Stop making champs so complicated
Ultra8529
Member Posts: 526 ★★★
This is an urgent plea to Kabam to listen up to your player base. People turn to games to destress and unwind. Yet nowadays more and more of the new champs being released require you to basically study the game in depth, way more than what most players are willing to do. There will be who say that such detailed analysis is only needed at the top levels. But that is not true - if you are a beginner and you run into any one of the new champs with really complicated mechanics, you are going to be extremely overwhelmed, frustrated, and probably just quit outright. The same goes for many of the older veteran players in the community. I have heard so many stories of people who have played this game for 2 - 3 years simply quitting because it is too much effort now each month to learn 2 new complicated champs.
Annihilus is the latest example in a long line of such complicated champs. The number of mechanics he has - obliterate, stifle, cosmic control rod - plus their interactions between each other, makes him such a complicated champ. But he's not the first like this. We have seen similar trends in Korg, IMIW, Thing - all champs with really nuanced mechanics.
Good champs don't have to be complicated - think Omega, Corvus, Magik, even quake. All of those champs are really easy to understand - they may not be easy to use, but their mechanics are simple and straightforward. I can pretty much explain how they work to any player in 5 mins. That should be the aim of champ design in my humble opinion.
Annihilus is the latest example in a long line of such complicated champs. The number of mechanics he has - obliterate, stifle, cosmic control rod - plus their interactions between each other, makes him such a complicated champ. But he's not the first like this. We have seen similar trends in Korg, IMIW, Thing - all champs with really nuanced mechanics.
Good champs don't have to be complicated - think Omega, Corvus, Magik, even quake. All of those champs are really easy to understand - they may not be easy to use, but their mechanics are simple and straightforward. I can pretty much explain how they work to any player in 5 mins. That should be the aim of champ design in my humble opinion.
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Comments
I find that fighting new champs in the EQ is pretty straightforward, take a look at abilities and nodes, find out what to do or not to do, what immunities they have...
After a while it's pretty easy and you would naturally know how to fight them.
As for using them, there will be youtube videos on how to use the champs.
The abilities really aren't that complicated after a few times fighting them.
Thing:
1 hit=1 rock charge. Don't hit him at 15 rock charges. Specials will be fully unblockable at 15 rock charges, consuming all of them.
Korg:
Don't dex, light intercepts, disable rock shield. Watch out for debuff shrugging
IMIW:
4 armor passives= consume one to autoblock. Unblockable sp1. Power gain below 15% health and autoblock without consuming armor.
When you pull a new champ, your happy! But if you pull a 1rst year champ like a hulkbuster or a falcon, or a cyclops... simple mecanics, boring has hell to play, you aint going to be happy!
My point is that new champs are fun to play against, and when you understand their mecanics and you woop their ass in AW or EQ, you feel on top of the world!
Honestly, I feel like the forums are trolling me. For some reason I feel compelled to see how deep it goes. That’s on me. Haha
Putting in the time to understand the complexities of a game is what makes a game great. This holds true with most games, and most things that require continued effort to be great at. It’s the process of mastering something... of overcoming that yields rewards. Same as any skill set in life.
If you are looking for an easy game to pass the time while you poop, please, I beg you... Go somewhere else. Play a puzzle game. Seriously.
A whole world of people with their hands outstretched asking, “Why can’t I just have some?”.
Also not saying only easy fights. Look at a champ like medusa, she was challenging for the longest time prior to all the true strike counters. But she had a simple mechanic - don't hit twice when she has 3 furies up. Magik for the longest time was a tough defender and only one simple mechanic - limbo when power bar is filled. Same for dorm - don't proc a buff.
Contrary to what many have said, I am not asking for a more boring game. I am asking Kabam to use more imagination to create more innovative challenges, but without increasing complexity too much. Think of new ways to create challenges. I think a lot of the nodes are itself interesting buffs that create challenges for players. I don't see why instead of making them only like nodes, you can't put those nodes/effects into champs instead.
Sorry but I won't spend my day reading all the crappy stuff written there. I'm with the OP, champs are too complicated... to read.
Seems reasonable when viewed with some perspective. Many players just want to be able to smash the **** out of every piece of content in the first couple days, and if they can’t they throw a tantrum.
I for one, love having to go back in, read the abilities, look through my roster, analyze the nodes, and test different strategies. That makes up a large part of the draw for me. When I figure it out, and beat it.... It tastes pretty sweet.
That this game is becoming more complex only serves to increase my interest in it.
Opposed to:
Here’s Champion A: Look at how shiny and new he is. He does this thing, so don’t do that thing. When he does this just do this. Oh, ok. So, basically like all the other champs. I’m having all of the fun now. Gimme crystals and stuff.
AQ doesn't have them (yet).
AW won't have many of them for beginners.
Only in Arena, but there they have no nodes.
By the time these defenders become more commonplace for newer players, they should have some experience. And yeah, then, like everyone else, they will simply have to learn how to fight them.
I, for one, hated IMIW at first, but he forces me out of my comfort zone and ultimately made me expand my toolbox of fight strategies. Otherwise the game would be kind of dull, right? Parry, 5-hits...that's not gonna keep players around for more than a year or so.
(1) When he has no rock stacks, i hit him normally
(2) When he has 15 rock stacks and power bar, i bait his special
(3) when he has less than 15 rock stacks and no power bar, i hit his block until he gets his power bar
(4) When he is on All or nothing node, I use someone like quake.
(5) When he is on passive regen node, I use someone like BW/GP.
etc.
The game is just a never-ending list of counters and solutions. It is just more and more sets of 'rules' to memorise and learn for every new champ and node that comes out. I still think the focus should be on skill, that you can take into most if not all fights and come out with a win; rather than "if you didn't know A counters B" then you lose.
I complain because i love this game so much 🥰
I just wish Kabam would implement some real regression testing so new updates don't continually break previously released champions' abilities.
Seriously, speaking as a dev, why isn't a new automated test written every time someone reports a bug on a champion? If your test fails when you're prepping your new release you know there's a problem beforehand and you don't have to rely on the community to tell you what's wrong with your game after the fact.
Thank God I've a fully maxed-out 4* awakened Mephisto.