As you can see, we have changed what champions runes will look like even further. None of us internally were really happy with the idea of having to scroll if a unit did wind up having more than 5 abilities! We also just wanted some more room! Notice we added the phrase “limit 2 per battlegroup” and included the expansion the rune is in on the back. path 1: Fester, Grant: Poison Cloud Trap, and Wisdom path 2: Council Spells, Guarded Cyclops and Spell Aegis There are a few more units in the game with “Defile Corpse”, as it should prove useful vs some of those pesky rider/death nova units. We also want to show what a split faction rune would look like. Path 1: Improve Speed, Augment Creation, Stitched Reconstitution Path 2: Crushing Charge, Massive Leap (2), ColossalTheme Updates So with this revamp we are going to start changing around some of the theme abilities. A good theme ability is fun, and it makes grasping what a battlegroup is going for easier to understand -- its a win/win. That said there are a few general problems with some themes right now: some are overly complicated, and some were treated as “racials” when they should have not have been and put on every unit with that race regardless of other context. To put a finer point on this, not all racial abilities are themes (ie, Boon of the Undead), and not all theme abilities are racial (ie, Amplify Fire). Before we get into any details, I want to point a few things out. Not every racial is going to be updated in this revamp This is not the main goal of the revamp. Mind you, this will happen over time and we recognize most every theme needs some level of attention. We are going to be addressing the “biggest offenders” first, and then go from there. Not Final What we are about to post is not final. In some cases even the player council has not seen what is in this post. The Meta is totally different Every single champion in pox is getting an update. Some will have more radical changes than others, but everyone is getting attention. Undoubtedly someone will see some ability changes in this post as a major buff of nerf, but please remember every rune is changing, so the context is different. So, without further adieu, lets talk about some of the “themes” we are looking at I. Zombie Apocalypse This is a prime example of a theme ability that is not necessarily a racial. Every champion with ZA will be a zombie, but not every zombie gets ZA. The idea is that we can give ZA to a few champions instead of every single unit with "Race Zombie". Some will have it as an optional upgrade option. However any Zombie will assist with the success of the theme. The other major note is that the Festering Corpse will also get an update, as it will have "Latch on" by default. Zombie Apocalypse (Revamp Rules) While you control at least 5 Zombies, this unit has Swarm: Festering Corpse. II. Nohkan Do The current NKD is a bit of mess of abilities. I generally do not like abilities that add sets of unrelated activated abilities directly (with no contingency). Nohkan Do [Rank 1] - (current) This unit has Block 1 (Next time target champion within 7 spaces makes a close-combat attack against this unit, that attack automatically misses. This effect is hidden until triggered. This effect does not trigger if this unit is Paralyzed or Stunned.), and Dodge 1 (Next time target champion within 11 spaces makes a ranged attack against this unit, that attack automatically misses. This effect is hidden until triggered. This effect does not trigger if this unit is Paralyzed or Stunned.) Nohkan Do [Rank 2] - (current) This unit has Block 2, Dodge 2, Riposte 1 (When a champion makes an unsuccessful close-combat attack against this unit, this unit makes a close-combat attack against that unit at +1 DMG) and Arrow Throw 1 (When a champion makes an unsuccessful ranged attack against this unit, this unit makes a ranged attack against that unit at +1 DMG). What NDK does right is flavor. Here is the revamp. Nohkan Do (Revamp Rules) When an opposing champion attempts a close-combat attack against this unit, this unit makes preemptive-attack at 20% damage for 1 AP. If successful, the opponents attack automatically misses. Dont get caught up on that 20% -- its a poke to see if we can force a miss. This version of NDK is not a melee punish, if we want that this unit could get Riposte as well. Take into account any "on attack" effects would be applied here too - like Poison on the shadowstriker. It