Cantrip Abilities

stowaway

I'm calling them "cantrips" after the low-level spells in D&D that have negligible, situational, and often merely roleplay value. But I would love to have certain low-power abilities that in my proposal would only have one cost: they always end the turn. You would have to select them going into the match, along with teamups and boosts, so you could only choose a limited number of them, and using them would take a spot away from some other valuable resource.

I'm thinking of things along the lines of:

* Generate one AP of a chosen color; ends the turn. * Destroy one selected

non-special tile; doesn't generate AP; ends the turn.
* Gain 750 temporary HP for a selected character; ends the turn.
* Gain 250 temporary HP for all characters; ends the turn.

Basically, they would only be useful if: 1) the board is stale, and you want the AI to take the last available move; 2) you're one AP away from using a key ability, and can't make a match that gets you there; 3) you need to keep someone alive for a couple more turns.

I like having choices, because more choices would make the game feel a little more like an RPG. I'd also like to have more strategies available going into a match. And I've had a few close calls lately where these sorts of abilities would have made the difference. I'm sure someone has suggested something like this before. Any thoughts?

Unknown

The hyper offense favored pace of this game right now do not favor abilities that may have a long term positional advantage but do little to win the game now. Until several of the top tier characters are brought back to earth, there would simply be no point to these abilities. About the only time you might see them is in heroics where the characters available to the player tends to be very weak. Well, the ability to destroy any one tile, even basic tile, would likely be way overpowered as that's basically gravity warp and even if it ends your turn, it's not hard to find a match 4 from the cascade.

stowaway

Phantron wrote:

The hyper offense favored pace of this game right now do not favor abilities that may have a long term positional advantage but do little to win the game now. Until several of the top tier characters are brought back to earth, there would simply be no point to these abilities. About the only time you might see them is in heroics where the characters available to the player tends to be very weak. Well, the ability to destroy any one tile, even basic tile, would likely be way overpowered as that's basically gravity warp and even if it ends your turn, it's not hard to find a match 4 from the cascade.

I'm not sure that the fact that something wouldn't be useful to people playing at the top 1% (or even top 10%) is an argument against a feature. And I was definitely thinking of it as something that would be more useful in PvE, which sometimes forces you into unfamiliar character combinations. I don't expect anything like this to be implemented, but if it were, it think it would be used mostly by new players who haven't collected many teamups or boosts yet, or even quite yet understand when those things should be used.

Unknown

stowaway wrote:

Phantron wrote:

The hyper offense favored pace of this game right now do not favor abilities that may have a long term positional advantage but do little to win the game now. Until several of the top tier characters are brought back to earth, there would simply be no point to these abilities. About the only time you might see them is in heroics where the characters available to the player tends to be very weak. Well, the ability to destroy any one tile, even basic tile, would likely be way overpowered as that's basically gravity warp and even if it ends your turn, it's not hard to find a match 4 from the cascade.

I'm not sure that the fact that something wouldn't be useful to people playing at the top 1% (or even top 10%) is an argument against a feature. And I was definitely thinking of it as something that would be more useful in PvE, which sometimes forces you into unfamiliar character combinations. I don't expect anything like this to be implemented, but if it were, it think it would be used mostly by new players who haven't collected many teamups or boosts yet, or even quite yet understand when those things should be used.

The top tier changes depending on where you are too. For example while Storm + Magneto can be considered top tier for a 2* relative to the opponent he faces, and given the damage this combo dishes out against enemies scaled at that level, there is still very little reason to sacrifice a turn for a potential positional advantage. As long as you get to pick your roster, there's pretty much always a 'top tier' for a given phase that is much stronger than whatever you can possibly get out of these abilities. I can only see heroic as where the player's skill set is limited enough that you'd have to look elsewhere for an advantage.

Unknown

Interesting Idea, I do always like being given more choices. Never hurts anyone to have a tool they don't need, but is nice to have the tool if you do find yourself needing it.

stowaway

Phantron wrote:

The top tier changes depending on where you are too. For example while Storm + Magneto can be considered top tier for a 2* relative to the opponent he faces, and given the damage this combo dishes out against enemies scaled at that level, there is still very little reason to sacrifice a turn for a potential positional advantage. As long as you get to pick your roster, there's pretty much always a 'top tier' for a given phase that is much stronger than whatever you can possibly get out of these abilities. I can only see heroic as where the player's skill set is limited enough that you'd have to look elsewhere for an advantage.

You're right about the relative top tiers at each stage of the game. But it was actually a situation like Storm + MMN that I had in mind. They were exactly the pair that made me think of this. I still use them a lot in PvE, especially on goon nodes, usually with the goons being twice their level. Sometimes you end up with eight purple or ten blue, no additional match in sight, and a board full of enemy countdowns. In that case, if I could skip a turn in order to get a single AP in a key color, it would be a lifesaver.

Unknown

stowaway wrote:

Phantron wrote:

The top tier changes depending on where you are too. For example while Storm + Magneto can be considered top tier for a 2* relative to the opponent he faces, and given the damage this combo dishes out against enemies scaled at that level, there is still very little reason to sacrifice a turn for a potential positional advantage. As long as you get to pick your roster, there's pretty much always a 'top tier' for a given phase that is much stronger than whatever you can possibly get out of these abilities. I can only see heroic as where the player's skill set is limited enough that you'd have to look elsewhere for an advantage.

You're right about the relative top tiers at each stage of the game. But it was actually a situation like Storm + MMN that I had in mind. They were exactly the pair that made me think of this. I still use them a lot in PvE, especially on goon nodes, usually with the goons being twice their level. Sometimes you end up with eight purple or ten blue, no additional match in sight, and a board full of enemy countdowns. In that case, if I could skip a turn in order to get a single AP in a key color, it would be a lifesaver.

Well, the ability to get any 1 AP of any color could be situationally overpowered too, since the difference between 12 AP and 13 AP is a lot more than it seems (latter requires 5 match 3s). Out of the suggestions, I think only the temporary heals are not potentially overpowered, but they're also not powerful enough to use in a normal situation so it wouldn't add much. Sure I can see if you have X in front and he can't take another hit so you skip your turn for a temporary 750 HP heal so that X can survive the next round, but that's a very narrow scenario and sure it doesn't hurt anything, but there are enough bigger problems that I don't think working on something like this makes sense. This would almost have to be a 'heroic only' type of mode and it'd be a pretty massive undertaking to change heroic into something that's enjoyable in the first place.