HOLY COW, GUISE. I had the wildest Armello game just now and I have to tell someone about it even if you dudes have no idea what I'm rambling on about nor give a shit. Story time...
So I'm doing a multiplayer game aka playing with other humans instead of against AI. Basics are you pick an animal to play as and you become king (or queen) of Armello to win the game. There's already a king and each turn he loses one health point and gains one rot point, adding to his state of corruption. There are several win conditions and I won't bore you by going through them all but the current king HAS to die at the end. He HAS to. That's the only way the game ends and someone wins. One of the ways you win is by killing the king in a fight. If you happen to have rot points of your own, they have to be above the king's current rot points for you to have the advantage. If your rot points are below the king's when you fight him, he has the advantage in the fight.
So my multiplayer game starts up and my rabbit character has 5 rot points. Which is NOT normal. AT ALL. You either have to equip a special item or play as a certain character to start out with 1 or 2 rot points let alone have 5 from the start. So I'm like, "what the fuck, dude?" It's a special event today so I wonder if this is an added layer to the event. Maybe I started out with an item or something. And then I realize to my horror all four of us have 5 rot points a piece.
This game is currently doing an update event where it rolls out updates until a giant update in the summer. Ever since this event began last month, there's been bug issues. So I'm all "great, another bugged game." It happens, but whatever. We all soldier on.
Now normal games last around 10 or 11 rounds. Each round represents a day and each day the king loses one health point and gains one rot point. I realize 3 rounds in that this fucker ain't dying. He's not losing a single health point. So we can't even wait for him to die. Unless we want to disconnect from the game, we're stuck in a loop. I wonder if the game will stop itself around 10 or 11 rounds automatically. I decide to play under the Prestige Victory condition where I fuck other people up and save towns to gain fame. Once that king dies, I become queen because I'm so fucking famous.
I'm losing count of the rounds now. I realize the game's probably gonna keep going until someone kills the king. The king is still gaining rot points but he's as healthy as ever when he's supposed to be getting weaker and slowly dying so he's easier to kill.
I'm playing with a level 1 player, another level 4 player, and a 65 or something level player. I wonder if any of them realize what's going on and if they're gonna do something about it. There's no way to communicate in the game other than emote as the character you're playing as. The 65 level player looked like he caught on to an idea but then gave up and quit the game around round 9. Boo. That character continues to play as an AI player. The AI is kinda dumb so we can't really rely on that to "save" us.
The other two players that are still people decide to kill me whenever they come across me. I deserved it. I was having fun offing them to gain fame. So, cool, whatever. The other two players are an otter with a spear and a berserker wolf. These dudes are primed to be fighter characters for players who love combat. These two are also collecting a lot of rot points. I had about 11 rot points but they always had more so whenever one of them fought me, I'd give them an 11 advantage every time. My bunny's an architect so--while I can kick ass with her with the right gear--she's not built for fighting like these other two.
I'm resigned to the fact that one of these two guys is gonna win. I figure if I get some good cards, I'll buff whichever one of them challenges the king first. This way they have an increased chance of winning and Groundhog Day will be over.
It
doesn't
happen.
I have no idea why one of these two didn't try to fight the king. The AI character even created a path to the king they could've used but neither one goes for it.
I don't want to quit the game because I'm playing for a double-prize drop at the end of the game. I'll lose my prizes if I quit. But at the same time I'd like the game to end already.
I try drawing cards looking for something to help get rid of this rot. I try to go for one of the other win conditions where you gather spirit stones. I'm not drawing the cards I need. I draw some cards that will give me even more rot points. I'm like "goddamn it, this isn't what I wanted."
I looked to the other two players to see who will go for the king. They're still fucking around. They were both really strong so I don't get why they're not going for it. Either one of them would've had an 11 advantage over the king the same way they had over me. Yeah, the king has an insane amount of hit points. Like 10 or so. For reference, none of us have half that many. You'd have to land at least ten hits against the king without getting killed and that's not including if he rolls a high defense. If he gets 5 shields, you'd need to land 15 hits. That's a really huge number for this game. Since all of us are rotten, we also lose 1 hit point a day so we're never at full health unless we get a healing card.
I've unlocked my own path to the palace a long time ago. And the other two aren't going for it. At this point, the king has the same amount of rot points I do. I take one look at my hand of cards that will give me three more rot points. And I'm like "Fuck it, Beck. Fucking DO THIS."
I get my wabbit into the palace, add two rot points from my hand. Adding it this way also decreases my hit points, so I knocked myself down to 1 hit point doing this. I had to land 10 hit points in excess to any defense he ended up with to beat him AND not get hit in the process in order to win. And I fucking do it perfectly and become Queen. It's so sweet. When you win this way, it's called a Rot Victory. My first one. And I will never forget my first.
EDIT: I checked through the forums to see if it was a bug and it actually wasn't. The conditions of the game changed for the special event. I didn't know they changed. I thought the special event had the same conditions from the last time I played it. We all start out rotten and the king doesn't lose hit points with each day. That's really cool actually. I was getting tired and annoyed with the fact the damn king wasn't dying like he's supposed to but good to know.
I kinda want to play again now that I understand what's happening but I have to work tomorrow. Boo.
