Lurker > KanzarisKelshen

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

First of all yeah, the Ivalice raid series is pretty obnoxious to the point where people deliberately remove gear while queuing for Alliance so that they don't get them. It's changing a little because beating that questline is going to be important in a month or two so people are actively doing it, but yeah.

Second of all, tanks actually have the worst queue for Alliance because there's only 3 spots. If you have a DPS or Healer at that level it'll actually be faster. That said, an hour is ridiculous.

My experience is the opposite, weirdly enough. Tanks have blazing queues for Alliances, second only to 'queue, ding instantly' healers. You're right about how common Ivalice raids are though -- the important thing to remember is that only 40% of the playerbase or so has clears on any sort of difficult content (Extremes and up) and the Ivalice raids are much closer to Extremes than your average normal dungeon snoozefest. Really wish they ilevel-capped Crystal Tower to 50-70, tbqh. You'd see an actually decent spread across the alliance roulette if people couldn't totally obliterate thanks to ARR's fucked up scaling.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

The main issue is there's no clear way to gauge their power yeah

Like by all means Emet-Selch is a fuckload stronger than any Primal except Bahamut and Shinryu, but how respectable that is depends on how much you respect the Warrior of Light anyway. I personally think the former is an easy 7 and most Primals would be low mid 6s, but I don't know if I'm the majority here.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

yeah I actually played BLM and did the PIE thing and let me tell you - it was fucking stupid. The way they have it now is they altered the MP costs to line up more nicely so that you still have to pay attention but it's more elegant if you fuck up because you are not as reliant on the whims of the server MP tick. Also skill speed thresholds for BiS still exist for some classes like Warrior.

Besides, for all this (and how accuracy was) I'm not actually making any interesting decisions. I'm waiting for theorycrafters to crunch numbers and go "ok here is what is optimal" and doing it. Which still happens!

There's still some decisionmaking these days -- I can vouch for how Gunbreaker had literally five different builds that ran the gamut from 'super slow, but very strong' to 'SANIC' last raid tier and they were all good and viable. It's just that it doesn't involve stupid spreadsheeting to be allowed to play at all, which 'meld accuracy to hit shit' was.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Dantezoid posted...

I find it hard to give emet selch 7/week respect if I'm not going to give the WoL high respect too

And I don't think I'm going to give the WoL high respect, idk

Even if we assume the trailer cutscenes are canon? I agree with just gameplay the WoL isn't as impressive since the main feat they have is outmuscling Susanoo, but they got some nice feats in those promos

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Tinkering with ideas for high-end mercs as is my wont. What do you guys think of this particular build, battle wise? Paging @Drakeryn @HeroicGammaRay @Dantezoid since I know they all have played the game.

Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV)
Villainous Male Otherworldly

Emet-Selch is as he appears in Final Fantasy XIV, with full access to his cutscene powers and attacks from all relevant instances, save for Black Cauldron. He has access to the full extent of his power of creation, but may not summon sentient beings with it except for those displayed in his attacks. Gigantomachy will not have its enrage functions.

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It's always been a bit of a sticking point that 7/weeks are all spectacle fighters and gunners with no mages on that level. What do you all think about this particular one? Or is he more of a beefy 6/week?

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Pirateking2000 posted...

Jeez how do you make that much

-Maps for initial capital (also hunts, the trick is to trade goetias for fat stax of multifaceted resin).
-Max out your weekly scrip count for ishgard restoration for a quick 1.65m bux by reselling crafter materia (Gatherer Guiles are usually the priciest).
-Play the marketboard for essential markets (materia food etc), ideally as a crafter
-Run a lot of Dun Scaith to buy and resell popular mogtome orchestrions. Answers and Twilight over Thanalan almost always go for 200 to 300k.
-At the high end, try to corner the market for fashion items that are hot. Nothing makes as much dolla as Fashion Fantasy 14.

It's not that hard, it just requires a bit of initial capital to work with.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

ughhhh I'm getting the urge to raid consistently again but I don't want to put myself through the hell of rushing to gear and clear the first two weeks

Maybe a hot take but they should stagger all the savage releases a week or two from normal mode like they do at expansion launch!

Isn't that how it always is? TEA came a little into 5.1.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lucavi000 posted...

I started Shadowbringers.... wtf is up with the normal battle music? It is TERRIBLE

It's garage rock, and it has a very clear thematic purpose. It's actually probably on the upper half of ShB tracks for me I think (and the upper half is at minimum very good and at high end godly).

