I had a lot of fun with the old version of Darkest Night, then my copy was destroyed and I never worked up the energy to make another one. But with the new version, I have an excuse!
With the old version, I found it was very easy with minimal competence. A decently farmed team could hold the monastery at 30 darkness indefinitely, so there was no real pressure. You could just farm up all the abilities you wanted and then kill the necro. I assume the new darkness rules are intended to prevent that, but I haven't tested them yet.
My only feedback that I know is still relevant is that the scholar is boring. Which is a shame because he's both good and cool. I have a lot of fun with his basic powers, for some reason. But I don't like the "Artifacts" mechanic. See, the artifacts are immediately and permanently deployed where he finds them. But where he finds them is determined by where he chooses to be. Since he can't predict which artifact he'll find, he can't really deploy them in different squares based on need, so the most effective strategy is to simply stack all the artifacts in one place and then lure the necromancer there. This means that the Scholar is strongly encouraged to stand in one place for the entire game.
Darkest Night
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Thanks for your interest! If there's going to be a new thread about it, I suppose we should have a link to the game files, and perhaps to the old thread, just for reference.
The new Darkness rules do indeed make it much harder to hold the Monastery at 30 Darkness (in particular, the part where all blights get +1 power at 25 Darkness). There is also an "expert mode" alternate set-up that makes the game much harder (at least, it put a serious dent in my own win rate when I was testing it out).
Your complaint about the Scholar is valid, but I don't think it's quite as bad as you make it out. When you get a Supply Cache, you choose one of two powers, so you have some choice about discovering an artifact (and know the position of the card you don't choose). When you get a Treasure Chest, you can choose to wait and open it in another location. You can now also have an "Epiphany" in the swamp that lets you draw the exact power of your choice.
Also, I think only one of the artifacts (the one that reduces blight power) is really a major benefit in fighting the necromancer; the others are more useful when you're not trying to confront him, so it's not really critical to have them all in the same place. And I believe different locations have a greater difference in their treasure tables now, which makes searching in only one location somewhat less attractive.
The new Darkness rules do indeed make it much harder to hold the Monastery at 30 Darkness (in particular, the part where all blights get +1 power at 25 Darkness). There is also an "expert mode" alternate set-up that makes the game much harder (at least, it put a serious dent in my own win rate when I was testing it out).
Your complaint about the Scholar is valid, but I don't think it's quite as bad as you make it out. When you get a Supply Cache, you choose one of two powers, so you have some choice about discovering an artifact (and know the position of the card you don't choose). When you get a Treasure Chest, you can choose to wait and open it in another location. You can now also have an "Epiphany" in the swamp that lets you draw the exact power of your choice.
Also, I think only one of the artifacts (the one that reduces blight power) is really a major benefit in fighting the necromancer; the others are more useful when you're not trying to confront him, so it's not really critical to have them all in the same place. And I believe different locations have a greater difference in their treasure tables now, which makes searching in only one location somewhat less attractive.
The Artifact that reduces Blight power and the artifact that lets you select Blights are best used together. A good fighter can reliably destroy a blight every turn if you pick an easily destroyed one, and then weaken it further.
The Secrecy buffing one could well be used elsewhere, so as to have a secret searching station and a fighting station, but if your fighter has noncombatatn support staff, you might want to add the secrecy buff to the fighting suite for the sake of the bard/cleric/whatever.
The Secrecy buffing one could well be used elsewhere, so as to have a secret searching station and a fighting station, but if your fighter has noncombatatn support staff, you might want to add the secrecy buff to the fighting suite for the sake of the bard/cleric/whatever.
The area secrecy buff is a Prince power; you may be thinking of the artifact gives a bonus to elusion rolls. Once upon a time, it let you automatically succeed, and that was fairly broken for support staff during the final fight, but the current version just adds 2 dice, which is still pretty awesome against blights and events (even moreso for the Rogue with Vanish and Enchanter with Ride the Ether) but not so much against the Necromancer.
Choosing one of two blights can help in the final fight, but not even close to the amount that -1 power helps. The clear majority of blights are equally difficult to destroy, and stacking a -1 power makes the relative differences smaller, not bigger.
