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NDB -> Concept of Luck (Block, Deflects, Crits, Stuns) (6/11/2019 13:20:02)
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Blocks, deflects, crits, and stuns (BDCS) are known as "luck" attributes, but it feels like the definition of "luck" has been blurred. Luck describes the extent to which you rely on chance to obtain something. If all the cards in the deck are the same, your chance of drawing the right thing is 100%, so no luck is involved. If the deck is 50-50, then there is luck since there's a 50% chance you'll fail. And if there's only 1 card in a 100 card deck you want, then the chance of failing is 99%, so drawing the right thing is going to require even more luck than if it's 50-50.
In the context of this game, luck is when the other guy has a 10% chance of blocking and blocks you. It's even worse if the guy has a 1% chance of blocking and still blocks. Or it's a 20% chance but the guy manages to block you 5 times in row. In each of these cases, the amount of "luck" required increases since the probability of it happening is lower. People get annoyed when something that has a low probability of happening happens and messes the battle up for them. I would be too.
And yet people term the word "luck" to refer to anything involving BDCS regardless of the probabilities involved. If you make a dex build and have a 40% chance of blocking people are going to say you have a luck build, a build that relies on chance to win. That could be a true fact, but the logic behind it is that what you're doing is actually DECREASING luck on a per-hit basis. You now have a 40% chance of blocking, so it require LESS luck to block. You've built the deck in your favor.
That in itself should be considered a strategy. It's a total misconception that increasing the chances of BDCS always increases the randomness of battles!
On the one hand, if you get rid of all BDCS, then yes, battles will be less random and there'd be less luck involved. On the other hand, if you make all BDCS 100%, then there would ALSO be less randomness.
Think of it this way: If you put on Cyber Yeti and have a 100% chance to block and deflect, that's not relying on luck. It's a "known threat". People can predict with 100% confidence what's going to happen so they can strategize around it, and you as the user can strategize too.
The state of BDCS in this game is annoying because it's neither 0 or 100. It's in between, usually hovering in the 0-20 range. That hurts the game because it's not high enough to warrant strategizing around but also not low enough that it can be ignored, which is super annoying. It's in an awkward state that really doesn't help with the strategy aspect of the game. That's why people complain about it.
I'm here to argue, passionately, that BDCS attributes have a place in any game--their fun--but it only makes sense to include them if they form distinct strategies. You should be able to make a block build, a deflect build, a crit build, or a stun build. Right now you can't because you'll never be able to get the percentage high enough for it to be meaningful, which is just going to make any attempt at it very awkward and leave the opponent confused as how they should counter.
Over the years, I've played a lot of games besides EpicDuel at some point and all of them utilized full-on luck builds which were actually fun. Builds that revolve entirely on dodging (equivalent to block in ED), where you sacrifice your defenses just to increase dodge chance. Builds that focus on hit chance solely to counter dodge builds. In some games, crits can't be dodged, but they can be blocked (a lesser damage reduction, akin to deflection in ED), so that'd be a viable counter too. Stun-lock builds that sacrifice all of their power and defenses to try to stun-lock because they don't need power or defenses if they can accomplish stun-locks. Etc. What all of these share in common is that they are all "all or nothing" gimmicky builds. If you are going to make a dodge build, you need to go all the way, sacrificing everything just to increase the chance to get it as close to 100% as possible. Stopping at 20-30% would be nonsense since that's hardly enough to call yourself a dodge build and the people who fight you will be confused as to whether they should really be investing in undodgeable attacks or not. They usually don't and get pissed if they actually do get dodged. And yet, this in-between state is the default in ED, making it impossible for anyone to actually make a luck build, making it so no one will actually go out of their way to counter, and leaving everybody pissed when things don't go their way.
Therefore, I think ED would benefit from having luck be presented as a distinct strategy/builds, not just as randomness elements. I was pleasantly surprised when the cap on block and deflect were raised since that helps with this. Recently, I made a Bounty Hunter build to kill Legendary Deuce that revolved entirely around blocking, sacrificing defense to increase block chance with Shadow Arts because block was to only way this class has a chance to win. Something like that hasn't been done since Gamma since BDCS caps were slashed in half over the course of Omega. I'm also a fan of Master's Strike (+7% crit on all attacks and 5% more crit ignore) since it opens up the door for legitimate crit builds.
To reiterate, the entire argument is that increasing BDCS actually makes it easier to make a build with them and also makes it easier for people to come up with ways to counter, which actually makes them function less as luck attributes but as legitimate stats. It's counterintuitive, but it's true.
I have made a list of chances that could accomplish this:
Make the base block, deflect, and crit rates all zero.
Increase the crit cap to 50% and have Bunker Buster and Plasma Cannon have a 100% crit chance while nerfing the amount that crits ignore. It's currently 30%, so maybe nerf to 15-20. Make all of the crit cores affect all attacks, not just the weapon they're equipped to, but nerf them to 7% like Master's Strike. Increase the crit scaling to 1% per 4 support.
Increase the block and deflect cap to 90%. Make 6% block and deflect cores for primary, gun, and aux to help achieve this and increase the block/deflect scaling to 1% per 3 dex/tech. Make it so blocks and deflects only reduce damage by 50%. Making Shadow Arts increase current block by 30% (multiplicative), not adding a flat 10, could be interesting.
Make Overload, Stun Grenade, and Plasma Grenade have a 100% of stunning but do 75% damage. Make Maul scale with stun again but make max have a 100% chance. Get rid of the current stun cores since they're awful. Make some cores that, if used when the opponent is stunned, increases the duration of the stun by a turn or something. A lot of fun things could be made since stun has been such an unexplored strategy of this game.
I also thought about making BDCS separate stats from dex, tech, and support, but that's likely too complicated at this point.
With these changes, BDCS would become distinct builds, not just pure randomness. If you see someone running one of these builds, you'd know exactly what to expect. It'd allow for some creative builds. It'd also decrease the impact of BDCS effects by a lot so in case they do happen out of nowhere (i.e. when there's supposedly a very low probability of it happening) they have less of chance of making or breaking who wins the battle. Cores like Nanosteel Armor and Laser Sights might have more uses as counters.
I know it'd require a lot of testing, perhaps, but I always loved these types of builds in other games and am disappointed in the way that ED implements them.
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