At the end of last January, I documented a number of "tips and tricks" regarding TOT. One of them was regarding selection process of some Ansei cards. Another tip had an example of how not to accidentally destroy the wrong card when using a card destroying selection effect.

I've discovered a change to how the Treasury works and it seems to have been undocumented in the most recent patch notes. In the past, one could get rid of cards from their hand or played cards pile with the treasury. Now it seems to only be the case that cards from the played cards pile may be destroyed with the Treasury. And yes, the Treasury button says as much.

This all got me thinking. Allthough I obviously can't say that these changes happened because I wrote about some of the absurdities of TOT MAXING, it does seems to be the case that development is taking these quality of life issues seriously. Do note, I think that these changes do remove skill from the game. Even after talking to players that would be number one on the leaderboard for signifigant amounts of time, I learned that they didn't know about the interactions that I provided instruction for.

From my experience, it's almost always the case that changes to games are made in order for the game to be more "accessible" to all players and especially new players. It's almost always the case that these changes diminish a skill component or the overall skill required to play the game. And that's interesting.

It's interesting because it may also explain why we don't see certain balance changes. These types of QOL changes can be easy for designers to see, pickup on, and change because they were sort of hidden. They were built into a layer of the game that people, including the designers, haven't necessarily thought about much. When it comes to something like Pounce and Profit or Grand Larceny or any of the other turn one purchasable cards that generate too much gold or crow in general, these game pieces are the way they are because the designers clearly of an ideological position that can't be changed.

Poor balance makes the game more accessible to all kinds of players. Players might not realize the advantage that they are getting. Some players don't realize so much that they don't even buy the busted cards. But it is an advantage nonetheless, spoonfed to players by design, and that is the whole purpose.

Anyhow, just food for thought. I don't necessarily care too much about the QOL changes. It was sort of nice being able to use knowledge of how they originally worked to my advantage, but oh well.