Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

1

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Curse Variants

« on: July 01, 2011, 03:54:31 pm »

What about powerful cards that come with a powerful curse?

For example, a $3 Lab with -5 VP.

Or, a cheap plat. with a curse, say...

Cost: $6
Worth $5 and -5 VP

I'm not thinking these through enough to consider them balanced.  However, I think having -VP as part of the balance of the card would work.  Sure, you would trash them later, but that's life.

2

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Most VPs in 4 turns

« on: June 30, 2011, 06:35:20 pm »

It is still in play when you use your Chancellor

You should like

read the actual text on the Chancellor card.

Oh yeah, you're right.  I was totally on a one track mind trying to get more than 11.  My mistake.

3

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Most VPs in 4 turns

« on: June 30, 2011, 06:19:15 pm »

I merge your two solutions, and raise you a

IW
Chancellor,
IW a Coppersmith, Chancellor + 3 Coppers = Duchy
IW a Island, Coppersmith + 4 Coppers = Province.

11 points

I had completely missed this post before, sorry about that.  How do you use your Ironworks twice?  It is still in play when you use your Chancellor, so it would not be included in the re-shuffle.

4

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 30, 2011, 06:16:36 pm »

I'm not really sure how to word that last part as it is a "new" feature.  However, I think the meaning gets across.  I've always wanted a more "aggressive" reaction card, but it needed to be balanced so that people would still want to play attack cards.  This, like most reaction cards, works better against some attacks compared to others.  Reflecting a Witch to give him a curse is nice, reflecting a Thief so he trashes his own treasure just to gain it back, not so much.

Donald X's notes on why this type of Reaction is not a good idea.

I've read that, but I think his example doesn't take into account how a majority of attacks also give a direct benefit to the user.  Witch gives everyone a curse but it also allows the user to draw two cards.  Militia causes everyone to discard down to three, but it still gives the user $2.

Having the negative part of an attack effect the user as well is not going to results in the scenario that Donald was describing.  It also does not prevent the user of "Magic Mirror" from being hit by the attack.  For example, in the case of Witch all four players would gain a curse, but the owner of Witch still gets to draw two cards so the attack still gives him some sort of benefit.

Donald's article also seems to be talking about a reaction card that prevents the attack and reflects it.  Although already stated, do not forget that the user of Magic Mirror still gets hit by the attack, so it is not nearly as strong as the card in his example.

5

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 30, 2011, 05:58:05 pm »

Magic Mirror
Action-Reaction
Cost: $3

Draw two cards.  Put two cards from your hand on top of your deck in any order.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, the owner of the attack is affected by the attack as well.


I'm not really sure how to word that last part as it is a "new" feature.  However, I think the meaning gets across.  I've always wanted a more "aggressive" reaction card, but it needed to be balanced so that people would still want to play attack cards.  This, like most reaction cards, works better against some attacks compared to others.  Reflecting a Witch to give him a curse is nice, reflecting a Thief so he trashes his own treasure just to gain it back, not so much.

6

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Most VPs in 4 turns

« on: June 29, 2011, 06:58:18 pm »

Although the TC did not specifically state that this is a solitaire type puzzle, I think most puzzles worded in this way are assumed to be.

7

General Discussion / Re: Math Nerds...

« on: June 27, 2011, 04:28:40 pm »

I hate to say that I was on track for a double major in Math and Physics before my situation changed and I dropped out.  One of my dreams is to go back to school and finish, as in a weird way, I really miss math.  Currently, I am only able to use math for fun and recently I've been teaching myself about probabilities and statistics as I attempt to get a better handle on this game.

A few weeks ago I spent my entire night trying to figure out how many combinations of 10 I could make from 25.  It took my hours to figure it out, but I had just as much fun doing that than I do playing this game. 