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

That one's interesting. Depends on who gets what in their build, but Knight could pull it if he gets close enough for Abyss Shriek

Yeah, my personal take is the Knight is a 4/week if you assume the Godmaster ending is canon (I do)

Anybody who canonically beats 50 bosses in a row is kiiiinda hardcore

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Specifically, Aymeric and Moenbryda have British VAs fro the word go and don't change. Everyone else is replaced, and for the better imo, except for Merlwyb.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

Random thought, the Knight from Hollow Knight would be a neat merc. But he would also get "lol he's the size of a bug"

I sent him out on a test match vs Doomguy (doom 2 version, not ludicrous monster Doom Slayer version). He lost, but got some votes. Likely a very strong 3/week.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

X_Dante_X posted...

is that the famous diddle me daddy nier

the one and only

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Bonus round build concept that I forgot we had and was something of a collab between all admins:

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Nier (Nier)
Neutral Male Human
Minimum Bid: 65 GP
Upkeep: 5/week
Exhaust: 2/1

Nier is as he appears in NieR Gestalt/RepliCant, accompanied by Grimoire Weiss and equipped with the Fool's Accord, Fool's Lament and Fool's Embrace, all enhanced with Pahuloth and Ululoth Words. He has access to all of his spells in the game, which are all enhanced with Gebuloth and Lugzarken.

"No one ever stops." (Peacetime, 0 AP): Mercenaries history is sordid, bloody, and best not remembered. But Nier never was one to make good decisions. Each week, Nier's owner may select one match that occurred last week within their pool that had both sides use at least one ability, and one team therein. This choice will be recorded until the end of Wartime.

Tags: Combo Ability, Peacetime

Song of the Ancients (Pre-Battle, 1 AP): In a desperate bid to achieve victory and get one step closer to finding Yonah, Nier may tap into the forbidden power of Mercenaries history, replicating one random ability used by the team selected with No One Ever Stops during the past week as if he'd used it himself. Unfortunately, violence only begets violence, and one mercenary of the enemy leader's choice may replicate a random ability belonging to the team that opposed the one Nier chose last week. These abilities will not cost any AP nor incur any Fatigue from their users, but all other costs must be paid in full, and any variable effects based on AP or fatigue spent will be replicated at the exact same power as they were used last week. In addition, salt (hopefully it's salt. Right? ...Right?) will rain from the sky, and rostered mercenaries who were part of a team in Mercenaries 3 will succumb to unreasonable, bloodthirsty anger when the two teams meet. Thus the cycle of revenge continues...

Tags: Teamwide Random, Variable Ability, Ability Replication, Terrain Editing, Manipulation

(Ability Upgrade & New Ability, 25 EXP)

Nier may duplicate multiple abilities, at a cost of 1 AP per ability replicated, and with the enemy team getting to respond in kind. He may not duplicate any ability more than once, no matter what. The enemy team may duplicate abilities more than once if the number of abilities Nier copied exceeds the maximum amount of abilities available to the team he did not choose, however.

Song of the Ancients -Atonement- (Pre-Battle, 0 AP, Fatigue 1): ...Enough is enough. Someone has to stop and make things right. If a mercenary allied to Nier is affected by a negative effect, during the rostering phase, he may choose to make the ultimate sacrifice. He will remove all traces of his existence from that week's battle, completely curing the ally of all negative effects, including Removals, overriding any effects preventing their cancellation, and render them immune to any further ability effects going forward. He will not be rosterable, will be unable to receive EXP, and will not charge upkeep for the duration of his Fatigue, in effect acting as if he had never been purchased for all intents and purposes. If Song of the Ancients was used during this week, no salt will rain from the skies and no mercenary will succumb to unseemly anger. Instead, a Lunar Tear will bloom in the center of the terrain, causing all mercenaries who gaze upon it to experience a profound sense of nostalgia and loss.

Tags: Ability Cancellation, Removal, Terrain Editing

(New Start of Battle, 15 AP)

"...But by then, the damage was done, and my spirit had been broken, sadly." (Start of Battle, 1 AP): Truly the most emotionally taxing part of Nier: Fishing minigames. Nier may take a random post-rosters enemy mercenary on a fishing trip with him for today's battle. They will begin the battle trying to catch a Shaman Fish at a random body of water within the terrain (or a small fishing pool, if there are none), totally invulnerable to attack and unaffected by any other abilities for the first 30 seconds of the match...at which point they will realize they were fishing at the wrong spot and immediately move to another body of water (or fishing pool) and instantly catch the fish they were looking for, with all other ability effects taking place at that point in time. They will enter battle afterwards, as usual, annoyed at their thickheadedness.

Tags: Postrosters Random, Negative Effect, Movement

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

Me: Oh I respect Doomguy but I don't know if he's worth that pri *sees he starts with the BFG*

Didn't make any sense to hold back that juice from him, tbqh

When you're packing a triple minigun, an assault rifle that fires homing missiles that can 360 noscope dudes who are behind you, and a gauss cannon that can oneshot twenty fatass demons if they happen to line up, the BFG ends up being more of an exclamation point at the end of his gun list than a gamebreaker

(still super good for smoking speedsters tho, that's for sure)

It's crazy to think we'll probably have to hike up his price judging from how ludicrous the Doom Eternal trailers have been.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Bossman_Coolguy posted...

Newmguy seems op but i dont know the new system's intricacies

Make sure to recheck his passive, we just caught he was missing a couple important notes!

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Haurchefant Greystone
Heroic Male Human
Minimum Bid: 20 GP
Upkeep: 1/week

Lord Haurchefant Greystone is as he is seen in Final Fantasy XIV, including all feats in-game and in cutscenes.

