Temple Termagant
Posts: 6
Joined: Sunday, 11th January 2015, 19:41
Sunday, 11th January 2015, 20:39
More complete in-game documentation about cards
I am still relatively new to the game, and I still never managed to win (but I keep improving!). Also, everything I write here is based on my knowledge of 0.15.2, not later.
I think I have mostly understood the rules of the game, but there is one thing which took a bit longer to understand: The cards.
IMO the in-game documentation is very good overall, so good job, folks!
But the cards seems to be one of the few things where documentation is weak.
Briefly, cards as items should be described more throughly.
It seems that it is simply assumed the player already knows exaclty how these special items work. This is partly true if a player joined the Namelex Xobeh religion, but if for some reason one player collects such a deck without ever having joined the Namelex Xobeh religion first, it is probably confusing.
Yes, it is possible, I have ignored Xobeh for many games. In fact, I *collected* my first deck of cards before I ever tried out that religion. It was more like by chance that I found out how to acutally *use* a deck of cards.
For example, the description does not at all say that you normall first have to wield, then evoke the deck of cards to use it. This is not obvious for newbies, also the general help file does not mention cards explicitly, probably because they fall under “misc items”.
The second thing about cards: The description says which cards are possibly in a deck. Basically it is just a long list of card names. The only situation where a player learns about the meaning of a specific card is after drawing such a card. I suppose it is a bit hard to remember what all these names mean, so it might be useful to be able to quickly look it up.
The third thing which confused me (it still confuses me as well) was the card “The Elixir”. IIRC the log only said that I have drawn this card but it did not say what happened. I got a status effect called “Elixir” but I don't know what it means. The help file does not say what this status effect means, because this is specific to an item and referring to the item desciption.
I guess this means the status effect “Elixir” is not documented at all in the game. I suppose this is true for other status effects from cards (I haven't used cards that much yet, so I don't know).
I wonder if this is really intentional to keep the player in the dark about what a specific card does or if this is just an accident.
(Off topic: Is there some way to quickly look up descriptions for the *current* status effects of a player? Like some “dynamic help”?)
My suggestions in brief:
Here is a simple example of an item desciption of a fictive example deck:
And so on, I hope you get the idea.
I think I have mostly understood the rules of the game, but there is one thing which took a bit longer to understand: The cards.
IMO the in-game documentation is very good overall, so good job, folks!
But the cards seems to be one of the few things where documentation is weak.Briefly, cards as items should be described more throughly.
It seems that it is simply assumed the player already knows exaclty how these special items work. This is partly true if a player joined the Namelex Xobeh religion, but if for some reason one player collects such a deck without ever having joined the Namelex Xobeh religion first, it is probably confusing.
Yes, it is possible, I have ignored Xobeh for many games. In fact, I *collected* my first deck of cards before I ever tried out that religion. It was more like by chance that I found out how to acutally *use* a deck of cards.
For example, the description does not at all say that you normall first have to wield, then evoke the deck of cards to use it. This is not obvious for newbies, also the general help file does not mention cards explicitly, probably because they fall under “misc items”.
The second thing about cards: The description says which cards are possibly in a deck. Basically it is just a long list of card names. The only situation where a player learns about the meaning of a specific card is after drawing such a card. I suppose it is a bit hard to remember what all these names mean, so it might be useful to be able to quickly look it up.
The third thing which confused me (it still confuses me as well) was the card “The Elixir”. IIRC the log only said that I have drawn this card but it did not say what happened. I got a status effect called “Elixir” but I don't know what it means. The help file does not say what this status effect means, because this is specific to an item and referring to the item desciption.
I guess this means the status effect “Elixir” is not documented at all in the game. I suppose this is true for other status effects from cards (I haven't used cards that much yet, so I don't know).
I wonder if this is really intentional to keep the player in the dark about what a specific card does or if this is just an accident.
(Off topic: Is there some way to quickly look up descriptions for the *current* status effects of a player? Like some “dynamic help”?)
My suggestions in brief:
- Explicitly mention how to “normally” (that is, without any of religious benefits) use a deck of cards, for all decks of cards (in the item description).
- Explicitly mention what happens when you use a deck of cards (again, in the item description).
- If possible, add a description of all the possible cards in deck in its item description (I hope, the description does not become too long. By the way, is scrolling possible?). One way would be to write a list with one card with its description per line.
- Add other deck-related facts I have forgotten to the item descriptions. Stuff newbies should know. I guess I still haven't understood the cards completely, so I likely do not know everything.
Here is a simple example of an item desciption of a fictive example deck:
This is the deck of Example, a deck of magical playing cards.
Magical cards can be drawn from a deck to change the outcome of the game.
Everyone can use a deck of cards, but followers of Xobeh will be granted special card-related abilities.
You can use this item to draw a random card from it, activating the effect from the card you've drawn.
To draw a card, you have to first wield the deck of cards, then evoke it.
Followers of Xobeh can be granted an ability to draw a card without having to wield the deck first.
This particular deck may have the following cards:
- The Health Boost: Increases your health by 10.
- The Scarecrow: Close enemies become scared.
- Awesome Card: This card does something awesome.
- Emptiness: This card does nothing.
And so on, I hope you get the idea.
- For this message the author Wuzzy has received thanks: 4
- Arrhythmia, duvessa, ManMan, mikee