Strategems

A deckbuilding strategy adventure with a few surprises · By Playcebo

Add to collection

game Community Devlog

Strategems community

Feedback Sticky

A topic by Playcebo created Aug 23, 2022 Views: 1,792 Replies: 76

Viewing posts 1 to 23

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago (1 edit)

Post any feedback on the game here! I plan to change the game and add more polish over time.

jamersjam2 years ago

Although this game is great, i did have a couple of problems.
1. some of the cost balancing is strange. for example, 77 and 79 do the exact same thing except 77 is strictly better (immune) and 41 might be slightly strong. never found a good way to use 67.
2. i only played on the easier difficulty, so this next section applies to that - 53 is absurdly difficult, it took me a good 40 tries due to the fact that the opponent starts with 12 while you start with one - maybe make them start with 8 instead? alongside this, 97 and 100 were a smidge too easy for the finale.
3. The tournament is supposed to be the mode you play once done, correct? if so, it should definitely have more than one board. even though that is quite nicely balanced, having more board variety in the tournament would go a long way.

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago

Thanks for the feedback! I've released a new update.

1. I swapped the numbers of 41 and 61, so covering stones is more expensive.

2. I re-balanced the fights for 53, 97, and 100. The last fights are the hardest for me to balance, so let me know if they still feel off. (Hopefully nerfing 41 made them harder.)

3. I'm planning to add a new post-game tournament eventually, with more variety and difficulty. For now, the intended post-game is to collect all 30 stones. Or start a new file and reach the tournament in 20 battles or less (excluding puzzle battles).

Doggo - SJ2 years ago

Hey! I already gave you feedback in my review- and I should also thank you for finding my stream and letting me know! Sorry I didn't acknowledge your message, I think my CTS (Comments/chat to speech) was bugged or off.
Also, just curious, How did you find my twitch? Did I link it to my itch?

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago (1 edit)

You're welcome! Glad you liked my game.

Yep your twitch was linked in your itch account. I sent my message while you were on break, figuring you could just read it whenever you had a break to read chat. I don't know much about how streaming works. 😅

Doggo - SJ2 years ago

Eh, I'm new to it (relatively, I've been streaming for almost a year now...) but it's cool that you put so much effort into finding an easier way to contact me! I'd love to stream itch games but I currently don't have a proper setup for streaming on my PC.
Your also welcome to join stream as a viewer, I'm extremely lonely cause nobody uses chat- or at least not often enough for me to have consistant interactions to keep new viewers interested.

yes, this is kinda for me, but at the same time (prolly not true) you could have some entertainment from my inevitable screaming and running away from a terrifying entity in Subnautica (I'm a clown, I know...).
Then again, it's up to you. Your more than likely extremely busy with developing your game and what-not, but you are welcome to drop in if you have a chance or want to.

-Doggo/AJ

inquisitor802 years ago

enjoying the game, but interface with the lab is eluding me, i click on the hings but all it says is invalid sum. i have puzzle 2 & 3 unlocked (puzzle 1 is still got me stumped) do i need to have all 3 unlocked before i can do anything with lab?

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago

Oh no! I had accidentally broken Puzzle 1 when updating the AI. I just released an update to fix it.

All the lab puzzles can all be solved immediately. If you want an additional hint: Gur znpuvar fpnaf lbhe qrpx. Lbh arrq gur evtug pneq va gur evtug cynpr. (Rot 13 encoding.)

inquisitor802 years ago

that makes me feel a bit better, i was bashing my head against that puzzle for a few days

i should have seen how the lab worked, i just didn't think those areas interacted.

i have yet to beat 83, that one is a tough one. other than that your lab and puzzles added a nice layer onto the game

keep up the good work :D

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago

Thanks! I'm glad 83 is challenging; I had hoped it would be one of the toughest levels. Don't forget to try out the stones from the lab, they should be... interesting.

Good look finding all 30 stones. : )

inquisitor802 years ago

jura v hfr gur frperg fgbar vafvqr gur ehyrf gno, v pna fryrpg vg, v pna cynpr vg ba gur obneq. vg frgf sverf va nyy qverpgvbaf gura yrgf bhg juvgr yvtug gung oynaxf gur fperra. guvf crefvfgf hagvy v erybnq gur tnzr.

