This is an update that I’m genuinely looking forward to, though I do have some reservations alongside my genuine appreciation for this update. I think there are some good qualities to this update, some parts that would benefit from improvements, and to end all this, I have a few ideas for potential Red Skills that could add quite a bit of fun to the game and cause a bit of chaos in team making for a bit (which is a good thing as it spices up the game).
Now, onto The Good.
THE GOOD
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RED SKILLS: Having Red skills in general is a good thing. A lot of the older characters have no way to keep up with the newer characters being released. Just for instance from today, my older gen team of Judy, Nick, Robin Hood, Bogo and Quorra, all level Red0 and 134 with maxed skills, memorys and stars and is at a team power level of 409,189, was wrecked by a team of Ducky, Merlin, Baymax, Alladin and Barbossa of power level 286k, all below 5 stars.
So including new Red Skills can balance out that overwhelming power of newer characters, bringing more balance to the game, depending on what the Red Skills will be.
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UNLOCKING RED SKILLS: I think that this can be a plus to having Red Skills, as it allows a player to work towards unlocking something that can be game changing and extremely helpful. Something like Zurg’s skill which beefs up his Ion Blaster, can help players in other modes as well, so it can make it a priority to play those new modes to unlock them. New challenges can be fun, if properly balanced.
Now to the issues…
ISSUES
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CITY WATCH EPIC MODE: I was at first excited for this, however, my excitement dimmed when I realized one thing…
…I still have yet to be able to beat City Watch on Super Hard mode.
For me, a player that will buy a deal once or twice a month when he can afford to and has been playing since the Beta of the game, to have this much of an issue with beating one mode, then to need to beat the even harder mode to unlock the new skills, is something that will be out of my reach. So this update will feel like an aspect to the game I can’t unlock or play. And that, takes a bit of fun out of the update to say the least.
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EPIC KEYS: I know it says that we can get 15 epic keys per day for beating Super Hard mode, but for most of us who struggle to get and completel the second level of Super Hard mode, that’s only three to maybe six keys a day. That means once every two to four days most of us would be able to make one attempt at earning these keys. Again, this puts most players at a huge disadvantage and further hurts their morale with this new mode.
Now for what can be improved.
IMPROVEMENTS
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CITY WATCH: If we will need keys from Super Hard mode to unlock Epic Mode, and then have to beat Epic mode to get red skill chips, then City Watch needs to be overhauled and its difficulty lowered. The more new heroes that come out, the harder and harder City Watch becomes to beat, as older teams (which are our only good teams as we’ve had the time to level them up), get wrecked by the newer characters by stage 2 or 3.
The difficulty of City Watch needs to be reduced for this new game mode to work.
If the difficulty is lowered, then more people would play that mode, meaning more people would try to get heroes up to Red. More people attempting that, means they will more than likely buy more packs to get there as they view a chance at compeating now. That means more money for PerBlue, more happy customers, and more people playing the game. A win win for all involved.
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OLD HEROES GET PRIORITY: I understand the fact that releases new heroes with the red skill already embedded in the coding is easier than releasing them now and updating later. HOWEVER, this does make the vast difference in gameplay for all of us who have been playing since the beginning.
We can’t compete with whales, and whales are what make City Watch so difficult.
Making older Heroes, such as those from Zootopia, Wreck-it Ralph, The Incredibles, and, Pirates, etc, would give the ability to attempt at getting Red Skills possible for us older players who have been around since the beginning. It gives those heroes purpose again, and mixes/refreshes up ALL game modes because of it.
So my suggestions…
SUGGESTIONS
Heroes to update and potential Red Skills, and I’ll just go down the list of Heroes from my most powerful to least powerful for Zootopia, Wreck-it Ralph and Incredibles. I’ll list the character, their skill name to be buffed by the new Red Skill, and what the new Red Skill should do, alongside the reason behind it.
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JUDY HOPPS: Bunny Hop - Changes damage from “Normal” to “True”. Judy only targets front line enemies, which is bad, as the only enemies immune to normal damage are…front line enemies. So Judy’s “Bunny Hop” skill is useless in any mode which includes Cricket bat enemies. Giving her a Red Skill boost from “Normal” damage to “True”, gives her that extra oomph, especially in Invasion mode, where bosses ALWAYS have cricket bat enemies in front of them, rendering Judy completely useless in that mode.
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NICK WILDE: Shuriken Pops - Adds 1-2 more Shuriken pops and ups damage. Nick’s lemmings are amazing, and so are his shuriken pops. I was debating between adding more lemmings or more SP, and the SP won out. Either would be a HUGE asset to Nick Wilde in dealing damage.
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CHIEF BOGO: Blinding Jusice - Increases Blind time to 10 seconds from 5. This allows Bogo to keep his “Tankiness”, without turning him into a damage character. Most new characters have stuns, or other disables around 10 seconds, so this would put Bogo on par with newer characters for this skill.
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YAX: Flower Power - Adds a stun for 7 seconds. Yax as a support character can do two things; heal and get knocked out. His Chill Vibes disk with Finnick helps, but having a Stun would benefit him and his team immensely. Again, it would put him a bit behind newer characters, but would make him useful again.
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FINNICK: Jumbo Slam - Adds a stun for 7 seconds. If the description says, “sending out a shockwave”, then a stun would be appropriate here, and with that slow from his Sticky Pop skill on there for 14 seconds, would add a layering effect which would be a huge game changer for teams. A good skill to change to mix things up.
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SERGEANT CALHOUN: All moves - Increases Damage. Looking at Calhoun’s specials, she does lackluster damage. Her Violet Disk is her only good factor, so giving her more damage gives her a purpose for those who have leveled her up.
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MR INCREDIBLE: Pound Quake - Dizzy effect. A bit like a stun/charm, but will make the enemy attack any character randomly while dizzy. This could create a truly random effect that could make taking on a team with Mr Inc quite a crazy fun experience.
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FELIX: Honey Glow - Increases blind from 4 seconds to 8. Again, this ramps him up comprable to heroes released a few months ago and spices him up.
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RALPH: Wreck It - Increases damage of Wreck it by x amount. Ralph is like Calhoun in which he doesn’t do much of anything in the game. He gets knocked out usually before his healing even takes effect, which makes him generally useless in any mode. Making him do more damage before he goes out would improve him quite a lot.
I’d do more heroes, but this has taken over a half hour to write, so I will call it quits here. But these are a few suggestions that could improve this feature before its released, increase server player happiness, iron out bugs before they occur, and get people spending more who otherwise wouldn’t, or continue spending a little.
Again, these are just a few ideas I came up with, so hopefully they help out @Polaris . This update looks good, and with a few modifications, it can be made great, I believe.