Dev Log (11/11/25)

Been a minute, hasn’t it?

Apologies for the wait, but this last build update took up all the attention I had not already devoted to keeping food on the table — and then some. Now that I’ve been let go of that particular leviathan, I can shift focus from the game to the show around the game.

In brief, the last month or so has been centered around one thing: fixing the Creatures of Havoc. As a reminder from last time we spoke on the subject, the Creatures were my most anticipated faction in terms of nerfs, and ended up being the most underpowered gaggle of the bunch. They performed poorly in battle, could not get off their specials, and had a tremendous time holding any objectives or even maintaining much of a board presence at all. Clearly, I had missed the mark with them; however, the faults with the Creatures are also emblematic of problems I’ve noticed in the core experience. Namely, players are not paying attention to what their spells and abilities do unless they have a direct payoff. A fault on my part for intentionally designing kits that were more situational in the hopes of encouraging team synergy. But I can’t argue with the results: what I’ve been giving players just ain’t useful.

So, Creatures get thrown back into the pot, and I go back to the drawing board while they simmer back down. The problem now before me is that the Creatures are supposed to be the underdog faction. They don’t hit as hard as Chimera Core, nor do they have the same board control as the Empire. I also realized that the Empire was turning more into a spell caster faction than Creatures, which also threw a spanner into the works; second, after the resource crunch spanner went in as well. See, Empire was able to become a spell caster faction because they were the only ones who started the game with Mana and made it very hard for other players to get their hands on the stuff. This led to an imbalance where one player held all the resources hostage. So even if a player wanted to cast a spell or use an ability, they couldn’t: making systems like Empowerment useless, as no one but the one mana hoarder could do anything with it. Evening out this imbalance would have to be the first thing to correct in order to get things back on track. I could have given everyone a different amount of starting Mana. But that didn’t sit right with me as I was afraid it would make the three factions seem more homogeneous. What they needed was something that allowed them to trade things they had in abundance for resources they needed. Empire has lots of Mana, but only if they hold objectives, so they trade Mana for better board presence. Chimera Core hits hard but can’t really play defensively, so they generate resources for being aggressive. And the Creatures of Havoc? Don’t know; at first.

Originally, I wanted the Creatures to be something like a Rackdos Spell slinger: someone who wins by casting a lot of cheap spells that mess with your opponents' board and hand while their creatures deal damage to the other player per spell cast. Typically, spell slingers don’t run big bodies (high power/toughness creatures) as their Mana is better spent on Instants and Sorceries. So the Creatures of Havoc were originally meant to play something like that: slow down their opponents long enough to get devastating Reverbs into play to tip the scales in their favor. However, Spell Slingers have answers for threats: removal, protection, sacrifice payoffs, etc., the Creatures didn’t. They were very dependent on their spells, so with the mana shortage, they didn’t have access to these key pieces. Even if they did, players weren’t interested in using them because they were too much of an investment for a middling payout. So they end up with their hands full of spells they didn’t want to use. It was shortly after that revelation that things started moving again, after I figured out how to trade spells for advantage.

The Creatures of Havoc, in their current state, reward Discard, and they burn hot and fast: churning through both their hand and deck for power pieces while still being able to utilize discarded cards. Now, Creatures of Havoc have a number of 0-cost spells that mess with opponents and play into their win condition while also being fuel for their new units because you can cast them from the discard pile.

Kong is the best example of this. On top of being the trigger for a new condition Creature players can inflict (Goad), he is now a discard outlet. Meaning now, if a player doesn’t want or need to cast Check the Deck on their turn, they can now attack with Kong and discard it to add Chaos cards to one of their opponent’s decks (which are useless to them but draw more Reverbs while in hand and get the Creatures 2VP when drawn). Kong can also deflect attacks from Goaded players if he discards a spell each time he’s hit. Adding another way to get value for spells in hand, while also protecting Kong so you can set up better. Goad also acts as a HIT debuff to the player who is afflicted. So it’s also another general buffer for keeping the Creatures from being whipped. This, hopefully, will give Creature players enough staying power to get the ball rolling on their setups, while still playing smart with what they have so as not to leave themselves open to the player who isn’t Goaded.

The other units, spells, and Plots in the game have also been reworked to fit this new design direction. Units focus on drawing additional Reverbs, adding more Chaos cards, and fixing Mana and other resources so the Creatures remain consistent Round by Round. Spells are more explosive and focus either on getting more Chaos cards into play, depriving other players of key spells, or giving the Creatures an in or out to make their big push. However, Plots got the largest overhaul in general.

For starters, Plots are now something all players have. In setup, each player picks one of their five Plots, which acts as a secret objective for that player. If the player completes the Plot, then they gain a new buff for the rest of the game. Creatures of Havoc, for instance, have a Plot that triggers if that player ends their turn with no spells in their hand. If activated, then spells all cost 1 Mana less, and if the cost becomes 0, that spell can be cast from discard and shuffled back into the spell deck after casting. Expanding the number of cards that can be discarded and getting players to discard more cards at the same time. Players can only be working on one Plot at a time, but have multiple completed plots in play. And if they want to change to a new plot, they need to discard two spells in order to do so, discarding the old Plot in the process. The exception, however, is the Creatures of Havoc. Creature players don’t discard old plots; they shuffle them into the Reverb deck, and if it gets drawn, it enters play for free. Another way the Creatures of Havoc can turn their hand into value on their turn.

COH New Disrupter

CHO New Supporter

COH New Attacker.

This is by far the happiest I’ve been with the Creatures. In my head, they slow the player down and keep them guessing what they're moving towards, winning not by taking board presence, but by making the other players second-guess themselves into making bad plays they profit from. On the other hand, however, I do worry that they have too many outlets to get the ball rolling. Hopefully, the lack of consistent free card draw and the fact that they are still the faction with the weakest board presence balances things out.

With that said, I’m liking where things are at the moment. The Plot rework really opened some much-needed space for the other factions, who also got small tweaks so they fit better into the game plans those Plots want them to be gunning for. Along with other small gameplay tweaks that removed hurdles players where finding themselves bumping up against: like making retaliations part of the battle step, lowering the number of starting obstacles, increasing the number of spells that removed obstacles, adding alliances to help struggling players if one pulls ahead to far, and adding an way for the Chimera Core to generate Mana without taking Objectives (KOing units).

COH Plot

Empire Plot

Chimera Core Plot

Testing is being planned out in the near future. So by the end of the month, I’ll have feedback on these changes. However, what I would like to focus on next is one element of the game that’s gone unpolished for some time: the Automatons.

I’ve gotten loads of feedback for them, ranging from: spawn points, number in play, cognitive load of actions, effect on the board state, and the list goes on. However, they always fell low on the priority list due to the fact that the player factions were in such a rough state. But with them looking good, I can turn to the Automatons, the ticking clock part of the game that keeps any one player from getting complacent.

At the time of writing, they are still in their V1.2 stage: having had their numbers slashed and spawn points nerfed, but not much else. What I would like to do with them is elevate them to a similar spot the other factions are at now to heighten their role as a looming, building threat that players can leverage against each other or work together to overcome. This would most likely involve revamping how Threat Assessment works, but that’s a long-overdue change that I’m happy to sink my teeth into. More on that in the future. For now, I have to get back to cutting out all the new cards and getting surveys in line.