Is this intended behavor (rot13 :)

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago (1 edit)

~~Yep. And it won't be added to your collection when that happens.~~

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago (1 edit)

~~You were warned about it. : )~~

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago

Erfrnepu znl or erdhverq.

PlayceboDeveloper1 year ago

Holy smokes, I seriously misread this. For anyone reading this thread: The rules tab was absolutely not supposed to contain a usable stone! The lab, however, does contain a stone that sometimes does this.

Deleted post357 days ago

Deleted 351 days ago

DKMK1002 years ago

isn't 77 just a better 79?

PlayceboDeveloper2 years ago

Yep, pretty much. : )

If 77 is game-breaking I might change it, but IMO it's fine if 79 is bad.

DKMK1002 years ago(+2)

so far 77 feels pretty balanced, and 79 likely has some niche uses anyway since you only get 3 7s.

MetaMetaPuzzle357 days ago

Two of the ribbons require your deck to be composed entirely of primes. In this case, you can't use 77 but can use 79.

Omshinwa1 year ago (13 edits) (+2)

Wow that's really a fun game. You use the game space so well (using prime numbers, finding all kinds of possible card effects for such simple rules). Right now I'm a bit stuck against prime Master 61 (i might go to the Lab and complete some Rooms since apparently you can get some cheat cards lol? i played the game on challenge mode). I was afraid with the energy number getting so big, the game would suffer from it and becomes less clear. It is sometimes annoying to count numbers together but the game gains depth in deckbuilding.

I'd say the game moves away from being a abstract boardgame (at the beginning you try to place your stones in the middle, occupying space etc, kinda like the game of Go lol), and the more you advance the more the game is just pure card game/deckbuilding lol.
I do like how it really feels like a puzzle game sometimes; where you need to design a deck to counter the opponent's deck. Even when I thought I had a broken deck, I could only use it once before I had to adapt my deck for my next opponents again lol. (like a deck made of 11-stone eggs, 49-stone to unfreeze, and a bunch of cycle cards). I didn't understand at first there's a 6 card limits in hand, so sometimes i was confused when i played the draw 2.

5/5! great game

edit: after beating level 61

Am I correct in assuming the late levels are very hard (impossible?) without the cards from the lab? I love how you somehow manage to raise the difficulty/challenge every time. The balancing is very good and it's very hard to break the game (maybe impossible, even cards like Draw 2 which usually just break card games, it's pretty hard to exploit it, since it also has anti synergy with negative cards that you can only play once and last), I did notice how for the 97 boss, you only have 85 Energy, which is not enough to play two 43-stones lol (the one that makes you next card free, i guess it would be too easy with the draw-2 stone). Often times I would think I have the strongest combinaison/synergy possible, and the next encounter I get beaten to a pulp. It seems it's highly map dependant which is a good thing.

okay now im stuck at 97 wow lol. I have to praise your AI (i don't know how hard is the decision tree), but it is pretty hard and good lol.

edit: i beat it, holy damn that was really tight lol.

my final deck: https://imgur.com/a/TxamvhQ

I beat the final boss but i'm still missing a stone? I guess i get it from the Mining Battles, but I don't really feel like playing those lol, great game!

PlayceboDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for playing! I just realized I forgot to push a major update! Refresh the game and re-check the lab... there should be a new piece of equipment to help you find that last stone!

Omshinwa1 year ago

Thanks for making this game! Oooh alright.

PlayceboDeveloper1 year ago (1 edit)

Mining battles unlock a "card" (a mining pick), but not the last stone. That one is up to you to figure out. The lab will be helpful, though the stone can be obtained almost anywhere.

Omshinwa1 year ago (1 edit) (+2)

My opinion/experience on each card (yea coz im wordy like that):

negative stone: i was perplexed it would break the balance, but i guess it's pretty interesting; you basically have a free very expensive card to play, but you have to play it last and you can't keep your hand (so it's useless on 67-stone Draw 2). I would usually use it early on with -98 or -61, but i think it worked very well with 77-Surround Immune lol.

