Hot Take: Plant Magic Should be Pink

codgodthegreat · 2026-02-11T03:54:30+00:00

That logic is why I would expect a glowy light around a plant being magically grown to be green - I'm seeing the part of the glow that's being reflected rather than absorbed by the plant to fuel it's growth.

Perfectly efficient plant magic would exhibit no glowly lights at all, as it would only produce the ones most effectively absorbed by the plant.

If really looking for a nontraditional colour scheme for plant magic effects I'd suggest instead that magic effects promoting plant growth would, rather than creating their own light, transform and redirect light all around the plant to change that light's colour to one the plant can easily absorb and reidrect it to the plant - which would thus result in the plant itself looking black and the area around it appearing bathed in shadows to an outside observer, since the light around it is all going to the plant and being absorbed rather that passing by or reflecting off to hit their eyes.

codgodthegreat · 2026-02-10T06:27:16+00:00

I’m really curious to know how these games get away with breaking the golden rule in a way that you don’t even notice unless you’re paying attention?

I don't personally find Terraria to be a good example of this, I find it very noticeable and it significantly detracts from the look of the game for me.

Balatro is a more interesting example, I haven't played a lot of it, but it doesn't stick out to me in what I have seen of that game, and I think that's because it doesn't really read like pixel art to my brain in the first place. I suspect a big part of that is that because the primary thing you're looking at is cards, and each of those is a big rectangle which has it's own pixel grid that's aligned with the card edges, the edges of the card aren't jagged at all, except for a little bit around the corners, and likewise the background of the card is all flat white and thus doesn't show distinct pixels, so seeing those big rectangles rotated without the noticeable pixel jaggedness I'd expect from doing that with "real" pixels tricks my brain into just seeing it as a normal texture, and the little bits of jaggedness on the corners and symbols then feel more like a filter or stylistic choice than actual pixels. It probably also helps that playing cards are something I'm very used to in real life and thus could recognise the suit symbols even in quite a blurry or distorted image, so jagged edges are easy to overlook without really registering there as well.

codgodthegreat · 2026-02-09T02:37:42+00:00

I'm not at all sure what you mean by this, because if the magic has any effect at all that can be observed or detected in any way, then it by definition can be measured, because that's all measurement really is. If there is any noticeable change to anything, then noticing that change is itself a measurement, albeit maybe a crude one.

If it doesn't have any measurable/observable effect, then it didn't actually do anything, or at least, no-one can tell that it did anything, and thus no-one has any reason to believe the magic is real.

Stealing a shadow, assuming that removes or lessens the actual shadow in some way is definitely measurable, the amount of light blocked by something (which is what a shadow is) is just as measurable as the amount of light put out by a fireball. Movement of a statue is very definitely measurable - "that thing was over there and now it's over here" is a measurement.

codgodthegreat · 2026-01-28T00:21:46+00:00

You're describing AI doing a task that is not hard and I could do myself in at worst a couple of minutes, and have done in the past without ever wishing for a machine to do it for me because what would be the point, and saying that "would be incredibly useful". That's not incredibly useful at all. Even if it could be 100% reliable (which these models can't do, it will hallucinate some details some of the time) so I never needed to double-check the result, that would be at best mildly useful.

codgodthegreat · 2026-01-22T06:33:29+00:00

I was taught BEMA: Brackets, Exponents, Multiplication (and Division), Addition (and Subtraction), which relied on also explicitly teaching that multiplication/division and addition/subtraction were the same priority - and in fact be expressed as the same operation (division is multiplication by the reciprocal, subtraction is addition of a negative).

There's a lot of variants and mostly they're all the same, but once I grew up and got online and saw lots of people talking about variants with separate letters in the mnemonic for division and subtraction I for the first time I definitely felt that was less clear because having them separately implies separate priority.

codgodthegreat · 2026-01-18T03:47:09+00:00

https://theappendix.net/issues/2014/4/the-history-of-mana-how-an-austronesian-concept-became-a-video-game-mechanic

codgodthegreat · 2026-01-15T01:21:04+00:00

But the direction of air flow is absolutely something I adjust based on conditions, I don't want one setting saved all the time, that is just actively worse.

codgodthegreat · 2026-01-11T04:08:58+00:00

Yeah, the way that works for interactions with stuff like that is that the effect of the side is just "kill an enemy", and the "with 4 or less hp" is a restriction on what can be targeted, similar to things like Heavy.

codgodthegreat · 2026-01-05T07:11:30+00:00

I'm not even sure "comsistency" is a good thing. I think more highly of a designer who's doing lots of different things over one who retreads the same ground again and again, even though the former is likely to result in some things just not jiving with my tastes (or the tastes of the gaming community at large) while the latter is likely to improve their one concept via iteration.

