New Item Proposal: Deck (of cards)

Proposal for New Item for SotA - Deck of Cards (Deck)

In short this proposal is for a new item, a Deck of Cards (or Deck) which players can devise a variety of "cardgame" rules for; if implemented, it could be an item added to the SotA store or something sold by merchants or crafted (I'd lean towards adding it as a SotA store item to "pay" for development entailed). The Deck would be designed to minimize misuse or "griefing" of Decks, and to allow players to make their own "games" out of the Deck as they chose, within limits of the system handling the Deck. Note that pvp incidents in pvp areas could well disrupt card games, as intended, but in pve areas griefing of the deck is intended to be minimized in this design. This item is intended as a tool for players to make their own rules for use of the Deck, rather than as a mini-game designed by developers, although developers of course would have to create the deck item and define limitations of its use.

The Deck would be an item uses from his inventory to throw down one card at a time (you click the deck, then click somewhere around you - perhaps on a table in front of a prospective card player - and the deck deploys a Card facedown. If the facedown card is clicked, it turns face-up, displaying its face (say King of Clubs for example, if we assume the Deck represents a standard 54 card deck, it could be designed otherwise to have its own suits and numbers unique to SotA, but for sake of example...).

The Deck itself has Cards (which no one sees until they are deployed) stacked in an order randomized by the game. The deck holder sees the Deck as a single item in his inventory, and cannot tell what order the Cards are in (unless we design otherwise, but for this version of the proposal, no one can see the order of cards in the Deck). As each Card is deployed to the table (or wherever a card is deployed; developers could require the Cards to be deployed to some special item for the game, but for this proposal they can be put down on any normal surface to allow Deck owners freedom to create their own games with them. Cards placed will disappear (back into the Deck) if the Deck holder moves too far from placed Cards, or moves the Deck from his inventory by any means (trade, dropping, deleting, putting in bank or storage, whatever - this to prevent a Deck owner from just running around littering the countryside with Cards). Otherwise, Cards remain where they are placed until the Deck owner calls them back into the Deck (by means of right-clicking on the Deck and choosing "recall" option).

Cards recalled to the deck do not change the existing order of Cards already remaining in the Deck, until the "shuffle" option (the other option right-clicking on the cards brings up) is chosen by the Deck holder. If the Deck "runs out" of remaining cards (meaning, all cards have been "placed" and/or recalled), the Deck will need to be "shuffled" before any more Cards can be placed. Note the "shuffle" option only re-orders Cards in the Deck, such that if Deck holders desire they can "shuffle" cards in the Deck while cards are still out of the Deck on the table. "Shuffling" cards will put out the message, "(card holder's name) Shuffles the Deck" so that potential players (of whatever card came players devise using the Deck) can see when the Deck is shuffled to know if it is done out of turn with whatever rules players make up for their games.

In order to minimize griefing of the Deck, Decks can only be used if no other Deck is already in use within some range (10 meters?) or if indoors, within a given room space, house floor or even lot (or some other definition put in place by the developers).

Summary:
1) Game system starts with Deck Cards placed in random order in the Deck item in one player's inventory.
2) Cards can be Deployed by the Deck holder; deployed cards remain in position, face-down, until the Deck holder either Recalls them to the deck or double-clicks them to flip them. All cards are automatically Recalled to the deck should the Deck holder be "killed" (so games may well be interrupted in pvp areas or PVE areas which include hostile npc's).
3) Cards can be "flipped" to turn face-up by the deck holder only. Other players can instruct the Deck Holder to flip cards following whatever rules players invent for use of the Decks. Presumably Deck holders will Deploy Cards next to various players to form a sort of "hand" for each player in whatever games are devised by players for use of the Deck.
4) Game system keeps track of Card order in the Deck. Recalled cards do not impact remaining Card order until the Deck holder "shuffles" them. Cards not in the Deck are not affected by "shuffling."
5) Only one Deck can be in use within an area (defined by developers). An inactive Deck can be traded, destroyed, etc. within this area, but cannot be "shuffled" and Cards cannot be "placed" within whatever area is determined for use by another active (in use) Deck.
6) Players design their own rules for "games" using the Deck. In its simplest form, players could use the Deck to throw down a single card before each "player" with the "highest" or "lowest" card determining who wins or loses (akin to drawing straws), although fairly elaborate games could be designed by various players without further interventions needed from developers.

 

I like the idea, but I think it would be too limited unless you also add the ability for players to pick up their hand and look at it, without showing other players. The vast majority of card games I know (and the ones I've created myself) rely on this.

Maybe it would be useful to have a 'card table' as well, so that players can be explicitly admitted to the game. You could then also remove the limitation on multiple decks, as some games require them; and allow players to take control of the deck/cards within the rules of the game. It would require more work for sure, but would also make the system more useful.

On the whole though I'd not want this to be prioritised over the existing stretch goals, so maybe one for a later episode...

 

Sounds good, perhaps face-down cards could be inspected only by the player closest to them when they are placed or such, that player (and only that player) could "inspect" facedown cards to reveal what they are but only to his vision, until they are flipped later.

Any other tips/development to improve or streamline the idea are welcome

 

Isn't card combat a card mini-game enough?

 

It's really not meant to be a mini-game per se, but rather a tool others could use to create a variety of mini-games themselves using in-game represented playing cards. I did not mean to invoke any post-traumatic referrences to the current SotA fighting system involving glyphs, though!