The Energon Pub

Redimus' Ego +1 wrote:Could there be an otion to change the terminologie used if a player wants to?
For instence, game mechanic-wise, a minicon and a power master and a target master arnt THAT different. But I personally would much prefere to have Dreadspawn or Redimus as Power or Targetmasters rather than have them powerlinking with some fuglycon.

OK...Here's the story on that...
I initially developed the "masters" to be weapon types in the armory. While discussing it in the planning forum it seemed like the consensus was not to do it that way.

There will now be Headmasters and Targetmasters but they will be rare alt modes in the rotator. You will be able to name your Nebulon partner and there will be a Headmaster/Targetmaster tactic for those alts.

Minicons will be one of the perks of owning a territory on Cybertron. "Power-ups" for your characters will be done through powerlinking with minicons you find in territories your faction has conquered. Different minicons will be found in different parts of Cybertron.

In the Transformers mythos you are in a symbiotic relationship with your Nebulon "Master" partner, whereas bots can simply link with different minicons to acquire certain special abilities.....The Masters and Minicons are completely different and the game will reflect that.

I will try to start shooting everyone some screenshots in a couple of weeks when all the code I'm writing starts coming together.

Sounds cool!

Wow,this keeps getting better and better.
Thanks OS.

i like how it sounds

I'll repeat Burn's question:

Why choose the gimmick from the lamest of all TF series?
Must we have the "Got to catch'em all" mentality introduced to HMW with Crappycons from Crapmada?

Or is it going to boil down to being forced to use the retarded R2-D2s to even have a chance to be competative?

Gods, give me the Dreamwave Comic version where Sparkplug pretty much told Prime to Frak off! If only the TV series had been half as good.

Wouldn't everybody rather have Triple Changers?

While I actually don't mind Mini-Cons (though i'd much prefer them as Micromasters and they have nothing to do with the big bots) what if you simply don't want them?

What if a player doesn't want their character to have any specific gimmick? How are they going to be able to compete against other characters that have utilised these gimmicks and have a distinct advantage?

Burn wrote:While I actually don't mind Mini-Cons (though i'd much prefer them as Micromasters and they have nothing to do with the big bots) what if you simply don't want them?

What if a player doesn't want their character to have any specific gimmick? How are they going to be able to compete against other characters that have utilised these gimmicks and have a distinct advantage?

The same way we work things now...Experiment with configurations and weapons. No minicon will make a bot invincible and the Minicons are only one part of a bigger picture. It won't be a "gotta catch them all" mentality, it will be more like "I can link with an available minicon as a powerup (speed boost for one mission, for example) because my faction owns territory x". And out of all the Minicons available to you, you will only be able to link with one Minicon per mission (after spending a set amount of your energon to do so).

They will give you an edge, but they will not make you unbeatable at all.

How do they beat them in the shows and comics? With difficulty.

But I for am glad to see things happening from the whole of the TF universe. Masters, Minicons, it's all good.

I mean this means we could end up with Transmetals, Cyber Keys, Energon Powerlinks, Breast Force (:P) heck, maybe even go further and bring in Junkions as a class or Omnicons/E-Terrorcons (Faction specific). HMW is a game that should reflect the entire spectrum of the Tf universe, and this will give us the opertunity to do it.

Omega Sentinel wrote:They will give you an edge, but they will not make you unbeatable at all.

Ever considered a career in politics? You're good at side stepping answers.

So they have an edge, which is still bad for people who have created a character that doesn't rely on outside forces to make them more powerful.

So therefore, how is an ordinary bot with no special power ups expected to compete against a bot with power ups?

Omega Sentinel wrote:

Burn wrote:While I actually don't mind Mini-Cons (though i'd much prefer them as Micromasters and they have nothing to do with the big bots) what if you simply don't want them?

What if a player doesn't want their character to have any specific gimmick? How are they going to be able to compete against other characters that have utilised these gimmicks and have a distinct advantage?

The same way we work things now...Experiment with configurations and weapons. No minicon will make a bot invincible and the Minicons are only one part of a bigger picture. It won't be a "gotta catch them all" mentality, it will be more like "I can link with an available minicon as a powerup (speed boost for one mission, for example) because my faction owns territory x". And out of all the Minicons available to you, you will only be able to link with one Minicon per mission (after spending a set amount of your energon to do so).

They will give you an edge, but they will not make you unbeatable at all.

sweet

OS, I just had an idea.

Make steve part of the support staff. I just know he's dieing to contribute to the game but his shyness makes it hard for him to talk in a big group. So a smaller group might be able to draw him out of his shell.

While I actually don't mind Mini-Cons (though i'd much prefer them as Micromasters and they have nothing to do with the big bots) what if you simply don't want them?

What if a player doesn't want their character to have any specific gimmick? How are they going to be able to compete against other characters that have utilised these gimmicks and have a distinct advantage?

Ignoring powerups because you don't want them is all well and good, but it does mean that you're playing favour over ga,eplay - so that kind of means to me, that you're cutting your nose off to spite your face.

