Lurker > KanzarisKelshen

DeathChicken posted...

Random thought, I wish Rad Spencer from Bionic Commando would have come back. I didn't appreciate that guy enough in M3 (hadn't played his game), then I did and he's bugfuck good

True story, I put Spencer into one of the draftmerx events so we could see what he was worth when not argued by KJH

and then gravy was a turbolamer and just ducked the match because he goofed up his abilities :(
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

GANON1025 posted...

Also, Ansem looks cool and is a stand user so he can stay. Xemnas can be a separate merc anyway why not both

Also reasonable, tbqh
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Yeah, there was a lot of thought there but it was...strong. The fact it didn't win enough was more due to misplays and Johnbobb being super deep in the hole (so had no merc advantage from Emergency until the end of the game) than anything else. Like, imagine BB goes to me. Don't you think he does a fair bit better with his Emergencies?

EDIT: And yeah, Xehanort is more popular within the fanbase and the more enduring villain overall. So I'd favor him just for that reason, though I like the idea of the 'form switcher' Xehanort merc that can become a 4/week Ansem TBQH.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

This might be the most 'why' merc I've analyzed so far. Who decided Ansem was the best possible KH rep after Sora? Nobody really loves him, he's not that well remembered, and his combat respect was pretty low. This was all about getting some broke-ass abilities out the door, and he was at least good for that. Dude had some hefty ability defense vs SoBs on top of ability combos and making mercs ruthless. I just wonder if we couldn't have, like, given these abilities to a better dude instead.

I like Ansem, he has a distinctive fighting style, and he's highly quotable making for easy flavorful abilities

That's pretty much it! Riku would probably have been better but who could be inspired by Riku really.

Yeah but like you can just give his shit to Xehanort and get someone who does all that but also gets respect

that's most of my beef with Ansem - he didn't get respect and he was never gonna because he just...dashes around and throws out very slow projectiles. 5/weeks should have real battle worth.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Johnbobb posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

We literally had the match with a character who could turn intangible (Fetch) and Songbird was still argued to wipe her team first anyway, which is no good.

I think that part was less about Songbird and more about the fact that it was Big Boss sniping on Mother Base if I'm remembering right

Like same with the Arthas match. It wasn't Songbird ALONE. It wasn't Lich King ALONE. They might've been the MVPs but don't undersell their backup

naw, talking about the Bubbly Clouds match vs Eaed

The one where Brock suplexed Booker
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

greengravy294 posted...

i kinda feel like this is capcom's subtle way of saying fuck you to mighty number 8 or whatever <_<

Yes

Inafune is officially crying like an anime fan on prom night now

Capcom took his aesthetic and did it better
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

LOLIAmAnAlt posted...

I missed the announcement.

But I gather from these comments that the X series is coming to PC and various other platforms in one new compilation game?

But no actual new game. Or no new game based on that cool artwork?

No X game

MM11 official


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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Nanis23 posted...

Did you just hijack my thread
And I wondered how come people didn't post too much!

Only after the announcement which i wanted to share cause I needed to make sure everyone saw this

People have been waiting way too long for megaman to not know just because they didn't check out a stream!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Punnyz posted...

KommunistKoala posted...

Mega Man X collection more important

is there any more info on this?

1-8, all platforms, confirmed

unsure if Command Mission is comin with or not

Xiahou Shake posted...

Oh man! Capcom's really trying to win back the faith between this, MHW and the rumors of DMC5. I'm all for it, I'd love for them to be as good as they used to be.

Three more days to TGA, rumor mill is hintin real strongly at DMC5 there. I BELIEVE
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

HaRRicH posted...

Don't play games with my heart.

*looks it up*

Yeeeees!

I don't post shit without sources, don't worry

This december lookin to be hypehypehype
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GuessMyUserName posted...

still not a new mmx goddamn

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

still not a new mm legends goddamn

Pokalicious posted...

still not a new mmbn goddamn

Too Mega 4 Man

Megamen, Megamen errywhere in need of relaunching
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Johnbobb posted...

http://mercsce.pbworks.com/w/page/112446730/Booker%20DeWitt

My slightly tweaked Booker

I absolutely think he should stay, and I think you misunderstood arguments with Songbird

The argument wasn't that he would continue to hone in on enemies street 30 seconds, it was that on a big terrain with the allied team sniping far away from the enemies, there's no reason a suddenly beserk Songbird would change directions and hunt down the snipers instead of continuing to attack the area he was already at

The beserk is something that's detrimental to Booker's team if they're close range on a small stage but not a big deal if they snipe on a large one

Right, but I think 'turns around and actively pursues Booker above other dudes' is a thing worth baking into that ability if it comes back. Because otherwise it's 'oh yeah Songbird mauls the other team let's just throw this ability out like #YOLO' as far as usage goes. We literally had the match with a character who could turn intangible (Fetch) and Songbird was still argued to wipe her team first anyway, which is no good.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

SPREAD THE WORD A NEW GAME IS COMING TO ALL PLATFORMS

2.5D LOOKS AMAZING

GET HYYYYYYYPE

(Caps!)
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NEW GAME

NEW GAME

l REPEAT WE HAVE A NEW GAME

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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"But before I talk about the future of the megaman franchise..."

