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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Should Chapel cost $3?
« on: July 05, 2012, 05:22:59 pm »
Wouldn't 5 of those cards be prizes? So shouldn't the question be what 3 cards aren't perfectly priced?
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327
Dominion Articles / Re: Cache
« on: June 22, 2012, 07:52:40 pm »Hunting Party - Credit jomini
Hunting Party stacks in Colony games have Platinum/Gold/Silver/Copper which gets you to 11 and a colony. In province games you need either a 2 cost terminal or an additional money card. In the presence of cache, hunting party can skip either the gold and green earlier or the 2 cost terminal (as you'll have 9). Since hunting party ignored duplicates the other coppers don't hurt as much as other decks, but you probably only want 1 cache here, and you probably want it after you've purchased a hunting party or two.
I think "2 cost terminal" here should be "terminal silver"; you really don't want to try doing this with a chapel or herbalist.
For when you'd actually want Cache over Gold, a few examples are above. Another reason -- maybe you want fodder for a trasher like Spice Merchant or Trade Route.
I understand trade route, but Spice Merchant? Isn't it just better to not have the copper or the spice merchant in the first place? When use spice merchant to draw it's the same as if you didn't have either card in the first place because you end up with the same number of cards in hand. And if you do it for money you've just used two cards to get $2 and 1 buy, which, except for the buy, is the same as if you had two coppers in hand. Why not just get a silver instead of the Spice Merchant in the first place and then buy gold with your $6 turns?
328
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Decline of civility+
« on: June 19, 2012, 02:22:56 pm »
I think the decline of civility has gone on long enough that we can just consider it a generally low but stable level of civility now.
329
Dominion Articles / Re: Mine
« on: June 19, 2012, 02:19:13 pm »
Also the Governor can just gain a gold without having to match with a silver.
330
Dominion Articles / Re: Oracle
« on: June 15, 2012, 04:21:41 pm »
The Secret History of the Seaside Cards
I think the rationale is somewhat similar with Oracle. Also the ordering does matter for your opponents, since they might have a single cantrip in hand or a caravan that's still durating from last turn or something. And specifying different behavior for the player playing the card would make the card text longer while not really improving anything so it's probably just better to leave the behavior the same for everyone. Meanwhile Iso is just implementing the card the way it's written, which says you get to rearrange the cards.
And who knows maybe in the future there will be some reaction card that you reveal when you put cards back on your deck (would potentially be useful against Ghost Ship, Bureaucrat, and Rabble; and would maybe have some cute interactions with Mandarin and Courtyard and I'm probably forgetting some other cards) and then maybe it actually does matter.
Also ninja'd but I'm not wasting this post.
Quote
Navigator: Originally this didn't let you reorder the cards, but I thought that would be something the developers would want changed, since they'd behaved similarly on similar stuff. You know, so you don't have to carefully keep the order the same. Anyway they didn't actually complain about this one but I changed it to let you reorder the cards anyway. It makes the card marginally more powerful.
I think the rationale is somewhat similar with Oracle. Also the ordering does matter for your opponents, since they might have a single cantrip in hand or a caravan that's still durating from last turn or something. And specifying different behavior for the player playing the card would make the card text longer while not really improving anything so it's probably just better to leave the behavior the same for everyone. Meanwhile Iso is just implementing the card the way it's written, which says you get to rearrange the cards.
And who knows maybe in the future there will be some reaction card that you reveal when you put cards back on your deck (would potentially be useful against Ghost Ship, Bureaucrat, and Rabble; and would maybe have some cute interactions with Mandarin and Courtyard and I'm probably forgetting some other cards) and then maybe it actually does matter.
Also ninja'd but I'm not wasting this post.
331
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Gg etiquette
« on: June 14, 2012, 04:40:24 pm »
"Thanks for the game" is a nice alternative. It's plain English and it lacks any of the overloading that GG has gotten from other gaming communities where it can come off as sarcastic or dismissive.
332
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Veto Mode: Choosing Random
« on: June 14, 2012, 04:36:43 pm »
It's sort of cute that there are people out there who think withholding "GG" is all that injurious and a good way to get what you want.
