Thread: Couldn't they just have removed Redraw?

Hello!

I was wondering... They have changed the old card system because they didn't like how players were fishing for Balance. And yes, it was an issue. But instead of removing the fishing for it, they just made every card Balance.

I don't know if it would even work, but if they had kept the old system, just tweaked it a bit, but removed Redraw, wouldn't that have been a better solution than changing what people actually liked?

I mean, they even could have changed Balance to something else and kept Divination as direct DPS buff, so you would still have "Balance" at fixed intervals for raid buffs. But other than that, you would have to use whichever card you get. If you got something you didn't want you could still use Minor Arcana on it (they could have tweaked its effect too because Lady was useless in some situations) or Royal Road.

What I would like to know though is if it would even work like this. Or would there be another problem I'm not thinking of?

(There are already an endless number on threads about AST cards, I know. But we can't have enough of them if only very few people like the new system.)

AST players whined too much that their card game involved some element of luck of the draw and that seems to be the main thing SQEX is responding to as far as I can tell.
I'm not sure the ASTs of last expansion would have enjoyed having less ways to manipulate their deck.

Yeah, making every card The Balance hasn't solving the fishing issue.

My suggestion instead was keep the old system and change the Minor Arcana to what it is in the new system, an 8% The Balance for a melee or ranged.

You find yourself in a situation you can use a card, Arcana it, you still get a decent buff out of it. Maybe remove redraw on top of that, or make it a single cast. So you're pushed more to try to make use of what you've got to the best advantage you can, rather than keep rolling the dice to get what you want.

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Unfortunately, now you fish for Seals to get three different ones. Nothing has really changed in terms of that. Some of the people who defend the new system with the argument of RNG was mitigated is mistaken. The RNG is still there—it’s just moved.

But it is mitigated.

Mitigated doesn't mean it's not there, it means you're not screwed for three spires in a row.

Yeah at least now, every card you draw is a gain. Having niche cards that you could only draw at random didn't make much sense. Balance was good 100% of time, Spear and Arrow were usually acceptable. The others were made nearly useless because you had to rely on luck to get them when you needed them.

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Except now it’s very possible to get three sun seals in a row when you need a crescent moon. So I don’t see much difference there.

Getting 3 seals in a row is a lot less detrimental to drawing the wrong cards the way things used to work.
The RNG can still screw you, but the effect of being screwed has been muted somewhat.

Originally Posted by ItMe

Getting 3 seals in a row is a lot less detrimental to drawing the wrong cards the way things used to work.
The RNG can still screw you, but the effect of being screwed has been muted somewhat.

This is hence my suggestion.
No need to line up 3 different symbols
You get the diversity of the original system, where you get alternative use for cards.
Where you are not in a position to play a card, you still can and it will not be much of a loss.
And technically no reason to card fish, heck a single redraw would probably suffice.

So you'd still be able to do:
The Bole -> Royal Road -> Draw (Get The Arrow) -> Enhanced Arrow
The Spire -> Royal Road -> Draw (Get The Spear) -> Extended Spear
The Ewer -> Royal Road -> Draw (Get The Balance) -> Expanded Balance

If your luck isn't so great:
The Ewer -> Royal Road -> Draw (Get The Bole) -> Redraw (Get The Ewer) -> Lady of Crowns


Every card has a use/payoff.

Whilst getting 3 of the same symbol this time can still give a semi-useful buff, the end result is that you are still fishing and we've traded off variety to still get the same problem. There is a great advantage for making good use of the cards you have, but a fail scenario would still be a good buff and they'd be able to get away with reducing redraw to '1' or removing it completely.

Originally Posted by Saefinn

Whilst getting 3 of the same symbol this time can still give a semi-useful buff, the end result is that you are still fishing and we've traded off variety to still get the same problem. There is a great advantage for making good use of the cards you have, but a fail scenario would still be a good buff and they'd be able to get away with reducing redraw to '1' or removing it completely.

The variety was severely limited by random card draws though. The cards by themselves were better in the old system, but there wasn't really any more variety from the system as a whole, unless maybe you forced it. You could put Bole on a tank to help with a TB, but the tank would have survived without 90% of the time. Spread also largely dominated Royal Road, especially if you did 8+ content.

It just makes sense to move away from the RNG aspect of cards to me. That's what caused the most problems in my mind, but there are plenty of people with a different opinion that think of chance as being part of AST's identity. If the devs agree and won't remove the element of chance then I'd take your MA change, but I wouldn't want to give up redraw. I never thought of fishing as the root problem, it's a symptom of other problems.