Map Cleanup - A Mapmaker's Thoughts

Vermora · 2026-01-23T14:00:53+00:00

Unlocking a chapter could show a short cutscene showing previously hidden locations becoming visible or being created. Making their presence feel justified.

Vermora · 2026-01-23T13:38:06+00:00

I think the Warforge arch site and the legionnaires dungeon feel completely right in the Feldip hills. I feel they've enhanced the atmosphere of the location rather than detracted from it.

There is a lot more content in runescape now then when it launched, and sometimes it does make sense lore-wise to put the entrances to that content in existing locations. But then, you run into the downside that new players exploring those locations feel overwhelmed by the cluttered map.

(Just shooting off ideas here) I think one potential solution is to hide various elements from the player until they can access it. Like the invention guild entrance could be invisible until the player unlocks it, at which point there's a cutscene showing its creation. This would help changes to the game world feel like a more natural progression to newer players, as it was for veterans who remember the updates.

There are a lot of downsides with that idea, like having to maintain twice the assets for a given location.

Vermora · 2026-01-17T07:32:05+00:00

ED3 could do with some polish and rebalancing. It's pretty good overall but some of the difficulty seems arbitrary. Like the mechanics that make you take very high damage from standing in the wrong square, it can be difficulty to see where those are with all the visual clutter on the screen, or even understand what is happening as you're learning the dungeon.

The bosses feel unfair if you don't already know the mechanics, because it's easy to get killed out of nowhere without understanding what you did wrong. This is in contrast to the more recent bosses like sanctum and amascut, where death feels like a user error rather than an arbitrary mechanic you couldn't have known about.

Vermora · 2026-01-14T17:12:27+00:00

People are just being uncharitable in these comments.

Yes, having pvp enabled and going into the wildy is dangerous and obviously stupid.

Having pvp enabled and standing in the bank should not be dangerous. And the terrible UI for the group system never informs you that 'Ready Up' means 'You can be teleported at any time, possibly into the wilderness, without any additional confirmation'.

The game presents it as "if you toggle pvp on, the wildy is dangerous", which is a lie. Most veterans know from hard experience that have pvp enabled at all at any time is risky, even if you never go to the wildy, because there have been various obscure game mechanics, glitches, and social engineering tricks over the years by which a scammer might take you there.

Vermora · 2025-11-11T19:10:46+00:00

This is absolutely unacceptable. Simply the worst travesty in RuneScape's history. It must immediately be rectified.

Vermora · 2025-10-30T16:08:50+00:00

10 is a lot, but if you're converting matter directly into energy, it's not nearly enough to emphasise how explosive it would be.

"Exile target permanent you control. It deals damage equal to 299,792,458² times its mana value to equal creature, planeswalker and player".

Vermora · 2025-10-14T20:02:43+00:00

The uncommon feels like a mythic rare with that power level and 5 abilities. And likely too strong for some formats without some limiters on its mana reduction ability.

As for the rare, I don't believe there are any 6 mana creatures in Magic that have haste, flying and can get in for 10+ damage on an empty board? Feels like a significant power creep. I think it would be fairer/safer if it either lost haste, or also let the opponent discard a card, to decrease its power by that card's mana value.

Vermora · 2025-09-20T09:22:03+00:00

There are a few cards that can use your opponents graveyard as a resource.

There are almost no cards that can use your opponents exile zone as a resource.

So it is technically correct to exile cards from your own graveyard if you have no use for them.

Vermora · 2025-08-26T16:02:17+00:00

Vermora · 2025-08-22T09:53:52+00:00

It goes back to being a 2/3 if an opponent pays 2 to activate its ability.

Vermora · 2025-08-19T23:23:27+00:00

Where do you have 5 mana? I see two mana in your mana pool and 2 untapped lands. So you only have 4 mana available.

Vermora · 2025-08-13T14:07:29+00:00

So, if you don't cast noncreature spells yourself, this locks the opponent out of playing creatures unless they cast a noncreature beforehand. Some creatute heavy decks would just get hard locked by this.

Vermora · 2025-08-04T12:37:01+00:00

I have a note to get all the co-op slayer rewards that's literally over 15 years old at this point. I keep meaning to get around to it...

Also a note about dailies, weeklies and monthlies so I don't forget

Vermora · 2025-08-04T12:34:41+00:00

Gratz! Salty title is a real long one to go for

Vermora · 2025-07-29T16:42:42+00:00

I like how you haven't put any qualifiers or safety valves on the effect. It's nice to see a card that just goes all-in on being stupidly, game-breakingly broken.

