MArcomage

The original Arcomage game had an interesting effect that prevented a card from being discarded. This provides some interesting design space because it has both positive effects (keeping valuable cards) and negative effects (keeping trash cards). Renewal keyword is similar to this mechanic but is slightly different. I plan to add the new Renewal keyword in the Christmas update.

The keyword effect will be as follows:

"If card with this keyword get's discarded it will be returned to it's former position."

Important thing to note is that this doesn't prevent such card from being discarded. Player can choose to discard such card by using standard discard action or another card like Militia. Cards that discard other cards and provide side effects like Mediator will function normally. The discarded card will even show up in the discard pile, however after all that is done it will be returned to it's former position.

With this keyword implemented we are able to have cards that actually have strictly negative effects. Having this keyword on a rare card is very beneficial as it can't be discarded by other cards. Of course, we can have specific cards have the ability to discard even Renewal cards, also I'm thinking of giving this ability to the Banish keyword as well.

Feel free to provide feedback on the new keyword effect and existing cards that should receive this keyword.

What will happen in the case of cards that shuffle your cards to different positions? In the past, this was accomplished by discarding the hand and returning those cards to randomized positions, but this was changed to no longer create a Discard pile. Does the rearranging effect still use discarding internally? And if so, will Renewal cards be shuffled to a new position and then also replace the card moved into their original position? Or will the hand shuffling work properly without the Renewal effect triggering?


TL;DR: Will Whirlwind shuffle Renewal cards properly, or will it make a new copy AND keep them in their original position?

This reminds me of a concept we discussed some years ago where there would be certain cards that could not moved from their position (copied to another place in hand, swapped to another position, or stolen by the opponent) that would be signified by a keyword. I believe I proposed "Fragile" and a weak Common card "Broken shards" that would be drawn to the position where the Fragile card would have otherwise been transported. At the time, a keyword that only took effect when something happened to the card other than the standard Play action was too unlike the rest of the game's design. But Renewal makes me wonder if the idea should be revisited. I'll see if I can dig up the discussion posts.


Edit: Found it

Edit: and the Broken shards card concept

Oh, and I would reword:

"If card with this keyword get's discarded it will be returned to it's former position."

as:

"If a card with this keyword is discarded, it will be returned to its former position."

Fortunately, the hand shuffling functionality is no longer related to discard mechanic in any way. The rework of the discard pile system is one of the main reasons that allows effects like Renewal keyword to be reasonably implemented. If you play Whirlwind it will shuffle your hand without triggering the Renewal keyword.

I'll have a look at the Fragile concept, sounds interesting.

Thanks for the keyword description text improvement :)

I'm not sure about the word "renewal", I think "cursed" is more appropriate for this keyword.

Fithz wrote:
I'm not sure about the word "renewal", I think "cursed" is more appropriate for this keyword.

Renewal is only a "development" name. I'm happy to change it to more suitable suggestions. Cursed sounds like an improvement. The most important thing is to have the keyword name fit all kinds of cards.

DPsycho wrote:
This reminds me of a concept we discussed some years ago where there would be certain cards that could not moved from their position (copied to another place in hand, swapped to another position, or stolen by the opponent) that would be signified by a keyword. I believe I proposed "Fragile" and a weak Common card "Broken shards" that would be drawn to the position where the Fragile card would have otherwise been transported. At the time, a keyword that only took effect when something happened to the card other than the standard Play action was too unlike the rest of the game's design. But Renewal makes me wonder if the idea should be revisited. I'll see if I can dig up the discussion posts.


Edit: Found it

Edit: and the Broken shards card concept

I have revisited the Fragile cards idea. Unfortunately the effect is not really similar to Renewal effect it terms of implementation. The problem is that at the time of card replace the "context" information is not available, so the only way to implement it would be to adjust individual cards that have card replacing effect.

Mojko wrote:
The problem is that at the time of card replace the "context" information is not available

Ah, so at the point the card is assigned to a slot in hand, there's no way of telling whether it was put there due to a standard draw or as the result of a played card mechanic? If that's the case, then yeah, I can see where this would be difficult. And hard-coding it into each card that performs such an action would increase complexity far too much than it's worth.

Maybe in another six years, then. ;)

DPsycho wrote:


Maybe in another six years, then. ;)

We are moving slowly but surely :D

I think that Cursed should mainly be used on cards that are 0 cost and that having it on a card that has a high cost especially if it is not split on a number of resources like 46 Bricks on Ancient castle is not the best idea.This may not be a problem unless they accumulate