[9Tales]

- 06 May 2023 01:35 #215836 When an Active Pokemon in a TCG battle uses a move, there is nothing directly indicating that the Pokemon used a certain move unless you hover over the icons in the TCG log on the left side of the screen. In fact, nothing obvious really happens when you use an attack in a TCG battle at all, apart from the effects of the attack. This is odd as attacking is one of the main actions in a turn. There should be something obvious that makes it crystal clear that the opponent is attacking.

For example, a big message or textbox on the screen for a few seconds that says something like:

"Dark Flareon used Rage!"

Right now, the most obvious indication that the opponent attacked you is the flipping coin interface popping up if the opponent is flipping coins, your card rotating if you gain a status, the number of damage counters on your Pokemon changing, and so on. Just the effects of the attack, not the fact that the opponent used one.

This can be a problem for two reasons:

• Sometimes cards have two attacks that look similar when used. For example, Eevee from the Team Rocket set has two attacks, Tackle and Sand Attack, that both deal 10 damage, but Sand Attack makes the opponent flip a coin when they try to use an attack and cancels the attack if they flip tails, which may impact what decision they make in that turn if they know Eevee used Sand Attack.
• Not all attacks have obvious effects, which can make it look like the opponent didn't use an attack. For example, the Zap deck has some Gastly cards with an attack called Destiny Bond, where Gastly discards a Psychic Energy and, like the current Destiny Bond in the games, knocks out the opponent if the opponent knocks it out on their next turn. Unless you noticed that the number of Energies on Gastly decreased by 1 or were paying attention to the log on the side, it would look as though Gastly chose not to attack.

Frankly, I'm probably not doing a very good job at explaining how awful the TCG battle interface is at making the act of using a certain attack obvious. It is probably best to partake in a TCG battle yourself.

The TCG battling interface should make it so that a player that isn't hovering over the log area should immediately know when the opponent uses an attack on them and more importantly what attack the opponent used on them, without looking at the descriptions of the attacks on the opponent's Active Pokemon. A big, obvious message on the screen declaring that the Pokemon is using an attack would accomplish this.