Guest posts by RoKetha

61

General Discussion / Is the whole upgrade system just a bad idea to begin with?

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

Okay, not necessarily every card. If you're playing cards like Sundial, Nova, or any of the dragons, there's a legitimate argument for not upgrading them even if you can. There's also a legitimate argument for upgrading them. If Jon wants to be the absolute best at the game, he'll try both versions of Sundial and see which is better for his deck. On the other hand, if Mike doesn't care enough to hunt Gods all day, he can still play with just the regular Sundial without being at a serious disadvantage. Both Jon and Mike are satisfied with their Sundials.

Every card in the game should be like that.

Granted, it'd take a lot of effort to tweak almost half the cards in the game, but it's worth it if you want to appease both the hardcore and casual fans.

I touched on this in an earlier post, but yes, this is what I was getting at. There's potential in a system that saves developer time by allowing players to "tweak" their cards to serve a slightly different role, and I'd support a system like that if it wasn't tied to god farming (the other bad parts of the current system are the costs of the cards, and the fact that the gods aren't just well-equipped and clever, but actually cheat--so the player is forced to rely on abuse of game mechanics rather than true strategy). But essentially splitting the game into two systems, one of upgrades and one of base cards, while the game is still in its early stages is going to end up making it hell to balance (clearly if a card is balanced before an upgrade, and the upgrade is purely better, it can no longer be balanced) and doesn't really add any more deck combinations other than insofar as it just lowers the cost of everything so Rainbow can do whatever it wants without having quanta issues even more than it already could.

62

Game Suggestions and Feedback / hand size

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

It wouldn't matter for Rainbow at all. AIs always play cards as soon as they can unless it would do nothing or have less than a certain effect; for example, they won't play Rain of Fire on a single monster (or at least I haven't seen it). And they always play cards before using hourglasses.

So Rainbow likes to draw, play, hourglass, play, hourglass anyway and never is restricted by the 8 card limit. This might change a tiny bit if the guy didn't get 60 quanta every time he plays a pillar due to the QT glitch, but I doubt it would make a big difference.

63

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Bone Wall Block Selection

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

I thought it was just that creatures attack in the order they entered play...

64

Game Suggestions and Feedback / 30 card minimum only enforced when starting a game

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

Solution: make the game only save your deck when you leave the Bazaar and Manage Deck screens and return to the main menu with 30 or more cards. While you're in there it doesn't save at all.

When you tried to leave, it could ask if you'd like to save changes, revert your deck/cards/coins, or go back if you had 30+ cards, and only give the revert and go back options if you didn't. That's not particularly hard to program either.

Heck, adding a prompt to revert back to the deck, cards and coins you had before you entered the Bazaar/Manage Deck screens would probably be a generally nice thing anyway. The Bazaar and Manage Deck screens look so alike I accidentally sell cards I just bought all the time (all it takes is a single click), and it's only a matter of time before I accidentally sell a rare (actually it already happened with that Water creature with Freeze...).

65

Deck Help / Help with my Mono-Gravity Stall Deck?

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

You deck is really weak to momentum, ironically. Also, gravity shield doesn't stop half the dragons. Mono-time would have a field day with this, now that I think about it, since Devonian Dragons and Eternity are exactly the two things this deck does not want to see together.

Get used to using Gravity Pull for offense; if Dragons appear on the field, they'll wipe everything using Gravity Pull quickly and then half of them can get past your shield; even if they can't you're out of defense for weaker creatures. It would be very helpful if you added Momentums at the least to get your Otys to higher HP; they need to be able to cover the 5 HP dragons.

Dunno what you mean by "Gravity Shield stops FFQ" as credit for that goes to Otys; Fireflies only have 2 HP, and Otys eat Rustlers if it's that version of FFQ.

You should really add Chargers, as mentioned, because otherwise total defense shields will outlast you every time.

This deck is also really weak to the Procrastination and Ice shields, though they aren't particularly common.

66

Life / Mono-life Aggro Deck

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

I've always wondered this: Photosynthesis is 2:1 for energy, so if you've got upgrades can't you theoretically run any mono-life deck with light pillars and upgraded rustlers (keeping the mark of life) and actually end up with a more effective deck?

