Is there a way to preview how many points you'll score

[Autodidact]

There are plenty of builds where there is no RNG, but its tiresome to calculate the #s myself

[Godhand]

"Part of the experience is the tension of "will this beat it?"" - yes, for you

There are people who don't like it and just because you think it's more fun this way, doesn't mean there can't be an option to let the other people have fun their way as well.

I'm sure it's not hard to gauge whether your builds will work (FOR YOU, AGAIN)

Reason to have this feature even though modding exists: Not everyone is playing on pc and therefore not able to mod Balatro.

Different people, different problems. Some have motion sickness, Some dyslexia and some have problems with math.

[dmeister]

Originally posted by :D?:

Originally posted by dmeister:

No, it is not at all, not even remotely, like saying "please give me royal flushes". Not even close.

If the game showed you how many points a given hand would score, it would not help you win much at all. Like other people in this thread have said, you can definitely win without calculating the points on every hand. The only time you actually occasionally may feel the need to calculate exactly how many points a given hand will score is if you just happen to be JUST barely on the edge of maybe winning or maybe not on a given hand and you MIGHT need to make a final discard to try for a riskier but higher scoring hand in order to win. That scenario can very occasionally happen, but it's definitely an uncommon exception and not the rule.

So really showing the score would simply be a fairly small quality of life improvement for the game for when you do happen to run into one of those rare scenarios. That's a very, VERY far cry from "give me royal flushes for free". 🙄

If it doesn't help you win at all, why would you even need or want it? Why calculate the score in the first place? The only reason I can think of is because you don't know if it'll win (doesn't matter if you have it or not in that case, so why bother, you're basically just spoiling yourself) or you need to decide between two seemingly equally good hands, in which case it does directly help you win

I said calculating scores can help you win in very uncommon corner cases. It's an extremely marginal benefit in that regard, not at all like what the poster I replied to claimed (i.e. "it's the same as asking for royal flushes") But for people who do find they occasionally want to calculate their score having that calculation be available on-screen would be a nice quality of life improvement versus running the numbers by hand in a calculator or spreadsheet or whatever.

In fact apparently the only reason there isn't already a score preview, according to posted comments and videos mentioned in the thread, is that the designer has this odd, vague impression that adding a score preview would make the game "less fun" for people who play the game casually. It's this kind of weird notion considering that if someone doesn't care about the exact score they're not going to care if the score is on the screen in small print, for example, but people who do actually care about calculating exact scores periodically would in fact enjoy the game more if they didn't have to do those calculations by hand. It really is hard to imagine the scenarios where adding a score preview would be a downside for the game and easy to imagine the marginal upsides.

[dmeister]

Originally posted by :D?:

I don't really understand why it is so difficult to think the dev wouldn't want people to see the final score. Seeing it go up from the machine you've created is the entire point of the game. If you already know the result before you start what's the point?

This is like if chess matches had a position score preview on every move ...

It's nothing at all like a chess calculator that tells you which position is best. Literally all the numbers are there to calculate the scores by hand in Balatro, there is no such thing in chess (there's not even a scoring mechanic in chess in the first place!)

Not to mention that literally playing the currently highest scoring hand every single time in Balatro would be a TERRIBLE strategy! Nobody honestly thinks that if you have an opening hand with a single pair, for instance, that in most cases the best strategy is play that pair immediately rather than discard to try and get a better hand.

[dmeister]

Originally posted by Picotrain:

Originally posted by Godhand:

I dare you to come up with a reason of why this feature should not be optionally available. (as in, you go in the option menu, tick a box and then the calculator is active.) Something you would never ever have to click if you're feeling too cool and skilled for it.

it's not about feeling "cool" by any means though; it's about a poker rogue-like poker game that clearly, people enjoy playing. Part of the experience is the tension of "will this beat it?" It's also not hard to gauge whether your build will work and scale properly either. I dare you to come up with a reason why a dev needs to work to add this feature in, when mods already do so for those that want it.

Because third party mods are less reliable in future patches than official features included in the game. Not to mention a lot of people play the game on Playstation, for example, where mods aren't even an option in the first place.

[Picotrain]

Originally posted by dmeister:

Originally posted by Picotrain:

it's not about feeling "cool" by any means though; it's about a poker rogue-like poker game that clearly, people enjoy playing. Part of the experience is the tension of "will this beat it?" It's also not hard to gauge whether your build will work and scale properly either. I dare you to come up with a reason why a dev needs to work to add this feature in, when mods already do so for those that want it.

Because third party mods are less reliable in future patches than official features included in the game. Not to mention a lot of people play the game on Playstation, for example, where mods aren't even an option in the first place.

I doubt the people playing solely on Playstation are requesting features via Steam forums.

[lordatog]

Originally posted by Picotrain:

Originally posted by dmeister:

Because third party mods are less reliable in future patches than official features included in the game. Not to mention a lot of people play the game on Playstation, for example, where mods aren't even an option in the first place.

I doubt the people playing solely on Playstation are requesting features via Steam forums.

*raises hand*

Well okay, I am playing this particular game on Steam. But if a game is available on Steam, I will always use the Steam forums regardless of what I'm actually playing it on, because they're always the most active and useful.

[dmeister]

Originally posted by Picotrain:

Originally posted by dmeister:

Because third party mods are less reliable in future patches than official features included in the game. Not to mention a lot of people play the game on Playstation, for example, where mods aren't even an option in the first place.

