How About a Divination Card League?

So I was looking at my thousands of useless Divination Cards and I had an idea...

...what if we had a "Divination Card League?"

(I give full permission for Grinding Gear Games to use all or none of this in any way they see fit. I just liked the idea, and think it would be fun).



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Overview:

Divination Card League begins with a wandering NPC, randomly encountered in maps or quest zones, who opens a window and asks for you to place a hand of divination cards. He'll give you six low tier cards the first time he meets you. Once selected from your "deck," (see below), the NPC then plays a brief card game with you. (Somebody with a mind for such things will need to think up the rules). Probably on the simple side, so folks can slam it and get back to their genocide, bedlam and war-crimes.

- If you lose the card game, the NPC takes the most valuable of your cards as his prize. That card is then entered into his deck, and will, over time, show back up. (Similar to deferred loot, lost cards remain in the NPC's deck until you win it back or it's replaced by a more valuable card. If his captured deck fills up, the least valuable cards are discarded, much likes beasts).

The NPC's deck is composed of:

- A set number of cards he won from you.

- A random pool that refreshes each instance, tiered by map, area level and quality.

- If you win his game, you get to select one of the NPC's cards as YOUR prize, and then he spawns monsters based on the cards in his hand. (You have to kill the monsters to keep the card you won). The more rare the cards, the more dangerous the monsters - and the better the loot. Unique monsters spawn from certain card sets - battle The Doctor, The Nurse and The Patient - for example.

- Intentionally losing specific card sets to the NPC to stack his deck will be a necessary tactic to spawn certain encounters. The NPC should weight his draws so that every few maps/zones he will pull a full set - if he has one - from his two pools. (Map tier should play a large role in the power of the cards he selects).

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The Deck:

- To facilitate the card game, you'll want to create a new inventory slot - The Card Deck. Located in the right-hand corner of the character window, a regular deck holds 12 cards. Clicking on the deck will open a window on the left-hand side, tabbed alongside the achievements, beasts, prophecies and delve information.

You'll get your first deck right out of the gate in Act 1 - or the first time you meet the NPC in the later Acts once this goes to standard. The "free" deck will be green, it will have no bonuses, and you won't be able to craft it.

Cards in the deck do not stack.

The card encounters should have a very high chance of dropping white, blue, yellow, or perhaps even unique decks. The loot decks will be craftable, with their own pool of mods, much like Rogue's Harbor Equipment - the item powers should all relate to the card league mechanics.

Some Deck Mod Examples:

- Set Bonus:
NPC has 10%, 15%, 20% improved chance to draw sets of cards from both pools.

- Rare Cards:
NPC has 10%, 15%, 20% grater chance of drawing rare cards from the random pool.

- Larger Card Deck Size:
Holds 13-24, 25-36, 37-48 cards.

- Improved Quantity:
10%, 15%, 20% greater quantity of items dropped by spawned card mobs.

- Improved Quality:
20%, 25%, 30% better quality of items dropped by spawned card mobs.

- Damage Aura Boost:
Gain Level 5, 10, 15 Hatred, Anger, Wrath, Haste, or Pride for duration of a card battle.

- Defense Aura Boost:
Gain Level 5, 10, 15 Grace, Discipline, Vitality, or Defiance for duration of card battle.

Unique Deck Ideas:

- Cursed Hand:
Gain 30% - 50% to Quality and Quantity of card mobs drops. Player suffers under 1-3 random curses with 100%-200% curse effectiveness on each. (This is the Ventar's Gamble of Card Decks).

- Old Blind Pew's Deck:
Pulls your cards at random, deck cannot hold more than 4 of the same divination card, 25%, 35%, 45% improved chance of NPC pulling rare cards and sets from his pool. 50%, 75%, 100% more quantity from spawned monsters. Holds 37-48 cards. Can only participate in card games with a completely filled deck.

- The Dead-Man's Hand:
Spawns a Syndicate Intervention Attempt during the card battle. All rare item drops during a card battle have a high percentage of spawning with veiled mods - the mods are tied to the intervention assassin, e.g. if it's Vorici, it the dropped veiled item mods will be his.

Optional MTX, or possible a league challenge reward:

A card table decoration for your hideout. When interacted with, it opens your card deck or divination cards tab. (Similar to the Map table and Heist Locker). Nothing essential, just a but of fun.

Removing the Deck:

If a card deck has any cards in it, you cannot un-equip it. You must empty it out to trade or stash it. This is a safety feature to prevent horrible accidents that make players unhappy.

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The Cards:

- Add a small overlay in the corner of each divination card showing its Pool Rank and power. Stronger cards make it easier to win, and each card adds quality and quantity modifier to the spawned encounter based on the tier of the card.

- You'll want some of the mid tier cards to be able to situationally win against the stronger cards. Much like other card games, solid combinations of less expensive cards can be effective. The mechanics of this is not my wheelhouse, I don't play card games, but you'll want to keep it simple so people can get back to the slaughter.

- All of the cards will be placed in pools, based on rarity, and those pools will not only determine their relative power in the card game mechanic, but also how they can be acquired using the new currency items and drawn in player v.s. player card battles - see below.

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New Currency Item - Gambler's Tokens:

Gambler's Tokens are a new type of currency - perhaps shaped like poker chips - item that allow players to randomly re-roll a divination card into a different one. The higher the tier of Token, the better the card it can potentially generate. They should drop in areas with the Divination Card League Flag.

- Gambler's Token:
As rare as a Chaos Orb, these will re-roll from the low tier card pool, with a very small chance of rolling from the Cardsharp pool.

