Spell casting is FUBARed

[Ordon Draconis]

Sorry, but I'm just not getting it. This interface is killing me. Particularly when casting spells.

1) You can sit there as long as you like at every decision point in the game. Except for counterspell, for which you have a 5 second timer. As a brand new player it takes me more than 5 seconds to read some of the text laden spells like "randomize." But you give me 5 seconds to read 7 sentences? Who reads that fast? I'm sure every veteran knows a spell as soon as they read its name. But its an assinine intro for the new player.

2) Alchemize: Transmute any number of your objects for gold. Zero is a number. I'm playing the wizard and I just wanted the card out of my hand so I could draw something more useful. So, I queue the spell. Then suddenly I draw the crown to give me +2 craft. Then Alchemize triggers and it locks down the entire game until I discard the crown. I didn't even have the option to cancel the spell. This spell should read, "Transmute ONE OR MORE of your objects..."

3) Heal: Same issue with heal. I just wanted the spell out of my hand. It says to cast it to heal up to your life value. That wording makes no sense. Your life value is your life value. You're always at your life value. I discovered this goofiness the hard way. Because no sooner than I drew this spell, I gained bonus life. So, my life value went from 4 to 5. So now my life value is 5. I voluntarilly lost a life so I could be "wounded" and cast this spell. But now my life value is 4. Somehow, I'm still not wounded. I had to get wounded again. This set my life value to 3. Now, for some reason, I'm called "wounded" and can cast this spell. The spell should read, "if your current life value is below your starting life value, this spell will set it back to your starting life value." Now, it makes sense.

4) Immobilize: This one was the worst. It says to cast on a character at the start of their turn. So, the instant my turn ended, before my opponent rolled his die, my card flashed blue and I quickly cast the spell. That IS the start of his turn, right? But no, I get the message "queue spell", I click queue spell, and my opponent somehow then rolls his die, moves, and has a great encounter. Of course, you know that I'm about to cast the spell on myself, right? Because its queued and my turn is about to start... That would be a real slap in the face. So, I quickly select it and unqueue it. Disaster averted. So clearly, as unintuitive as it sounds, I need to cast the spell on my turn, after it starts, in order to cast a spell that says, "play on the start of a turn, the current player suffers X" (none of which is true by the timing rules). So, my turn starts, I roll a die, and before I move and trigger anything else, I cast my spell. Guess what? Apparently, even though I already rolled a die, its still the "start of my turn." The spell suddenly goes off offers myself as the only target, and suddenly there's no option to back out. And yet... when I previously cast the spell on my opponent BEFORE his die was rolled, he got through his entire turn without triggering the spell. This is broken.

So, to summarize that game... I played the wizard with a goal of raising my craft and playing spells every turn. I somehow alchemize the single best craft raising card in the game. Then I manage to draw the only spell that locks up my hand since its uncastable as I score a gob of bonus life. And when a series of encounters go south, and I finally get rid of it, I draw a small bomb which I somehow cast on myself.

Maybe years of playing M:tG have trained me to read card text precisely and accurately. It has also trained me to be acutely aware of legal timing for casting spells. But this game wants me to "learn the hard way" by not having cards say what they mean. And the timing is either specifically wrong, or I encountered bugs in the code. Either way, I found this game quite frustrating.

[Artaterxes]

To be fair, all of the issues you encountered are legitimate questions and have been asked by players of the physical board game at one point. The difference is that physical players can make up a rule and move on; the digital edition forces you to play right.

The problem is that the "right way" is often hidden deep in the rulebook (which I doubt most digital-only players read) and only makes sense to people who are very familiar with the game. Added to that is the challenge of getting the "right way" to work with the computer interface.

As an example, the term "life value" just means the amount of life you start the game with. "Battle" means a fight with Strength, and does not mean a fight with Craft (that's "psychic combat.") Good luck getting a new player to figure out those terms, let alone try to calculate his Strength value versus counters versus modifiers. The basic digital edition is quite clear, but for more advanced and specific rules you almost have to download and read the manual for the physical board game. (Which it incldues under "HELP.")

So just stick to it and you'll be fine.

[bodnotbod]

I'm having the same problem. I also was forced to cast immobilise on myself. I am also unable to get my ghoul to bring in killed beasts to add to my strength... the card is even there flashing but it still doesn't work. A lot of the "use this card now" type functionality is broken because I had problems playing warrior too.

[pasa]

Yeah, playing a spel-oriented character = misery still. :(

[sjgf]

You can't cast a spell unless it is useable. So this means that you can't cast a Heal spell on your character if your character is at full health or higher. Similarly you cannot cast Transmute unless there is an appropriate Object to Transmute.

[Wexmajor]

I queued up a spell to cast on the Illusionist. Unbeknownst to me, she got to skip her turn. My turn was after hers. The result was that I casted Transmute on myself. Not ideal!

[pasa]

Originally posted by wexmajor:

I queued up a spell to cast on the Illusionist. Unbeknownst to me, she got to skip her turn. My turn was after hers. The result was that I casted Transmute on myself. Not ideal!

Similar things keep happening to me, no intelligent ot rageted "queue" option, and when queue goes off at the wrong time -- there can be a ton of reasons -- not even a 'cancel' possibility.

If it triggers for your turn not even the quit/reload woraround works, some hurtful spell is just forced on yourself.

Makes perfect sense?

[Wexmajor]

Originally posted by pasa:

Originally posted by wexmajor:

I queued up a spell to cast on the Illusionist. Unbeknownst to me, she got to skip her turn. My turn was after hers. The result was that I casted Transmute on myself. Not ideal!

Similar things keep happening to me, no intelligent ot rageted "queue" option, and when queue goes off at the wrong time -- there can be a ton of reasons -- not even a 'cancel' possibility.

If it triggers for your turn not even the quit/reload woraround works, some hurtful spell is just forced on yourself.

Makes perfect sense?

Now that I'm looking for it I notice that characters with missed turns pause for about 2 or 3 seconds, which should be enough to cancel the queued spell if your turn is next. So it's not totally unavoidable. Definitely a nasty surprise the first time it happens though! I agree that an "auto-cast on OTHER character" option would be appreciated.

[Mirai]

The game doesn't want you to simply discard spells. It would be too easy for some characters to keep using spells nonstop. That's why spells like Heal and Alchemize won't work on nothing. Having to find creative ways to get rid of spells is part of the game.

Counterspell, Immobilize and some others can be frustrating. Yes, I've accidentally immobilized myself. I've also accidentally countered my own spell.

[Ordon Draconis]

Originally posted by mirai222:

The game doesn't want you to simply discard spells.

I'm fine with that. I'm fine with any game coming up with rationales to improve its internal balance. My issue is: If that's the effect you want, fix the card text to reflect what the spell actually does.

If you give me an order and I follow it to the letter... its a slap in the face for you to say, "No, I meant something other than what I really said. Now I'm upset and going to punish you."

The better long term fix would be for you to say what you really mean...