[Community Project] Implementing Field Manipulation series into Cygnia

[ZephyrPhantom]

Given the general direction of this thread I think we may need a bit more focus if we want to retain people that really want to get this project done. Now would be a good time to start drafting a set structure and fill it in with some general details that would make it easier to design cards and give other designers a baseline to work with.

How many cards are we going to design for this series and how will they be separated between the 12 elements?

IMHO, this is how the set structure should look:

Bare Minimum (5 cards):
- 1 card that is a single use moment card. (Most likely a spell)
- 1 card that is a multiple use movement card.
- One AoE CC card that takes positioning into account.
- One anti-CC card that takes positioning into account.
- One beneficial field card that takes positioning into account.

Building Up to a "Showcase Set" (10-14 cards):
All the requirements of Bare Minimum plus:
- 6-12 elements should possess a card capable of interacting with each other.
- +1 new harmful field card that takes positioning into account.
- + 1-2 AoE CC cards that takes positioning into account.
- +2-3 creatures that give buffs relative to positioning.
- +1-2 cards that are capable of single/limited use movement.

Building Up to a mechanically diverse set(15-22 cards):
All the requirements of "Showcase Set" plus:
- 3-6 elements should be able to create decks that are either fun or efficient with these cards, whether they be monos or multielemental.
- +1 card that is a multiple use movement card.
- +1-2 cards that scale alter themselves based on the current board state.
- +1-2 cards that play with the nature of a creature slot (e.g. a permanent slot that acts as an extra creature slot or a spell that only alters creature slot properties)
- +1-2 field cards that can be either beneficial or malicious.
- +1-2 AoE CC non-creature buffs that take positioning into account.

[OldTrees]

showcase Brainstorm(written as self notes, apologies for the trouble decoding)

Constructive
-Formation
--Defensive
--Offensive
-Mobility
--Defensive
--Offensive
Destructive
-Duration
--Damage
--Effect
-Instantaneous
--Damage
--Effect
Each leaf has at least 2 ways to implement.

Discussion continued here for awhile: https://titanpad.com/ETGCygniaProjectFieldControl

[OldTrees]

Update from titanpad

Some of the ideas so far(note these are general ideas from which many different ideas could be created that we could choose ideal candidates from):

Earth:
Shelter - An area where creatures are sheltered/can hide(burrowed?)
Defensive formation - Nearby creatures are more resilient(+hp?/DR?)
"To Me" - Some way of drawing creatures toward a point. To enable hiding or forming up. Should include a small internal benefit?
(Meteorite) - AoE CC that leaves (normally?) impassible terrain

Air:
Mobile creature - A creature that can move itself and has an internal benefit for doing so.
Evasion - Creatures that move get % evasion
(Freedom|Liberty) - Player can choose starting slot for creatures
AoE that moves creatures - Tornado? Move in or out?
CC Terrain - ???
Multiple use moving other creatures. Probably an activated ability.

Water:
(Manta Ray)-Nearby creatures are cloaked/protected

[ZephyrPhantom]

Bump due to discussion slowing down again.

At we currently at the card design phase of things, or are we still establishing the structure?

[OldTrees]

Bump due to discussion slowing down again.

At we currently at the card design phase of things, or are we still establishing the structure?

Neither/inbetween, but closer to the card design phase than the structure phase.

We are creating content by identifying concrete FM strategies/methods some elements would use but not going as far as to make concrete cards for those ideas yet.

For example: We know Earth is often defensive and orderly(a trait it shares with Gravity) so we would expect some kind of strategy revolving around clumping its units in order to make them more resilient.

At this stage we don't need to specify what card provides this bonus or the nitty gritty in how it would. However we do need to mark where we would expect to see 1 card or a 2 card combo(and mark the roles of each card).

For example: That "clumping units to make them more resilient" was decided to be a card that could "clump units" and a card that would "nearby units more resilient".

Once we have 2-3 strategies for 4-6 elements, then we will start turning these concrete roles into concrete cards. Aka normal card design. (If the ideas I listed below and above work, then we only need +1 for Water to have 4 elements ready)

Posting/repeating some ideas here to keep bumping

Water:
(Manta Ray)-Nearby creatures are cloaked/protected
AoE - Slow(not freeze/delay, but something new that slows instead of stops) creatures for some time.
[No movement?]

Fire:
Creatures battling / interacting with enemies in the opposing slot
Terrain - CC and Buff(like Rage but maybe something new?)
Obligatory Fireball
[No movement?]

[ZephyrPhantom]

I find a possible variant of Manta Ray to be a bit out of element given a second look. Protection from damage seems much more like something or would do. If it cloaks though I suppose it could work.