get asses in seats guys, we're getting something I think
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MMX titles going live on PC and all other platforms, all of em

hypehypehype

maybe not command mission but 1-8 for sure
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A little light music to get everyone hyped up. C'mon! Come back, Blue Bomber!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

Okay Mr. Wario can't beat Aeris even with the help of Louie <__<

That's less Wario disrespect and more me being dumb tbqh

I'll go ahead and say so, my Wario respect is usually higher
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

Kind of funny, I was playing Mario Odyssey recently and was like, Bowser disrespect is weird for a dude who weighs a million pounds and can also leap buildings

Then again Wario didn't get respect and that dude can piledrive dinosaurs, so maybe it's a Mario thing

Wario got respected IMO, he swung votes in a couple matches (I distinctly remember a Bubland one vs Nightmare that he helped win, IIRC?). He's just a 2/week so his respect has his limits, y'know? Totally agree both him and Bowser could use more reliable respect tho - they're much closer to 3s than 2s, IMO.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

redrocket_pub posted...

I think you might be overhyping Bayonetta's battle worth slightly. Archer and Dante, at the very least, would have something to say about that.

As for Auron...I kinda agree, yeah. I'm a guy who doesn't mind paydowns, but he's one of the classic examples for 'we could use some extra system mechanics to balance teams out'. It's my opinion that paydowns shouldn't be worse than they are in M4 by default, because they're generally balanced and strategic, but you should be able to fight them if you want to build a low/mid team instead of a mid/high team that just rolls low over with cash. If $$$ can make strong mercs go where they don't belong, it should be able to restrict them as well.

Did you have something specific in mind here?

Bayonetta and Dante had a 1v1 match in M4. Bayonetta won conclusively. Maybe Archer is better but we don't know and my money would be on the Witch of Vigrid.

As for having something in mind...kinda? I think you should be able to 'tier restrict' your matches somehow with cash, basically, or buff up your guys (maybe a 'boss takedown' paid boost that doubles/triples/quads/etc. parameters, increasing them by 100% for each upkeep tier an enemy is above the tier, applied individually to each of your guys for a fee?) to make things more even. There should be ways to fight paydown with cash, pretty much, we just need to find something that is fun and doesn't make paydowns trashbin tier while still enabling low/mid focused teams.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Booker deWitt

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102131008/Booker%20DeWitt

Jesus, Booker was overtuned. All of his abilities weren't just good, they were abusive. Everett Branches allowed Arthas to solo Archer AND VERGIL in the draftgame, which really is something I never would've expected to see, and then you had Songbird getting taken to solo my entire mid team except maybe Sora in that one playoffs match Johnbobb won. The Songbird ability was cool but...why didn't it berserk and attack HIM after 30 secs were up? It's anti-flavor that it stays homed on the enemy team, that shit makes zero sense. It made him a broken autowin character in lowbie, and honestly it probably needs to up his upkeep and slot cost if it happens again. Tack on that Booker's battle worth was really good for lowbie (minigun and machinegun AND magic on a 3...a cheap one too. ?????) even though he didn't get a lot of respect and he needs some nerfs I think. Or, well, the boot. Bioshock Infinite is kinda irrelevant today and the new Prey has kinda taken its spot as the new *Shock game (it's System Shock 3, everyone go play it, your head will asplode), so he's not super needed anymore.

Should He Stay?: No unless we need quick-fix builds.

Bob

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102032149/Bob

It's Bob! What more is there to say? Excellent ability slave, nonexistent battle worth, all around cool dude. Very lovable and fun guy, should stay in Mercs forever IMO. Dude's a staple.

Should He Stay?: Yes!

Bowser

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102031810/Bowser

This guy. This fucking guy, man. I don't know what to do with Bowser. His battle worth is just nonexistent and it feels like there's no way to make him get respect if he's not going Giga, but setting him on perma-Giga mode feels wrong. His abilities are good, but needing to have Gigabowser in there just to make him worth a damn is...not great because it means there's only room for one (maybe two) other abilities at most. He should be here, but he needs help and I don't know how to provide it. Any ideas?

Should He Stay?: Yes, but we need to make him battleworthy, somehow. Sucks that he gets 0 respect.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Bill Rizer

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109433110/Bill%20Rizer

Repeat after me: Mercs don't get bought without good base abilities. This is why Rizer went unbought - on paper, 'l have a shitload of revives for a rainy day' is cool, but it turns out when you compare it to Doomguy's 'I have at least two antipaydown KOs', it doesn't shine. You can't count on just battleworth to shine, y'know? Then you had the fact his second ability was pretty bad unless you were facing a very 'smart' team and yeah, he's just bad. Dude needs a lot of work, tbqh.

Should He Stay?: Contra deserves representation so...maybe. But I think I'd enjoy putting in the Contra Hard Corps Uprising guys more than Bill. They're more impressive and also more anime, even if he's kind of a classic run-and-gun character. Maybe he could share a roster with them?

Billy and Jimmy Lee

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109308874/Billy%20and%20Jimmy%20Lee

Poor Bimmy and Jimmy. There was just...nothing here. Nobody is gonna respect a pair of 2/weeks, the abilities are very straightforward and underpowered, and really I got nothing more to say here.

