create some interesting decisions early on about whether to use your Potion to buy a card with a Potion cost or to take the Cauldron from another player. 

I'm not sure that Infusion needs to give extra money for trashing, as it's quite good as-is.
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Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7882 on: December 19, 2020, 04:22:01 pm »
0

I've just made a minor revision to add a Setup clause for Bibliotheca:

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Gubump

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7883 on: December 19, 2020, 06:27:35 pm »
0

My submission:



This is, ofc, for Nocturne.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2020, 06:58:13 pm by Gubump »
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LibraryAdventurer

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7884 on: December 19, 2020, 06:49:29 pm »
0

<Observatory>

Seems to me there aren't enough Action cards worth playing during the night phase to make this worthwhile most of the time since none of the basic vanilla bonuses do any good at night. Maybe "During your turns, you may play one non-Night Action card per turn during your Night phase." At least then you could include attack cards since it's one per turn.

scolapasta

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7885 on: December 19, 2020, 07:48:44 pm »
0

What is the idea for "Play any number of Treasures from your hand"?

Good question: the idea is to allow you to play your now "infused" (by Cauldron) potions. For example:
• first play one potion
• buy Infusion, trash a treasure and take the Cauldron
• now play the rest of your potions and choose the +$3 option

As a side effect, it would also combo with Treasures / Events that have you draw cards (from other expansions), e.g. using a Scepter to replay Smithy.

Yes, I thought something like that. This can be really strong. I would probably ignore the +$1 per $2 of the card cost early on and rather trash my Coppers for the Cauldron. The thing I like is that it encourages players to gain more than just one Potion.

I like that Cauldron is an Artifact rather than a Project, as it also keeps the power level in check.  It can create some interesting decisions early on about whether to use your Potion to buy a card with a Potion cost or to take the Cauldron from another player. 

I'm not sure that Infusion needs to give extra money for trashing, as it's quite good as-is.

Yes, strategically, I agree with using it first to trash your coppers; but eventually you'll have to trash better treasures.

Originally, Infusion did not have the 1/2 Salvager clause, but the trashed card needed to cost $4 or more to take the Cauldron (the idea being you would trash the potion you just used to buy it). That wasn't great, so I added the 1/2 Salvager, but still didn't like it, so changed it from any card costing $4 or more to any treasure.

With that change, maybe it doesn't need the 1/2 salvager anymore? But the reason I still like it is that it allows to replace a Potion you trash with just one other Potion to play ($2 + $3). So another alternative would be to just give +$1 if you trash. Something along the lines of:

Quote
+1 Buy. Trash a card you have in play for $1. If it's a Treasure, take the Cauldron. Play any number of Treasures from your hand.

Slight stronger, when trashing Coppers, equal for Silvers, weaker for Potions or Golds.

When I play test, I'll likely try both versions, and see what other tweaking may be needed. But I'm overall happy with the general design of spending a one Potion to add value to your other Potions.
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scolapasta

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7886 on: December 19, 2020, 07:57:47 pm »
+1

<Observatory>

Seems to me there aren't enough Action cards worth playing during the night phase to make this worthwhile most of the time since none of the basic vanilla bonuses do any good at night. Maybe "During your turns, you may play one non-Night Action card per turn during your Night phase." At least then you could include attack cards since it's one per turn.

I'd be concerned that with this change, it wouldn't be different enough from Barracks.

Differences:
• costs $1 less
• can be more limited during action phase (e.g. can't play Smithy, then Smithy)
• allows playing an Action that was drawn during Buy or later phase
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LibraryAdventurer

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7887 on: December 20, 2020, 06:13:41 am »
+2

@anordinaryman, you missed my entry:

Quote
Cat Tower
$4 - Project
When you play an action card, instead of following its instructions, you may play the card set aside with this, leaving it there.
-
Setup: Set aside an unused action card costing $4.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2020, 06:14:55 am by LibraryAdventurer »
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fika monster

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7888 on: December 20, 2020, 07:22:52 am »
0

My submission:



This is, ofc, for Nocturne.

i would make it cheaper
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anordinaryman

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7889 on: December 20, 2020, 11:49:54 am »
0

@anordinaryman, you missed my entry:

Quote
Cat Tower
$4 - Project
When you play an action card, instead of following its instructions, you may play the card set aside with this, leaving it there.
-
Setup: Set aside an unused action card costing $4.

