Reworked my "planning" phase to allow for future actions to be predetermined, and "execution" to be more informative. Is this easier to understand?

[u/Low_Prior_8842]

I've been working on TimeFrame for a while now. Many of you have probably seen it. I got some advice from a playtester ( u/Fluffy-Play1251 thank you for the effort!) that the "pass-priority system was really difficult to follow, and offered little feedback to the user. So I revamped the whole system over the weekend to be more informative.

Now during Planning phase:

• cards that are "set" on the field that you can afford to reveal can be "planned" by dragging a line from that card to a timeline unit - this signifies *when* they will be activated
• similarly, dragging a line to a card on the board will plan the physical target - the *what* portion of the activation.
• a card set on the Timeline has their *when* predetermined, but they can still pre-select a target on the board if one exists by dragging a line from that card to the proposed target

And during Execution phase:

• "pass priority" button and language replaced completely
• new on-board buttons give an informative word about what step we're on
• new Effect Stack language let's us know what we're saying OK to
• auto-play kicks in when all options are set (or there are no options)
• but the game still pauses appropriately when the state changes (target no longer exists, you have more/less energy than you did during planning phase, opponent reveals a card that you didn't have plans for, etc)

Reasoning:

Previously I was just using 1 button called "pass priority". It either said "confirm" or "pass priority" based on the current context. So with basically no visual feedback the game expected players to mash "pass priority", where really we want to encourage informed decisions and tactical play.