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I believe the upcoming Saber vs Gun changes are being done very well by Tempest & the mb2 team and that's great. We can expect a refreshing patch in that regard.
Which leaves us with slightly more complicated, and controversial, Saber vs Saber gameplay tweaks. I'm not sure what is the state on that, there are multiple versions of it internally.
Regardless i wish to restate what i believe are core directions that need to be taken, and elaborate a little bit on them, as well as discussing a few more, less crucial tweaks. All these tweaks take the current public build as reference.
Core directions:
Less critical tweaks but still important (mix of my own ideas and ideas taken from sev's original post in I haven't played MBII consistently for 3 years, here's why. that i believe are great):
If i were the one coding, i would have a ton of smaller tweaks including more technical and non-visible things, but there is no point to detail these things as a mere spectator, the one implementing the changes has to choose and test these things.
The tweaks above are more general things that i believe would improve the system by a tremendous margin, regardless of what details are under the hood. And i'd like to believe i'm not alone in liking these general directions.
Which leaves us with slightly more complicated, and controversial, Saber vs Saber gameplay tweaks. I'm not sure what is the state on that, there are multiple versions of it internally.
Regardless i wish to restate what i believe are core directions that need to be taken, and elaborate a little bit on them, as well as discussing a few more, less crucial tweaks. All these tweaks take the current public build as reference.
Core directions:
- Either remove ACM and ACC entirely, or:
- Revert ACM to a similar state to pre-v1.1: fast styles start gaining ACM at 8 ACC, medium styles 6 ACC, strong styles 4 ACC. Each ACM point gives a 1.3x multiplier to all BP drains (so 1 ACM = 1.3x, 2 ACM = (1.3)^2, 3 ACM = (1.3)^3 etc., the max being 9 ACM = (1.3)^9 = 10.6 - for the record in the old system 9 ACM had a 12x multiplier and the progression was harsher like 1.5x, 3x etc.).
- ACC is strictly only gained (+1) and lost (-1) on bodyhits (first bodyhits of a chain only). Due to fast styles being different (blue is faster, cyan was FA-only) compared to the old system, they should have the single exception of losing 2 ACC when bodyhit by medium or strong styles.
- Remove all perks, meaning that the differences between styles in all situations should be only ever be the stance animation, AP, BP, HP dmg, swing animations & speeds, chaining differences (max swings in a chain and chaining direction restrictions), and ACM as described above. Nothing else, nothing tied to mblocks nor parries nor PBs nor semi-PBs nor NB nor force powers nor being knocked down or anything.
- Reintroduce old chaining direction restrictions (minimum of 3 quadrants for Red and Cyan, 2 quadrants for all other styles).
- Replace perks with more extreme AP/BP differences, similar to the old system (pre-v1.1). In short, the AP/BP numbers for styles should be along the lines of: Yellow 12/56 (unchanged from old system), Blue 6/60, Cyan 8/52, Red 18/50 (great AP without nudge, and still decent BP), Purple 25/35 (harder to PB than red because of faster starting swings and softer chaining restriction, devastating AP, horrible BP, just like the old system but less extreme - it was 30/30), Duals 11/54 (powerhouse with a slight BP weakness), Staff 10/64 (tank with still decent power). These are somewhat crucial, much like removing ACM, in order to encourage style switching again.
- Parries deal 20% of bodyhit damage, semi-PBs 50%, NBs 20% (if NB is introduced). They should all use the same calculations as bodyhits and just apply a factor to it, so that all situational modifiers are taken into account (for example if A and B are parrying each other, but A is walking and B running, B will deal less BP dmg because running swings are weaker).
- Holding mouse 1 drains 4 BP per second (i.e. 1 BP per 250ms, just a simple drain activated when pressing mouse 1 with a 250ms debounce timer, not tied to swings or anything, only tied to pressing mouse 1), replacing current swing drains. This brings back the skill requirement to tap mouse 1 in order to optimize your BP.
- Reduce overall BP regeneration and increase overall BP drains. Meaning compared to current standards, so that BP drains are more crippling and lasting, and fights quicker and harsher. Can't say an accurate number as i'm not coding and testing, but BP regen should be 1.5x lower than current at most, and BP drains something like 1.3x. The current BP regen if i'm not mistaken is 5BP per 400ms for Defense 2 and 3BP per 400ms for Defense 1: so it should be 4BP and 2BP respectively.
Less critical tweaks but still important (mix of my own ideas and ideas taken from sev's original post in I haven't played MBII consistently for 3 years, here's why. that i believe are great):
- Remove anything related to perfect parry.
- I know some people don't like the idea, but i see little reason not to allow semi-PB in all types of interrupts and also while running, especially if overall swing drains are going to be quite high and regeneration low. It purely increases the skillcap and allows you to further outskill people 1vX.
- Mblocks having an instacounter is good as a flavor to increase the skillcap but the instacounter should have no bonus damage, and also the mblock shouldn't stop the attacker's chain.
- Short jumps with +use should cost no BP. Sev's idea, i think it subtly favors more jumping which would actually be great, as mb2 already totally discourages it in saber duels.
- Some more of sev's changes. I'm unsure what the current public values are, but crouching should definitely at least reduce your dmg by 50% and increase your dmg taken by 50%, if not more. For jumping attacks there should be a risk vs reward factor, taking 30% more dmg while in the air but dealing 10% more dmg too.
- Running attacks should deal at least -20% dmg, swingblocks normal dmg and walking non-swingblocks 10% more dmg. I know sev wants swingblocks to deal more dmg than non-swingblocks but i don't think anyone can agree with the reasoning behind that; yes theoretically speaking it takes more mechanical skill to swingblock, but the idea of swingblock is tied with "a more careful attack" which protects you against slap and mblock. For above average duelists where people have no trouble with the pure mechanics of swingblocking, it's actually a skillful decision-making flavor to purposely choose to not swingblock when you know you don't have to fear a slap or a mblock.
- Finally i would like to see the point cost system changed so that jedi/sith are forced to buy yellow as their first style. This allows in particular to decrease the overall costs, each style could be 6 points instead of 8. Yellow itself should be 6 points, remember how in the old system you had both yellow and slow blue (useful for chasing other saberists and taking BP damage) for only 8 points. Overall i'd make Medium styles 6/4/4, Fast styles 6/0/4, Strong styles 6/0/4, provided that you are forced to buy medium styles lvl 1 to unlock fast styles and strong styles.
If i were the one coding, i would have a ton of smaller tweaks including more technical and non-visible things, but there is no point to detail these things as a mere spectator, the one implementing the changes has to choose and test these things.
The tweaks above are more general things that i believe would improve the system by a tremendous margin, regardless of what details are under the hood. And i'd like to believe i'm not alone in liking these general directions.
