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« on: August 30, 2024, 10:26:35 pm »
Wow, this is a lot. Overall, I like a lot of the ideas here, but the core concept of having 4 different colors is flawed.
I want to compare this set to Allies. In a normal game of Dominion:Allies, a favor token has 1 special use. In this set, a PNF card adds 8 different special uses. That's almost double the effects to understand, compared to a normal dominion kingdom! In the rest of this post, I redesign the set to use Liaisons and Allies, in addition to other critiques.
The difference, it seems, between the philosophy of the Colors vs. the Allies. Namely, the Colors are all weaker, but having more of them together means that sprouts are effectively stronger. I can see it being balanced, but I still think having 8 extra things to think about when analyzing a board is too much, which is why I still think having Allies instead is better.
I like the "Throw" mechanic. There's a lot of fun design space in making you spend a resource to make a card do something else interesting.
I suspect Scornet Swarm will rarely be played for gaining a fruit - the fruits are just so weak. In the cases where you are gaining a fruit with Scornet Swarm, I worry it's just because you'll be trying to get a specific one, probably Searing Acidshock or Citrus Lump. That's really not fun.
Commentary on each card, and how I'd redesign the set:
First, as mentioned, PNFs are Liaisons; Colors are now Allies.
Pellet: This is just underling again. Having something like underling in a set with something like allies, but I don't like the premise of having a set with something like Allies when Allies exist and we already understand them. Remove.
Candypop bud: I don't see anywhere that says the colors start with sprouts on them, so this is just a crappy woodcutter on boards without other PNF cards. On boards with other PNF cards, this is mainly terminal +Sprouts, but it sucks to open with. The only terminal +Favors card is Guildmaster; buying a card for +buy and having favors come with it is novel. I'd try +1 Buy/+$2/+1 Favor and +1 Buy/+$2/+2 Favors at $4 and $5.
Cave pit: Seems really weak - Most colors, as written, require multiple sprouts for one of their effects, so this being the only PNF card would make them redundant. Terminal silver with Gain a Silver on-gain is also a really weak effect. The identity seems to be the terminal silver that comes with a silver, so I'd add an effect that synergizes with that. Maybe instead of giving sprouts/favors, it could have "You may throw a treasure card for +2 cards per $3 it costs."
Antenna Beetle: DXV tried an attack that attacked the other players' favors in Allies, and that didn't work.
Red: Having an extra silver unspent at end of turn is rare. Both halves of the bottom half seem too strong for a Sprout, but good for Allies. (Copper for +action and Copper for +Buy), but I feel like they don't want to be on the same card. I would have the following 3 Allies for these concepts:
* At the start of cleanup, you may spend any number of favors and any number of $ for that many coffers.
* At the start of your buy phase, you may spend any number of favors and discard that many coppers for that many buys.
* After playing an action card, you spend a favor to throw a copper for +1 Action
Yellow: All of these are really narrow. I rarely want cards from my discard pile, and even rarer do I want to spend that many resources for them. Two sprouts for a coin, but only when I have a silver, or Two sprouts and 2 coins for worker's village, also narrow. Sometimes you need it, but sometimes there's better buys, and always there's better economy. Here's all I'd have there:
* At the start of your turn, you may spend a Favor to put a card from your Discard Pile into your Hand.
Blue: Three whole sprouts to turn Silver into Minion? That seems too narrow, even for a Color. And the games where the bottom half is viable tend to be less fun than when it's not. I don't like this.
Mushroom: Hard to judge. If you've played with this in the game, I'm curious how it's affected the board. My gut reaction is, it's too hard to activate the bottom for the top to be worth it, especially because it affects everyone.
Purple: I like this one. I like how the top synergizes with the bottom, and the effects both make sense. Probably too powerful for a Color, and duration cards do kill the top, though. As an Ally, this is what I'd do:
* When you play an action card, you may spend 3 favors to play it again. (You may not use this to play the same card 3 times)
White: Both halves of this make sense as a Color.
Parasite: The bottom half is outclassed by white, yeah. The top half is interesting! I would do this as a $4 Project - Liaison:
* At the start of your buy phase, you may throw any number of Silvers for +3 Favors each.
Rock: The top of this looks fun. The bottom of it looks unfun - it's a win-more effect.
Pink: Top half seems too strong compared to other Colors - Each sprout is effectively a play of ironworks. Bottom half would be interesting if it didn't say "Treasure" - it really pushes for gaining Treasure cards. This could be okay if this were Plunder, which has a lot of fun treasures that do things, but it isn't, so it isn't. As an Ally, this is what I'd do:
* During your turns, Action cards costing up to $1 per favor you have, cost $1 less per 2 favors you have above the printed cost.
Ice: Top half seems too strong for a Color. Bottom half seems appropriately narrow. As an Ally:
* At the start of your turn, you may spend 5 favors to exile a victory card from your hand.
Glow: This being available every game with sprouts totally throws what I said about sprouts being balanced as much weaker than favors out the window - Most of the time, the top half is the same as Cave Dwellers, an existing Ally! Definitely wants to be toned back. Maybe make it cost 2 sprouts? Bottom half, basically games with sprouts are just different games with different balancing around cycling. Here's what I'd do:
$4 Project - Liaison:
* At the end of your turn, +1 Favor if you have any Buys left.
Rescue Corps/ Rescue Pup: Both halves are too weak. A precept of split piles is that it has to be likely enough to see the bottom half. I suspect in many games, both players will ignore the Rescue Pup, so there'll never be a chance to see Rescue Corps. Rescue Corps is also weak except that, with the current wording, it's possible to get infinite buys and infinite sprouts from it. Dogs in Dominion are often reaction cards, so here's how I'd do this split pile:
Rescue Pup: $4 Action - Reaction - Liaison
+1 Action
Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. Put the action cards into your hand. Discard the rest; +1 Favor per card discarded.
