[Danny]

The rationale behind downloading -- not yours, just in general -- seems weak in a game where you can draw 7 new cards every turn and have 3x any card in your deck.

But the trade off there is if you were to draw 7 cards on your turn, you couldn't play any of them. Downloading (typically adding +1 to a card's cost) is just "targeted drawing".

Meanwhile, downloading 1 card takes about 1 minute of game time, as opposed to the 7 seconds it would take to draw 7 cards. I would say 90% of the cards that download would be thematically identical if they just drew cards instead.

I think if you find your opponent is taking a minute to download a card, that asks more questions about your opponent, than the nature of downloading. I'd view taking a minute to download a card in the same light as trawling the dictionary in Scrabble - unsportsmanlike. If you're downloading, especially something niche or outright named, you should know what you're going for. Little room for umming and ahhing.

And I'm no mathematician, but I'd wager "pulling one copy of 3 cards out of a 50-60 card deck with a download" wouldn't thematically (or probabilistically) be similar to just drawing said card from the top.

For example, instead of downloading a temporal card, you would draw a card if you command a temporal card, have one in hand, etc.

Functionally these are almost identical but one makes the game much more fluid.

I wouldn't look upon these as almost identical - the examples given rely upon you having the cards you want (which is nice), while the downloading gets you the cards (which is necessary).

[monty42]

I think if you find your opponent is taking a minute to download a card, that asks more questions about your opponent, than the nature of downloading. I'd view taking a minute to download a card in the same light as trawling the dictionary in Scrabble - unsportsmanlike. If you're downloading, especially something niche or outright named, you should know what you're going for. Little room for umming and ahhing.

I'd like to weigh in here because I disagree with your assessment. You're talking about something that's highly situational.
If you're a pro who plays every other weekend, build your own deck, know what it's supposed to do and what cards are in there, you absolutely should be able to find what you're looking for within let's say 15 seconds or so.
When it comes to casual players or even players who borrowed a deck though, we're talking about an entirely different story.
I could name at least three people that I semi-regularly play against who play insanely slow and even if you play super fast it's almost impossible to get a full win against them. The thing is they're all super nice people, not unsportsmanlike at all. They just don't get to play a lot and are usually figuring out their decks while playing. There's nothing wrong with that.

[edgeofhearing]

On behalf of a Mysterious Benefactor, I am making a "no ability" nomination.

[Armus]

On behalf of a Mysterious Benefactor, I am making a "no ability" nomination.

Would that Mysterious Benefactor have the Temporal keyword by chance?

I thought Temporal Benefactor was a 1e thing...

[monty42]

...Mysterious Benefactor...

[MidnightLich]

When you play this personnel, for each player that commands a personnel who costs 4 or more, he is cost -2.

[edgeofhearing]

Nominations so far, minus retracted nominations and ones that I've sent a PM about:

When you play this personnel, if you command three personnel who cost 4 or more, this personnel is cost -2.

When you play this personnel, if you command three personnel, s/he is cost -3.

When you play this personnel, the next or personnel you play this turn is cost -2.

At the start of your turn, you may place this personnel on top of his/her owner's deck. If you do, the first card you play this turn is cost -2.

When you play this personnel, for each player that commands a personnel who costs 4 or more, he is cost -2.

If this personnel is present with your personnel who has a cost of 4 or more he/she gains [SKILL]

Order - Kill this personnel to begin an engagement involving your ship at this location.

When your or personnel present is randomly selected to be killed, you may kill this personnel to prevent that.

When this personnel is involved in an engagement, if he/she is present with a personnel that costs 4 or more, remove him/her from the game to take the top card of your opponent's dilemma pile and place it under your incomplete non-HQ mission.

When two or more of your personnel present (with a cost of 4 or more) are about to be stopped by a dilemma, you may kill this personnel to prevent that.

When you play this personnel, if you command a personnel who has a cost of 4 or more, you may download a Maneuver or Temporal card.

Order - If this personnel is present with two personnel with a cost of 4 or more, you may remove this personnel from the game to place up to two of your ships at a mission.

No ability.


I've clumped all the cost modification nominations at the top - if people who have nominated cost modifying abilities wanted to negotiate amongst themselves, to see if they can band behind a few of them (rather than waiting to do so during the voting stage, and risk none of them making it through), now would be a good time to start. That's not to say that they're all the same - we've got some interesting and unique takes on cost reduction there - but it is likely that they'll be competing for a lot of the same votes.

Nominations officially close at 8am eastern on Saturday, though the first round of ability voting likely won't go up right away. I'm working behind the scenes to get some preliminary ability costs, in order to help inform your votes - they'll be estimates, based on experience, but subject to playtesting.

[Faithful Reader]

On behalf of a Mysterious Benefactor, I am making a "no ability" nomination.

You have one, too? Mine nominated "When you play this personnel, if you command a [ AU] [ TNG] that cost 4 or more, this personnel is cost -2."

[Naetor]

Meanwhile, downloading 1 card takes about 1 minute of game time, as opposed to the 7 seconds it would take to draw 7 cards. I would say 90% of the cards that download would be thematically identical if they just drew cards instead.

I think if you find your opponent is taking a minute to download a card, that asks more questions about your opponent, than the nature of downloading. I'd view taking a minute to download a card in the same light as trawling the dictionary in Scrabble - unsportsmanlike. If you're downloading, especially something niche or outright named, you should know what you're going for. Little room for umming and ahhing.

I suppose you could time it, but I would estimate the minimum time to appropriately download a card is ~30 seconds. Let's say it's even the top card of your deck:

Find card = 1 second
Riffle shuffle deck 7x = 3s x 7 = 21 s
Offer deck to opponent to cut = 3 s

That's 25 seconds there, with about as low of estimates as I could guess. You might say you wouldn't riffle shuffle 7x, but I think that's the appropriate number of times to randomize a 52-card deck.

If you factor in other reasonable mishaps: not finding the card immediately, clumsiness, or considering what card to download during or prior to the action -- I think the average is probably close to a minute. Downloading: safe, legal, and rare.