8

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

« on: June 27, 2011, 04:17:35 pm »

I really do not know if this is a nerf or a buff, but I dislike how there are cards that "interact" with other players and are not considered attacks.  Anytime someone plays a card that effects my hand, deck, or even discard pile, I should be able to play a reaction card.  The two cards that come to mind are Masquerade and Tribute.  The first requires me to pass a card, but what if I have five awesome cards?  I would consider that an attack.  You could argue that if you have at least one bad card you can get rid of it, but that doesn't negate the fact I permanently lose a card from my hand with no way to prevent it.

As for Tribute, discarding the top two cards may, or may not suck.  However, before I am forced to do so, it would be nice to have the option to play a reaction card to at least effect which to cards are revealed (if not prevent it all together).  I also dislike that it targets a single player, which is only "okay" because it is NOT an attack.

Possession is another card that should be an attack.

I know Donald wanted to have cards that caused player interaction, but he can still have that with cards that give options like Vault, Bishop and even Tournament.

9

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 27, 2011, 02:29:08 pm »

Premonition is not very different from my Architect card in the first post of this thread.  It's more powerful, but I think some of the interest of Architect comes from not being able to *completely* architect your next turn, only a good chunk of it.  As such, yours might have a little less AP, but I suspect that's a drawback of both of them.  I think the idea is interesting enough that it's worth it.

I haven't read through this entire thread in a while, I should probably do that before posting ideas so it isn't the same as another.  Sorry about that. 

Tariff, as you say, sounds like a card that slows the game down.  If you Tariff up the Provinces, you still want to buy them -- you just have to rev up your engine, which may already be weighted down by previously-purchased Provinces.  I suppose if you want to go for a three-pile ending, it would be a good move, or if you have an engine that consistently generates more income than your opponent's, so you're overpaying anyway.  At first I was thinking this was too close to Embargo to be interesting, but especially that last situation would make it quite different:  embargo always affects players equally, but this card might not.  If you have $8, you can't buy a tariffed Province at all, while another player who comes up with $9 can.  Still, I'd have to try it out in a few games before I could judge whether it's interesting in practice.  (Oh, another comment:  I have no idea why you priced it at $6 when Embargo is $2.  Pretty sure I'd never buy it at $6, but maybe I'm not foreseeing some great use of it.)

With Embargo, you can have a four player game where all four people buy it on their first two turns and four could end up on Province and four end up on Duchy (not that this would actually happen, but it could).  This would make a Duchy result in a net -1 VP and really slow down your deck.  However, curse cards do run out and although the curses can deter one from wanting to buy something, it doesn't prevent them from doing so.

With Tariff priced at $2/$3, the same could happen, except there is no duration limit on how long something will cost more.  Plus, with Provinces now at $12 and a Duchy at $9, it doesn't just deter someone from buying it, it actually prevents them.  Now, I like the idea of it being a "physical" hurtle to overcome rather than a choice to be made (is it worth gaining x amount of curses?), however, I think being able to permanently increase the cost of cards that soon in a game is too powerful (and lame).  I could price it at $5 if $6 seems too high, but I feel $4 is too low as I don't want anyone to be able to open with this card.

10

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 27, 2011, 03:09:56 am »

Hmm... I have three tonight, although two are similar ideas.

Name: Premonition
Type: Action
Cost: $5

+5 Cards
Put 5 cards from your hand on top of your deck in any order.

This card basically allows you to create your next hand, or pull just enough treasure for what you need now and leave the rest behind.  It used to have +Action, but it was much too strong when you were able to pull action cards from those five and use them.  It still can happen with a Village like card, but it doesn't result in many useful action chains.
----

Name: Blockade
Type: Action-Duration
Cost: $5

Place Blockade face up on any Supply pile.  While Blockade is in play, no player my purchase a card from the chosen Supply pile.

----

Name: Tariff
Type: Action
Cost: $6

Trash this card.  Put a Tariff token on top of a Supply pile.  When a player buys a card, that card costs +$1 per Tariff token on that pile.

This card plays just like Embargo but increases cost instead of forcing a Curse upon someone.  Something tells me Donald thought of this but threw it out because all it does is slow down the game.  Nevertheless, I wanted to gets opinions on it, especially because I priced it at $6.  Would you buy this over a Gold to slow down the purchase of another card?
----

As always, any feedback is appreciated.