My son once described you as Hope incarnate. (On Purchase): Upon meeting the Warrior of Light, Haurchefant found his greatest inspiration. On purchasing Haurchefant, select one Heroic mercenary on your team. That character gains the Warrior of Light trait.

My arm will not falter! My shield will not break! (Passive): Whenever the Warrior of Light is rostered and Haurchefant is also rosterable, he will enter the battle as the WoLs assist without taking a slot. In addition, his devotion renders both him and the WoL immune to mind-affecting abilities as long as theyre both alive.

Tags: Passive, Positive Effect, Ability Defense, Assist

So, Master Alphinaud, are you content to remain a broken blade? Is there no flame hot enough to reforge you?. (Results, 0 AP): When hope is all but snuffed, Haurchefant knows how to inspire courage in his allies. When Haurchefant is rostered on a loss, he will remind his heroic comrades what theyre fighting for. All other Heroic mercenaries will be immune to Removal abilities next week.

Tags: Teamwide, Ability Defense, Automatic

UPGRADES:

(Ability Upgrade, 20 EXP)

Haurchefant has found another inspiring leader. Choose one more Heroic mercenary to be a second Warrior of Light.

(New Passive 20 EXP)

Dont look at me like that... a smile better suits a hero. (Passive): When a Warrior of Light is about to be affected by a Removal ability, Haurchefant will intercept it, allowing himself to be KOd and injured to protect his charge. This ability may not activate again until a new tier cycle begins. In addition, give all Warriors of Light the following ability this week:

Life for death. I will have Ser Zephirins heart for what he did to Haurchefant. (Results, 0 AP): If the WoL and the mercenary that KOd Haurchefant are rostered and your team wins, the WoL will brutally injure that mercenary. If the offending mercenary was not rostered, the WoL will injure both that mercenary and a random enemy mercenary that fought this week.

Tags: Ability Defense, Interception, Automatic, Injurying

Terrain: The Coerthas Central Highlands - a bitterly cold expanse of what was once a lush Eorzean region, harried by dragons and heretics alike. The entire map region is accessible for todays battle, though dungeons are blocked off. No monsters or enemies are present, but the chilled environment itself could be a hazard for those not properly equipped. The Whitebrim Front and Camp Dragonhead do have Ishgardian guards loyal to Haurchefants (or barring that, the defending) team. Attackers start at the Hall of Seven Echoes. Defenders start in Haurchefants chamber in Camp Dragonhead.

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Kan's comments: Powerful abilities that can be hurled out every week are scary stuff. Fortunately, we're well aware of that, and are committed to not simply turning Mercs 5 into Mercenaries: Vietnam Edition, with KOs and crippling debuffs like being sent to fish raining down from the sky. Haurchefant is a good example of how we aim to provide every player with tools to counter oppression -- and also, of the heightened value we're placing on terrains. Even supports may offer one or more, as we've created incentives for fighting that will drastically lower the pressure of going to topic and reward spirited arguing, even in a losing battle.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

The Doom Slayer (Doom Series)
Heroic Male Otherworldly
Minimum Bid: 80 GP
Upkeep: 6/week
Exhaust: 2/1

<b>The Doom Slayer</b> is as he appears in Doom 2016, equipped with all single player weapons and equipment, fully upgraded alongside his maxed out Praetor Suit, as well as the In-Flight Mobility, Equipment Power, Savagery, Blood Fueled and Rich Get Richer runes, fully mastered. He may perform Glory Kills on opponents, which will not make him invulnerable but will yield health and ammo. He has also brought a Doomguy doll with him.

"They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done." (Pre-Battle, 4 AP, Fatigue 3): The pits of Hell will be cleansed of demons and all its agents, even if their infinite forces must be vanquished one by one. When this ability is declared, the Doom Slayer will go on a murderous rampage. Four sets of rosterable enemy mercenaries will be randomly selected to be drawn into a side topic match against him, with their combined upkeep value equalling or exceeding his Upkeep + 1 (and with their total upkeep not being able to exceed his upkeep value + 3). The Slayer will fight them alone, with the loser being KO'd. Should he vanquish all his foes, another set of mercenaries will be randomly drawn and enter the fray, with the Slayer's condition restored to its initial status upon the beginning of the match. This process will continue until the Slayer has KO'd all four sets of foes or is defeated in turn, with the side topic's duration being reset to six hours for each match. Should KOing an enemy cause a retaliatory ability to activate in return, it will go off after the side topic is done.

Tags: Side Topic, Removal, KO, Teamwide Random

"So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again." (Passive): It takes a special kind of reputation to make Hell freeze over with terror single-handedly, and those who've tasted the Slayer's steel and bullets are all too keen to spread that reputation out. If the Slayer is rostered on a win or successfully KO's at least his upkeep + 3 GP's worth of mercenaries using Rip and Tear Until It's Done, rumors of his prowess in battle will begin to circulate. Each week thereafter, enemy teams scheduled to face him will have to contend with the growing fear of being ripped and torn to shreds. This fear will increase so long as he is rosterable but isn't rostered, then vanish after the first week he is rostered for his own team as part of a non-sidetopic match. The levels of fear are as follows:

First Week: The enemy team will be pointedly aware of the possibility of the Doom Slayer being part of the team, even if he's not rostered. They will be on edge, more jittery than usual, and easily spooked.