I agree that Fire should not have mobility cards as it will likely instead have lots of slot-themed CC.

Gravity and Air would likely have a lot of movement based cards.
I can see Water and Life having a few movement cards as well. (Underwater movement and expression of vitality, plus Life would like to keep creatures alive).
Entropy could have a creature movement card but it would likely be random.

[dragtom]

just leaving this here...

[OldTrees]

Ok another bump time. This time I have a task for all of you card designers:
We have the following positions to fill. Only 1 card will qualify for each position(+1 duplication per element).  I encourage you to look at the vague descriptions below as a guide/position to fill and not as an idea themselves. Even the positions themselves are flexible.

For example Shelter might be a creature ability, a permanent in the creature zone, a spell that gives that effect to a creature tile, ... all it needs to do is have an area and have creatures in that area receive some kind of shelter(oh and it has to have an casting cost  ).

Three of these positions have card names next to them. For those positions you can either fine tune that card or suggest a card idea that could replace it in that position. The named cards are there as a means of potential examples and not set in stone.

Earth:
Shelter - An area where creatures are sheltered/can hide(burrowed?)
Defensive formation - Nearby creatures are more resilient(+hp?/DR?)
"To Me" - Some way of drawing creatures toward a point. To enable hiding or forming up. Should include a small internal benefit?
(Meteorite) - AoE CC that leaves (normally?) impassible terrain

Air:
Mobile creature - A creature that can move itself and has an internal benefit for doing so.
Evasion - Creatures that move get % evasion or some other benefit
(Freedom|Liberty) - Player can choose starting slot for creatures
AoE that moves creatures - Tornado? Move in or out?
CC Terrain - ???
Multiple use effect that moves other creatures. Probably an activated ability.

Water:
(Manta Ray)-Nearby creatures are cloaked/protected
AoE - Slow(not freeze/delay, but something new that slows instead of stops) creatures for some time.

Fire:
Creatures battling / interacting with enemies in the opposing slot
Terrain - CC and Buff(like Rage but maybe something new?)
Obligatory Fireball

PS: Please use this forum for storing ideas rather than textpads. Conversation that stop in textpads don't pick back up as easily.

[ZephyrPhantom]

I'll repost my "simple movement" ideas here, in that case:

Dextera Captain 5 | 4
5 | 5  / 5 | 5
: Target creature moves 1 space to the right if possible. If it can't, generate instead.

Sinistra Spy 2 | 1
2 | 1  / 2 | 1
Enter play cloaked.
: Target creature moves 1 space to the left if possible. If it can't, cloak it for 1 turn instead.

Gaian Skyraider 7 | 6
7| 2 / 7 | 2
Airborne.
: Target creature moves one space upwards if possible. If it can't, it gets +2|+0 until end of turn instead.

Cthonic Caveguide 3  | 3
2 | 6 / 2 | 10
:  Target creature moves one space upwards if possible. If it can't, burrow it for 1 turn instead.

[AD TienzuStorm]

For clarification, could you define "internal" and "external" benefits?

Also, for the spot where Manta Ray is, I don't think that mechanic is necessarily one that belongs to Water. It's only the theme of Manta Rays that made it Water, it would probably suit Darkness or Light better thematically overall (and likely be much easier to design, although obviously the specific elements aren't exactly required for any card submitted at this point(.

[serprex]

Water is viewed as an element that should have a theme of protection; Manta Ray is thematically fitting

[OldTrees]

For clarification, could you define "internal" and "external" benefits?

Also, for the spot where Manta Ray is, I don't think that mechanic is necessarily one that belongs to Water. It's only the theme of Manta Rays that made it Water, it would probably suit Darkness or Light better thematically overall (and likely be much easier to design, although obviously the specific elements aren't exactly required for any card submitted at this point(.

Internal means it comes with the card in contrast to External which requires another card.
Vampires have an External benefit for being Dark(Nightfall).
Red Nymph has an Internal benefit to Rage in that it can Rage itself for additional attack without dying.
If Eagle's Eye gained +1 Attack every time it killed a creature, that would be an Internal benefit to using Snipe.
I think I only put "Internal Benefit" in places where the rest of the role would not necessarily be a benefit in an of itself, so places where we would want to make sure the creature had some benefit.

Fish tend to clump together as a defensive mechanic. This extends to symbiotic relationships like Sharks/Manta Rays and Remoras.

Also remember that Manta Ray is merely an example. That role need not deal with cloak or damage protection. Just some form of protection to the clumped units.

Also the element of the casting costs has been determined for these roles. The other 8 elements would be looked at in a later stage. So keep the casting costs to for this stage.