Woe Alpha - Skill Feedback - Life

[Scaredgirl]

Is it possible to set more than one Lotus Trap in a given hex (presumably so that they could affect multiple players moving into the hex at once)?

Yes.

Could the same player set two traps on one hex? Or would you need multiple trap-setters to do so?

Lets say you set a trap in hex 23. You cannot set any new traps until you someone steps on it or deactivates it. You can even deactivate it yourself if you want to change the spot.

Multiple trap-setters can set multiple traps in one hex.

[YoungSot]

Lotus trap states:
"Set a trap at your current location. Next player who moves in that hex, must discard 6 cards. +2XP"
Should I assume this means next player who moves into that hex, or is it anyone who uses a move action that involves that hex, allowing you to spring a trap on someone attempting to leave a hex you're on?

Also: How does the player know when their lotus trap has been sprung?

[YoungSot]

Sorry for the double post. I think the xp reward for Set Lotus Trap might pose problems. For a cost of 2 action points you get 2xp with no risk. Theoretically someone could sit in one hex constantly setting and removing their own trap, and thus farm 2xp per round.
I propose two changes: make the xp reward only apply when the trap is actually sprung, and allow players to set new traps without having to deactivate their previous trap (the first trap would simply be removed from the map once the player places a new one).
The first change prevents farming and ensures the trap will be used as intended. The second change would simply make it more user friendly, as having to trek all the way back to a previous trap and then spend further actions to disable it seems overly costly in a game where your primary resource is Action Points.

[Scaredgirl]

Lotus trap states:
"Set a trap at your current location. Next player who moves in that hex, must discard 6 cards. +2XP"
Should I assume this means next player who moves into that hex, or is it anyone who uses a move action that involves that hex, allowing you to spring a trap on someone attempting to leave a hex you're on?

Also: How does the player know when their lotus trap has been sprung?

Yea, it should be "into". Moving away from the hex won't trigger it.

All trap casualties will be mentioned in the upcoming "Battle" page I'm working on in Google Docs.

Sorry for the double post. I think the xp reward for Set Lotus Trap might pose problems. For a cost of 2 action points you get 2xp with no risk. Theoretically someone could sit in one hex constantly setting and removing their own trap, and thus farm 2xp per round.
I propose two changes: make the xp reward only apply when the trap is actually sprung, and allow players to set new traps without having to deactivate their previous trap (the first trap would simply be removed from the map once the player places a new one).
The first change prevents farming and ensures the trap will be used as intended. The second change would simply make it more user friendly, as having to trek all the way back to a previous trap and then spend further actions to disable it seems overly costly in a game where your primary resource is Action Points.

1. This is how it's actually supposed to function. It's just poorly worded. Details like that will be added in skill notes.

2. I like this idea. We'll definitely go with that.

[ak65ala]

My general feedback and questions upon the Life skill tree.

Nature Rituals: Seems almost OP for a tier 1 skill, we'll see.  Can you choose which card you get?  Can you choose uncommon cards?  It seems like this would make life cards every cheep economy wise, and you could bypass a lot of the various crafting skills.  If any non-life player gets this, it will continue to delude the life card value.  Almost an easy way for any player to recover after a few losses, just sit in a forest, hug some trees and walk out strong enough to go on.

Animal Form: My favorite skill in the tree in regards to balance.  What this hangs on is how easy it will be to make forests.  If forest making becomes too easy, this skill will be very strong.  If forests can only be make in limited areas (broken patches) or are easy to destroy (I saw fire could) then we will see less use of this skill.  Can you use this through a dead forest?

Bane of Death: Die death, die!

Breeding: 100% economy skill.  If the AH and the price of these guys make it worth the effort, a fun skill.  If they take too much effort to gather the pieces (merchants too far away) or are unprofitable, useless. Hard to shift 2 cards into 1 when a lot of the game resides on # of cards, unless it pays well enough.

Scouting: Will be interesting to see what we can see by scouting.  If it happens to have a good use, like helps us in quests or something like that, good.  Otherwise it is a dead skill used to get to the better ones.

Swamp Dweller: Good solid skill.  Won't always be used, but nice to know you have frogs behind you at any point, with or without the cards.  Possibility to use un-upped as well?  Would give it a bit more flexibility and I don't think would make it  too powerful.

One With Nature: This will make defending our capital much easier and combined with travel form, makes forests very important.  I think it again is tied to the issue of forests.  See travel form.  Otherwise slightly OP skill.

Pack Hunter: Promotes coordination.  Solid skill that will see some good use.

Set Lotus Trap: If 3 people move into the hex, is it random?  Can other life members or allies get hit?  If not, need to make that clear somewhere.  This will be a fun skill in which will cause a lot of wars, by accident.  The +1 XP will make sure every player that can place a lotus trap will have one down.

Shaman: As long as forest creation is balanced, i.e. other teams can get rid of the trees, we can fight at our treeline, there is space to make a forest almost everywhere, A good ability.  I am afraid either the map will be covered in trees, leading to this skill being useless and also unbalancing AF and OwN, or there will be a lot of 'off limits' hexes, leading again to this skill being useless shortly into WoE, but then would keep AF and OwN from going out of control.

Predator: Interesting skill.  Only works if you win, but you only need to EM 1 of your 2 wins.  Allows life to gain some crazy salvages with it's mastery.  Will create an interesting meta for life players, that is sure.  Fits well into the way a subset of life battles.

Master: The free forest seems very underwhelming for our top skill.  I mean, we can already make trees, and will only fight in trees anyway due to OwN... so this only allows us to make more trees, if we get caught with our pants down... and only on plains.  Will see only rare usage.  The extra 6 salvage is nice (if we EM, that's 30 salvage!!) but does nothing to help us win, just makes winning even more rewarding.  I find it to be a bit underwhelming vs. some of the other master skills.