Second Week: He could be anywhere! Where is he hiding!? One random post-rosters enemy will prioritize the Doom Slayer, or if he's not rostered, absolutely confirming he's not part of the battle.

Third Week: He comes, he comes, he comes...one randomly selected on-tier enemy mercenary will come to battle exhausted, having been unable to sleep due to haunting, but vitally important nightmares of the Slayer tearing through their team. This effect is rolled upon declaration. If the mercenary is not rostered, the enemy team will enter the fight with no battle plan.

Fourth Week and onwards: He's here! HE'S HERE! The enemy team will start the match with the minimum possible morale, in a state of simmering panic. One randomly selected post-rosters enemy mercenary will become a nervous wreck, overcome by crippling fear and unable to fight except in self-defense, preferring to escape and avoid confrontation if possible.

The Slayer's team is aware of all of these effects, which stack with each other, with the strongest possible morale affecting effect overwriting all others. Affecting the Slayer with a Removal effect will suppress this passive's effects, and defeating him in battle or in his side topic without him achieving (his Upkeep + 3) GP's worth of KOs will cancel it entirely until he wins or successfully uses Rip and Tear Until it Is Done again. The only way to conquer one's fears is to face them, after all.

Tags: Negative Effect, Teamwide, Scaling Effect, Manipulation

(Ability Upgrade, 15 EXP):

Monstrous fiends know all too well just how keen the bite of the Slayer's blade truly is. If the Slayer is rostered in battle and his passive's effect is currently active, Undead and Otherworldly mercenaries will will have the current effect increased by one level of intensity (for example, if this was the second week after a win where the Slayer wasn't rostered, they would enter the battle experiencing the third week's effects, and the target of nightmares would be randomly rolled between Undead and Otherworldly mercs only upon declaration as a precautionary measure if the Slayer is rosterable).

(Ability Upgrade, 20 EXP):

The true masterminds die first. When he uses Rip and Tear Until It Is Done, The Doom Slayer may choose to target one Otherworldly or Undead merc to kickstart his murderous rampage, facing them alone even if their upkeep is equal or lower than his. Should he be defeated before KOing at least (his Upkeep + 3) GP's worth of enemy mercenaries, 1 AP will be refunded, and he will not suffer Fatigue from declaring this ability either.

Terrain: <i>The Titan's Realm - An inhospitable corner of hell, where the humongous remnants of demons slain by the Doomslayer rest. Attackers will start at the beginning area, with defenders starting at the Icon of Sin's resting place. No enemies are present.</i>

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Kan's comments: No prizes for guessing who made this guy. This build showcases two of our new subsystems: Fatigue and Exhaust. The former is a balancing lever used to keep particularly disruptive abilities in check, and bans a mercenary affected by it from using any of their abilities for the duration of the status effect, effective immediately upon ability declaration unless stated otherwise. What this means is if a mercenary has two abilities and you use one with Fatigue first, you can't use the other even if you have the AP to pay for it! This build in particular also showcases the potential power of high AP abilities -- as well as the way to actually use that power consistently, in the form of the Exhaust system. Exhaust allows you to gain more AP (the number on the right of the slash '/'), at the cost of Fatiguing the mercenary for a number of weeks equal to the current week, plus 2 (so, you could use the Slayer's ability again 3 weeks after

Hey guys. Been a while, hasn't it?

With the new year almost a twelfth done, and my new job finally easing up a little on me, I figured it was time for a status update. Rather than simply discuss what we've been up to, though, the admin team has collectively decided to kick the new Mercs year off with a bang -- by showing off our work. We've handpicked a build from each of our admins, showcasing the quirks of our new systems, as well as the kind of development mindset that's gone into them. Without further ado...let's get into it.

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Funky Kong (Donkey Kong Country)
Heroic Male Beast
Minimum Bid: 29 GP
Upkeep: 2/week
Pure Support

Abilities

Fight The Good Fight, Kong-Bro! Stay Primal! (Passive): Funky Kongs attached mercenary will be considered a Beast for ability targeting purposes. Additionally, Kong will be added to their name, replacing their last name if valid (or attaching onto their last name if theyre better known for their last name, i.e. Commander Shepard-Kong), as long as Funky is attached.

Tags: Passive, Targeting, Write-Up Alteration, Classification Alteration

All-New Funky Mode (Pre-Battle, 1 AP): Roster complexity got you down? Dont worry, the main monkeys got your back! Funky can target one rosterable allied mercenary. All of their weapons, armor, vehicles, and equipment will carry over to Funkys attached mercenary, who will fully understand how to use them. Multiple customizations? No problem, Funky will just give em all of them - even if they bestow abilities that arent weapons, if its a customization, Funky will copy it. However, the targeted allied mercenary will be considered unrosterable and cannot use abilities after Funky Mode has resolved. Previously-declared abilities will be redacted, with the AP cost refunded.

