Hey all!
This week we got another design blog post by Mat. It almost seems he’s taking over my job of writing these!
Here’s what Mat wants you to know.
Got an opportunity here to share with you all what Mia and myself have been working on for the past couple of weeks. The Unit Ability Overhaul is meant to address quite a number of feedback we received, so here is what it is.
Simply put, we took data from which abilities were less picked or less effective, and buffed or changed most of them, hopefully making them a bit more interesting to pick, or valid in a larger number of builds.
To give you a glimpse of that process, we took a few of the conclusions we made after reading the data and the feedback. In each, I’ll put an example of an ability overhaul.
- Abilities need to not only be thematic, but they also need to provide immediate benefits that justify the cost of a slot. While before we were content in providing different themes and possibilities, we now know we need to compare skills between all available ones, not just the most similar. Example: Mystic’s Aeolic Elixir (cone buff, granted +3 Move), while it makes thematic and logical sense, it was not worth the slot/AP cost. So we buffed it, aiming to validate more kinds of plays with it: besides its original effect, it now Resets Skill cooldowns to target units.
- Upgrades cannot offer downsides at all. All upgrades that did, even if they had a stronger base effect, were hardly picked. I call this “Roadblock design”, and we are not pursuing it any further. All upgrades must be direct benefits. Example: Warrior’s Reckless Slash, while more powerful than the base version, had an innate miss chance - That was done to validate ways of removing evasion but ended up just feeling bad to use. Instead, the warrior now has Overpowering Slash, which adds the Vulnerable status effects to targets, setting them up for combos later in the turn. A perfect example of our new direction!
- Upgrades, in general, must not require actions or resources to be worthwhile. If the upgrade requires resources or conditions to perform its extra effect, there is a set of instances where upgrading the ability in that direction is meaningless. Alternatively, it would be better if the upgrades could be optimized, but were always positive. Example: An upgrade for the Ranger’s base ability, Far Shot allowed spending an extra AP to increase its range. This additional range is now native to Far Shot, granting the extra effect (more range) at no cost! More targets to shoot is always positive, but a smart player will be able to stay safer due to the increased range, optimizing this effect.
- Upgrades cannot change the expected use of the ability. The original design for upgrades often had a “Weird Cousin” in the trio of possibilities, that took the functionality of the ability and changed it to something else with a similar fantasy. This makes some sense, but it turns out it’s not very likely that you would plan your build with this “weird upgrade” in mind, and, in general, they were the least picked. Example: The Mystic’s Corrosive Concoction ability (cone, deals armor damage only) had an upgrade that inverted its effect, Noxious Concoction (cone, deals health-only damage). While the upgrade was buffed to be more picked, it just made more sense to turn the “cone health-only attack” into its own ability, with its own upgrades! Noxious Fumes now comes into existence, playing with Poisoned and other effects.
- More damage was always more effective. This one took my sleep for days. We found out that the most effective way to play the game was to pile up on damage effects and melt the opposition. While this is fun and all, it made the game easy to solve, and after a while, too simple. To combat this, we are making enemies a bit more resilient, but far more powerful, in hopes that if you don't take defensive or evasive actions, you’ll be in dire danger. In addition, we buffed the effects of most defensive/utility skills, making an effort to scale them off the “power” attribute whenever possible. Example: The Ranger’s Archer’s Vigil, in itself, was not very picked. Its ability to take a clearer shot at a target wasn’t worth the slot. One of its upgrades, Relentless Vigil, also dominated all others, for the simple fact that it allowed a larger damage output. The alternatives, such as gaining an AP to react or receiving less damage, meant little in the current meta. So we took a gamble: now all versions of Archer’s Vigil can now shoot at multiple targets (although at half-power), and its upgrades now offer increased benefits at every shot, preserving the most “fun” aspect of the ability and giving it an overall buff. The rest, however, will depend on us changing the meta, and this is still ongoing!
You can expect to see this overhaul in our first major patch! Changing the meta so drastically can be a bit disruptive, but without a holistic approach, we risked spoiling some effects. We would love to see the same polite feedback we have been receiving so far as we drop this new direction, and the data you provide will make the game even better!
Thank you for reading, and good luck out there in the multiverse!
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