Attack secondary effects imbalance, thoughts and solutions.
Open letter to Sloclap
At the time of writing this post, you currently have a balance problem in a few areas.
1) Secondary Effects
1.A) Observation
I will begin by examining the secondary effects within the moves themselves.
(> = Counters)
Strafing > vertical and linear attacks.
Dodge Up > Low attacks.
Dodge Low > High Attacks.
Parrying Attacks > Small chance to parry most attacks while using the move.
Double Hit > Delivers two quick hits, which counters Charged Attacks because they only stop 1.
Stopping > Stops Charged Attacks (And Breaking attacks?).
Breaking > Kahlt Absorb, Charged Attacks, High Damage vs Guard.
Charged Attacks > Nullifies 1 hit.
1.B) Conclusions
Strafes and dodge moves are fine, these are actually the best and most balanced secondary effects you have, they rely upon observation and strategy, they have a nice Rock, Paper, Scissors flow to them.
Parrying attacks have only two moves, with too little presence or impact, they are currently not an issue.
Double hits, stopping attacks, breaking attacks all counter charged attacks.
Charged attacks counter a single 1 hit basic move, but they have 3 move types countering them.
Stopping attacks are far outshined by the broad utility of breaking attacks.
2) Solutions
2.A) In keeping with your Strafe and Dodge designs, my suggestions are based around each move type countering only one or two mechanics.
2.B) Stopping attacks should stay as is, interrupting charged (and breaking?) attacks.
2.C) Breaking attacks could be handled one of two ways I think:
2.C.1) It should be scaled back to only deal high damage against guard.
2.C.2) Deal high damage against guard and keeps the ability to counter charged attacks, but lose the ability to break Kahlt’s absorb ability.
(Design Flaw: Kahlt is the only style in the game that has a specific move set countering it.)
2.D) Charged attacks are a delicate matter. The immediate thought is to allow for two hits to be ignored instead of one, but there are 4 unarmed charged attacks in the game which means that chaining them together ignores 8 hits, this would be a bad way to go.
However, I have two ideas:
2.D.1) Charged attacks ignore 1 hit, opponent takes a big drain to their stamina.
2.D.2) Charged attacks ignore 1 hit, charged aura explodes to cause stagger.
Closing thoughts.
Charged attacks have three move sets countering them, this needs to be fixed.
Breaking attacks have too many things they counter.
Kahlt Absorb is the only style defence move that has a specific move set to counter it. There are only two solutions that could work:
Remove the counter in Breaking attacks against Kahlt Absorb.
Or
Design specific move sets that counter Windfall Dodge and Forsaken Parry.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely
Araziel
At the time of writing this post, you currently have a balance problem in a few areas.
1) Secondary Effects
1.A) Observation
I will begin by examining the secondary effects within the moves themselves.
(> = Counters)
Strafing > vertical and linear attacks.
Dodge Up > Low attacks.
Dodge Low > High Attacks.
Parrying Attacks > Small chance to parry most attacks while using the move.
Double Hit > Delivers two quick hits, which counters Charged Attacks because they only stop 1.
Stopping > Stops Charged Attacks (And Breaking attacks?).
Breaking > Kahlt Absorb, Charged Attacks, High Damage vs Guard.
Charged Attacks > Nullifies 1 hit.
1.B) Conclusions
Strafes and dodge moves are fine, these are actually the best and most balanced secondary effects you have, they rely upon observation and strategy, they have a nice Rock, Paper, Scissors flow to them.
Parrying attacks have only two moves, with too little presence or impact, they are currently not an issue.
Double hits, stopping attacks, breaking attacks all counter charged attacks.
Charged attacks counter a single 1 hit basic move, but they have 3 move types countering them.
Stopping attacks are far outshined by the broad utility of breaking attacks.
2) Solutions
2.A) In keeping with your Strafe and Dodge designs, my suggestions are based around each move type countering only one or two mechanics.
2.B) Stopping attacks should stay as is, interrupting charged (and breaking?) attacks.
2.C) Breaking attacks could be handled one of two ways I think:
2.C.1) It should be scaled back to only deal high damage against guard.
2.C.2) Deal high damage against guard and keeps the ability to counter charged attacks, but lose the ability to break Kahlt’s absorb ability.
(Design Flaw: Kahlt is the only style in the game that has a specific move set countering it.)
2.D) Charged attacks are a delicate matter. The immediate thought is to allow for two hits to be ignored instead of one, but there are 4 unarmed charged attacks in the game which means that chaining them together ignores 8 hits, this would be a bad way to go.
However, I have two ideas:
2.D.1) Charged attacks ignore 1 hit, opponent takes a big drain to their stamina.
2.D.2) Charged attacks ignore 1 hit, charged aura explodes to cause stagger.
Closing thoughts.
Charged attacks have three move sets countering them, this needs to be fixed.
Breaking attacks have too many things they counter.
Kahlt Absorb is the only style defence move that has a specific move set to counter it. There are only two solutions that could work:
Remove the counter in Breaking attacks against Kahlt Absorb.
Or
Design specific move sets that counter Windfall Dodge and Forsaken Parry.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely
Araziel
Comments
Thank you for your thoughts, in-depth analysis and suggestions. It is always interesting to read such detailed "letters" and well-thought-out opinion. I will share this post with the rest of the team. I think they will find it interesting also.
Thank you!
Charged attacks are already powerful enough because they counter the vast majority of attacks in the game or that people will have in their move set. Breaking attacks are slow and hugely telegraphed.
If you find your charge attacks are getting countered most of the time it's because your attacks have become predictable. Most people will have at least one, if not two potential charge breakers as alternate moves, immediately available at any point. Why? Because charge moves are pretty danged good, so not having some way to deal with them is going to put you at a disadvantage.
Knowing this, plan your deck so you're not relying on charges for the bulk of your damage.
@Kwil: At your suggestion I will count the number of attacks with each secondary effect, but will limit myself to only barehanded moves, since I have not personally unlocked all of the sword techniques.
Ducking attacks: 8
Jumping attacks: 9
Strafing attacks: 4
Parrying attacks: 2
Double hit attacks: roughly 4 - 5, (these don't have a symbol to represent them, something else that should be added.)
Stopping attacks: 6
Breaking attacks: 6
Charged attacks: 4
At minimum there are 16 moves that specifically counter the 4 charged attacks, 6 of those moves also counter Kahlt's defense because the nature of that defense and charged attacks are very similar.
While breaking attacks have too much utility in their favor, the greatest threat to charged attacks are in fact the double hit moves, for they are all faster than any charged attack, lets examine.
Double hit attacks: All faster than charged attacks (Yes, I checked in game).
Stopping attacks: Stops charged attacks, preventing activation.
Breaking attacks: Stops charged attacks and causes stagger, providing an opening for a counter.