Distinct faction abilities: Gaians

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Q_x
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Distinct faction abilities: Gaians

Post by Q_x » Wed Nov 17, 2010 12:28

Problem: we need factions abilities, quickly
Problem (another): it is crucial element of game design
Problem (third): discussing all factions is for weeks really. Lets just keep in mind some general picture and discuss gaians as a main scope here, and other factions in separate threads. Gaians are most urgent things now. But, worry not, just discuss ideas, be not restricted, throw ideas, think loudly, brainstorm.
Current state:
Gaians
*never direct offensive abilities
*punish agression
House of Nobles
*Deceptive
*Buy others loyality
*Espionage
*generate income
Undeads/Dark Legion
*Graveyard interaction
*Sickness and decay
*Low defense
*Card Discard
Red Banner
*Sacrificial
*Fast
*Bounce cards
*Direct damage
Empire - nothing yet

Now lets begin - gaians are peacefully people. Humans, elves, and merfolk "mermens" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merman)
my proposals for peacefully and punishing agression abilities:

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May destroy a piece of equipment carried for avoiding being hit when blocking (or refined a little bit: may reduce damage by the cost of equipment card being destroyed)

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For each creature killed and graved player can move another killed creature into RP. Or, when blocking and killed, creatures are "graved" into RP with or without carried equipment

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Their defense is doubled if their enemy creature uses any type of weapon (may not be good idea)
Sidenote: I doubt we would be able to brew all factions at once, hence this segmented approach. But, not to run into any balancing issues may be really hard, so I'd rather assume we can carelessly throw ideas in large quantities, pick the most interesting ones as valuable, and later add or remove as other factions will be developed. Or even add disadvantages, like

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gaians will not fight with any artifact on their side
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snowdrop
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Re: Distinct faction abilities: Gaians

Post by snowdrop » Wed Nov 17, 2010 13:48

Type of abiltiies

There are several different types of abilities: Activated, Triggered & Passive, as explained in the rules here. Knowing that might be helpful when making a suggestion.

Notice that there is nothing that forbids us from giving creature 1 the ability x, and letting x be a passive one, and at the same time let creature 2 have the same ability x, but as an activated ability instead. While this is a possibility and could be done, it is rarely seen in a good game since it makes the whole system chaotic and harder for the players to learn.

I'm against letting one and the same ability show up as different types within the same faction. If it's passive on one creature, then it should be passive on all other creatures of that faction that also happen to have the same ability. When "porting" an ability from one faction to another though, it makes more sense to also change it's type: It changes the nature of the ability very much and it also clearly shows that the ability is a foreign element within the (second) faction. An example of when that could be done would be if we portrayed an Undead or Possed Elf, that belongs to the Undead faction. It could very well have an ability that is normally associated with Gaia only, but with a different type and/or cost in order to balance it out for being in the undead faction in the first place.

Keyworded vs Custom
There's yet another important distinction between the abilities. Some abilities would be frequent and seen throughout the game. Others not so at all, and maybe only seen once or twice in the whole history of the game.

Common abilities should all be keyworded. An example of this can be seen on
http://mtg.wikia.com/wiki/Keyword_Abili ... e_Keywords

Keywords makes the game easier to play in several ways and also saves a ton of card text space for us. An example of a keyword ability from MtG is "Flying". If you know how to play MtG, you are very well acquainted with what that means, as it has been around for a very long time and is well memori zed by every player.

It might be an idea to suggest keywords as well for an ability if one imagines that it will be a common ability.

Custom text abilities lack keywords: They are very specifically designed for one card and usually one card only.

Unique vs General
Lastly, some abilities really should be unique to a given faction. This is a designers decision that I think we should make to give each faction more character and asymmetry, a clearer identity. There is nothing that forces us to do it like that, but I myself believe that it's the proper way to go.

Exactly which these unique factions should be isn't set yet. In best case scenario some of them are connected to the faction identity and it's lore. As an example it could be argued that "protection" could be a keyworded unique gaian ability. It captures much of their spirit.

All unique abilities do not have to be obviously related to a factions background - explaining them with lore and re-theming their keywords to better fit a faction is easy if we're creative and really want to.

While unique abilities would be given on a per faction basis, the general abilities should not be understood as abilities that are given to all factions: A general ability is just any ability that is not exclusivley given to one single faction. It might be given to two factions or maybe all five for that matter (flying). It may however be distributed differently among the factions, even if it is general, so that for example Gaians would have few flying creatures (flying = general) while House of Nobles have many.
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pennomi
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Re: Distinct faction abilities: Gaians

Post by pennomi » Wed Nov 17, 2010 18:27

Gaian Abilities

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Regenerate X: When this creature would be put in the graveyard, you may instead put it on an open RP of at least size X.

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[Mark]: Entangle (Target creature's attack is halved (rounded up) until the attack is resolved.)

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Ambush: Any creature participating in combat against this unit gains no bonuses from equipment.

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Stealth: This creature cannot be the unwilling target of targeted abilities.

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Surround/Flank: For each creature with Surround/Flank participating in this attack, this creature gets +1/+0.

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[Mark]: Shield/Protect X (Prevent X damage to target creature.)

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[Mark]: Discard a card, then draw 2 cards.
I can also imagine abilities named "Growth", "Evade" and "Heal". (Though we have talked about Heal an awful lot already.)

General Abilities:

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Leadership X: Creatures of the same faction get +1/+0.

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Quick: This creature deploys at the beginning of the Attack phase. (Same idea as MtG "Haste")

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Caster (this may be suited for a subtype rather than an ability.)
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Re: Distinct faction abilities: Gaians

Post by Ravenchild » Wed Nov 17, 2010 21:42

renew: Trigger. When this unit dies, you may decide if you want to put it in the graveyard or face-down on a RP.
Evade: When you attack with this unit and the defender is chosen, you may pay X gold to prevent all combat damage to both units. This ability may not be used when more than one unit blocks this unit.
Hope: Move a random gold card from your greatest RP to the graveyard. This unit gets +X/+X for this round, where X is the moved cards gold cost. Use this ability only when this unit is declared as a blocker or if it is dealt damage.
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Q_x
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Re: Distinct faction abilities: Gaians

Post by Q_x » Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:24

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Leadership X: Creatures of the same faction get +1/+0.
maybe +

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There may be only a single leader using leadership in a given battle
will make things more obvious?
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TorbenBeta
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Re: Distinct faction abilities: Gaians

Post by TorbenBeta » Thu Nov 18, 2010 12:58

This thread is for posting ideas for unique Creature abilities and cards for the gaians right?
By the way: Since when do we have post icons?
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