Tags: Pre-Battle, 1 AP, Targeting, Allied Target, Firearms, Vehicle, Positive Effect, Ability Negation, Roster Manipulation, Customization

Upgrades

(Character Upgrade; 2 uses of Funky Mode)

-Funkys attached merc will gain a surfboard and a pair of sunglasses. Bodacious.

(Ability Upgrade; 15 XP)

Choose one of the following additions to Funky Mode. This upgrade may be taken multiple times:

-All ammunition/firearms will gain homing properties, as homing ammo appears in Donkey Kong 64.
-Funkys attached mercenary may copy one targeted spell, fighting style, or physical technique from the target mercenary.
-All-New Funky Mode may be used twice in one Wartime.

(New Ability; 15 XP)

Funkys Flights (Passive): Funky Kongs attached mercenary may bid on any of their teams terrains as if it were their own. Additionally, they may bid on the last terrain that Funkys team has won on, regardless of if they own it or not.

Tags: Passive, Terrain, Battle Record

Kan's comments: You know what we love? Mercenaries who let you build themed teams instead of just a grabbag of generic goodstuff. M4 had a good idea in adding some, but there just weren't enough to really commit to a gimmick without knowing what the entire release pool would be like. We're rectifying that by adding new mercenaries like good ol' Funky, who allows players to clearly go all-in on the customization abuse game, while also providing some nice utility in the form of Funky's Flights if you want variety. We want every mercenary you buy to bring something new and useful to your team. Fortune willing, you'll be able to create a team that is very 'you' and still has a chance to go all the way to the finals from week 1.

(And yes, the 'Kong' rename does something in conjunction with a certain other merc. I wonder who it could possibly be...?)

PS: As you can see, we've switched fully to an AP system, and tried to categorize abilities in terms of what they do! The tags system is VERY MUCH NOT FINAL, but it's a good demonstration of how abilities that interact with other abilities will work. No more needing admin rulings for ability clashes! (Or at least, significantly less rulings needed. Fingers crossed!)

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Not_an_Owl posted...

Shadowbringers is legit one of the best JRPGs in years and its only real flaw is that it's locked behind hundreds of hours of less good (but still pretty good) video game.

Legit, Shadowbringers is so strong I feel Squeenix will someday rerelease it as a standalone. It's that solid.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Min iLevel clear too!!

Fight is fucking amazing, strongly recommend everyone try it if you can find a team for it. It's super intense and soooo satisfying. Probably the second best boss after ShB's final boss.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Obligatory video for this kind of discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf-xxGkkWPs

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I'd love to see a testrun episode, certainly! Do you have any ideas for a cohost?

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

That's not a bad idea actually

let guests say as much as they want while the hosts stick to the public stuff. I could definitely see that working

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Kamekguy posted...

For 'tokens', it's just codifying stuff like Naoto's Death Counters, M3 Johnny's Coins, Wrex. Shepard. that sort of thing.

This. Making it less of a bunch of weird one-offs and more something the rules go over.

This is a good idea on paper but I'm not sure how easy it'd be to pull off. I think that kinda thing loses a bit if it's not organic. (and some of that already happens anyway!) The color commentary idea I like better (nominate Drak and/or Chris) but then you run a weird balance between keeping things interesting and talking too much and tipping people's hands in some fashion. One of the cooler things about the Drak journals is that most of the stuff in them was not public info at the time, so it would lose something if he tried to do that in real time without compromising the integrity of the game.

Absolutely, yeah. The idea isn't to reveal secrets. More like a more involved version of the old M1 standings to keep people in the loop. Possibly something like combining those old standings recaps with a 'power rankings' style? Suggestions and ideas welcome on this front.

DeathChicken posted...

I support the bounty hunter thing, on the grounds I loved dragging up characters no one put any value to and going "Yo this guy's actually pretty good"

No joke this is something that instantly came up for BH's. It lets us get a mix of lesser but good characters from big franchises in (for example, Gray Fox from MGS), and some of those 'whos' who are really good if you can make a case for them, making them less of a gamble since you can try them out for a day or two and see what they're like.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

I don't say this often enough, so this is a good time: thanks for keeping this topic up guys. I know news have been kinda sparse lately so I figured this would be a good time for a quick update. Without further ado:

-The big reason for this total info blackout is we're getting hammered by RL. Mentioning only my own personal experience, I'm halfway through a month of doing twelve hours of work during the workweek, for instance.

-In spite of this, work is still underway, both with mercenary review to make sure we understand where M4 went right and wrong, and also systems work as well. Remember that Bounty Hunter system from way back when? It's been reworked after it was found to be confusing and unintuitive. Now, instead of being a guessing game where you try to get the right contract to trigger, you instead pick a merc from the unbought pool (or the permanent bounty hunter pool - think a bit like Claude in M3) and pay them a sum. If the opponent fulfills their activation condition, which is usually a paydown, you get to use them and get 1 AP to spend on them. If you roster the merc and win, you can get some money back, giving an incentive towards using more than just ability slaves. It's my hope to post a proper, readable version of this soon if I can find a day off.

