Holy Essence and Seraphim Form don't seem to have much synergy with any flagbearer mechanic. Additionally, it feels like support for suspend is a bit lacking. Maybe one of the cards above could be changed to support suspend instead? Something like "Suspend triggers twice", or "Suspend triggers when played as well".

It's been a pretty fun mod so far, and I do enjoy how I see many cards similar to the watcher's, but the mod still manages to feel unique and brings its own charm instead of feeling like a watcher re-skin.

Originally posted by Kaint:

Holy Essence and Seraphim Form don't seem to have much synergy with any flagbearer mechanic. Additionally, it feels like support for suspend is a bit lacking. Maybe one of the cards above could be changed to support suspend instead? Something like "Suspend triggers twice", or "Suspend triggers when played as well".

It's been a pretty fun mod so far, and I do enjoy how I see many cards similar to the watcher's, but the mod still manages to feel unique and brings its own charm instead of feeling like a watcher re-skin.

Hey there! Thank you so much for playing the mod and I'm glad you're enjoying it.
I definitely agree with a lot of what you're saying.

Holy Essence is definitely a weird card. It's low synergy and it was just supposed to help with passive damage for block heavy builds. It was added a bit late and was definitely a "here's a cool idea" kind of card but I wasn't sure about it being explicitly viable. Maybe trashcannable.

I agree Seraphim Form doesn't have any explicit synergy. It is mainly to act as a strong defensive tool like Wraith Form on Silent but goes above and beyond as a scaling defensive option. I think I am overall happy with the card as is.

Suspend's only explicit payoff is the Frozen Hourglass relic and my design space for those cards was definitely a lot of "implied value" rather than "explicit value". I think exploring an explicit scaling option, as a draft-able card (power most likely) is a really good idea and I want to explore designing for that.

In reference to "Suspend happens now" technically the effects that do that (even from the initial design stage) is Time Walk/Stuns. I looked into another variant of this effect that is more explicit and immediate but worried it would make infinite combos with mana generators (focus) and card draw (divination). Maybe as long as it has exhaust it'll be fine? I think I'll look into this more!

Thank you again for the feedback and I hope I can make a cool explicit Suspend payoff soon! :D

hi i have some notes after 1 run and looking over the compendium, a lot of them are minor gripes to do with wording. its a very disorganised mess of thoughts but bear with me

