Cactus Game Design Message Boards

As mentioned here I'd like to have the game mechanics more comprehensible and easier to understand while still keeping our great and interactive abilities (while I do not have any clue how to achieve this).

Go back to the I/J decks with a plan for set rotation beginning with the new card face, it also would have allowed us to eliminate CBN, CBI and CBP from the game.

I wouldn't have printed TSC, NJ, or FA.

I wouldn't have printed TSC, NJ, or FA.

If we didn't have TSC or NJ the number of time outs would skyrocket. 

Quote from: Red on March 11, 2018, 05:07:10 PM

I wouldn't have printed TSC, NJ, or FA.

If we didn't have TSC or NJ the number of time outs would skyrocket.

That’s a very interesting point. I had three timeout games at the t2 only and with the other two I won on the last turn. I don’t think I would have got those wins without SoG/TSC.

In t1, it definitely helps too. I don’t remember feeling too constrained at nats but I imagine that without SoG/TSC I would have timed out more often.

To answer the OP, I can’t really think of anything atm I would really change. I think the game is heading in a great direction and we have such a wonderful game community and leadership that I’m really happy with everything right now. Sorry if that’s too corny.

Quote from: jbeers285 on March 11, 2018, 05:59:39 PM

Quote from: Red on March 11, 2018, 05:07:10 PM

I wouldn't have printed TSC, NJ, or FA.

If we didn't have TSC or NJ the number of time outs would skyrocket.

Not if the win count was reduced to 4.

Or increase the time limits by 5 to 15 mins, which is much more practical at this point.

It's either:

A: Return to foil packs with each set release consisting of nothing but the new set (somewhere around 150-250 cards per set).

-Of course, this would lead to set rotation. With a set or two like this focusing on everything but clay (and including reprints of the most playable/popular older cards), this rotation of the older sets would happen sooner.

Or;

B: Implement a banlist.

-Certain cards should not have to be constantly worked around when designing new sets, nor should we allow cards that are the worst offenders of NPE persist for eternity (examples include Liner, Haman's Plot, Mayhem, CoL, HSR, Hidden Treasures, AutO, etc).

Or;

C: Remarket the game. Not to families or the christian market (unsteady, unlikely to participate in the long run), but to the competitive player market (those that actually build the player base and propel the game/those that actually would understand the game's intricacies and how best to fix some issues).

-By far the most difficult/least likely, but potentially the most rewarding.


Out of those three, I'll go with A. Admittedly, because it's kind of a double pick, but mainly because I think it's most likely to happen. It's what I've wanted for over ten years and I'm personally sick of opening a pack and immediately setting aside over half the cards as 'free cards'.

Advertising. I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that this game is so niche. The community is more intimate, but it is really hard to find people that play this game. I've only ever met a handful of people that play the game outside of these message boards. I'd like it if more people actually knew more about this game.

Make everything CBN. No more worries about cascades! 

What? No, you say? 

I would say the only thing that really bothers me is the timing aspects of multi-player categories. I hope that at some point we'll be able to find a good solution so that we never have situations where "last round" is called after one or more of the players has already taken their final turn. As I've said before, I have no problem with a well-played TEAMS or T2 MP game timing out (well-player meaning no one was playing exceedingly slow). It is frustrating however when a player does not have the knowledge of it being the last round prior to what ends up being their final turn.

Quote from: TheHobbit on March 11, 2018, 10:03:26 PM

The length of the rule book, ORCHID, abstract rules, etc.. isn't the reason why redemption is complicated. The length of such rule sources is actually a great thing from my perspective as a player who played in the era of the oral story telling of rules. It's complicated because there are so many abilities happening at once, and this in turn leads to complicated rulings. It is what is it is really. The solution is to take a step back from territory class characters and enhancements a bit and then focus on cards doing one or two related things. An example of a convoluted ability would be Abaddon the Destroyer or Frog Demons.

Cutting back on the number of special abilities on cards would go a long way to making the game easier to comprehend. Also limiting the types of abilities various card types can have could help.

Agreed.  Between territory class, fortresses, sites, dominants and artifacts all having protects, searches, negates, draws and insteads, (some having multiple combinations of these) things are really getting out of control.

Make everything CBN. No more worries about cascades! 

What? No, you say? 

I would say the only thing that really bothers me is the timing aspects of multi-player categories. I hope that at some point we'll be able to find a good solution so that we never have situations where "last round" is called after one or more of the players has already taken their final turn. As I've said before, I have no problem with a well-played TEAMS or T2 MP game timing out (well-player meaning no one was playing exceedingly slow). It is frustrating however when a player does not have the knowledge of it being the last round prior to what ends up being their final turn.

It's still frustrating to have someone guess, albeit an educated one, how long the last round is going to take, because then you don't know how to pace yourself. You also have to make sure that you are calling last round consistently among the tables and then standardization as a tournament rule wouldn't hurt. Oh wait that's 0  If it feels like type 2 multi is too long from a scheduling standpoint then the easiest solution is to just chop of some time off the time limit.

Make Booster draft run 2-person games instead of multiplayer games.  This makes drafting so much more strategic - you actually have to consider when to take evil cards, instead of drafting every hero and GE battlewinner you see.  And it removes the luck/soul drought/kingmaking/booster-draft-noob factors you get in multiplayer Booster.

Also, if time permits and the players desire, make each Booster game best 2 of 3, where the players can sideboard with their other boosted cards after games 1 and 2. *

* I've done this, and I can tell you, it is WAY more fun than the experience that is multiplayer Booster draft