also means units that have really high defense (or tough or resilient) wont take “poke” damage and will still be able to get their attacks off. Making it so you can overpower an NKD melee unit with an armored warrior. So NKD good vs your avg UD melee, not so great vs a Draksar Lord. III. Carouse Currently, Carouse is on every single dwarf in the game, as I poitned about before, its even on the Scorched Dwarf. Its an example of an ability that has blurred the lines between theme and Racial. Blacklabel Brew (current)Equipped Dwarf champions gets +4 HP, +1 AP. If the Dwarf is a Drunken Thug, Brawler or Brewmaster, it gets an additional +1 SPD, +4 HP, +1 AP and an addition rank of Resistance - Physical. All other champions get -1 SPD, -1 DMG, -1 DEF and lose all AP when equipped with Blacklabel Brew. If there are 5 or more friendly Dwarves equipped with Blacklabel Brew those champions gain 1 rank of Resistance - Physical. Carouse (current)Target friendly champion within 1 square is equipped with Blacklabel Brew. This ability is removed upon use. Equipment generated by this ability costs 0 nora. So there another problem here, the reason to have a Blacklabel Brew in your BG is somewhat diminished. Carouse is going to only be on a few champions. The idea is that racially, dwarves love getting drunk. Thematically, some Dwarves pass out beer! Carouse (Revamp)Target friendly adjacent champion is equipped with Pale Brew (equipped champions are Drunk). If this champion is equipped with a brew, it will give out that brew instead. Equipment generated by this ability costs 0 nora. Drunk (new condition)Dwarves gain +1 AP, +4 HP. Brutes gain +1 dmg +1 def and +6hp. All other champions lose all AP at the end each turn. Constructs cannot become drunk. Blacklabel Brew (Revamp)Equipped champion is Drunk. While drunk, equipped champion also gains +4 hp and 1 rank of Tough Dwarves like the Brewmaster will have Carouse for sure. A few others will get it as an optional upgrade. Again, while not all dwarves have Carouse, they can benefit from it. Also, we have room to add more kinds of beer in future expansions! IV. Sonar So, Sonar is not a bad ability, and it is very much a racial (the same way BOTU is). Its just a little messy because of the varying ranks involved. They have been condensed into a single ability. The idea here is that Voil use echolocation to “see” when they are flying - you can either do this, or not. Sonar - rank [1/2/3] (current)This champion has Vulnerability: Sonic and Evasive [1/2/3]. Sonic Flight (current)This champion has Flying, Vulnerability: Sonic and Evasive (1) So thats the preview for now. As we stated this is all still a work in progress, so please post your thoughts!
Looks good. I especially like the change to how the runes look. Edit: Digging the carouse change too, I may have to put together a drunkard deck post-revamp
I think "first" post are against the rules. (Third >_>) EDIT: So, let me see if I understand this correctly. A racial ability is an ability that goes "attached" to certain races for flavour or balance reasons. Leap on the frogs, or BotU on the undead. A thematic ability is an ability that enables a particular play-style, disregarding if the wearer is one or another race. Theoretically, a relic can have a thematic ability. Now, considering that, can we know which abilities you're treating as racial and which one as thematic? We could argue zombie apocalypse is racial (only zombies had said ability), but you decided to change it into a thematic (only a few key champions will have it), so I would like to know a bit more about some others like mischief (I suppose is a racial), elsari coven (theme, right?) and barbarian.
I really hope some of the other racials/themes get toned down as much as sonar. You straight up beat it to death with a baseball bat.
Typo in Stitched Tyrant's name. It's not a "Tryant" x_x Wait, so, for NKD, it says "if successful, the opponent's attack automatically misses," but then you elaborate that a high DEF unit will still be able to make an attack. I thought there was a distinction between being "successful" and actually doing damage. For example, currently I think a champ with Sunder can still apply the Sundered condition even if its attack does 0 damage. Or am I wrong about this?
Looking good bud, keep up the good work! I´m sad for proposed NKD, but I understand why you want to change it. Tyrant with Improve: Speed is probably a bad move.
