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[Imrahil3]

My hot take is that it's the least successful mechanic in Dominion history. Even for other mechanics that could be considered a "failed experiment" (artifacts, hexes, overpay etc.), there's at least 1-2 cards that I like; I can't say the same thing for Ruins.

Your insolence cannot go unpunished. I challenge you to a hotdog eating contest to defend the honor of Ruins.

[LastFootnote]

Now that some time has passed, what are your thoughts on the Loot pile in general? I think at this point, it's the least liked mechanic in Plunder?

Least liked by the competitive online community, which I will remind you makes up far less than 1% of the Dominion-playing world. Based on my IRL experience so far, I think Loot will end up being the most-liked mechanic in Plunder overall.

[Donald X.]

What are your thoughts on Ruins? My hot take is that it's the least successful mechanic in Dominion history. Even for other mechanics that could be considered a "failed experiment" (artifacts, hexes, overpay etc.), there's at least 1-2 cards that I like; I can't say the same thing for Ruins. Also yikes, it eats up 50 cards in an expansion.

Eating 50 cards is certainly a bummer. Aside from that, I still like the premise. Ruinses are more interesting than Curses. I could see it being Ruinses from the start, no Curses.

Artifacts still sound fine, even though I wasn't happy with all the cards. I bet I could end up with 5 worth doing in the long run. Hexes are too complex, they are a top failed experiment. Overpay still seems fine; its key problem is, the cards end up crazy wordy. I revisited it with Hostelry. Potions loom as an especially disliked mechanic. I think they're fine, but there are sure a lot of players who don't like them, and I don't think it's just the other problems in Alchemy making Potions look bad.

What are your thoughts on Silver Mine? It's been mocked a lot as a bad Sculptor.

I remain happy to have done it. They can't all have a million words and require non-supply piles and do something no card has done that generates a dozen-page rules thread.

Now that some time has passed, what are your thoughts on the Loot pile in general? I think at this point, it's the least liked mechanic in Plunder?

Well done Donald X., slam dunk, amazing mechanic. Go listen to Tom Vasel rave about it. Everything can't be aimed at expert players. Even in the 15th expansion, where it's more reasonable to aim things at experts.

Innovation has some tricky rules around it, and yet there have been a lot of those effects recently (especially in 2022). Is this a mix of "we're already a bunch of expansions in" and "it's fun and popular"?

It's those things plus "what a great idea, why hadn't I done this years earlier." I mean I had it years earlier; it took until Innovation for it to stick.

What other wordings of Reckless were tried? I'd be most curious about finding a Flagship-like wording (with some parenthetical that stops infinite loops).

I can share all the printed wordings; it's too much work to look up all considered wordings.



There were always issues, problems any which way.

You've said that Rich is your least favorite thing in Plunder. When you were making the set, did you worry that the gameplay may resemble what you dislike about Lucky Coin?

Well, I didn't worry about that enough, or it wouldn't be in the set, but sure, that's basically the issue. Sometimes Rich is on a card you already wanted, and then you end up not getting to have as much fun with the board, at least unless your opponent cooperates with you (which the bot does not).

In your opinion, what expansion is the closest to "perfect"? (if this question is too hard to answer, just say Prosperity 2E)

Oops, missed this question.

Certainly revisiting the expansions pushes them way up. Man I dunno. I have the least amount of information about my mistakes in Plunder; it's looking pretty amazing. Allies is still looking great.

[Will(ow|iam)]

Have you ever tried reusing a Victory card mechanic, e.g. a version of gardens with a different cost and a different ratio of cards to points?

[Donald X.]

Have you ever tried reusing a Victory card mechanic, e.g. a version of gardens with a different cost and a different ratio of cards to points?

I've tried just slightly different things.

There's some room for new cards that are a different size of an old card, e.g. Pilgrim being a bigger Courtyard. Sometimes the change in size will be interesting enough. In general they are bound to be unexciting though.

[Will(ow|iam)]

Under what circumstances do you kill a combo?

[dz]

Under what circumstances do you kill a combo?

