Game Fan League Discussion Thread

[Philia]

Everyone, throw out some ideas for Mental Assassin. I'm not at all satisfied with the current version, but have a hard time coming up with good alternatives.

Here's my idea:
After losing a set/2-3 points opponent's mental decreases by 2. If opponents mental is <=5, opponent's serve with lv<=4/5 is negated.
IMO, Mental assassin should activate after losing points like it happened in the last season. Although decreasing mental by 4 was too much.

 

[-Ken-]

Mental assassin activate when pop is on match point. Mental decrease by ___?

 

[Kaoz]

TnK prevents (almost all) Mental drops from occurring.

 

[-Ken-]

I have not seen any TnK players feel pressure or stress during their TnK, so that looks fine to me if mental assassin doesn't affect tnk.

 

[Kaoz]

Thanks for all the input, everyone. I ended up with this version:

-Mental Assassin [Feat]:
Cannot be copied. Mental cannot decrease. If an opponent's Mental is less than 6, that opponent's Technique decreases by the difference and their Serves/Specials with Lv <= [that opponent's Technique] are negated. Every time a Serve/Special is negated this way, that opponent's Mental permanently decreases by 1.

The reasoning is that while it's a mental attack, it really affects the opponent's accuracy as seen when Atobe missed all those easy shots. Furthermore, it seems logical that players with higher Mental get affected less by this, e.g. Byoudouin wouldn't be phased by his opponent staying calm under pressure. The last part that actually decreases Mental represents someone pressuring themselves as they are unable to perform normally.

---------- Post added December 22, 2014 at 01:22 PM ---------- Previous post was December 21, 2014 at 10:55 PM ----------

I've spent the past few days editing the characters we've used this season, and we will most likely use these versions for the next full season (unless characters need to be updated as a result of new data from the manga).

You can find the updated characters here.

I've implemented almost all changes that were listed on the change list. In addition I've added abilities to a few characters where I felt it was necessary. The wording of all abilities has (hopefully) been improved as well.

In addition to the general changes, I would like to bring three points to your attention:

• Super Sweet Spot has been removed as a separate ability. Variations of the effects of the first part have been added to some abilities directly, the second part has been removed entirely.
• There are now two versions of Ryoma. The way this is going to work is that whoever picks Ryoma chooses which of the two version they want to use, the other version cannot be used by anyone. I would have done the same for Oni, but from what I can tell there are no benefits to using a TnK build over the Demon build.
• Serves and Specials have slightly different ACE effects in Doubles, namely a Serve only needs to be effective against one opponent whereas a Special needs to be effective against both. In return, Serves can only be used during two points of the match (1&5, 2&6, 3&7 or 4&7).

You will also notice that Reinhardt and Valentine aren't included, this is because we don't have manga data on them yet. They will be added back in as they are now (except that Luna will become a bit less effective) if we don't get any information on them in time.
Obandu however has been updated with information from chapter 134 (I should probably note in this context that Meteor Dunk is an ability I added myself that wasn't shown in any way, shape or form, just the feats are based on the chapter).

Feel free to comment on anything that catches your attention.

 

[Seakay]

I think that removing SSS as it is now is probably the best course of action. It led to many repetitive points between the players capable of using it. All those players should have some more variety from planning out usage of their serves/specials.

Having a choice of Ryomas is interesting. Demon Oni is gosh darn strong though, so I don't know what an equal but different build could really do. Maybe Demon Oni could focus on being individually strong, while a 'Gatekeeper of Hell' build could somehow improve your team's effectiveness. The latter is a big part of his character, shown by him helping the 5th court and mentoring Tokugawa.

I like the differentiation between Serves and Specials. For Doubles line-ups in the future then, it might be easier for pairs to be split into Character A & Character B. Character A serves first (1&5 or 2&6) and Character B serves second (3&7 or 4&7). So if there was another half season, a line up would like:

Singles 2
Doubles 1A
Doubles 1B
Singles 1

Another point I'd like to bring up is that Formations were underutilized this season. I know that we were only using at most half of the full roster and many of the characters were primarily Singles players, so other characters may help solve this problem. Were there any thoughts on having Basic Formations that could be used by a Doubles pair provided they met the requirements like playstyles or certain stats. Some past Leagues did this I think, so maybe this was already discussed?

I could totally see Obandu's Meteor Dunk being him smashing the ball after one of his ridiculous jumps. An apt name.

 

[Kaoz]

Two mistakes have been brought to my attention, which will be corrected shortly. Imetsu Mu's Technique boost will be removed, and the "<=" sign in Mental Assassin is actually supposed to be a ">".

Having a choice of Ryomas is interesting. Demon Oni is gosh darn strong though, so I don't know what an equal but different build could really do. Maybe Demon Oni could focus on being individually strong, while a 'Gatekeeper of Hell' build could somehow improve your team's effectiveness. The latter is a big part of his character, shown by him helping the 5th court and mentoring Tokugawa.

Something like this might be possible. I'll consider it at least.

Were there any thoughts on having Basic Formations that could be used by a Doubles pair provided they met the requirements like playstyles or certain stats. Some past Leagues did this I think, so maybe this was already discussed?

As you said, we had those kind of formations in the past. I'm not a particularly big fan of them personally because I feel that they take away from the unique formations though. A few more characters will have Formations in the next batch of characters though, so I hope it won't be too much of a problem for the people that like them.

---------- Post added January 04, 2015 at 10:55 AM ---------- Previous post was December 22, 2014 at 07:53 PM ----------

If you haven't read the chapter 136 spoilers yet, do that before reading the rest of this post.