Thanks for pointing it out. I probably missed it because you missed following these instructions:

Submission Guidelines:
  • It will help me if you provide a brief explanation on why your card fits well in the expansion you designed it for
  • Please submit an image of your card as the first thing in a post.
. . .

I am not being snarky here. I'm being honest ... I'm a dummy and it's very easy for me to miss submissions that don't have images and aren't the first thing in a post! If I ever win in the future, I will have this same guideline, so that's why I'm posting this reminder -- so that in the future I don't miss submissions like yours. Thanks for pointing out the omission, I'll write up thoughts on it now :)

Less than two hours left!
I have seen the updates/submissions for Gubump, Timinou, X-tra, fika monster, scolapasta, LibraryAdventurer
« Last Edit: December 20, 2020, 12:00:35 pm by anordinaryman »
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fika monster

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7890 on: December 20, 2020, 01:07:47 pm »
0

ive decided upon using this (sorry for any confusion)
"way of the hamster
+1 coffer"


btw, this is a Way for Guilds. i decided to keep it uber simple
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anordinaryman

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7891 on: December 20, 2020, 02:22:05 pm »
+8

Contest #98: Feeling sideways  | JUDGING

Analysis of each submission

majiponi for DominionI find this card incredibly unlikely to ever have been printed. Dominion doesn't group the game into larger "sets" of games. That's an aspect of tournament organization not Dominion. Design principles aside, let's imagine a world in which the original rules of Dominion said: play 3 rounds, whoever has the most points wins (basically this landmark is part of the game). I believe that would be a bad choice. Right now, when someone is pummeling the other player with vicious attacks, there's an incentive to end the game and win already. But now, someone has a major incentive to keep playing a string of ghost ships, Sea Hags, Haunted Woods, and monuments forever in order to win. Do you see how this design would incentivize less fun games? The case where this landmark works well is super close games. Now I feel a little better about getting super close because my points help me later... but that isn't so fun. Now in the next game I can't do a fun and clever 3-pile because winning by a large margin is more important, this takes away strategic decisions and again makes the game less fun.
I can't think of anyway to implement this in a way that wouldn't take away from some of the strengths of Dominion. I know that you said you like the ways that this changes the game, I guess you can take this as just one person's opinion on this, just because I am averse to it doesn't mean other people are. I'm sure other people would enjoy this as well, it's just not for me.



fika monster for Guilds
Quote
way of the hamster
+1 coffer
For guilds it fits in with coffers. This is a pretty simple way for Coffers. Compared to other Ways it is "balanced." I don't have much to say about this. It doesn't add a lot of strategic depth -- if you have leftover terminals and you don't need the money this turn you get a Coffer.

I came back after making my judgement results to say. I know it's disappointing to get a card the judge has no critical feedback on and it still doesn't make the top 5. So I wanted to take some time to just explain my opinion. This is a simple card that would absolutely fit in with Dominion. Sometimes simple cards are personally interesting, and sometimes they aren't. For whatever reason, this one isn't so interesting to me. But please don't take that as an indication that this is bad design. I think it's fine and good and applaud your ability to find something simple that is balanced.



Xen3k for Dark Ages


This is in the top 5

Quote
Way of the Vermin
Way
Trash this.
Each other player gains a Ruins.
If this is the first Action card played this
turn, gain a Spoils.
Great add to Dark Ages. With all the on-trash benefits with dark ages, it's lovely to turn each card into self trash. I think having a self-trash would be a good "Way", even if there was no benefit attached to it. I don't love turning every card into an Attack that can't be blocked is very good, but the good news is in games with Way of the Vermin, each ruin you get you can self-trash and attack your opponents. And, if their turn was rotten, they can gain a spoils for the effort. This really combos with tons of the cards in Dark Ages and works really well. It's a little "strong" for a way, but it's fine for it to be strong since everyone has equal access to it. Even Big Money even gets access to it because they get ruins to use as Vermin

I really love this Way, and when whittling down from the top 5, I took a second pass at the judgement here, and I think there's a big problem here. Necropolis means that everyone will start their second shuffle with (#players -1) ruins in their deck. That's pretty aggressive and a slow start to the game. And, even though those ruins are-self trashing, they take actions so players can't play their actions and just slow the game down more and more, passing out spoils which prevent the actions from being played more. It also means that shuffle luck on the second shuffle can really effect the game. I collide my Armory with my ruins. You draw your ruin by itself with two coppers, essentially being able to "pay $2" for thinning your ruin, attacking me, and getting a spoils. I think you could add a "non-shelter" clause to it and it would solve most of these tempo issues.