I like it. Really like that ZA just requires one zombie to allow the effect. Also, just that zombie receiving the bonus will certainly tone it down a lot. Necromancer preview please! I would love to see her as something less... useless
Thank you for the update! Thank you for putting in expansion, limits, and I definitely like that we don't have to scroll for abilities. With that said, however, I seeing inconsistency between the basic attack and upgraded abilities. I still feel it would be better to have the basic attack be the first ability, followed by the upgrades.
I dont even use NKD so don't think im defending it. I also know alot of themes will be taking hits so this may be intentional. My concern is that going from Block/Dodge to the proposed as i read it has one disappointment that hinders strategy a bit. Block/Dodge can be targeted and is one of the best things i like about the abilities and can win you some games by allowing weaker units to hit you because you target the Goliath with block to survive the brunt of the damage. The proposed ability i like, but it reads as that you cant target a unit with the ability. Is this right or will it be looked into and up for review before release? Just wondering. Good work, keep it up!
Loving the Carouse change. And it also made me chuckle. Finally, I can get some of these golems back to work!
this preview is much better than the ones you gave before, but besides the stunning visual effects of runes, I'm not that impressed again. I mean from visual perspective, you're rocking da house! I like "limit" per deck addition to rune info since it allows you to effectively remove sandbag abilities like Unique or Multitude and in a quite reasonable manner. I suppose expansion could be under the whole rune as "artist" is. it's not that important to be there, but it's a minor problem. I'm a bit confused what are these "paths". Sonar being virtually the same is not promising at all. I think Sentry and Flight could be the same ability as for now Flight just gives Sentry, but it could be easily implemented into describtion instead of giving ability. when it comes to "voils being (having) evasive", I would rather make it more flavorful and spread various anti-range abilities across the board. it's kinda funny and kinda sad to see Voil Skyhowler having EVASIVE and ELUSIVE. Voil Jester having EVASIVE AND PARALYTIC FEEDBACK. Sonar as racial seems bad in general. do we really lack of various abilities to make it flavorful and interesting? para feedback, dodge, evasive, ca: ranged, elusive, arrow eater and other abilities like blindifre could be considered to fit it. it reminds me Tortuns. everyone of them starts with Amphibious, Ponderous, Tortun's Trade and Turtle. it's not like there are not other ways to make the whole theme play/feel slower/tankier. Amphibious and TTrade could easily become one ability. then spread various turtlish/slowish/tankish abilities across the theme: Turtle, Defensive Turtle, inexperienced, ponderous, 5 SPD, 4 SPD + Accrue, high DEF, weird range (2 radius instead of casual 3) etc. it will help for themes to not be crowded by the same abilities over and over again and it will feel more thematic, interesting. it should also help them to compete for the slots. think if one voil offers ca: ranged and other dodge. different situations they will be benefitting from... I don't understand what this NKD will be doing.
Yeah this triggered my OCD haha. Ideally, I would love to see Basic attack top left, followed by default abilities, and finally, by upgrades.
I would say basic, followed by upgrades, then by default, given that there will be 1 basic (unless passive), 2 upgrades, and then variable number of defaults.
I love the new card UI, but it could still use a little work. The shiny stats look dumb. No offense, but it's just less readable as little shiny globes, they should be flat. The new layout is lovely, and very appropriate for the information we're given and need. Maybe a little more cleaning up, but great job. The pixel art preview is super neat, but if every champion has it, then there will be little squares framing most champs. Can we just have 1 square showing for small champs and 4 showing for large ones? Might just remove some unnecessary info. I love what I'm seeing, and I'd like to see more.
I don't get what you mean. It is tied to all zombies. It's just the unit that has ZA requires 5 zombies in play for the ability to be active for them. The fact that less of the zombies will gain swarm is toning it down.
I can live with that too. Though the reason I would like default abilities under Basic attack is because they're not configurable. Kind of feel like configurable abilities should be the last in the list of abilities, can't find the words to explain why at the moment. Just OCD I guess heh.
