Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
Same.

Right now, probably the best I've got is simply to either...
  • Return to a revitalized version of the Stormblood system (balancing both the Royal Roads effects and the Cards themselves, through uncapping the number of Card buffs active on a target, unnerfing Empower, splitting the power of Expand across recipient count, functional buffs to Bole, tuning buffs to Arrow and Spear, and replacements for Spire and Ewer),
    or
  • Have every Card have a unique effect (that may synergize with others to create a degree of greater-than-sum value), with no Royal Road necessary.

In both cases, though, it seems like it might be a good idea to both have uncapped holding potential (such as per a no-CD Spread) and perhaps to split the potential outcomes (e.g., into a Northern and Southern deck, each of 3 choices).

Personally, I kind of like the Seal system, in that, per 90- or 120-second period, it gives us further reason to leverage otherwise less obviously useful Cards. It just needs a more decent pay-out, ideally capable of more than just raw damage.
The Northern/Southern aspect is something I've thought of before as well (though not with the same name choice. Yours is cooler)

My mind currently is dancing around this area...

- We have 2 "Draw" actions with separate cooldowns. Northern Draw and Southern Draw with using your naming scheme. Northern draws offensive cards and Southern draws defensive cards (or vice versa if I'm off base with the lore). Once you draw a card, that card is 'inactive' until you reshuffle the deck, meaning you can't draw it again.
- We have 3 "Play" actions with separate cooldowns. Solar Play, Lunar Play, and Celestial Play based on the signs. You play all cards to yourself and they do nothing initially when played. You can have up to 3 cards on yourself at a time and this is shown in your gauge UI. When drawing a card, it goes to the associated sign button.
- Celestial Opposition is changed to an action that applies your 3 stored cards to the party. Functionally, one way you might be able to create the concept of distributing these buffs based on recipient count is to have CO in this case apply 8 stacks of each buff divided equally among yourself and all party members in range. So in a light party, everyone would have 2 stacks of Balance.
- Reshuffle would have something like a 60 second cooldown with charges and replenishes your card supply and is essential to keep the card system going.
- After you use a card, a major arcana replaces it in the same associated "Play" action to be used. Which major arcana you get is based on the card you played. I'd like to actually dig into the lore more and have essentially....

Balance summons the Lord of Staves
Bole summons the Lord of Rings (that is a card in the AST's lore)
Arrow summons the Lady of Swords
Ewer summons the Lady of Cups
Spear summons the Knave of Irons
Spire summons the Knave of Crowns

Those are the suits in the AST's deck. That is a pretty complex list though, so I'm not sure how feasible it would be. But one idea is having both Lords be quite similar. Like Lord of Staves is AoE damage as it is currently and also decreases enemy magic damage dealt by 5% while Lord of Rings is the same but with physical damage. And so on so it's still quite easy to follow.