#basically all the others are either games that aren't purely keep-the-beat but end up as keep-the-beat

[puppys-rhythm-heaven]

hate when i first started hyperfixating n was like "wow these games share the same timing that's so cool" n it's like yeah no shit it's like, flock step n frog hop or some shit, they're both keep-the-beat games. you have to input every beat in both of them. no shit they share the same timing-

[ranohikken]

Second playtest yielded unfortunate but important results. Good news, issues from last playtest didn't really come up. Bad news, new issues that are probably worse.

Long ramble below

Things of note before the problems: soldier was an extremely popular purchase and for a good reason. A cheap monster summon that provides 1 atk / 2 guard but more importantly once summoned it doesn't take up space in the deck until killed. Soldier might be made more expensive.

The nerfs to monster damage across the board was probably fine on its own, but the addition of boss and neutral monsters attacking immediately instead of at the end of a player's turn meant that players would spend their turns building up their army of monsters just for them to be killed one by one, which resulted in basically no progress being made even after spending turns and resources trying to accomplish what an army is supposed to do.

Also boss monsters were still too difficult to kill, especially since they guaranteed destroying at least half of an army as soon as the space is stepped on. On reveal effects as a concept are fine I think but the effects shouldn't be devastating; a minor inconvenience at most. Killing a boss is supposed to be an integral part of the game and it was made far too difficult. By making them easier to kill, the pvp part of the game becomes accessed much more easily. Pvp barely happened this playtest because so much time was spent pointlessly rebuilding armies to fight a boss that they couldn't kill. I also think the multiple guard thing is fine but for that to be viable, the high guard monsters should do proportionately less damage since they will likely attack multiple times.

All in all, combat was unfun and too punishing. No strategy involved, just throwing yourself at a wall until something happens.

Current solution in mind: revert to monsters attacking second so that armies aren't constantly needing to be rebuilt. Also keep neutral monster guards below 5. They should all be defeatable without too much setup. Making them strong only created unnecessary and unfun play time.

Another problem was that pure attack cards had very low value at basically all stages of the game. In combat, they usually didn't help enough. Outside of combat, no one wants them in their hand because they don't do anything. In clank and hero realms, damage always has a use if you draw it. In clank you always have the option of beating up the goblin for gold and in hero realms you always have the ability to attack the other player (exception being they have too much guard but that's rare because damage is abundant).

Current solution in mind: increase damage of all one-use damage cards to be worth buying and/or add secondary effects to most of them (e.g. draw a card or +1 movement).

Speaking of things that take up space in the deck and hand, Trap Cards need a rework. Most of the time their use is too specific to justify being placed in a deck. Not only that, their effects aren't very strong either. Solution in mind would be to either significantly increase their power or have them provide multiple things so that they have a general use (weaker than other cards that specifically provide that thing) as well as a specific trap function.

Shield as an example has the current effect of increasing one monster's guard by 3. That's it. Considering the way combat works, all this does is protect one monster and leave another to die. This could be improved by increasing the guard of all monsters instead, and possibly even provide atk points so that it can be used as a damage card in case someone doesn't want or need the extra guard.

Another issue was that as the game went on, dead draws became increasingly frustrating. The longer the game went on, the more cards you end up with and the less likely you draw somethin you need in the situation. This can be fixed or at least mitigated in a couple of ways.

First option, add a consistent but expensive way to trash cards so that later in the game you can get rid of starter cards with low value. This is the less preferred option because I'd rather games not go on for so long that your deck is clogged in the first place.

Second option, add a way to replace a card in the shop buy paying a small amount of gold that increases if you do it multiple times. This is the preferred option because it addresses two problems. One, instead of buying a card you don't want for the sake of not wasting gold or to get another card out, you can now possibly open up an option you do want. Being able to buy cards you want means less dead draws. Two, it gives the player something to spend 1 gold on if they only had 1 left instead of it being wasted.

in regards to trashing starter cards, I'm not opposed to the concept and actually added a way to trash a pickaxe or fighter but there were two problems. One, it was an encounter so only once in the game. Barely does anything for deck consistency. Two, it was meant to replace a fighter with a soldier but soldier ran out so early. I still want this encounter's effect in the game so I will change it from being an encounter to a regular shop card with two or three copies.

As far as what went right, there was a couple of things. Locked/Legendary cards were fun to see in use. What I would change here is actually remove some of the ones with boring effects like sniper that just deals piercing damage. Too many legendary cards would make them less legendary and some are definitely weaker than others while they're meant to all feel strong.