I doubt the people playing solely on Playstation are requesting features via Steam forums.

My brother plays on Playstation and wants the feature. So there you go, one easy example.

[Brotund]

Its not final hands I am worried about having a calculator for, its the rounds where I am making my jokers better or generating tarot cards, or doing something to make my deck stronger rather than going for the one shot. Idk if the answer is reducing some grind out of the game in this regard, but these two elements of the game have negative synergy.

I am sure that lots of people like the pling plonging of hand score calculation, but once you progress into higher stakes is a little played out for me.

I enjoy this game but having to shoot from the hip when playing hands prevents me from wanting to boot it up.

This is all just player feedback.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Godhand:

Originally posted by Picotrain:

Yes, but if you can't figure out if your hand will win or not without needing an in game calculator, then it's likely you're not understanding how some of the mechanics in the game work.

I dare you to come up with a reason of why this feature should not be optionally available. (as in, you go in the option menu, tick a box and then the calculator is active.) Something you would never ever have to click if you're feeling too cool and skilled for it.

Because the developer doesn't want it to be.

[Godhand]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Originally posted by Godhand:

I dare you to come up with a reason of why this feature should not be optionally available. (as in, you go in the option menu, tick a box and then the calculator is active.) Something you would never ever have to click if you're feeling too cool and skilled for it.

Because the developer doesn't want it to be.

My bad, I should've written a GOOD reason. Not this lame excuse. If he doesn't want it, he can just turn it off in the options then. I think you still don't get what I mean by optional. Just the reason that the dev doesn't want it, means nothing to me. I spit on "i don't want it to be" when it's optional anyway. I'd rather accept "I'm too lazy to add it", seriously, than this selfish excuse. And no I'm not saying the dev is lazy, I'm being literal. That's what I would rather accept as a reason then just him not wanting it, wtf.

One last time: since it would be optional, there is NO excuse to not add it (except if the dev just doesn't wanna do the work, which would be ok, I'm sure he works enough on the game already). The concept of an optional calculator itself, should not be the problem whatsoever.

[Picotrain]

Originally posted by Godhand:

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Because the developer doesn't want it to be.

My bad, I should've written a GOOD reason. Not this lame excuse. If he doesn't want it, he can just turn it off in the options then. I think you still don't get what I mean by optional. Just the reason that the dev doesn't want it, means nothing to me. I spit on "i don't want it to be" when it's optional anyway. I'd rather accept "I'm too lazy to add it", seriously, than this selfish excuse. And no I'm not saying the dev is lazy, I'm being literal. That's what I would rather accept as a reason then just him not wanting it, wtf.

One last time: since it would be optional, there is NO excuse to not add it (except if the dev just doesn't wanna do the work, which would be ok, I'm sure he works enough on the game already). The concept of an optional calculator itself, should not be the problem whatsoever.

It's the dev's game. They made it so it's their choice to add a feature or not. Nobody even needs an excuse to make changes to, or to choose not to change, their own product.

[dmeister]

Originally posted by Godhand:

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Because the developer doesn't want it to be.

One last time: since it would be optional, there is NO excuse to not add it (except if the dev just doesn't wanna do the work, which would be ok, I'm sure he works enough on the game already). The concept of an optional calculator itself, should not be the problem whatsoever.

Just to be fair to the dev, it's not a question of them being too lazy to put it in. Their stated reason for not wanting to add a score preview in the game, even as an opt-in game option, is they are worried that it would take away from the casual flow of the game and entice people to worry too much about exact scores when they shouldn't be stressing out about it. Their thinking is that even if it's an option you turn on, the experience of having it on would be a negative one for people so they don't want to include it at all despite numerous players asking for it.

Personally I think the designer is off-base on this, I think they're underestimating how many people actually would have a somewhat improved experience from having it in the game as an option and overestimating the negative impact the feature would have on people who ignore score calculations in the first place. But, regardless of my opinion, that's apparently their thinking currently. 🤷‍♂️

[Ratch]

Originally posted by Godhand:

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Because the developer doesn't want it to be.

My bad, I should've written a GOOD reason.

Pffft hahahahaha seethe. That's the ultimate reason not to add something. "It doesn't fit in the game" - Guy who made the game.

Guess you'll have to deal with mods.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Godhand:

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Because the developer doesn't want it to be.

My bad, I should've written a GOOD reason. Not this lame excuse. If he doesn't want it, he can just turn it off in the options then. I think you still don't get what I mean by optional. Just the reason that the dev doesn't want it, means nothing to me. I spit on "i don't want it to be" when it's optional anyway. I'd rather accept "I'm too lazy to add it", seriously, than this selfish excuse. And no I'm not saying the dev is lazy, I'm being literal. That's what I would rather accept as a reason then just him not wanting it, wtf.

One last time: since it would be optional, there is NO excuse to not add it (except if the dev just doesn't wanna do the work, which would be ok, I'm sure he works enough on the game already). The concept of an optional calculator itself, should not be the problem whatsoever.

The dev did "turn it off in the options" though, by not having it available there. Funny how that works, right? The dev doesn't seem to want to reward that aspect, so it's not in the game. That's the best reason for it not to be there.

[burn1none]

No and half these clowns here will tell you you’re the worst for asking lol. The game should definitely calculate your score.