Prep Phase Priority Window

Hey there Hex Community–Ben Stoll here, lead TCG designer of HEX PvP. Today, I wanted to take a minute to address the what and why of some of the changes we’ve been testing recently in Hex Alpha.

We recently updated the game so that triggered and activated abilities no longer use the chain except when they target, and today we’re testing the removal of the priority window during the prep phase. With this latest iteration, the first opportunity to play an effect on the opponent’s turn will occur the first time that opponent passes priority during their main phase.

We know that our users have strong expectations for us to be very mindful of the way game changes affect card design and gameplay. Our goals with these changes were to make the overall user experience smoother, more accessible, and more intuitive–while still providing you a game where skill has a significant impact on the game.

We believe removing the prep phase priority window streamlines gameplay at little to no cost to potential for reactive strategy. At first blush, it may seem that this latter point is not the case; many of the TCG’s that our community may have prior experience with allow cards and abilities to be employed “at the start” of their opponent’s turn.

In order to figure out how gameplay was affected, the biggest question we asked ourselves was “How many things did I normally do during the prep step that can’t really be done at another point to achieve essentially the same outcome?” Certainly a few options are lost—you can no longer, for example, use an action to exhaust an opposing troop with an activated power that is [BASIC] before he gets a chance to fire it off. After discussing the change, we felt that the total number of scenarios like this was ultimately pretty low.

Some of you keen rules-types might realize that one of the possible issues with this change is that it may somehow, sometime become beneficial to “artificially” create a priority window during the prep step. Rest assured that this won’t be possible, as we don’t want any sort of manipulation of the rules engine creating counter-intuitive gameplay. For example, there aren’t any cards that target during the prep phase, which would be the obvious way to get a priority window to open during a prep phase. We did have Doppelgadget, but that card is simply a “choose” under these rules instead of a target.

So the key question for me is “is this really dumbing the game down and removing opportunities for skill to have impact, or is it more in the camp of calling for a slight adjustment in how you make certain plays?” We believe it is the latter, and we think it’s a very minimal cost compared to the positive of never again having to arbitrarily click through the prep phase.

Of course, we aren’t always going to get all these changes exactly right on our first crack at them—which is why we’re so lucky to have such an engaged, thoughtful Alpha community playing with and considering these changes as well. When we first implemented the rules change that stopped triggered abilities from using the chain, many people spoke out about the frustration of not being able to respond to abilities that target after the target was chosen but before the ability resolved. Those people were right—in that case, we had indeed done damage to the opportunities for reactive, skill-intensive plays to impact the game, and so we modified the rule for abilities to be “ALL abilities that target use the chain; abilities that don’t target don’t use the chain.” I want to be clear that we are all about taking in community feedback on this stuff; community feedback has already significantly contributed to making Hex a better game.

There was a possible reality where Hex didn’t really have an Alpha process like this; one of the dangers for us in letting our most hardcore users behind the curtain before we’re finished is that people get attached to the way things are, and then the way things are changes…because even though HEX is nearly complete, we are still trying to find any possible way to improve it before it’s fully released.

We can’t be more pleased with our Alpha users—you guys have been building an awesome foundation for the best TCG community I’ve ever been a part of, you’re thoughtful, smart, passionate, and you don’t take Hex or your experience with Hex lightly. I believe many users will barely even notice the Prep step priority window disappearing, and for those of you who are particularly detail-oriented and wouldn’t miss the set number on a card changing, it is my hope that you’ll appreciate the change providing smoother gameplay.

Thanks so much for continuing to help build HEX into the most awesome digital TCG ever.

-Ben