11

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: June 23, 2011, 07:37:39 pm »

A deal with the Devil
$7 -- Action

Each other player may trash their hand.  If they do not, flip a coin.  If heads, they resign from the game.  If tails, you trash all cards you own.

12

Dominion General Discussion / Open: What $3 cards are better than a silver?

« on: June 23, 2011, 02:07:57 pm »

Donald X. once stated, "In general, if a card can be cheaper, I make it cheaper. I want the cards as cheap as possible without breaking the game, rather than as expensive as possible without going unplayed."  This was in context of making Throne Room cost $4 rather than $3 because, "I thought, hmm, maybe this could stand being 4 after all. It makes it just a bit harder to get a million of them; you don't go, "Market, buy two Throne Rooms" nearly as often."

I started with that because his mindset was partly to balance your open so you cannot obtain two"$4" cards, and partly to help balance the cards later in the game.  Now, to my question.

When you open with a 4/3 split, it is very common to purchase a silver with your three, and an action with your four.  In this context, something costing three is no different than something costing four since you only have one action purchase.  Regardless of cost, you buy the best action you can that costs up to four.

So, when is it better to buy an action with your four, and then buy another (or same) action with your three?  When do you opt to forgo buying a silver to add another action to your deck?  Specifically, what action is better than a silver assuming you will buy an action with your four?

13

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 22, 2011, 09:25:29 pm »

How about a duration card?

Name: Inflation
Cost: $5
Type: Action-Duration

Now and at the start of your next turn: +$1

While this is in play, all cards (including cards in players’ hands) cost $1 more per Action card in play (counting this).

----
Since I have never played with a duration card that has such an impact on other players, I'm not really sure how to balance the cost of the card with the effect.  I wanted it to be at least $5 since I don't want someone to be able to open with this assuming a 4/3 split (83.3% chance).  I was thinking of pricing it at $6, but if I did I would want to increase the +coin amount, at least on the turn it is played.

Thoughts?

14

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What would you pay for a non-recursive KC?

« on: June 22, 2011, 06:38:33 pm »

I understand what you are trying to do, but I do not think it is necessary.  Frankly, IMO, a KC Jr. is a Throne Room (even if that is backwards).  It is much harder to abuse the Throne Room due to it only playing it twice (maxing at four rather than nine) and it costs only $4, so its not hard to attempt to abuse it.

I think KC is just one of those cards that is powerful and trying to make it non-recursive isn't the way to "weaken" it.  That said, what if you tried something like this:

Succession -- Cost: $4 -- Action

You may choose an Action card in your hand. Play it three times.

If you do, trash that card.

Or, you could have the player trash Succession instead making it a one time KC.

15

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Card ideas for using basic Treasure, Victory and Curse randomizer cards?

« on: June 22, 2011, 02:19:13 pm »

I've played a match before where we did not use Province cards nor Gold cards.  We also only used five kingdom cards valued at $5 or less.  The Duchy took on the province rule of if that single pile is gone, the game is over.  This was a very interesting game since after set up, we played with "standard" rules.

That said, you could do something similar to that using those randomizer cards.  You could either have a single pile and remove two of them and see how the game plays, or count Curse as a Victory card and remove one "Victory" card and one Treasure card.

Doing this can fundamentally alter the game.  A Witch isn't nearly as useful without Curse cards, it is impossibly hard to buy a Province without Silver or Gold, and the game is also very interesting without Coppers and Estates (the only ones being in your starting deck).

Other than that, I think they are just included so you can tell when a pile is empty.  I doubt Donald ever intended for you to actually use them to randomize something (not that I want to put words in his mouth).

16

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Isotropic

« on: June 20, 2011, 02:13:53 pm »

Slightly off topic from the TC's post, but is there a way to add custom cards to Isotropic?  If not, do you think there is a way we could add that feature (at least for "private" matches)?