Should They Stay?: I love them, but honestly no. Nothing about their build is good except their passive. I'm sorry :(

Bomberman

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102493129/Bomberman

Now here's a merc who was kinda just...there. Does literally anyone respect Bomberman? He had an every three weeks post rosters KO (let that sink in for a sec) and he still didn't get bought. His battle worth is so nonexistant that I feel he'd be better off as a PS, probably. Real talk, tell me if I'm missing something - I see a couple decent abilities on a merc not worth the hassle of using them at all. He's not that beloved either...why is he here?

Should He Stay?: Probably not.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Big Boss

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104954895/Big%20Boss

The Hero Snakes have had a messy history in Mercenaries. Traditionally, stealth mercs are...kinda variable in power, because they are super terrain dependent to show off their abilities and suffer terribly in small terrains. Add the fact they're 'peak human' gunners and it's tough to place them - they're definitely not 3/weeks, but at 4/week they eat lowbie alive and at 5/week they don't compare to somebody like Sora or Ryu H, especially because any kind of antistealth hype neuters them badly. Big Boss neatly sidestepped this problem by stealing ideas from MGS5 and bringing in both an insane arsenal (seriously, look up the CGM-25 whenever you have a minute, it's bananas - that launcher was the reason I went on a bid war with Johnbobb to try to buy BB) and friends - maybe solo he wouldn't have been worth a 5/week slot, but with D-Dog and especially D-Walker? Yeah, rock on. Add on a basic but strong base ability and we're good so far...

...And then we get to Emergency.

Emergency is a candidate for one of the top 10 least-thought-out abilities in the game. It's a hidden autowin, but with four uses. Let's cover just why it's so bad:

-You get extra mercenaries. Even if they're duds, you still get extra mercenaries that break roster caps. Like idk if I'm coming across clearly - BB still fields a full roster, and then he gets up to five dudes more. That's crazy!
-But wait, there's more! He also is immune to abilities now!
-And he force-selects an unfair terrain that is also really vague (see: Wang's arguments about raiding the armory to get bullshit tech and helicopters).
-And if he wins, which he should, he steals a merc from you.

Look at this list and let that sink in for a minute. It's insane. Emergency needs to get gone and never come back - it's theoretically balanceable, but it's not worth the hassle of trying to unfuck something so broken. It was a cute concept in theory, but way, WAY too obscene when you get down to bras tacks. It brings the elegance of an otherwise good build down.

Should He Stay?: Yes. But Emergency should not.

Big the Cat

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104099511/Big%20the%20Cat

Oh hey, it's the merc that let Kamek dodge eliminations and also partly secured my championship win! Big is...yeah he's pretty broken. His base ability was almost a KO in practice, but it was fine because you had to pay a slot to use it. That was fair. Then he had a random selection ability that made an enemy merc worthless. This was also fine, you just threw it out because it rarely was gona hit a strong target but it was cheap, whatever.

And then there's his third ability.

Everybody Hates Big is such a colossal fuck you it's kind of unreal nobody caught it. What makes this powerful is twofold: first, you take away a high or mid tier slot that could've gone to a stronger fighter, because past a point in early-midgame just about everyone had five slots worth of mid-high fighters and denying one is brutal. Second, and much more important, Big's abilities still worked when you popped it and that was comically broken - you 100% could force one enemy merc to stay out, thus disabling another premier fighter. Maybe a third if you hit Eyes on a strong foe. And the worst part is...you couldn't cancel his crap because he was on your own team. He was so unfair it was outrageous all thanks to that last ability - he was basically the ultimate PS carrier thanks to it, and I abused it hard on the way to the championship. He was a good ability slave, just...tuned way too far towards goodness, y'know?

Should He Stay?: Yes, but with a totally reworked Everybody Hates Big (either cancels all other abilities or it just does something else - global enemy team light taunt?). He was fun, just...overtuned.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

More dudes now that I got food. LESSGO

Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/105627330/Beast%20Incarnate%20Brock%20Lesnar

An interesting thought experiment that didn't quite pan out for a number of reasons. Let's go over them, shall we?

A) Bad abilities. This is number 1 for sure. Brock spreading the suplex love around was way, way bad. His upgrade suplexmurder is what his ability should've been at base from the beginning. Having to buy the upgrade meant Suplex City wasn't worth it until you'd already sunk in EXP into him, too. Destroyer was a fine combo piece tho.

B) Variable battle worth. Some people took Brock seriously and powerboosted him off of his enemies. Some...saw him as vanilla Brock. The low end was REAL low here. We saw that Evolved John Cena could get respect during the draftmerx events, but that boy had a really strong passive propping him up (that win was one of my proudest moments BTW - Lopen is a ridiculous opponent and I was working with unknowns vs a bunch of well-understood mercs, it took a lot of work).

C) Limited versatility. Brock's a wrestler, he's super low range and as such is limited by nature.

Overall, was Brock a bad experiment? I'd say no, but he needs a lot of work if he's coming back. Gotta stabilize him some, give him the tools to fulfill a combat niche, and most of all, fix his eat sleep suplex ability to smash ONE dude by default, not a billion.

Should He Stay?: Maybe. Need more opinions on him.

