Aloyzo's Arsenal Discussion Thread

@Flaxative
I haven't watched the video, as I can't yet, so take this with a grain of salt.

First off, it's your decision along with the game developers as to what items to include, obviously. Personally, I don't really care what wins (well, I may slightly favour my own items, and items I would use) as long as it doesn't upset the game too much, and I have no desire to debate this for ages, as AA is (mostly) just for fun.

However, in the contest thread it was pretty explicit that a maximum of one monster card could be used.
"Items do not need to include a monster-only card to have a chance at winning: you may include one, or zero."
"Each submitted item may have up to one(1!) currently monster-only card on it."

I don't think you should hold people to a rule and then allow an item to break that rule through. Obviously, if you hadn't placed that rule, there would have been all sort of wacky items that didn't really have any place in the game, or at least, in player's possessions. There were enough of them anyway (but not so many, I think, that is was required to select one which broke the guidelines/rules). It was a good rule to include.

Essentially, what I want to say is: If you let winning entries break the rules (or very very strong guidelines, at least), you will have more entries breaking said rules. Future AAs will have more out of place items. If that's what you want, that's your prerogative, but you will have to sift through more unsuitable items.

Anyway, to end this on a friendly note: Congratulations to the winners again, and I look forward (mostly) to seeing these items in game. I think, overall, they were a pretty good choice, and none will become must-have items.

 

Thanks for the video @CT5 & @Flaxative! The art for all five items are really nice. Did you get Ben to do those? (If not, take it as a really big compliment )

Gongrats to all winners too @SceoMyntan, @Duke Tresnor, @j3st3ri & @Inkfingers! Interesting items again. I was really surprised about both of the winning staves, though I will leave the actual debate for others.

Lastly, I'd like to thank @DupleX, @DunDunDun & @CT5 who helped me to pick the boots among my many drafts and came up with the final item name.

 

I know this is off-topic...
Typos are the best... a certain guild would know...
Gong-ringing rats need to be added next expansion.

 

I like the Festering Guts skill...I like the Tongue Staff...Spritastrophe...ehh kinda cool but not as good as the other 2.

And then...the Muscle Through Boots. Are you friggin' serious? Are you yanking my chain? Did you seriously just pick 2 virtually identical useless inventory fodder items? For what? For feeding your Muscle Through fetish?! They don't even have a really cool monster theme... or a good Halloweenish vibe.

Muscle Through has one use and one use only. To let lucky noobs win at Geomancer League. Yes that is Muscle Through's true purpose, and it is not virtuous at all.

No Muscle Through. No Muscle Through. No more Muscle Through!

And did you seriously mention one of the two awesome proboscis items, and decide...you know what we really need, we need not one, but two friggin' boots with Muscle Through. We have to hammer it into these players' heads that Muscle Through is awesome and the only way you will realize this is if we keep throw more Muscle Through in your face so you can Muscle Through while you Muscle Through Through Muscle. Use Muscle Through! Come on! Just once...please?! Look it's in the Halloween store. Not one, but two Muscle Through items. Why not try it? I'm sure you'll like it. Just try it once! You'll never go back to Violent Spin ever again. Trust me!

Where do you want your Muscle Through today?

Got Muscle Through?

The Cattleman's Muscle Through Association approves of the suggestion to use more Muscle Through. Clearly not enough Muscle Through is being used which can cause the following problems: Depression, boredom, anger at the wrong items being picked for Halloween and irritability.

Notice: Muscle Through is not intended to treat or fix bad ELO. Use of Muscle Through may lead to a loss of ELO. The official recommended use of Muscle Through is 0 per deck.

Well there's only one Halloweenish-like goal accomplished with the decision of the...you know...two...Muscle...Through...items. You have thoroughly scared me. I just seriously cannot comprehend this decision.

 

Glad to see some more competitive-oriented items this time around

Also @Flaxative, the audio seems to be panned hard to the left for some reason. Next time you should put one of you in each ear or just have both of you in stereo or something.

