Page 1 of 1

SpellAbility (class) - an awkward name

PostPosted: 19 Feb 2013, 05:57
by Max mtg
As I have merged CommonDrawback into AbilitySub, I tried to put names in order, but found out that it's not that easy.

The most problematic class is SpellAbility - which is a base class for both 'spells' and 'abilities' which are different things according to both rules and the code.

Do you have any ideas on names for classes in that package (and the very package itself)? The objective is to make names as simple and informative as possible. It's somewhat unclear now that SpellAbility is "Spell or Ability" and not both at once.

Magic rules read even different statements:
111.1. A spell is a card on the stack. As the first step of being cast (see rule 601, “Casting Spells”), the card becomes a spell and is moved to the top of the stack from the zone it was in, which is usually its owner’s hand.

112.1. An ability can be one of two things:

112.1a An ability is a characteristic an object has that lets it affect the game. An object’s abilities are defined by its rules text or by the effect that created it. [...]

112.1b An ability can be an activated or triggered ability on the stack. This kind of ability is an object. [...]

Re: SpellAbility (class) - an awkward name

PostPosted: 19 Feb 2013, 13:24
by friarsol
I don't find the name SpellAbility awkward. There isn't very much difference between a spell and an ability[the 121.b version] and to me there's more of a difference between a triggered ability and an activated ability then there is between a spell and an activated ability. A lot of places in the rules even use the phrase "Spell or ability" because they have so much in common.