Suggestion: completely new mechanic for Loki's Illusions

Dayv

Illusions shouldn't simply rearrange the board at all -- that's the exact opposite of what it's name implies! It should make it hard or impossible for the opponent to make their intended matches. I think this could make Loki a more interesting and thematically appropriate character. I have two ideas for ways to do this:

Version One:
Loki's illusions completely obscure the board, causing every tile to appear as a different type to the opponent for the next (number) rounds.

There are a lot of tweaks that could be made here to create the level progression. Duration is the obvious one. Do all tiles of a type show as the same replacement? Do special tiles disguise their function?

Two main downsides here: this is probably pretty complicated to code and could be too frustrating if the player can't tell where matches can be made at all and has to guess, but the match hinting could still work normally for the latter case, revealing one possible spot.

Also, it might be hard to tell what effect this is having on the AI. It doesn't always make the best choices anyway, so how will you tell the difference?

Play style notes: a memory of the board's arrangement when the spell is fired will help the human player, but not for long.

Version Two:
Loki's illusions befuddle the player, causing the the opponent's moves to misfire, making an unintended match.

This one is probably easier to code: whatever match the affected player or AI selects, it will be automatically replaced by a randomly selected other valid move on the board. The main things to change with level progression are duration and/or AP cost.

Play style notes: one key thing for the human player will to be to select a weak move and hope its replacement is better. The less moves available, the more successful this strategy will be. if there's only one move to make, the illusions would have no effect.

Version Two, Alternate:
Like the previous Version Two, but a passive ability with a chance of affecting the opponent at any time based on number of levels and number of purple tiles on the board. Example:

1: if there are at least 8 purple tiles on the board, 20% chance of replacing the opponent's move
2: Increase chance to 35%
3: Decrease required purple tiles to six.
4: Increase chance to 50%
5: No purple tiles required.

Unknown

I like both of these. They sound like a lot of fun. I was trying to think of how the first suggestion would work as well. It would be brutal if they let you make a bad match.

Another idea that's similar in a way is to have the opponent not generate the AP or do the damage they think they are. So if the opponent makes a match of say 3 blue tiles, They might generate 2 blue and 1 purple and do damage as such. Damage is still done by the same character, so it could make the match not as powerful and the opponent might not always get the AP they want. The level progression could go:

Level 1: 4 tiles minimum are unaffected; 90% chance of occurring
Level 2: 3 tiles minimum are unaffected; 80% chance of occurring
Level 3: 2 tiles minimum are unaffected; 70% chance of occurring
Level 4: 1 tile minimum are unaffected; 60% chance of occurring
Level 5: All tiles can be affected; 50% chance of occurring

So at level one, it only comes into play for match 5+. Level 2 includes match 4's as well. Level 3-5 can affect all matches. I'd imagine there would be another qualifier such as so many purple tiles on the board, or if you have so much purple AP then it can go into effect and you lose 1 purple AP. There could also be a special tile for it. I think it would fit Loki well.