Zodiac Consumables

[lucid bobcat]

These would be very similar to the 10 planetary cards but instead they would upgrade the ranks of playing cards:

Capricorn: Add +10 chips to all 2 rank cards.
Aquarius: Add +10 chips to all 3 rank cards.
Pisces: Add +10 chips to all 4 rank cards.
Aries: Add +10 chips to all 5 rank cards.
Taurus: Add +10 chips to all 6 rank cards.
Gemini: Add +10 chips to all 7 rank cards.
Cancer: Add +10 chips to all 8 rank cards.
Leo: Add +10 chips to all 9 rank cards.
Virgo: Add +10 chips to all 10 rank cards.
Libra: Add +10 chips to all J rank cards.
Scorpio: Add +10 chips to all Q rank cards.
Sagittarius: Add +10 chips to all K rank cards.
Ophiuchus: Add +10 chips to all A rank cards.

These are all based on their order across the calendar, with an exception to Ophiuchus since that's being used the "unknown" zodiac sign since Aces are kind of difficult to pin down as well

It wouldn't be anything like the Planet X or dwarf planets though

Idk if adding 10 chips each time is a fair amount either being more or less than it should, but idk just a concept

[subtle kraken]

kinda reduces the value of hiker imo

[lucid bobcat]

Well yeah

[lucid bobcat]

But you could also argue that planet cards reduce the value of space joker

So...

[atomic bluff]

Blue seals absolutely reduce the value of space joker though

[naive acorn]

Would these values affect cards you haven’t yet picked up?

[atomic bluff]

I think this idea is decent, but a bit underwhelming early game and falls off pretty quickly. If it takes up consumable slots in the shop then it's really weak and takes the place of better things. These do encourage big hands at least, but other than that I don't like them that much ngl

Cause why would I take one of these over just taking a Mars card and getting +30 chips and +3 mult on all my Four of a Kinds vs getting only +40 chips on a single rank Four of a Kind (I know it works with retriggers, but the point still stands)

This is also extremely bad for small hands like Pair since you only get 20 chips for a single rank, and it's unusable on Straights and Flushes so this really is only a 4oak/full house modifier

[lucid bobcat]

Yeah

[lucid bobcat]

Is there a way it could perhaps be improved?

Like maybe if it gave +20 chips instead or something idk

[naive acorn]

Maybe +50% chips exponentially

[lucid bobcat]

What does that mean

[naive acorn]

So 8 -> 12 -> 18 -> 27 etc

[lucid bobcat]

Hmm...

[naive acorn]

x1.5 chips every time

[lucid bobcat]

That could be interesting

[naive acorn]

And you can have it round up or down; doesn’t matter a whole lot

[torn snow]

If we are implementing this, we need vouchers for it!

[lucid bobcat]

That's true

There'd have to be one based around the idea of "Astro Packs always contain the Zodiac card for the playing card with the most copies"

[naive acorn]

Meh

Should be the opposite

Or I guess- not opposite

But it should be guaranteed to give you the lowest played number or lowest chip amount card

[wind phoenix]

I think this is a cool idea, and made a card for it

[lucid bobcat]

Yo nice

[wind phoenix]

I do agree that +10 chips per card could kind of be useless in the late game. Perhaps they could start at +5 chips but increase by like 3 every time you use one

[lucid bobcat]

That could work too

[lucid bobcat]

Man now I wanna see one of these for all of them lmao

[wind phoenix]

I could try but it would probably take a while lol

[lucid bobcat]

You should probably add a number on them too that would signify which rank it increases too

Like maybe add a 6 below the name Scorpio

[wind phoenix]

I put a Q at the top

[lucid bobcat]

Yeah that's true

But celestial cards have the hand it increases at the bottom of it so that's where my thought process was

Can't get over how good this pixel art is lol

Only complaint is that the legs look a little weird

Or actually maybe it's just that the arms and the legs kinda weirdly blend together visually

It looks pretty fine actually in that regard now that I look closer

[wind phoenix]

Thanks

[wind phoenix]

I also had an idea for a related Joker

Horoscope Uncommon after you play a hand that contains only (X) rank cards, get the Zodiac card for that rank. Changes each round

[lucid bobcat]

I like that

Maybe the Zodiac equivalent of the black hole could be called the Midheaven, and the design could just be a bunch of stars and constellations or something

You'd also have vouchers as well

[wind phoenix]

2/13

[lucid bobcat]

That looks very good

[wind phoenix]

Thanks!

