Doomskull matches don't respect Frozen

Bug Reports
1

Platform, device version and operating system
All of them. Tested/verified on Steam, Windows 7.

Screenshot or image

What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened
Since doomskulls are a special form of skulls, I expect an extra turn to be denied if 4+ are matched while the first troop is frozen. It doesn’t… sometimes. But not always.

How often does this happen? When did it begin happening?
After some testing, this seems to happen when a match consists of a mixture of skulls and doomskulls only if matched in a certain way. A match of 4 or more that is entirely doomskulls does not appear to ever respect frozen.

If matched in a certain way (presumably where the match is resolved starting from a doomskull linking to a mixture of doomskulls/normal skulls) this does not happen. However, if the match resolves in another way (presumably where the match is resolved starting from a normal skull linking to a mixture of doomskulls/normal skulls) your extra turn is successfully frozen. The second video shows both happening back to back. Note that the “corner” position of an “L” match in the first example where Frozen didn’t work was occupied by a doomskull, and in the second attempt where Frozen did work, the corner was a normal skull.

Also note that game speed has nothing to do with this. In the example I recorded, I simply turned it down so it would be easy to see that none of the matches that cascades or anything that was converted should have given an extra turn. I’ve powered through freeze with doomskulls and got the extra turn without cascading any non-frozen colors repeatedly regardless of speed.

Steps to make it happen again
Match 4+ doomskulls with your first troop frozen with both mixtures of skulls/doomskulls and just doomskulls and in different patterns to observe inconsistent behavior.

Related Notes
Doomskull explosions from matched seem to “beat out” simultaneous matches of colored gems, exploding and denying the 4+ match and extra turn… again sometimes. I believe this may also be related whether it is being counted as a “skull match with skulltype” or a “doomskull match with skulltype” and the order of resolution being altered accordingly. I have no recordings of this, but several people have reported it already in various places. Please consider also making these consistent.

7 Likes
2

This is since the DS update and in addition 4-matches not working everytime since the update is still a thing too. One would think that if the very fundamental core priciples of this game don’t work anymore that the Devs would put on a clinic to fix that asap, apparently not so much.

3

Ya instead of lowering the Xplosion mana to 50-60%. Making so that doomskull matches actually doesn’t give an extra turn when the troop is frozen like it is supposed to do, is actually a pretty nice upgrade “nerf” to doomskull mechanic.

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I liked Mr. Strange’s proposed solution to dealing with Doomskulls much better than the idea of nerfing all exploders.

5 Likes
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Doomskulls should be nerfed as well. But I agree, exploders should’nt be able to always refill their own manna. This is especially a problem with infernus. He gets mana in 1-2 turns because he is 22 mana for some reason, then refills all his mana from explode. If he he gets an extra turn from it, which he does 3/4 times I play against it, he just wins the game by himself. If it’s impossible to deny enough mana in first 1-3 turns, you just loose.

Why a troop that good costs 22 mana is beyond me. Worldbreaker is 32 mana and in a vaccum is weaker then infernus. Not to mention all the devine synergys he has with yellow generators.

6

Getting a bit off track but:

Lowering all explosion mana won’t solve any perceived problem with explorers. For example, Infernus never refills from mana generated from exploding gems. He refills from his cascades, generally after he has triggered a storm from killing something. If you don’t cascade, you generally end up with about 7 to 11 mana, a bit more if the board is flooded with your color and generally get put in a position where the enemy is set up for some match 4 or 5s, particularly if you had a storm out and missed the cascade. The thing with Infernus is that dead troops don’t fight back, and he also does very good damage, especially if you can soften or kill troops before casting him, so if this doesn’t happen on his first or maybe second cast, its usually already too late. It might have been a bad idea to buff him when he was already good and then also give him one of, if not the best synergies in the game (while also being a homogenous team type, benefitting even more with some stat bonuses, which few teams that can be called “good” can), but that was all brought up at the time. Its not like doomskulls were the thing that pushed Infernus over any kind of line, if such a line ever existed. Hes still countered the same way he always was - gimmicks (devour/instakill), focused damage, disable, and control; and he still wins most of the time in a pure mana > damage race if you don’t manage your turns well.

As for doomskull exploder interaction - its part the damage they deal and part cascades. If you hit a chain with doomstorm, you cascade and cascade and cascade, generally generating 3 times as much mana and 2 times as much damage needed to kill anything on the opposing team. 50% mana from exploded gems just makes primary generating exploders (eg. Ragnagord, Fire Bomb) less reliable starters, making it more likely they don’t generate enough mana for the next step or drop a board they can’t explode their way out, while still allowing them to spike mana into a win condition, making them irritating to use and not addressing why they can be occasionally irritating to fight. It won’t solve any perceived problems with damage dealing exploders, doomskulls, and especially not exploder/storm combos, which have always been on the overpowered side for other reasons. The thing about doomstorm is that it is a storm that triggers automatic explosions which can trigger cascades which can trigger other explosions ad infinitum - it is an exploder-storm that also explodes for you. I would have immediately put that in the “bad idea” column, but, well, here we are. Right now, only one troop can trigger it, and only in one way, so it can sort be played around, though.

I think much of the problem would be solved if doomstorm wasn’t so ridiculous and glitches (like the one documented here) were fixed. The rest could be solved by sensible changes that don’t marginalize an existing role while aiming at a completely different target, like the one suggested by Mr.Strange (doomskulls don’t explode or +5 damage unless matched).

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