My Little Pony Puzzle Quest: Tile Matching Is A Checklist · 5:33pm Nov 14th, 2016
So if Hasbro ever decided to create a game along the same lines as Marvel Puzzle Quest -- a Match-3 battle against the computer on an 8*8 grid, with three characters on your side who could affect gameplay once you'd charged their powers enough...
The following represents some of my ideas for how such abilities might be assigned. I haven't exactly playtested any of this because A Game Designer Is Not Me, I don't have the programming skills and unless I somehow see about twelve thousand new Patreon pledges in the next two weeks, I also don't have the funds to cover the lawsuit. I'm just using the MPQ model, as discussed here: each character has three strong colors, three weak ones, and one moderate -- the last of which is used to generate Team-Ups, or if you prefer, Getting A Friend To Drop By. Characters may also wind up being rated in terms of effectiveness from one to five stars, and there could be different versions of the same character from various points in their lives. Powers will be listed as charge color, total amount needed to use, name, and description.
Let's start with the obvious.
Twilight Sparkle *** (Fresh Off The Air Carriage)
Purple (12): Counterspell. Twilight knows how to take just about any kind of magic apart -- but she still hasn't figured out how not to overreach herself. Removes any two lasting opposition effects from the board: this can be special enemy tiles or ongoing changes which are still affecting gameplay. However, if there are three or more things to remove, Twilight's efforts go haywire, strengthening one random remaining effect by 50%.
At higher levels: may remove one additional affect, possibly with a slightly lowered cost, but also strengthens anything remaining by up to 100%.
Red (10): When All You Have Is A Really Big Hammer. Twilight reluctantly decides to exert her field strength just a little. Inflicts moderate damage to the target and destroys all tiles along one random column of the board, earning no color points for them.
At higher levels: increased damage.
Blue (12): The Pony Of Plans. What this battle needs is organization to make it more efficient! Twilight switches the location of any two pairs of tiles.
At higher levels: costs one color point less for every two levels in the power, for a minimum cost of 10 blue at Level Five.
So let's look at what we've got here. First, the power costs are high: a match-3 game will generate three points on a standard match, so Twilight's going to take a while before she can get going. However, her abilities, once charged, can be devastating. Essentially, she's a board controller whose aim still needs some work. Her first ability can ruin whatever the computer already used against you, the second will directly hurt, and the third -- never underestimate the ability to grab that tile you needed from the other side of the board and put it there. But at the same time, because her power costs are high, she needs her friends to shield her until she's ready to go, especially since her hit points are probably going to render her into a bit of a Glass Cannon. She doesn't entirely understand what she's doing yet, represented by the possibility of having two powers backfire on you: destroying a random column might just get the one where your ally character put a special tile. But when she has time to put her mind to things, the most subtle effects can wreak havoc -- and thus that potentially game-ending third power, which just might let her pull out exactly what the group needs at the moment they truly need it.
I don't feel like that's the worst representation of Twilight at the beginning. She's definitely usable. It just takes some thought. And as for the others... here's a few basics.
Applejack *** (Harvest Time)
Red (7): Apple Bucking. So what are those stupid colors doin' way up there? Applejack kicks the board, and any tiles which were on the top row are 'destroyed' through plummeting to the bottom. The entire board shifts up one row, but all special effects on tiles in the new bottom row are gone.
Blue (10): Let Me Get Mah Lasso. Can't do nothin' iffin y'can't move! The designated target is wrapped up in rope, stunning them for two turns.
Yellow (7): Earth Pony Strength. So how do you like them apples? Applejack knows how to bring her power to bear, but doesn't always consider what somepony else might have been planning. Does moderate damage to the target, but also infuriates the opponent to the point where any enemy countdown tiles on the board instantly drop their numbers by one, putting them that much closer to going off.
Fluttershy *** (Animal Caretaker)
Yellow (8): But I Am Weak And Helpless. The pony whom opponents believe is the most vulnerable makes for an inviting target. Fluttershy creates a three-turn yellow countdown tile on the board, then curls up into a ball. As long as her countdown tile is active, all opponent attacks must be directed at her, and any damage she takes is cut by 30%.