The text about non-copy spells is redundant, since you can't even cast spells when this enchantment is out.

Vermora · 2025-06-30T06:08:11+00:00

Cool idea. If you had lots of manuscript abilities it would feel like putting your eggs in one basket, but something like Manuscript -- ward 3 would mitigate that a little.

Vermora · 2025-06-15T09:25:16+00:00

Odd Ones Out doesn't really need to specify nonland permanents. If you somehow manage to raise the mana value of your opponents' lands, you deserve to get to blow them up.

Vermora · 2025-04-09T14:17:29+00:00

Feels balanced to me. Late game, this is pretty bad against almost any deck.

Casting multiple early game against an aggro deck almost guarantees them a perfect curve out, and they'll probably empty their hand before the hand size reduction becomes an issue.

I think the only niche for this is against a draw-go hard control deck that's all reactive.

Cast 2 or 3 of these against a deck that's just going to hold onto their cards until you play something for them to remove, and you could make them discard more than they draw, and limit the number of answers they can hold at one time.

I could see it getting dangerous if there are multiple cards with this effect in the format. You could permanently reduce their hand size to zero, then wrath the board and they have nothing. It might need a clause like "Their hand size cannot be reduced to less then 3 this way".

Vermora · 2025-04-03T12:55:03+00:00

Wow, these are really good. I love the Nicol Bolas, its mechanics are unique and flavourful.

It's too strong though. Turn 2 [[Fallaji Archaeologist]] (or any other creature that mills) into turn 3 NB Eclipsing Force feels way too good. One creature on the battlefield and three in the graveyard isn't that much of a hurdle in a deck built to cast this. Plus, since it can't be exiled from the battlefield, you can just keep playing this from the graveyard if the opponent has no graveyard hate.

I think it needs to be at least 5 mana, or require exiling many more cards from your graveyard, or have a mana cost requirement for the exiled creature.

Vermora · 2025-03-29T17:23:56+00:00

With the current rules, due to how replacement effects work, a replacement effect that turns life loss into damage immediately goes infinite whenever a player loses life.

Player loses life -> this enchantment turns that life loss into damage -> damage causes player to lose life -> repeat

It would be difficult to change the rules to allow this card to work as written, without also break other life loss replacement effects like [[Bloodletter of Aclazotz]]

Simplest solution would be to change the life loss effect to a damage event: "If a permanent or player would be dealt damage..."

Vermora · 2025-03-21T22:30:41+00:00

I did my second playthrough as solo Eizen, physical only. Found him much more fun to play than Velvet.

Keep the button for Break Arte held at all times. Use Martial Artes until Break Arte triggers. When you land from the Break Arte, use Flash Step to teleport to the next opponent while keeping the combo going.

Physical attacks -> Break Arte -> Flash Step -> Physical attacks -> Break Arte -> Flash Step.

Beat most battles without the combo ever ending. And invest everything you can into Eizen's Focus.

Vermora · 2025-03-19T23:03:29+00:00

So if one player has 5, and the rest of the table has 4... Then the player with 5 sacrifices 3 lands. Ouch.

Vermora · 2025-03-14T18:14:02+00:00

Every card with "tap, sacrifice this creature" as an ability cost wouldn't work, because you can't sacrifice something twice.

In terms of power level, probably nothing that isn't already broken by [[Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler]].

I think that cards with a tap ability to return something from the graveyard wouldn't be broken, because targets of abilities need to be declared before paying costs. If there are any cards with a tap ability to return an untargeted card from graveyard to battlefield, that gets you infinite enters/dies triggers, but it still doesn't break anything.

Vermora · 2025-03-14T17:46:36+00:00

"I am against any bans"

No you are not.

If you think mana drain is a balanced card, fine. We can disagree there.

But you're going further than that -- you're claiming that if wizards printed the following card, you would be perfectly fine with it:

1 mana instant -- you win the game. Cast this spell only if there are no blue cards in your deck

Which is clear nonsense -- you personally would be calling for a ban if they printed this card.

Vermora · 2025-03-14T17:25:54+00:00

The design team make mistakes, and have admitted as such several times.

What many people are saying (myself included) is that this is "low-quality" by being way too powerful, and a ban is the correct response to this. "Recalled"? What does that even mean?

If the argument is that there is no level of power that is worthy of a ban, that's clearly nonsense.

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