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Which Abilities To Choose on Customs? Options
surf_rider56
Posted: Saturday, June 29, 2013 9:52:09 PM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 9/19/2008
Posts: 1,740
Location: Orange County, CA
How do people pick what abilities to give what characters? It seems to me like a Chicken or Egg question; do you create a character and then assign certain abilities or pick a set of abilities and then decide what character best fits it?

I looked at this and I seem to do a little of both, sometimes more of one than another.

Another question is how do you guard against going total Fanboy on a character. Do you have a set policy, on how to assign x abilites to y type of character? I think I previously laid out my idea abilities

1-3 abilities - Common character

2-4 abilities - Uncommon character

4 -6 abilities - Rare/Very Rare characters

6+ abilities - only if its a Major SW character.

Also, how many is too many CE's? Example recently I wanted to give these CE abilities to a character

* At the end of this character's turn, 1 x within 6 squares can make 1 immediate attack at +4 Attack and +10 Damage.

* Allied x gain Grenades +20, Greater Mobile Attack, and Twin Attack.

* X gain +3 Attack and +3 Defense.

I realized that's too many, so I decided to pick two of them, but then how would you choose which 2?

Questions, questions, questions .....

Cheers BlooMilk
pegolego
Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2013 8:17:24 AM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 7/29/2011
Posts: 1,766
Location: In a sinkhole on Utapau
For SA's, I usually read up on the character's Wookiepedia, I learn their traits, abilities and histories, and then I know what part of the character I want to represent, and then it helps me to know what SA's/FP's/CE's I should give him to do it best.

Some of my characters have more than those many abilities you listed (I try to keep it down, but sometimes 4 abilities just won't do on my uncommons, like my Fromm Tower Droid for instance; I kept on cutting abilities, but me and the community that commented on it weren't satisfied with the representation with just some of the abilities). However, most of my Uncommons I try to keep below 4-6 at most, and there are some WOTC and especially V-set pieces with more than that.

For rares, I NEVER exceed 14/15 abilities/readings on the card (including CE's, Unique/Melee/Force X/Renewal abilities. It's a number I based on some established WOTC/V-set pieces which is rarely exceeded by actual minis), and try to keep it below 12 even on major unique melee force commanders (one situation similar to the Fromm is my Maul, Dark Apprentice. There was SOOO much I wanted to put on this piece, and even after trimming, it's got I believe 13/14 now, without a CE, and he's one of my favorite customs ever).

For the CE's, that CE you showed as too much is a bit much, but I think, depending on what you are boosting, sometimes that CE may be appropriate. Not generally, but not never.

So it all really just depends. I do have 'caps' on my pieces, but the actual low I shoot for will work to varying extent depending on the piece I am creating, as will the CE's depending on what I'm trying to boost/accomplish with this CE, etc.
dreadtech
Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2013 12:43:05 PM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 7/23/2008
Posts: 942
Character first.
SignerJ
Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2013 2:45:37 PM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 1/2/2012
Posts: 746
surf_rider56 wrote:
How do people pick what abilities to give what characters? It seems to me like a Chicken or Egg question; do you create a character and then assign certain abilities or pick a set of abilities and then decide what character best fits it?


It just depends for me. Usually, for my sets, I pick the character first and go from there. Sometimes, I think of a good combination, then try to figure out a character from that; however, that doesn't happen often, and those customs are usually subpar.

surf_rider56 wrote:
Another question is how do you guard against going total Fanboy on a character.


Hehe... Not going total fanboy?
You mean something like this?

Joking aside, I try to have a certain "theme" when I create my characters. This is most obvious in the recent Darth Caedus customs, which can be found in this set. I currently have two out of four of them finished.
Though right now I kind of have a sudden urge to make a complete fanboy Caedus... Hmm...

surf_rider56 wrote:
Do you have a set policy, on how to assign x abilites to y type of character? I think I previously laid out my idea abilities

1-3 abilities - Common character

2-4 abilities - Uncommon character

4 -6 abilities - Rare/Very Rare characters

6+ abilities - only if its a Major SW character.