-Current explorations on system mechanics is how to do 'gated' abilities that you can't use willy-nilly but don't necessarily key off of fatigue -- think stuff like Shepard's Citadel ability, which would be terrible if using it banned him from employing another useful ability for two cycles or something silly like that. A thought we've been toying with is introducing a tentative 'third option' for ability design beyond AP and Fatigue, tokens. These have existed in Mercs since forever, but codifying them and making them more consistent could allow us to make some abilities less binary in how they function.

-We're committed to releasing a full set of system mechanics by year end at the latest. This way, we'll be handing anyone who wants to make builds both the toolkit to do so in a way that will be compatible with the upcoming game, and also provide a bit more guidance in how to do ability formatting/interactions.

-Since we're doing a lot of changes, we will most likely test things with a short draftgame once we have the rules out in the open and enough updated/new builds to work with. No ETA on this yet, but know that there'll be a chance to experience an M5 prototype without hard-committing to the Long Walk once again, once the time is right.

EDIT: Also, and this is a personal note, I'm pondering something I remember gravy saying way back when and I'd like some feedback on it. How do you guys feel about pushing the overarching storylines angle of Mercs? By this I don't mean introducing RP elements or anything of the sort. More acknowledging that, since Mercs is a long game, feuds, rivalries, grudges and dramatic moments naturally arise, and it already has built-in peak drama moments in the events and elimination matches, it may be a good idea to encourage people to be hype men, or even look to get someone in particular to keep up running commentary of it. If the secret stories that the game creates were made a bit more public, it's possible more voters would stick with the game even as it gets more complex because they wanna see where it goes, much like in sports or wrestling, thus counteracting some of the game's natural voter attrition. Thoughts?

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DF is very much at the extreme end, yeah -- but since it was such a big influence, it's trickled down into a LOT of other UF authors. I honestly can't recall the last UF story that I saw have a month long timeskip or longer, for instance. It all gets resolved in a week, maybe ten days, every time.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

also also who does this leave as the biggest hero (non-FF/X-Men) that they havent used yet?

Nova seems like a guaranteed movie at some point, but then what? I guess they still need the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider. After that the best ones jumping to mind right now are Spider-Woman and I guess Hercules? ... Wonderman? Were getting deep here.

Amadeus Cho would be my pick (as his supergenius version, not the Hulk one). His powers are so cinematic it'd be very easy to make something cool out of him. Also gives a way to continue the Hulk legacy if the need arises.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

OK. So. Dresden Files breakdown. I've been writing an UF novel on and off, a lot of which was a reaction to DF and thinking I could do better alongside a very close friend, so let me see if I can offer you a detailed perspective...

-Harry Dresden is definitely a heartfelt character. It's very important to understand he also is very, very good at not confronting his own feelings. He jokes and quips constantly because he's terrified and crumbling at the edges a lot of the time and if he didn't do it, he'd break. Practically his entire inner monologue is textbook irony, in the classical sense. If you want to see what an actually underdeveloped character is like, read, say, Iron Druid.

-He's a shonen protagonist. There's not much point beating around the bush there. Imagine a very fleshed out Goku and you're not too far off the mark. People like it when their shonen media is thought-out for a change. Don't think of the books as you would something like Saving Private Ryan or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Try to see them in the vein of Terminator 2 or the Fast and the Furious series.

-Book 2 is poorly written. There's not much to say about it. Characters act OOC, the plot is hokey, and the action mostly weak. Using it as an example of something that breaks immersion is correct, but pointless. It's a significant step down from book 1 and book 3 is a much bigger step up, purely at the technical level. No fan of the series tries to defend it, because it's not too defensible and nothing that happens in it really matters.

-This is a minor nitpick at the lore level, but it's a quickly established fact wizards have a significantly stronger healing factor than normal humans, which is why they can live elongated lifespans, age more gracefully and die harder. Harry's ability to bounce back from terrible things isn't unexplained.

-Something I don't think you hit on is that the action is incredibly clear, lucid and concise. As these books are action movies in paper form, this matters. If you take nothing else from them, try to compare how you write fights and see if you can make them hustle and pop this much.

-Building up on the previous point, something you should learn from these books (like, actively learn and confront, not just mention in passing) is that Urban Fantasy never slows down. Dresden Files was the book that led me to coin the term 'Crisis Weekend', describing plots where the heroes end up entangled in a dire situation that resolves itself in the span of a few days, with no room for long-term character growth or significant, observable changes from beginning to end of a given story. The characters in DF, as with all action movie characters, are static in a given tale. The change happens in-between books. If you want to write UF, you should confront this and ask yourself how you're gonna deal with it. If you want to allow characters to change mid-story, how is the supernatural not going to force rapid responses? Why is the problem not going to snowball in such a way that the characters can't take a break from it without being stupid, criminally negligent, or evil? If you want to go fast, how are you planning to keep multiple plates spinning so that your readerbase doesn't see the illusion of depth that the Crisis Weekend has for what it really is? Working out how Butcher handled this across three books is something you'll find useful to help you decide how you're going to do your own thing.

If you can point out specific grievances or high moments, I can probably go into more detail, because me and my cowriter discussed this series a lot as we avidly read them and gradually fell out of love with them. But for a start, I think this should be enough.

