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[Xantalos]

HB, I think you're an eloquent version of me or something. Seriously, that put to mind everything I've been trying to think for the past few months.
That said schadenfreude is also hilarious - I laughed when I got my head shot off, that was hilarious.

[piecewise]

Also, Harry - based off that, I guess you'd consider Milno a more fun enemy than Miyamoto or Jim?

Yes, but that's not really what I'm getting at. All three of them have their identifiable, exploitable weaknesses, and all three of them you could pretty safely take down with a microwave amp if you were so inclined, and Jim and Milno can be eliminated with conventional weaponry without all that much trouble, I think.

What I have a problem with is the Amp Specialist's ilk, since fighting one of those just turns into an anime-style space magic battle (which feels thematically wrong, but that's not important at the moment). The Amp Specialist doesn't seem to run out of will points, has bullshit amp-sight (rendering that whole smugly stated "ah, but they need to know you're there first" stratagem completely useless) as well as full ability to protect himself from virtually everything hitting him and attacking at the same time, and is also a one man army, and this combination I find highly distasteful because it seems like an extremely transparently designed and absurdly beefed up boss enemy rather than something I could envision as being called a 'specialist' in a military context. The AM's largely the same thing, because her whole amp demigod thing feels kind of bullshit in a similar fashion, a thing that feels transparently like game design rather than like a natural part of the setting. The Doctor's better at this, even if it's largely because of recent developments revealing or at least hinting at some of the backstory that explains his curious state.

Of course, both the AM and the Amp Specialists may have entirely reasonable explanations behind them that tie into the universe, but that's just my impression of them from the little information we have obtained.

And my problem balance-wise is mostly that high-power characters attract this sort of adversary and this sort of general content more than low-power characters. It's still mostly just schadenfreude, though.

How would you handle it?

My oh my, what bloodlust for the poor defenseless supermen.

Look, I can certainly see how some people could be annoyed with the power imbalance. I've been trying not to let that happen too much, mostly by backing down from opportunities and letting other people play (eg not joining rescue mission, giving swordsmith those sods to command during Hep defense, etc). But how do we really fix this on a fundamental level? Forced retirement of characters? Because I like playing this one. Create special missions for vets? Then we run into the problem of the game favoring those who started playing earlier. So yeah, I can see why it'd be a problem (nobody likes standing at the sidelines while the demigods do everything) but I don't know a good solution. Hell, for me personally an option would be to really take a step back from active missions and fully focus on the bigger picture war effort (I enjoy that, don't judge me). But for others, that probably wouldn't be an option.

Might not be the kindest sentiment, but deep down I just can't help it.

Heh, wanting to see those 'at the top' take a dive is a very human thing to feel. Perhaps not the nicest indeed, but then again nobody said this we were in this thing to be nice!

Oh, and personally I see Amp specialists as a challenge rather than an annoyance, but I get where you're coming from. Can't be fun to face that and not having anything on you that can touch it.

I have to agree about May.  She's the only character whose death I considered a tragedy.  Every other character ranged to disappointment to apathy to outright hilarity.  Even Thrak's death (my first character) didn't upset me as much.

Of course, I was also sad to see Stacy go, although I think we all knew it was coming sooner or later.  His was a tragicomedy, at least.

Timmy was just hilarious and obviously coming.

Leon's was golden. Such drama, much hubris.

How do we reign in the power of the high end character?

Or, let me put it to you like this: is it the problem that characters are superpowered, or is it that only certain ones are and they always seem to be the most useful. Ie Harry, did you dislike the Amp Specialist inherently, as an idea, or because it was an enemy that ordinary soldiers and players couldn't fight, one that basically had to be combated by Jim and Miya and their ilk?

Because if it's the first, you're kinda out of luck. The tech is there and both sides are gonna keep using and improving it, especially now. By the time the war ends, in whatever way it does, we're gonna be using artifact level equipment and battles are going to seem very odd in hindsight.

But if it's the second, then that might be exactly what you want, since it will mean that soldiers and average people will have a much better chance of being able to take out major threats.

[Radio Controlled]

Well, as I said, one thing we could do is have missions specifically geared toward higher level players. Or, if we don't wanna exclude people, have missions where it is explicitly stated you need to be this tall to enter the ride clad yourself in a few ton of phallic compensation in order to really stand a chance. But I'm not sure that'd be a very elegant solution.

[Tavik Toth]

And I'm average even with the mk3 and all the guns I have.

[AoshimaMichio]

And once there was time when Mk III was considered powerful.

[Radio Controlled]

And once there was time when Mk III was considered powerful.