[lucid bobcat]

One thing you should add is that maybe you could have a thing kind of like how the planet cards have a highlighted planet on the top of them

It's a bit late now but maybe you could have had 13 stars up there and then mark the one on there based on the number

But this still looks really nice and official

[wind phoenix]

👍

I'm thinking of making the Voucher an Astrolabe

But that would be insanely hard to draw

[lucid bobcat]

That could be cool

What would be the secondary voucher for that though

I'm also thinking maybe one of the vouchers related to zodiacs could be called like a "Stellar Pencil" since it draws lines in constellations

Or you could simply do vouchers called like Big Dipper and Bigger Dipper

[wind phoenix]

Maybe the Astrolabe could be secondary voucher

and the primary could be a sextant

[lucid bobcat]

That could work

[wind phoenix]

Done

Probably last one I'll do today

[rocky pewter]

There's some interesting joker ideas to be found here

[lucid bobcat]

Yoooo nice

[lucid bobcat]

Hell yeah

[tidal rampart]

The original idea for Balatro actually had you level up cards, LocalThunk then opted instead for Jokers.

Something like this isn't really that far fetched at all. Maybe 10 chips is too much.

But considering these must be quite rare packs, it's probably fine.

[lucid bobcat]

Yeah I think this would be better

[tidal rampart]

Not that useless. Chips are additive. It's no better than grabbing a pack and getting +3 mult on a hand type.

Having a source of +10 chips on something isn't bad at all, since you can't multiply their score unlike Mult

[lucid bobcat]

True

[tidal rampart]

Heck, maybe I'd even push it to +20 chips

So if you find one of these, you REALLY gotta decide what to do.

[wind phoenix]

Well I was thinking they would be more like Planet cards

[lucid bobcat]

Yeah me too

[wind phoenix]

Quite common and with a lot of Jokers that have related effects

[lucid bobcat]

And I chose +10 because you could still see the normal number of the value after the 10

For example 7 would become 17

[tidal rampart]

I was thinking these could be what Spectrals are to Arcana packs.

[turbid garden]

maybe mult

[tidal rampart]

Not as common, but more powerful.

[lucid bobcat]

Actually

Now that you mention that

Maybe zodiac cards could just have a chance of popping up in celestial packs

Since Zodiac signs are based on the alignment of planets and such anyways

[tidal rampart]

There could be a voucher.

Astrologian: Makes Zodiac packs appear in the shop

[wind phoenix]

Anyway if I get around to modding them in I'll probably do it like I said

Common but slightly weaker

[tidal rampart]

Tarot Spread: Makes Zodiac cards appear in planet packs

[wind phoenix]

The vouchers were going to be "Sextant: Cosmic Packs always contain the Zodiac card for your most recently played hand that contains only one rank"

[lucid bobcat]

Syzygy: Zodiac cards can be found in celestial packs

And then the upgrade of that would be...

[wind phoenix]

and "Astrolabe: Each Zodiac level also gives x1.05 Chips when scored"

xChips I know

but I was balancing it around being a mod rather than vanilla

[lucid bobcat]

That's fair

[tidal rampart]

Well if you're making this a mod, you're free to come up with ideas as you see ift.

[wind phoenix]

From a suggestion standpoint it's probably safer to go with yours

[lucid bobcat]

I agree

Question what is Ophiuchus's symbol supposed to be

I thought it was gonna be a guy holding a snake

[wind phoenix]

Oh lol

[lucid bobcat]

Is it a flag?

[tidal rampart]

if you're going the whole way, you could also add a 14th rare card.

