My AST Rework idea to bridge old and new buffs

[Jaelommiss]

So I definitely like the idea of this, but in that implementation would be a lot of button bloat, especially if you consider minor arcana. It's a nice foundation, but it needs some fat trimming.

I took a look at the current card buttons and tried to trim down how many buttons would be needed to support a dual deck system.

Current:
1. Draw
2. Play
3. Redraw
4. Undraw
5. Minor Arcana
6. Sleeve Draw

If implemented along the same lines as the current system, dual deck would require:
1. Draw (damage)
2. Draw (utility)
3. Play (damage)
4. Play (utility)
5. Redraw (damage)
6. Redraw (utility)
7. Undraw (damage)
8. Undraw (utility)
9. Minor Arcana (damage)
10. Minor Arcana (utility)
11. Sleeve Draw

That's an extra five cards, but I think we can trim some of that down.
I'd suggest merging Draw and Play into a single button like it used to be. Adding a 1.0 or 1.5 sec CD after Draw should eliminate accidentally playing a drawn card immediately. Alternatively, Draw could function passively. Every 30 secs you get a card if your hand is open. In either case that'll save two buttons.
Next I would remove seals from the utility cards. This means that being stuck with a poor utility card won't negatively impact Divination. Without that risk we can cut out Redraw (utility). As an alternative, we would merge them both into a single Redraw that functions on all drawn cards. That's another button removed.
With the way that Draw's CD starts immediately rather than after playing a card, there is no penalty to holding a card. In SB there were seriously penalties to holding cards and Royal Road meant that playing an unneeded card was a harmful way to dispose of them. With those penalties removed, Undraw is not necessary for either deck. If you do not want a card you can Play it without any downsides. Two more buttons removed.
By limiting seals to the damage cards there is no need for Minor Arcana for the utility deck. Strike out another button.
Sleeve Draw will be kept.

This leaves us with:
1. Draw/Play (damage)
2. Draw/Play (utility)
3. Redraw (damage or both)
4. Minor Arcana (damage)
5. Sleeve Draw

There we go. We can implement a dual deck system with one button less than we have right now. If we split Draw and Play back into two buttons for each deck we'll still only have a single button more than the current system.


Edit: I put some more thought into utility effects. A lot of utility effects are useful for both single target and party wide buffs depending on the situation. Rather than implement both single target and aoe cards, why not make it depend on your target? If you target an ally or self then a single target version of the buff is applied. If you have no target or are targeting an enemy then a weaker aoe version of the same buff is applied to nearby party members.

Suppose our effects are: reduced damage taken, increased healing received, Refresh, and an ability to reduce time remaining on Weakness or Brink of Death.

If the single target effects are -20% damage taken for 15 secs, +20% healing received for 15 secs, +300 MP per tick for 15 secs, -30 secs on Weakness/Brink of Death debuff, then the aoe versions could be halved. -10% damage taken for 15 secs for allies within 15 yalms, +10% healing received for 15 secs for allies within 15 yalms, +150 MP per tick for allies within 15 yalms, -15 secs on Weakness/Brink of Death for allies within 15 yalms.


As an alternative, if a utility card is drawn when an Earthly Star is placed then the aoe buff will be applied to everyone within the star when it detonates. This might reduce error caused by accidentally targeting a hostile target when trying to use a single target buff and vice versa.