Yeah, you do have to get a leaf dragon (rustler) to start playing you real cards, but you could make due with fewer pillars and you can even use upgraded sundials for haste to even it out. You're weak to creature control anyway, might as well try making it faster?

67

Card Ideas and Art / Nerf Bonewall

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm »

Stealing Bone Wall actually is more effective than you'd think if they've played Sundial... because anything they kill will fuel your Bone Wall too. Depending on your deck type it can work in your favor, like if you think you can get out creatures faster than they can.

Bone Wall really should only block the first 5 damage per bone or something though, so it doesn't take a weenie army to kill it that's totally susceptible to mass death.

68

False Gods / Quick Tip: Morte and Miracle

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm »

I've found that the key in Scaredgirl's decks is to beating Miracles (the cards, not just the opponent) is to try to hold a Parallel Universe or two until they get to a point where they would barely live after your turn. Then you use those cards to dramatically increase your attack power in one turn to the point where you kill the opponent on that turn.

If you're using the Scarab deck, for Miracle, it helps if you have your highest attack scarab start eating the others to lower the damage you do while simultaneously concentrating more attack power into one unit right before his HP gets to that critical point. It's tricky; sometimes you're even better going for broke and drawing your last few cards quickly if you know there's going to be too many Miracles before you win otherwise.

69

Rainbow Decks / Scaredgirl's Scarab Scavengers

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm »

p.s. thanks for the link to Hypergeometric Calculator. It's pretty awesome

Hypergeometic... calculator...?

*scrolls down farther on the page*

How the hell did I not see this? I only went as far as the formula.

Wow... I wasted so much time with Windows Calculator and goofed up anyway. Think that 80% should be 50% because I mistakenly calculated ₆C₄ as 30 instead of 15.

Edit: I'm playing this deck completely unupgraded and I've beaten Miracle and Gemini so far, both with mastery, yet to win any cards though. I picked Eternity as my weapon and it's a huge help in the late-game against the gods that don't attack permanents. Stops me from decking for a long time (though not forever, since you have to pay 5 quanta a turn) and makes it far less scary when your own 8/31 scarab gets duplicated, though Owl's Eye works there too.

Scorpio just seems absolutely impossible with this deck unupgraded though, even with Miracle, because you can't stall him at all.  I normally end up with 8 poison or so by the end of his second turn. Upgraded might be a little different since you can play cards on your first turn. I did manage to lock Rainbow down twice which was cool, though I lost by decking since I didn't have Eternity that time, I was forced to draw quickly to keep up, and he Miracle'd... Rainbow is just a jackass like that.

70

Rainbow Decks / Scaredgirl's Scarab Scavengers

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm »

Now that Sundials always last 2 turns even if you haste, do you think all four Bone Walls are still needed? Also, this is indeed better with Miracle and another armor; Miracle isn't often used due to each Sundial eating 2 light quanta, but it still is a lifesaver a lot of the time, and the armor usually makes it much faster, to the point where one might consider even using four of them; you have literally no other use for Earth after all.

Also, this is a fun deck for competitive play...er, PvP, but one thing concerns me: this deck is way, way too vulnerable to decking out, creature damage, or decks with simple healing when done by an actual player, because real players don't throw every single low-HP creature they get onto the field when they first see Scarabs. That's ignoring the obvious problems with mono-aether and Anubis, but I don't think you mean to make this a counter-all with an identity crisis. I'm well aware this is more anti-gods than anything but you seem to be clever enough to make a PvP variation of this.

Scarabs and parallel universe are your only attacking methods in the deck. You only have three of the latter and the high play cost generally limits then to mid-late game. If your opponent holds, say, a simple Rain of Fire, that forces you to save up at least 4 scarabs and an Armor; even if you play a scarab earlier with armor, it becomes the only creature on your side with not enough HP for a head start on eating. But here's the thing: the odds of having 4 scarabs after even TWENTY-FIVE cards in your 43-card deck is only ~80%; in other worlds you are entering the point of desperation about 20% of the time because you don't have any damage being dealt, permanent creature control (sundials this late would almost guarantee decking yourself) or healing.* So that leaves you with only 15-20 turns to do 100 damage with base 2 or 3 attack creatures, through healing, creature damage, reverse time, and so on; the AI is a total idiot and feeds your scarabs everything it can, but a player can just react to this and stop playing creatures until he gets creature damage cards, put up a couple shields (if they have more than one shield and one weapon you are generally screwed with only two steals) and sit there until you lose; this doesn't require a lot of deck specialization either. If they have Miracle you have no chance.