 

They all have a little Ben in them, but the item icons you're looking at are fairly heavily photoshopped by yours truly

@Killer74 , @GregarFalzar , fairly stated points. Given that there's already such a high volume of whacky submissions, I'm not too worried about needing to sift through a few more. I actually hope that the selection of Tasty, Tasty Staff encourages good designers to continue pushing the envelope a bit. I want exciting, new item submissions from people who are good at designing items. A lot of folks will shoot for the moon and fail—as they honestly already are (I can find you lots of examples in the submission thread if you want). But I really respect Inkfingers's design here. There was another submission I liked a lot with two monster cards (@Kalin's). I think some of these expectations issues will disappear as the contest runs for more months.

Weird, I'll take a look for future videos. Thanks!

Personally, I like it when lucky noobs traumatize ragers. Also, LOL at your post. Happy halloween to you too.

Duly noted.

 

Personally, I'm not very interested in any of these, but as always, congrats to those who designed the winning items. Enjoy!

Also, this is probably the last time I'll enter the contest, as it's evident I don't know how to design items. That being said, I hope one of you design something that will be useful for me one day. I could use the help, haha.

 

Then Adapted To Sonic will not be a complete waste of an attachment slot!

 

They were drifting left for the entire 20 minutes it took to record the vid

 

Congratulations, all!

Nice video, Flax'n'CT5, and sorry about the tech difficulties. $F^ | But yay it was like 99.9% clean! $E^ D lol

(Sorry for not really linking ppl's names and things. Taking a long break from cleaning and my computer's been extra laggy slow today thus I don't want to research all the facts atm.)

I, too, find it weird that Tasty, Tasty Staff made it, but I understand why -- especially the strange Parryableness gotcha.

I seriously thought Dooris was gonna make it! Yeah, sure, no Move cards on Boots. Immovable is the Door monster's racial Move card! $E^ b Plus, I don't recall if I said it on the forum, but I was totally gonna go for a Door item but was beaten to the punch. I didn't have any particular name yet, though -- nice job on the name.

Spritastrophe rocked as soon as I saw it, although I keep having to stop myself from calling it Spiritastrophe for some reason, ha ha.

Interesting (and good) decision to up Festering Guts' quality so hard. It's already a game-changer in MP ever since EttSC let us randomly get it sometimes. To actually choose and plan for it, oohh wow scary. $E^ b Also, hey, isn't that the first fully (non-hybrid) Drawback card to get anything other than black quality? And it flew straight to purple of all things?! Hoo-wee. Good news is everyone's been wondering when we'd get another purple player card, right? Lol. Anyway you slice it, a purple black card is hilarious! $E^ b

I really thought @CT5's had a good chance of winning. I was prepared to follow up on Flax's and my joking banter on nepotism and everything, lol. Although I see the point of Free Action potentially confusing players, (like maybe they'd get it mixed up with Cantrip,) it's not just the one monster doing that. There's this whole thing in the Campaign about monster groups getting limited actions -- which even Melvin speaks about on the official How to Play page -- yet with some cards overcoming that limitation. (Monkeys remain my main mental image. (More alliteration/consonation!)) Furthermore, look how much confusion already occurs for newcomers concerning Slide, Slide Back (and its angles), Push, Move, Difficult Terrain, and Zone of Control; isn't there already at least one card that reads "if a monster plays this" or something like that? (Y'know, correct me if I'm wrong.) One more thing shouldn't be too hard to add to the learning ~~~ To address somebody's statement in this thread that Scan was .. bad in some way, like, not very usuable or something, I don't recall now .. look, your opponent sees you facing one way, now suddenly you're facing 90 degrees to the right, and (most likely) you just drew cards for your allies! Boom, very nice, I was looking forward to trying that. $;^ ]

Argy Bargy Brand Sneakers are probably gonna rock. I fully expect Crusher to interact with it. (It's like the difference between Spin Around and Slowed -- and all those Magic Attack cards that don't go from 0 to 1-2 damage with Arcane Shell/Aura because they're simply non-damaging vs. 0-damaging. (Another "gotcha" newcomers have to learn, btw, often the hard way...))