• grasp fate's upgrade looks pretty strong next to master of strategy
• exu-calibaa looks really weird next to bludgeon and light beam
• bit weird that focus shares its name with a basegame keyword
• extremely weird that miracle shares its name with a basegame card
• mystical pennant doesnt feel very slay-the-spirey in the way that it tells you that it doesnt stack. also, the difference between that card and aura: essence isnt entirely clear so maybe the card should just be reworded to "Whenever you Pulse, Pulse 1 additional time."
• aura: essence saying "trigger" before pulse is inconsistent.
• aura: slow and aura: shatter don't specify how much weak or vulnerable they apply
• invoke lightning looks really strange number wise next to carnage and seraphim feathers
• seraphim feathers looks strange next to aerie of lights
• how come parallel universe grants energy rather than just costing 1 less? also i feel like it should say "trigger" rather than "play"
• i feel like instances of "Recall. If the flag became Recalled, X" could be replaced with "Recall to X". something as simple as recall crescent has no business being 5 lines long
• fortress and inspiration's effects aren't very clear. does it only apply to block and damage from cards like strength & dexterity?
• i feel like the energy orb's font colour should be defect's blue rather than ironclad's red
• the wording of barrier is inconsistent with the wording of twin slash
• the plant, recall and pulse cards having the same name as the keywords is a bit weird to me (see crescendo and tranquility)
• temporal spike's wording should be more like sucker punch's
• idk if phalanx should double its effect on upgrade. maybe the base block from recalling could be upped to 3? it already looks a bit weird next to metallicise and feel no pain
• holy essence should say "lose hp" rather than "lose life"
• undo should say "discard pile" rather than just "discard"
• momentum swipe could replace "becomes" with "is" for consistency with feel no pain
• the word "next" in shelter's description shouldn't be there, i assume you've taken wording from blur rather than barricade
• the wording on sanctuary is pretty vague (does it disable if ive attacked anything this turn or this combat?) also it gives kind of sad block return for a card with 2 downsides
• aura: accel is missing a comma
• aura: essence is also missing a comma
• omit second says just "stun 1" while aegis bash says "inflict stun 1" while stop time just says "stun" without a number
• aegis bash could be simplified to "Deal 7 damage. Stun 1. Remove all Artifact. Exhaust." - i dont know what the point of the unblocked restriction is, given its so small - probably only really makes much of a difference in the spheric guardian fight
• futuresight's wording is inconsistent with divination's
• banner dance doesn't highlight the token card name
• for the first act it was pretty difficult to tell whether the flag was planted or held at a glance. i understand this might be a bit too much additional work but maybe the character model could have a different pose when the flag is held (rather than just using the calm effect to signify planted)?
• the recall keyword should use the energy icon rather than the word "energy" like the calm keyword does
• sacred ground looks really weird next to inflame
• i dont understand why when aura might goes down from 1 to -1 in 1 turn. does the additional might from the starter relic only last 1 turn?
• seraphim form should say "start" rather than "beginning"
• i do think seraphim form needs to be changed. it's a very flavourful form card but it's quite confusing to deal with flight on the player in the way that the damage displayed by enemies can change during their turn
• i feel like haste could shorten itself to "strength and dexterity" to save description space and to be more similar to shockwave, also Temporary shouldn't be capitalised
• stop time's wording is inconsistent with time walk
• converge time shouldn't capitalise Damage
• why is OR capitalised in preparation
• how come time curse has the curse cardback rather than colourless, like other statuses? (plus, when you open it in the single card view in the compendium, it becomes blue anyway)
• to add on to this, all token cards (chaser, focus, maintain light, and pulse) should be colourless
• the suspend keyword is inconsistent with whether the word after it should be capitalised or not - 3 capitalise it, 7 don't (imo they should be capitalised - guardian from downfall does this after the Tick keyword and it looks natural)
• aura: drain says it'll apply drain but it applies a debuff called "Drain monster" (which should have the M capitalised either way)
• aura: drain's effect is inconsistent with its wording - its actual effect is something like "While the flag is planted, enemies have 4 drain". i dont know exactly how it interacts with artifact, but i know i was taken aback when drain got removed when i recalled. i do know the aura keyword says effects become inactive when recalled, but usually debuffing enemies isn't something that gets reversed. maybe drain should be renamed and changed to be a buff on the player which makes them take x less damage from attacks?
• not sure if this is just a stylistic choice but there should be a space in the mod name after The
• there is a stray blue pixel to the top right of the cardback for powers used in the single card view
• to reply to what kaint said, i don't think there's anything wrong with holy essence existing - caltrops exists on silent without any explicit synergy
• aura: accel applies 2 separate aura buffs to you but only counts as one unique aura for stuff like recall detonate. maybe TwoAmountPower from stslib fits this use case?
• the winged locket relic doesn't have a very prominent outline
• the numbers of light beam and aegis are weirdly different
• the relics in this mod look gigantic in the single relic view compared to basegame relics

this mod is pretty close to feeling like a basegame character but i think the main things holding it back are the weird wording quirks (which should be simple to fix) and its reuse of the calm effect rather than having its own unique thing
the lack of a heart kill effect is also kind of disappointing but i get it

Originally posted by Ocean:

hi i have some notes after 1 run and looking over the compendium, a lot of them are minor gripes to do with wording. its a very disorganised mess of thoughts but bear with me...

Hi Ocean,

Thanks a bunch for the feedback. Honestly, I wish I had someone to check formatting before publishing but I assure you I tried my best to proofread (I seriously did but, pain). I have applied most of the wording changes which I'll update eventually. Thank a bunch!

(I never would've noticed that blue pixel, I have destroyed it)

I can share my thoughts on the other things somewhat categorically if it interests you.

Cards

These are just my design thoughts but I understand if cards still seem out of place or weird next to each other, or don't sit well. (In order, mostly)

Grasp Fate as a burst card used to be Time Sickness 2 on both halves but I felt like someone who did not compensate for the downside somehow (Retrace or other) might feel like this card was weak. Additionally, Divination did not have suspend draw at the time of changing this card but maybe that means Grasp Fate can be nerfed? I'd want to think about this more.

Excalibur was certainly meant to be a much weirder card but as I removed text from it, it slowly turned into Bludgeon. I think I settled on it just being a necessary card for some decks lacking damage. I generally felt it should be weaker damage per mana because it pierces block.

Focus is supposed to be referring to a "magical focus", as a noun. I just assumed this was fine even though it shared the word with Defect.

Miracle is an homage to Magic the Gathering as the Miracle keyword relates to playing the top card of your deck when you draw it. I liked the reference and chose this explicitly even though I knew it shares a name. Maybe I should change it though.

I had a discussion with a playtester about Mystical Pennant and we both kinda agree with your sentiment but we weren't really sure what to do with the wording. Your suggestion was part of the discussion but may also suggest it infinites with its own ability. We left it as is but weren't sure. I updated the wording to the suggestion though.