Beatrix

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102493126/Beatrix

Beatrix is good. Beatrix is really good you guys. She was a ghetto '3.5', getting 4/week respect from a bunch of dudes, and she had the kind of ability hax most mercs only dream of. Orders Are Orders is a super powerful ability, and why Gravy didn't get Partner System is beyond me considering it had so many possible uses. Really the only knock you can make against her is she's a side character, but she's a side character from a super well-known game with solid feats, so that's not a problem.

Should She Stay?: Totally. One of the most iconic abilities in Mercs and a damn fine package. Just about no changes needed here.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Kamekguy posted...

BBAMM is honestly a bit ridiculous, and I'd add in that he can only target mercs of an equal upkeep or less to his linked merc, give an upgrade that the pool is expanded to within two gold per week. I may be biased because he was combo'd with SLAYER OF WORDS AND WINNER OF ELIMINATION MATCHES, BIG THE CAT, but I feel giving him an upkeep focus keeps him balanced whilst still being combo'd with guys like Algus.

In-battle, Auron's one of those guys who is a "staple". You have him, you have the general offensive front covered in low... unless there are paydowns, and there are always paydowns. The paydown system hurts lowbie slow guys like him the most, as what are formidable defenses and attacks at 3/week are easily run over by the Alucards and M Bisons and Nightmares of the world. It's my opinion that lowbies need to have a niche in order to survive in a paydown world, and Auron has... breaks, I guess? If he can get them off?

Tbf that's more on big I think

Big is a dude who is ALMOST balanced...and then he gets sent off to the enemy team and he is completely, outrageously broken. Big's 'everybody hates big' ability is like getting two KOs for the price of one because you not only send a dude fishing but you also leave the opponent with -1 roster slot which is crippling, and on top of that you can't get rid of his abilityhax anymore because he's on your team. It's an incredibly mean combo and I think he needs to lose 'everybody hates big' going forward, or at least make it so he cannot use any other abilities when he switches sides. But more on Big when we get there.

As for Auron...I kinda agree, yeah. I'm a guy who doesn't mind paydowns, but he's one of the classic examples for 'we could use some extra system mechanics to balance teams out'. It's my opinion that paydowns shouldn't be worse than they are in M4 by default, because they're generally balanced and strategic, but you should be able to fight them if you want to build a low/mid team instead of a mid/high team that just rolls low over with cash. If $$$ can make strong mercs go where they don't belong, it should be able to restrict them as well.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

More later, gotta do a bit of work now and this is enough discussion fodder
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Balthier Bunansa

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/108621199/Balthier%20Bunansa

Balthier was...OK. His abilities were sort of underbaked. I'm not super sure how you were supposed to use him on his own. Ability carrier via loading PSes onto him? His upgrade leading man abilities can fuck you over so it's just...really not good to get them as a rule, and having to invest in Strahl to make one of them work blows (how often do you need to buy out any terrain in the game? It's basically just 'I need DMC/Waterball/Zerus' and most teams have a reliable alternative to all of those). He's a gunner with some buffs which is 'fine' but doesn't wow, either. Probably will do better with The Zodiac Age giving him a second class I guess, and if we NEED an FF12 rep he's an OK one, but I think he needs new abilities.

Should He Stay?: Ehhh. I think no.

Banjo & Kazooie

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102493132/Banjo%20and%20Kazooie

Straight up trash. The admins were afraid of making B&K busted because of what happened with them in HGR's hands in TR, but they way overreacted by making them one of the few ability slaves not worth buying at all, period. The fixed build on the CE wiki makes them excellent IIRC, and if I am remembering right and it has the 'Just Plain Win Terrain' ability that should be the template for them going forward. Without fixing them to not have trash abilities tho, a bad 1/week has no place in the game at all.

Should They Stay?: Possibly. I think they're liked enough that a strong build would work.

Bass.EXE

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/106563324/Bass%20EXE

Bass might be the KJHiest build in rules wording ever. Uuuugh, the work put into fixing it...anyway, Bass himself was the ultimate example of 'this merc is worth as much as you put into him'. Under JC's leadership Bass basically didn't exist. Under Lopen, he became an unholy god-eating terror. Textbook example of a 'skilly' merc. Seemingly weak abilities...turned into a monster by clever play.

Should He Stay?: Yes. MMBN isn't obscure and he added great gameplay to the Draft game.

Bayonetta

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104265199/Bayonetta

Straight up the worst 7/week nerf passive, I think. 'Pay to fix this or the merc is unusable, once you pay it's nonexistent' fucking sucks. I made a replacement nerf passive that I think works much better and is much more in-theme during the CE topics. GMUN's archive site is currently broken but it's worth pulling it up from there once the archives work again IMO. Basically have her protect either Cereza or Loki during a fight as a balancing point for being the single strongest, most busted mercenary in the game in terms of battle worth. I think it works. Keep her M4 abilities, add that new nerf passive and you're golden.

Should She Stay?: Yes. Dante needs some company!

BEAR(tic)

BEAR (http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110099458/Beartic)

BEAR

BEAR?: BEAR (No).
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Got pulled away

Let's do the rest of the backlog

Should They Stay Or Should They Go? Mercenaries 4 Edition, Part III

Ashley Winchester

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110076658/Ashley%20Winchester

Out of all the Week 41 builds, I think this is the one I was most mad about. It was ALMOST excellent...but the obvious fixes weren't implemented in spite of me messaging numbers about it in advance, and instead we got an unusably bad character. Blegh. All Ashley needed was a (small) base ability and for his upkeep to be 3 when he's not Knightblazing and he's a perfectly fine merc but nooooo, gotta put in the least possible effort. Siiiiigh.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Wild Arms is a very beloved series and Ashley is a very unique 5/week in Knightblazer with great feats. Keep him in.

