So we are starting very, very early design on V-set 9, and I wanted some input from the community about things that they do and don't like in the game. Specifically, what peoples favorite and least favorite game mechanics are. By "game mechanic", I mean anything from a general concept like cover or doors to a type of special ability, like things that rely on whether the target has activated (Cunning, Opportunist, etc.) or things that do AoE damage. It could also be a mechanic like Force Abilities, or a specific FP or SA like Vehicle or Self Destruct. It could also be a CE, like Tempo Control or free shots like Princess Leia or the Bothan Noble.

You don't have to pick you absolute favorite and absolute least favorite, more of just generally things that when you play or when you see across the table you say "Oh cool, this will be fun" or "I hope this is over quickly....". A reasoning of WHY you like or don't like it would be even more helpful.

Here are my choices:

Favorite game mechanic: Bodyguard. Choosing where damage goes can be a massive advantage. I used it a LOT in my 2010 Championship run. Bodyguards make it into my squad pretty often, because I consider it one of the best abilities in the game. It's mostly good because there are obvious "breaks" in significant HP amounts. The difference between 50 HP and 60 HP is usually not a big gap, but the difference between 80 HP and 90 HP is often huge. Even relatively low-HP Bodyguards can often help move a character up to the next significant HP level, which can be the different between losing a piece and the game and keeping the piece alive and winning it.

Lease favorite game mechanic: Gigantic movement breakers. By "gigantic" I mean most of the board, usually most of the board and back. The biggest culprits of this are Republic squads with Yobuck and Lancer squads. Yobuck can get towed by R2 for 12 squares then run 26 for a total of 38 squares of movement (or 28 and hitting the enemy at the end twice). That's a whole lot of movement, but the icing is really when Panaka then swaps him out for even more movement. With the Lancer, the big offense is really with Pawn of the Darkside. With that ability it's moving an easy 48 squares per round. That's why I don't have a problem with the movement on the Vehicles of War subset; for one thing, they are pretty expensive, and also none of them even approach the Lancer in movement. At best Durge can go half as far.

So what are your favorite and least favorite game mechanics?

cloaked totally blows.
T'was a time when only 2 pieces had it.
now thanx to Vsets it's as common as STD's in a crack-whore

+10

Particularly Cloaked shooters. Cloaked with Self-Destruct is even worse. There is no need for Melee hate in this game. Cloaked Melee pieces aren't so bad.



Also agree that massive movement breakers are NPE.



I think I'm still the only one clamoring for more 3-pt (or even 2-pt) pieces, but I'm definitely not asking for any cheap attackers or anything worth spamming like Geonosian Drones. I just want more tech options at that level - options where it's just not worth taking more than 1 or 2 of them. You could even give them this ability so that they don't even work as activation fodder:

HiveMind/DroidSynchronization/WhateverName: When this character activates, allies with the same name are considered activated.

Least favorite mechanic...Vong. Ok maybe it is not a mechanic, but it is my least favorite things to play, design, research, or think about.

OK Seriously, lack of really good melee pieces that can stand up or have at least a 50/50 chance against a really good shooter. We talked about this on the SHNN the other week. There are only a hand full of Melee pieces that can drop 80+ damage from range 6-8. While shooting for 80 Dam a round is not unheard of and is clearly easier to play. If you play melee and have to dock and dodge all the way to get to a shooter and then not be able to drop them once you base them is really not good.

The other one at the top of my list is the number of squad types that each faction can field that are competitive. Republic have the most options and I would say that Imperials have the least. Besides the emergence of Dalla squads, when did you last see some one do well with out one of the two thrawn pieces?

Now the plus side of things is this has improved from the begining of the vsets and each faction is more playable then it was.

Least Favorite Mechanics:

1.2 point Self Destructing Pieces.

2. Multiple Pieces with Rapport for the same pieces. Booming Voice, one of my least favorite abilities in the whole game.

3.The Vehicle Ability.

4.Galloping/Strafe Attack.

5.Any ability that someone has where they can Attack and do unpreventable damage.

6.The Energy Shield ability.

7.ALL THE ANTI MELEE HATE IN THE GAME.

MY ABSOLUTE LEAST FAVORITE MECHANIC IN THIS GAME RIGHT NOW?! More and More and More games are not being completed , and more and more games are ending with the winner accumulating less than 100 total points!

*Communications Jammer*- Enemy characters within LOS do not benefit from Booming Voice.


Favorite Mechanics:

1.Camaraderie- awesome ability that makes 2 good pieces.

2.Synergy, another great ability that helps make 2 pieces good together.

3. Advantageous Cover- I think this ability should go on more beatsticks, since there at an extreme disadvantage anyways against these swarm squads.

4. Disruptive

*Master and Apprentice*- At the start of the skirmish choose an ally with a Force Rating, a lightsaber, and a lower point cost, this character and that character gain Synergy +3, +3 with each other*

This particular ability wouldn't make sense, thematically, as the idea of a 'Booming Voice' reaching the whole army across the battlefield wouldn't be overwhelmed by a 'communications jammer' I'd think... It's not a comm device, it's a voice. Would be a cool idea to negate Relay Orders though, I'd think, though maybe not reasonable.

Favorite:

Force Lightning 4. Just a great force power that can shift the balance of a game into your favor if you have the force points for it.

Least Favorite:

Diplomat. I wouldn't mind if I never saw this ability again. Agressive Negotiations is fine, cause there are more ways to cancel it, but the just plain straight up Diplomat ability is by far my least favorite ability. I have to always question a rules expert about this ability. I wish there were mroe abilities that could counter Diplomat. It used to be originally that Lightsaber Sweep could bypass Diplomat, but for some reason they latter changed it so you can't. This made no sense to me, and if there was one rule change that I could enforce, it would be to make it so lightsaber sweep could take out diplomats.

Activation control is lame. I use it often especially with ig-86's/seperatist squads and such, but it slows down a game and to me it's like the four corner stall in basketball back in the 50's. Yes someone won using it, but nobody cared.

I agree with all of the above

+1
Hard to argue with this...and I agree!