v1.6.6: Easy is back!

I've heard your feedback.

Firstly, I've heard from at least two people that the title screen is a bit jank, and they would prefer a more mainstream one, with buttons. I like the current aesthetic, and the hitboxes are where they are expected to be, so I'm announcing no changes for this patch.

Secondly, I've heard some players are struggling with FixedPoint AI and they want an easier AI. I agree that this is a good suggestion, so as of this patch Easy AI is back.

I'm thinking a bit about keywords, and looking at the base set, and I'm thinking the most likely base set unit to be keyworded is F5. There's also some other keywords I can make.

I've also been playing some MOBA-Inspired card games as of late, and I'm thinking of champion units that you can only have one copy in play at a time, but keep their modifications even between summons.

Balance Changes

There's a few ranked spells, where the scaling just doesn't seem right. Firstly, ever since E1 was nerfed to 7hp, rank 3 armageddon seemed like the best low rank armageddon, hitting both a valley in the hp loss curve and the breakpoints of A1 and E1.

I've had the AI go through another test of Armageddon, and came up with these changes, which is overall mostly a nerf:

Deputization Codex: [44] -> [42]

Rune of Regeneration: [-9] -> [-10]

Black Lotus: [36] -> [35]

Codex of Efficiency: [37] -> [43]

Blackrock and Roll: [34] -> [40], -2 -> -3 for basics.

Turn, Rank 8: Removed from the game.

Reactive Field (Rune): Removed from the game. Nobody was using it anyways, and it causes weird interactions with the new card this patch.

Dev comment: This card was overperforming, and I was thinking of how to nerf it, then I realized it didn't really make sense for the turned enemy to strike something more than once anyways.

Elvish Bow: Removed from the game.

Dev comment: This design was a mistake.

New Cards:

Carpenter's Hammer [41]

After you manually play a card with printed cost 5 or more: play it again with a -2 discount on the lane immediately to the right of it, if able.

This patch also features a new ability type: end of turn.

A mirror to the start of the turn abilities, end of turn effects are processed from left to right, with a tick occurring only after its all been resolved. Shrapnel triggers with an end of turn timing, and like regeneration, is to the left of all your creatures.

Trig and Sphinx of the Second Sun has been updated to be an end of turn trigger.

Ancient Void Hound (Banisher 8)

End of turn: Steal 1 power and 1 health from all enemy creatures.

My max health is 99.

4/11

Finally, to complete the set, some abilities have been retemplated as precombat abilities. These abilities were formerly inconsistently referred to as "after action phase" and "before combat". Like start of turn and end of turn abilities, these trigger left to right, core first. Like start of turn and end of turn abilities, a single tick is called after all resolve.

Emissary of the Quorum is now a "before combat" ability.

Known bug: In this patch, Ratmaster always triggers last, and causes extra ticks. This will very rarely end up mattering. This bug will be fixed in a future update.

In summary, the turn structure of this patch is:

1. Start of turn abilities, left to right order (natural mana production, core, regeneration, creatures)

Tick.

2. Action phase.

Tick.

3. Precombat abilities, left to right order (core, creatures)

Tick.

4. Combat phase.

5. End of turn abilities, left to right order (core, shrapnel, creatures)

Tick.

In addition, there is a tick after every attack (in the combat phase, or due to an attack instruction of an ability).

"Tick." is an idempotent operation. In other words, two ticks in a row (eg. after the action phase, and then after the precombat phase when nothing has a precombat ability) has the same effect as just one.

Assistant (3)

Your blueprints cost 1 less.

2/11

This is a craftsman sidegrade. On one hand, it's better because it's like a free wild magic rune stapled to the craftsman. On the other hand, it's worse because craftsman lets you build up aether, and assistant's discount is wasted on your core. Testing says they are about equal.