Each hero and some enemies have abilities with different effects. These abilities can perform damage, heal, increase or decrease stats, create shields, or affect one or multiple units.

Special abilities typically have an energy bar that is filled by blasting blocks of the same color as the hero and that emptys when used. This introduces a layer of strategy in determining when to use these powerful abilities.

To set up these abilities, we will use a configuration system based on parameters to define how each ability behaves.

The necessary parameters to configure any ability are:

SIDE

On which side the effect of the ability will affect

• Heroes: Will affect the player’s hero side
• Enemies: Will affect the enemy side

TARGETS

These are the units or groups that can be selected to receive the effect. This is an array, and more than one target can be selected.

• Unit: Individual unit that can be selected using different parameters

  • Manual: The player chooses the unit from the correct side that will receive the effect
  • Random: The unit of the correct side is randomly picked
  • Itself: The effect is applied to the same unit that performs the ability
  • Conditional: The unit that meets the requirements will be automatically picked (if more than one unit can be selected, a random one will be selected)
    • Lower/higher attack
    • Lower/higher defense
    • Lower/higher health
    • Shield applied/unapplied

• Row: A horizontal row of enemies

  • Manual: the player selects the row to apply
  • Front: the nearest row to the playing zone
  • Back: the farthest row to the playing zone
  • Random: a randomly picked row

  <aside> <img src="/icons/exclamation-mark-double_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/exclamation-mark-double_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> When there is only one row, it is considered both front and back and is affected by any row configuration.

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• All units

EFFECTS

The effect applied to the selected unit/s. This is an array, and more than one effect target can be applied. Each effect could need a series of parameters configured as the amount of effect, duration, or which stat affects.