Comment on What Are Some Good Card Videogames?
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months agoAbsolutely. I miss the OLD Cultist Simulator before they made changes to the success system, but it’s still a really awesome game.
Comment on What Are Some Good Card Videogames?
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months agoAbsolutely. I miss the OLD Cultist Simulator before they made changes to the success system, but it’s still a really awesome game.
nttea@kbin.social 8 months ago
What changes? I played the shit out of cultist simulator around its release date but didn't complete all dlcs, always meant to come back to it at some point.
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Before the Scars system was introduced, probabilities for most tests were 30%/70%/100% at the 1/5/10 threshold. After scars were added, it became 30%/70%/90% at the same threshold. This modification changed Cultist Simulator from a game of secret knowledge and skill, to a game of chance.
It most importantly affected grinds and expedition and weakened the cult choice. It affected grinds because you could no longer have a cultist be your income long-term. Craftwork? Your Shapers (exalted Forge cultist) will eventually become corpses if you keep crafting. Previously, that’s just how you’d make money as the Unflinching Order.
And then expeditions. The lategame used to be expedition rushes with your prepared cult always winning. Now, it’s another coin toss. First, you find yourself just summoning up a bunch of demons and hirelings because it’s too dangerous to risk scarring a cultist (and except curses, screw success rate. Just keep throwing stuff at it till you get through)… And then there’s curses… unless you enter each mission situated to pull
An Imminenceon demand (not trivial especially considering how short-lived influences are), you are risking that chance of pulling a curse and losing a permanent attribute. The current “best practice” is to build up heart influence and “talk loop” it before entering any expedition that carries a curse.Taking a step back… I wrote the original cult guide on reddit. One thing I loved about Cultist Simulator was how much your cult choice influenced your gameplay despite how little it technically did. The reason? The 100% success rate on ONE action, that nobody else could have. Go Forge? Safe money. Go Edge? Safe from anyone that breathes (literally, Assassins meant you could disregard notoriety entirely as long as you took the time to murder every investigator). Go Heart? Perfect shield from notoriety. Grail? Safe (imperfect, you could fail but not die) handling of people and kidnapping, etc. Scars made “let’s try it” more viable for off-cult, while reducing the 100% success rate made cult-specific builds disappear.