Show total score to-be-earned before playing hand

[Macktronic]

When adding cards to a hand and arranging jokers it would be *really* helpful if there was a preview of the math that goes into the score calculation *before* I hit play on the hand.

[marharols]

Originally posted by Ronald Brain:

Here's what I'd suggest to add for those that absolutely *need* handholding feature (I don't care if you say optional, Easy Mode is Easy Mode):
-Auto-play your best possible hand (Click to activate). If you want to know your best score, why would you?
-Auto-foil when your last hand won't make it (Click to activate). You wouldn't want to waste 5 seconds for Misprint to show you if you make it, right?
-Auto-Joker arrange (Click to activate). Since best score can only be achieved if you have optimal Joker arrangement, why would you want to waste time figuring it out, just let the game do the hard work.
-Finally, hide all of that into an "Easy Mode" button in your Profile selection. There, problem solved.

Its more for advanced users who reached like ante 20? Losing because i had one to few steel cards in hand suck, and doing the math gets frustrating when i have like 6 retriggers per card.

[Gentlest Giant]

Originally posted by Ronald Brain:

Here's what I'd suggest to add for those that absolutely *need* handholding feature (I don't care if you say optional, Easy Mode is Easy Mode):
-Auto-play your best possible hand (Click to activate). If you want to know your best score, why would you?
-Auto-foil when your last hand won't make it (Click to activate). You wouldn't want to waste 5 seconds for Misprint to show you if you make it, right?
-Auto-Joker arrange (Click to activate). Since best score can only be achieved if you have optimal Joker arrangement, why would you want to waste time figuring it out, just let the game do the hard work.
-Finally, hide all of that into an "Easy Mode" button in your Profile selection. There, problem solved.

Yeah, no.
This is quite stupid, actually.
There are plenty of situations where playing the highest scoring hand is not the correct course of action. You know this.
That is where the strategy aspect of the game kicks in. The good part.

Edit: this suggestion does not address the question of "what is the probability of scoring higher next turn if discarding/playing non-optimal right now?"
You know, where the real math lies.

[Moon Breaker]

The problem with this is that there's some chance-based modifiers that would make or break the ending result.

[FATE]

Originally posted by Veneridae:

I assume this was tested during development and deemed boring. It takes a lot of the tension out of it if you know exactly how every hand will play out before you play it.

its not so boring when you have to calculate 4280 times 870 mult times 3.5 mult now does it, you are telling me you are doing those calculation in your head? why are you even playing a game?

[Ronald Brain]

Originally posted by driver (2011):

Its more for advanced users who reached like ante 20? Losing because i had one to few steel cards in hand suck, and doing the math gets frustrating when i have like 6 retriggers per card.

The folks playing past Ante 12+ always judge their score based on their previous hand. And like I said earlier, if you know for a fact that your best hand will still lose the game, what's the point, saving 5 seconds to fold?

[Default_Krebs]

I don't think the game should show you your best hand. Still, what I would love to see is exactly what was originally suggested:

Originally posted by Macktronic:

When adding cards to a hand and arranging jokers it would be *really* helpful if there was a preview of the math that goes into the score calculation *before* I hit play on the hand.

I also agree with Zidolos:

Originally posted by Zidolos:

I mean I think that's 95% of the fun of putting together your best hand build and being smart enough to know how multipliers work.

I think the game shouldn't show you what the best arrangement of jokers is or the best hand. I just think the game should show you the final score, when you add cards to your poker hand. The point is: Show and update score only when you add cards to your poker hand. That leaves the fun for the player to find the best hand or the best arrangement of jokers.

From my own experience with playtesting my own games, math isn't a very appealing and fun thing to do for many people but rather tidious. It's also not an appealing thing for some streamers like Northernlion, who rarely does the exact math, if a hand would win the blind. He just says things like: "Do you really want me to do the math?" or "Please, don't kill me" before playing a hand that is unlikely to win. I think it is a little frustrating and doesn't add a lot of fun for most players.

My point is: I would really love to see this feature as a grace mechanic in the game. Look at games like Celeste, that implemented a lot of grace mechanics to make the game less frustrating and more fun and rewarding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yorTG9at90g

[Default_Krebs]

Sometimes you don't even want to play your best hand, like when you play against the boss blind where you lose 1$ per card played. Again, if the game would just show you the score of the currently selected cards the player would still be left with the fun of figuring out the optimal play in many situations.

[Ronald Brain]

Originally posted by Default_Krebs:

Sometimes you don't even want to play your best hand, like when you play against the boss blind where you lose 1$ per card played. Again, if the game would just show you the score of the currently selected cards the player would still be left with the fun of figuring out the optimal play in many situations.

The game does show your best hand's score, subtly, via the Flame. If you highlight your card and see the flame burning then you know you already win, and that feels really good. Watching the score calculating, patiently anticipating the flame, and breathe a sigh of relief when you cleared the blind with only a hundred points, are all part of the fun.

[merrie]

The dev did an AMA on Reddit r/games. The preview question was asked, and this is his answer:

This question is a really important one and I think it exposes a fundamental design issue with Balatro. I have seen a lot of opinions leaning either way on this, but the reason this is an issue at all is because Balatro doesn't currently display perfect information even if it is available. Another way to think about this is that there is a gulf between the information horizon (Information available to the player) and the view of that information (What the game actually tells you)

In Balatro, my personal belief is that the game is more fun when you set up your Rube Goldberg machine and watch it go before knowing whether or not the hand will win the round. This adds some drama and suspense for players that don't feel like they need to know the exact score before pressing play. This has a pretty large design flaw though: Balatro is also a strategy game and not giving the player this tool is basically just poor quality of life for players that want to min-max their strategy, since they will want to do that legwork anyway.

The solutions are to either move the information horizon to the point the game currently displays, which would require making Joker effects or card bonuses fuzzy (like Misprint, for example), OR it would require a perfect score preview that, IMO, would make the game less fun for a large contingent of players that enjoy the pageantry of the chips ticking up, the fire, the drama, the excitement when you barely make it past the blind. I am in that contingent of players, and ultimately I designed this game for me, so even if it does put some players off I need to stay true to my preferences.

This is all to say, the criticism is 100% warranted and not something I think has a clear and simple answer. I wish it did - and I have spent a long time trying to come up with a theoretical solution to no avail. Really if I wanted to create a game without this design issue, I don't think an experience like Balatro could really exist.