*You want to calculate this yourself? It's a hypergeometric distribution. Go here (http://stattrek.com/Lesson2/Hypergeometric.aspx?Tutorial=Stat) and have fun, remember to add the chance of getting 5 or 6 scarabs too because I forgot to do that the first time.

So can you make this a bit faster for PvP you think? There's a lot less emphasis on stalling in the first few turns there so that could change how you need to structure it. You could probably get away with fewer Bone Walls, maybe 2 Bone Walls would probably cut it, perhaps drop a Bond, maybe work in a weapon as well; I can see Owl's Eye working fairly well with this as the deck uses no Air and it gives tougher creatures a delicious zesty -3 HP garnish that makes them oh-so-edible by your scarabs, and there's no need to play it if you believe your opponent plans to use Steal.

71

General Discussion / Things that make Rainbow decks overpowered, solutions.

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm »

Protect Artifact only costs 1 quantum and completely shuts down Earthquake against Rainbow, but doesn't work as well for any deck that uses more than one type of pillar. Rainbow also has supernovas a lot of the time. Early Earthquakes destroy every element but Darkness w/ Devourers; it's not a disadvantage for Rainbow at all.

72

General Discussion / Is the whole upgrade system just a bad idea to begin with?

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm »

I've yet to see a reason in this topic why the system is actually a good idea.

So far I see:
"I spent a week upgrading my deck, so everyone else should have to"
"Grinding keeps people busy" -- So does having a fun, competitive game, it's just now you have to grind to get there first. Eventually I assume you might be able to grind for rare balanced but extremely helpful cards instead of this.
"You don't need upgrades to beat the upgrades, just a specific hard counter to (one or two deck types/the AI) that totally destroys any freedom with making your deck and is worthless if you don't have the luck to face that deck type"
"PvP is flawed anyway, why fix the rest of the game?"

I see nothing about promoting deck variety any more than making one set of cards the only set. I see nothing about giving the game more appeal in the long run, only adding another week of grinding before reaching essentially the same point. I certainly don't see how it promotes deck variety or original strategies other than making half the stuff in the game come with almost no cost to play, and most importantly I don't see how it's attractive to new players.

Perhaps upgrades could be a cool idea, but if so they'd need to completely split people with them off from people who want to actually deal with things like balanced quantum costs, since upgraded decks generally make it so easy to fund anything you want to do unless you face earthquake it's kind of dumb. Or perhaps things just cost too much unupgraded; hard to tell. But I've seen fire dragons enter play before my first turn came, fire tower + photon + cremation got him 10 quanta, so I automatically took 24 damage from that alone with no serious way to counter without upgrades. You see tons of first-turn creatures in general.

I mean, the upgraded pillars alone are so much better it's stupid. Almost all the upgrades are at least two of these: more cost-efficient, faster to play, hit harder, harder to kill. Less than a third actually have a downside. There's potential with Sundials having a different essential function when upgraded, with dragons costing more, with Mind Flayers gaining HP but at a higher cost. There isn't anything positive if you think of this as what it is, a multiplayer CARD GAME, not an MMO or God Killer Grindfest 2010, about suddenly making every Skeleton you generate have 4/4 with no downside, or your Fire Bolts cost 1/3 as much. I don't quite get the point of absolutely forcing players to build a deck that abuses Sundials and shields, fighting the fake gods over and over until they get a lucky draw against an easy one and then win that small chance of a card, just to be able to have cards that are considered standard.

Don't say there's any real strategy involved in beating the gods without upgrades, because there isn't. It's Sundials/Phase Shields/Bone Walls/Gravity Shields or you automatically lose, and you just have to be lucky from there. Forget any kind of denial. Forget dragons other than the broken Phase Dragons, forget clever use of spells besides Parallel Universe and Steal. You play Sundials and shields and either PU, FFQ, or buffs + Consume (which is just AI abuse anyway) and you hope for good draws.