The title says it all. Why? There is only Auto-Play (which is a terrible thing, but it's your choice). Why force us to watch some CPU-hungry movie? This ends up being a time-consuming game with almost nothing to do (besides switching an equip from time to time - really annoying for arena, btw, bc there is no direct Army button). So why isn't there a SKIP button? Once you understand what does what, no one cares about what happens during the fight, bc we can't do anything about it. So please implement a SKIP button.

Hello, well to be clear this is a casual-style card game designed to work well on mobile. Watching battles is the basic way in which one learns how to deckbuild. Having a skip button would essentially turn off the game. We get that it's not for everyone; but then again the developer team here are lifelong card players who regularly play and compete in tabletop games, which are not at all automated. If you play Storm Wars with the wrong expectation, you will wonder why it's automated -- but if you take it for what it is, which is a different style of card game where the focus is on deckbuilding and in choosing the proper matchups, then fighting many many battles in a row pivoting quickly rather than one single fight that lasts 20 minutes with in-game strategy ... well, then you will start to enjoy it. The card pool here is deep and complex, and the 30 heroes all have their own usage cases and corresponding decks. Feel free to ask some of our players for more insight. Cheers, -- Sir V

Thank you for your reply. But as I said in my first message, once you understand what does what, and given you have no influence whatsoever once the fight has started and can't do anything during it (during the fight I would love to be able to sort my inventory or army, buy cards or equip, transform treasures in gems, etc.), I and many others I suppose, would rather not to spend their precious time (and cellphone battery!, cos the game drains it fast) doing nothing. I was playing on phone those past few days, and I could barely do the 20 Coli, 5 Arena, 12 Crew, and my phone would drop dead. And what did I do during that 'play'? I pressed the screen about 80 times, in the course of way over an hour (some fights are really long), that's all. It's raging. And while there may be other games where fights are longer (you don't say, but I'm sure they're not automated..) it's a lot fewer fights than some other card games (the last I was really into was Global Assault, and WMTyrant before that) where you could play, auto or skip, bc well, people don't always have about 90 min to do their daily chores on Storm Wars before they can start 'playing' = buying new cards and equip, think about decks, choosing opponents, period. Yes the game offers a wide variety of cards, is well-balanced (well, as balanced as a P2W game can be) and adjusted to limit the powercreep as much as possible. Your own words: in the game, 'focus is on deckbuilding and in choosing the proper matchups' and I get it very well, hence my surprise at finding that there was no Skip button. Thus the devs are contradicting themselves blatantly by refusing ppl to be able to skip: when you force ppl to watch fights (and for a VERY long time everyday), you are refusing them the right to 'play' (=deckbuild etc.). I'd rather spend time deckbuilding, really. This is a punishment, nothing else. As you are pointing out, if the only purpose of watching fights is to learn the game mechanics, it is only logical to allow people to Skip fights once they have all 75 Stars, for example (which takes about one week). Or is this not making any sense? But if the dev team just decided that they would force people to watch the fights no matter what, then that's that.

Well, the interactions between cards are complex, even if you're not controlling them. Not seeing what's actually happening in a given fight would imply you don't actually know what's going on and why you may have won or lost. This is a collectible card game. You advance over time by gaining more cards and building more decks, and competing in the many game modes (PvE campaign, PvE minigames, ranked PvP against other players, drafting tournaments and team fights). It's like any other game -- just like Tyrant really -- except that the fights are automated. The points at which you control the action are more limited. The tradeoff is you have more different decks you can switch between instantly and you have more fights that you fight overall. This setup works better for mobile, and that's why we went with it. In MtG you choose which units attack each turn and which ones block. In Tyrant you don't -- you just play the cards and then they do things on their own. Clearly an MtG player could argue Tyrant is automated and therefore "pointless." That's not actually the case; the game is just abstracted in a different way. Again, Storm Wars is a game where you're supposed to play many matches in one sitting, using many different deck builds. If fights are taking a long time for you I suggest you turn up the game speed to 10 (where it should be once you know how to play) and try improving your decks. Games stalling out is usually an indication of a bad matchup or bad deckbuild (quite normal if you're fairly new). There are plenty of players here who would be happy to lend advice if helpful. -- Sir V