333
Dominion Articles / Re: Trader
« on: June 14, 2012, 03:55:04 pm »
[obligatory reference to blue dogs]
334
Dominion Articles / Re: Trader
« on: June 14, 2012, 03:07:07 pm »The final place case where Trader can shine is with trash-for-benefit cards such as Border Village, Ill-Gotten Gains, etc. Its important to note that unlike more flexible options like remodel, you have to actually WANT lots of silver for this to be worthwhile.
I think you're using the term "trash for benefit" incorrectly here.
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Trash-for-Benefit: Any card that gives a benefit at the cost of trashing a card. Apprentice draws additional cards, Salvager gives cash, etc.(From the glossary)
Trash-for-benefit refers to the card doing the trashing, not the card being trashed.
335
Dominion Articles / Re: Wharf
« on: June 13, 2012, 07:47:01 pm »
Isn't village/money usually called village idiot?
336
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Two cards, one turn
« on: June 12, 2012, 01:22:05 pm »
You can also have a $3 and a $6 by the end of turn 1.
337
Dominion Articles / Re: How's about some Multiplayer
« on: June 10, 2012, 10:51:34 pm »
The point of the question is to find out what sorts of things one watches out for to decide between these strategies. Saying that "sometimes greening early is good, and sometimes going for an engine is good" is ultimately not saying much.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dark Ages card speculation: Bad Penny
« on: June 02, 2012, 08:21:08 pm »
A card like that would also have some interesting interactions with trash-for-benefit cards. you could upgrade it to a gold, remodel it to a bank, expand it to a province, or develop it into a gold and a good $4 without losing it.
339
Dominion General Discussion / Re: The game's largest structural flaw, imho
« on: May 19, 2012, 11:20:26 pm »I'm not explicitly trying to fix anything. I don't know whether it can be fixed within the rules of Dominion. I'm just saying that this aspect of the game introduces one of the more annoying luck factors.
I think if you want to eliminate "annoying luck factors" focusing on something like "sometimes I have too much treasure" is missing that it's a game where you blindly draw cards from a shuffled deck. It's pretty unlikely that you're going to make an interesting game that uses that mechanic and doesn't have some shuffling orders be more optimal than others.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: The game's largest structural flaw, imho
« on: May 19, 2012, 02:53:32 am »
There's a pretty large subset of the cards in the game as it exists that work as tools for solving the "too much treasure" problem. Mostly the ones that give you extra buys, but there are a few that explicitly let you set something aside for the next turn somehow.
What is it you're actually trying to fix?
What is it you're actually trying to fix?
341
Dominion General Discussion / Re: The game's largest structural flaw, imho
« on: May 18, 2012, 06:29:28 pm »
Has anyone tried playing with "pie rule" openings? This is where one player plays the opening move, and then the other player decides whether to accept that opening and take over that seat or to challenge it by playing as player 2. The player who opens has an incentive to make a good move, since he may be forced to continue with it, but also to not do anything that might be unbeatable, since then he will get pushed into the other seat and have to deal with the consequences from the wrong side.
Top-decking unplayed treasure during cleanup sounds like a potentially interesting reaction or while-in-play effect. Not exactly a +buy, but still a way to avoid wasting a hand with lots of treasure.
Top-decking unplayed treasure during cleanup sounds like a potentially interesting reaction or while-in-play effect. Not exactly a +buy, but still a way to avoid wasting a hand with lots of treasure.
342
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Hoard in Colony-Curse Games
« on: May 16, 2012, 04:45:03 pm »
Pretty sure gulled is better than both, but I'd be open to arguments for hair 'em.
343
Dominion General Discussion / Re: $5's That Make You Open Feast
« on: May 12, 2012, 09:33:29 pm »Mint?Not to open! What are you minting?
Fools gold? But I guess then you want the trashing. I was just trying to find an edge case and getting mint with feast is very different from buying it.
344
Dominion General Discussion / Re: $5's That Make You Open Feast
« on: May 12, 2012, 07:44:15 pm »
Mint?
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: $5's That Make You Open Feast
« on: May 11, 2012, 05:03:14 pm »
Are there situations where there are two different $5s, and you use the feast to delay picking one up until you've seen what your opponent is doing while guaranteeing you get to pick one up?
Edit: I just realized that this only potentially makes sense in a 5/2 opening since otherwise getting the silver doesn't block you off on deciding which $5 to get any sooner than the Feast does.
