Can I suggest that jargon be removed from power descriptions?

I was reading through the power descriptions last night in the powerhouse and I kept seeing jargon in the format "X to effects" in the power descriptions.

The meaning of this jargon isn't explained anywhere that I can find, and is not intuitive at all, effectively rendering it useless. Apparently one of the powers has some thing like 17 heath to effects and 60 (or whatever) energy to effects.... that may well sway my interest in this power if it was explained what this meant.

Is it possible that things like this can be written in plain English? I shouldn't have to root around on the forums for ages just to decipher the power descriptions.

If the devs mean "regain 10 health per second" or "forcefield strength regains 100 points every 3 seconds" then it would be great if it said that plainly so that everyone can understand.

The current way these are described is lazy and unhelpful to anyone who is not a game programmer.

So, come on devs, please give us clear descriptions in plain English and remove unnecessary and unhelpful jargon.

/signed

I honestly don't think some people on this forum have any appreciation of exactly how difficult it is for an average player to decipher and understand some of the powers in game.

Does everyone spend hours trawling the forums for better explanations of powers and what they do? No - not everyone does - nor should they need to.

Right now, it is extremely easy to make a "wrong" power selection in this game due to issues like this.

I vote for more use of plain, simplified language please!

Oh - and /inb4the"learntoread" trolls

They cannot put fixed numbers in the description since the numbers are not fixed...
They are a function of your statistics.

That being said, it should be possible to show a "here is what it would do for you right now" section.

its not about numbers - its about "phrasing" which assumes a high level of jargon is understood rather than more basic explaination of effects.

why remove it tho? I could understand wanting it to be made simpler or understood... but remove?

I totally agree - this is not about numbers, but about the use of language. I'm a scientist and a writer by trade, so I know that even complex maths can be written about clearly, so I'm sure the same could be done for the details of our power descriptions, with a little thought.

Would any devs like to comment on these "n X to effects" statements and why we can't have these written as statements in plain English?

They put numbers on powers easily enough.

Honestly? I love this idea so much I'd marry it, and have little tiny epiphanies with it. The game explains so very little, and is often redundant.

Fiery Form:
"Enables Fiery_Form mode" - I'd sure as hell hope so!

Block:
"Enables Block mode." - ... Okay, then. Good to know.

Conflagration:
"Has a chance to refresh Clinging Flames." - Awesome... What's that do?

Fire Strike:
"Has a chance to apply Clinging Flames." - Great... Now just tell me what it does.

Heat Wave:
"Has a chance to refresh Clinging Flames." - Umm...?

Fire Breath:
"Has a chance to apply Clinging Flames." - That's it, I'm going with Ice!

Ice Blast:
"Has a chance to apply Chill." - %&*# me!

There's just no explanation for these things! Even a tiny, little pop-up window that gives a brief explanation of what these things were would be awesome!

And enough with the "Enables _____ mode." I'm so sick of seeing everything enable some sort of 'mode' without properly explaining why _____ mode is good.

The worst are things like sigils, where they will not tell you numbers behind the effect that they have, but instead essentially just tell you that it places down a level X enervative sigil (or whatever yours is).

So...the advanced description gives LESS information than the basic description >=(

I think most people have realised that by "remove the jargon" it is implied that the jargon is replaced with a simpler alternative.

Are you talking about the advanced description or the normal one?

(It looks like the advanced one is automatically generated and based on your stats, while the regular description is hand written.)