It still serves its purpose: nearly unparalleled mobility and very good flying. If that's your jib, then you're good with one of those, though it might need upgrades to get the most out of it.

[Omeganaut]

I think if unequal power levels is a problem, you simply send the high-powers on different missions than the newbs.  Perhaps include one or two nice stand-outs to guide the newbs and provide firepower in a crisis, but it makes sense to send the best of the best on tough, dangerous, otherwise impossible missions and the rookies on missions that are less potentially rewarding and dangerous.  From each according to their ability after all!

[Devastator]

I'd just like to see them be a little less indestructable.  Look at faith on the long mission previously.  Wounded multiple times, and it's irrelevant limb damage, and pops out unharmed after a massive amount of gunfire by half a dozen players, including some pretty powerful weapons.  Sure, in theory someone like that could die, but synthflesh bodies and armor act both as reduction in damage taken, and as extra lives preventing critical damage, downgrading what would be a permadeath or temp-death into a less-lethal hit that wouldn't kill a normal player.

Basically, it downgrades a critical killing blow into a limb shot, and then the limb shot might be further reduced from 'destroyed' to 'damaged'.  Hence, double-counting protection.

If there was a little more turnover, the gap wouldn't be so large...

Also, amp weapons don't seem to suffer from this kind of damage reduction, with orders like 'cut the enemy in half' and 'pop his skull off his spine' not being granted a similar defence roll.

[Beirus]

I think if unequal power levels is a problem, you simply send the high-powers on different missions than the newbs.  Perhaps include one or two nice stand-outs to guide the newbs and provide firepower in a crisis, but it makes sense to send the best of the best on tough, dangerous, otherwise impossible missions and the rookies on missions that are less potentially rewarding and dangerous.  From each according to their ability after all!

"Alright, veterans, I need you to go destroy an orbital facility. New people out of the pod, bring me 5 rat tails."

[Lenglon]

the problem isn't in the equipment's capabilities, but in the rolling system.

a new character is taking an extreme risk every time they use a weapon, or anything that could remotely be used as a weapon, or talks, or basically does anything. (slight bonus, no decomp)

a mid-grade character is still taking risks by doing those actions, but can slightly influence them to be overshots instead of critical fails. (moderate bonus, no decomp)

a high-end character auto-succeeds at everything (good bonus, with decomp)

the gap between the no-decomp mid-range character and a character with a decomp is where things become overwhelming.

[Toaster]

Space Magic appears to have an unusual power jump over other weaponry, but I'd also put out that 10+ token con weapons have been fired offensively exactly once.  There's simply no standard for comparison here.


I'm not sure there's a fix to the rolling system without a major overhaul.  RtD is inherently unpredictable.

[Devastator]

Space Magic appears to have an unusual power jump over other weaponry, but I'd also put out that 10+ token con weapons have been fired offensively exactly once.  There's simply no standard for comparison here.


I'm not sure there's a fix to the rolling system without a major overhaul.  RtD is inherently unpredictable.

Please note that that character is still generally an amp user.

[Radio Controlled]

Space Magic appears to have an unusual power jump over other weaponry, but I'd also put out that 10+ token con weapons have been fired offensively exactly once.  There's simply no standard for comparison here.


I'm not sure there's a fix to the rolling system without a major overhaul.  RtD is inherently unpredictable.

I'm still selling that thing, by the way, should people be interested.

the problem isn't in the equipment's capabilities, but in the rolling system.

a new character is taking an extreme risk every time they use a weapon, or anything that could remotely be used as a weapon, or talks, or basically does anything. (slight bonus, no decomp)

a mid-grade character is still taking risks by doing those actions, but can slightly influence them to be overshots instead of critical fails. (moderate bonus, no decomp)

a high-end character auto-succeeds at everything (good bonus, with decomp)

the gap between the no-decomp mid-range character and a character with a decomp is where things become overwhelming.

An inherent flaw of the way this rtd system works. It's not complicated, which is nice, but horribly broken at higher levels. As pw said, it was never intended for the game/its characters to live long enough for it to become a problem.

[Xantalos]

Eh, why not continue? This seems to be going at the rate of TTGL. Spiral characters!

[Lenglon]

An inherent flaw of the way this rtd system works. It's not complicated, which is nice, but horribly broken at higher levels. As pw said, it was never intended for the game/its characters to live long enough for it to become a problem.

Yes, just tired of complaints about how overwhelming the high-end characters are and blaming synthflesh, or amps, or whatever, instead of simply acknowledging that character growth when working with a die with a small number of sides will result in this no matter what. Just be patient and wait, and you'll get up there eventually.