Green (12): I Have Friends. Fluttershy musters herself enough to ask her animals to intervene. Creates a trio of three-turn countdown green tiles on the board. For every turn each tile remains active, it deals small damage to a random opponent, then creates a small shield tile (permanent until matched or destroyed) as her companions continue to get in the way. Any affected green tiles remaining at the end of the countdown vanish from the board, which may set off matches or cascades.
Black (15): Tied To The Cycle. Nopony understands death better than Fluttershy -- or life. Heals moderate damage to her two teammates, then inflicts weak damage onto herself from overexertion.
Rainbow Dash *** (So Totally Gonna Be A Wonderbolt Someday!)
Red (5): Prankster Supreme. Randomly switches the location of any two tiles, then drains one color point from a random color in her team's own pool.
Yellow (14): In Under Ten Seconds! When you're this fast, why do you need to follow the dumb rules? When this power is used, Rainbow gets to immediately take a second turn -- but she makes any match, regardless of whether it's her strong color or not, and does/takes damage accordingly. Her showboating also gets in everypony else's way, converting up to two friendly tiles back into normal ones, then drains three color points from a random color in her team's own pool.
Blue (20): Sonic Rainboom. There's only so long you can hold this pony back! Punches a 3*3 hole in the board at a spot Rainbow designates, doing heavy damage to the front-rank opponent and weak damage to the back two -- then stuns Rainbow for three turns while she recovers, and drains five points from every color in her team's own pool.
Spike *** (The New Rainbow Dash)
Green (9): Snap Out Of It! Choose one teammate. Spike then removes one negative effect (stun, increased color cost, etc.) from them. If there are multiple effects going, Spike picks which one to negate.
Black (10): Fire! Fire! Even a little dragon can do some damage when he puts his mind to it. Spike sends a stream of flame across the board, doing weak damage to all opponents on the enemy team. The next turn, however, sees the opposition still trying to put themselves out: that same amount of damage is done a second time, all enemy countdown tiles pause for that turn, and any opposition power used before the flames go out costs 30% more to set off.
Yellow (12): Take A Letter. Converts a white tile of Spike's choice into a three-turn countdown tile. If not matched or destroyed, when this tile goes off, it instantly fills the team-up meter for one guest character of Spike's choice, picked from the three you assigned to your roster before the game began -- even if this team-up was already used during the round.
Pinkie Pie *** (Apprentice Chaostician)
Red (12): Party Cannon! Pinkie's fighting style can get a little -- overenthusiastic. Does moderate damage to the front rank opponent, then destroys four random tiles, earning color points for each.
Purple (15): Pinkie Promise! Let's all fight fair, okay? Pinkie somehow gets an opponent to promise they won't use one of their abilities -- or else. Pick an opponent and one of their non-passive powers. Pinkie then creates a four-turn purple countdown tile. While this tile remains on the board, that opponent's power costs an extra 50% in color points to set off, to a limit of 30. If the enemy uses the power anyway, it triggers Pinkie Rage, doing heavy damage to one who dared to break the sacred honor of a Pinkie Promise! An exhausted Pinkie is then stunned for one turn, and cannot use this power again for the rest of the round. (Should the enemy's power hurt Pinkie to the point of knocking her out, she does her Pinkie Rage damage before falling unconscious. It's just that important.)
Yellow (7): Life Of The Party. Pinkie's job is to keep her teammates' spirits high and get things going! Creates a two-turn countdown yellow tile on the board in a random location. While this tile is active, all ally powers (but not Pinkie's) cost two color points less to use. However, if there are any ally special tiles on the board, Pinkie hijacks the festivities, turning one of those tiles into her countdown one.
Rarity *** (Dress Horse Is Best Horse)
Purple (7): Living Pincushions. Do not irritate a lady who has sewing needles with her and knows how to use them. Inflicts weak damage on the entire enemy team. However, if there are shield tiles of any strength on the board, each one will randomly protect one opponent from all damage created by this power, and three will block everything Rarity can throw.
Green (8): Generosity Itself. Rarity knows how to give, but sometimes she doesn't know what to give, or when to stop. Randomly increases the ally color pool in one random color by 20%, which can allow it to exceed the normal cap of 30 color points -- then increases the enemy color pool of the same shade by 20%.
