If there's one thing I'd suggest, it's removing the feature where if you kill an enemy unit and it opens a checkmate, you lose. It doesn't feel very fair especially with a weapon that has as wide a spread as a shotgun. You could potentially kill an enemy you weren't even aiming at and get yourself killed that way. I'd consider at least warning if not remove that feature entirely.
Viewing post in Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate comments
I have accidentally killed an interposer and lost a run that way once. ONCE. I didn't ask for the game to be dumbed down in response. I smartened up instead. I also note that the spread of the gun is very much an intentional element of the game - that's why there are cards to control it! - so learning how to deal with it is part of the learning process. [insert comment about proper IRL firearm safety here]
Compromise then, have the kill shields warn you. It really stinks that this is a mechanic and the game at least does not warn you despite being fully aware it's something that happens. Frustrating especially with Blunderbuss. Plus remember the cards are random you get so it's not always within your control.
You can't always pick the cards, sure, but you always control where you fire... Besides, you're asking for something more complex than you seem to realize (though you're far from alone here in that regard :P). The shields are there to stop you from using your turn moving into or staying in a deadly spot. Checking to see if the spot you're in is safe but one you could make deadly is (besides clearly being a misplay on the part of the player) not so simple to program, especially now that there's a card that can fire a pellet outside even your selected firing arc. That's a lot of math slowing things down just to try dealing with a player skill issue; as it is, the shields aren't perfect, sometimes blocking 100% safe shots and NOT blocking 0% safe ones in rare cases, and that'd be tough to figure out without even going down the "discovered mate" route. So maybe avoid taking the card with "blunder" right there in the name until you can keep from doing so, and maybe always take Black Mist when you have the chance (which WILL save you from "discovered mate")? Good luck to any mod makers that try to "remedy" discovered mates - sure, it probably CAN be done, but it'll be a LOT of work... work better spent, in my opinion, learning the game and not getting themselves killed.
Wouldn't the programming of the shield protecting you from an opened checkmate just be similar to the programming of the opened checkmate itself? I think it's something that is being overestimated in its difficulty to create. Helps people get into the game too with more intuitiveness on an inaccurate weapon. Could always just play without shields if you're not interested in it so I am honestly confused why you are trying to make it a big problem.
i would like this feature as well, at least as a toggle, like with increasing/decreasing the shields you have, i've lost at least 5 runs to this and most of them were from being sniped by a rook at the other side of the board, although some were really obvious, like me killing an enemy that had a queen right behind it, i'm not a very strategic person who also sucks at chess, i just move without thinking most of the time tbh, although i'm used to getting skill issued with the amount of roguelikes i play, having this feature at least as a toggle would be nice, i'd understand and be fine if it wasn't added though, i'll just suffer until i learn to not