silverspawn for Cornucopia
This was submitted for Cornucopia, but it doesn't have anything to do with any of the sub-themes. The posit that Cornucopia is about engines isn't really true, definitely not significantly more than any expansion. Menagerie doesn't even have terminal draw (other than Followers), which would be the power of Troubadours. So this doesn't fit in that expansion at all. I really don't think Donald X would have ever put this in Cornucopia. It would fit a little better in Adventures since Champion sets the precedent for +1 Action. All that aside, the mechanic of one time having a super great turn is interesting. I feel like this is more likely going to get used to save a turn -- which I think is a great design space. It really sucks to get behind because all your villages are at the bottom of your deck. Cards like this help offset those un-fun situations. Nice. No real suggestions.



LordBaphomet for EmpiresThe idea of a project boosting Victory cards is really cool! I just don't think this is priced correctly. If I pay 7, I probably could have gotten a province instead. Sure, it doesn't bloat my deck, but it's pretty close to that. If I do that and we split provinces 5/3 I lose. If we do provinces 4/4 and the other person gets an Extra duchy and estate (instead of buying this event), it's tied. So in many games this isn't really quite strong enough to be worth while. I think this card becomes more interesting if it counts victory cards costing 5 or more, and then you can cost it even higher, (not sure... 10 debt?) and enable alternate paths towards victory. This would make it a little similar to silk roads but I think that's fine. 



Carline for Seaside


This is in the top 5
As someone pointed out, this is basically Haven where you have no choice but to haven the top card of your deck. So, it's strictly worse than Haven. But Ways aren't evaluated in the same way cards are, the fact and Action cna do this Dolphin makes it very useful. With terminal collision you just Dolphin one of the cards to start your next hand with 6 cards. Also top of the deck combos with tons of other cards in Seaside since top-of-the-deck is a very prevalent sub theme, so there's many times that you know what that top card is (Pirate Ship, Lookout, Pearl Diver, Sea Hag, Ghost Ship) which makes this even more useful. Nice work designing a Way that really fits into seaside. This seems fun and interesting and appropriately balanced for a Way. The only point of criticism here is that it makes Haven a lot less appealing. But still, Haven's flexibility in what card you set aside means there are still games where I buy Haven even when Way of the Dolphin is possible.



pubby for Intrigue
I think this fits in with Intrigue by incentivizing Victory Cards, what with all the fun Victory Cards Intrigue adds. The problem is that all those cards are properly balanced with their action/treasure and the victory points they provide. Once you add two more VP to them, they become over-powered. Even without alt-vp, this changes up the game dramatically -- Provinces no longer seem that important when two duchies are worth a lot more. For my money, the more interesting Landmarks are one that open up different avenues of play, not ones that are so powerful you have to go for them. The additional 2VP per victory card is a little too game warping. I think this card becomes a lot more subtle and interesting if it was 1VP instead. Someone else mentioned this is a less interesting form of battlefield. It no longer matters when you buy the victory cards.



spineflu for Adventures

Quote
Salvage Yard • $5 • Event
Gain a Treasure costing up to $6. Each
other player gains a copy of it and
takes Over Encumbered if they don't
have it already
Quote
Over Encumbered • State
At the start of your turn, you may
return this for -1 Action; if you
don't, take your -1 Card token.
I first wanted to analyze Over Encumbered. -1 Action is really bad at the start of the turn, that's a devastating punish to Engines. And there's no counter for this in Adventures. Even Champion requires you to first play a card. And because this isn't an Attack, Champion doesn't protect against it. So this is pretty oppressive. Even if they don't take the -1 Action ever, then they start every turn with their -1 card token, which is a SUPER strong attack. Notice the only way to give -1 card tokens to other players is $5 event. So, I think the attack here is way too strong and it's especially disabling towards Engines. Clever design where the benefit of buying Salvage Yard is weak (similar to how IGG works) and especially weak for the engine. So this is an Event that is Big Money's solution to fighting Engines. Except, this costs a buy, which Big Money doesn't normally have a surplus of, so it's hard to justify buying this over a Gold, especially if you're racing before the Engine activates. I'll point out one final thing about the event -- it's political. If a player has finally bitten the -1 Action bullet, and another player hasn't... should I  buy Salvage Yard? A political decision. I think the attack is interesting, I'd recommend looking into ways to make it counter-able and perhaps a little weaker (only attacks when the Journey token is a certain way, and/or the -1 Action happens after the first Action you play)



