Official Balance Committee Ruling
Effective Immediately:

Card Errata
Unkar Plutt
• add Low Caste (Cannot be added to a squad via any character’s Reinforcements or Reserves abilities. This character's cost cannot be reduced.)


Sep 29, 2016
Design begins on Unkar Plutt. Proposed as soft counter to MTB, MT, and Reserves.

Apr 25, 2017
Design on Unkar Plutt marked Done for printing.

July 15th, 2017
Urbanjedi wins NW Ohio Regional (16 players) with “Pong and Kazdan”
http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=20489&p=7

August 8th, 2017
BC discussion on Reserves squads with high probability of large amounts of Reserves in competitive play. An argument was made that getting 60 points on reserves should be limited with rules or changes. It's an unbalancing aspect that pertains to several figures. Preventing stacking is a more effective a solution than a counter.

August 12, 2017
Unkar stats revealed and Balance Committee notices negative community reception.
A community poll suggests removing Unkar as a Reinforcement option.
http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=21808&p=4

September - December, 2017
Balance Committee holds further discussion on Reserves.

January, 2018
Balance Committee votes in favor of Reserves not stacking.
Unkar tabled for later review and in favor of other needed discussions.

February 1st, 2018
Balance Committee rulings for 2018 announced.
Unkar announcement that more time is needed.
http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=22197

February 2nd, 2018
V-set 14 designers contacted concerning errata from the Balance Committee.

February 4th, 2018
Reassuring the community that we are evaluating Unkar.
http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&m=223536

February 7th
Increasing cost was discussed.
At 21pts Unkar does not fit under-advantaged squads that Wager or Local Reserves 12 might benefit. It is already costly to lower act squads having to activate a Unique to use Wager. Local Reserves 12 only works in a lower act squad. Increase cost and Unkar becomes a very rare mainboard option in higher act squads.
Low Caste was considered.

February 7th- 18th
Community outreach concerning Unkar and possible errata.

February 18th
Balance Committee votes in favor of adding Low Caste to Unkar.

February 22nd
Official announcement made on Sith Holonews Network Episode 406
http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/63807

ERRATA CARD

One key point missing from the summary above was vset 14 designers brainstorming and working with vset 16 designers to create a counter to Wager that would be placed on a fringe piece in vset 16.

Many believe that these issues should be solved through design, not through the balance committee.

That's not the route that was taken here.

Yes, there were

Really? "Many" believe that? I'd be curious to know just how many.

But in that case, then I'm sure there are also "many" others who don't think that counter-designs are the answer to abusive or bad game mechanics/designs. It's one thing to create pieces that counter certain mechanics or tactics that you expect your squad to struggle against; that's a good and interesting part of the game. But if there's a broken or flat out over-powered mechanic, I firmly believe that the answer is not to design a counter...rather, the answer is to bring it to the Balance Committee.


I agree 100%. I appreciate the work of the BC.

There's a pretty limited pool of play-testers now, so they really have to take what they can get. And often play-testers focus on the sexy Jedi stuff, and the broken stuff slips though under-tested.

With Unkar, he's actually mainly a theoretical piece, where play-testing doesn't really help. It's more about working out what effect he has on reserve squads vs what the MTB does, etc.

NOW, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!


thanks.

The Balance Committee is trying very hard to reduce the number of announcements to once a year in January. This allows everyone to know well in advance of any Regionals and gives them time to make changes accordingly. We also do not want to pollute any information the Regionals can give competitors before Gencon, and other large tournaments, by making any unnecessary changes in between. Naturally, emergency errata for the extremely broken is never off the table.

To anyone that doesn't like how the swmgamers team appears to be operating. Get involved, and I am not just talking about play testing.
We need more social media admins and content makers/managers.
We need help on building a new website.
We need help on updating the SWM vassal mod.
We need help working on the Unreal Engine game maker.
We need youtube tutorials made for new players
We need written articles for everything from the importance of door control to out activating to map options
We need play reports for people to analyze
We need log files from Vassal matches placed on Youtube so we can watch other peoples matches

Ask if different people need help with something, if you see a need in the community then see if you can fill it!
And finally yeah, being an active play tester is a lot of help!!


Lastly, if you think a designer isn't pulling their weight, well just talk to them about it. They may not be doing enough for the set, but there me be a good reason for that. I know I had to take a break from minis a little after my Grandma died last September. Though possibly, they may just be talking to the other designers in another forum or even over the phone. (Gasp) Surprisingly not every discussion on a piece happens in the designer forums on gamers. Some conversations are better had over the phone to prevent being misunderstood.

Just some food for thought, have a great day everyone! Cheers

Once initial designs are posted and tweaking begins, I agree with this.

If a rules issue comes up, or QC misses something somewhere (and those two things can easily go hand in hand) having an unbroken record of discussion is important. That's my main issue, so I'll just leave just there.

Edit:
I will add, that if a conversation does happen out of the threads for a necessary reason, a clear summary of that discussion should be posted in the design thread. That happens from time to time, and so as long as the important details are there (who, what was discussed, conclusions) that's ok.