PSCD 0.9.9 - beta demo!

[Franka]

Thank you, Troyen! I'm so used to the game by now that all those little annoyances just don't register any more.

Once I actually hit "end turn" the instructions change to "end your turn" before I even use the grenade.

I'm pretty sure Jack broke the tutorial himself when he changed the cost of Grenade actually.

I almost want to see the victory conditions before the battle starts, but I don't know if that would get annoying. Maybe Franka or someone who has played all the way through can comment.

I think it would be ok if the info button was displayed when the battle starts, and the first thing you do is click it away. That way you can see if there are any special victory conditions (which is fairly rare). We should also take a closer look at what that text actually says, because I'm sure it could be more exact for some of the missions.

I kinda wish walls had some sort of visual indicator. Didn't realize the mine field was one until turn two. Same for units that grant credits on death, but that's a lot to pack in.

True, it might be a bit late for adding more visuals to cards, but maybe there could be a small icon in the bottom row, when the card is in your hand, showing a symbol for Wall (stacked bricks), Robotic (robot face), Organic (human face), Charge (horse), Double Attack (crossed swords), Breach (shovel), Flying (wings), Invisible (human outline), Force Shield (bubble)... You'll still have to remember/bring it up when it's in play though.

I'm not finding a good definition of "Rarity" anywhere. There was something saying uncommon/common/etc, which I think is it (and thus translates into the 1-5 on the deck builder screen), but are all my cards really rarity 3? It says to look at the center gem, but they all look the same (white) to me. Does that mean these cards are rare?

Yes, I've mentioned this before, but forgot, rarity is not properly defined (this matters somewhat for the Emergency card). Anyway, white gem = common, blue gem = uncommon, yellow gem = rare.

While we're at that, shouldn't tier 2 cards be uncommon since you can only add 2 of each to a deck? (That would mess up Emergency though.)

The arrows on the deck builder saying there are more cards on the next page are hard to distinguish from the arrows saying there are no more pages. Especially since somehow I start on the last page by default, was wondering why all the heroes only had two cards to pick from. Can they turn the same blue as all the other buttons when there are more cards available?

Further, sometimes you end up on a page with no cards on them when you select a new character because it stays on the current page, and the new character has fewer cards. It should probably go to page 1 every time you select/deselect a character/deck, though that might be annoying too...

[Troyen]

I kinda wish walls had some sort of visual indicator. Didn't realize the mine field was one until turn two. Same for units that grant credits on death, but that's a lot to pack in.

True, it might be a bit late for adding more visuals to cards, but maybe there could be a small icon in the bottom row, when the card is in your hand, showing a symbol for Wall (stacked bricks), Robotic (robot face), Organic (human face), Charge (horse), Double Attack (crossed swords), Breach (shovel), Flying (wings), Invisible (human outline), Force Shield (bubble)... You'll still have to remember/bring it up when it's in play though.

I actually meant specifically on the field, kinda like how Hearthstone has that giant shield border. Though now I've noticed when I go to attack, all non-wall cards are highlighted. But it doesn't tell me what my walls are. The credits one especially would be nice to have - which enemy do I need to kill/suicide into to get a credit to play a card from my hand?

Further, sometimes you end up on a page with no cards on them when you select a new character because it stays on the current page, and the new character has fewer cards. It should probably go to page 1 every time you select/deselect a character/deck, though that might be annoying too...

I wouldn't mind that, at least it would be consistent.

[Troyen]

I don't think the Giant Boragrub did it's 2 on-summon damage to me or my units (Mission 5).

[Franka]

I don't think the Giant Boragrub did it's 2 on-summon damage to me or my units (Mission 5).

Only to Walls and Buildings, IIRC? It works like that in a later mission anyway.

[Franka]

I actually meant specifically on the field, kinda like how Hearthstone has that giant shield border. Though now I've noticed when I go to attack, all non-wall cards are highlighted. But it doesn't tell me what my walls are. The credits one especially would be nice to have - which enemy do I need to kill/suicide into to get a credit to play a card from my hand?

I must admit that I'm a fan of the minimalistic battle layout, but I do agree that Credits would be nice to see at a glance.

[Troyen]

Did you mention that Assault works on Spiked Iron-Vines? As does Force Shield.

[Franka]

As they're written, Take Cover should, Assault should not.

[jack1974]

If it helps, the very first unit I played I put two spaces to the right of the robo-ant instead of one just to be a contrarian. Maybe that messed everything up?

Yep that was it. I really cannot code the tutorial based on all the possible combinations/plays the player will do. I think will just put the arrows to indicate the enemy units, and not the player ones since that can be changed.

