DECKS

[toxic flare]

🧵

[reef sphinx]

I never use red deck, there just doesn't seem to be as much advantage in it as there is in the others

i really just flip between yellow and abandoned

[pastel heath]

Same ^ with 5 antes to get the build running that $10 head start is very meaningful.

[steel turtle]

I almost exclusively use yellow so I can max interest early and then buy whatever I need/want

Mostly a function of the short demo though for sure, don't have much time to build up interest otherwise

[zealous sail]

Yellow feels much better to me, tbh. Being able to snatch early good jokers is so nice, and so is being able to start the ramping progression early

The interest is one of those things that getting to max is hard but once you're there you no longer have to worry about money for the most part

I think yellow is the best rn but I feel all three decks are in a good spot. Abandoned has a solid niche and is very fun, Yellow is strong and powerful but not broken and Red is a very nice basic deck and set of training wheels

[steel turtle]

Yeah I don't think they need to be "balanced", it's 100% okay for decks to vary in power

They serve different functions

[zealous sail]

There's gonna be a best deck. It's impossible to balance a game with as much variance as this and not have a best deck; something has to get on top

And I'm happy that the best deck rn is one that just gives you more money and more options rather than one that funnels you towards a specific option

Having stuff like "this is the ace high deck!" is very cool and awesome but I wouldn't want a deck like that being the best strategy; I'm happy we have the yellow deck be the best

[toxic flare]

Definitely not going to have the decks all balanced, but hoping for the same ballpark. The Stake system being per-deck means that some being harder is more feature than bug imo

[zealous sail]

I 100% think they are in the same ballpark; I think you did succeed at that

[steel turtle]

Yeah def in the same ballpark just the winner for me. I also definitely agree that I'm glad the "best" deck is "boring" and very adaptable

[steel turtle]

Will the stake system have different effects based on deck? For example, stake system on yellow deck changing starting money, or the abandoned deck starting with even fewer cards putting it at risk of hitting the end of the deck. On top of standard "common" effects like ante scaling ofc

Or does each level apply the same changes on every deck

[zealous sail]

I feel like a completely different stake on every level for every deck would get confusing, messy and a nightmare to balance. I do think that having 1 or 2 levels where it's deck-dependent would be awesome and manageable tho

[spice briar]

i personally don't choose favorites based on power, but i chose yellow deck because of the early flexibility. i can choose to build interest or buy things, and on top of being given more interesting choices, i also never have to pass on those cool special edition jokers :3

[leaden hill]

I like the abandoned deck for its consistency

[spice briar]

poor red deck lmao

[toxic flare]

I voted for it out of pity 🙂

[modern elbow]

One day face synergy will be real

yellow deck for face believers

[lone trout]

Yellow deck for money believers

[toxic flare]

I should make a poll or start a discussion about it, I have a system set up and a bunch of fun options but they are all very general so they wouldn't need to apply per-deck

For example, one that I thought might be interesting is if 1 of the first 3 jokers you buy during your run is 'eternal' (can't be sold or destroyed). Obviously faster ante scaling is used, but was also thinking about smaller hand size, fewer hands, less money from blinds

[steel turtle]

I can see an argument for doing it either way tbh, if it's the same for every deck then they are up against a "common difficulty" so it's easier to feel a difference in strength and it keeps similar consistency like the blinds/antes which don't change per deck. But also the deck specific mechanics are "levers" that can be messed with as the stakes rise

[toxic flare]

If there are 10 stakes (for example) then that is 150 different implementations for all the decks - which isn't great for me but also doesn't seem great for the player

[steel turtle]

Yeah it's more scalable if the changes are common

[toxic flare]

I think the difficulty settings being the same might be fun to compare decks too

[steel turtle]

And the players know what to expect

Yeah I agree

I just didn't know which way you were going lol

[spice briar]

i could see it being flavorful to have 1 deck-specialized stake effect

[toxic flare]

Yeah as like a final stake maybe, no ride the bus on Abandoned deck

[spice briar]

lol

[steel turtle]

That's not a bad idea tbh

[spice briar]

could be any of the stakes i think, except maybe the first, for the ease of new players

[zealous sail]

You could make it so only 1 or 2 stakes are unique per deck. So every deck has a unique 5 stake and a unique 10 stake:
Red: 5, blinds get 1.1x times bigger. 10, you gain -1 hand per blind.
Yellow: 5, idk. 10, blinds don't give reward money when defeated (all money must be jokers, remaining hands or interest essentially)
Abandoned: 5: You lose the 8 of hearts. 10: You lose all aces.

Stakes 1-4 and 6-9 are identical to all decks, in this example

Having specific stakes that interact with the deck's gimmick and help push the gameplay in that aspect or provide additional challanges regarding to the deck's gimmick would be very awesome, and not too hard to design. 2 stakes per deck, 15 decks, that's just 30 decks - and most of them is easy to make by just directly tying to that deck's mechanic

[tame wedge]

Plant being an auto boss in the demo really pushes me towards the abandoned

[uneven crest]

In a little more evil would be Ant 5: add 8 face cards and
Ant 10: fill your deck Ramdom face cards until you have 52 (1/3 ofa chance to be a enhanced non-face card)