1.0.18 Favor Rework

Areteion 1.0.18

Reasoning

1.0.17 was about taking the swings out: fewer runs ended by something nobody could have played around, less to hold in mind at once. Favor was the last piece still working the old way. Four separate counters were too many stats to track, and cancelling a curse was too difficult: it took enough Favor with whichever god got rolled, so in practice enough with all four at once.

Favor is now one pool, one number instead of four, and averting a curse is one price you can see coming. With the cap gone, Favor left unspent is kept for a heavier round later.

The danger warnings come from the same aim: less to work out by hand each turn.

Highlights

• Favor: One pool, no cap, 10 to start. From round 5 every blessing and curse carries a price, 3 Favor rising to 15: pay to receive the blessing or avert the curse, or keep the Favor. Severity is set by the round. Three active Olympians instead of four, never the deck's main one.
• Danger warnings: Cards on the board that an enemy could destroy on its next turn glow red. Move targets that would leave the selected card open to the same are marked red among the highlighted destinations. Read from the board as it stands: a card the opponent plays that changes attack or movement is not accounted for. New Show Danger Warnings setting.
• Hero's Journey: The final challenge offers three options, a Solo Round among them some of the time. Opponent strength across the run adjusted, and every challenge reward holds one more Card Choice.
• Card Changes: Every card that named an Olympian's Favor rewritten for the one pool, with cost and text changes alongside. Full list in the Patch Notes screen in the main menu.
• Round banner: One banner per round names the round against the total, the rounds left, and from round 2 the standing: the Arete still missing to the goal, or the lead or deficit against the opponent.
• Offering: Cards are offered from the fullscreen card view, opened by right-clicking a card on the board. The Offer button above the board is removed.
• Card rewards: Every card earned is dealt face down on one screen and turned over by clicking it.
• Player Stats and stat tooltips: Player Stats lists every blessing and curse the active Olympians can bring, as full cards. Hovering Hand, Deck, Might, Power or Arete explains the stat, and Arete breaks the score down card by card.
• Space: Cycles the selection through the cards on the board that still have movement this turn.
• Board: Weather colours the whole board, cloud shadows drift across it, the sea moves with the wind, and zoom is continuous. A card's shadow travels with it as it moves.
• Colour: One colour family across the board: verdigris for move, ability, unit action and swap, terracotta for attack, gold for the selected tile and history.
• Settings: Reorganised into Display, Graphics, Audio, Controls, Animations and History. New Weather Colour, Cloud Shadows and Living Water settings, each with a strength slider. The keys for scrolling, zooming and cycling units can be rebound, up to three per action.

Favor rework, Features, Hero's Journey, Presentation, Bug Fixes, Card Changes: in the Patch Notes screen in the main menu.