Hi! I just wanted to drop off my initial impressions/feedback from the Casino. I'd guess I'd messed around for 8 hours or so with it.
MnM
First and foremost, the experience / time invested for this isn't particularly good by comparison to match 3. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's worth noting that if you're looking to rush into the 30+ room, it's a waste of time to play MnM in the low tier rooms.
The group bonuses were nice - I noticed at one stage the regular tables were more advantageous to play at due to all the buff. It's a good mechanic that helps keep the game varied.
There's some adjustments needed with the abilities, I think:
Firstly, Mindgnaw & Skewer should be mutually exclusive with each other.
Let's assume that the second slot abilities (Prey & Execution) aren't considered as they're typically used at the end of a battle.
If you're trying to use Skewer, you're looking for an odd number on your opponent, and it's a powerful ability if you can get that condition. However, Mindgnaw, your only alternative attack, doubles its damage when a roll is below X (6 at rank 1, but it goes higher) - the trouble with a roll being doubled is it always deals an even amount of damage, meaning it's particularly difficult to satisfy the odd number condition on Skewer.
It usually ends up being more strategically viable to simply spam Skewer.
Crushing Blow & Execute are perfectly fine.
Lurk, however, is significantly better than the other attacks - the reason for this is twofold. The opening damage is significant, especially at higher ranks, but of particular concern, the 2d6+X means it has consistent bonus damage that other attacks do not have. So not only is it a powerful opener, it's good as a primary attack.
While my sample size is small, once I hit the pro room I was regularly able to achieve (albeit lose shortly thereafter due to RNG or some such) 7-8000 points.
In order to bring it back in line with the other abilities, I'd suggest keeping the opening damage the same, but changing the extra damage to 2d6-1 (instead of 2d6), so over the course of a game other options are still compelling.
If you're looking to go far, it's nearly always worth ditching a Skewer hero.
Finally, the rewards - they're not great, unless you're after a specific recipe. I did complete a run of MnM and received several tokens and ~17000 councils. It felt like an accomplishment having defeated a wall of RNG, but the reward did not match at all.
If anyone wants to try replicate this sort of strategy:
- Max Lurk as soon as you can.
- If you have execution, it's worth maxing. Use execute if there's even a 1 in 6 chance of killing your opponent with it (as you'll likely finish them off next round without taking damage regardless, you can save a bit of HP here).
- If you don't have execution, instead put those points into potions.
- You can usually safely claim prizes up to around floor 4-5 (with about 4 tokens).
- It's not worth fighting "the boss" (I've only reached this guy once) unless you've explosives to back up your damage - they have a lot of HP and you outright need consumables to keep up with them.
Teddy Bear is A+ though.
At any-rate, this may not be optimal but that's my experience with the system so far. Personally, I don't think I'm likely to spend a large amount of time on the casino in general again, but it was ridiculously enjoyable for an afternoon.
Match 3
So I'm terrible at this, I can't comment on the game-play because I suck at it, but I think that's an issue. It seems the "good" rewards come much later and the average player isn't going to see those levels, yet the rewards are balanced around achieving those thresholds.
Again, due to my ignorance on the matter, I'd personally like to see reward counters not reset when you achieve an award (I.e. Lemon = 20, and Green Glass = 35 afterwards, but once you get 20 lemons, the green glass counter shouldn't reset) - I can only presume this is intentional, but it really makes the rewards underwhelming when you spend 500 councils to get a potato.
30+ Room
I finally got in this room and was ultimately underwhelmed. This is largely due to how you have to excessively grind to enter - you'd anticipate some sort of reward, but it's more of the same.
This isn't inherently bad, but it'd be interesting if "high-stakes" meant something else - i.e. you could play for blessing/curses on your character. It's not so much that I expect to see anything along those lines, but if there were a game to pull those kinds of shenanigans, it'd be project gorgon. It feels like wasted potential.
That said, while MnM isn't significantly improved, it feels almost like a complete waste of time playing slots in the general area.
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Basically, the casino games are exceptional but the rewards are lackluster. My main concern is that eventually, as players learn and understand the mechanics, the rewards will consistently be better, but new players will always be lagging behind; I don't want to see the casino become a hub of infinite money or anything of the sort, but I feel like having some daily diminishing returns on rewards would help make the place more appealing long-term.
I.e. The loot tables for match-3 slowly decline as you play (starting from more valuable items to potatoes), or a daily counter for MnM where rare events can occur with unique rewards, and each time one of these rewards triggers, you're less likely to see them until tomorrow.
Another option would be special tables that require tickets that drop from monsters, for example.
The casino needs to feel rewarding, but if it's overly rewarding players will quickly burn out - we need some sort of compromise here, I think.
Like I said, it was fun for an afternoon, but I just can't justify sitting there for another X hours, and if I did I'd quickly burn-out.
Anyway, they're just some initial thoughts - at the end of the day I had a bunch of fun and overall it was well worth the wait.