#Seals and Enhancements could be more Consistent

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

mystic seal
#

Specifically, I think it might be a good idea to change the effect of Gold Cards to Gold Seals and vice versa, and the same with Steel Cards and Red Seals. While this might be confusing at first, it makes a clear distinction that Enhancements want to be played, while Seals want to be in your hand

heady cypress
#

I like there being more of a mix.

mystic seal
#

why?

sonic vault
#

Gold cards and gold seals are the way they are for balance, too

#

That aside, I like the variety, it’s more interesting decisions

mystic seal
sonic vault
#

Seals are more rare than enhancements, and thus are more powerful on average. Gold cards are restricted by hand size and only pay out once per round, while you can play as many gold seals as you have hands*5

If their activation times were swapped, they’d have to have their values changed as well. Gold cards would give less money, which could be fine, but gold seals would have to give a lot more to be worth taking over a different seal, which would be swingy and not great for the game

mystic seal
#

that makes a lot more sense than the whole "variety is interesting" argument, which was pretty nebulous and kinda weird, cause it's not like variety somehow stops existing if the effects are swapped

#

i guess another interesting thing is Gold and Red Seals also can be put on cards with Enhancements that want to be played

#

While Blue Seals can be put on Enhancements that want to be kept in hand (Gold, Steel)

elder stump
#

red can also be put on gold and steel to retrigger them from your held hand

mystic seal
#

but i do think that it's important to note that this adds a level of complexity overhead, in a sense you're spending complexity in some way, that makes it less intuitive and harder to grasp

#

i'm sure everyone here is at this point very familiar with the game, but it is something to consider

vagrant lotus
#

I don’t really see where you’re coming from when you say it’s complex. The game as a whole is honestly pretty simple on its face and the systems are fairly consistent.

Metal cards trigger from hand, others trigger when the card is scored. Cards do exactly what they say they do and the semantic accuracy is about as good as it gets while staying concise.

The only gripe I have with the semantics of Balatro is the distinction between playing and scoring with respect to how some jokers trigger, but even then it’s mostly a me issue.

Finally, the easiest way to nuke this idea from orbit is how much better gold seals are than gold cards which is why the seals deserve the rarity they have. Making their effect more common would ravage the current econ balance.

mystic seal
#

but you're right that the game is overall very simple so this might be an okay spending of complexity