Ward VFX is the effect group for Ward and Stand Fast in turn-based rooms. Its main job is honesty: a ward shares the load of a hit. It never blocks the hit completely, so it must never look like a shield bubble.
How it works#
| Cue | Phase | What the player sees |
|---|---|---|
| Aim | Preview | Small teal crosses on legal tiles; on a hovered tile, ghost plates over the exact tiles of the engine's dry run |
| Plant | Resolve | A down-chevron stamps on the centre tile; plates fill outward; round stakes stand up, one per round left |
| Share | Resolve, on each strike | A row of five slots lifts above the connection. Three plates catch three load pieces; two pieces drop through the gaps |
| Root (Stand Fast) | Resolve | Root ticks grow under the feet and two brackets close beside the body |
| Held hit | Resolve | Three pieces fall onto a cap over the head, which thins to a dotted line and is spent. There is no squeeze on the body |
| Stake sinks, Expiry | Room tick | One stake sinks each round; at zero the plates lift away and nothing is left |
Each warded tile always shows its five plates and corner ticks, drawn from the game state every frame. Undo and rewind have no cue: a rewound ward is simply not drawn.
Attune has no cue of its own. It makes Link a bonus action and grows supported ground; the astro group's Link preview shows both.
Hover titles carry the numbers, for example "Ward: a front does 40%" or "Ward holds 60%: last round".
Development#
- Rules question: Claude B's doc 31 first said a ward did "no harm", while the user had set 60%. The question went to Claude B, and the 60% ruling stands. The hover also says Ward never protects Composure.
- Hidden-tab fix: a hidden tab once left the game's input locked after End turn. A wall-clock backstop now ends each step on time (
2fca50ea). - User review, 2 November: all seven clips approved (aim, plant, share, expiry, held hit, order, stake).
- In the alpha: pinned at
5d708bc10, which stands on Claude B's foot point.
Gallery#
See also#
Sources#
5d708bc10:docs/vfx/groups/ward.mdb89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/public/encounter/src/skills/turns/.pinned/vfx/ward-turns.PIN.json- docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-01-claude-workstreams-todo.md (working copy, not in Git)
What links here (30)
- Art direction
- Astro VFX
- Build VFX
- Care VFX
- Character sprites
- Encounter backgrounds
- Environment art
- Flow
- Hearth podium
- Home art
- Home VFX
- Icon labels
- Inventory HUD
- Movement VFX
- Orders VFX
- Palettes
- Panels VFX
- Places dialog
- Pressure front VFX
- Pull and Glide VFX
- Quest scroll
- Quests VFX
- Run HUD
- Studios interior
- Survey VFX
- Tendrils
- Threadway 3D scene
- Typography
- Vessel VFX
- VFX