Let's run through some combos (no way I'm doing all of them lol):

Combos in the same set:
-Spell Scroll / Shaman (and/or Scrounge): both in the same set; reusing Spell Scroll forever sounds problematic, so it got killed
-Gamble / Stockpile: both in the same set; I you could argue that this combo is less likely to be relevant in multiplayer, but the problem here is Stockpile already being too strong
-Gamble / Village Green: both in the same set; this changed more because of rules, not power level
-Student / Fellowship of Scribes: both in the same set; not really problematic though

Combos across sets:
-Masterpiece / Guildhall: in different sets; not a concern
-Throne / Tactician: the thing here is, it's not just Tactician / one other specific card; it's Tactician / an entire archetype of cards, so it got changed
-Pursue / Patron: in different sets, but it trivially infinite loops; got errata'd
-Siren / a bunch of cards: if these combos ever get errata'd out, it'll be because they confuse people, not because of power level

[Donald X.]

Under what circumstances do you kill a combo?

When a card isn't out yet, the issues are:
- how often does it happen - more of an issue if 2 cards rather than 3, if within a set rather than spread across sets, if a card plus a category of card rather than specific cards
- how powerful is it
- how confusing is it
- do we catch it

When the cards are already out, there has to be a rules problem; power level isn't enough.

[GendoIkari]

When the cards are already out, there has to be a rules problem; power level isn't enough.

Is King's Court + Masquerade an exception to this? Or did you consider that a rules problem?

[Donald X.]

When the cards are already out, there has to be a rules problem; power level isn't enough.

Is King's Court + Masquerade an exception to this? Or did you consider that a rules problem?

I mean. Which is friendlier: the friendliest answer, or the most accurate answer? I try to be friendly, but some people crave accuracy.

I'll try again. In every case, there's everything to consider that there is to consider for that case, and I consider all the things I manage to, and I arrive at whatever decision I arrive at, or sometimes fail to. This has no exceptions except the ones I've missed. It doesn't tell you anything either, but hey, that's the price we pay sometimes.

KC + Masq was a very minor change that no-one would notice except if they knew about the combo. The change stopped people from preying on other people with it while having essentially no other effect on the game. I did not list these things in my answer to the other question though, you've got me there.

[Robledo]

Initially Embargo tokens and Coin tokens was used by only one card (Embargo and Pirate Ship)
In Prosperity VP tokens got used by 3 cards and with the 2nd Edition 4 cards, but Empires made VP tokens be used by more ~25 card (card+events+landscapes)
Coffers started with 4 cards until Renaissance...

So it's relatively common to see the increase of usage of a material...

I was thinking about the Ruins... It's a nice mechanics but used by only 3 cards... Could we see in a future some new use for them? In a Promo or in a new Expansion... I'm thinking to trying to make Cursers give Ruins instead! E.g. Witch: +2 cards, every other player gains a Ruins... Would it make the game unbalanced or "broken"?

P.S. I know designers don't comment on variants, it's just something that I'm willing to try and wish to know if it would make the game going to a direction not intended...

[GendoIkari]

There’s a pretty big difference between cards and tokens though. Using Ruins in a future set means having to use up 50 cards in that set to provide ruins, which is 4 other Kingdom cards that you aren’t getting. People who already have dark ages would be annoyed at buying a set where 10-20% of the cards are pointless extras. With tokens, you just throw a few extra tokens into a set for whatever extra production cost that is; it doesn’t replace other cards.

[Awaclus]

People who already have dark ages would be annoyed at buying a set where 10-20% of the cards are pointless extras.

People who don't read the rules would be super excited about getting to junk their opponent with 100 Ruinses instead of 50, though!

[Donald X.]

I was thinking about the Ruins... It's a nice mechanics but used by only 3 cards... Could we see in a future some new use for them? In a Promo or in a new Expansion... I'm thinking to trying to make Cursers give Ruins instead! E.g. Witch: +2 cards, every other player gains a Ruins... Would it make the game unbalanced or "broken"?

P.S. I know designers don't comment on variants, it's just something that I'm willing to try and wish to know if it would make the game going to a direction not intended...

The problem with doing more with them is that you need those 50 cards. I don't think it will ever be worth it to have another expansion include them. You can imagine a "treasure chest" expansion, full of cards that add to other expansions, without including the extra components from those expansions; I don't know if RGG would go for that though. I mean the idea of the extra cards for other expansions would be fine; it's not including the needed components that's the problem.

