[Reported] Starry Mage spell is incosistent/misleading

Platform, device version and operating system:
Steam
Screenshot or image:

What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened:
The spell description says “Destroy gems in X shape” and it lets player to choose a specific gem, so I was expecting gems in the black lines in the first screenshot destroyed.
Instead, the spell destroys gems on the diagonals of the field every time regardless of which gem the player selects.

As a solution I would expect either:

A) remove gem selection option and change spell description to reflect that diagonals and only diagonals will be destroyed or
B) rectify the spell so that it actually does what the description says and is consistent with other X-shape troops (Dragonian Monk, Dragonian Rogue and Satyr Hunter).

Needless to say, I assume, that B is the preferred option.

How often does this happen? When did it begin happening?
Always since the introduction of Starry Mage.

Steps to make it happen again
Use Starry Mage in a battle

15 Likes

The funny part is, even the lightning bolt animation in the screenshot above strongly suggests it should be destroying based on the selected gem, it’s way misaligned.

5 Likes

Yeah this seems broken. It always explodes the centre 4 squares and a X. At least the devs are consistent everything they do is a little sucky

3 Likes

Not working correctly for me either, and it’s really screwing with any strategy I might attempt with this troop.

1 Like

As @STUB says, irrespective of gem selected, it explodes central 4 gems and diagonals to each of the corners.

Spells and gem choice would seem to infer it should explode the gem selected and diagonals from the selected gem. It does not do this.

3 Likes

Most certainly the spell is broken.

It’s currently 3am where the Devs are, so there is no chance this is getting fixed for the Bounty event.

3 Likes

The spell does what the spell says. Initial gem selection is superfluous and as OP says should be removed, or have the spell/troop changed improved to the “X marks the spot” type (of which there are multiple precedents).

Another troop, another failure!

You are really good at that, congrats! Keep it that way!

3 Likes

The pattern being destroyed looks identical to what Dragonian Rogue used to destroy with the “destroy gems in an x shape” before it was patched to have targeting and function similar to the spell Dragonian Monk has. It is very likely two versions of the effect exist and the wrong one was paired to this spell but with the “needs targeting” flag still ticked or something (I don’t know what their API for inputting spells looks like, but probably something similar).

Same thing with all the multiple targets effects of the new immortal troops that don’t retarget if something dies - they are very likely using deprecated targeting processing of spells that had to be left in for legacy reasons but shouldn’t be getting used for new spell releases.

6 Likes

Well, at least (even if wrong) the effect is predictable…

Interesting to hear some history behind a few other troops with this similar effect.

1 Like

It doesn’t explode, it DESTROYS the x-shape, including the corners and middle 4.

I actually don’t mind the spell working this way because it destroys more gems (16 compared to 8-14), and gives us more mana than the usual “destroy an x shape” troops. But it’s almost certainly not what the devs intended, and it’s very confusing.

2 Likes

Yes my bad, was a hasty post. Pretty sure that its not working the way it was intended though.

I do mind the spell working as it does now, though.

Guaranteed 16-gem destroy, in my eyes, is not equal exchange for the loss of board control when player can select where X is placed. In current (very likely buggy) spell implementation the troop is 99,9% useless and I would never ever put it on my team; heck, I’d rather take Peasant than Starry Mage, given a choice.

3 Likes

Soooo you’re saying it’s like most Bounty Captains? :laughing:

4 Likes

I can’t say I expected swift resolution, but no acknowledgement of the quite obvious issue at all? No “nothing to see here, move along, working as intended”; no “reported to the development team”; not even “provide your invite code”.

Kafka? Bramble? Anybody?

12 Likes

@Kafka @Bramble tagging you because you may not have noticed this bug report from last weekend

Hello :slight_smile:

Thank you for the screencaptures!

I’ve let the development team know about this issue.

Just tested Starry Mage. Looks fixed.

2 Likes