[wind phoenix]

I found this card while looking something else up

[tidal rampart]

"Turns a card into a Cosmic card"

[wind phoenix]

Its the Ace of Swords from Portugal I think

[lucid bobcat]

Oh

That's cool

[wind phoenix]

And since its an Ace and a Dragon I referenced it

[lucid bobcat]

Idk how fitting that is for a zodiac symbol but it's a snake so whatever

[tidal rampart]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus_(astrology)?useskin=vector

There's also Cetus as a 14th.

[wind phoenix]

I also didnt want to do another guy holding a snake since I made the Black Hole equivalent that

[lucid bobcat]

I see

[wind phoenix]

I guess I could have done that but I hadnt heard of it when I was making the Hydra card

[tidal rampart]

Ophiuchus is more widely recognied as the 13th sign.

[lucid bobcat]

I do like the idea that other constellations act as the other ones

[wind phoenix]

also since Hydra's the largest constellation I wanted to add it in some way

[tidal rampart]

Also Hydra does not need a man wrestling it

[lucid bobcat]

That's true

[wind phoenix]

Well ok

If you don't like it you're free to make one yourself

[tidal rampart]

I haven't said I don't like it

[lucid bobcat]

Yeah

[tidal rampart]

I'm saying if your idea of having two human figures with snakes seems repetitive, one of hte two dosen't need a human figure in.

Ophiuchus also is more like a snake tamer, than a fighter.

[wind phoenix]

Ig that's true

[lucid bobcat]

I just got an idea

Oh wait I thought Medusa had a Constellation

Well maybe Perseus could work then

Holding the head of medusa

Anyways, I was thinking maybe that would be able to upgrade stone cards perhaps

[wind phoenix]

Yeah that would be cool

[lucid bobcat]

One of the jokers could be called the Stargazer

[umbral egret]

Bit of a nitpick, but isn't Ophiuchus positioned between Scorpio and Sagittarius?

[lucid bobcat]

Yeah but for the sake of this I moved it to Ace

[raw vapor]

The theming is interesting (12+1 zodiacs/13 ranks), but the issue of tying specific cards to individual ranks is that the corresponding jokers aren’t super balanced

Like 6 gets sixth sense while 9 gets cloud 9, or jacks with hit the road and kings with baron

[wooden badge]

I think that isn't an issue tbh, certain playing cards are and will continue to be clear worsts to build around (7 lol)

Unless you have a solution for that, I don't understand why it's a problem to have this all things considered

The only change id honestly kinda want from this is for the chip gain to depend on the rank itself

[raw vapor]

Zodiacs last around a month so I think making them into temporary field spells are more appropriate

Like ophiuchus would be “aces can be substituted for any rank for 3 rounds”

[lucid bobcat]

Eh, maybe

Either way the concept still stands

[wooden badge]

Actually I like this alot

While I don't understand your issue with the original idea; that as an idea would be pretty cool and a fun way to balance rank-wilds

Maybe make it "(Rank) may used as any rank 3 times" and at 0 it just loses the buff, to keep this whole thing from being a super temporary super small buff

[raw vapor]

the issue I have with + x chips for y rank is that there are objectively better rank jokers

like how rough gem is pretty much considered the worst of the 4 gem jokers

[raw vapor]

tbh this idea originally stemmed from the concept about aces being counted as either the lowest or highest rank, sort of like a wild card, and ophiuchus can kinda be considered a wild trump (basically the joker of the zodiacs), also grim buff
other zodiacs will have different effects but I can't really think of much off my head. a goofy one I thought of is every discarded 7 adds one 3 and one 4 of the same suit to your deck

but now that I think of it, the most balanced version would be have one for every rank, and the description would be "X rank can be used as any rank for the current round (only 1 zodiac can be active at any moment)"

[coral bay]

This is honestly not a bad edition at all as the idea is fitting enough lore wise

But the effect in game feels… weak?

[raw vapor]

it's very broken, you can form higher level hands much easier

benefits everything other than flushes

[coral bay]

You would need a lot of the same zodiac card

[raw vapor]

... and high card

[coral bay]

And a lot of the same rank to appear in your hand

[raw vapor]

idk, maybe it'll discourage deckfixing

lol

but hey half of the spectral cards are trash so it checks out