That's it for now. Will probably be some time before I implement the changes because I want to work on my animation but I haven't been discouraged by these results.

[shyrose57]

Brothers anon back again after like a week, sorry about that. But as a sorry I worked out a bit more with the Great SMP town! Also idk if you know but the Brothers au link is broken on your pinned post, I tried using it to skip to the questions I had yet to answer and it didn't work. 

1: The idols people could choose from where Technoblade, Sapnap, George, Ranboo, Bad, Fundy, Karl, Phil, Tommy, Tubbo, Sam, Wilbur, and Eret. People who choose Technoblade or Sam often become the guards of Mizu and those who keep laws inforced. The difference between following Technoblade or Sam is, for Technoblade you focus purely on fighting and less about laws, you also learn more about history. While for Sam you focus much more on laws and even restraining and helping people (If its confusing think of Sam followers as the police and Technoblade followers as SWAT). Technoblade followers are also sometimes called to provide protection during resource gathering missions. For Karl you tend to learn story tellings and study writings, Karl followers are also the main librarians and take care of books and preserve them. Sapnap and Phil followers are the people who go on supply missions or runs, though for Phil you learn how to address wounds and further study most things. While for Sapnap you further study monsters and their weaknesses, along side where they most commonly spawn. George followers tend to study architecture and tend to be the architectures of Mizu, designing new sections of the city and planning out where stuff goes, their also the people who handle stuff like ventilation and supply of water and checking damages on almost anything. Eret followers study history like many other idol followers, but unlike the others they focus solely on history and laws, they tend to be the leaders of Mizu and the ones who organize basically everything. Bad followers study and learn psychology and reward and consequences situations, while Eret followers make the decisions, Bad followers are also great helps and a very important part of what's basically The Council, as they study and guage how actions will affect the city and provide their input. Wilbur followers of course learn entertainment, like they learn how to play instruments, how to write and play in plays, some even make games! Tommy and Tubbo aren't actually common idols, their referred to as "Mix" idols most of the time, as the people who pick them typically have a wide range of skills and interests that just don't fit in any other idols. So Tommy and Tubbo followers really just go through a college type thing, where they learn a wider range of things than any other idol follower, those followers tend to pick up basically whatever job they want. Tubbo differs slightly though as Tubbo followers can focus a little bit more in a certain field than Tommy followers, which can allow Tubbo followers to often be picked or asked for help for things like building, or recording history, though they CANT be used to help Technoblade or Sam followers, and can't be chosen to go on supply runs or missions. Than Ranboo followers are similar to Karl's, in which they are the librarians and study writings, but they are also the main recorders of history and are tasked with writing down what happens every single day. 

These are the things some idols share, Technoblade, Phil, Sapnap, Sam, and Eret followers all study weapon and armour formations and how to make them. All idol followers learn at least some history of what their learning and their own idols. Bad and Phil followers tend to be the doctors in Mizu. And every idol has one representative in The Council.

2: Its how he shows that theres no hard feelings against the other person, and that he has already completely forgiven the other person. He continues to gently prank the other person until the person either also says that they forgave Grievous or that they show their comfortable around him again. Jackie and Cletus found the situation incredibly funny and laughed hard when it first happened. Watson just kinda watched it all play out with his amused father face but also was ready to step in if it seemed like Grievous went to far. 

3: Benjamin has a lot of life experience in stressful situations, which allows him to relay on pass experiences in a great multitude of situations. And he's just a very calm person. So he's able to just handle the situations better than anyone else. 

8: It was Jackie's birthday when Levi gave him alcohol, Jackie was tired and Levi gave him it, telling him it would keep him awake and make it easier to talk with everyone. Jackie did drink it and got a bit tispy before Watson figured out what happened and stole it away from Jackie, then going and hitting Levi. 

Almost everything from the SMP was lost due to time and weather, the buildings still remain, although crumbling and ruined and many things are missing from them, but a few things (like weapons, books (although heavily weather worn), discs) did survive and are somewhere in the world. The town in the Greater SMP does have 2 weapons, Orphan Obliterator, and Dreams Nightmare sword, and have the original copy of Ranboos memory book. People knew it was there at first, many visited and a few attempted to even preserve everything, but over time, other stuff happened. New kingdoms popped up, with quite a few claiming that the history of the SMP was just made up, a cleverly devised story and since at this time its been a decade or two since the SMP fell, and people just aren't as into it or studied the history as much, they believed them. So people stopped visiting, and everything fell into ruin. Only the town in the SMP grounds still believe and study the SMP, but their often called the idiots of the world for what they do. 