1-stone: basic, very useful early, sometimes you want to keep some depending on your max energy. (Like against the guy that turn your deck into 37-stone and you had like 40 energy, my deck was just 1-stones). Being able to place a stone is always good.

2-burn: useful in early game. I'm not sure getting a +1 burn for twice the price is worth.

3-cycle: wasn't useful in early game, but late game I think it becomes a very good card so you can search for a Draw 2 when you need one, or discard a Negative stone when you don't need it. It's pretty cheap so it can just replace the 1-stone when you have enough energy. I tested 9-stone, but 3-stone seemed to work well enough, 27 doesn't seem worth it though.

5-freeze: really good early game, i'd say much better than burn lol, the 5-primeMaster was quite hard early on. It's kinda funny how early in the game, it's important to remember to use your most expensive cards if you can, and keep your 1-stone in hand so you can play them next turn.

7-immune: good thought that you limited the numbers of stone we had available lol. Otherwise fighting primeMaster 19 would have been much easier. Good stone throughout, it's really what allows you to set in stone something, though I kinda just used -77 late game.

11-surround: MVP lol, I think even early it's quite nice (i tried to unfreeze it with 49-stone, quite fun). It's really useful when you need to quickly gain space and there's a limited amount of turn (like against primeMaster 97). Late game it becomes quite cheap too.

13-bewitch: i was really confused what it did at first, took me quite a few games to actually understand how it worked. It depends on the opponent we're fighting, i think it's mandatory against those last fights where the Prime Master has 300 Energy.

17-diagonal movement: kinda funny, I think I used it for some specific maps, but in the end the 23-stone might be better in general?

19-destroy all surrounding: oh lord when you get this, it's when the stones get really insane. This has nice chemistry with 7-immune, I had some fun trying to destroy everything and putting 7-stones in the empty spaces. Really cool stone and not that much worse than 31-stone or 61.

23-jump: I didn't really it much, but when i started using it late game it was really good, you can really rush down and take a lot of space with 11-stone.

29-stays in hand: mhh didn't use it at all lol, i don't think it's very good? Kinda expensive?

31-remove stone: very fun like 19-stone, but also has a slightly different use case (19-stone can destroy up to 3 enemy stones, 31 always destroy 1 enemy stone but anywhere). So 31-stone doesnt need the 7-stone to work well, but it's quite more expensive.

37-copy: kind of a gimmick lol? I don't think it's very useable either.

41-reverse colors: very weird, didn't use it, don't know how to use it well. But it does beat Immune.

43-next card is free: was always kinda too expensive to be useable? And when you could start using it, you have minus stones for expensive cards instead. Also it's very conditional, it can often become a dead card in hand.

47-discard: it's really just an AI-card, I don't think players will really deckbuild with that.

53-time: looks fun but i didn't use it much. seems too expensive.

59-remove from deck: oh lord, very bold to include this card. You basically have to make sure any 3 card combinaison doesn't insta-win the game. I might have used it a few times to get 61, -61 and 43 in hand or something lol.

61-cover other: very cool idea again, it's highly dependent on turn count. I felt sometimes it was too slow/not worth,

67-draw2: the long awaited draw2 card lol, man that primeMaste 67 was insane. Really cool card, very useful even this late.

71-factor: i didnt understand at first. It's very situational? The only use case I found was using it with a 81 (4 * 3-stone cards) to get a really early lead, but even then it's luck dependant. Most of the time you would it, you just get trash in the deck.

79-surround stone: was okay, i used it a bit, but then just used 77 instead lol.

83 to 97: didnt use them lol, 89 is just a card for AI. 97 comes too late (and i guess it's too expensive). 83 might have some potential but didnt test.

X stone: maybe useable, but doesn't seem that good (too random).

Repeat the last card: i think it's a bad card.

Calculator: best card in the game obviously, but actually it's not by too much. I like how the value stays the same throughout a game. It's a nice gameplay balance, you get to choose immediately any card (good short-term) but it might unbalances your deck composition long-term.