I don't mind people playing whatever variants they like. Obv. Ruinses do not hurt as much as Curses, so using Ruinses instead would change how powerful all of those cards are. But some of those cards are strong anyway.

[Udzu]

As far as I can tell, Donate is the only Event that affects a future (non-extra) turn without any method to track it: Delay, Inheritance, etc have an Action card; Ferry, Pathfinding, etc have a token. Is this an intentional precedent, or just a side effect of the 2022 errata? Is tracking here simply not an issue because of the price? Did you ever try adding other Duration-type "next turn" Events?

[GendoIkari]

Worth noting that Donate started out as "after this turn" instead of at the start of next turn. So it's a question about not the design of Donate itself, but of the choice of wording in the errata.

[Imrahil3]

As far as I can tell, Donate is the only Event that affects a future (non-extra) turn without any method to track it: Delay, Inheritance, etc have an Action card; Ferry, Pathfinding, etc have a token. Is this an intentional precedent, or just a side effect of the 2022 errata? Is tracking here simply not an issue because of the price? Did you ever try adding other Duration-type "next turn" Events?

I have a hunch there isn’t anything deeper going on than “This happened to be the best wording.”

[Donald X.]

As far as I can tell, Donate is the only Event that affects a future (non-extra) turn without any method to track it: Delay, Inheritance, etc have an Action card; Ferry, Pathfinding, etc have a token. Is this an intentional precedent, or just a side effect of the 2022 errata? Is tracking here simply not an issue because of the price? Did you ever try adding other Duration-type "next turn" Events?

My mission was to preserve the original Donate as well as possible while having a wording that worked. That's how it got that wording. It tends to be very memorable; no worries about forgetting it so far.

In general it is not great to have an Event that does something on a future turn, unless something specifically provides tracking. Summon affects your next turn, and the card you set aside provides the tracking there.

[Nukatha]

I've played Dominion on-and-off for years, and there is just one tiny little thing that bothers me about the game.
The Guilds flavor text description mentions specifically cheese graters cheesemaking, and cheese destruction, and yet there are no cheese or cheesemaker-themed cards in Guilds or any other set.
Shoemakers were also mentioned, and they finally got represented a few years later in Nocturne with the Cobbler card.
Will these long-hoped-for cheese-themed cards ever come to pass, in a forthcoming 2nd edition, as a promo or in a new set?
I think it would only brie a gouda thing.
Also, I love the prosperity 2nd edition update, thank you for making it.

[Donald X.]

I've played Dominion on-and-off for years, and there is just one tiny little thing that bothers me about the game.
The Guilds flavor text description mentions specifically cheese graters cheesemaking, and cheese destruction, and yet there are no cheese or cheesemaker-themed cards in Guilds or any other set.
Shoemakers were also mentioned, and they finally got represented a few years later in Nocturne with the Cobbler card.
Will these long-hoped-for cheese-themed cards ever come to pass, in a forthcoming 2nd edition, as a promo or in a new set?
I think it would only brie a gouda thing.
Also, I love the prosperity 2nd edition update, thank you for making it.

I'm there for you!

I couldn't include a cheese maker back when, due to lactose intolerance. These days I've learned that cheese loses lactose as it ages; cheese two years old or older is fine. So a cheese maker in Guilds would be fine now, but for any new expansion, it's still an issue: for a while it would be too new.

I'd recommend a substitute, but there really is no substitute for cheese.

[spheremonk]

Donald X, Is there any reason you haven't posted on the forum in a couple of months?

[Donald X.]

Donald X, Is there any reason you haven't posted on the forum in a couple of months?

Just a lack of things I felt I should respond to. I still check the forums every day. Most of the current online Dominion traffic is on the discord though, and the (currently down) reddit is a distant second.

[Joshua]

 Hello, any updates on the new promo card named Farm iirc?

[Wizard_Amul]

Hello, any updates on the new promo card named Farm iirc?

See this thread: https://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=21686.0

[Donald X.]

Hello, any updates on the new promo card named Farm iirc?

I have no update, for either the German version or English version.