Ashtar

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110076766/Ashtar

A PS with anti-heroic abilities limited by the amount of villains on deck and antipaydown. Very strong and useful, but balanced out with a 3/week upkeep. NES NG2 is kind of a deep cut, but for a PS, that's not an issue.

Should He Stay?: Yes.

Auron

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102031396/Auron

I'm still baffled Leadership never triggered even once. What the hell happened there?! Poor Tom, getting completely hosed on a merc he bought due to RNG :(

Anyway...Auron's fine. There's nothing to really fix or change here unless you wanna give him his Shooting Star or sake abilities from M3. He's good, he works...the only thing I'd do is make it much more explicit whether he gets parameter boosts from Wakka and Tidus' sphere grids or not. I didn't buy into that because it felt like a huge stretch (and it would be a humongous power boost that didn't make much sense), but I would've if it was explicit.

Should He Stay?: Yes, of course.

Bad Box Art Mega Man

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/106563333/Bad%20Box%20Art%20Mega%20Man

Is there a bigger 'fuck you' ability than This Is My Destiny!? I'm honestly struggling to find one. Postrosters (so can't miss or be pointless) SoB taunt on a two week cooldown that is an unblockable removal and you can pick it to be preselected if you want instead is just brutal. I bought BBAMM purely for it and he paid out big time, being instrumental to my victory. He's probably ok overall, but I think someone else should give him a closer look to see if I'm going crazy or not. Ability fluff was ON POINT tho, gotta give him that

Should He Stay?: Yes if other people think he's balanced.

Baiken

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104462248/Baiken

lmao baiken at 2/week

She's really not one anymore now that she's in Xrd. This is probably Tiro's second worst build (worst was Octodad and no mistake), being simultaneously UP, underupkeeped and just plain wonky. It also galls me she came back but we got no Sol Badguy. I get that she has some history in mercs, being one of the key pieces of Redtooth's ability defense apparatus, but that doesn't mean I have to like the fact she made it in over people with more and better showings. She's...OK, I guess, but doesn't wow me. If we wanna pick a rando GGer, Johnny Sfondi is the one we want because he has awesome feats and is super beloved as well, plus his ability in M3 wasn't bad.

Should She Stay?: Probably not. Kind of a minor character from a series that deserves more iconic representation.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

hypehypehype
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

GANON1025 posted...

I think it depends on the VN and the character.

This. You won't see me arguing for Shirou's triumphant return in spite of him being one of my mascot characters. Dude's too vague and has no solid showings. By contrast Taoluo Kong from Kikokugai The Cyberslayer would be an excellent 5/week or 6 because he's a very clearly defined cyborg gunner.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Johnbobb posted...

In fact, in general, I'd like to see the source material spread out more in the next Mercs. We had SO MANY Final Fantasy and LoL Mercs but had many solid games not even get their one main character

Ex. Madworld's Jack never returned, Jak and Daxter never showed up, Infamous only got a supporting character from its third game instead of the face of the series Cole MacGrath

To be fair my discussion for mercenary rosters begins and end with 'WE NEED MORE MERCS IN GENERAL', so

like, if you do surefire cuts and retain everything else, you should still have slots for like a hundred mercs more imoimoimo, minimum
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

(need to take a shower. More in a bit!)
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Archer

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103586767/Archer

Oh boy oh boy, 'VN is hard to read' arguments. I never wanted to saw my balls off as much as I did when we got into inane arguments about how the Servants' feats were 'unclear' during the FSN event. Archer kinda dodged most of it, but the anti-reading crew was strong and real. In spite of this, he was a really strong merc who got excellent 7 respect (read: people took him to solo anything but super stacked scenarios), and his abilities were a labor of love by newbie. His nerf passive was super restrictive, but I wouldn't say it was 'wrong' per se. You could work around it...though I think it would've been nice to let the player buy a reselection option for like, 25 EXP or so given how early he came out. Boko ended up getting hosed by the fact Amaterasu was a really bad friend for Archer in the end, but that wasn't the blacksmith's fault.

Should He Stay?: Yes unless we want to ban all VN characters. We don't have very many Archers, he got solid but not excessive 7/week respect, and he was fun to debate and had good abilities. Unlimited Blade Works was a true slam dunk and I'm so proud of denying it during the playoffs, lol.

Artorias

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/110119333/Artorias

A week 41 merc that I thought was actually very solid and reasonable. Artorias never saw battle in M4, but he had an exhibition match where he acquitted himself very well after the game ended. His abilities are good (though I think the upgrade ability needs a rewording...it's not clear if it cures permanent effects applied at SoB timing or only delays their onset for 10 secs right now, and same for SoB limited-duration effects), and his battle worth seems very solid, especially with Sif around. He's also very well liked amongst the Souls fanbase, and thus probably a better series rep than Smough and Ornstein.

Should He Stay?: Yeah. Seems good.