JUSTCAMH1 year ago(+2)

Damn this game is so so awesome! I love how each challenge and stone is so different, that you really need to reorganise your deck for almost every battle. Really got to try out all of the stones, even that secret stone (which seems cool tho idk how to really use it… is it really that powerful?? The one thing I could think of was negating a negative to earn heaps of free energy, though was a big setup for seemingly marginal reward). I’m really glad that the game saves progress, excited to come back and hopefully beat that stone stealing boss, he’s insanely tough!

helllllllllllllllllllllo1 year ago(+1)

you can make it where fire from the 2 stones can be used on frozen stones to thaw them out and make it possible to expand on them, but it takes 1 turn to thaw because it would be unfair if your opponent froze one of your stones and you immidiently melted it

MetaMetaPuzzle357 days ago (4 edits) (+1)

Some observations/suggestions:

Maybe swap the effects of 47 and 53? In the endgame, being able to play 47 twice is very powerful, and a deck built out of 47 and 13 will easily beat the final boss.
The fhccerffrq ahyyfgbar says "Immune", but doesn't really seem to have that effect.
Since the effect of 7 doesn't stack, 49 has an additional special effect. However, 11*11 and 13*13 don't seem to have any additional effects.
7 is immune to 37-infect, but not 47-discard or 89-steal.
If fhccerffrq ahyyfgbar is stolen by 89 or copied by M-stone, it becomes unplayable again.
194 (2*97) doesn't have a similar effect to 34.
94 incorrectly states the order of its actions.
This is a great game :)

Edit: I also found a bug: If you win (or tie) a match and then press "Concede", it counts as both a win *and* a loss? I tied and pressed Concede and in my stats it said I had abandoned -1 games

PlayceboDeveloper356 days ago(+1)

Thanks! I did a small update addressing most of these issues:

Swapping 47 and 53 is a neat idea (47 might be a fun boss!), but for now I just tweaked the final boss instead. (He now has two 87 (sticky+cycle) and always starts with a 67.)
Not immune: Oops! Fixed. (It was immune on-board, but not when played.)
I doubled the effects of 11*11 and 13*13, and improved 194. Thanks for the suggestion! (I didn't make 11*11 and 13*13 very strong.)
Immune to 47/89: Ah, that's a tricky one. For now, I've kept it as-is. (My logic for excluding them was that 47 and 89 only affect the card, while 37 affects the 7-stone itself (in a sense). Plus, I'm unsure how to make immunity to 47/89 feel right. I might change it so that attempting to steal or discard a 7-stone simply turns it face-up and plays a sound effect.)
89 unplayed / M unsuppressed: Hopefully fixed... I have total spaghetti code here, because two different stones share the same number.
94: Discarding will now occur before burn, because automatic actions should always go first.
Concede bug: Fixed.

Omshinwa355 days ago

omgg you made stones higher than 100? daang gotta play that again sometimes

PlayceboDeveloper355 days ago

FYI, there is not much support for stones 101 - 200. They all have the same sprite, and they're hard to use since you're still capped at 100 Energy. They are unlocked by completing the mining levels M1 - M10. (Composites only. Primes above 100 don't have any effect.)

Completing M10 does give an additional reward, which you might want to use for some of the Ribbon challenges in the tournament (if you haven't done those already).

Omshinwa355 days ago(+1)

alright, yea i dont think you need stones above 100 lol, your game was already really well tightly designed ( i still love how you used the concepts of primes and composites for mixing up powers together lol )

MetaMetaPuzzle353 days ago(+1)

89 unplayed / M unsuppressed: Hopefully fixed... I have total spaghetti code here, because two different stones share the same number.

It's totally broken please help it's not unplayable at all with X

PlayceboDeveloper352 days ago(+1)

Thanks! It's fixed now (apart from a visual bug with M-stone).

Deleted post351 days ago

Deleted 351 days ago

MetaMetaPuzzle351 days ago(+1)

I think doubling the effect of 13*13 broke regular 13. It's starting to steal more energy than the opponent has...

PlayceboDeveloper350 days ago

Sorry about that! Fixed now. Turns out it was an order-of-operations issue!

if(  stoneNumber % DRAIN_FACTOR * DRAIN_FACTOR == 0   )
      { drainMultiplier = 2 }

MetaMetaPuzzle349 days ago(+1)

I don't see how this is related to these bugfixes, but enemies burning multiple tiles will burn only one.

PlayceboDeveloper349 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

Thanks so much for all the bug-finding! Fixed.