Spoiler

Ok, so, Nakagauchi's stats. Should they be raised or stay the same? If the former, by how much? Some suggestions:

SPE: 3, POW: 4, STA: 5, MEN: 3, TEC: 6
SPE: 3, POW: 4, STA: 6, MEN: 3, TEC: 5

Both of these would bring him to 21 total. I think if we raise his stats he should have a 6 somewhere because the players around his new position generally do.

SPE: 3, POW: 5, STA: 5, MEN: 4, TEC: 5

Sai's suggestion. Power increased by 1 and otherwise giving him the higher stat when comparing Ban's and his own.

SPE: 3, POW: 5, STA: 6, MEN: 4, TEC: 5

Combination of both of the above. Could be argued for on the basis that Date's total is 23 and doubles partners usually have matching totals (going with the assumption that Nakagauchi replaced Ban which is incredibly likely).

Give me opinions.

The following posts don't need spoiler tags.

 

[Hardy]

Well, I think he should get a stat boost to be at the same level as Ban (or something like 21.5/22).

Having his past reference as 2.5 4 5 3 5, I'd say he should go to 3 5 6 3 5 max. A power boost to fit his role as Date's partner, a small speed boost cause 2.5 is a joke, and a stamina boost cause there isn't a player with great stamina other than Ohmagari in the 1st String, so maybe that's why Nakagauchi got picked.

 

[Kaoz]

I'll most likely settle on the 3/4/6/3/5 spread at this point. I could be convinced to give him an extra point in Power, but at the moment it doesn't look quite right to me.

---

Moving on to a different point of discussion, I want to talk a bit about TnK. I don't remember if this was posted in the spoiler/chapter thread, but in chapter 135 in the practice match, after Tezuka starts using TnK, Volk says that Tezuka gets too easily discouraged if his attacks fail - this sounds a lot closer to Tezuka's standard 5 Mental to me than the boosted 7 he would currently reach through TnK.

So I'm wondering if TnK is really just a (fairly significant) boost to Speed and Power which would also be closer to the explanation we got at the end of the original, that it's like an evolved form of the moveable Hyakuren. I'm currently tempted to just give it a static boost of Speed +2, Power +2, SB +1.

 

[FrostyMouse]

I'll most likely settle on the 3/4/6/3/5 spread at this point. I could be convinced to give him an extra point in Power, but at the moment it doesn't look quite right to me.

---

Moving on to a different point of discussion, I want to talk a bit about TnK. I don't remember if this was posted in the spoiler/chapter thread, but in chapter 135 in the practice match, after Tezuka starts using TnK, Volk says that Tezuka gets too easily discouraged if his attacks fail - this sounds a lot closer to Tezuka's standard 5 Mental to me than the boosted 7 he would currently reach through TnK.

So I'm wondering if TnK is really just a (fairly significant) boost to Speed and Power which would also be closer to the explanation we got at the end of the original, that it's like an evolved form of the moveable Hyakuren. I'm currently tempted to just give it a static boost of Speed +2, Power +2, SB +1.

---

That's effectively weaker than Glowing Shot, though. Maybe you could make the bonus slightly larger. Like add a point of technique or stamina.

 

[Kaoz]

TnK was weaker than GS last season too, so I don't think that's a real argument.

 

[FrostyMouse]

TnK was weaker than GS last season too, so I don't think that's a real argument.

Yeah, but it was a feat at that time, so you could activate something else as well (admittedly, given that Kintarou's techs were low level, they could easily be negated, if you negated, although the serve could be quite effective). Now that you're making TnK a special, you don't get a second tech, unless you're going back to our old rules where you got a second tech when you used TnK.

 

[Kaoz]

unless you're going back to our old rules where you got a second tech when you used TnK.

Yeah, this. I said it effectively won't really change anything.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Yeah, this. I said it effectively won't really change anything.

Then we're all good, because that fixes the issue.

 

[Kaoz]

Would like some feedback on the match format. Since Konomi has introduced a new format with the Pre-WC, do you guys want to try something like that or stick to the traditional one?

 

[FrostyMouse]

Would like some feedback on the match format. Since Konomi has introduced a new format with the Pre-WC, do you guys want to try something like that or stick to the traditional one?

For 2.75, you mean, or whatever this current break period season is called?

 

[Kaoz]

More like in general, but yeah, for that one too.

 

[FrostyMouse]

More like in general, but yeah, for that one too.

Well, the regular WC doesn't appear to be doing the same thing, and this is just a special event. We could try it out for the mini-season, certainly, but in general, it seems like it would be funky, as you'd have to draft HSers and MSers and not just who fit your team or something. For example, you couldn't use a canon pair, such as Ochi/Mouri, under that system. However, that might not be such a bad thing as canon pairs have been a source of brokenness in the SFL for a while.

 

[Kaoz]

Well, that's technically true, but from my perspective it's more about whether people like singles or doubles better. It got a bit less clear cut since we started doing the point system, but overall there are still a lot of matches where character A should never beat character B in a singles match. In doubles it's a bit more of a mix due to requiring two characters while also having to balance out your overall line-up.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Well, that's technically true, but from my perspective it's more about whether people like singles or doubles better. It got a bit less clear cut since we started doing the point system, but overall there are still a lot of matches where character A should never beat character B in a singles match. In doubles it's a bit more of a mix due to requiring two characters while also having to balance out your overall line-up.

In a point based system, except for when we had the Twins beating Tokugawa in doubles (I loved that, even though it was horribly unrealistic), it probably still won't matter that much in doubles. If you put a GS guy in doubles, he's still going to win, unless his mook of a partner gets KOed before the opponents get KOed.