#UI: Active Abilities

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

oblique sorrel
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Hi! I'm TheBirdPhil, but mostly everyone calls me "Bird". I've been playing Mythgard ("MG"), another one of Monumental's games, for about half a decade now, and I still love it. We recognize that Star Trek: Warp is a spiritual successor to MG in many ways, but it's not going to be exactly the same. Others and I might use lingo from MG, and if you are confused, just ask, we don't bite. The views I express are my own, and I hope we can have a good, civil discourse.

I see often that characters have abilities that cost or do not cost mana. The trouble is, I have no idea how many times or when I can use these abilities.

See the MG card "Cognate of Eratos". Presuming you are not colorblind, you can see that he has a standard ability and a bonus ability. Other cards have just a mana cost, which can be used as many times as you can pay the cost.

Please consider adding or clarifying the symbology for Standard, Bonus, and Free actions (presuming all three exist). Also please consider not relying on color.

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left copper
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Oh, if only I could get back the hours we spent debating actions!

We like the "characters can do one thing" thing. We also like keywords that let you do a thing without losing your action (e.g., Swift, Frenzy, and Energized).

The concept of standard/utility/free actions was confusing and hard to communicate, so we went with an Energy cost to try to show that it was going to use the character's action.

But I fully recognize that "0 Energy cost" also kind of implies "free".

We'll work on this on our side and I am very grateful for the feedback!

gaunt depot
# left copper Oh, if only I could get back the hours we spent debating actions! We like the "...

maybe this is my MG brain, but it confused me quite a bit as well. the free things keywords combined with energy cost, attack, and move all using the single action is a good way to handle it. i lost a couple games myself due to spending the action doing an ability just to realize i can't still attack after, even though the ability cost 0. the big borg deck guy you can give overrun to tripped me up for example, as i didn't realize giving overrun used one of the actions. it would have been better to attack twice (clear blocker, go face) than what i ended up doing (overrun into blocker, no face hit).

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energized seems a little inconsistent with ability activations, but i haven't fully tested it enough to come to any conclusions, bugs or otherwise.

pearl bronze
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My 2c: I'd like a icon to represent actions. Yes, having "characters do one thing" does mean that an action/exert/tap icon isn't technically needed-- but, at least for me, it's such a standard thing in a CCG that not having it did lead at first to me mistakenly thinking that an ability with only an energy cost would be a "free" action.

Then with the dynamic card text keywords like "energized" could remove that cost icon to keep things clear.

While on the topic of actions something that I think could use some more clarity too is when you've consumed your "normal" action and only have one of the conditional actions from keywords left. There isn't a visual difference so a card with swift that can only move looks as "ready" as a card with all its actions available. Just something to think about.

gaunt depot
left copper
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I like the idea of visual clues for Swift, Energized, and Frenzied.

We do use the rotating icons (e.g., Thy'lek Shran in the I.K.S. *Bortas *deck), but I think there should be stronger cues.

gaunt depot
oblique sorrel
# pearl bronze My 2c: I'd like a icon to represent actions. Yes, having "characters do one thin...

I also agree with Garrett. Even if you ( @left copper , et al) decide from a design perspective to not have "free" or "bonus" actions on release, I think a "Tap" or "Standard Action" icon is helpful. Firstly, as mentioned, it's expected, and secondly, then you don't design yourself into a weird corner of needing a keyword or icon to express a free action if you decide to add free actions in a future expansion.

As for MG style "bonus actions", the easy way to integrate those in the future by just adding the associative icon.