aquila for Empires


This is in the top 5
Quote
Way of the Eagle - Way
If you haven't trashed a copy of this during
 this turn, trash this. If you do, +1VP
 per 2 copies of it in the Supply (round up).
Just having the ability to self-trash is interesting when there's on-trash abilities. Unfortunately, Empires has no on-trash benefits for Action cards. So, that aspect of the card isn't so interesting in the context of Empires. I like the "if you haven't trashed a copy of this during this turn" clause. It's a clever way to limit its strength. I like the fact that this encourages you to trash cards earlier in the game for higher VP, nice! Near the endgame you're happy to grab a scout as a Distant Lands. This is a good point for me to bring this up ... this card is basically Distant Lands early on (funnily enough the first Distant Lands itself in a 3 player game is now worth more points trashed than on the Tavern Mat). I also like the idea that you can turn early cards (trashers) into VP. There's something so appealing about cannibalizing your deck for more Victory Points. I can't think of any ways to improve this. It fits into Empires with the carrying about supply piles and the VPs.



Timinou for Alchemy
Basically, every potion is now 2.5 points. at $4 this is basically balanced. It's a little strong Victory Points wise, but basically works. How often do you buy a Cemetery just for the points? Rarely. And imagine you have two potions, towards the end of the game it's a big risk to buy a single potion because you have to get a pair to get any points. This risk is interesting, but it's just not enough points to be worth that risk often, so not so interesting. This is most interesting in Alchemy where you already have one potion, and then you buy a second one at the end of the game for a whopping 5 Victory points. Outlining all of these cases, I'm not convinced this is so interesting. It pushes me slightly towards buying a potion in the first place, but the whole point of Potion-costing cards is they are strong enough to be worth buying a potion for if they exist anyway, even without VP. So, I don't think this Landmark has a huge impact in the game and does not open up a ton of interesting possibilities.



D782802859 for Intrigue
I'm disappointed you didn't update Bounty to clarify the questions I had about this card. It's tough to evaluate because there's so much ambiguity about the card. A way of making it less ambiguous would be to say "You may discard Victory cards at the start of your Buy phase for +$2 each." It's a shame because this state is really cool and adds a lot to intrigue. Unfortunately Assassin is political. Do I choose to discard a Victory card or not so you get Bounty? I hope you keep iterating on this concept because Bounty is a really interesting state. With the ambiguity and the political-nature of this card, I can't see it ever being printed in Intrigue. I really hope you iterate on this card because Bounty is so interesting and a version of this concept definitely could have won the contest.

To reiterate my questions in case you didn't see them: "How does Bounty work with Action-Victory cards? With Bounty, when you play Dame Josephine on your Treasure phase, do you get +2$ and you attack other players? Do you choose one of those options, but you are allowed to choose either while playing in your treasure phase? Same questions apply for all the action-victory cards. Another question -- Pasture is currently a treasure worth $1. Bounty says also so does that mean Pasture is worth $1 and worth $2? Is it now a gold?"



mandioca15 for Dominion
credit to fika monster for making the image
This is essentially a less interesting version of Tomb. I prefer the way Money Lender instructs new players: they play to get that big $3 (not realizing it only adds $2) and then they discover the benefit of coppers being gone. I don't have much more to say. I do appreciate its simplicity. If Tomb wasn't in the game, I could see this existing. But Tomb exists.



grep for Cornucopia
Quote
Way of the Silkworm
If you don't have other copies of this in play,
+1 Action, +1 Card, +$1
First of all, +1 Card always occurs before +1 Action when there are non-conditional bonuses. Keep this in mind because I read this as +1 Action +1 Buy +$1 because that's the normal order. Obviously this fits in with Cornucopia for the variety it encourages. Turning any card into a Peddler is nice. The thing is, this expansion already has Tournament which is a more interesting Peddler. And it causes a ton of AP as you try to figure out, on each first play of a card, should I draw one more card or should I use the normal function of the action? I think that games with the Way of the Silkworm will be slower, and less fun because of that. I like the concept, but I think the Vanilla bonuses could be better. I wonder if you made it stronger, then maybe the choice is more obvious and it leads to less AP and makes it more fun. If it were a Lab, that would encourage strong variety because you would love to have 10 cheap labs in your deck. And you'd very often immediately choose to make the first play of each Action a lab. 