- Cardsharp's Token:
As rare as a Divine Orb, these will re-roll from the mid tier card pool, with a very small chance of rolling from the Swindler's pool.

- Swindler's Token:
As rare as an Exalted Orb, these will re-roll from the high tier card pool, with a very small chance of rolling from the Gamemaster's pool.

- Gamemaster's Token:
As rare as a Mirror Shard, these will re-roll from the epic tier card pool - Doctors, House of Mirrors, the rarest of all cards live here.

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The Card Den: Card Battles in PoE???

You'll eventually be invited to the Card Den once you reach a certain point in the story. The zone should have a large card table in the center of it, which you can interact with to challenge other players, as well as the Hideout/MTX card table so the player can work with their card collection. Perhaps even the hideout stashes.

Ideally, the place would be spruced up with gamblers, waitresses, make it look like a Wraeclastian casino. Low murmurs, the sounds of chips clinking and cards shuffling. Maybe even some low-key dive-bar music.

You'll be able to buy divination cards from the NPC, which randomize daily, much aslike Zana's maps, if you beat the NPC in a map-tier card game. The cards should, as a general rule, be overpriced, (as Zana's maps and chisels are), but they exist as an option for those short on cards who want to play. Occasionally you can toss in some better cards, much as you'll sometimes see a nice map for sale on Zana. The cards offered SHOULD be situationally strong however.

To enter the card den, player will have to have a card deck equipped and at least the minimum number of cards necessary to play a hand of the game.

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Card Battles:

Players can challenge one-another to the card game by interacting with the large table in the center of the den. Unranked matches can be challenged just like a duel, at any time with a specific player. Ranked matches are against random players, and the participants are determined by a person's Gambling Rank.

When the game begins, each player will select their cards, (or not if they have a Blind-Deck), and it plays out just like a battle with the NPC. The winning player gets to select and keep one of his opponent's cards.

- There should be a timer for every action in ranked battles, no longer than 30 seconds to prevent griefing.

- In the event of a disconnect, the disconnecting player forfeits the round, and the most valuable card in his hand is awarded to his opponent. No rank is earned. This stops abuse from both ends.

- The winner can elect to not take one of his opponent's cards if he wishes.

Gambling Rank:

A player will begin with no rank, but as he wins card ranked battles, he will gain rank points. Gambling Rank is account based. When a player wins enough matches, he is promoted to the next rank.

- Mark: 0 Wins
- Neophyte: 10 wins
- Risktaker: 20 wins
- Gambler: 40 wins
- Crapshooter: 65 wins
- Highroller: 110 wins
- Cardsharp: 190 wins
- Master: 300 wins
- Highmaster: 600 wins
- Grandmaster: 1200 wins

The effects of these ranks are as follows:

- Players in ranked battles are matched based on their rank.

- The tiers of cards a player can draw are tied to his rank. Every two ranks will open a tier of cards. They can play up to Epic Tier cards at Master.

- The game will check a player's deck to make sure he has at least a hand of rank appropriate cards. If not, the player will get a pop-up telling them to fix their deck, then re-join the queue.

Note: Card restrictions only apply to ranked matches. Unranked matches and battles with the NPC can use any cards.

there is no way ggg could create a "good card game" inside poe that would be received well

it would disrupted the gameplay and forcing ppl to play a game genre they probably dont like or dont want to play right now

if they would want a card game they would play one of the games that is only a card game

I dunno about that. I think they could come up with something fun and fast. It dosen't need to be super in-depth. Something that could resolve itself in less than 60 seconds.

Always nice to have options - not everybody is a clear the map in 30 seconds type player. There are folks - like myself - who enjoy the atmosphere, music and take their time as they move through the game.

What's the rush I always say.

terrible idea, and card value is subjective...

A card game is certainly not outside the realm of possibility for PoE. GGG has borrowed a ton of ideas from other genres in the past.

It’d be controversial, though. DIVisive, even.

How about a round of Gwent?

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demon9675 wrote:

It’d be controversial, though. DIVisive, even.

>:)

+10 for pun. You level up!

"

jsuslak313 wrote:

terrible idea, and card value is subjective...

Well, not really on the cards thing. Their value is actually pretty stable.

Why do you think it's a bad idea though?

My father, who is an old-school gamer suggested a card game from Final Fantasy 8, said it was simple, could resolve quickly, and would allow some cards to be siotuationally strong yet weak over all.

Never played FF8, so I'm not sure what that's about. I'll do some digging.

"

Sabranic_SilverDeth wrote:

My father, who is an old-school gamer suggested a card game from Final Fantasy 8, said it was simple, could resolve quickly, and would allow some cards to be siotuationally strong yet weak over all.

Never played FF8, so I'm not sure what that's about. I'll do some digging.

there is a huge difference between FF8 and PoE

the cardgame in FF8 is totaly fine like all the minigames in the singelplayer FF titels,because its totaly irrelevant for the maingame

its fun for the ppl that go for 100% runs or just do it for a few min every now and than
you can see and expierence everything of the story without ever engaging with the cardgame

FF games (with the exception of the online titles) are storybased games and are not really meant to play over and over again
the story is the important part not the stats or items on a character,skills are normaly bound to a single character and you arent able to change them much (ff10 is a bit of an exception here)

poe isnt a story based game (yes it has nice lore,but the lore isnt important for many players and you dont lose out on much when you ignore it)
a mandatory card game that doesnt fit the remaining part of the game and disrupts the gameflow for player that dont want to play the cardgame part,but are forced to do so