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Remarks on an upcoming change and some other things that should happen.

Personofsecrets
Personofsecrets
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It seems as though that a few of my posts about the DOUBLE CHIMERA card generation that could occur with the Druid King Patron have been seen and responded to by development.
Gameplay
Druid King
Fixed a rare issue where the Druid King could give you two Chimeras in one turn.

I actually liked the double chimera, so maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about it. I probably benefited more from it than anyone else, so maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about it. That all said, what I wrote in the past was true...

It has never been clear how the Druid King chimera summoning should work.

In an attempt to turn Dusk Beatles into Dusk Wine, I'll use this upcoming change to suggest to development a few things about effect clarity.

First and foremost, it seems as though Druid King works the way it currently does because it is doing what software does best and taking things literally. The number of things in card games which would be thrown out of loop if taken literally would be enough to get to the two moons and back... As much as I'm jumpin for Lorkhan, my preference is for game rules to be explicit, short, and easy to understand.

When you read the Druid King, it seems that the intention was to have it have a changing combo number for the chimera based on it's position. That said, this type of thing was conveyed by the Druid King having different effects that can trigger based on different criteria. And I think that explains why, sometimes, multiple chimeras can be received.

My evaluation of the Patron is that there is no easy way to word the Druid King to convey to players that what the Druid King does ISN'T multiple different effects. And we can be fairly certain that the designers will not add complicated rules text so that players understand the position of the Druid King to be a static type of thing that changes combo number rather than multiple different effects that are triggered by changing positions. They are also sort of in the corner with this one. They can't just write "once per turn" in the Patron text because it is already assumed within the "combo" system that a combo only happens once when its combo number is achieved.

It's important for effects to not be fuzzy so that players such as myself don't get these expectations about how things should work and shouldn't work based on what we experience. There have been a number of things that are fuzzy in this game, things that I've commented on, and things that have been improved. But again, how is Druid King fuzziness fixed? I doubt that it can be. All the designers will do is make it work in accordance with their vision of what it should do. It's sort of funny that the software decided that it should do something else.

Anyhow, as mentioned, there are plenty of fuzzy things in the game and there are several more that I would like an improvement on.

Again, i will hammer on Delmene. Delmene should state that in play cards can also be sacrificed. It explicity states that cards from the played cards pile are approrpriate costs for it's effect. This is a really easy wording update. I'm flummoxed that this Patron can continue to read incorrectly after so long. Should Delmene accept agents as tribute? If yes, then fix his wording.

I'd also like to point out that Contract cards seem to count for Sorcerer-King's effect. His effect too isn't clear because it states that it's looking for cards that a player "owns." We "own" contracts? That doesn't make sense. According to Sorcerer-King though, it seems like we do "own" contract cards. So keep that in mind. It's also the case that counting cards is confusing because the card detail chart that shows up when hovering over the draw deck is a culmination of cards that are both in the deck AND hand. Again, that doesn't really make any sense. And when dealing with any game state that cares about the number of cards left in the deck, the game is slowed down while I sit around and count. I get the total number of cards in the deck by adding up the cards from each class shown in the hover chart, I then add the number of cards in my hand, and I then subtract the number of cards in my hand from the number of cards in my deck. I'm not in grade school. I don't need to learn to count. Fix the various menus so that the number of cards that one has in the different zones is obvious. How that applies to Sorcerer-King is because he cares about the number of cards people have. How many players double count because the different menues aren't clear? Just say, RIGHT ON THE PATRON, how many points of power that using it is currently worth. You all strive for clarity in so many other parts of the game. Why not here too? That's a real question. Think about it. How many times have you changed Sorcerer-King cards? It is one of the classes with the most number of changes. It is the Patron with the most number of changes. And you haven't thought for him to just say how much power that he's going to make. Why is it a mystery math adventure exercise?

And speaking of the cards in deck menu, let's discuss Psijic cards for a moment... Why do some Psijic cards cause the cards in deck menu to no longer be viewable. There are some game states where it is absolutely crucial to know how many cards remain in the deck before deciding which cards to scry away. Of course, players can always count their cards BEFORE using a Psijic card, but that is sort of tedious and it is better to be able to access public information at any time during the game. Why is public information sometimes hidden? The exact thing that happens is that when one play most Psijic cards, one is shown the top cards of their deck for scrying. Before making scrying choices, it is possible to hide that scrying menu and look at the game. This is a normal built in feature. Sometimes, when one is looking at the game, one is able to hover over the deck and view the pop-up menu that shows the number of different cards left in the deck. Where the problem lies is that sometimes, after hiding the scrying menu and hovering over the deck, that deck menu doesn't show up. I don't know why, when scrying, sometimes the menu can be revealed and sometimes it can't be. What also makes this issue seem like a bug is that one time, when the menu wasn't showing up, it did seem like there was a pixel where the menu quickly popped up before going away again. I couldn't find the pixel again So I don't know what is causing the improper hiding of the scrying menu such that viewing the cards in deck menu sometimes becomes impossible, but the issue should be resolved. Please, fix this one. Public infomration should always be public.

There are a few other things going on in the game and I get it, it's hard. Why are their duplicate cards all of the time? I get it, hard issue to resolve. Why do patch notes keep getting missed for TOT? I get it, things are hard. It takes alot of time and energy to do all of this.

You know, I'm actually really disappointed by the overall reaction to the next update. I fully understand that there are reasons that things happen. Not everything can be perfect. We could all stand to be just a little more excited for the things that we already have. I guess that you can take it as a complement that you've done so much for a long period of time that people began to feel entitled to you doing alot. And the way I'm writing this sort of comes with the insinuation that the housing changes aren't huge. I don't mean to insinuate that because I tend to think that it's a big update that is going unappreciated.

Take what I write here as a complement too. While there are some game problems that I will absolutely not give a pass on such as some of the balances issues, for the most part there have been a number of steady improvements in TOT (especially if we ignore Mora!). I get that rewording things comes with it's own difficulties. Changing the menus, I'm sure is a small to medium challenge. I only get to talk about these types of things here because a number of other aspects of TOT have gone well. It just so happens to be the case that what you can achieve is very high. So keep at it. I'm sure that you already have some ideas for the above mentioned issues by the time you get to this sentence. I know that you can do it and I can even say thanks for figuring out the Druid King thing. Sure, I liked it, but I like better knowing how it's meant to be.
Edited by ZOS_Kevin on November 7, 2024 10:34AM
Don't tank

"In future content we will probably adjust this model somewhat (The BOP model). It's definitely nice to be able to find a cool item that you don't need and trade it to someone who can't wait to get their hands on it." - Wrobel
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