I'm basically writing this from memory of video and submissions and things; I've already forgotten things I wanted to say about other items -- winning and losing -- and this has taken too long as it is. $:^ }

/afk

 

Hm. Festering Guts being Amethyst should push the cost up... what, 1x Amethyst, 2x Paper (assuming Shuffle is plain paper) => level 15, which seems to usually mean a single minor token. Purge becomes even more important.

Not sure I want to see a dwarf wizard running Perfect Ferocity for Frenzy Aura and Blind Rage and then angrily murdering things with a range-5 armor-piercing tongue, but at least it would be an interesting way to get licked.

 

Shuffle is paper-; Infected is level 13.

 

First off, congrats to the winners! I'll skip specific comments on them, as yous'll get plenty of attention already. Here are some non-winning items I liked, in no particular order:

@Robauke Lively Heartwood Branch — Robauke wasn't the only one to find the Entangling Roots / tree monster opportunity, but I liked that they found a name ("Lively") that explained why the roots and big bashy attacks were on the same card. Not sure how the branch helps you Muscle Through, but not totally opposed to it either. (Is there a movement card that has pole-vaulting art?)

@Punf Trained Panicking — The best laugh on the whole thread. You can immediately identify the monster, the cards alone are hilarious, and the name riffing on classic skill names is the perfect touch on top of all that.

@CT5 Stout Surveyor — If you'd asked me what I thought about a camera-themed submission, I'd have raised an eyebrow. But putting it on a Dwarf skill and calling it Stout Surveyor earned it a giant grin. A really fun way to put a unique card into the game.

@Dueq Gnomish Sticky Shield — I admit I didn't go to the wiki to compare this to gnomes, but I like that you found three different ways to stick with the mechanical theme. I can picture a gnome waist-deep in garden soil, refusing to budge and swiping people's ankles from under his giant shield. Icy Block works with the mechanical theme but not flavorfully, so I would either change that card or change the item name.

@3beaner Gnomish Stoutness — The short, annoying character has showed up in every D&D campaign I've played in, so it would be great to see it represented on a player item. Oh wait, that's because I always make that character.

@Dieben Flail of Many Heads — I didn't like most of the "6 different card" items because they tend to dilute the flavor. But a flail of hydra heads is an awesome exception! Ironically, your monster card (Eyes Everywhere) is the one part that doesn't fit the concept, as I can't picture one of the flail heads giving you 360º vision. I think Infected Bite would have been a better choice.

@Fanturluche Feral Boots — You actually used two of the winners' tactics in a more restrained fashion than they did, which I appreciate in a contest that tempted people to go over the top. Adding the second monster card was totally reasonable here, and Mad Dog is a safer way to introduce the popular Festering Guts effect. Flavorwise, the concept of boots that still have some live dog in the leather felt like a perfect fit in Card Hunter's funky world.

@Fortaleza Mutant Grub Egg Hide — I know basically nothing about the multiplayer metagame, but Leathery Hide seems like a great new effect to put in people's toolboxes. Maybe a little short on flavor (is there a third card you could have found?), but Toughened Hide Strips makes sense and I like the ick factor.

@DupleX Rumbling Clodhoppers — Combining Telepod Jaunt with Rumbling Charge was a great idea. You've imitated the monster perfectly but the random element makes it slightly less powerful and slightly more fun, both of which were definitely needed. Also credit for using the word Clodhoppers.

@Frostguard Dog's Dodgers — Just adorable. I'd love to play with Skillful Dodge again, especially with that art.

