I am suggesting a simple, yet quite effective change that should improve the gameplay experience for quite a bit. It often happens that I miscalculated the affected gems on the board when it comes to predicting certain abilities or spells that affect the grid in certain shapes or patterns.
One more obvious and standing-out example is the ability to cast 3x3 grid or 5x5, X shapes, rows or columns, and specific gem colors prior to casting the ability.
I could list more of them, but you know of what troops I speak of.
Players could also list more examples.
I canât really imagine how this could work. Since no spell cancel after you started the cast no room for such things.
When you select the spell the spell card obstruct most of the board.
After you cast the spell you canât cancel so converters has no reason to stop.
The spells which need to select a gem could use a highlight effect, but since no âpre-selectâ phase it only could be done on pc where you can follow the mouse pointer and can use the hoover event.
On phone there is no pointer, how the game should know where your finger points?
I never played on console so donât know how the cast works on that platform.
The only option for this if the devs willing to implement a âpre-castâ/âpre-selectâ phase it could help with some of the spells, but to fully utilize this the cast cancel should be implemented too.
I think you misunderstood me. There are no problems with any of this.
There is no need to cancel any spellcasting. Itâs not even related to what I am suggesting.
I am talking about specific gem-based, grid-based, pattern-based spells only.
Such a mechanic is totally possible even now if the gems would be shaking the same way as the one you select so that you can clearly see the implications before the cast.
While Iâm not sure how this would work on mobile, I assume that any of the devices that shows you the gem youâre going to cast a spell on would then highlight/shake the affected area. So for Obsidius, while youâre moving the cursor to select the gem you want (or holding your finger down for mobile, if such a thing was possible), it would highlight/shake the 5x5 grid centered on the currently selected gem, in this case the central green gem.
Iâve seen console gameplay where the âactiveâ gem appears highlighted in blue, which would make it somewhat easy to animate the affected area. For mobile/PC, itâs more complicated since youâve kind of selected the gem already once you touch the screen, unless they allow you to drag your pressed finger/cursor around, moving the affected area.
While finger down and moving during spell phase show targeting aid, once finger is lifted fire spell?
Would be pretty neat for some of the more unusual spells, like highlights for cross-shaped patterns. I currently tend to do a lot of finger waving to get those right. Unfortunately itâs a QoL feature, they havenât yet found a way to monetize those, so the chance for it to ever get implemented is pretty slim.
Hereâs one example:
The selected gem in the center is always your mouse pointer or the point of origin.
The only difference would be that all the gems affected would be shaking as well.
Of course, the cast has to be made, but at least you see what gems are affected.
The biggest issue with this idea is that itâs realy difficult to implement such thing on mobile.
While on console it should be easy.
On PC it can be moderate.
I realy canât think about a good implementation on mobile âŚ
Wouldnât it slow down gameplay?
Also there would be complaints about it â sometimes when i âdragâ things on my phone for unknown reasons device driver sometimes decides i have lifted the finger.
If it was implemented iâd probably be 1st one to fill request for having and option in menu to turn it offâŚ
On mobile Iâd rather tap on the board to select a gem, get a preview and tap a button below the board to cast. I think casting as soon as you lift your finger is going to cause many people to cast on the wrong gem. Players are going to move the phone around to get a better look at the preview while trying to keep their finger on the screen.
On desktops you can just have a live preview following the mouse cursor and cast with one click.
On console you always have a gem selected for preview anyway.
I donât think there is a viable solution for touch (rather than mobile) devices, asking for an additional tap for confirmation is certainly a big no no, and as Sytro pointed out, asking to keep your finger down would be uncomfortable and prone to errors.
But hey, itâs not like you have to provide every feature for every kind of device.
Though I still havenât wrapped my head around that bugged troop which is supposed to destroy a cross shaped section, and instead destroys a smaller rectangle at higher game speeds; wonder if this new feature would risk being affected in some weird way.
Confirmation on mobile could be a second tap on the same gem.
I know it is difficult for a couple of people to tap the same gem twice, but if they miss the spell wonât cast just move the highlight, so nothing is lost.
This must be configurable on mobile.
Iâm all for more options.
I was thinking this would be just a âshapeâ-troop (Obsidius, Dragonian Monk, âŚ) thing anyway.
Are you guys casting âshapeâ-troops just as quickly as other troops? I find myself taking an extra 3-5 seconds for âshapeâ troops, precisely because there is no preview.
Indeed. The Draconian Monk is just another example that fits that category.
Only the affected gems would be put on vibrate or be highlighted on the board.
I donât understand what youâre referring to. Itâs not exactly a preview, but more like an indicator, just like the hint moves option, and it has nothing to do with the gameplay speed, only with a choice once you selected the ability. And if itâs all about speed, making a wrong move is much more common unless if you know what gems on the grid are affected by the current spell.
When using touch controls, there is no concept of a gem cursor or âtargetâ gem beforehand. You just tap an arbitrary gem and the effect immediately resolves. To display a hint highlighting the gems that would be affected, you need an origin gem (be it the center of a 5x5 block, or a cross, etc.): with touch the only solution would be to introduce a further input like a tap (or long press) to highlight a gem to be used as the origin for the hint, and then another tap (or release finger) to actually cast the spell.
I donât know. How slow is your double click with a mouse? If you know which gem you want to select as center just tap twice rapidly. Donât slow down anything.
Of course this effect would be active for spells which do something in a shape.
I think some people in this thread are forgetting mobile is a thing.
There have been new troops where I didnt understand what the troop was doing, so a preview would be nice. I just am not sure how that would work because of mobile.
Only, if there was an option in game setting to turn that thing offâŚ
Wouldnât want my tap to be taken by the driver as âholdâ and than released once iâve moved my finger away and driver decided i pointed something else⌠it happens already, itâs annoying now, but it would be even more annoying after adding such âfeatureâ
So, as much as I generaly like the idea on other devices iâm realy afraid of adding it on mobile.