Edit: I just realized that this only potentially makes sense in a 5/2 opening since otherwise getting the silver doesn't block you off on deciding which $5 to get any sooner than the Feast does.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Asynchronous play
« on: May 08, 2012, 07:15:46 pm »
I don't think anyone is really complaining about the mode so much as just questioning it's value.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: The game's largest structural flaw, imho
« on: May 04, 2012, 05:09:30 pm »
The problem is there's zero value in chaining two libraries (this applies to watchtower as well) unless your handsize goes down in between. So in order to get the benefit of two libraries in one turn you would have to play at least two festivals or some other non-terminal that reduces your handsize like hamlet or lighthouse.
First turn advantage isn't really a luck thing. Pretty much every symmetrical game has it and people who are serious about competition find some way to control for it, either by giving a small handicap in favor of the player who goes second (as with komi points in go) or by making sure that in a tournament settings players get equal time in all positions or by limiting the moves available to whoever goes first (as in checkers).
First turn advantage isn't really a luck thing. Pretty much every symmetrical game has it and people who are serious about competition find some way to control for it, either by giving a small handicap in favor of the player who goes second (as with komi points in go) or by making sure that in a tournament settings players get equal time in all positions or by limiting the moves available to whoever goes first (as in checkers).
348
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Getting my family to like Dominion with base Dominion
« on: May 04, 2012, 12:15:08 am »
I don't really get why you don't just take a straight VP handicap. It doesn't encourage any particular strategy like trashing or engining through blank cards and it pretty much works the same way on any board. Plus it helps subtly point to how the idea of the game is to grab the biggest piece of the pie that the green cards make up since the impact of the handicap is not that you have to manipulate your deck more cleverly but that you have to get a bigger piece than you normally would to win. The exact value of the handicap is going to depend on the perceived disparity of skill But you could just do that progressively like with the blank cards.
Granted I haven't tried this. Everyone I've taught the game to has been cool about just losing to a stronger player at first so it's never come up.
Granted I haven't tried this. Everyone I've taught the game to has been cool about just losing to a stronger player at first so it's never come up.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: The game's largest structural flaw, imho
« on: May 03, 2012, 05:21:45 pm »
If I'm understanding this correctly then the main upshot of this change is that any card that currently says "+1 Action" becomes playable even if you have already used up all our actions for the turn, so if you were to play a smithy and draw a laboratory, you could play it immediately rather than just cursing your bad luck.
There are a lot of situations where that leads to more shuffling, because any +cards cards in your deck are going to get drawn dead less. This applies to terminal draws too since villages can now be played for "free" so if you, say, have a hand with two smithies you can play both if there's a village in your hand or any of the top three cards in your deck. Essentially you get to activate your +cards cards more which means you get to draw more cards which means more shuffling.
But since you're talking about an alternate game with potentially radically different cards I may be completely off here. Maybe in free-cantrip-dominion Laboratory doesn't exist or is so expensive that it just isn't that easy to build unstoppable cycling engines. Which, now that I think about it, would lead to people just buying money a a lot wouldn't it?
Anyway if you think you can make a better game I say go ahead. I am always in the market for better games.
There are a lot of situations where that leads to more shuffling, because any +cards cards in your deck are going to get drawn dead less. This applies to terminal draws too since villages can now be played for "free" so if you, say, have a hand with two smithies you can play both if there's a village in your hand or any of the top three cards in your deck. Essentially you get to activate your +cards cards more which means you get to draw more cards which means more shuffling.
But since you're talking about an alternate game with potentially radically different cards I may be completely off here. Maybe in free-cantrip-dominion Laboratory doesn't exist or is so expensive that it just isn't that easy to build unstoppable cycling engines. Which, now that I think about it, would lead to people just buying money a a lot wouldn't it?
Anyway if you think you can make a better game I say go ahead. I am always in the market for better games.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: The game's largest structural flaw, imho
« on: May 03, 2012, 04:43:06 pm »Quote
I could be making more interesting decisions in between all my shuffling.
I feel you about not wanting to shuffle so much. Even if you do it quickly sometimes you have to do it in the middle of your turn or someone finishes their turn right before being attacked and it becomes a bottleneck as everyone waits for someone to get done randomizing their deck before play can continue.
It's not a dealbreaker for anyone I've played with, but it's still a pretty big drag on the game. Changing the way actions work isn't a good solution to that problem. In fact doing it that way would exacerbate the problem by making it much easier to make a fast-cycling deck which means triggering a reshuffle more often.