Ashe

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/108795694/Ashe

One of the biggest faces of Legal Legends and our second League Event merc. Unlike Aatrox, Ashe is actually easy to place on the upkeep scale, she has an unique niche (permaslowing rapidfire archer? Neato!) and very nice abilities. Really the only things I'd tweak are give her a defined item build (because this matters - an Ashe that heals 20% of the damage she deals and has shields is not the same as one with 40% CDR or one that fires shots that multiply themselves to infinity and shred armor, letting her mow teams down in AoE) and give her an Enchanted Crystal Arrow base ability, because 'damages and stuns enemy for five seconds' (maybe longer if we can somehow represent long distance snipes?) is very good. Otherwise, she's good to go.

Should She Stay?: Yes, 100%. You're welcome, Eddv!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Amaterasu

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102031747/Amaterasu

Now here's a merc who's pretty well-rounded without having to be very complicated. Ammy is basically what Link's always wanted to be - open world protagonist with a clearly defined, versatile toolset, decent hype for lowbie, and good abilities. Veil of Mist is a gamechanger - people super respect a whole team having doubled speed, even if it's just for a little bit, and Divine Instruments probably shoulda been Pool of 5 but it wasn't a bad ability either. Ammy was a rare case of an early build that was truly good, and should be celebrated as such.

Should She Stay?: Probably. I could see arguments for cutting her but Okami was well-liked, her build is very good, and she's an unique enough and respected combatant. Why not let her stay?

Annie

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103586757/Annie

Now see, THIS is a good League merc. Everybody who plays the game knows (and fears) Annie, she's visually distinct, and while she's very limited in her combat skills, they're still fearsome because a Tibbers bomb is a teamwide stun, and people love arguments about beating up helpless opponents. Her abilities are just as good, rewarding you if you bought a bunch of low-cooldown abilities but still being solid on their own, including an incredibly juicy every-five-weeks KO and a teamwide stun (plus angry fiery bear right on top of the enemy team). She has some small wording quibbles, but overall, an excellent merc.

Should She Stay?: Yes. Easy to visualize and sell, good abilities, and bears. Perfect package.

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/108800686/Ansem%2C%20Seeker%20of%20Darkness

This might be the most 'why' merc I've analyzed so far. Who decided Ansem was the best possible KH rep after Sora? Nobody really loves him, he's not that well remembered, and his combat respect was pretty low. This was all about getting some broke-ass abilities out the door, and he was at least good for that. Dude had some hefty ability defense vs SoBs on top of ability combos and making mercs ruthless. I just wonder if we couldn't have, like, given these abilities to a better dude instead.

Should He Stay?: No. Give the abilities to Xehanort or something, someone whom people give like, a single good goddamn about. Definitely bring the ABILITIES back, though.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Let's write a bunch

Should They Stay Or Should They Go? Mercs 4 Edition, Pt. II

Big set of mercs coming today. Let's go!

Akuma

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102370816/Akuma

Akuma's ability was kinda poorly written (that whole 'hit' thing with weaklings was...not great, tbqh), but it was a very fun concept and it lend itself well to ability combos. Good stuff. He's very well known, and though he's kinda hard to place powerwise, I think 5/week is about right for him. Very solid merc overall. Pity we never got to see Oni go ham, tho. It should be clarified what games the superforms get, too - because Oni getting Asura's Wrath or not makes a whoooooole lot of difference.

Should He Stay?: Yes, obviously.

Albert Wesker

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102160654/Albert%20Wesker

Look at those abilities. LOOK AT THEM! Man Behind The Curtain was dumb (really really needed to be Pre-Battle) but there's so much potential there. Easily the better part of the merc, I think, because Wesker got oddly...disrespected, I feel. Like he kinda got dismissed a bunch, if that makes sense? He was there, but it never felt like he was carrying, more playing a backup role. I wonder if there's a way to fix that, cause he SHOULD be getting solid respect - maybe not Sora or Ryu H hype, but not 'oh yeah he's there I guess'.

Should He Stay?: Totally. If we need to pick one RE character Wesker is the one who should stay no matter what, and we don't need to be that picky to begin with.

Alucard

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102031021/Alucard

THE PLAN

No seriously, let's have a bit of serious discussion here. Alucard is, as a build, somebody who was pretty good but not quite there. His battle writeup was a mess of ambiguities (does the Heaven Sword dual wield count as nonbroken? What about the Crissaegrim? And Duplicators?), and the Plan was too overtuned. Nobody wants to see neck snaps or tier flips roll up and just completely shit in your cereal and it's not fun gameplay. If an ability makes you lose you should at least be able to say 'oh, well, I shoulda seen this coming'. I severely nerfed the Plan for Draftmerx and I feel like that version is the one that should be considered going forward - M4 Alucard is too busted to be worth keeping.

Should He Stay?: Yes, but with balanced Plans. Tier Flip is probably the single most powerful ability in M4, and the fact you could roll it every day if you were lucky was totally absurd. Give him a well defined writeup too! (Note: I'd give him the Alucard equipment, the Heaven Swords, the Shield Rod and a set of defined shields, and the Fist of Tulkas probably. I think that's the best 'fair' selection.)