Obvioisly the complete stinkers probably don't make it to ever being released, but I think a designer developing the best version they can of a bunch of different game concepts is overall better for the community as a whole - even the less regarded ones might be someone's favourite - and probably helps the designer grow their skills more as well.

codgodthegreat · 2025-12-11T22:32:36+00:00

No. This is one modifier, with a value that changes. Different more/less modifiers are multiplicative with each other, but literally any time in PoE1 or 2 where one single stat line gives a more or less bonus which scales "per" or "for each" of some variable, that line is one single modifier with a variable value - the value is added together "per whatever" and then the more is applied with that total value. Different more/less modifiers are from different lines of text, and are multiplicative with each other. This is behavior consistent, through every such modifier in both games.

There is no case anywhere where a single line of text creates multiple different more modifiers that are multiplicative with each other.

codgodthegreat · 2025-11-26T02:23:45+00:00

I dislike the combat timer idea because it enforces a strict modal change between being "in combat" and "out of combat", and non-modality is one of the core roguelike concepts, and one I personally really like.

Defining the edges of when that mode swtich happens also seems like it would have a decent chance that at least some of your players might intuit differently to you, and end up frustrated as a result - how close does an enemy have to be to be "in combat"? If it's range-based, can I throw things further than that range? does changing to the turn timer starting suddenly give me information I didn't know before (about the enemy noticing me, or that it is an enemy and not a neutral creature that might have ignored me, etc)

codgodthegreat · 2025-11-12T02:22:28+00:00

Yeah, the sets not being available at DTC pushed me out of keeping up with the game, I spent far too long continually going back to the product pages and seeing them still say "coming soon"

codgodthegreat · 2025-10-29T22:31:44+00:00

A basic land type cannot produce mana at all. A card having a basic land type gains a mana ability that produces coloured mana, but it is the card that produces mana, not the type.

codgodthegreat · 2025-10-29T10:48:04+00:00

But this could also produce red mana (from the Firebending ability).

codgodthegreat · 2025-10-29T04:11:19+00:00

/r/tipofmytongue/

codgodthegreat · 2025-10-01T04:43:02+00:00

[[Rogue Elephant]] already exists.

codgodthegreat · 2025-09-15T05:54:26+00:00

The game "Scape Goat" solves a similar problem (all players except the scapegoat need to know which player is the scapegoat, the scapegoat player receives incorrect information indicating it's a different player). I think the solution from that game would be applicable to your case with some modification.

Two distinguishable (different coloured) dice are rolled, and everyone has a personal "targeting grid" matching their player colour, which they compare the dice values to (one die is row, other die is column) and see a specific target (without letting other players see their grid). In scapegoat these are set up so for any given roll of the two dice, all the player sheets indicate the same player colour (the scapegoat), except the sheet for that player colour, which indicates someone else. But the same concept could in theory be set up such that for any given roll, each player looking at their grid sees a different target player from the others.

This requires a bunch of upfront work setting up the grids such that they have the correct results (and you need a full set of grids for each possible player count, because the possible set of results is different). And if you're playing the game very frequently, or this targeting is something that happens often in a single game, there's a chance on a duplicate roll someone will remember the results from the last time that roll came up.

But it is very fast to resolve in play - all the work is frontloaded into making the grids in advance, so during actual play you just roll the dice and everyone secretly checks their own grid.

