Stacked Lines — Playtest Update

Big one this time. The headline change: **the defense now reads your plays.** Setting one board and clicking "same as last period" all game doesn't cut it anymore — you've got to keep showing the defense new looks. There's also a stack of forging upgrades and a top-to-bottom readability pass on the draft and the cards.

If you only kick the tires on one thing, make it the new **SEEN** system — that's what we most want your read on (see *What we'd love you to test* at the bottom).

New

The defense reads your plays (SEEN).

Field the same combination of plays period after period and the defense catches on — that combo gets steadily less effective. You'll see a **SEEN** tag and little heat dots on a line in the draft as it gets read. The fix is variety: slip a different play between two you always pair, swap the finisher, or refresh a forged line. It builds up across the *whole season* (not within a single match), so your fresh-combination runway is a resource to manage.

Forged lines are your one refreshable combo.

A forged Set Line decays at the same rate as a loose combo if you spam it — but it's the only combination you can bring *back*. Two new ways to refresh one:

Coach's Enlightenment

— a new good event ("the coach finds a new wrinkle") that freshens a forged line.

Refresh a Line

— a new Pro Shop service (next to Sharpen / Unbond).

So forging is now a rotated, renewable centerpiece — not a permanent crutch you lean on every period.

Mixed lines

You can field a forged line *and* loose plays together in the same slot — loose plays before or after the forged part — and forge those loose plays on later when you're ready.

Forge front-extend

You could already extend a forged line by adding a finisher to the end. Now you can bond a new **opener** onto the *start* of one, too. In the forge screen, pick the loose play first, then click the forged line — it slots in ahead of it.

Changed & improved

Draft screen revamp

The line-builder is now the hero of the screen. Every line you build shows a plain-language **shot-strength readout** (LONG SHOT → DECENT → STRONG → PRIME), whether it can actually fire, and its SEEN freshness — so you can read a line *before* you commit it. The hand is a clean row of mini-cards with a ⊕ inspect for the full detail.

Cleaner, more readable cards

Cards now show a role-tinted info panel — the play's name, its role (Setup / Finisher / Aura / Reactive / Forged Line), and a **D ▸ O zone-flow** that shows how it chains — instead of the old chalkboard. The chaining letters are tinted by who has the puck: green = you, red = the opponent, grey = loose.

Forge is easier to find

The Forge button moved to a prominent spot in the deck header (it used to be easy to miss).

Onboarding refreshed

The tutorial now teaches the SEEN system, so it'll replay once for returning players — your run progress is untouched.

Smaller stuff

A forge confirmation toast so you can see the line you just made, plus assorted polish across the draft and deck screens.

## What we'd love you to test

- **Does the SEEN / decay system feel clear and fair?** Too punishing, too gentle, or about right? This is the one we're actively tuning — tell us how it *feels* in a real run.
- **Is refreshing a forged line worth it — and available often enough?** (the event + the shop service)
- **Try front-extending a forged line** in the forge screen, and try a mixed line (forged + loose plays in one slot).
- Anything in the new draft / card layout that's unclear or that you miss from before.

Thanks for playing — your feedback is what's driving these changes. Drop notes wherever you've been sending them.