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I'm probably not the only one that loves how in Shandalar's hardest difficulty you start with a 5-color pile of mostly random cards, only lightly color-weighted, then have to slowly dig yourself out of that hole ?

Adventure/Forge is IMHO a bit too friendly for now in that regard : even on insane difficulty and Pile mode you start with a fairly neat pile of main color + splashes of 2 allied colors :
(And which, even on insane difficulty, you can make even more consistent by slimming down from the starting 60, to 40 cards. In fact, going directly mono-colour seems to be a pretty viable plan !)

And Chaos mode is disappointing in that regard too because it "just" makes you (and enemies ??) start with a random, but neatly constructed deck.

So, I'm thinking that the easiest way to replicate the aforementioned Shandalar-chaos experience is to have a 6th color option (and mode forced) where you just get a completely random pile of cards (maybe not even keeping the rarities, creature/land/spell ratios ?). The only other modification this might need is to go back to Shandalar's way to replace under the minimum deck limit cards with random basic lands and not the current Wastes.

In fact this seems simple enough that I might be able to hack this together myself, regardless of the programming language used, would you be so kind to point me to the place(s) in the code governing these features ?

BlueTemplar wrote:I'm probably not the only one that loves how in Shandalar's hardest difficulty you start with a 5-color pile of mostly random cards, only lightly color-weighted, then have to slowly dig yourself out of that hole ?

Adventure/Forge is IMHO a bit too friendly for now in that regard : even on insane difficulty and Pile mode you start with a fairly neat pile of main color + splashes of 2 allied colors :

javaw_B9xGAwu9go.jpg

(And which, even on insane difficulty, you can make even more consistent by slimming down from the starting 60, to 40 cards. In fact, going directly mono-colour seems to be a pretty viable plan !)

And Chaos mode is disappointing in that regard too because it "just" makes you (and enemies ??) start with a random, but neatly constructed deck.

So, I'm thinking that the easiest way to replicate the aforementioned Shandalar-chaos experience is to have a 6th color option (and mode forced) where you just get a completely random pile of cards (maybe not even keeping the rarities, creature/land/spell ratios ?). The only other modification this might need is to go back to Shandalar's way to replace under the minimum deck limit cards with random basic lands and not the current Wastes.

In fact this seems simple enough that I might be able to hack this together myself, regardless of the programming language used, would you be so kind to point me to the place(s) in the code governing these features ?

Hmmm, on Chaos Mode, I wonder what's your stats vs Elite enemies with decks tailored for the AI (not the boss, but AI with 18 life or more), I'm sure even you get a constructed deck, it needs tweaking to beat those AI unless the AI has a really bad hand/draw.

BlueTemplar wrote:[...]
In fact this seems simple enough that I might be able to hack this together myself, regardless of the programming language used, would you be so kind to point me to the place(s) in the code governing these features ?

Bumping... unless that setting has been added since then, but I didn't find it ??

Ok, it was actually pretty easy to find what to change in the code...

First, changing this in config.json :

Code: Select all

  "minDeckSize": 40,

=>

Code: Select all

  "minDeckSize": 50,

Then, changing, for instance pile_white_h.json to this :

Code: Select all

{                                   
"name":"White",
  "mainDeck": [
    { 
      "count":30,
      "rarity": ["Common"]
    },
   { 
      "count":2,
      "cardName": "Plains"
    },
   { 
      "count":2,
      "cardName": "Island"
    },
   { 
      "count":2,
      "cardName": "Swamp"
    },
   { 
      "count":2,
      "cardName": "Mountain"
    },
   { 
      "count":2,
      "cardName": "Forest"
    },
    ]
}



(Yes, this means only 40/50 cards, the other 10 will be automatically be completed as Wastes during combat.)

(Then of course starting a game as Hard/White/Pile.)

Example of random deck :

Code: Select all

Deck: Random

Main:
1 Lurching Rotbeast
1 Kick in the Door
1 Kill-Zone Acrobat
1 Kjeldoran War Cry
1 Sunlit Marsh
1 Dub
1 Ambush Viper
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Omen of the Forge
1 Benalish Sleeper
1 Thrive
1 Gaea's Touch
1 Shock Troops
1 Akki Drillmaster
1 Cloud Pirates
1 Formless Nurturing
1 Instill Infection
1 Shining Armor
1 Mending Touch
1 Descendant of Soramaro
1 Invoke the Divine
2 Plains
1 Blitz Automaton
1 Reckless Fireweaver
1 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Guardians of Koilos
2 Island
1 Fang of Shigeki
2 Forest
1 Intrusive Packbeast
2 Swamp
1 Profane Prayers
1 Leaden Myr
1 Wu Light Cavalry
2 Mountain



P.S.: Why is it impossible to screen capture Forge ?!
EDIT : more about this issue and resolutions :
viewtopic.php?p=255064#p255064

I've started a game using those settings, was a bit scared at start, but I'm actually feeling the difficulty being just right !
[Adventure] AAR - Random Hard RB(U) Artifacts

BlueTemplar wrote:[...]
Starting deck :

[...]

After a visit to the closest town :


We can do it !

[...]

Hmm, can't quote posts and preserve embeds ??