Ability idea

[chriskang]

'If I have more than 5 fire quanta, use Ablaze, unless doing so would mean that I drop below 5 quanta'
'If I have more than 5 earth quanta, and a creaure has less than 2 HP, burrow it. If possible, use growth after this.'
'If I have more than (the total number of usable Chysaoras/upped Chrysaoras)+(the cost of poison/deadly poison cards in my hand) quanta, use them all. Otherwise, use Deadly poisons, Poison cards, then Chrysaoras, in that order.'

Looks a lot like the AI code and therefore should be quite easy to implement.
I'm just unsure if I want that feature or not. Removing clicks is a good thing but if it turns the game into a bot vs bot battle, I don't want it.
Once your deck is built and the game starts, activating abilities is pretty much everything you have to do. If you remove that, what's left? Just choosing if you play a card or not and targeting spells?

[Pilchard123]

I've just started playing again after a month or two of not playing because I was bored. I now run a fire/growth deck, and one thing that annoys me is when I forget to grow, or use ablaze, or whatever. I was thinking (this may be a nightmare to code, but I don't think so...) that there could/should be a preset rule (or rule set) for auto-activating abilities, that you can determine, and turn on or off, either between matches, or during them, or both.

For instance:

'If I have more than 5 fire quanta, use Ablaze, unless doing so would mean that I drop below 5 quanta'
'If I have more than 5 earth quanta, and a creaure has less than 2 HP, burrow it. If possible, use growth after this.'
'If I have more than (the total number of usable Chysaoras/upped Chrysaoras)+(the cost of poison/deadly poison cards in my hand) quanta, use them all. Otherwise, use Deadly poisons, Poison cards, then Chrysaoras, in that order.'

[Pilchard123]

Removing clicks is a good thing but if it turns the game into a bot vs bot battle, I don't want it.

Didn't think of that. Oh well, perhaps I'm just lazy.

[Scaredgirl]

I agree with Chriskang. I don't see having to click growth/ablaze as such a big deal. But if we didn't want that, then maybe these creatures could be kind of like Devourers, only they eat your own quantum and grow. Like this:

1. press SPACE
2. Creature attacks
3. Creature "eats" your quantum and grows (if no quantum, nothing happens).
4. Next turn

[cipher_nemo]

While it might be fairly easy to implement (ie: toggling AI for specific parts of your play), I don't see why we would need this?

Hypothetically, if it were implemented, I can see people abusing it to auto-run their games to just rack-up points by adding a little macro scripting with it. Right now, logic is what prevents a lot of "botting".

[cipher_nemo]

There are several players in the top 50 that have bots. The most notable one is Datkewlguy. As Level 3 requires no thinking and mindless button clicking, it's easy to set up a macro to farm level 3 ad nauseum. If you see his score, he has something like 375,000 with way more than 12,000 wins and very few losses. No person in their right mind would ever do this manually.

There's a good possibility this is happening, so I'd agree that they're probably doing this with a very crude script.

Imagine what would be possible if they added logic to that? They'd see not only scores but their card collection soar, and it could impact PvP too.

Anyone can write a program now to do regional captures of the game's graphics (small screen caps) and then analyze that to produce values you plug into an AI. But that is where it takes far too much time investment to get just a high score and more money. So most people wouldn't bother. On top of that, most people play because they enjoy it, not because they care about their score.

[cipher_nemo]

These players usually turn out to be lousy in PvP anyway, because they never took the time to learn the nuances of the game by actually playing it.

I think that's probably the best argument against botting. I've learned so much from playing games over and over again. Not just strategy, but odds and being able to determine when to bring out something early or not.

[Forfeit]

I agree with Chriskang. I don't see having to click growth/ablaze as such a big deal. But if we didn't want that, then maybe these creatures could be kind of like Devourers, only they eat your own quantum and grow. Like this:

1. press SPACE
2. Creature attacks
3. Creature "eats" your quantum and grows (if no quantum, nothing happens).
4. Next turn

Lol, this would be funny if it ate your opponent quantum. However, this is a good idea for some cards. maybe we could even build card that are as strong as a dragon, cost less to summan, but eat two of your quantum per turn. At the start, so its balanced.

[jmizzle7]

I agree completely. I wasn't really into the farming for the score aspect, although the idea of passing up Alaska back then was a big deal. I just wanted to get more upgraded cards. Now that I have the #1 legit score, people look to me as an expert, which is a nice perk. It's not really worth the effort right now to try to keep that #1 status, cuz I know there are many who are still farming their butts off, several with some sort of assistance like a bot.

You'd be surprised at the kind of money you can get from level 3 grinding, especially at the rate bots farm. It's possible to win about 1,000 coins/hr. from level 3 (winnings + cards), so a bot can earn enough to upgrade a 30 card deck in just under 2 days. I'm not saying it's worth it, nor am I saying that it is acceptable to use such a macro. These players usually turn out to be lousy in PvP anyway, because they never took the time to learn the nuances of the game by actually playing it.

[jmizzle7]

Hypothetically, if it were implemented, I can see people abusing it to auto-run their games to just rack-up points by adding a little macro scripting with it. Right now, logic is what prevents a lot of "botting".

There are several players in the top 50 that have bots. The most notable one is Datkewlguy. As Level 3 requires no thinking and mindless button clicking, it's easy to set up a macro to farm level 3 ad nauseum. If you see his score, he has something like 375,000 with way more than 12,000 wins and very few losses. No person in their right mind would ever do this manually.