segura for Nocturne
This is an attack which gives no benefit. Donald X shied away from those... except Nocturne has Skulk AND Werewolf. So this is sort of a sub-theme of Nocturne. But I do really object to making it not an Attack. Donald X. has shied away from "discard from top of your deck" that aren't even Attacks because players perceive them as attacks and are not react-able. I can't imagine something that is actually an attack without having the attack type would get by. Especially something so easily spammable. This definitely fits in Nocturne. I just think it would make it less fun to play with for many players.



scolapasta for Alchemy

Wow, neat concept, turning Potions into golds! I think you added too many benefits to this design. I think you're underestimating turning a Potion into a Goat. (It's a goat because you get to still produce $1 from the copper in play you trash). On its own, Infusion makes Potions a little too strong. Well, Potion-costing card-shaped-things need to be strong in order to justify the Potion expense. I just think you went overboard here with the +Buy. Now on my turns Potions (other than the first one) are $4-costing Golds. I just only buy Potions here, no other $ needed (except for a Copper to trash each turn with the first Potion). I think you need have to get rid of the +Buy here. Then it becomes a little more difficult to trade back Cauldron every turn, and introduces more complexity of whether to sacrifice a buy to take the Cauldron back. Also, I think the Event costing 4 that says "trash a a card you have in play for +$1 per $2 it costs (rounded down)" is roughly balanced, maybe it could work for 3. Adding a +Buy and a great Artifact on top of that and it's way over-powered, and less interesting because of that. I really applaud the design that would make me want to fill my deck with Potions, and I absolutely adore the trash-in-play aspect. I can't wait to sacrifice a hunting grounds for +$3 and a duchy. Nice work. I think this card does make Alchemy appealing, so nice work on that front! I hope you consider my thoughts around the +Buy.



X-tra for Hinterlands


This is in the top 5

You've done it. You've design a silver+ for less than $4... who knew it would be Silver all along! This combos great with Hinterland sub-themes of silvers and on-buy/gain (by having silvers provide a gain). Most strong engines ignore silver. I love that silver-haters would have to begrudgingly load up on silvers for those non-terminal +Buys. This is simple and definitely fits in with Hinterlands. I think the price is right: you often pay $5 for a silver+ with a +Buy  (Charm, Spices, and Counterfeit), so I think this works to turn all your silvers into +Buys. Nice work!



Gubump for Nocturnes
This is pretty similar to alion8me's Lunar Ritual , which won Dominion Design Contest 80. I personally like the concept far more as an Event -- you have to buy it each time, which is pretty expensive since you lose a buy and 3 money. As an event it aims to "save" a turn and can be cheaper. But this is an artifact you only buy it once and have it forever, so it's appropriately more expensive. In games where this is good (remodeler and a draw to x or a +3 cards), it's incredibly good. Those games are interesting because you essentially avoid $. I do think the clever design of removing attack cards is good so that it doesn't become super oppressive. Games where it isn't good, it's not going to be worth that high price point of $5. Let's look at Nocturne itself. The strongest payload we can get from an Action card in the Night phase is either Gold gaining (Leprechaun, Tragic Hero, boons), $4 cost gaining (boon), or getting lucky with Zombie Mason. Well, none of those are that strong at all. You can't even gain imps (which would be great to play in the night phase phase) because Tormenter is an attack (well, that's not true -- you can actually play Tormenters using Night imps). There is room for situational design, but I think it's far better to have a card that is situational, but still a decision whether to use. It sort of feels like a non-decision. Either this is good and you have to get it, or it's bad and you never do. There's no middle-ground. I think the best situational cards have ambiguous middle ground that introduce strategic complexity. I disagree with someone's proposed solution of making this cheaper. Again, in the games where it's good, it's very very good and $5 is appropriate. How to improve this design? It's difficult to do so. You'd have to add some other bonus to make it stronger in the weak-case that didn't make it stronger in the strong-case. I'm not so sure here.