Alyx Vance

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103412305/Alyx%20Vance

Now here's a merc that got screwed up for no real reason. The admin team was super opposed to letting Alyx keep her niche from M3, it feels like - where she tagged alongside a friend everywhere, even into sidetopics, and it took until her remake for that to show up. She still didn't get bought, because there was something...distinctly uninspiring about her in a game with no power curve. Dog is cool when he breaks the power level a bit, but he gets manhandled by any real 5 I think. Alyx is the same in lowbie - turbo generic gunner who can't add much to your roster besides 'has a gun'.

Should She Stay?: Probably not. Half Life 2 is a very old game by now and Alyx isn't famous or unique in fighting style. Her slot can go to a more interesting merc. We had too few gunners who were special in M4 and I think we can fix that by picking more interesting characters.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

OK so there were delays but no more

One idea I wanna toss out before I start analyzing more: Aeris should be an assist PS like Tharja was. Doesn't this suddenly make her very valuable without changing a single other thing about her? I feel like this is true and it's the way to go if you wanna keep her.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Held up last night so double feature today when I come home. No delays on this analysis!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

And then you got shanked by the cerebral assassin next round

rip gravy
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

MrSmartGuy posted...

Uh, what? Iceland and Nigeria are almost assuredly the best teams in Pot 3 and 4, respectively.....

Yes, and if we get our shit together they still should be beaten cleanly. The third and fourth pots were oddly mediocre this year...it doesn't feel like a lot of teams are in top form.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

davidponte posted...

Who's ready to see Argentina/Nigeria part 24?

not me, I am so done with meeting those dudes every single fuckin world cup

it's always a chore to face them, uuuugh

On the plus side our division looks like a total softball so we SHOULD make it out. No excuses!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

People just give even the shittiest robot much more durability than humans

I dunno, people didn't give Robo enough credit to tie his own metal shoelaces

That's all on TravisAIDS imo

Robo got solid respect in his first match against me - I remember having to argue long and hard about Marcus having anti-armor attacks to convince people he was beatable.

DeathChicken posted...

Also as one of the probably two people who beat Dirge, Dirge Vincent is right around Yuri's level

Precisely why I think it's worth slotting him in and then giving him some FF7 materia on top IMO - dude is a great unique addition and quite powerful IMO. Especially if FF7R gives him even more nice hype to count on.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Johnbobb posted...

Aerith is a pass imo, largely for the reasons you mentioned. She doesn't add nearly as much to the game as the SO MANY other final fantasy characters

Is this going to be taking into account the new builds made for CE mercs?

Largely no unless it's to say 'just use this build cause it Actually Works'. Untested builds ain't great unless we're comparing them to flat trash.

GANON1025 posted...

Obviously I think Agahnim should stay, especially with the revisions I've proposed for him.

Yeah I'm not in the 'Agahnim sux, REMOVE' group. I just need a bit of a sale on him because you have to expand the amount of releases per day to not have him compete with needed 3s, 5s and 6s for a slot, which is important - some teams did poorly simply because there was too much merc scarcity in early M4.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Agnes Oblige

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102786748/Agn%C3%A8s%20Oblige

The first pick-your-specialty merc we got, IIRC? And a very solid one at that. Agnes has a very unique weaponizable mechanic in Braving, giving her a niche most lowbie mercs don't have, and also a lot of unique little abilities she can use in various classes. Both unacceptables are very solid (though they need to have their rulings ignored - targeting abilities instead of mercs made them very defense-piercing in a stupid way), and being Squeenix, she's pretty well known.

Should She Stay?: Yes. Totally solid merc.

Aigis

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/109433116/Aigis

Back in the dark days of M3, before respect values changed a lot and sanity returned to mercenaries (...relatively speaking, of course), Aigis was the sole answer to 'can Persona characters get respect?'. Being a tittybot with lots of guns and nice magic is kinda good for getting hype. People just give even the shittiest robot much more durability than humans, and Aigis isn't shitty. Being a durable jack of all trades gives her value (though I'm not sure she's a true 5...Ky Kiske or Alucard vs Aigis, who ya got?), and her abilities this go around were very good. Versatile, useful and not TOO punishing. What's not to like?

Should She Stay?: Board 8 is Persona central. Why wouldn't we keep Persona characters around, especially respected ones?

That's all for now. More tomorrow.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Aerith Gainsborough

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102786751/Aeris%20Gainsborough

A good concept executed very poorly on its first go. FF7's support materia are not so unique that Aerith could make herself valuable on their strength alone, her econ ability was really bad, and she's a squishy mage in a world where mages below 5/week are bullet fodder as a rule. Her remixed version was much better, but was released too late to see play.

Should She Stay?: Maybe. We have a lot of FF7 characters already and I think Barret and Vincent are both more deserving than her (Vincent being arguably the second strongest guy behind Sephiroth in that gameline, Barret being a magic-equipped gunner), but she's not bad. I could see putting her in again.

Agahnim

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/103044202/Agahnim

Ability combos, the merc. Agahnim is honestly somebody you buy to counter enemy ability slaves and then completely forget about. It sucks that his ability upgrade actually makes him more bad than good a lot of the time (because some people, AKA bad players, buy 2s for combat value and thus you dilute his pool of good targets by including them - should at least be changed to say 'may' target 2s at leader's choice), and he's kinda RNG heavy, but he's a bit of a throwaway merc anyway so who cares.