I think that I tend to follow a rough pattern of:

1-2 SAs and FPs for commons
3-4 SAs and FPs for uncommons
4-6/7 SAs and FPs for rares
6-? SAs and FPs for very rares

Basic stuff like Melee Attack, Double Attack, Force 3, Force Renewal 1, Droid, and so on don't count. Also, I tend to change this up a bit for Uniques. It all depends on what I'm going for with the custom, really. Compare my Qui-Gon Jinn with my Darth Nihilus. Both rares, but both are also completely different.

The amount of SAs I include also tends to vary depending on when I make the character. Same with the stats. I often end up designing the character weeks before I upload it to Bloo Milk as a final version.


surf_rider56 wrote:
Also, how many is too many CE's? Example recently I wanted to give these CE abilities to a character

* At the end of this character's turn, 1 x within 6 squares can make 1 immediate attack at +4 Attack and +10 Damage.

* Allied x gain Grenades +20, Greater Mobile Attack, and Twin Attack.

* X gain +3 Attack and +3 Defense.

I realized that's too many, so I decided to pick two of them, but then how would you choose which 2?


Usually, I consider two CEs to be plenty/enough. Three CEs is almost always going to be "too much," though there are special situations.
It also depends on what the CEs are, however. Certain CEs have a certain "feel." The "heavier" the CE, the less likely I am to add another CE to the character. CEs that give a bunch of SAs, for example, feel very "heavy," while straight stat bonuses are not as "heavy". And CEs that can arguably be negative (like Nute Gunray's) can go either way.
Finally, there is complexity. If a CE is very complex, I'm less likely to add another.

As an example, I'll explain the CEs for my Darth Caedus, GAC. The first CE is very complex, but it also can really hurt the squad, so I decided to add another CE. Something that gives SAs would be too heavy, however, and I wanted something fairly weak, but that portrays his command abilities. So I chose a weaker version of Swap.

For your situation, if you want two, I'd choose the first and the third. The second CE is just too powerful to be coupled with those other two CEs. However, I really don't like how any of the three work with each other; depending on the character, I'd either stick with one CE or make a new one to go with one of the ones from the list.



Sorry this post is so long!
pegolego
Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2013 3:28:52 PM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 7/29/2011
Posts: 1,766
Location: In a sinkhole on Utapau
SignerJ wrote:
surf_rider56 wrote:
How do people pick what abilities to give what characters? It seems to me like a Chicken or Egg question; do you create a character and then assign certain abilities or pick a set of abilities and then decide what character best fits it?


It just depends for me. Usually, for my sets, I pick the character first and go from there. Sometimes, I think of a good combination, then try to figure out a character from that; however, that doesn't happen often, and those customs are usually subpar.



Yeah, that's how I usually decide it, picking characters that I find and making them with abilities that fit. On occasion (usually in the situation of thinking of how to boost something, I'll think 'what character can I make to make X CE to boost X character?'. This was the situation with pieces such as my Nossor Ri, Quarren Leader).

Also, another thing I forgot to mention as far as how many abilities to give is this: I know higher cost/power doesn't mean it has to have a slew of abilities, and the same for low cost/power. That said, I still don't like to put too many abilities on Unique's under like 30, because they usually don't survive long, and thus most will just be wasted space. And if it's that small a character it usually doesn't need that many anyway, because there isn't as much 'character' material to represent.
Lord_Ball
Posted: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 5:46:32 AM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
Groups: Member

Joined: 4/19/2010
Posts: 1,029
For me I generally have a character type I want to make then add as few abilities as possible to accomplish the role I want said character to fill.

Uniques I Try to be as accurate and all-inclusive as possible with as few abilities as possible (which is my guard against fanboyism). Some examples of my take on inclusiveness:
Count Dooku, Leader of the Confederacy
Pong Krell, Republic General


and two obscure attempts at accuracy
Shu Mai, Presidente
Passel Argente, Magistrate
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