17

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 20, 2011, 01:46:12 pm »

This is a card I had a dream about.  Weird right?  No play testing at all, but thought I'd share it because it was a cool card... in my dream.

Name: Ascension
Cost: $5
Type: Action-Reaction-Duration

Trash a card from your hand.
---
At the start of your next turn, you may Trash a card from your hand.  If you do, leave this card in play.  If you do not, Trash this card.
While this card is in play, you are unaffected by attacks.

Thoughts?

18

Variants and Fan Cards / Help: Ideas for a four player game

« on: June 19, 2011, 02:41:06 pm »

About once a week my wife and I get together her her sister and her sister's husband to play a few games of Dominion.  We all try to win, but it is a casual game much more than a competitive game.  Between us we have all the expansions and we usually pick a random ten to play with.

That is the problem, a random ten with four people can lead to some VERY boring and slow games.  At least twice now I've purchased the last province to end the game knowing I was going to lose (when I could have won if dragged the game out) because I'd rather spend our remaining time on another match.

My question to you all is, do you have a good/fun way to select ten kingdom cards so that we can limit the amount of "suck" that some games have?  Once thing we tried last time was to randomize six and then each choose one.  This has lead to some fun matches because we have at least three good cards (one of the four of us usually picks something dumb >_>).

In this light, do any of you have any ideas?

19

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Optimal Deck Size

« on: June 18, 2011, 01:06:51 am »

Your deck is a cake. You want to make your cake as delicious as possible. You aren't going to do that by making just the right amount of batter; you're going to do it by making the batter with the right proportions of ingredients. Now get baking!

The problem is, two cakes take longer to make than one, and just as 5 gold in a deck of 20 is the same ratio as 10 golds to 40, the latter takes too much time.

Of course the ratio of good cards to dead cards matters, but you cannot forget turn/time constraints when talking about deck size, or it loses all meaning.

20

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?

« on: June 17, 2011, 06:28:56 pm »

Silly idea 1:

Why don't we create a simple list of "civility" rules that people can read and understand. Perhaps one of the issues about civility is that people don't know about or understand the unwritten rules. If we write them someone where people can find and read them, I suspect more people will be willing to follow them.

Question 2:

What are the civility issues regarding suggestions and advice? When is it okay to tell a player: Thief is a bad card (in 2 players), etc.?

People who don't know about or understand the unwritten rules of being civil are typically people who just are not civil.  Making a list for people to follow wouldn't actually help anything, it would just try to force the issue.  Also, I don't want people to "gg" because they feel they have to, I want them to "gg" because they want to.  If they feel forced, it defeats the purpose.

People who want to be civil and don't know how will learn on their own.

21

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 17, 2011, 06:02:11 pm »

Thinking about it now, I guess it could be devastating if you combine it with Laboratory as you'll have the cards needed to play all of your Spites, however, this is a very bad strategy since after that, you will have a bunch of dead cards since you will no longer want to trash anything and therefore the attack fails.

So what you really want to play it in is a deck with lots of Worker's Villages/Markets/whatever, so that you can buy lots of Copper and trash it with the Spite.

You could, but how would you win the game like that?  I would think you deck would become so bogged down with your Villages and Coppers that you wouldn't get to your Spites as often as you would like.  Sure, the extra buys from Worker's Village and Market would help you gain coppers, but they don't help you draw the cards you need to be able to play Spite more than twice.  You would have to set up a pretty complicated engine to abuse this card and the sole purpose would be to harm other player's hands, as it would provide very little benefit to you.

I mean, if this is a problem I'm more than happy to add a clause that states it effects players with more than three cards in their hand.  I'm not against that as much as I have never found it necessary and liked the idea that it could occasionally really mess someone up.

I have found that the best use for it is to buy one or two with the intent of trashing cards from your hand.  You know it is a very slow way of trashing cards, but you slow your opponent down as you do trash, so it evens out.

22

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?