For example, if I want a slow, cowardly 'bot, stat-wise, I wouldn't take any Speed or Courage. That does kind of mean that he'll start losing games, though.

Likewise, if I don't want a powerlinx, that's fine, but he will be at a slight disadvantage over those that do (of course, there maybe a way around this, I don't know).

At some point in every game, flavour has to drop in favour of gameplay - and to be honest, if you don't like powerlinx, your guy can always just attach him then tell him to shut the hell up!

So basically what you're saying is a player should either jump on the power up bandwagon thus compromising the character of their bot (and trust me, there's a LOT of players out there who have spent a long time creating and refining their characters) or I can be simply left behind?

Burn wrote:So basically what you're saying is a player should either jump on the power up bandwagon thus compromising the character of their bot (and trust me, there's a LOT of players out there who have spent a long time creating and refining their characters) or I can be simply left behind?

I dont think its that big an issue to be fair. For instence, most of us, if we were to do an ideal set of stats for aour charecters, would include inteligence, and a lot more firepower and skill than we are ever likly to need in the game. That dosnt mean that we will use these stats in the game unless we actully need them.

All my charecters are firmly G1 based (even if their alts arnt always), but I'll give em minicon ports if I think it'll help em in the game. (Heck, I may even try and fudge some logic to make it sound like G1... Minimasters? )

Some people might not be willing to compromise the integrity of their characters just to play with power ups.

And what happened to the old idea of configuring bots YOUR way? Might be a bit hard if you have no choice but to use power ups just to stay in the game. Kinda takes a decision out of your hands.

Burn wrote:Some people might not be willing to compromise the integrity of their characters just to play with power ups.

Then they have to do exactly the same thing as they've had to do in this game. I know of people out there who build there tfs acording to how they imagine the charecter should be built, rather than how the game emchanics sujest. In the end it will always be a playoff between preference and practicality.

Burn wrote:And what happened to the old idea of configuring bots YOUR way? Might be a bit hard if you have no choice but to use power ups just to stay in the game. Kinda takes a decision out of your hands.

Obviously I have no hard facts, but from what OS has said, it sounds like simply a case of spending some energon (asumedly to equipe a minicon port). So it shouldnt impinge on the stats side of it too much. And we ALL (at higher lvls) have been crying out for something to spend all that excesive energon on.

eh, point missed ... again. No suprise there.

Look at it this way. You want to survive these days, you have to have Battle Blades. Ask the people who try to roleplay their bots and don't use BB's how they fair.

Come V2, you either use powerups or you get left behind. Even if it's just a small edge, it's still an edge.

Burn wrote:eh, point missed ... again. No suprise there.

Look at it this way. You want to survive these days, you have to have Battle Blades. Ask the people who try to roleplay their bots and don't use BB's how they fair.

Come V2, you either use powerups or you get left behind. Even if it's just a small edge, it's still an edge.

Yes, I understand that. BUT, thats always going to be the price you pay for wanting play the game your way. It simply comes down to how much you want to stick to a certain planed idea.

Or put it another way:

Why should the rest of us (the majority) miss out on a nifty gimmick cuase some dont want to use it?

So you honestly don't give a **** about game balance?

I do, but I think OS is intelligent enough to avoid making minicons the be all and end all of HMW.

I'd guess the minicons are going to be a little like tactics in that a maxed out level 1 with 4 upgrades in a tactic will have an advantage but also simply wouldn't be able to hold up against a maxed out action master. I know that's a bad analogy (cause the bots xp's would be radically different) but hopefully you'll get the gist.

(not having a good day....)

Burn, I'm curious, do you object to this particular power-up, or the concept of power-ups in general?

kaijubot_uk wrote:Burn, I'm curious, do you object to this particular power-up, or the concept of power-ups in general?

I guess you could say any power up in general.

Unless there's a way for a bot to increase it's natural abilities in a natural way to counter a bot with outside forces boosted abilities then I see some people who like to role-play their characters at a disadvantage.

Burn wrote:

kaijubot_uk wrote:Burn, I'm curious, do you object to this particular power-up, or the concept of power-ups in general?

I guess you could say any power up in general.

Unless there's a way for a bot to increase it's natural abilities in a natural way to counter a bot with outside forces boosted abilities then I see some people who like to role-play their characters at a disadvantage.

OK. I wanted a clarrification since you seemed especially opposed to the idea of minicons. (My appologies if this is incorrect).

My understanding of the power-ups (from what has been said in this thread) is that they function like unlockable weapons and require more than just winning a battle or two to use, and so would be both optional and expensive rather than an automatic boost. As such, players who RP won't be at any greater disadvantage than they are already (admittedly, this is not the ideal solution, but so far OS has been quite quiet about fixing some of the balance issues, at least publicly).

Until told otherwise I'm going to assume that minicons aren't the only power-up, and that others may be better suited to players who chose to RP their characters.

Which is why if things are going to be explained, greater detail would be nice so we all don't sit around discussing what may and may not happen.

I think it's safe to say we were tired of the cryptic stuff before and rejoiced when someone said he'd be more up front and open about things.