A frequently expressed concern with the playtest rules (I have this concern and I've heard it from others) is that keeping track of timers is more difficult in the 2.0 rules, primarily because there are potentially multiple 10 minute timers (some rituals, critical attack/defensive burst, etc.) that can be running on someone while that someone is still fully capable of participating in combat. One proposed solution is to move to a "per encounter" system whereby a Marshal will announce when an "encounter ends" and 10-minute timers will instead end at "end of encounter," where a wave battle could e.g. be considered multiple "encounters" with a Marshal saying when each encounter ends. While this system could have many benefits, I can think of some complications:
1. What happens if someone activates one of these timers during an encounter, then runs away (for any reason), so she's not there when the "end of encounter" is announced?
2. What happens if I activate an "until end of encounter" effect outside of an encounter when there's no combat going on? Does it just stay on until the end of the next encounter even if that next encounter is several hours in the future? (Examples of when I would want to do this are: I'm walking to my cabin in the dark and I want a Defensive Burst up in case I get jumped before I have a chance to activate it, or it's just before logistics and I want to use the last of my CAs, then get my CAs back but still have the batch active.)
3. What happens if combat is initiated outside of a planned "encounter", such as in PvP?
4. Suppose that there's a wave battle with five waves where each wave lasts 10 minutes. Alice gets there when the battle starts and activates her CA right away, while Bob gets there 8 minutes into the first wave. and activates his CA right away. Under the "10 minute timer" system, each player will get 10 minutes of use out of their CAs. Under the "to end of encounter/wave" system, Alice will get 10 minutes of use but Bob will get 2 minutes. Thus, players will essentially be forced to make activation decisions based on their predictions of when the "encounter breaks" will be announced. Will there be an in-game explanation for what "encounter breaks" are or why they happen when they happen? Are "encounter breaks" something that characters can observe (e.g. "my ritual seemed to shut off really fast there, it looks like my ritual shuts off whenever new monsters come out, I got to take that into account"). Or will players be forced to effectively make IG decisions based on OOG information?
These all have potential solutions: for instance, (1) and (2) could be solved by saying that these are "until beginning or end of the next encounter", so that activating something outside of an encounter, or having something still active because you weren't there for the "end of encounter" announcement, provides no benefit (it would go away the next time you got in a fight). But that still leaves (3) and (4).
What do you think about possible solutions to these issues?
1. What happens if someone activates one of these timers during an encounter, then runs away (for any reason), so she's not there when the "end of encounter" is announced?
2. What happens if I activate an "until end of encounter" effect outside of an encounter when there's no combat going on? Does it just stay on until the end of the next encounter even if that next encounter is several hours in the future? (Examples of when I would want to do this are: I'm walking to my cabin in the dark and I want a Defensive Burst up in case I get jumped before I have a chance to activate it, or it's just before logistics and I want to use the last of my CAs, then get my CAs back but still have the batch active.)
3. What happens if combat is initiated outside of a planned "encounter", such as in PvP?
4. Suppose that there's a wave battle with five waves where each wave lasts 10 minutes. Alice gets there when the battle starts and activates her CA right away, while Bob gets there 8 minutes into the first wave. and activates his CA right away. Under the "10 minute timer" system, each player will get 10 minutes of use out of their CAs. Under the "to end of encounter/wave" system, Alice will get 10 minutes of use but Bob will get 2 minutes. Thus, players will essentially be forced to make activation decisions based on their predictions of when the "encounter breaks" will be announced. Will there be an in-game explanation for what "encounter breaks" are or why they happen when they happen? Are "encounter breaks" something that characters can observe (e.g. "my ritual seemed to shut off really fast there, it looks like my ritual shuts off whenever new monsters come out, I got to take that into account"). Or will players be forced to effectively make IG decisions based on OOG information?
These all have potential solutions: for instance, (1) and (2) could be solved by saying that these are "until beginning or end of the next encounter", so that activating something outside of an encounter, or having something still active because you weren't there for the "end of encounter" announcement, provides no benefit (it would go away the next time you got in a fight). But that still leaves (3) and (4).
What do you think about possible solutions to these issues?