« on: June 17, 2011, 05:33:49 pm »

I much prefer someone to be a dick than say "gl, hf" before every game.  I mean have fun?  Really??? Who started this silliness? 

And frankly, I hope that you get horrible luck when you face me, I'll need all the help I can get to break into the coveted top 25 spot.

Although I do not disagree with you directly, I think you are overlooking the sportsmanship part of the game.  When I play, I want to win, and I want to have fun doing so.  However, I respect the fact that my opponent wants the same thing.  I will usually say "gg" when I win a match because I appreciate the fact that my opponent stayed in until the game was over, even though he was losing.  If it was a close game, then the "gg" actually has real meaning.

When I lose, I will also "gg" because I want to let the opponent know that even though I lost, those are the breaks and I don't hold anything against him.

Sure, all of this should be assumed, but it's not.  It does seem silly to wish you opponent "good luck" before the match starts, because as you said, you hope they have horrible luck and lose.  In the same light as "gg" tough, this is just a way to say, "we both want to win so lets both do our best."

Even when people do not realize they are implying this when they type "gl hf" and "gg," they are still actually implying it just because they chose to type it when they could have just said nothing.

23

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 17, 2011, 05:25:24 pm »

The one suggestion I'd make is that Spite should only hit players with a certain number of cards in their hand- specifically, they can't go below 3 cards.  This would put it in line with Militia, Ghost Ship, etc. and prevent degenerate situations in multiplayer.

I thought about this, but I decided to leave it off as I do not believe it is necessary.  In a two player game you practically have nothing to worry about as it is very difficult for one player to play this attack more than twice.  As such, we look at 3P and 4P games.  It has the best chance of happening in a 4P game since each player only has to play it once.  However, for this to happen, the third player must have discarded two cards and decided it was best to keep this attack and one card to trash over anything else.  I don't think trashing a single card is worth giving up your buy.  Sure, a player could play it twice, but you run into the same problem because the person to play the third attack will only have three cards in hand.  The second or third player could get hit, and then play it twice themselves, but that has never happened to me in play tests.

IMO, this card balances itself.  Unlike Torturer, which can easily be played more than once in a 4P game before your turn comes back around, this card requires that you trash a card, which becomes harder and harder to do if you are being forced to discard a card as you are being attacked by it.

Thinking about it now, I guess it could be devastating if you combine it with Laboratory as you'll have the cards needed to play all of your Spites, however, this is a very bad strategy since after that, you will have a bunch of dead cards since you will no longer want to trash anything and therefore the attack fails.

24

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?

« on: June 17, 2011, 01:52:49 pm »

IMO, some have expectations of "gl" or "gg" due to other games they have played.  Consider Starcraft or Starcraft 2, when you are playing a match and realize you have no chance to win and with to quit, it is "proper" in the community to "gg" before you leave.  This is further driven into peoples heads because all SC pros do it (bar Idra).

Other games have similar mannerisms that stem from an online source, like watching skilled players do it.  I rarely have issues like this when playing in person.  That said, I think "gg" no longer means good game as much as it means that you have enough respect for your opponent to acknowledge him before leaving the match.

25

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?

« on: June 17, 2011, 03:32:59 am »

I have never really thought about asking for feedback on cards I have made up since... well, I made them up.  Here are my two favorite cards I play with that I've tried hard to balance.

A Victory card: Ancient Tomb -- Cost: $4

Worth 1 Victory Point per Curse you have.

This basically turns Curses into something you wouldn't mind having, to something you would actually buy.  It also really changes how powerful some attack cards like Witch are.  It seems to work when I play with my friends, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it with better players.

My second card:

An Action - Attack card: Spite -- Cost: $4

+1 Action
Trash a card from your hand.  If you do, each other player discards one card.

It's very slow as far as trashing goes, but I wanted to combine trashing and attacking.  It started out without the +1 Action, but it seemed too weak like that and no one really wanted it.  The fact you have to trash a card to trigger that attack prevents the +1 Action from allowing you to chain more than two (baring certain +Card combos).

I would love feedback on either card.