1) Was it fun? This is our ultimate endgoal. The TR didn't have to be thrilling from start to finish, but did you enjoy it when all was said and done?
I had a lot of fun! I think the biggest obstacle is the time commitment to initial research but now that we're familiar with the mercs, the barrier for the main game is lessened. However, that's not necessarily true for new players.
2) What did you most like about the Test Run overall? Any part of the game is fair to note here.
I liked that it didn't feel super stompy for anyone, and that rematches between teams didn't end up being consistently boring. I also really liked the introduction of the AP system, but with the caveats I'll explain further below.
3) Likewise, what did you
dislike most? Any part of the game is fair game for this, and so is our job as admins if you think we need to improve on something.
A few things here - this is going to effectively be my answer for Question 7 too since it's just all my general feedback.
- even though they didn't show up, abilities that require any extra time commitment (Meta Knight, Zenos) should be scrapped entirely. Just fundamentally they shouldn't be in the game. My personal biggest barrier to wanting to participate in mercs long-term is the significant time commitment, and I still don't want any abilities like that in the game. Picking a proxy isn't a solution because then you're just signing up a proxy to sit and f5 because of a shitty design choice. Remove them from the game. Straight up.
- Hard removals being balanced by AP cost and not recharge - we've discussed this as nauseum in the chat though.
- The declaration order was extremely stale but I know that there are changes being done to this. I would rather see the #1 team at the top of the dec order than be stuck in the bottom half of the dec order the entire game because I did well.
- I think phantasmals should have higher min bids. Most of the time, an ability is extremely valuable but isn't 50% of the reason why you buy a merc - especially when the strongest abilities are going to be nerfed for the main game. I think it should be closer to a 30% discount with abilities taken out of the picture, as opposed to like a 50-60% discount. I know that there will be bid wars but I am worried that someone will just stack phantasmals because having extra bodies is excellent ability insurance, and you're not at an economic disadvantage for loading up on them. Maybe a cap of like, 2 phantasmals per team or something? IDK. But I think they're a touch overtuned.
- EXP costs are way too high for a lot of shitty upgrades. The opportunity cost for getting some of them is just way too high, especially in the context of the real game where we're getting half exp (like Lea's ability upgrade being 25 exp in addition to the upgrade itself creating fatigue). I think 25EXP upgrades should be reviewed across the board in particular cause some of them just didn't look at all worth it. A lot of the newer builds don't have this issue as much but yeah.
4) How did you feel about the new systemic changes such as AP, Bounty Hunters and others? Is there anything you feel needs to be adjusted in particular, after the already executed adjustments?
I think the AP system is great
but I do think that there's a massive advantage given to doing abilities second in most cases because there's no insurance if your big multi-AP ability gets cancelled. I don't want to invest in high AP abilities because of that. I haven't thought much about this suggestion but maybe if you have an ability countered, you get half the AP back rounded down (so if a 2AP ability is countered and you get the AP back, you can still declare a 1AP ability in lieu). That probably makes things extremely clunky though.
Bounty hunters seemed good by the end - this seemed evident when nobody was buying down to low week 5.
BUT I do think that was partially because we had 6 players. With more people there'll be more buydowns and more risk of needing a BH.
5) Were any mercenaries too weak for you to bother with? Likewise, do you feel any mercenaries are too strong?
Here are some thoughts on some mercs, first the overtuned!
- Vivi (obvious ability reasons, should also be 3/week combat for even more obvious reasons imo)
- Liquid (I appreciate that sahelanthropus takes up every roster slot and costs a lot of money in low but unless you have a hard removal for Liquid it's an instant loss - a 'feelsbad' ability in low)
- Pamela (while I love her concept, I think that her Physical Immunity has some serious potential to be devastating in low tier against the right teams because it's so physical/weak gunner heavy. I don't think every team should be forced to buy a low tier magician simply because Pamela exists.)
- Richter (Vampire Killer in the real game every week is absolutely insane if you do actually make a proper Slayer build, and his upgrade ability being 0AP is busted. If someone had a chance to show how busted Richter could be, he would get nerfed, but I just don't think we had the chance.)
- K Rool (Kredits invincibility is absolutely insane and quite frankly just needs to go. I think eddv did a good job with Kredits but there was so much more to be done.)
- Eunie (honestly I just think the full removal upgrade is a bit overtuned - it's a weak hard removal because it's an SoB intimidation but being able to remove Cloud/Liquid/Samus etc for 1AP is just too strong. She's strong enough as-is without it.)
- Aigis (in a longer game with a proper mid/high anchor, her abilities become much stronger. She gets too much for 1 AP, but I do love that there's an interaction between her abilities for an AP discount. I think it's a mechanic that could be used on more mercs)
- Mash (her ability looks too strong at a glance but it's untested. Maybe apply recharge 1 if it actually works because of the 0 AP cost.)
- Crono (I love the idea of his build, but I don't like the polarity between 'borderline 2/week merc with an ability that's difficult to actually make strong' and 'triple tech wipes out an entire team uncountered'. It loads Crono's entire value into Triple Tech which is imo where it shouldn't be).
- Sonic (super sonic against 6/weeks in mid post-upgrade is way too strong given that it doesn't cost an AP and can't be countered without a hard removal)
And undertuned:
- Tifa (why would you ever get her over Squall)
- Jinx (she's strong but her main ability is overcosted. Delta and Jesse being at 1 AP but her at 3 is 'what')
- Joker (I think his ability being once every 3 weeks, targettingonly villains, and potentially *never* impacting the battle sucks. Also I think he'll get good 'jack of all trades' but not 'hard carry' 5/week battle respect so he needs a good ability. Right now there's really no reason to buy him over Aigis or honestly even Yu.)
- Neku (I get his ability requires creativity but it's creativity that only really works on a select few mercs, and even then, requires a different kind of research on psychological weaknesses instead of combat weaknesses. Strong combat-wise but hard to use. Also I kind of hate that his writeup says NEO TWEWY because he doesn't actually have any combat appearances in it. Somewhat misleading)
6) What is the strongest merc in the unbought pool, in your opinion?
Of the ones who I didn't mention above, and who I haven't heard being nerfed, probably one of the strong 4/weeks like Estinien, Snake, or Kirby. I didn't really count the 6 and 7/weeks because nobody could buy them lol. Honestly, probably Kirby though. Kirby with some customs and passives is strong.
7) Any additional remarks you wish to make?
Sora and WoL's abilities are too similar if you ask me.
Char limit lol.