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A Possible Improvement to Battles

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Nov 05, 2015
2
I have been playing Wizard101 for a long time, across multiple years, memberships, and accounts borne of forgotten passwords, but as much as I love the game, something has been bothering me, and today I finally realized what it is:

The battles are one-sided in nature.

At first, I thought that the random drawing of cards caused a luck-based nature to battles, but that's fine. They're about working with the cards you do have to adapt to any situation, after all. However, I eventually noticed that I tended to have a lot less trouble with battles when my side moves first.

"Alright," I said to myself, "The opposing side gets an extra hit on me when they move first. Somebody has to move second, not much you can do about that."

Little did I realize that that wasn't the issue here. The real problem was not only that the other side got one more chance to set up for a big attack, but throughout the fight, the side that moves first on any given round gets to decide what their next spell will be immediately after the other side casts. This means that the first side to cast can select their cards with knowledge of the exact circumstances surrounding their spells, and by extension, the results of their spells (excluding fizzles, of course.) Meanwhile, the side that moves second is forced to guess:

"Will I have to heal when it's my turn to attack? I don't think so, but what if the enemy uses a blade? What if they use a trap? What if they use a prism? A shield? Gain a Power Pip? What if THEY heal? What if...? What if...? What if...?"

As you can imagine, this can be come quite the issue in Player versus Player, for example, when the matches are ranked.

I believe that this dilemma will be solved if the battle system is changed to allow each side to determine their next spell when it is their turn to cast, as opposed to the current system of deciding at the beginning of each round of battle. I understand that changing a battle mechanic like this after so many years can be quite a big deal, but if you can find the time, I think it will unlock the true potential of duels as battles of wits and strategy, like those of true wizards, in addition to making the game more fun for everyone. I don't want players to have any doubt in their mind that their victory or loss was due to the abilities of each side.

Side Note: That said, I do not mind the existence of fizzling. The ability of fizzling to turn a battle around remains fair as long as it can happen to either side. The concept of "missing" or otherwise failing to execute a move has always been a vital part of role playing games in general, and I do not expect that to go away.

This is my first post to the message boards, so anyone reading this, thank you for your time, and continue to have fun saving the Spiral in Wizard 101!

Sincerely,
Valkoor Titanbreaker

Mastermind
Nov 08, 2015
396
Conjuror Valkoor on Jun 28, 2017 wrote:
I have been playing Wizard101 for a long time, across multiple years, memberships, and accounts borne of forgotten passwords, but as much as I love the game, something has been bothering me, and today I finally realized what it is:

The battles are one-sided in nature.

At first, I thought that the random drawing of cards caused a luck-based nature to battles, but that's fine. They're about working with the cards you do have to adapt to any situation, after all. However, I eventually noticed that I tended to have a lot less trouble with battles when my side moves first.

"Alright," I said to myself, "The opposing side gets an extra hit on me when they move first. Somebody has to move second, not much you can do about that."

Little did I realize that that wasn't the issue here. The real problem was not only that the other side got one more chance to set up for a big attack, but throughout the fight, the side that moves first on any given round gets to decide what their next spell will be immediately after the other side casts. This means that the first side to cast can select their cards with knowledge of the exact circumstances surrounding their spells, and by extension, the results of their spells (excluding fizzles, of course.) Meanwhile, the side that moves second is forced to guess:

"Will I have to heal when it's my turn to attack? I don't think so, but what if the enemy uses a blade? What if they use a trap? What if they use a prism? A shield? Gain a Power Pip? What if THEY heal? What if...? What if...? What if...?"

As you can imagine, this can be come quite the issue in Player versus Player, for example, when the matches are ranked.

I believe that this dilemma will be solved if the battle system is changed to allow each side to determine their next spell when it is their turn to cast, as opposed to the current system of deciding at the beginning of each round of battle. I understand that changing a battle mechanic like this after so many years can be quite a big deal, but if you can find the time, I think it will unlock the true potential of duels as battles of wits and strategy, like those of true wizards, in addition to making the game more fun for everyone. I don't want players to have any doubt in their mind that their victory or loss was due to the abilities of each side.

Side Note: That said, I do not mind the existence of fizzling. The ability of fizzling to turn a battle around remains fair as long as it can happen to either side. The concept of "missing" or otherwise failing to execute a move has always been a vital part of role playing games in general, and I do not expect that to go away.

This is my first post to the message boards, so anyone reading this, thank you for your time, and continue to have fun saving the Spiral in Wizard 101!

Sincerely,
Valkoor Titanbreaker
The system you are proposing is currently a new tournament type in Test Realm. It will hit Live sometime in July.

And that is why I always go in alone in Darkmoor battles to make sure I go first, and if I'm second, I flee and repeat :P There is WAY too much guessing involved if you go second in any one of those battles, so I try to eliminate as many problems as I can in those fights by going first. I think it would be an interesting change if that turn based tournament's system gets implanted to the entire game, as it will make going second not so much as a problem. However, there are always people who are constantly against any changes that affect them :/

Historian
Jun 17, 2014
671
" turn based system" what you just described, and what KI is trying out for pvp

Explorer
Feb 13, 2011
62
Your idea had already been implemented in the test realm for tournaments. Hopefully it works out and is applied to all of PvP.

Survivor
Nov 05, 2015
2
"Your idea had already been implemented in the test realm for tournaments. Hopefully it works out and is applied to all of PvP."

Ah, that is good to hear. I am hoping that it will applied to PvE as well, though, since going second is equally as much of a problem there.