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Glancing at my noms, I feel like Scheherazade deserves a bit of a better explanation. Setting aside that her universe standardizes things like durability and strength such that she's pretty far above humans and gives them immunity to nonmagical attacks of all stripes, her claim to fame is that she's a very odd, limited reality warper. She can manifest anything that was part of the Arabian Nights/1001 Nights, which includes such things as shapeshifting genies, building sized birds, a wide variety of magical artifacts, and even places, and has some limited ability to determine what 'counts' as part of the fables, allowing her to add new things in that didn't have anything to do with the middle eastern stories. She also has a conceptual immunity against beings she considers kings (which can include all forms of rulers, queens and lesser lords included), allowing her to survive their attacks no matter what. This doesn't let her beat them, necessarily, just makes her nigh-on impossible to kill because she reflexively adapts her strategy to counter whatever it is they're doing.

EDIT: Also, re: what counts as a temporary powerup, she spends basically the entirety of her first story being way, way beyond what she can do afterward, because she's fueled by a demon god, which lets her do things like mass-brainwash a dozen heroes into filling roles she wants filled, sustaining self-cloning human beings and monsters as well as a completely unworkable underground world, and lifting a city/small country-sized landmass into the air with the intent to use it to slam a city into dust. Would this count as a temporary powerup considering this all takes place through a span of weeks or months, or just her power peak?

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

redrocket posted...

How does the nuke interact with Start of Battle Abilities?

This will be clarified if Raynor gets published in M5, but they don't count. SoBs resolve in 'moment 0'. If you've ever played Pillars of Eternity or Baldur's Gate, picture it like those games' 'pause on battle start' setting, except you get to take certain actions while everything is frozen. Since the clock hasn't begun ticking yet, they don't cancel out the nuke.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77692932

We're live! Have at it, everyone!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

DeathChicken posted...

So does collateral damage from the environment count for Shadow's thing? If not he wins, if so, Wesker + Luca probably bring the school down on him

It's interp but I would personally take it as 'if an enemy caused it intentionally and it's meaningful, it counts'. So like, demolishing the school to bury him = cool, random pebble falls on his shoulder because of a fight two hallways down = nope.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Albert Wesker is as he appears during his first boss fight in Resident Evil 5. He comes equipped with his custom Samurai Edge, semi-automatic rifle, Lightning Hawk magnum and several flash and frag grenades. He also has his moveset from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Cloud Strife is as seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, with access to the First Tsurugi, his motorcycle Fenrir, and any abilities/skills granted by that equipment. He additionally has access to all magic (green) FF7 materia and his wing from Kingdom Hearts.

Shanoa is as she appears at the end of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, equipped with the Robe Decollete and has all of her relics and glyphs except for Arma Machina and ones that summon familiars, as well as being unable to use Dominus Union. She also has her moveset from Judgment.

Luca Blight is as he appears in his boss fight(s). He has access to all of his attacks, but not the Beast Rune, which he never used because the damn thing was sitting in his castle.

Scorpion is as seen in the Mortal Kombat series. He has all of his moves, and has access to all of his weapons. He will gain strength from being in the Netherrealm over time should the match take place there, but cannot teleport his opponents there. He may only use fatalities against suitably weakened opponents.

Terrain: Yasogami High School - A standard Japanese high school with two buildings - one housing classrooms and the other activity rooms. Students, teachers, and other NPCs have been cleared out before the fight and access to the rest of the Persona world is banned. Attackers will start at the entryway, with defenders starting within Yu's classroom.

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If anyone has any concerns about the writeups or issues with how things are worded, lemme know. Otherwise, the match'll go up in an hour!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Jim Raynor is as he appears in Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, fully upgraded and equipped with all of the weapons and gadgets seen in the Piercing the Shroud and Belly of the Beast missions, as well as his trusty suit of armor.

Yu Narukami (MC) is as he appears in Persona 4. He has the persona Izanagi available, with all default skills from P4 learned in addition to all the moves from Persona 4 Arena, with the exception of his mortal blow or gameplay mechanics (invincibility frames, etc). He also can freely switch to his persona Kohryu, who only has their natural non-passive skills and elemental affinities (though Samarecarm is not available).

Rikku is as she appears in Final Fantasy X, equipped with Godhand and a Tercio without SOS Reflect. She has access to her own sphere grid. She has brought 5 each of Lunar Curtain, Star Curtain, Chocobo Wing, Mana Tablet, Stamina Tablet, Smoke Bomb and Frag Grenade to battle and can use any combination of them with Use or her Mix Overdrive, provided sufficient Overdrive has been built.

Shadow the Hedgehog is as he appears in the Sonic series. He has access to all of his Chaos powers other than Chaos Rift and Super Shadow, though he cannot warp more than three meters and cannot manipulate or travel through time in any way, and is equipped with the Shadow Rifle. He cannot release his inhibitor rings. He is carrying the laser guidance system for an Apocalypse-class nuclear missile, aimed at the opponents' base. He will start the battle hidden and separate from both teams, able to move freely. If he manages to avoid being successfully struck by a single enemy attack, no matter how damaging, for 10 minutes, his team will instantly win the match. Both sides are aware of this alternate victory condition, and the match may resolve normally as well.