LibraryAdventurer for Menagerie


This is in the top 5
Quote
Cat Tower
$4 - Project
When you play an action card, instead of
following its instructions, you may play the
 card set aside with this, leaving it there.
-
Setup: Set aside an unused action card
costing $4.
I'm glad you reminded me of this submission because I really like it! So this fits in with a few themes of Menagerie -- it is a Way that you pay for, which is interesting. Then it also works with horses. Menagerie has a way to gain lots of Actions so you can play that set aside card that even costs more than horses (so might be better). I think the price is right, sometimes the $4 cost card is insanely good, at sometimes it's just okay. I don't think costing this $5 would be appropriate because now I'm a lot less likely to build a cat tower for say a Cutpurse. I think $5 is too much, and $3 doesn't make sense. I like this a lot. It's simple, but fits in with Menagerie well. Sometimes even you build a Cat tower for Spy because you want that added flexibility of non-terminallity. That's probably where Cat tower shines most, when the $4 set aside is a weak non-terminal, and those are the situations where it's most interesting to me. But the games where you have a $4 village there, well it's a little strong, but for some reason I'm okay with that strength. It's a different sort of game, and I mean, that's what all the ways do anyway.

Whittling it down

Originally submissions from Xen3k, silverspawn, Carline, aquila, scolapasta, X-tra, and LibraryAdventurer were all in my short-list and I had a tough time even weaning them down to top 5. But I had to do a top 5. Troubadours really didn't follow the contest to fit in with an expansion. Infusion, as much as I love it, is really hurt by the +buy in my opinion.

Way of the Vermin is not in the top-3 because of the Shelter/early ruins issue. Porcelain Supplier is also a truly wonderful Project, but it just isn't exciting enough compared to the other top 5 entries. I imagine if I judged on a different day my opinion could have reversed on Porcelain Supplier.

It only gets harder narrowing down a final between Cat Tower, Way of the Eagle, and Way of the Dolphin. All three excellent cards I can think of no way to improve. Both Cat Tower and Way of the Dolphin do things similar to what's already in those expansions, and Way of the Eagle offers net new functionality.

(almost but not quite Runner Up): Cat Tower by LibraryAdventurer

Runner Up: Way of the Dolphin by Carline



And the winner is...


Winner: Way of the Eagle by aquila

(card mock up by me)

This is such an interesting Way. Do I trash cards early to lose tempo? I love that choice, and I'm a sucker for cards that make you re-think the "green at the end of the game" strategy. There's even really fun dynamics. Oh, my opponent just bought 2 scouts, maybe I will buy a scout to deny them 2VPs on their next turn. It opens up a lot of interesting dynamics where you have to consider what your opponent is doing. Congratulations aquila.

Closing Thoughts

As always, I am impressed and feel inspired by the many wonderful designs y'all made. Judging is always difficult because of all the wonderful ideas! I am open to feedback. Do you think I terribly judged this? Did I make a horrible mistake? This is all one person's opinions. I am often wrong. Still, I am excited to hear any positive or negative reflection you have towards my judging. Looking forward to aquilla's contest!

« Last Edit: December 20, 2020, 07:58:17 pm by anordinaryman »
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gambit05

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7892 on: December 20, 2020, 03:55:47 pm »
+2

I think you did a very nice job, overall very well presented, explained what you liked and what not and if you saw a possibility you suggested how you would improve it. I could easily follow your evaluations and my own judgment would have been similar for most of the cards. For one card though I was a bit surprised that is grep's Way of the Silkworm. You said  that the Peddler effect is a bit weak, and a Lab effect would have been better. In my opinion, the Peddler effect makes the Way more a unique card than a Lab, which would then be relatively similar to Way of the Horse. I think the Way as is is fine and balanced. Sorry for the criticism, but you asked for feedback.

Anyway, congratulations to the winner Aquila, the runner-up Carline and for the good 3rd place for LibraryAdventurer!
« Last Edit: December 20, 2020, 04:04:28 pm by gambit05 »
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anordinaryman

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7893 on: December 20, 2020, 04:17:19 pm »
+1

. For one card though I was a bit surprised that is grep's Way of the Silkworm. You said  that the Peddler effect is a bit weak, and a Lab effect would have been better. In my opinion, the Peddler effect makes the Way more a unique card than a Lab, which would then be relatively similar to Way of the Horse. I think the Way as is is fine and balanced. Sorry for the criticism, but you asked for feedback.


