Difficulty of making a Deckbuilding Module?
While I'm not commissioning this quite yet, I'd like to scope out how difficult this would be to implement into Foundry (and what kind of prices to expect by extension), so I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this.
I have a system I've been working on for a while, and I've been able to make it quite smooth to play over Foundry using other modules, with the exception of a major issue: Combat is played using cards with deckbuilding mechanics (think like Slay the Spire). The built-in implementation of Foundry's card system didn't work very at all for me; the Ready to Use Cards Module makes it possible to play to a functional degree, but it's very awkward because:
A) Players can't edit their own decks, requiring the GM to exclude their decks from ready-to-play, edit their decks for them, title and upload images for each card individually, add it to back to ready-to-play, and re-set up the available actions again, every single time.
B) Players cant see the cards other players use in the chat unless they have permissions to access that card's deck, meaning players constantly accidentally draw from each other's decks (it doesn't help that when a deck is emptied the button disappears and you misclick the Draw button beneath it as it bumps up).
C) If a deck is edited while a player is in-game, their game seems to desync, causing their cards to deleted as they're played; requiring the GM to set up their deck again and make every player refresh.
Ready To Use Cards | Foundry Virtual Tabletop
Ready To Use Cards, an Add-on Module for Foundry Virtual Tabletop
9 Replies
While I do like a lot of other things in this module (your Hand and Revealed Cards being displayed neatly on your screen), I do feel if I want this system to be hostable on Foundry for anyone other than myself, I'll need to commission a much better module to handle cards in the way that I want.
What exactly I would need includes:
- A central "Card Repository" the GM can upload card images and titles to (preferrably with a search function).
- Each player can customize the Decks they are an Owner of, by pulling and removing cards out of the repository into it.
- Players have a displayed hand (similar to RtUC, see image attached above), and they can draw cards from any decks they are Owners of.
- Players can play cards, and other players can view the played card even if they don't own the deck. Including a "Take Card" function when viewing a played card, so players who used something by mistake can return it to their hands, or potentially pass cards to other players.
- Players can transfer cards between their hand and their revealed cards pile.
- An option for the discard pile to be automatically shuffled into the deck upon emptying.
- An option for players to be able to shuffle and peek at their own deck's contents.
Have you tried
https://foundryvtt.com/packages/complete-card-management
Complete Card Management | Foundry Virtual Tabletop
Complete Card Management, an Add-on Module for Foundry Virtual Tabletop
This works quite a bit better than what I was already using, thanks! It doesn't particularly solve too much in regards to making decks, but it is definitely a step up for playing with them. Not having the ability to copy cards into decks (even within the same deck) is really annoying.
Hello! I did an implementation of Black Jack for a magic system of one game, doing some neat tricks to manage spells that were being cast. So, I have a couple of ideas that could work for this.
The only problem I see on that is about time and cost. The Black Jack system took around 2 weeks, but did not have the complexity you are talking about here (several different user interfaces and handlers).
A possibility that could make things "easier" is to create a module to work over the Complete Card Management, only adding the functions you are missing from that.
If you want, we could schedule a call to discuss this in more details, so I can understand better the requirements you need.
Sounds like a great idea! I discovered Card Hand Mini Toolbar as well, which combined with the other module has fixed all the awkwardness with actual gameplay. So the needs of this module would mostly come down to the idea of making a player-accessible "Card Repository" that you could pull from to add to a deck, as opposed to titling and uploading images for them individually.
Card Hand Mini Toolbar | Foundry Virtual Tabletop
Card Hand Mini Toolbar, an Add-on Module for Foundry Virtual Tabletop
Something as simple as the ability to copy paste cards from one deck from another would honestly work fine, as I could just make a folder of "Public Decks" players could copy from.
That sounds quite viable. We could create even some interfaces to make that simpler for players.
How about we schedule a call to discuss that?
Sure, I should be free for the majority of today.
It would work better for me tomorrow, if you don't mind, as I am traveling today.
I will send you a DM