quote:

Personally, I have had enough of gambling my fate in EpicDuel. If I have a massive Support advantage then I should be the one who has control over the influence of Support. Vice-versa for enemies who have the same advantage over me.

I am suggesting that "luck" is no longer a gamble but instead something strategic in each and every one of our EpicDuel battles. How this would work is that we play using counters of stat-specific battle mechanics like blocking or going critical.

Update: I am 50% through finishing the picture diagrams.

For Support's case, first turn is a once per battle occurrence, so I recommend that whoever has the highest Support stat total should go first... guaranteed. Support also manifests critical hits and stun resistance, and these would occur more than once. So now I will introduce this idea of counters. Counters are the number of charges which an ability can be used for. If I have 5 critical hit charges, I can then choose to critical hit a maximum of 5 times. I would have calculated these counters by simply the number of stat points, but then there are no real benefits to using Focus... or having 2 equally Support savvy players critical hit 10 times under their control (easily exploitative). So, these "counters" would be calculated by the difference in stat points between opposing sides.

I was thinking of a progression like:

PROTOTYPE

10+ Stat Difference: 1 Counter

30+ Stat Difference: 2 Counters

50+ Stat Difference: 3 Counters [MAXIMUM]

OR

ADVANCED

10+ Stat Difference: 1 Counter

20+ Stat Difference: 2 Counters

30+ Stat Difference: 3 Counters

40+ Stat Difference: 4 Counters

50+ Stat Difference: 5 Counters [MAXIMUM]

The mechanics of counters run like this:

players initially receive all of their counters at the start of a battle

players may use as many of their counters in a battle that they have

using a counter does not take up a turn, and may only be used on the player's turn

stun resist counters have 1 turn cooldowns, deflect counters have 2 turn cooldowns, block counters have 3 turn cooldowns, and critical counters have 4 turn cooldowns

all counters have a 1 turn warmup

counters remain in play until they are used

counters can stack, 2 block counters at once means that the next 2 incoming Strikes will be blocked

counters are not visible in battle to other players

counters do not effect any skills

counters only affect weapons (Primary, Sidearm, Auxiliary, Robot)

skills that go critical (like Bunker Buster) are now guaranteed, however, their damage must be reduced, energy costs raised, and their cooldowns raised (reasonably)

skills that stun (like Stun Grenade) are now guaranteed, however, their damage must be reduced, energy costs raised, and their cooldowns raised (reasonably)

all skills cannot be blocked, deflected, or go critical

anticounters are temporary counters that initialize when a nerf (Smokescreen, Malfunction) or buff (Reflex Boost, Technician) skill is used. Anticounters only last for as long as the inflicting skill does

anticounters do not destroy normal counters

block anticounters, are created by Reflex Boost that creates 1 temporary block or Smokescreen that creates 1 temporary anti-block counter. Anti-block counters temporarily prevent the target from using 1 block counter until Smokescreen wears off or is used to negate 1 block counter. Reflex Boost gives 1 temporary block counter that is removed when Reflex Boost wears off or is used to block 1 Strike. If the target has 2 block counters stacked and 1 anti-block counter, 1 block counter will be negated (temporarily), and the other counter used to block a Strike. If an anticounter interacts with a block counter, the anticounters will disappear but normal counters will not (the anticounter overrides 1 counter)

deflect anticounters, are created by Technician that creates 1 temporary deflect or Malfunction that creates 1 temporary anti-deflect counter. Anti-deflect counters temporarily prevent the target from using 1 deflect counter until Malfunction wears off or is used to negate 1 delfect counter. Technician gives 1 temporary deflect counter that is removed when Technician wears off or is used to deflect 1 shot. If the target has 2 deflect counters stacked and 1 anti-deflect counter, 1 deflect counter will be negated (temporarily), and the other counter used to deflect a shot. If an anticounter interacts with a deflect counters, the anticounters will disappear but normal counters will not (the anticounter overrides 1 counter)

specialty weapons (celtic weapons/azrael weapons), now give 1 counter to the specific mechanism (eg, Azrael Bane gives 1 critical counter, Celtic Cleaver gives 1 anti-block counter)

for this to work in 2v2 and in Juggernaut, the highest stat of the players of 1 side are compared to the highest stat of the players of the other side (eg, Team1A has 40 Support, Team1B has 70 Support, Team2A has 60 Support, Team2B has 20 Support... Team1B's Support is compared to Team2A's Support, and Team1A's Support compared to Team2B's Support)

But please, do comment, question, and feedback your thoughts to me! If anything is wrong, I would appreciate if you can inform me of any loopholes or missing information, and I will make amends!