Witch Doctors gameplay - manageable risk for everyone

[Vane]

Yes exactly.

[Dmanwuzhere]

5 cards per magpie cast would be a bit much as some use cash to buy cards, I for one would not buy them if every four casts someone got a new pack. That takes away the need to purchase for others which is anti gaming imo.

[William one eye]

While a witch doctor can be extremely irritating when they are targeting you, there are many opportunities to play this game that do not require a single ship on the water. Banker (once the bank is built), card trader, shipwright, and witch doctor. The other activities are seldom complained about, however the banker continually extending funds to your advisary during a conflict, or the card trade selling bulk lots of black death when your nations population are under attack, can be just as aggrevating. Part of what i love about this game is the flexibility in how you can operate.
I am not opposed to putting up hurdles, but dont see these playstyles as any less legitimate than how I play.

[Kangaroo]

While a witch doctor can be extremely irritating when they are targeting you, there are many opportunities to play this game that do not require a single ship on the water. Banker (once the bank is built), card trader, shipwright, and witch doctor. The other activities are seldom complained about, however the banker continually extending funds to your advisary during a conflict, or the card trade selling bulk lots of black death when your nations population are under attack, can be just as aggrevating. Part of what i love about this game is the flexibility in how you can operate.
I am not opposed to putting up hurdles, but dont see these playstyles as any less legitimate than how I play.

They are not complained about because they do not simply use game exploits to attack other players with impunity.

Do not romanticise the parasite

[Vane]

5 cards per magpie cast would be a bit much as some use cash to buy cards, I for one would not buy them if every four casts someone got a new pack. That takes away the need to purchase for others which is anti gaming imo.

"Only" effective against WD's. Not anti gaming but anti WD. Exactly what CJ wants. Limit or eliminate toxic play.

[Dmanwuzhere]

5 cards per magpie cast would be a bit much as some use cash to buy cards, I for one would not buy them if every four casts someone got a new pack. That takes away the need to purchase for others which is anti gaming imo.

"Only" effective against WD's. Not anti gaming but anti WD. Exactly what CJ wants. Limit or eliminate toxic play.

lol I still don't get the toxicity but I am a minority. Those evil pirates are more toxic lol jk

[Dmanwuzhere]

Double turn cost etc are some major hurdles to overcome but easier to overcome with pre existing capital effectively making veteran players your wd's. Imo those are things that could be done or even the gold bars although with the right sponsors for a wd none of those are obstacles.

[Redish]

It seems the assumption is that it is the players with masses of voodoo and no ships that force players to quit. I think this is incorrect.

To me it is a case of big established players using huge voodoo stashes on smaller players that don't have the capacity to fight back. It's simple bullying.

We don't have to brand players as witch doctors. All we need are game mechanics that will prevent bullying. Obviously some retaliation on other players should be encouraged but destroying players because they successfully raided your fleets for gold coin is simply not acceptable.

I think if we had limits on the types or number of voodoo we could hold players would have to give more thought to their inventory and would be forced to manage it rather than buying thousands of cards and just unleashing it on little folk. Smaller inventories would also make them more vulnerable to magpies. It could force players to actively use the inventories thereby spending credits rather than sitting on voodoo for months or years on end.

[Lana]

5 cards per magpie cast would be a bit much as some use cash to buy cards, I for one would not buy them if every four casts someone got a new pack. That takes away the need to purchase for others which is anti gaming imo.

"Only" effective against WD's. Not anti gaming but anti WD. Exactly what CJ wants. Limit or eliminate toxic play.

lol I still don't get the toxicity but I am a minority. Those evil pirates are more toxic lol jk

If you take a role of witch doctor to protect your guild of ''those evil pirates'', I don't see toxicity in being witch doctor, on the contrary!

But, if someone behave like witch doctor in someone's favor, but hiding his investor(s), (or just) trying to make ''chaos'' in Avonmora realm... that is the different story.

[Slindur]

Back to the original thing that CJ said he wanted to see, that everyone would have a manageable risk for casting voodoo... The only thing that I can think of for there to be a risk with casting is a chance of backfire. Even ships have the chance that firing a cannon would cause an explosion on their ship instead of actually being launched out of the cannon to do damage. So perhaps the answer is a "backfire chance" on voodoo casting. Cast an assassinate card 10 times on a player, end up killing 9 of their officers and 1 of your own. Cast a hostile natives to pull a player onto the danger board and end up drawing yourself out. To make it more interesting, maybe backfired voodoo cannot be cleansed (or at least cleansed by the player that casts it).

Perhaps all voodoo has a, oh say, 10% chance of backfiring. Perhaps different voodoo cards should have different chances of backfiring. I haven't thought that part through, but perhaps this is the way to still use voodoo but add risk to the caster (beyond retaliation).

I don't fully know what I think about this yet, but initially, I think that it is a good idea to add risk (since that is what CJ apparently is going for with casting voodoo).

My 2 cents,

Slindur