#BetterMerchants

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

final stone
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Context

Ever since I've started doing longer endless runs, I've started disliking the Merchant/Tycoon vouchers more and more. Especially Planet Merchant and especially Planet Tycoon. With no vouchers, you see on average 5 jokers for every 2 consumables. But with all 4 vouchers, for every 5 jokers you see 15!!! consumables. This makes rolling for what you need in the endgame incredibly difficult.

At the same time, planet cards quickly become almost completely useless. You specialize into 1-2 hands and the rest are just noise, but even for the 1-2 hand types you actually play, the added score becomes miniscule.

Similarly, tarot cards become more and more useless the better you have shaped your deck, and even if you do still need them, at most you need 1-3 to use next round, and 2 or 3 for free money/jokers.

Personally, I stopped buying Planet Merchant at all, and generally I would buy Tarot Merchant but not Tycoon. This comes with the downside that you might see these vouchers multiple times instead of ones you actually want. I don't think this is good game design, to me it seems like vouchers are supposed to be good for you, period. Not carefully taken risks like spectral cards.

My Solution

Merchant and Tycoon vouchers no longer affect the rate of consumables in the shop. Instead, every time you are in the shop, you get a free 3 card pack for having Merchant, and a 5 card pack for having Tycoon, of the appropriate type, in addition to the random 2 packs you can buy.

Why is this better?

The vouchers are now purely beneficial with no downsides. Your rerolls don't get completely destroyed by useless cards you aren't ever buying.

You have more opportunities to trigger effects on pack openings (Telescope, Red Card, Hallucination).

You have more opportunities to use tarot cards to modify your deck while in the shop and get use out of Omen voucher.

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Where is the mod?

I've created the mod, I'm currently testing it for bugs in my own run. Here is a sneak peek: https://faby.dev/images/Zn5nr3.png

I'm looking for feedback on this idea while I finish testing it and then I will link it in the OP.

Please feel free to post your feedback or if you wanna test it for bugs I can maybe send it to you.

charred estuary
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this is a great idea i also didn't like having all my jokers replaced with planet or tarot cards. although i think magic trick/illusion is also dearly in need of fixing, not only are the cards practically useless (and often a hindrance) until you get illusion, it clogs up your shop similarly to the problem you encountered. you have any ideas for those?

final stone
# charred estuary this is a great idea i also didn't like having all my jokers replaced with plane...

I mean, the simplest solution would be to just give it the same treatment, move them to packs instead.

But I disagree a little with your take on the current one.

The rate is significantly lower, only 4, which is the same as the arcana/tarot base rate. So it barely waters down the joker rate (wiith no other vouchers, jokers go from 5/7 to 5/8, 71% of the shop to 62%)

But also, Magic Trick can still be very helpful, it can provide you sixes to burn with sixth sense, let you reinfornce whatever hand you are building for, usually face cards I guess. And also just give you fodder to death into your good card.

My biggest gripe is that it does not actually create seals on the cards. If it doesn't exist yet, I could definitely create a mod that just fixes that.

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but now that I think of it, generally I just need 2 cards to death per round, so giving 2 guaranteed card packs might actually be kinda nice

charred estuary
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although its gonna be a lot of packs in a small space, any way you could fix the ui a bit? maybe make voucher space smaller

final stone
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well, it becomes a necessity in later runs if you need a bigger deck. For example, in long run with burglar and 4+ BP, you get like 19+ hands every round, that's 95 cards in your deck to play them all. The only feasible way to do this is DNA or deathing cards from the shop. But like I said, 2 dedicated packs could take over that function 90% of the time probably

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(even more cards required if you still need a full hand after to score with baron/mime)

charred estuary
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in later runs, you either still have some cards left to death from your original deck, and if you don't then often you have already deck fixed enough to the point where all your cards are either scoring, purple seals (not really needed anymore tbh) or blue seals, in which case having more than about 20 cards, even if they are the ones that would help you, is a bad idea

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unless you are talking about using glass

final stone
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nope, i'm talking about having 95+ gold red seal kings so I can play 19 hands that give me $300 each and farm $5k+ every round

charred estuary
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so 25 cards

final stone
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25?

charred estuary
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vvait

final stone
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there is a reason I said 95

charred estuary
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19 hands?

final stone
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yes

charred estuary
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lmao

final stone
charred estuary
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ye i get it

final stone
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if this is not how you are currently doing endless runs, I recommend it

charred estuary
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idk i still think adding standard packs is a better idea than what is currently in game

final stone
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i think it could be good, but I also think there is value in having them in the shop and they don't gunk it up nearly as much as merchant/tycoon

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I personally really like picking up stone cards because they can be deathed later without worrying about messing up idol

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that's why I like illusion a lot

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and ofc sixes for sixth sense, or picking up a 10 j q so I can seance

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but all of that is still possible with packs, but you might not get the cards you need and you can't just keep rolling

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maybe it could reduce the card rate to like 2, but tbh i think it's fine rn, especially if illusion actually gives seals

final stone
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  • = both packs
    -> = upgrade pack with tycoon
charred estuary
# final stone

my vote here is jumbo+mega
my opinion is that anything less would debuff the vouchers too much compared to what the originals are
(unless you are too broke to reroll, in which case this would be a buff)
this is especially important in early/mid game, where building your deck is really important to strengthen your build for late game
(this is for other voters to consider)

charred estuary
# final stone

although i think a better method of doing this would be to be able to customize it in a config if possible

fleet vigil
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Commenting to stay involved

final stone
upper bolt
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peam