(details: When improving 194, I added (buggy) code to abort the tile-burning process early.)

MetaMetaPuzzle109 days ago(+1)

Another bug: If you play a card which uses a slow animation with no player input (-1, 13, or 47), then click repeatedly on empty spaces, you can play free copies of that card for as long as the animation persists.

PlayceboDeveloper108 days ago (3 edits) (+1)

Thanks, should be fixed now. (Certain input is now frozen while playing a card. Hopefully no obscure interactions will softlock battles -- I'll do more testing later.)

MetaMetaPuzzle103 days ago

If you cycle a card and then use an INPUT stone with the discard selector, it will think you have discarded and will only let you discard cards you can play (which includes 29, if you have any in your hand.)

PlayceboDeveloper102 days ago

Fixed! Thank you.

1_Pinchy_Maniac328 days ago(+2)

i think that the mining battles shouldn't have a cap on hand size since if your hand gets full of the over 100 stones you can't factor them since you need room in your hand in order to do that

DaBrian138 days ago

Is the X stone just being an X stone after I used the X stone with 29 energy (Stays in hand) a feature or a bug?

PlayceboDeveloper137 days ago

It appears to be working correctly. It should continue copying the effect(s) corresponding to your current energy. In this case, quite a few effects...

DaBrian132 days ago

The game crashed, which means there are some effects that allows for that.... aren't there?

PlayceboDeveloper131 days ago

If the screen turned white and Esc lets you exit, the crash is intentional.

helllllllllllllllllllllo137 days ago

i managed to lose all of my progress, web version, i don't really care about that because i didn't get too far

PlayceboDeveloper136 days ago (1 edit)

Sorry about that! Thanks for letting me know.

(I upgraded the save system from "playerprefs" to "indexedDB" a year or two ago and tried to maintain save compatibility but maybe I messed up. Alternatively, you might have fully cleared your browser cache in a way that wipes all indexedDB data.)

helllllllllllllllllllllo135 days ago(+1)

i think itch.io's servers just forget about my progress, it's happened before with your other game (factor crafter) and when i've tried commenting a lot of times itch.io always just told me that their servers were down

Turtlord_J16 days ago

I'm probably a little late for feedback but why does 0 have to softlock the game? I know you can refresh but its annoying for offline play and doesn't really add much to the game. You don't really have to try to get it, I got it completely by accident using the gem that matches your current energy having a multiple of 29

PlayceboDeveloper16 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

If you're playing the web version, press Escape to exit the softlock. If that doesn't work in the downloadable version then it is out-of-date and I'll fix that shortly. [edit: I have added Esc to the listed controls.]

Turtlord_J15 days ago

Oh ok thanks, I didn't know of that control.

PlayceboDeveloper16 days ago

(It's important that 0 ends the battle in some way, both for balance and puzzle reasons.)

icely16 days ago

This may not be the same softlock but I had a viewer who said "i was playing against 89, and im guessing what happened is that 89 stole my X and played it as a 0 and that broke the game" and reports the game being unplayable even after a refresh. Did not try this myself but thought maybe it was worth relaying

PlayceboDeveloper16 days ago

Huh, that's odd. I will look into it. Playing 0-stone basically just turns the screen white without affecting the save file or anything, so I'm a bit baffled.

icely16 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

sorry, the person who sent the bug report clarified "saw your bug report. for the record, ai played 0 against me, it softlocked the game, but was playable again after a refresh. something in M1 (specifically, me playing the 27 with a full hand) permanently bricked the game for me, even after a refresh" (so yeah I knew the 0 softlock is intentional but wasn't sure if that's what the player meant)

the person also says it's bricked webgl totally so it may be a coincidence :/ sorry

MasN316 days ago(+1)

-77 completely ruins the game.

The moment I made it, I just kept it in my deck for the rest of the game and never had a challenge the whole game.

PlayceboDeveloper16 days ago (1 edit)

Good point. I think I will add "...and remove this card" (i.e. Exhaust) to -1 stone in the next update.

aguyx18716 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

I beat it in one night, really great! Though, i feel like the final boss was a pushover. Granted, I haven't played challenge mode yet, but I just needed some 11s, 23s, a 49, and a claw to humiliate it. maybe you could have it play stones above 100?

