Diagonal for Multiply

[l0de]

Multiply is the most common power in quadradius, I'd like to present a simple variant that would make it a lot stronger, and add some interesting tactical posibilities, especially for breaking up standoffs.

Allow multiply to be cast onto diagonal squares.

It's a small change, but makes the power much stronger, letting it jump diagonal pieces (kind of like a single-use move diagonal). Having a multiply on the front-row standoff now lets you plonk a new torus onto three columns instead of one, increasing the chance you can force a guard-torus off an orb. It can also save you a tempo when you want to grab a diagonally adjacent orb.

Comments, gentlemen?

(Note, this idea has doubtless been advanced in the past, but I couldn't turn up the thread).

[OncoByte]

I think it is a totally new idea - amazing!

I'm mezzo about it.

[Rydash]

Might have to make it a little bit less common, but, I like it. Helpful for when you use it and go "Oh, crap. That parking spot's full."

[l0de]

: ( Jimmi sez no.

[driven2sin]

doesn't follow the game - perhaps if the piece multiplying already had diagonal you could make a case for that

also it is odd since when the reverse of this logic was discussed for that 'auto-marching' power, that if the piece moved diagonally it still wouldn't keep moving diagonally (yet flat to sphere was able to use its mod and wrap around)


just pointing it out for the score keepers

[l0de]

Apparently multiply 'casting' is a one-off hack and only exists because there wasn't a good way to cancel the multiply if the piece had nowhere to move to. 'cast' style powers seem unfavorable.

Which is a shame because the gameplay ramifications seemed really fun and interesting, especially for cluster-busting. If you have a requirement that the piece has to have move diag to multiply diagonally, you remove the element of surprise from a diagiply, the unexpected nature of it is what I was looking forward to.

Earlier today we talked about powers that would be really cool as radial-casts (hotspot [though I think this is really powerful, maybe too strong], power plant (would be nice not to need to move for it to be useful), raise\lower tile (which would be the much heralded 'terraform' power, radial castable, select between dredge, lower, raise, and wall, and still only affects one tile) and bunker (with a radial castable t2 bunker as an inverse bunker, where the piece can't get out unless the bunker is refurbed). But from the sound of it, no dice on any new cast-style powers.

Back to learnin' actionscript I guess.

[driven2sin]

yup - jimmi made that clear when having to say no to my enhancement of bunker

about giving surprise to multiply.. you are driving full force without seeing what you are leaving behind. If you do this, then why not allow multiply to put the new piece on top of a wall? same thing, but easier to see why it isn't such a good idea

I think centerpault does a good job of what you are trying to achieve besides all the radial powers and even r/c scramble to free up that situation

[l0de]

That's one of the reasons I think radial-cast hotspot is maybe too big a buff, it would let you plonk hotspots onto walls. Then again, psychocide pointed out that this would lead to more hotspots on hotspots, which I think is awesome.

However, I don't see where you're going with the wall comparison for multiply itself. You're not really 'leaving anything behind' here, it's a straight up buff for multiply, making the power stronger, and more of a factor in multi-piece tradeoffs.

The improvement to multiply counters aggressive use of move-diagonal and radial powered pieces. Advancing on a diagonal is now slightly more likely to bite you in the ass. So what are we losing?