Thanks for your reply. I just wish you had actually replied to my questions and observations, which hints at the fact that you knew all that already, and that it's just a 'Don't question dev team's policy' case. 'Storm Wars is a game where you're supposed to play many matches in one sitting, using many different deck builds.' I have the answer to all my questions and suggestions here. Devs just decided that they would force people to watch the fights no matter what, that the people who are willing to play the game should spend several hours per day on it, most of that time doing nothing, or something else (watching TV, washing the dishes, working, taking a nap, etc, while bots and mouse recorders do the job). There is probably some financial reason behind (to increase play time and thus the value of the game). Oh well. A few more remarks and I'll stop bothering you. Interactions between cards are not that complex. (And the game is easy enough to understand, even if there are major UI inefficiencies). And since it's autoplay at all times, it's really about probability (of deck A to win against deck B) (which makes this game, since you can see your opponent's deck beforehand, a perfect candidate for automated deckbuilders, and the results, as you well know bc you're a lifelong CCC player, are often very interestingly counter-intuitive) (ie for 40 cards usually about what? 3 to 6 different cards in multiples? typically). And give the game mechanics, it's BECAUSE it's automated battles that it takes more time than if they were manual (unless ofc you glimpse at your opponent's deck and run the ready-made adequate counter). Please don't shift the blame on bad match-up or bad deckbuilding. Or you must be suggesting that everyone is using speed decks? Really, x10 is much, much too slow. The top comment on Kong is: 'need a speed x100'... That says it all. MtG/WMT remark: irrelevant. Both have deckbuilding + manual play (and different game mechanics, is what you wanted to say, I suppose). SW: deckbuilding only. As you said yourself in your first reply, watching fights is to learn the game; thus when you know the game, watching fights has served its purpose and you're mocking all Storm Wars veteran players (which I'm sure you don't). No one is asking to skip every fight. But most people are asking for a Skip option (or at least a x100, haha). 'This setup works better for mobile' Well, told you one sitting (and that's just doing the daily chores of coli, arena, crew battles) just drains the battery dry. Something is wrong there too. And that's not my phone, haha. 'using many different deck builds' I would love to, but it appears I drew the short straw: I had only 2 deck saveslots when I created my account. Dang. Cheers! Edit - Oh, and it would be great, since this game focused on deckbuilding, to be able to sort cards by abilities with a drop down menu for example. When I type 'Heal 2', my 2nd deck saveslot is selected (cos 2 is a shortcut).... it's a bit annoying.

Deck speed is one of the most important factors for top tier decks. Since you can counter top decks with stalls or mills it is possible for newer players to get a good WR against top tier players, even without the use of (many) E/L cards. Such decks have one big downside: Their deck speed. If you remove this handicap by a skip button, then a big part of the games competitiveness will be lost.

> *Originally posted by **[schizocat](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12803720)**:* > Deck speed is one of the most important factors for top tier decks. Since you can counter top decks with stalls or mills it is possible for newer players to get a good WR against top tier players, even without the use of (many) E/L cards. Such decks have one big downside: Their deck speed. If you remove this handicap by a skip button, then a big part of the games competitiveness will be lost. You misunderstand the meaning of a SKIP button. It just means that you don't watch the fight. It doesn't do anything, it doesn't influence the battle, it certainly doesn't remove a subjective handicap, nor does it ruin any competition. Edit - Or maybe you meant that top players run fast decks precisely because they're fast, and that slow decks may win against those but their main drawback is that they're slow, precisely. Meaning that WATCHING THE BATTLE itself IS A PUNISHMENT (my opinion exactly) and a punishment for non-whales players in particular (that's a twisted turn of mind). And you don't wish for the battle animations to be skipped, bc you feel that whales are paying to watch less of the battle and that non-whales should continue suffering? Well, that's not nice of you, haha. Ingenuitively, I always thought that whales would pay to win, not pay to suffer less! : D

> *Originally posted by **[N7791](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12803813)**:* > Edit - Or maybe you meant that top players run fast decks precisely because they're fast, and that slow decks may win against those but their main drawback is that they're slow, precisely. Meaning that WATCHING THE BATTLE itself IS A PUNISHMENT (my opinion exactly) and a punishment for non-whales players in particular (that's a twisted turn of mind). And you don't wish for the battle animations to be skipped, bc you feel that whales are paying to watch less of the battle and that non-whales should continue suffering? Well, that's not nice of you, haha. Ingenuitively, I always thought that whales would pay to win, not pay to suffer less! : D Yes, top players are required to use fast decks if they aim to go for first rank. Stall decks usually have a higher winrate than faster decks. If you could skip battles you just would need to find a deck with a high WR, no matter it's speed and spam rare coins right before season end. If that deck actually has to be fast it includes much more tactical aspects. That stuff has nothing to do with being a whale or not. A good amount of top players in this game actually are f2ps or small spenders.

