Four Degrees of Balancing Info - 2017-02-21 16:00

With the release of the Eternal Deck, we have the opportunity to take another look at the profiles from the beginning of the game with a critical and experienced eye. It's a unique occasion that has never happened in Krosmaster.

Balancing was, in the game's first days, a bit of a vague concept. With the help of our own tests, and without any feedback from the community, we had to make choices and attempt to balance things, a bit blindly. And while we can theorize all we want, a figurine doesn't really exist so long as it hasn't arrived in your hands!

Rebalancing these profiles was simultaneously an incredible opportunity and a difficult task for us. However, do all the profiles need balancing? Or rather, do they all require the same amount of reflection and distance? Should we put Goultard on equal footing with, say, Bill Tell?

After all the discussions, we determined that there are several "degrees" of balancing, which can change depending on the figurine. In order to demonstrate them, [Nuuh] and I would like to show you the new profiles of 4 charming Sadidettes, along with our commentary.

 

Slight adjustments: Makum Bah

 

Not to blow our own horn, but there are several profiles from Season 1 that still hold up, despite their age. Their power is at the right level: neither game-breaking, nor too weak to be interesting. Alternatively, their design is well-constructed, and agreeable to use. In that case, why fix it if it isn't broken? Maybe just dust it off a little?

Makum Bah fits perfectly into that category. While she dominated Season 1 tournaments, she didn't make it hard to develop new figurines. She remains a respectable level 4, with effective Summons, even today.

We have, however, made a single change, which better reflects our current design vision: we're trying to reduce personal and repeatable heals. And although the spell now heals less, now it also doesn't remove AP or MP, a restriction that didn't really work anyway if the heal was the last action of the turn.

 

Nerfed for competition: Fern Sock'em

 

You surely know Fern Sock'em: she's one of the most-played level 1's of the game. She represents a particular type of profile where the level of power is just slightly too high, which causes her to appear more often than we would like in tournaments; but she's still not enough to create an archetype or destroy creativity.

We'd like her to be less omnipresent in tournaments. However, before taking the nerfing scalpel to her, we have to ask ourselves: what makes Fern Sock'em so strong? How can we reduce her strength without destroying the possibilities she offers?

For us, the Block Doll is the real guilty party here: a solid, irritating Summons that doesn't offer any reward on its death, and, what's more, it's repeatable. Fern is sort of a bonus gift compared to the Block Doll. The Eternal Deck doesn't let us modify Summons, so we had to find a way to affect it by passing through Fern.

And so, the Doll has been limited to a single summoning per game. For the player, the Doll's placement and the choice of when exactly it appears in the game will become real tactical choices, and for the opponent, attacking the Doll will be a viable counter-attack option. We think that this intellectual challenge and this interaction will be much more fun for both players.

In contrast, Fern's two attacks gain a cell of range, allowing for a bit more flexibility in their use and allowing the Sadidette to shine on her own at last.

 

Real nerf: Klor Ofil

 

We could probably write an entire book about the saga of Klor Ofil, but we'll spare you the lecture! To be brief, Nox appeared to be a future metagame terror in our tests. So Klor was given the weapons to counter him: great mobility and range, a way to nail him to the spot, but with an AP weakness that was vulnerable to the Xelor's counterattack. A balanced situation?  

Absolutely not! Klor Ofil was so powerful she completely broke the game! By her simple existence, she kept about half of Season 1 from being used, punishing any figurine with short range or slow movement. Her omnipresence and importance in the metagame was such that she became the first figurine banned from the game based solely on her power.

It goes without saying that Klor Ofil's is a problem profile. We wanted to see her back in the game, but that means we'd have to rebuild her from the ground up to get a more balanced profile. Just like Fern, her Doll couldn't be changed, but we made the following changes:

• She loses 1 MP, which reduces her mobility, but without an increase to her AP, which gives her a weakness that the opponent can exploit. She also loses 1 HP to make her more equal to other level 2's.
• Her Manifold Bramble has been reduced to a "Cross" area of effect. She keeps her stopping power, but loses range and ease of use.
• Her very effective Madoll is limited to one summoning per game, like Fern.
• She loses the Dodge power to make it harder for her to move around with impunity.

Klor loses what made her a legend, perhaps, but not the unique weapons she brings to the team, and her return is now possible.

 

Restart from scratch: Amalia

 

Amalia didn't exactly meet the same fate as Klor Ofil… Originally intended as a support character, she's frequently used for nothing other than her power, which limits her use considerably: not only is she exclusively limited to the Brotherhood of the Tofu, but her power doesn't require the player to think at all in order to use it. What's more, her attacks are weak and uninteresting.

In this situation, we have a profile whose entire design is unsuitable. The figurine doesn't work the way we'd hoped, or brings too few benefits to the team for her to be considered. In this case, we must think about new uses the Krosmaster could have.

We took inspiration from Amalia's capricious behavior in the Wakfu series to create a new power for her. From now on, giving the princess gifts (in the form of Demonic Rewards) will increase the damage of her attacks, and their range has been increased. She now has a specific role in the Brotherhood, and gameplay evocative of her character.

Will it make Amalia a star of the gameboard? No, probably not. But the character now has a unique niche, pleasing to the lovers of the Brotherhood, and, we hope, will not be immediately discounted in team building as she was previously.



There. Now that you've seen these four profiles and their changes, you have a better understanding of how we approach balancing. We hope that you appreciate these little behind-the-scenes moments with us. By the way, we'll soon be back with other profiles and other fascinating stories to tell you about them!