@Obernoob Vial of Stench — I hope "Wellspring" was intentional and not just for demonic flavor. Because now I'm going to imagine a toilet of unholy power every time I cast that card.

@Wildarm Aloyzo's Ornithopter Apparatus — Card Hunter has a fun take on Ornithopters but they almost never show up, so it's nice to see a memento of your early adventuring career. (Psst — run your item name through spell check next time.)

@Steinhauser Scales of Xanthicus (the withdrawn item) — I was surprised you changed it. Fly might not be all that unique in a world with Teleport Self, but the flavor was just perfect. Getting the hide, wings, and breath of a dragon makes my character feel more monstery than most of the other submissions. (But look up the spelling of the name next time.)

@Mr. Magnifico Pudding Padding — So I've stuffed a pet ooze down my shirt, and it wants to die to save my life? That's... that's amazing.

@PurpleRed Fedora of Fear — No one will ever make a better Melvelous item.

@Happenstance Monkey King Moccasins — There are references here I don't get, but I love it anyway for the fact that you're brachiating on hide strips. Very creative.

And now it's time for self-indulgence:
@Vholes Ziggurat Spike

Thanks, mate. A single 3 damage attack didn't feel like an issue to me, browsing the shields in my inventory. But the real reason it's a shield is the physical concept: a shield shaped like a miniature ziggurat, with the blood-seeking spike protruding from the center. Stab your enemy, and the blood flows to the sacrifice channels on the sides, empowering the shield. This is represented by Bloodied Block and Wounded Block gaining efficacy in the presence of wounds.* I chose the two different block cards instead of repeating one, because their quality ratings allowed me to place Hemorrhage in the center of the three cards, representing the spike in the center of the shield.

I heard after entering that using cards that didn't appear on the monster hurt my chances, but I like to think this item out-blood-disciples the blood disciples. The monster's own cards are mostly generic, but his grokkable theme and the unique gameplay role of Hemorrhage convinced me to take the risk and design around the disciple anyway.

*Apparently you suck at catching the enemy's blood in the heat of battle, since you need to rely on your own. You should work on that.

edited for typos

 

Exactly. I'd suspect many entries to be very different had you specifically said "you may include more monster cards but you will be judged more harshly per card added." I know my entry would have been completely different. I erred on the side of caution when making mine assuming a few winners wouldn't even include a monster card. The rules made it sound like including one was secondary and including more than one meant instant disqualification.

I don't mind not being selected, but I do mind it when a winner violates a stated rule regardless if the item is cool (which it is). Why have rules in the first place if you can break them and win?

 

congratulations and all but...

I'm not mentioned again... when will I be able to get your attention ;__;

 

You make it too fun to ignore you. Duh.

 

My items will never win, i know. But i will continue sending them

 

Credit goes to @DunDunDun for the name I suspected Rumbling Charge would be too powerful to include, but you never know 'til you try. Too bad I got crowded out from a mention by all the great boot submissions. Congratulations to this month's winners!

 

@Flaxative : if you are going to allow people to break the only thing that seems like an actual rule then can you add an additional item that doesn't break the rule also?

 

Whoo, I got mentioned in the video! That's all I could really hope for, I can't honestly disagree with the assessment in the video.

I'm a bit disappointed that Whammo's Axe of the Berserker wasn't mentioned in the video, I was almost certain it was going to be among the winning items, or at least get discussed as one of the cool and strongly-themed items.

Some of the winners took me by surprise, I wouldn't have thought Festering guts would make it in, I certainly agree with its Amethyst Quality. Suddenly Human Wizards seem a lot scarier.
I only just got the theme behind Spritastrophe when it was actually pointed out, I always read the name as Spitastrophe and thought it was just a random grab bag of magic cards. I like the design a lot more now it's explained though, it makes perfect sense.
I was most surprised by the Tasty, Tasty Staff, lots of monster cards, new values, high range and damage melee attacks, oh my. I really didn't see that one coming.