Jackie gets hurt after he jumps about and accidentally steps on a magma block, Charles gets distracted by worrying over Grievous after he got shot that he isn't paying attention and almost falls into a lava pool before Ran saves him, and Cletus gets to cocky and gets hit by a wither skeleton before Watson has to come in and save him. By the end everyone is whining and saying how they regret it as Ran tells them off for not following what he said and how he said they weren't ready. They find a bastion and fortress! They find the fortress first and Watson, Cletus, and Grievous go in to grab blaze rods after Watson basically freaks out about blaze rods and won't shut up about getting some for potions. And after Cletus gets hit by the skeleton they rush to a nearby bastion they saw to barter with the Piglins for the cure. But after they get it they stay behind and continue to trade as Watson teaches them about Piglins. 

10: I'm thinking of adding maybe mind control or hallucinations to the battle. With Ranbob being so close to Dream again, and even though he'd tried so hard to break Dreams control in him, Dream is still able to control Ranbob to some degree. Causing him to have hallucinations during battle of him killing his family again and Ran trying to kill him. While for Ran, Dream manipulates him, trying to get him to believe that this all is still Ranbobs fault, and how Ranbob doesnt care about him or anyone, and only cares for himself. Basically he's trying his last ditch attempt to separate the two so he can get his puppet back, and get rid of a annoying nat (in his opinion) in the process. 

13: A lot of people know of him being the General actually. But it only matters to people who actually fight in the Pit, as again its merely a fighting title. Not many people have been able to beat him, only 2 have actually been able to bet him and win whatever the prize was when they competed, but those people also choose to not take the general title. But they've said it was very hard to beat Jackie with his speed and him being able to do whatever he wants basically. Jackie, Ran, and Watson are all at some part on par, they share similar fighting moves and tatics which are obviously shared in battle. But other than a few shared tatics, their not considered on par at all. They do! The Corporal fights first, Sergeants go next, then the General. 

14: A few times Ranbob tried to break off from the group and head back to Mizu, but every time someone caught him, weither it be Charles or Cletus or even Jackie, and were able to bring him back home. Talking to him and talking him through the whisper episode, keeping him calm and in charge of his mind.

Nice to have you back, Brothers Anon! I tested the link, and it worked fine, so I think it might’ve been one time, but I went ahead and re-linked it, so I hope it works for you now.

1: Honestly sounds cool. I call studying Karl! With all the different builders, Mizu sounds like a beautiful place. What would you say some of it looks like? Any special areas? And also, the Council? What’s that? I assume they’re the leaders, but is that all they do? Do they make decisions over everything, or are they divided for certain areas, like farming and education? Does every idol have a representative, or are their multiple under one for the Council?

2: Aww. That’s actually kind of sweet. Grievous gently pranks people to show affection. I like that, anon, I really do.

3: What kind of situations?

8: Levi! You should be ashamed of yourself! Bad person, bad!

That’s really interesting, actually. Was there a reason people claimed it was just made up, or did it just happen? Also, do any of the gang realize Nightmare is Dream’s sword? Does Dream try to get one of them to bring it back?

And SMP town isn’t believed? Were they never in contact with Mizu?

Honestly, all those injuries were about what I expected. Charles was worrying over Grievous? Just general concern, or have they forged a friendship? How’s Ranbob faring with the whole ‘two of my idiots just about died’ thing? He strikes me as a worrier. 

Do they have fun, at least once it’s all over? What kind of potions do they up and brew? Do they just sit down and experiment with all their supplies for a bit, and see what happens? Does Ran commandeer it all?

10: Oof. That’s gonna hurt. If Dream has that power, why didn’t he use it before, to force to fishermen to give Ranbob back? Did they have some sort of protection against it? Does it only work for certain people? Also, if I may ask, why is Dream so vested in Ranbob? Surely he could get another puppet, eventually? Is there a particular reason, or is it more of a ‘I worked way too hard on this one to give it up now’ kind of thing? Is Ran the nat? If so, what’s his opinion of all the others? 

13: Huh. So Jackie’s pretty strong, then. In what way are they not considered on par? Is one considered stronger than the other? Faster? Is Jackie considered stronger than them aside from shared tactics, or is it the other way around? Also, can there only be one Corporal and two Sergeants, or is it simply because those were the only ones to catch Porkius’ eyes.

14: Oh, so this happened during the road trip? Jackie even got involved? How did the gladiators react to Ranbob trying to bolt for Mizu randomly? How far has Ranbob gotten? Was it ever far enough to seriously concern the fishermen? Does bringing him back ever get physical an evolve into a fight, or does he usually stay pretty docile during it?