Potemkin is as he appears in Guilty Gear Xrd, with access to all of his moves except gameplay mechanics (invincibility frames, etc). His instant kill won't necessarily kill everything in one shot.

Inkling Girl is as she appears in Splatoon with orange ink, equipped with a Rapid Blaster Pro Deco and Heavy Splatling, with their appropriate sub and special weapons. She is wearing a Squid Hairclip, School Jersey, and Soccer Cleats. Her ink won't slow her own team, though it will slow anyone else. She is accompanying Jim Raynor as an assist.

~VS~
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

The 'ow the edge' one

I fully expect a Jack Slate build once we publish the rules tho, holding you to it
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Jim Raynor (New writeup!)/Shadow (New writeup!)/Yu Narukami/Rikku/Potemkin/Inkling (New writeup! Ish!)

~VS~

Albert Wesker/Cloud Strife/Shanoa/Luca Blight/Scorpion

Terrain: Yasogami High

Special Match Stips:

Shadow is carrying the laser guidance system for an Apocalypse-class nuclear missile, aimed at the opponents' base. He will start separate from both teams, able to move freely. If he manages to avoid being successfully struck by a single enemy attack, no matter how damaging, for 10 minutes, his team will instantly win the match. Both sides are aware of this alternate victory condition, and the match may resolve normally as well.

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Thoughts everyone? We wanted to try an even match where one side has an unique advantage in a solid, but not flat out free win-ish terrain.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Been a while, huh.

Apologies for the radio silence folks. Work on the ruleset is close to done -- no promises when it'll be finished, but know it's happening. This doesn't mean I'm coming here empty handed, though. We have a bunch of new builds done and old mercs reviewed and spruced up...and we're ready to show some off. I'll have more to say tomorrow after I've slept, but for now, know a new showmatch is close at hand. As for what it'll be about...

Nuclear Launch Detected.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Yep

I feel Grigori as a 4 or 5/week would make sense, the problem is there's more iconic dragons out there who deserve a showing first

(like Rathalos)

(I've just started playing monhun world and the MC is already being all Indiana Jones-like, I think the Hunter is gonna acquit him/herself nicely)
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

The problem is making it so the Arisen gets respect. You saw how little attention people gave Grigori. Where would you peg him at? 4/week tops?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Pizzaknight posted...

Any Persona 5 mercs in the works?

Joker was a day 1 build for this admin team

May get more depending on P5R!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Status update: Work on reviewing old mercs is proceeding apace. Gordon Freeman finally has a big boy ability for instance, instead of a weak passive, and likewise for Haseo. Ruleswork will probably get finally done in Easter when I have time to sit down and write without interruptions. Hopefully people can start making M5-compliant builds soon!
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

You know whats funny

Crono has so little ability material

And yet he's still easier to make a nice build for than sonic

Rip bluehog
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

That's probably workable

Really only leaves Sol and Bryan Fury as the notable 'gross' targets I think

The main thing is that Epoch isn't particularly cronoesque - you could hand it over to any CT character besides magus and it'd fit about as well. So I'm not super attached to it since it's one of those abilities that can be really warping (particularly because Crono HAS to be a day 1 merc, when reinforcements matter most) while also not being particularly fitting.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Epoch is busted even with M3/4 stuff only

You get 4/week Haseo, Cole McGrath, Daniel Garner with his stupid as hell 32x damage and speed multipliers (Remember the time he soloed a whole team of 4s and 5s? I do), STILL 4/week Sol, and I forget what else

It's just not a balanceable ability unless you draw from M4 only, and at that point I'd rather give Crono something about Dual and then Triple Techs and his Heroic Sacrifice and call it a day. More iconic and less of a balance headache.

EDIT: Also yes, Sol was known to be busted even in M2. If you check the journal, it mentions how HGR was looking to cut a deal for the Illidan raidboss event that was basically 'if everyone but Drak and Twilight gives me a forfeit, I send Dragon Install Sol to clean house'. It's why I was always so miffed he didn't show up in M4, he's annoying to make a build for but he's a quintessential 'arguer's merc' that really rewards the players who take the time to research characters out.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Lopen posted...

Tira should beat Crono in a 1v1

He's under respected as a 3 because he should be a 2

You think? Who's a 3/week from CT then? Magus and Robo?
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

We're keeping a version of that as an ability, IIRC. It was one of my favorite concepts too and much better in terms of balanceability than Epoch
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Agree with that

People turn their brains off with parameter buffs

We want to be very careful with how they're handed out

One of the first builds we did for m5 had a synergy bonus when rostered with another character though, granting perfect team synergy and morale, so the idea is on our radar. Worry not.
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

So I haven't gotten round to it yet but I'm curious

is Dante as crazy as he seems to be in DMC5? Cause it's looking like he's a candidate for retirement at this point due to breaking the scale and Nero can take his place
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Tom Bombadil posted...

wait what do people mess up with risk

Not play modern versions of it which are much tighter ruleswise

there's an analogy here to playing the M1 ruleset instead of a more modern one but I can't find it
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.

The cutest oldecatte, I want
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Shine on, you crazy diamond.