I really do appreciate your feedback, and it's valuable to know that you got this impression of the Scholar even if you end up changing your mind later. But I think letting you freely choose the location of the artifacts would only encourage players to put them all in the same spot.
Choosing one of two blights can help in the final fight, but not even close to the amount that -1 power helps. The clear majority of blights are equally difficult to destroy, and stacking a -1 power makes the relative differences smaller, not bigger.
I really do appreciate your feedback, and it's valuable to know that you got this impression of the Scholar even if you end up changing your mind later. But I think letting you freely choose the location of the artifacts would only encourage players to put them all in the same spot.
If you think it doesn't matter what blights are generated in the final battle, you're flatly mistaken. There's a clear hierarchy with several levels of gardation.
Tier 1: Spies. This does nothing bad to you on the board or on a failed attack
Tier 2: Monsters. These are easier to destroy because they do not penalize you in combat
Tier 3: Everything Else
With the one that increases Darkness (but is easy to destroy) being in a variable tier depending on how sure you are you can nuke it.
I don't know how I would solve the problem. I might say that each Artifact goes to a specified location, regardless of where you are when you find it, or that it goes to the nearest unoccupied space, or something. Unless that makes the scholar too much of a detriment to a fighting team, in which case I don't know.
Tier 1: Spies. This does nothing bad to you on the board or on a failed attack
Tier 2: Monsters. These are easier to destroy because they do not penalize you in combat
Tier 3: Everything Else
With the one that increases Darkness (but is easy to destroy) being in a variable tier depending on how sure you are you can nuke it.
I don't know how I would solve the problem. I might say that each Artifact goes to a specified location, regardless of where you are when you find it, or that it goes to the nearest unoccupied space, or something. Unless that makes the scholar too much of a detriment to a fighting team, in which case I don't know.
Wow, one year to the day since your previous post!
It wasn't an explicit goal, but yes, that is a consequence of the new rules. Depleting a location was kind of interesting, but I didn't think it was critical to the game, and the new system greatly reduces setup (and the number of components), so I thought it was worth it. I suppose I could add a variant where you keep a count of the number of successful searches in each location and lose the ability to search there (or the search difficulty gradually increases) after a certain number, but it seems like a lot of extra work for little result.
Also, you may be interested to know that I finally found an artist that can keep a schedule, so this game is going to be published. I hope to be recruiting beta testers by the end of the month. (Only 9 heroes for the initial release, though.)
It wasn't an explicit goal, but yes, that is a consequence of the new rules. Depleting a location was kind of interesting, but I didn't think it was critical to the game, and the new system greatly reduces setup (and the number of components), so I thought it was worth it. I suppose I could add a variant where you keep a count of the number of successful searches in each location and lose the ability to search there (or the search difficulty gradually increases) after a certain number, but it seems like a lot of extra work for little result.
Also, you may be interested to know that I finally found an artist that can keep a schedule, so this game is going to be published. I hope to be recruiting beta testers by the end of the month. (Only 9 heroes for the initial release, though.)
Awesome. You might have your testers take a look at the Equinox-Spring combo in the unlikely event that Nymph makes the cut for the first batch. As written it appears that once you have both of those powers, you can refresh all your powers at will even multiple times per turn, as well as changing seasons freely without spending actions.
IIRC, Equinox only allows you to activate a season card. That means you get the effects listed under "Active:" on that season until it is deactivated. It does not inherently give you the effects listed under "Action:" on that season; you need to actually spend an action to get those. The fast-switch from Equinox is, IMO, naturally stronger than the fast-switch the Druid gets from Celerity, so basically you pay for it by not getting the normal one-time fringe benefits of switching seasons.
Even if Equinox gave you the "Action:" effects as well, I don't see how that would let you change seasons freely, since only Spring refreshes your powers. If you switched to some other season, presumably that would still leave Equinox exhausted, and you'd need to use an action (or some other combo) to either refresh Equinox or switch seasons the usual way.
Am I overlooking anything?
Even if Equinox gave you the "Action:" effects as well, I don't see how that would let you change seasons freely, since only Spring refreshes your powers. If you switched to some other season, presumably that would still leave Equinox exhausted, and you'd need to use an action (or some other combo) to either refresh Equinox or switch seasons the usual way.
Am I overlooking anything?