Blue (13): So Last Season! Rarity knows exactly what's in -- and what's out. Pick two colors other than blue. Rarity then converts all tiles of that hue on the board from one to the other. (So if green and red are chosen, Rarity turns every green tile into a red one. This can set off matches and cascades without using up your turn.) Both allies and opponents then lose 50% of their color pool from the first color, as Rarity goes through their closets and gets rid of the old -- followed by gaining an extra 25% in the second color, which may allow it to exceed the normal cap.
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Suggestions? Ideas for other powers? Your own personal interpretation of the Mane Cast in this kind of game? Different characters at different levels of strength? What the 1-star basics (Crusaders?) and 5-star Legendaries (Princesses?) might look like? Background ponies? Opponents? Changeling minions, stampeding buffalo, angry griffons? Boss battles?
Let the non-game design begin!
Crystal Goose: Turns all tiles shit-green. This benefits nobody, not even the goose.
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I really shouldn't be giggling at this as much as I am.
Hmm. Well, it's a different medium than my usual creations, and I have a poor sense of the game balance...
Oh, what could possibly go wrong? Though I can't even pretend to guess at a star rating for the first one.
Iron Will (Leading by Example)
Red (12): Show Them That You Rock! Trying to block just means you'll get hit that much harder. This always deals a set amount of damage to the opposing front-row character based on what level the ability is, automatically scaling up to perfectly match any damage prevention or reduction effects. (Outright immunity still works, though.)
Purple (7): Attack the Day! If you're not seizing every opportunity, you're doing it wrong. This ability creates a special purple tile that persists until matched or otherwise destroyed. If any character settles for making a single three-tile match for their turn while that tile is still on the board, it damages that character. This doesn't include a match that destroys the tile.
Blue (9): Pay Up or Shut Up. Do not default on debts to a minotaur. This drains a random enemy color pool, filling your corresponding pool by the same amount, but not overfilling it. (The opponent still loses the full amount, though.) If you would drain more than what's in that pool, damage proportional to the remainder is dealt to a random enemy.
Discord *****(?) (Ew, Regular Polygons)
Black (7): Casual Reality Warp. You didn't expect him to follow the rules, did you? Choose a line of three tiles. They match now. Their colors don't change; they're just treated as matching. This consumes Discord's turn normally.
Yellow (9): Sow Disharmony. Don't go nauseating Discord with friendship. This creates a three-turn countdown yellow tile. As long as that tile is on the field, team-up meters don't fill and players can't use team-ups.
Purple (17): Bored Now. Randomly assign a new color to every tile on the field. This may include one-turn countdown plaid tiles that don't fill any color pool when matched. The plaid tiles settle down to normal tiles of a random color once the countdown expires, which can result in matches as normal. Discord's turn ends and he decides to go do something else for the next two turns, rendering him unaffected and untargetable by anything, positive or negative, for those turns. If your other characters are knocked out during that time, you lose the game.
Shining Armor **** (Two Years Later, We Remembered To Put Him In The Game)
Purple (10): Barrier Warrior (passive). As long as there are at least ten purple color points in the team's pool, Shining automatically converts one random blue tile into a Shield tile of moderate strength every three turns, up to a limit of five such tiles on the board. However, Shining's strength is directly tied to his magic, and destroying one of these tiles inflicts weak damage on him, in addition to any direct damage should he be the target of an attack.
Blue (0): Crystal Guard (passive, constant). If Shining is conscious and any teammate is about to take enough damage to knock them out, Shining automatically moves to the front rank and takes the hit. The shock of his sudden appearance (really, who knew?) gives the others an opportunity, randomly creating a red moderate strength Strike tile somewhere on the board, which appears even if the damage is enough to knock Shining out. This power does not function if Shining is stunned, confused, or mind-controlled.
Black (14): When All Else Fails, Throw Your Wife. Well, you've got to be alive to get a divorce anyway. Shining's field picks up an ally and slings them at the opponent, sending that ally airborne for two turns, leaving them unable to attack or make matches (and also rendering that ally immune to all damage except those which comes from group-affecting attacks). When the ally hits, they automatically set off one of their own powers, randomly, at no cost to the color pool. They also take weak damage and probably won't be talking to Shining for the next week at least.
