Saturday, October 21, 2023

Proposal: A Unique Snowflake

Reached Quorum 5-0 with 1 DEF. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 23 Oct 2023 17:54:54 UTC

In the rule “Style” replace the text “A Wizard is Unique if all of their Styles are Out of Fashion” with the following text:

A Wizard is Unique if, for each of their Styles, they are the only Wizard with that Style, the Style is Out of Fashion, and the Style is not “None”.

Fixing a scam that makes it all too easy to be Unique. Because “None” is always 0 Fashion Score, it’s always Out of Fashion, and since everyone started with “Plain” Robes, making “Plain” In Fashion, it’s simple to do like Kevan did and just change Robes to be something other than “Plain”, and instantly you are Unique by the current definition.

I’m really shocked that Kevan didn’t actually use this scam. He was the only Wizard to change his Style so far, and he specifically changed his Robes, hence my Snipe on him casting Spotlight because I thought he was going to take advantage of this.

posted by JonathanDark at 21 Oct 2023 21:10:00 UTC Comments (11)

Comments

Zack: he/him

21-10-2023 22:56:25 UTC

Kevan couldn’t have cast Spotlight because him wearking Cloaked robes made them in fashion, so all of his styles were not out of fashion, therefore he was not Unique.

JonathanDark: he/him

21-10-2023 23:14:49 UTC

I don’t think your math is right.

Kevan wearing Cloaked robes gives Cloaked a Fashion Score of 16. Everyone else wearing Plain robes gives Plain a Fashion Score of more than 16.

A Style is In Fashion if its Fashion Score is greater than the Fashion Score for all other Styles of that same type.

If a Style is not In Fashion, it is Out of Fashion.

Thus, Cloaked is Out of Fashion (as is Starry for Zack).

Kevan and Zack are both Unique under the current definition and could use Spotlight in the next Duel to gain 5 stars, unless this Proposal is enacted before then.

Zack: he/him

21-10-2023 23:56:38 UTC

You’re right, I was conflating None and Plain.

JonathanDark: he/him

22-10-2023 00:07:12 UTC

I think that’s what most people did, which is why it could have been a nice scam.

Vovix: he/him

22-10-2023 03:58:03 UTC

I was also assuming Kevan was going for this. I saw the scam earlier, but didn’t realize Plain robes wouldn’t count as out of style, so I assumed I didn’t have time to exploit it.

Clucky: he/him

22-10-2023 05:06:07 UTC

Expose helps deal with this problem reasonably fine. I am amused that apparently most players missed this though imperial

JonathanDark: he/him

22-10-2023 05:35:33 UTC

I’m not sure I follow you there. Yes, Expose attempts to force Wizards off of “None”, but while they’re trying to do so, the scam continues to work.

My point is that I think it was not intended for this to be the case in the first place, considering that Snisbo introduced the concept of Unique and the spell Spotlight but didn’t use this scam.

Rather than patch over the scam, I would rather just fix it directly so that it all works as intended: Unique is a special set of Styles that, if you can work to achieve it, can be used in combination with Spotlight to net you more Stars directly than any other Spell, not including Stars from Charm and Gewgaws.

Brendan: he/him

22-10-2023 05:59:26 UTC

for

Kevan: City he/him

22-10-2023 10:35:43 UTC

for

Vovix: he/him

22-10-2023 19:32:55 UTC

for I am firmly opposed to any scams I can’t exploit.

Snisbo: she/they

23-10-2023 06:19:15 UTC

for Yeah, I wasn’t meaning for None to count towards Unique. My bad