I almost want to see the victory conditions before the battle starts, but I don't know if that would get annoying. Maybe Franka or someone who has played all the way through can comment.

Basically after the tutorial battles (first 10), all the battles have all the same 4 victory conditions:
1) All enemy units destroyed
2) Reduce the opponent's HP to zero
3) Captain Nelson must survive
4) Enemy must not kill all player units
so after a while you get used to those. In the few missions where there's a special condition, I do a "cutscene" (the character coming in from the right with a short text) which will explain the extra condition.

As a quality of life thing, is it possible to dim or the resource counters or gray out the text for which we have 0? So I can more easily see what I have to spend at-a-glance?

Yup that's not a problem at all, will do it.

I kinda wish walls had some sort of visual indicator. Didn't realize the mine field was one until turn two. Same for units that grant credits on death, but that's a lot to pack in.

There's a space on top of the small card border, I could try to put some small icons there, but need to check if is not too much info on screen at once.

Also, would be nice if the "end selection" button lit up to remind you to click it. Or the "end turn" button if you have no more cards to play.

I need to ask Anima if is possible to do a check for the player not having any more cards to play, but otherwise is a good idea.

I'm not finding a good definition of "Rarity" anywhere. There was something saying uncommon/common/etc, which I think is it (and thus translates into the 1-5 on the deck builder screen), but are all my cards really rarity 3? It says to look at the center gem, but they all look the same (white) to me. Does that mean these cards are rare?

I'll add a help text when the card is zoomed in in the deck builder explaining the various colors.

Everything related to deck screen I'll put on hold until I have the final GUI layout.

The birds on mission 4 are all...attacking my wall. I thought ignoring walls was their thing?

Yes I noticed that, it messed up a bit when I did the changed to the AI, since destroying walls became more important (in case there are other normal units). It's really hard to do a good AI for such a game (and now I understand why Hearthstone went with multiplayer mostly).
That said it should be possible to fix it

Also, the "End Selection" button somehow got moved partway off screen. Casting the Stun restored the board to normal. I think this is because the infantry was still selected when I went to pick my card.

Yes that was the issue! Fun is a rather odd bug, I never encountered it myself, but at least I know why it's triggered

I'm pretty sure Jack broke the tutorial himself when he changed the cost of Grenade actually.

Yup I need to give higher starting resources

While we're at that, shouldn't tier 2 cards be uncommon since you can only add 2 of each to a deck? (That would mess up Emergency though.)

The tiers/rarity are:
TIER 1 (COMMON) MAX 3 DECK TIER 2 (UNCOMMON) MAX 2/DECK TIER 3 (RARE) MAX 2/DECK TIER 4 (EPIC) MAX 1/DECK TIER 5 (LEGENDARY) MAX 1/DECK
and the colors: common=white, uncommon=green, rare=blue, epic=purple, legendary=yellow
Originally I had same color for tier1/2, but I changed that since 0.8 I think. But now I realized that I forgot to update the color displayed in the cards! Will work on next update

Further, sometimes you end up on a page with no cards on them when you select a new character because it stays on the current page, and the new character has fewer cards. It should probably go to page 1 every time you select/deselect a character/deck, though that might be annoying too...

Hmm yes though probably is better if goes to page 1. Anyway as said will wait to see the new GUI first.

I must admit that I'm a fan of the minimalistic battle layout, but I do agree that Credits would be nice to see at a glance.

I plan to add the credits indeed. Also while not for all stuff, at least some indicator for the Wall units would be useful, I'll think about something.

Did you mention that Assault works on Spiked Iron-Vines? As does Force Shield.

A bug, assault shouldn't work That's what you get for making an organic wall unit! I need to check all organic skill boosts so that they won't work on walls

[jack1974]

enemy credits info added I think will also add at the bottom a symbol for the wall units. For other stuff like an effect on death it might be a bit complicated, but will try!

[Franka]

While we're at that, shouldn't tier 2 cards be uncommon since you can only add 2 of each to a deck? (That would mess up Emergency though.)

The tiers/rarity are:
TIER 1 (COMMON) MAX 3 DECK TIER 2 (UNCOMMON) MAX 2/DECK TIER 3 (RARE) MAX 2/DECK TIER 4 (EPIC) MAX 1/DECK TIER 5 (LEGENDARY) MAX 1/DECK
and the colors: common=white, uncommon=green, rare=blue, epic=purple, legendary=yellow
Originally I had same color for tier1/2, but I changed that since 0.8 I think. But now I realized that I forgot to update the color displayed in the cards!

Wait, so Emergency shouldn't be able to give tier 2 cards? It does.