Yes, that's based on Colossus and his Fastball Special from MPQ. But let's face it: you can't have Shining in this game without having him throw somepony.
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*soft whistle* That's a nasty one. I can think of several MPQ Do Not Play Well With Others characters who could use it: in particular, you could stick it into a very damaging version of Frank Castle, and any number of standoffish villains/anti-heroes could work with it. (I'm looking at you, Namor...) It temporarily keeps wild cards from coming into play and stops everypony from just slamming down the I Fought Princess Celestia And Got This Cool One-Time Guest Shot icon. Sure, you could argue that it's just buying time, but if you've got enough yellow, or just an ally who either generates it or extends countdowns...
Roseluck ** (Triptych Continuum)
(Yeah, I'm going there.)
Yellow (9): This Is A Perfect Time To Panic! Roseluck pulls out her soapbox, then places a yellow countdown tile while she starts on a three-turn speech in the name of inspiring everypony into the only reasonable response to this (or any) situation. During this countdown, she can neither attack nor defend herself and if the tile is destroyed or Roseluck gets knocked out, all her efforts are wasted. But if the countdown tile goes off, she successfully talks everypony into seeing things from her point of view, randomly stunning one member of the enemy team for two turns, confusing a second for the same duration, and probably just irritating the living Tartarus out of the third.
Green (0): Echo Chamber (passive). The Trio are stronger when they're together. If Roseluck is teamed with Daisy, Lily, or both and her friends make a match in their single strongest color when Roseluck is at 50% of her health or below, she automatically heals a weak amount of damage.
Black (12): Pony Of The Sheeple (passive). Roseluck rejects your reality and substitutes her own. If she has at least this many black points in her pool and gets attacked by logic, common sense, or any power which would stun or confuse her, she instantly strikes back with a stinging, completely nonsensical rebuttal that inflicts moderate damage just from how stupid it is -- but once that takes place, normal stunning and confusion effects still occur, along with any associated damage. (This power does not automatically respond to mind control attacks.)
If going by the MPQ model powers seem a tad overcosted? Take AJ's Blue Iceman does twice as long a stun for 6 though admittedly he is a 4*.
Trixie (The Great and Powerful)
Blue (8): Lightning Bolt, Well Technically it's a Lightning Bolt... Does minimal damage to the current target but certainly gets their attention. Places a four turn countdown that prevents her teammates from being targeted but Trixie takes 20% extra damage from all sources while it is active.
Black (0): So many Smoke Bombs At the start of your turn converts a tile into a minor protect tile up to a maximum of six. While there are at least six protect tiles on the board Trixie ignores all targeted damage.
Red (16): Watch in Awe! Trixie unleashes every firework she has in a spectacle to dazzle anypony's eyes! Does moderate damage to the opposing team and stuns them for one turn while doing minor damage to her own teammates and stunning herself for two turns.
I had to do this.
Celestia ***** (Wow, Did You Ever Screw Up.)
Yellow (0 or 5+): I've Seen That One Already (passive and active). It's a little bit hard to pull a completely new move on the Solar Princess. Celestia automatically destroys one random enemy special tile of any type at the start of her turn, earning color points for it. She may also spend five yellow for each additional random enemy special tile she wishes to destroy, up to her color limit, earning points for them as well.
Red (8): Fleet As Fire. Celestia takes an extra turn. All color points earned during that turn are increased by fifty percent, including any which result from ensuing cascades.
Green (10): Strength Of The Sun. Celestia chooses a color. Two tiles of that color are then charged: if matched, each counts for three color points instead of one. She may select one tile to be deliberately charged: the other is placed randomly. This power may be used before she makes her match.
Luna ***** (Choose Your Last Words Carefully)
Purple (0): Good Is Not Nice (passive). Starting on her first turn, as long as there are any purple tiles on the board, Luna randomly converts one of them into a friendly Strike tile that increases her own and ally match and power damage by ten percent. Further Strike tiles and increases to damage are cumulative.
