The Energon Pub

Another what-if question: if you had the choice, would you prefer:

• A small pool of move types but your bot can use all of them
• A big pool of move types and you select a small number for your bot to know

In the first case, battles are more varied (per character) because they can use any/all of their tactics, but some may be really weak if they haven't been upgraded so you may have to watch your bot choose a bad tactic over and over. Every bot of that class has the same tactics, but you can use every option available to you, even if the overall pool has to be smaller - this is more the '3- or 4-tactic alts' option.

In the second, you have access to a larger pool of potential moves (based on level, alt, stats etc) and you choose a small 'move set' to upgrade and use in battles (and can change this set over time). Makes individual builds more varied and characterful, but may lead to 'one best build' balance issues. Needs a different way of thinking about tactics as a lot of data-driven variants rather than hand-coded attack types too, but that kind of goes for both options.

Thoughts?

I like the idea of starting out with a set for an alt mode and buying or earning upgrades as you level up that you can swap out moves for. Kind of like the TM/HM system in Pokemon along with regular leveling.

The challenge would be to make the various moves work differently enough that people would use them instead of just sticking with a set of specific moves guaranteed to do damage.

Like say 'Oil Slick' all ground transformers on the opposing team suffer half speed for two rounds.

Doesn't do damage but it greatly affects how that battle plays out.

I like the idea of starting out with a set for an alt mode and buying or earning upgrades as you level up that you can swap out moves for. Kind of like the TM/HM system in Pokemon along with regular leveling.

The challenge would be to make the various moves work differently enough that people would use them instead of just sticking with a set of specific moves guaranteed to do damage.

Like say 'Oil Slick' all ground transformers on the opposing team suffer half speed for two rounds.

Doesn't do damage but it greatly affects how that battle plays out.