PlayceboDeveloper16 days ago (1 edit)

Thanks, I'll consider adding a few holes to the boss stage to make 11 a bit weaker.

tttoby16 days ago

i love the game but i cant handle accidentaly dragging on to the board

is there any way you could add a setting for that

PlayceboDeveloper16 days ago

Sure. You want to disable dragging, so that cards must be clicked once to grab, then clicked again to place?

tttoby15 days ago

yes

snickerdoodle2416 days ago(+1)

Really enjoyed the game! Super creative idea, and quite challenging.

MasN315 days ago(+1)

When discarding a card (to a 3), its annoying to click on a keypad when I'm trying to discard it.

PlayceboDeveloper14 days ago

I've added it as a cheat code for now. Toggle it with Shift+D.

andymakespasta15 days ago

Just wanted to say, this is an amazing piece of art and design. It's just so... elegant.

My one suggestion is maybe a mulligan for the initial draw, or a way to manipulate your initial hand. The reason being, many builds snowball, so a terrible initial hand can lose you the match. Outside of the tournament, and challenge run attempts, I found myself resetting if it didn't get a good starting hand, as this felt faster than playing a middling hand. I sometimes overdid it, and tried to force a semi-rare initial hand. (optimizing the fun out of the game).

P.S. Does the efficient achievement require being in challenge mode vs casual mode?

PlayceboDeveloper15 days ago

Thanks for the suggestion, I will consider it. FWIW, all levels can be completed consistently, without needing an unusually good hand.

The achievement can be done on either difficulty. Note that changing a file's difficulty from Casual to Challenge will add an asterisk after Challenge*, so the game does essentially track which difficulty was used.

Omshinwa14 days ago

Does changing a save's difficulty instantly lock you out (say i misclick) or it's only when I start a game on the lower difficulty?

PlayceboDeveloper14 days ago(+1)

Only when you start a match, yeah.

mike239x15 days ago(+1)

I gotta share my creation I’m quite proud of - it’s -187. Despite the game claiming it’s prime (I think it’s a bug for numbers lower than -100), it is actually -1x11x17. Combining diagonal star + freeze egg, it fills everything in 3x3 area with its frozen copies. People have been saying how nice 77 and -77 are, but for me this one was the most game breaking. Its ability to infiltrate into enemy territory and just take up space is second to none.

SlinkyFungus75614 days ago

hey author, i truly love the concept of this game and i wanted to ask you something

so basically i know coding is hard, and texturing everything in the game might be tedious, especially when there needs to be a texture for basically every stone from 0-100 and more, so i wanted to ask if you would want help with the textures, because it's holiday and i'm just...bored :v

and i've been sitting in the pool thinking stuff when i took a sketchbook and i drew what everything would look like for this game, the gems, GUI, only... the people/humans would be hard to do ;w;

but basically i wanted to ask if you would want help in texturing the game because even if the current textures took some time to do (because they definitely did), they kinda look like placeholders... so yeah i'm here if you would want to reach out or something idk

PlayceboDeveloper12 days ago(+1)

I'd be happy to take a look. Feel free to email me at hoffman.jeremy98@gmail.com

I'm pretty happy with the gem designs, but I'd be curious to see what ideas you had, and I do want to reskin the GUI eventually.

penthexium562 days ago

You should add some kind of almanac (not the deck menu type) that's basically an almanac of all stones from 1 to 100, the special stones (negative 1, 0, x, mirrorstone) and the tools plus maybe some the stones after 100.

penthexium562 days ago(+1)

The almanac should also have some kind of unlock-to-view thing. I'd say that all non-composite stones get unlocked in the almanac when you get them (e.g. you can view 13 in the almanac when you beat the 13-prime master) and composite stones get unlocked when you craft them. (e.g. you can view 6 after you create the 6-gem, by merging a 2 and 3 gem together)

PlayceboDeveloper1 day ago

I'll plan on adding it eventually once I improve a few of the stone designs

penthexium562 days ago

Also, the fact that 23 is rock and by merging it with 2 makes it become 46, which seems to be some kind of flat rock. If you do so again, you get 92, which is a paper airplane, quite funny I'd say. The evolution is so random.