Blue (12): Cold As Moon. The ability to create temperatures of near absolute-zero tends to slow ponies down. Luna converts one tile of her choice to a special reinforced blue, represented by a glow around the icon: it must be matched or destroyed twice in order to remove it from the board. As long as this tile is present, the enemy team can only move every other turn, starting with losing the second turn after the tile is placed. (In gameplay terms, Luna places the tile, the opposition gets to respond -- and then loses the turn after that, and every other turn thereafter until the tile is destroyed or the game ends.) Only one such tile can exist on the board at any time -- but if Luna has sufficient color points, she can create a replacement on the turn after the current one is destroyed.
Black (0): You Have My Attention (passive). Oh, great: now you've ticked her off... If Luna is brought down to 50% of her total health or less, her irritation begins to manifest as lightning bolts. One random member of the enemy team will be struck every turn for strong damage (magnified by the number of friendly Strike tiles Luna already has on the board), which will continue until the game ends or Luna is healed above the threshold amount.
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I'm still being influenced by 1-star Tony and his (Have You Finished Charging That) Ultra-Freon Beam (Yet?). Cheap stuns can be hard to come by. (The Bobby I have on my roster hasn't even found his stun power cover.) But I'm not a game designer, so suggestions on costs and game balance are more than welcome.
Not that this is ever going to be a game. But if we're going to fake it, let's fake it for real!
*looks over Trixie*
What were you figuring for star level on her? And that smoke bomb power is going to create a Kishu level of annoyance...
Scootaloo ** (Triptych Continuum)
Yellow (0): Generally Found In The Debris Field (passive). The Crusaders always seem to survive their own screwups. Any damage done to Scootaloo by ally powers (including her own) is automatically cut by 50%. If the remaining damage would knock her out, she doesn't take any damage at all.
Red (8): Trotting Disaster Area. Nerves can make it a little hard to focus when Scootaloo is around. When this power is used, it creates a two-turn red countdown tile in a random location on the board. While this tile is active, all powers other than Scootaloo's and those of the other Crusaders cost two more color points to use.
Black (10): "I Have --" Oh, Celestia... "-- A Plan!" To her credit, Scootaloo's intentions and designs generally hold up -- for the first ten seconds. Converts a random black tile into a barely-allied countdown tile which starts at three turns and probably won't reach zero. Every turn, the game flips a bit. If the coin comes up heads, Scootaloo's stunts start to pay off, doing moderate damage to the enemy of her choice (even if that opponent isn't in the front rank) and the tile counts down by one. But if it lands on tails, the plan goes the way of all Crusader plans, and moderate damage is inflicted on every member of Scootaloo's team. Should the tile somehow reach zero, it vanishes from the board, earning no color points -- but can potentially set off matches and cascades as normal.
How about a trio of characters based on the Crystal War timeline?
Pinkie Pie ** (A New Kind of Field)
Purple (8): Morale Officer. Pinkie increases the color points of one random non-purple color by either 50% or by 6, whichever is lower. Also adds up to 10% of White Team up points.
Yellow (10): Assaulting Them with (Old, Rock Hard) Cake. Does moderate damage and destroys three random yellow tiles for no damage or points.
Blue (12): Pinkie Punches. Destroys three squares of four tiles each. Costs less as she levels up.
Maud Pie *** (Crystal Smasher)
Black (Passive): Maud Sense. Those who have angered Maud cannot hide from her. If an ally has taken at least 50% damage, she creates a strike tile each turn.
Green (12): Maud Smash Destroys a diamond shaped area of 13 tiles. Costs less as she levels up.
Purple (14): "I Threw It". Does heavy damage to a random foe NOT at the front. Cannot be used if there is only one opponent left.
Rainbow Dash **** (One Winged Veteran)
Red (7): In the Fray. Destroys 7 black or purple tiles.
Black (9): Metal Wing. Deals damage and depletes two random color points from both teams.
Blue (11): Aerial Superiority. Creates a four turn blue countdown tile. When it reaches zero, it creates one protect tile, one strike tile, and doubles the affect of all your teams previous tiles.
4302305
I thought 3* for her. On the powers yeah if you look at the 1*s they're the oldest content when they used to overcost content by a ton, doubly so with Iron Man. As for her passive it's basically a reworded Invisibility Tile like Professor X (7 pink) or Sue Storm (9 yellow) but easier to remove as you can match any of her protect tiles instead of having to take down one specifically and she'd still be hit by team damage.
