Universus 2024 Campaign Platform! (Design ramblings)

[@JensenHuangTensorEnthusiast]

2:30 AoT1 stuff 20:15 symbols & set structure 28:15 draft 32:15 symbol identity 28:30 mechanics and keywords 51:30 new stage card type(s) 53:50 terms & templating 59:55 rules nitpicks 1:03:50 final slide!

[@zephy64]

I really like when you have time to deep dive onthese kinds of thoughts.

[@uvs_hermit_IX]

Personally, I LOVE videos like this! Personally I like keeping Flash because the ability to give attacks Flash defensively is strong. But I like a lot of these concepts

[@cetonis2767]

Flash is in such a weird spot. I don't want to shed the concept, I'm just wondering if using the keyword vs. spelling it out is better if we're only going to use it 1-3 times a year. At what point is keywording the thing doing more harm than good learning wise... it's pretty nitpicky though. Another angle though is that when it *is* a keyword, there's some pressure to use it and represent it, leading to stuff like Tornado Fist existing just because hey our character is response speed so this is a rare chance to make a Flash move, let's not waste it we gotta use our keywords etc. If it's not a keyword then it appears a little more organically I think.

[@The_Dobbers]

While I have some conflicting views this was a great watch from someone way more knowledgeable than myself.

[@cameronundergust132]

As someone who taught himself to play this game on his own, that old LGR document made me feel like I was studying for law school lol. A Judge Rules Manual master doc and a layman’s doc would be great! Also Tim needs a running mate!

[@MegaMuffinManX]

This was a great video. The part about more robust symbol identity was probably my favorite part because discovering each symbol's identity has been my favorite part of the game. I also really like the idea of a visual cue that distinguishes effects that trigger on your turn vs your opponent's turn vs any time. Also, if we're making a list of terms that need to be reworked, I think "Form" has to be high up there on the list. I feel like it was a holdover from an earlier era where that word was more descriptive to what you were actually doing. But as of now, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The word "Action" maybe makes the most sense to describe what "Form" is doing, (i.e. "as an action, you can play a card to your card pool and resolve it or use an action ability on a card in your stage"). But we can't exactly do that when we have a card type called "Action"

[@cetonis2767]

Yeah, Form has been in the mindspace for a rename for a long time, as you've noticed it's hard to come up with a *great* replacement with action taken. "Move", "Main" maybe...

[@Mojorge]

I love this video. I think this would be a bit too much ruthless trimming though. Not every mechanic has to be super impactful to do very useful and good things. For example, I don't think Assets are a big cost to have around, and if the worry is for new players you can just keep them out of common/structure decks. I like the idea of support or something like it, but I don't think you NEED something that massive of a leap to justify a new card type. Think about sorcery vs. instant in magic the gathering: they largely are the same card type, Instants are just better sorceries, and yet it is still a great source of design space. I like the idea of a Conquest draft, but I generally dislike the idea of needing the store to carry a pool of characters to choose from. This has all sorts of logistical implications. What if too many people want to draft the same character and it runs out? I think you should be character restricted to what you open, and just open all the packs to take out characters before drafting.

[@cetonis2767]

In a world where we add cards per pack to i.e. move to four pack drafts, limiting to the characters you open gets less practical. Especially if trying to do Conquest. If not, you now need to adjust for the symbol math problem in some way (not end of world). You could offer printable proxies etc. for stores that don't have a means to get a supply. It's an added step for sure but chances are if a store is drafting it's because someone (a player or the shop) wants to push for it, and they should be willing to deal with getting a supply. There are lots of alternatives though. For instance, what if you had to play a character you opened (or drafted at some point, instead of forcing people to take stuff), but could play any X symbols regardless of what was on the character? If character/support synergy at common was light enough you could probably do something like that. -- Having assets in your game comes at a cost -- first of all, you're "forced" to make at least a couple of them per set, and secondly you have to go out of your way to make sure cards exist that can deal with them. Also, if you have both assets and backups, now they need to occupy two separate power tiers, which puts pressure on what you can do with each. The great thing about backups, if they got some patching, is that you don't need to do anything to carve out specific answers to them. That's why I like them better as a root idea, though you could argue that answerability is an insurmountable flaw. I could see having both assets and this "support" idea, or something else with enough differentiation not to cause tuning problems, though.

[@Mojorge]

@ That’s true. Obviously a different game but star wars unlimited drafting with 3 leaders in 3 packs works, but yeah you have to pull the leaders out ahead of time. I feel like you don’t need assets in every set, a lot of the assets in aot feel wasted and I wish they were back ups. Also, I think you could print stuff like “flip a rival card in their stage” instead of pure asset hate

[@zephy64]

The part I miss about characters having is being able to pad the checks in my sealed deck. In constructed, it's fine not to have numbers on though I would like to have something like free lands in mtg to help when building a sealed/draft deck to help pad out the deck. 13:08

[@Svarnir_Frostfang]

In limited Universus we could flip any card backwards (which wouldn't really work with 2 sided cards) that would count as a blank foundation with 2 Difficulty 5 Control and +2 mid block. I may be incorrect since it's been a long while since I've drafted UVS.

[@cetonis2767]

That's true, I would say the solution to that is to design better for sealed though. If people can't find 40/60 cards they can stomach running, you've messed up probably.

[@zephy64]

​@cetonis2767 yeah I think you touched on it when you talked about the pack size too. I think in 6 packs we basically have to play with the bulk of what gets opened. More commons and uncommon could help that.

[@chibiraptor]

I think very new players would miss their enhance effects because they want to use their character, but i dont think thats a huge issue. When youre playing with a very new player, you can just remins them. Youre allowed to break the rules slightly when playing casually, and the players who would forget their attack's enhance arent going to tournaments. I think blitz is a big mistake. Its an effort to make things work correctly without making it easier for new players to understand.

[@JensenHuangTensorEnthusiast]

Might it be better to make the face up momentum is instead a response like “when this enters your discard pile from momentum” Or something like that. If it doesn’t/hasn’t been done before that is. Edit: Also couldn’t you also just make unique not sealable?

[@cetonis2767]

That's been in my fancard pool for ages, never actually got it onto any cards when I was making real sets though. It's easier now that we can do i.e. "After you spend this...", as much as that's kind of a funky wording

[@SlamBaron]

Character rarity needs to take a massive hike and never be found in the woods ever again. Flesh and Blood does that nonsense currently even for demi-hero forms and it turns those cards into like $40 cards by themselves. Its awful. A good example of this is Levia, Redeemed // Blasmophet, Levia Consumed, $40 card for a new form you change into of the existing character. Just let me flip the stupid card or do what UVS does and make it printed into oblivion.