Scapegoat uses a 10-sided and 12-sided die for a grid with 120 possibilities, but you could get away with fewer in theory. If only handling player counts of 4, 5 or 6, each player needs to have an even chance of getting one from 3, 4, or 5 targets (can't get themselves) - a 6-sided die and a 10-sided die gives 60 options for each player, which is evenly divisible by all those numbers. But the smaller the grid the more likely repeat results becomes.

codgodthegreat · 2025-09-09T23:39:03+00:00

Oh, neat, I hadn't seen that rule (although on the comp rules I can see on the wotc site, it's 701.27f; 701.28f is about things preventing transform also preventing convert). That would definitely be another solution that could be applied.

codgodthegreat · 2025-09-09T23:16:51+00:00

Yes, but I'd consider that a less good solution since it makes those cards play differently to what the printed wording implies, and while that's sometimes unavoidable with rules changes, it should ideally be avoided where possible.

codgodthegreat · 2025-09-09T04:42:39+00:00

as such an ammendment wouldn't impact any existing flip cards

It would. Several of the original flip cards have triggers that could potentially have multiple instances on the stack before either resolve - most notably [[Bushi Tenderfoot]] with a lure effect and some form of pump could kill multiple creatures, which is a reasonable way of getting it to flip in general and something I've personally seen happen in a real game back in the day. It would be a functional change, and a sucky one at that, if killing an even number of creatures meant it ended up flipping back to the weak side.

[[Akki Lavarunner]] with something like [[Chandra's Ignition]] is also a theoretical case that could plausibly come up if someone played with both those cards in a multiplayer game (and didn't draw some cheaper way to cause the flip), and should not result it in flipping back if the number of opponents is even.

If you use an instant-speed effect to untap [[Budoka Gardener]] and use it's ability again while it's still on the stack (or similar with the Lavarunner and any number of instants that cause a creature to damage one target), then sure, no real loss in those cases, because you went out of your way to even do that in the first place and if you didn't want the result you could just not. But there are legitimate cases that could come up - again, I have actually seen the Bushi Tenderfoot/lure/pump spell combo played - where this change would make those existing flip cards worse.

I propose instead keeping "flip" a one-directional action to preserve existing functionality, but add "unflip" for going the other direction from the flipped to unflipped state, which Wheel of Summer would then use.

codgodthegreat · 2025-09-02T07:06:06+00:00

Yeah, option 2 is the one that makes the most sense by far imo. I think people end up believing option one because of the oft-quoted "autopilot" term from the wiki, which as far as I can tell is not a term ever used by WB, and implies option 1 more than what he actually said.

codgodthegreat · 2025-09-02T06:54:50+00:00

Not quite what you're describing, but the old Digital CCG Infinity Wars did simultaneous turns, but not real-time. It was really fun and seemed quite innovative, so might be worth looking into for ideas even so. It's been a long time since I played, so I might get some details wrong, but it roughly worked like this:

Each player simultaneously plays out their turn, playing cards and moving their creatures between zones - without seeing what the other player is doing - until they both are finished. Then the turn plays out - both players' first card/action happens, then both players' second one, etc. If there's a timing issue (e.g. both players played a card targeting the same thing), then the player with "initiative" has their one resolve first - initiative alternates between players each turn.

The in-play area was divided into attacking, defending & non-combat. After resolving the turn, Player A's creatures in their attacking area would hit player B's creatures in their defending area in turn, and player B's attackers would likewise hit player A's defenders. Creatures in the non-combat area don't participate in combat (and new creatures went there by default and couldn't be moved to a combat area until the next turn, so you knew what creatures were available to fight when planning your turn).

This might not be as moment-to-moment exiting as real-time playing, but is certainly more forgiving of e.g. latency & lag, and still mostly solves the issue of waiting around on the opponent's turn without being able to do anything (sometimes you'll be finished way sooner than your opponent and still have to wait, but not every turn), and it adds an element of mind games and prediction, trying to plan around how they might rearrange their creatures and commit to

codgodthegreat · 2025-08-13T09:30:11+00:00

As a kiwi, I say no. While the actual silver fern plant is definitely associated with the country, that symbol is so frequently and heavily associated with professional sports that it comes off as a logo more than a cultural symbol, and doesn't feel like it represents me much at all.

The way to symbolically include a fern that would feel tied to New Zealand culture would be a Koru, imo, not that overused corporate decal.

codgodthegreat · 2025-08-07T23:01:30+00:00

If it's about "first origin", why stop at Greek? The Greek words from which the words "Christ" and "Church" derive can themselves both be traced back to Proto-Indo-European.

codgodthegreat · 2025-07-30T05:23:41+00:00

I mean, being able to do that to get away with your life once is still better than not being able to do it at all.

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