--
When you gain an action card, you may play this from your hand.
Rescue Corps: $5 Action
Put up to 5 cards from your discard pile into your hand.
Sprays: Ultra-Bitter spray is too weak, and Ultra Spicy spray is too strong. Smithy is fine at $5; +3 Glow Pikmin +3 cards outclasses other $5 Smithies.
Here's how I'd do a split pile for the sprays:
* Ultra-Bitter Spray: $4 Action - Duration - Attack
At the start of your next turn, +2 Actions. Until then, when another player has more than 2 actions remaining, they reset back to 2 actions.
* Ultra Spicy Spray: $5 Action - Duration - Liaison
+2 Favors. At the start of your next turn, +3 Cards
Scornet Swarm: Village with 3 sprouts is too strong, and the fruits are too weak. The flavor of the Scornet Swarm, to me, is that it's a bunch of tiny annoying things. I think the Scornet Swarm actually makes sense as an Ally:
When you play an action card, if you 7 or more cards in hand, spend a favor or take a debt.
And then the Scornet Maestro, $4 Action - Liaison
Choose one:
+3 Favors, or +3 Actions
Glow sap being strictly better than pouch irks me a bit. Nectar and glow sap also aren't technically related.
The flavor of Nectar is making things mature, which gives me procession vibes:
Nectar
$3 Action
+2 Actions. You may return an action card from your hand to its pile, to gain an action card costing exactly $1 more than it.
And then, Glow Sap could just be a kingdom night card:
Glow Sap: $3 Night - Liaison
+1 Favor per buy you have left.
I scrolled back up to say: If Lumiknoll is in the set, why is Glow sap the heirloom of Nectar, not the Lumiknoll?
Bloom: Remodel plus favors makes sense at $5. I think the "every second throw" effect is cool, but not cool enough to warrant the possible confusion. Remodel + 2 favors can be in the set, yeah!
Lumiknoll: For the top part, just use Scheme's wording so we don't need to worry about infinite loops. The bottom part is liable to lead to infinite games - DXV has a design rule, that any effect that scores points must make the game closer to ending. Because it's possible to get infinite sprouts, it's possible to build a golden deck that does nothing but gain sprouts, and thus scores lumiknoll points forever. Did you ever play a Scornet Swarm + Lumiknoll game?
Here's how I'd do concept:
* Lumiknoll: $3 Night - Liaison
+ 1 Favor
This turn, you may put one of your cards onto your deck when you discard it from play.
And the bottom part, here's one of the first cards I designed for my set:
* Titans: Landmark
+7 VP if you have more favors than anyone else (or tied for most).
Honeywisp: Seems fun! No notes.
Ship part: The flavor of the ship parts is discovering a new part of the map, which would translate in dominion as gaining access to another kingdom card.
* Ship Part: $3 Treasure - Liaison
If you have the most favors, +$3 and you may buy the Distant card this turn. Otherwise, +2 Favors.
--
Setup: Add a $5 Action card to the supply - It is the Distant card. Usually, you may not buy it.
Bulblax: Seems fun! No notes.
Buried Junk: Nice at filing the colors' design space, but the colors are too much.
Goolix: I don't like how it's a terminal +1 Card this turn. Maybe 2 cards this turn 2 sprouts/favors next turn?
Bomb Rock: Waaayy too strong an attack. It's just like Knights, but there's no built-in defense, and it costs $4. Might be reasonable if it trashed itself on play and didn't attack opponents' sprouts/favors. So like,
Bomb Rock
$4 Action - Attack - Liaison
+2 Favors
Trash this. If you did, each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes one of them costing from $3 to $6, and discards the rest.
Carrots: Too strong. Maybe do one sprout/favor on gain, more on trash, so like:
Carrots
$4 Treasure - Liaison
+$2
--
When you gain this, +1 Favor. When you trash this, +3 Favors.
Lithopod: Too-integrated with the flawed color mechanic.
Mamuta: Nice design, nice flavor, no notes.
Snavian: Are players allowed to lose a sprout if they have none? Either way, strictly better than Armory and thus wants to cost $5.
Sporovid: Nice design, no notes.
Arachnorb: Probably too strong.
Expedition Leaders: Adding yet another use for sprouts, thus adding to the complexity of the mechanic. This feels more like a Color/Ally or set of Colors/Allies than a PNF/Liaison. Or maybe it wants its own token, not interacting with another mechanic, a la Garrison. Hard to say.
Onion: Nice design, nice flavor, no notes.
Smoky Progg: It shows up during the day in-game, so it doesn't feel like a Night card. The attack part also basically locks everyone out of getting to use their sprouts for the game - A player without any sprouts gets to choose to try to lose sprouts despite lacking any sprouts, thus being unaffected by the attack, with the only penalty being not getting to play with sprouts, which is much less punishing than adding curses to the deck.
Glowmob: Top half overlaps too much with Guildmaster; bottom half is extra uses for sprouts, which adds unfun complexity.
Ujadani: Seems too luck-based.
Dandori Challenge: Seems cool!
Trial of the Sage Leaf: Top half is cool, but note that ever since Empires (possibly earlier?) Dominion uses singular "they" instead of "he".
Night Expedition: This set with no omens shouldn't have a prophecy in it. Regardless, guaranteed scheme every turn leads to boring monolithic strategies, especially if it's easy to make the scheme'd card an attack. For Night Expedition as a prophecy, I would do "Attack Cards are also Night Cards", but it's still a problem having it as a Prophecy in a set with no Omens.