> *Originally posted by **[schizocat](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12804203)**:* > > *Originally posted by **[N7791](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12803813)**:* > > Edit - Or maybe you meant that top players run fast decks precisely because they're fast, and that slow decks may win against those but their main drawback is that they're slow, precisely. Meaning that WATCHING THE BATTLE itself IS A PUNISHMENT (my opinion exactly) and a punishment for non-whales players in particular (that's a twisted turn of mind). And you don't wish for the battle animations to be skipped, bc you feel that whales are paying to watch less of the battle and that non-whales should continue suffering? Well, that's not nice of you, haha. Ingenuitively, I always thought that whales would pay to win, not pay to suffer less! : D > > Yes, top players are required to use fast decks if they aim to go for first rank. Stall decks usually have a higher winrate than faster decks. If you could skip battles you just would need to find a deck with a high WR, no matter it's speed and spam rare coins right before season end. If that deck actually has to be fast it includes much more tactical aspects. > That stuff has nothing to do with being a whale or not. A good amount of top players in this game actually are f2ps or small spenders. So top players basically just have to battle as much as possible, and in order to do so they should have speed decks because the fights everyone is forced to watch are far too time-consuming. Excuse my lack of top players strategy knowledge, but it shouldn't have a significant influence unless we are talking 24/7 play involving bots (mouse recorders included). See the bright side: if there was a SKIP button: top players would ALWAYS have card / equip pool advantage no matter what, and they could also run a stall deck with a better win rate than lower players, and non-bot top players could do their daily chores and everything else in much less time - and the time gained could be used in having fun experimenting decks and all. Unless of course most people at the top also use automated deck designers.

> *Originally posted by **[N7791](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12804934)**:* > So top players basically just have to battle as much as possible, and in order to do so they should have speed decks because the fights everyone is forced to watch are far too time-consuming. Excuse my lack of top players strategy knowledge, but it shouldn't have a significant influence unless we are talking 24/7 play involving bots (mouse recorders included). > > See the bright side: if there was a SKIP button: top players would ALWAYS have card / equip pool advantage no matter what, and they could also run a stall deck with a better win rate than lower players, and non-bot top players could do their daily chores and everything else in much less time - and the time gained could be used in having fun experimenting decks and all. Unless of course most people at the top also use automated deck designers. Arena ranking is irrelevant until the weekend. With the right decks you can climb quite easilyin a short time. Heavy coining only is a thing in the last 30-60 minutes and mostly in top ranks or at the edge of some reward stages. There are a couple of very active players, which are farming heavily (like 1k Arena wins/season). Granting a skip function would just increase this value and makes it harder for newer players to catch up. So for newer players, the lack of such a feature rather helps newer players to catch up since it enables a ceiling. Also, stall decks are easier to build, the hardest part is getting specific equips. So that would just result in more players trying for top ranks and spend as many rare coins as possible. And since deck speed doesn't matter anymore, the is no reason to experiment with new decks, since the most important cards for stall decks are in old packs. The last reliq expension contained not a single card suitable for stall decks and neither are the yet available new crew cards.

I see, thank you for your insight! Still, being punished to watch a fight I cannot do anything about (=time vainly spent) will most likely be the reason why I'll quit in the end, instead of spending to shorten the punishment.

> *Originally posted by **[N7791](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12805622)**:* > I see, thank you for your insight! > Still, being punished to watch a fight I cannot do anything about (=time vainly spent) will most likely be the reason why I'll quit in the end, instead of spending to shorten the punishment. Just do something next to the game and that won't be such an annoying factor anymore.

Dear devs K, I've been playing for some months now. And I still don't see why there is no skip button. If some people want to watch to learn or bc they want to satisfy their ego, or bc they are bored, it's perfectly their right to do so. But if people are annoyed to be obligated to see the same boring, random fights over and over again, they should be able to skip the damn thing. I'm sure this is one of the reasons why the player base is so limited (and devs' updates so rare). A SKIP button please!