Thanks for the feedback. I could be wrong on this one. Just to clarify my thought process here:

My criticism was more that it should be over-powered, otherwise every time I have to stop and think hard about whether to play as a silkworm was not. Peddlers are just on that border of "they don't hurt" but not that strong such that I am struck with Action Paralysis before every action I play for the first time. And they are non-terminal. If they were very strong, or terminal, then I have a lot less AP because the choice becomes more obvious. At least, that is what I was trying to explain, just to clarify. But you definitely don't have to agree with my point, and I could be wrong on that point. Just trying to clarify that I do not think Way of the Silkworm is weak. It's an interesting Way and can positively impact some games for sure.
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gambit05

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7894 on: December 20, 2020, 04:32:06 pm »
+2

. For one card though I was a bit surprised that is grep's Way of the Silkworm. You said  that the Peddler effect is a bit weak, and a Lab effect would have been better. In my opinion, the Peddler effect makes the Way more a unique card than a Lab, which would then be relatively similar to Way of the Horse. I think the Way as is is fine and balanced. Sorry for the criticism, but you asked for feedback.


Thanks for the feedback. I could be wrong on this one. Just to clarify my thought process here:

My criticism was more that it should be over-powered, otherwise every time I have to stop and think hard about whether to play as a silkworm was not. Peddlers are just on that border of "they don't hurt" but not that strong such that I am struck with Action Paralysis before every action I play for the first time. And they are non-terminal. If they were very strong, or terminal, then I have a lot less AP because the choice becomes more obvious. At least, that is what I was trying to explain, just to clarify. But you definitely don't have to agree with my point, and I could be wrong on that point. Just trying to clarify that I do not think Way of the Silkworm is weak. It's an interesting Way and can positively impact some games for sure.

I think we should have a separate thread in which we discuss interesting cards from the Weekly Design Contest and the Expansion Contest after respective contest rounds concluded. This may be immensely helpful to improve such cards and maybe even to learn more about the judgement criteria of different people. I already had the idea a while back but I was too lazy. The idea is basically avoiding interference of extensive aftermath discussions with the next contest rounds.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2020, 04:33:21 pm by gambit05 »
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Aquila

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7895 on: December 20, 2020, 04:36:26 pm »
+6

Yay, that's satisfying! The Latin for eagle is Aquila~.
Thanks anordinaryman, that was an interesting contest!

We're almost at contest 100, and we're at a somewhat significant time of year, so I propose something big (and challenging to judge):

Contest #99: Free For All
Just one restriction: no new mechanics. Go nuts; put together the best design you can think of! Sift through all the options and select something you know works. I will attempt to keep an open mind towards different audiences, and I anticipate a very big shortlist of potential runners-up. To choose a winner I guess may involve some personal preference if things are really close.

No bonus points for holiday theme by the way, but a narrow margin may be decided by relevance of theme to the mechanics. I will heavily favour mechanical balance and interest however.
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LittleFish

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7896 on: December 20, 2020, 04:49:26 pm »
0

Quote
Heist- Event
Everyone (including you) reveals the top two cards of their deck. Gain a treasure costing up to the number of revealed. Return the cards back to the top of their deck in any order (player's choice)


« Last Edit: December 20, 2020, 04:50:27 pm by LittleFish »
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silverspawn

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7897 on: December 20, 2020, 05:35:48 pm »
+1

Just one restriction: no new mechanics. Go nuts; put together the best design you can think of!

Thank you! I really wanted to use this traveler line. I've almost never been so happy with a design.

         

         

                                               
 

segura

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7898 on: December 21, 2020, 04:59:12 am »
+5



At best something like a Bazaar with tokens/Horses. Potentially neat with draw to X due to the Treasure-playing in the Action phase and supporting a higher density of green.
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segura

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #7899 on: December 21, 2020, 05:27:59 am »
0

Quote
Heist- Event
Everyone (including you) reveals the top two cards of their deck. Gain a treasure costing up to the number of revealed. Return the cards back to the top of their deck in any order (player's choice)
Seems risky, pay $3 adn gain a Copper. So perhaps make it non-mandatory?
I'd also reconsider the scaling, in 3P games it is 50% better than in 2P games.
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