I've given a bit of thought to
how exactly a damage bar would look when "done right".
I say that instead of the current, single, yellow damage indicator there would need to be several. A yellow colored part of the bar to display minimum damage expected to be dealt next turn with what's out on the field (that's zero versus dusk mantle
* ), along with an orange colored part which showed the maximum possible damage with what's on the field (this would show damage dealt if the dusk mantle let everything through). On your own bar (and not the opponent's) the orange part would also assume that all your defenses are going to be deflagrated next turn (because I *like* seeing how much damage I'll take if my phase shield gets destroyed). If the next turn's attacks would score a kill (at any point of the attack
*) in the orange scenario, then the orange part of the bar would turn red. If they'd also suffice in the yellow scenario, then the entire remaining health would turn red. Finally there'd need to be two more colors (perhaps orange->pink , yellow ->white) for the cases where a side would or could end up with more health than they have now.
Now, let me also explain why I think this is never going to happen. The only way to do these estimates properly would be to simulate the next two entire attacks in advance. There's simply no better way of telling whether those antimattered creatures will keep someone alive or not (it comes down to turn order), as well as correctly account for, say, voodoo doll poison counters. And with simulation there comes great CPU usage... and it'd have to be done over every time something happens to a creature on the field. Zanz is taking care to have the code working fast, so a perfect damage potential bar can't really be made for this game.
I for one say that if it can't be made to work "as it should" anyway, then what's wrong with what we have?