Thanks for the comment - not to repeat myself but the main issue here, at the end of the day, is that we don't have an energy system. A lot of games use energy to limit a player's daily activity, so the player can only grind so much. We prefer to let players grind as much as they like. But, as a result, we can't allow instantaneous battle results; otherwise people would sit in the Endless Dungeon and acquire (statistically speaking) infinite resources. I don't really see any middle ground between energy and no skipping, but happy to discuss ...

Thanks for your reply. That's interesting, bc you actually never brought up this point in your previous comments. If infinite grinding is really what bothers you, one solution is, in the same way that Coliseum is limited to 30 fights, limit the number of fights in Endless Dungeon. Imagining arbitrarily that max play time per day is 15 hours and that fights last 1 minute, that'd be 900 fights or whatever number you see fit. No average Joe would ever reach that limit. Problem solved. Another option. Infinite grinding (be it in Dungeon or Arena, mind you) only concerns systematic mouse recorder users (bc of some player hacking your game every day and bragging in chat, even we know this); there is a stat of daily fights: just ban all those who exceed those 900 (or whatever) fights per day : they're bots and they're killing the game. Problem solved. Another easy option? Disable the SKIP button for Endless Dungeon (and Arena possibly). And allow it for anything that's limited (Coliseum, Crew fights). Problem solved. I'm sure there are a lot of other solutions... The point is to allow players who don't have time to do the core 'obligations' (Coli, Crew) as fast as possible. If there's a will there's a way...

What the others are too diplomatic to say is, that there is no will to change sth bc there is no need to. Imo most ppl would quit, if the ppl with the strongest decks can just do all their stuff within a few secs. The only reason you can catch up is bc the game as such is rather slow and even for the strong ppl it would be just boring and a waste of time, if they just get everything in this game done in a minute per day. If watching a movie, reading the papers, doing your hoursehold or chatting with the comunity (which actually is the real glue that makes ppl stick to those browser games) next to this game is not enough, then this game is not for you and will never be. There are tons of other card games with energy systems and i am pretty sure you will find some where you can just skip the fight - here it would simply destroy the game for everyone but you. There will never be a skip button. Sorry but this is how it is. Good luck with finding sth that is better suited for your personal expectations

> *Originally posted by **[Costello501](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12951251)**:* > here it would simply destroy the game for everyone but you. > Well, since the most upvoted comments on the game are about how freakin' slow it is, I had already figured I'm not alone, thank you for your support. YOU can keep on deluding yourself, forcing your play style onto others or speculate about the end of a game with such a dwindling p(l)ayerbase (and dead forum). If a Skip button were implemented, it wouldn't mean you would have to use it (on/off button, you know?).

i don't understand about having the skip button. why bother playing the game when someone doesnt know what happened to a game and how he won? isn't it like flipping a coin? how is that fun? 1.pick a deck 2.pick an opponent 3.click battle now 4.skip 5.win/lose wheres the enjoyment?

> *Originally posted by **[N7791](/forums/32949/topics/1713142?page=1#12946238)**:* > Thanks for your reply. > That's interesting, bc you actually never brought up this point in your previous comments. > > If infinite grinding is really what bothers you, one solution is, in the same way that Coliseum is limited to 30 fights, limit the number of fights in Endless Dungeon. Imagining arbitrarily that max play time per day is 15 hours and that fights last 1 minute, that'd be 900 fights or whatever number you see fit. No average Joe would ever reach that limit. Problem solved. > > Another option. Infinite grinding (be it in Dungeon or Arena, mind you) only concerns systematic mouse recorder users (bc of some player hacking your game every day and bragging in chat, even we know this); there is a stat of daily fights: just ban all those who exceed those 900 (or whatever) fights per day : they're bots and they're killing the game. Problem solved. > > Another easy option? Disable the SKIP button for Endless Dungeon (and Arena possibly). And allow it for anything that's limited (Coliseum, Crew fights). Problem solved. > > I'm sure there are a lot of other solutions... > The point is to allow players who don't have time to do the core 'obligations' (Coli, Crew) as fast as possible. > If there's a will there's a way... A skip button for limited-only fights is not a bad idea. Skipping does run against what we've considered to this point, but actually this is a much more reasonable suggestion than we've thought of before. I will discuss with the rest of the dev team.