Chrysalis **** (So much Love)
Pink (8): The Perfect Day Transform into the target's true love stunning them for two turns and placing a 6 turn counter. While this counter is active target's powers cost 4 AP more.
Black (12): A Hive of Thousands Place a 4 turn counter. Each turn destroys two random tiles, if matched by the opponent does minimal damage, if matched by you gains 1 Green AP. Reduces the cost of this ability by 1 down to a minimum of six for each active counter.
Green (14): I Totally Expected to Be Able to Do That... Removes all active counters, for each removed does moderate damage, if you have 14 Pink when cast drains all Pink AP and does substantial damage for each counter removed.
I have had an idea. I don't know if this is a good idea, a sane idea, or a remotely possible idea, but I have had it.
White (0, 10): Seven Bubbles (passive and active.) Who is that mare, anyway? There are so many interpretations of her floating around that she starts each game with randomized color strengths, though white is always her strongest. She also has different abilities based on her other strong colors. This ability can be activated—yes, it drains the team-up meter; she's a team-up in and of herself—to reroll her color strengths and abilities for the current match. Higher levels of the ability also heal her as different, less injured versions replace the old ones.
Black (5): Obfuscating Stupidity (passive.) Dulcinea's defense mechanisms have become reflexive. Whenever she takes damage, if there are at least five points in your black pool, remove five of them and create a Guard tile.
Blue (6): Advanced Geometry. Ditzy Doo can think in more dimensions than most ponies ever have to deal with. By activating this ability before swapping tiles, she can swap the top and bottom tiles of a single column or the leftmost and rightmost tiles of a single row. Furthermore, if there are any "wraparound" matches, activating this ability matches all of them, triggering cascades normally.
Green (9): Human in Equestria. Sudsy Bubbles isn't sure why she's in Magic Horse Land, and the feeling is mutual. This stuns one to two opposing characters for one turn; you choose one, and there's a percentage chance that another gets gobsmacked by the naked ape as well.
Red (5): Mother Bear. (passive) Say what you will about Derpy Hooves, but she truly loves those she looks after. Celestia help you if you hurt them. Whenever one of your other characters takes damage, if there are at least five points in your red pool, remove five of them and create a Strike tile.
Purple (7): Hope for the Best. Nopony notices or cares that Pupa is a changeling, but the queen still expects some subterfuge. If only Pupa could be sure what qualified as such. When you activate this ability, you choose to either add one to or remove one from all countdown tiles.
Yellow (6): Special Delivery. Muffins is just a friendly Ponyville mailmare... if a tad overenthusiastic. This adds to one ally color pool of your choice other than yellow, but deals slight damage to Muffins.
Upgrading
: The Grey One has three upgradable abilities as per usual: Seven Bubbles, Ability #2, and Ability #3. Upgrades apply to whichever ability is in a given slot at a given time.
4302562 Maybe if you had slot #1 focus on increasing power while slot #2 combines a little power increase with cost reduction.
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You don't mean that you can just recast the skill and queue up a replacement, do you? Then again, she's a 5-star, so maybe that's not OP...
... Hmm... Flim and Flam could be interesting, having two separate characters, with perhaps the same powerset, or not...
... Mind-control implies Chrysalis, who has already been made... Sort of want some Pinkie + Twilight power or something where it's the Twilight Laser Machine Gun... ... Hmm... Grand Galloping Gala Editions for the Mane6...
And then there's Starswirl and Meadowbrook...
4302340 Under TDA, do passive abilities that usually cost 0 get their cost increased too?
Questions/suggestions for everyone:
I have epsilon idea of what each color represents themewise, or what the colors are. Are there ten? ROYGBP, BGW, Pink? I noticed FoME's Discord creates plaid tiles, but they're easy not to count. (ETA: Okay, I see no gray or orange abilities listed.)
Do tiles get destroyed without earning points often enough, that a power that collects the points anyway would be useful?
The scene in "Trade Ya!" where Rarity claims to be able to tell two identical brooches apart, plus the one in "The Crystalling" where she presents five candidate shards to Shining Armor, suggest a power preventing enemies from matching certain tiles on their turn.
What difference does it make who's in front? Especially relevant to the previous idea, since Rarity's disguised tiles might create matches before her side's turn. Should her allies be allowed to match those tiles?