The reminder text for Mystical Pennant not stacking wasn't initially there but caused confusion about functionality on a playtest. Any more doubling and Pulse would be very strong so I didn't want it to stack.

I assumed the amount of Shatter and Slow did not need to specify because it is always removed on recall. So even if they applied 2, it would remove 2. Technically, the Auras only apply and remove 1 each.

Since it's related to Auras. Drain's wording is consistent with effect, as it applies at start of turn and on Plant. The aura keyword specifies that effects happen retroactively if you're planted so that Auras can be played without sweating recall/plant. Drain is blocked by Artifact but is the last resolved debuff on Plant so it is the most likely to work. Interestingly, I chose to make the number on Drain Monster "turn based" (white) but wasn't sure if I should make it "not turn based". Technically it refreshes/reapplies every turn but the number doesn't signify turn count.

As for drain/drain monster, I assumed since this was functional text it would have been fine.The other auras don't apply as Aura: X (I think) so drain also applies to The Flagbearer as "drain" thus couldn't be used to apply to the enemy under the same name. I may consider rewriting all the Auras to have better naming so that drain can be applied using that name to enemies.

Invoke Lightning's trade off was supposed to be 1/2 targeted damage vs full random on Feathers. I think Feathers is generally better but Invoke leaned towards Suspend synergies with Dimension Walker being added so I think it's okay. The damage is also certainly close to Carnage but I thought random assign + "it happens next turn" was a good enough downside.

Aerie was made before Feathers and I wanted to find a way to differentiate them while both supporting multi-hits. All I can really note is that Aerie scales better per mana if you can play 2 (let's goooo Retrace) but Feathers has better card density (and is random).

Parallel Universe does one of my favorite things from another card game I play(ed) which is "being free but with required activation cost". Concept heavily inspired by the clan Angel Feather from CFVG. Basically, it means you can't suspend 3, 1 mana cards and still PU which is intentional.

No real comment on Plant/Recall/Pulse. I just chose what felt right, maybe one day I'll find a cool name for them.

I wanted Phalanx to mirror Mental Fortress but ran into balancing issues when Pulse started scaling multiplicative. Likely, base would be 1/3 then 2/4 but the code and description references one number (the stack amount). There's another note about TwoPower later. You may also notice that the upgrade does not green number for the 2nd line. It makes me sad too.

I feel like Sanctuary is very strong because it's similar to Impervious without exhausting itself. As for "cannot have attacked" I felt like this is something that'll just make sense as you play the card similar to Sanctity's wording stealthily keeping track of your previous turns card (which was not apparent when I or my friend first played Sanctity). The granularity here was skipped for card space. I considered a one off keyword but heard people don't like those.

Aegis Bash became word soup because I wanted to differentiate its function and condition from Omit Second. I think simplifying it is an okay idea but want to leave it as soup because I think the card is really cool. The Champ wants to have a word with you about blocked and unblocked damage /s. I am aware the cases for this are low and could very easily be removed from the card.

I designed Sacred Ground more similar to Focus from Defect as it pertains to passive damage. There was a last minute change that nerfed Pulse so I wonder if Sacred Ground could be buffed. I'd need to think about it.

In reference to above, I'm surprised "Aura: Accel looks weird beside Inflame and Rushdown" didn't come up but definitely thought it looks weird beside both of those cards.

The Aura: Might comment might've been before 1.2.0 but I've since made this consistent with how Fatigue is supposed to work. There was a surprising amount of spaghetti code to fix and implement that change.

I really like Seraphim Form and honestly feel like it's bordering on being too strong. I recognise not being able to fully read damage intent numbers can lead to players feeling cheated out of their run (it's happened to me before, sad) but ultimately felt like this effect is too unique/interesting to change.

I looked into the TwoPower implementation but didn't know how to do it so I just made two powers. I had a feeling that the current implementation would confuse someone and am sad to know that my inability to implement something caused a UX issue =(. Maybe one day I'll fix it.

Wording/Text

I changed the wording on PU to "Activate" idk if it's better but I like it.

The "The" doesn't have a space for no particular reason. I guess I'll keep it like that to feel special now.

Recall text was made early and I wasn't sure why the orb didn't show (it was a bug). I have managed to fix this, I think I just needed to put a space before the period.

Haste's wording has changed a lot and honestly I just felt like when I read it with "Strength and Dex..." it confused me so I went with explicitly both. Temporary was templated off of Downfall's use of the word on Flex, which is capitalised despite not being key worded. I also thought this was a strange choice but just used their wording.

For a similar reason to Haste, Preparation had OR capitalised just because I thought it was easier to read, using the capitalisation as a way to split the card. I changed it to lower case to match how I use "or" on other cards.

