'Consequences' boxes with Caliana are misleading

[HikariStarshine]

OK, so, I know *why* this happened, but it took starting to write a bug report and then realizing why the result was what it was...

So, Caliana's unique power is that when she would take damage, the first few points (2 in double hero, 3 in solo hero) are converted to deck-milling instead. That makes sense, and I love the way you guys chose to depict that on her status box.

The problem, though, is that the Consequences box automatically does that conversion. Perhaps this is just an edge case, and there's certainly a degree of player error involved, but:

When you're at the end of a floor and the damage icons are starting to pile up on the stairs-down image because you've run out of deck to mill, not being able to see with a quick glance at the penalty box that several of those 'mill' icons are actually 'heart' icons can easily result in a game over when the stairs overflow into extra damage, especially in solo-hero play.

I definitely appreciate that the box is doing the conversion; it's helpful for planning deck-management that might otherwise be less simple to work out properly with Caliana. However, there should maybe be some way to specify how many of them are going to proc as 'damage prevented' for Cali so that those edge-case surprise game-overs don't happen.

EDIT: OK, I just found that it actually enumerates all of this if you hover the mouse over the Consequences box. Much less of an issue, though I'd still prefer if Whimsicality was actually something that's always displayed, rather than being hidden in a mouse-over.

[MigrantP]

If you don’t prevent a damage for Caliana, the game is over. So it’s not really something you make a decision about..

[Swisspike]

I played a game with Caliana, and won. I am not sure how I did it, as she was taking damage every turn.

Can you please review the mechanic that allows her to keep taking substantial damage?

[HikariStarshine]

There's still decisions to make, though. I really appreciate being able to have that box that tells me at a glance just what's going to happen, as it keeps me from having to inspect each of the challenges I'm choosing to let through to see what's going to happen.

That said, knowing the difference between 'Whimsicality converts three damage to hourglass icons' and 'Whimsicality converts two damage to hourglass icons' is *very* important when those hourglass icons are converting to damage icons on the stairs.

What got me on the round I game-overed on was having Whimsicality's third damage-prevention be the cause of the stairs overflow, rather than an hourglass icon on a challenge being the cause. That one point of difference was extremely important, because the resulting overflow hit Caliana with an unprevented point of damage that, had the overflowing icon been caused by an uncompleted challenge rather than Whimsicality, would not have been a problem.

@Swisspike: Caliana wasn't taking damage, Whimsicality was converting the first few points to not-damage. She's able to soak a lot of damage innately, but anything that gets through her defense kills her instantly.

[MigrantP]

The consequences panel shows you the details when you hover over it. Also, Caliana shows on her character card how many hearts she has converted to time this turn, so you can make a decision about descending or not.

[Aufrichtigkeit]

Originally posted by MigrantP:

The consequences panel shows you the details when you hover over it. Also, Caliana shows on her character card how many hearts she has converted to time this turn, so you can make a decision about descending or not.

according to https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1906599/spend-time-boss-fight , spending time during a boss fight should cause dice to be exiled, but it looks like Caliana's ability doesn't trigger this during boss fights...?

[Palarran]

Yup, and confirmed by the game designer:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2334649/caliana-whimiscality
That looks like a bug to me too.

[Whimsical]

Originally posted by HikariStarshine:

There's still decisions to make, though. I really appreciate being able to have that box that tells me at a glance just what's going to happen, as it keeps me from having to inspect each of the challenges I'm choosing to let through to see what's going to happen.

That said, knowing the difference between 'Whimsicality converts three damage to hourglass icons' and 'Whimsicality converts two damage to hourglass icons' is *very* important when those hourglass icons are converting to damage icons on the stairs.

What got me on the round I game-overed on was having Whimsicality's third damage-prevention be the cause of the stairs overflow, rather than an hourglass icon on a challenge being the cause. That one point of difference was extremely important, because the resulting overflow hit Caliana with an unprevented point of damage that, had the overflowing icon been caused by an uncompleted challenge rather than Whimsicality, would not have been a problem.

@Swisspike: Caliana wasn't taking damage, Whimsicality was converting the first few points to not-damage. She's able to soak a lot of damage innately, but anything that gets through her defense kills her instantly.

I've made this mistake a couple of times myself on the stairs. It would be nice if the consequences were updated, but alternatively just having an undo button after (or just before) a game over would also solve the issue (in the sense that you could at least go back and see if you could fix the mistake).

[Zingly]

Originally posted by Whimsical:

I've made this mistake a couple of times myself on the stairs. It would be nice if the consequences were updated, but alternatively just having an undo button after (or just before) a game over would also solve the issue (in the sense that you could at least go back and see if you could fix the mistake).

I second the idea of an "Are you sure?" or "back" button when we do something that would end the game. It's especially noticeble with Caliana (try using her on Hydra's Reef or with Terrorshell :). There have been more than a few games where I think, "Wait, what killed me?"

When playing the physical card game, if I notice a combination will kill me, I can undo it. I should be able to do the same thing online.

[Shindragan]

I agree with the confirmation idea, us players are dumb, or to be kinder, easily distracted.