Should He Stay?: Yes if there are no more pressing characters to release. He has some mercs history and his abilities aren't too shabby.

Agent 47

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/101968192/Agent%2047

One of M4's definitive earlygame mercs. Peacetime abilities are always good because they encourage player negotiation, and few mercs exemplify their value as much as 47 did early on. It's a pity he didn't scale into lategame though...I've always been a fan of his old, OLD 'buy a KO' version from M1 and TR. It's too broken to grant right off the bat, but with clever upgrade conditions, maybe he could be made to unlock a daily KO (nonbuyable by his leader of course) by week 25/30? That's really all he needs. His abilities are otherwise solid, he's a great stealth merc, and a solid gunfighter otherwise. He'll especially shine if we add more terrains with NPCs instead of making every single fucking terrain a deserted wasteland.

Should he stay?: Yes. Longrunning series' MC, solid to argue, has a very unique niche as the 'perfect infiltrator', good abilities. Keep him.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Ow ow ow

Teeth hurt

Ow

Gonna do this to kill some pain

Should They Stay or Should They Go? Mercs 4 Edition

Let's cover every merc alphabetically and talk about whether they belong in another iteration of mercs or not, and if so why, shall we?

Aatrox

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/108796354/Aatrox

There are a lot of great and fun league mercs we could have. Aatrox is not one of them. He had probably the worst, least interesting pairing of the league event, and he himself was a huge pile of ???? with no cutscene hype or good lore to back him up. If you believe in league lore, he's a solid 5. If not...he's really not because his stuff is not super inspiring. His abilities were a bit hard to use - fun and impactful, but hard. He's also not a popular or well-known character.

Should He Stay?: No. The base ability might be worth putting on a different merc, though.

Abathur

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102032329/Abathur

Is this guy popular? No. Does it matter? No. PSes are basically ability packs - if the ability is interesting, they're worth keeping, and Abathur's ability certainly is. Take a merc and make them a lot better over time, good stuff. Really lets you feel like you're customizing your dudes. Too weak as it was in M4, but easy to fix and clarify.

Should He Stay?: Yes. Just tune him up and make him more reliable and you're good to go.

Adam Jensen

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/102786742/Adam%20Jensen

Deus Ex is one of the most important games of all time, and Human Revolution was a worthy successor. Human Defiance...wasn't, but it's a powerup for Jensen so we can just treat it as an xpac. Important games should be represented, and if JC Denton doesn't make the cut, then Jensen should instead as one of the most lauded series' in gaming's representative. His abilities were on point too - I would probably make I Never Asked For This an upgrade ability and make Pacifist hit a pool of enemies instead of go full random, but otherwise? Just fine. One of the strongest stealth mercs in the game, and respected accordingly.

Should He Stay?: Totally. He even got a new game since M4!

Algus Sadalfas

mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/104265201/Algus%20Sadalfas

ARGATH

Algus isn't a hugely well known character, but he's well-liked by those who know him and he's an ability slave anyway. His abilities were excellent, unique and potent.

Should He Stay?: Yes. He adds a lot to the game by enabling very fun ability combos.

Alice Liddell

http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/108800677/Alice%20Liddell

Alice is a pretty obscure character. That's a downside off the bat, because obscure characters don't get votes as battle mercs unless they either have an ardent fanbase anyway (hi Kain) or an unique powerset that sells itself well easily. Fortunately Alice does have that going for her - her weapons look silly but are clearly strong, she has a very appealing visual design so videos of her will stick in voters' memories, and an unique fighting style among mid low-mid mercs where she teleports around constantly, making her hard to catch. Hysteria is also a very interesting weaponized gameplay mechanic unique to her that can do solid work. Her ability is...kinda broken when upgraded, but not TOO broken and it's fun with enabling mindgames.

Should She Stay?: Yes. We can afford some unique obscure mercs and Alice is a great example of such. Her build can be ported to future games easily too.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Plan is to do 10 a day

either starting today or tomorrow depending on how post-dentistry tooth pain treats me

Stay tuned!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

... oh yeah. I do actually have a sick gaming PC now. Good call!

Lopen Plays Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition: TURBO

(it actually has a turbo setting too so it'd be the most appropriate title, lol)
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

I feel like such a failure of a DMC fanboy having never played DMC4 SE yet.

To be fair this is largely because I've been putting off getting a PS4 for a long ass time.

It's on PC! No reason not to hop to it IMO unless you really don't like plugging a controller into your rig.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Start with everything IIRC?

And yeah, Vergil is crazy in DMC4SE. Just give these vids a look, they say everything that needs to be said about him.




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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

SSJBKK20Vegito posted...

skullbone posted...

LapisLazuli posted...

I should really go back and play DMC4, wonder if that PS4 version is ever gonna drop in price. I stopped after a few hours the first time because Nero was such a lame generic loser. Felt like I was playing DMC as Sora. Was even looking for Kairi!

Any way to play that on modern consoles?

Well the special edition adds 3 more playable characters so it's definitely worth it.

Whom? And do they have storyline?

Lady, Trish, and of course, this guy:



No new storyline worth mentioning but Lady in particular is an incredible addition to the franchise (a gun and distance focused character who is fun and DOESN'T SUCK) and the last guy is even better than he used to be. Get it and play it.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.