LogFAQs > #928042730

I don't say this often enough, so this is a good time: thanks for keeping this topic up guys. I know news have been kinda sparse lately so I figured this would be a good time for a quick update. Without further ado:

-The big reason for this total info blackout is we're getting hammered by RL. Mentioning only my own personal experience, I'm halfway through a month of doing twelve hours of work during the workweek, for instance.

-In spite of this, work is still underway, both with mercenary review to make sure we understand where M4 went right and wrong, and also systems work as well. Remember that Bounty Hunter system from way back when? It's been reworked after it was found to be confusing and unintuitive. Now, instead of being a guessing game where you try to get the right contract to trigger, you instead pick a merc from the unbought pool (or the permanent bounty hunter pool - think a bit like Claude in M3) and pay them a sum. If the opponent fulfills their activation condition, which is usually a paydown, you get to use them and get 1 AP to spend on them. If you roster the merc and win, you can get some money back, giving an incentive towards using more than just ability slaves. It's my hope to post a proper, readable version of this soon if I can find a day off.

-Current explorations on system mechanics is how to do 'gated' abilities that you can't use willy-nilly but don't necessarily key off of fatigue -- think stuff like Shepard's Citadel ability, which would be terrible if using it banned him from employing another useful ability for two cycles or something silly like that. A thought we've been toying with is introducing a tentative 'third option' for ability design beyond AP and Fatigue, tokens. These have existed in Mercs since forever, but codifying them and making them more consistent could allow us to make some abilities less binary in how they function.

-We're committed to releasing a full set of system mechanics by year end at the latest. This way, we'll be handing anyone who wants to make builds both the toolkit to do so in a way that will be compatible with the upcoming game, and also provide a bit more guidance in how to do ability formatting/interactions.

-Since we're doing a lot of changes, we will most likely test things with a short draftgame once we have the rules out in the open and enough updated/new builds to work with. No ETA on this yet, but know that there'll be a chance to experience an M5 prototype without hard-committing to the Long Walk once again, once the time is right.

EDIT: Also, and this is a personal note, I'm pondering something I remember gravy saying way back when and I'd like some feedback on it. How do you guys feel about pushing the overarching storylines angle of Mercs? By this I don't mean introducing RP elements or anything of the sort. More acknowledging that, since Mercs is a long game, feuds, rivalries, grudges and dramatic moments naturally arise, and it already has built-in peak drama moments in the events and elimination matches, it may be a good idea to encourage people to be hype men, or even look to get someone in particular to keep up running commentary of it. If the secret stories that the game creates were made a bit more public, it's possible more voters would stick with the game even as it gets more complex because they wanna see where it goes, much like in sports or wrestling, thus counteracting some of the game's natural voter attrition. Thoughts?

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Shine on, you crazy diamond.