Grim Prospects

I've wanted to make a physical version of Grim Prospects since it was made. Recently, I decided on a way to streamline it while affecting player behavior in what I hope is a positive manner. These are vast changes I did not feel comfortable making in the now Classic version. Hopefully this "new" game will give me the confidence to sell it physically.

http://www.byond.com/forum/ACWraith/GrimProspects


Players no longer share a deck of 60 cards. Instead they each get their own matching deck of 36 cards.

Cards are no longer separated into treasures and tools. They can be used as either. (Think of it as flipping the card facedown and then playing it either horizontally or vertically.) To prevent opponents from always forcing tools upon you, tools now increase in value by 2 when played in sequence. For instance, 3 tools with no treasures between them would grant a score of 9. (1+3+5=9) Treasures are still worth a constant 2 points each.

As for using cards (faceup) as miners, effects have been simplified with a unified mechanism that places more influence on loitering miners and grants a way to gain treasures even if losing a battle. Triple negative and triple positive cards have been removed completely. Half of the cards are now net neutral with a positive, a negative, and a null. Double negative cards now become treasures in their owner's tunnel after being used in battle so there's less reason to always fire them into an opponent's support. Double positive cards now become treasures in the opponent's tunnel after battle so there's more reason to do so. (Your opponent's opponent could be you so you'd get the treasure.)

Naturally, I've rewritten the help file as well so the game should be more clear. The AI is still as dumb as ever, but at least provides something to learn with when playing alone.