An idle thought, rather than a specific response, is that this is a supply-side solution to a demand-side problem: the issue here is still that a lot of players aren’t really playing, for whatever reason. The Bloodthirsty cap is supposed to be forcing Vampire Lords to spend their Puissance rather than hoarding it, but, with a few exceptions, it appears not to be working. The solution here might require reviewing the sticks and carrots around spending Puissance, or maybe even making players who wish to stay active but don’t really want to play all that much dormant in some way.

We’re possibly in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment with Devastation being a strongish aggressive move: do you lash out at random (and make an enemy), throw the move away (and waste 7 Puissance) or wait to see if things change?

I’m not convinced devistation causes problems in the long run. An emptier crypt in the early rooms will make it easier for Richardo to get to rooms further in the crypt in the later game.

Not unless there’s a way to boost his Energy; but that notwithstanding, it’s still the case at the moment that Crypt features are being destroyed far faster than they’re being created, so someone’s going to have to start building rooms to counterbalance the devastation soon if we’re to reach an equilibrium.

are they?? We’ve only seen like two devastations all game and lots of rooms added

Brendan, Darknight, Jason, Kevan, Phil and pokes can all currently not do anything except Devastate.

@Clucky: the basic issue is that although a) Devastation sucks as an action and it’s something that you probably wouldn’t do intentionally, b) many players are locked into being forced to use it and thus have to devastate something, c) I expect situations like this to re-occur later in the dynasty due to how many people are underestimating how much Puissance they need to spend to dodge the soft cap.

Most features don’t have a huge impact on the game, so Devastation will likely be reserved for the ones that do. The consequence is that we’ll end up with a map that’s mostly devoid of interest.

destroying a whole room seems unfun

Also. Destroy a room next to the entrance, add new room with a glyph + Richardo von Nestor is Grievously Injured if he is not Agile for another 7 for a 25% chance of just getting 6 influence a turn seems rather strong. Yeah someone can shell out 11 to destroy it, but enough people get those up and you could lock out the whole game and have it just come down to random runs.

Frequently swapping out rooms doesn’t sit entirely well with the map-of-ancient-crypts mood of the game, and I think Clucky’s right that this would just see us thrashing the very centre of the map most of the time.

I agree with the principle of this proposal and the need to do something but I also agree with Kevan that making Devastation the same except that it destroys entire rooms rather than just features is hardly a nerf.