After looking at videos of MPQ, it appears that at least in that game, characters jump to the front all the time, mostly on the basis of who does the most damage with each color. Still doesn't quite tell me whether a player with Rarity can match her decorated gems when she's not the one in front, although by flavor alone, they should be able. (Unless both teams have this Rarity, in which case Rarity can match either Rarity's gems, and allies can match their own Rarity's gems, but not those of their opponent.)
Also, if you want to keep the two-tiered leveling system but reduce monetization, make it so that the price for leveling every skill at every level goes down when your character's level goes up.
Also, pink and purple are, as far as I can tell, two people's names for the same color. (Again, is there theming for the colors?)
Okay, I both have to get the game... and admit that a ponified version would be FUN AS HELL!
Ok, just for fun I decided to do some Lunaverse characters.
Trixie Lulamoon: (Official Representative Of The Night Court Of Luna To Ponyville) *** (Low base health)
Blue (6): Casting By Ear
Trixie may not be any good with spellbooks, but if she sees a spell cast she can do it herself. Choose any Blue, Black, or Pink special tile (ally or enemy). Trixie turns a random basic tile into an allied copy of that tile.
At higher levels: Can copy Red, Green, and Yellow tiles at levels 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Copies an additional special tile at level 5.
Pink (6): Distracting Illusions
Trixie distracts and blinds her opponent with her awe-inspiring illusions. Stuns target for 2 rounds.
At higher level: Increase duration by 1 at levels 2, 3, and 4, stuns the target's companions for 1 round at level 5.
Black (6): Invisibility
Now you see her, now you don't, now she's bucking you in the ribs. Creates a Black invisibility tile targeting Trixie. While it’s in play, she is invisible and can’t be targeted.
At higher levels: At level 2, Trixie’s matches deal 10% more damage as long as the tile is in play. At level 3, damage Trixie deals cannot be reduced by Protect tiles as long as the tile is in play. At level 4, Trixie’s matches deal 20% more damage as long as the tile is in play. At level 5, create two Black Invisibility tiles targeting Trixie.
Ditzy Doo: (The Best Mom In Equestria) *** (Moderate base health)
Yellow (0): Cheer Up, Everypony! (Passive). Ditzy's positive attitude helps bolster her team's spirits. Whenever someone on Ditzy's team fires off a power, she heals everyone on the team for a small amount of health.
At higher levels: Increased healing amount.
Green (0): Everypony's Friend (Passive) Ditzy doesn't really want anypony to have to get hurt. Whenever either team makes a green match, she generates a weak allied green Protect tile, and an even weaker enemy green Protect tile.
At higher levels: Increase the strength of both tiles.
Red (15): The Fury Of A Gentle Mare Kindness has limits, and Ditzy has just been pushed past them. Picks up target and takes off with them, sending them both airborne for two turns. At the end of that period, Ditzy drops the target, dealing massive damage that cannot be reduced or prevented.
At higher levels: Deals even more massive damage.
Raindrops: (The Mainstay Of The Weather Patrol) *** (High base health)
Yellow (7): Iron Hoof Strike Raindrops makes a controlled strike, dealing moderate damage.
At higher levels: Increased damage dealt.
Blue (0): I Love The Rain! (Passive) Rain is the only thing that can quench Raindrops' perpetual fury. At the beginning of your turn, if there are 11 or more Blue tiles on the board, the rain lifts Raindrop's spirits and heals her for 5% of her health. (This is in-combat healing, not true healing.) But if there are less than 11 Blue tiles, Raindrop's anger begins to build, placing a weak Red strike tile and causing her to lose 3% of her health.
At higher levels: Increase healing amount by 1% at each level, and increase the strength of the Strike tiles.
Red (0) Unleashed Fury Raindrops loses control of her temper and lashes out. Deals massive damage, then converts every friendly Strike tile back into a basic tile, dealing moderate damage for each tile converted. However, Raindrops is stunned by horror at her own actions for three rounds and swears off using this move for the rest of the fight.
At higher levels: Damage increase, both to the initial damage and the Strike tile conversion.
(Don't have the other 3 figured out, I'll edit them in when I do.)