I referenced both cards for Shelter when making it but noticed that (I think) Barricade is just hard coded somewhere that I couldn't see. Since I had to make the power give you Blur to work I used Blur's wording.

Banner Dance is a really funny one because it's the only card that adds Pulses. Initially I wasn't sure how to yellow text it because it shared the name with the keyword so I made it "Pulses" (plural) but never implemented the keyword.

Crescent is technically a split card and unfortunately, while it's a clone of "Bane", it clocks in at more lines because it has a keyword (sad). I left these wordings as is and hope that's ok.

Changed fort and insp to read more like str and dex.

I wanted twin slash to match twin strike's wording but barrier didn't have a precedent so I double sentenced it. This is probably fine so I kept it.

Aesthetics / User Experience

There are so many things you mentioned that I wish I could do but felt limited by my experience.

I have no clue how to change the font color but I'd love for it to be blue if I could figure it out.

My dream for the plant stance was to have a really flashy animation that threw it onto the arena and had a big bubble pulse out of it. Unfortunately, my experience in java does not support my vested interest in wishing this was possible. I swear, if I was working in a game engine I'd know how to do it but sadly felt very limited behind raw java.

In addition to this, I really wanted to have the Aura power icons only appear on the banner (like, under the object) when it was planted but is similarly complicated to above.

I really wish I could do a Heart screen effect but don't know how to make/implement it. Maybe the flavor of the Heart panels can be used as an excuse to the nothingness =).

I just want to reiterate, thanks a lot for all the wording fixes, now everyone else can enjoy better templated cards and I wish I had you proofread before I launched. I hope I was able to share some insight for my thought process behind certain cards.

Thanks again for playing the mod and your time writing/recording the feedback! It was immensely useful and I hope you had fun!

wow didnt expect such an in depth reply glad u took the time to consider everything i wrote.
funnily enough my reference for the lowercase t in temporary was also downfall. i never realised how inconsistent they were with it[slay.ocean.lol].
for the blue text thing, if you mean in card descriptions, then you might wanna ping laugic on the slay the spire discord, i know they made one of their keywords pink in their vacant mod and im sure theyd be happy to point you in the right direction

Oh true, that's weird for temporary for sure. I think I can shift it to lowercase if there's a precedent for both.

I forgot to mention in the previous post but I'm not super sure why time curse uses all the incorrect card backs. Has been a problem and didn't know how to fix. I will revisit it tho to see if I can make it work.

Oh, and when I mentioned "blue text" I was referring to the energy number comment. I didn't specify so mb. But I'm not sure how to change the energy color number either, haha.

oh! the energy font colour is really simple you just need to override getEnergyNumFont in your character file (the one that extends AbstractPlayer)

The non-stacking property of Seraphim Form seems completely unnecessary - it's not particularly powerful to stack in the first place as it only helps when there's lots of attacks coming in.

oh there's a thread for feedback

played another run, went with boss swap. Turns out 1 energy is indeed worth losing your starter relic for, but it makes you want to play less into direct banner synergies. Frozen Hourglass was a nice early find, letting me play into Suspend synergies early. That being said, Suspend/skip turn/Stun makes for an incredibly effective combo that almost no enemies in the game can actually do anything about (act 3 boss was Awakend One, so time slug couldn't stop me).

If the boss swap hadn't been into Ectoplasm, Recall Banner would have made it nearly infinite, and if you have multiple stuns you can get your setup running basically for free. The Heart took 6 turns and half its health before it was even able to take a turn (stuns bypass Invincible, so it's potentially possible to kill it without even letting it take a turn!)

Fun, likely stronger than most characters that aren't named Watcher, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I like she is a decent stance character, but would it be possible to change the color of her "Aura" so that it differentiates from the "Calm" stance?

Originally posted by Jack:

I like she is a decent stance character, but would it be possible to change the color of her "Aura" so that it differentiates from the "Calm" stance?

I really wish I knew how to do that. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to do visual effects.

In case you're curious. The initial design was supposed have the flag literally plant itself in the middle of the arena but I couldn't figure out how to do that either *sad*.

Overall she is too strong. The flag power of +2/+2 and 3 aoe damage, +1 mana on recall is strong and the rest of her kit isn't weakened to reflect this added power. The power that gives +4/+4 (+6/+6) is crazy, even for 3 energy, without the downside of watcher's fasting.

I see you've been making quite a few changes. I can't put my finger on it since my memory is foggy but it sure feels more satisfying to play. Looks like you found that special sauce I mentioned last year.

Nicely done.

PS: Wouldn't it be funny if you added a gif of the green screen Flarous dance to the other previews?

Hello, your sts mod is awesome! I made a Chinese translation for you. Can you please add it to your mod?