BattleCON & Level 99: I Clearly Cannot Choose the Fist In Front of Me

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > BattleCON & Level 99: I Clearly Cannot Choose the Fist In Front of Me

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gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

What the hell is a BattleCON?

BattleCON (short for "Battle Connection") is the flagship game series of Level 99 Games, created by D. Brad Talton (both the game and the company). BattleCON vaguely mimics the mechanics of 2D fighting games to deliver a tactical anime punch-em-up experience. Two characters enter the arena--a small 2-D board, just seven spaces in a straight line--with 20 life and a fistful of cards. Only one walks away.

Okay, why should I care?

If you like deep strategy with no RNG fuckery, BattleCON is one of the best board games to come out this decade. No dice, no draw deck. Each player character has a fixed pool of known maneuvers. But both players pick their attack in secret, and reveal simultaneously. Can you make the call, dodge the hit, slip into the right blind spot and deliver the pain? Worse, can your do it while your opponent is trying to read and adapt to your play?

The game is also ridiculously huge. The current roster features 58 tournament-legal characters, plus two "mascot" fighters, three secret unlockable characters, and a pile of miscellaneous promos. And that's before tapping into a bottomless well of alternate game variants, teams and tag-teams, special arenas, multiplayer boss battles, and a co-op dungeon crawl mode. You will never play with everything in the box. Never.

And the best part? For a game this size, it's cheap as hell. BattleCON currently has three standalone sets, at price points $25, $50, and $75 USD. Each offers a full experience by its lonesome, or can be combined for the "full" game.

I'm listening. How do I play?

You can download the rulebook and a free PNP demo! But here's the basic basics.

Each character has a hand of 12 cards to play with: Five red-backed Style cards and seven blue-backed Base cards. The Bases represent generic moves, shared by all characters--your basic Strike, Shot, Dash, Burst, et cetera, plus a special move unique to the character. The Styles are the personal tricks and techniques each character has to offer. Every Beat (turn), you secretly pick one style and one base to make a complete Attack Pair. Like so!

A full attack pair for Pendros Schalla, featuring a unique style and a generic base. Note how the border creates a "complete" card!

You simultaneously reveal the attack pair and compare numbers. The higher Priority (yellow stat) attack goes first, then the lower priority attack. You'll need to get the enemy in Range (blue stat) to hit and deal damage equal to your Power (red stat). Note that the attack pair also lets Pendros move closer before hitting, and lets him pull the opponent around on a hit. Plus other fun stuff.

But! If you get hit and take damage before you attack, you can get Stunned, and lose your attack entirely! You're Stunned if the enemy deals damage greater than the Stun Guard printed on your attack. No Stun Guard? Then a single point of damage is enough. So you can't always rely on a straight-up damage trade; you've gotta be faster, slipperier, or at the very least tougher!

At the end of each Beat, you put your attack pair in one of two discard piles, where the cards have to cool down for two turns before you can use them again. No spamming the same attack, jackass. :colbert:

Then, you start a new Beat with a new secret attack, and continue until someone is dead, or the clock runs out on Turn 15.

In addition to these basic attacks, each character has a Unique Ability, maybe some special tokens, and a one-shot Overdrive Finisher super move. But we can get into that during your first game.

I want to try this out before I drop cash. How do I demo the game?

Like I mentioned above, this link here will take you to a free PNP Demo you can play with your friends.

But you're a goon, so you don't have friends. We can still help! The SA BattleCON community is almost constantly running Play By Post games. Just ask in the thread if someone wants to play a game, and you'll find an opponent and a moderator in no time. And if you decide you want to moderate a game, you can check out our goon-made PBP aids here!

Plus, Brad and co are working to get a digital version of BattleCON launched by next year, so there's that.

What do I buy to get started?

Good question! As of this post, the game has three standalone Core Sets, three expansions, and two "Extended Editions."

The Core Sets: War of Indines, Devastation of Indines, Fate of Indines

These are the base sets. You can buy and play with any one, or combine them together to get the full roster. (There are no character overlaps, so don't worry about useless duplicates!)

War of Indines is the first set, and recently got a relaunch with updated art and rules. It'll run you ~$50 USD for 18 characters, and includes a couple variants.

Devastation of Indines is the second set, and is the big one. For ~$75 USD, you get thirty characters, plus four Boss Mode characters and a ridiculous wealth of extras, variants, arenas, and the BattleQuest co-op game mode. You also get a respectable bludgeoning weapon.

Fate of Indines is the latest and smallest set. For ~$25 USD you get ten characters and the generic pieces, no extra frills. It's a decent way to dip your toes in, but a word of warning. The characters here are a bit more complicated than average, so it might not be the best beginner box.

The Expansions: Armory, Strikers, Light & Shadow

These contain variants to be bolted onto the main games. Armory features weapon loadouts and alternate bases. Strikers gives you tag-in powers, similar to Skullgirls or the Marvel vs Capcom games. Light & Shadow give you powered-up EX and ALMIGHTY upgrades for the core characters, sort of like the EX or Omega characters in the Street Fighter series.

The Extended Editions

These are just alt-art promos and standups, featuring new Unique Abilities. They're not tournament legal, however. Devastation Extended also includes the two joke characters, Borneo and Juto, if you're the kind of person who plays Dan in Street Fighter. DOES NOT INCLUDE FULL GAME.

This thing

If you see this, don't buy it. It's the original 2011 edition of War of Indines. It's what kicked the series off, but it has outdated rules, unbalanced characters, and ugly art.

Wow, these box inserts are terrible.

Yeah, we know. Throw them away and figure out your own storage solution. Or you can be like the OP and go stark loving insane.

This took me ~~$70~~ $90 and like ~~three~~ six days of work. I do not love myself.

Can I get those helpful links again, one last time?

For you, my friend? Anything.

Level 99 Games Webstore
Rulebook and Demo PNP
~~Downloads and FAQs (requires free account)~~ Currently under reconstruction.
Goon-Made PBP Tools
Stark. loving. Lunacy.
Previous thread: Indines In Hell!

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Apr 23, 2017

# ¿ Jul 10, 2015 05:03

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 20:31

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Reserved for talking about other L99 games.

Gutter Owl posted:

gently caress I still need to write that post. Here's the short version:

Pixel Tactics: Concept is a card game version of tactics RPG combat, like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea. You have three ranks of dudes (vanguard/flanks/rearguard), and each unit has different abilities depending on which rank they're in. Amusing concept, but huge and swingy and unbalanced out of the box. Might be saved by the drafting variant from Super Pixel Tactics, which I'm told will be the official tournament variant. Alien Rope Burn and Tollymain know more about it than me.

7 Card Slugfest: Real time card game. Sorta feels like Brad wanted to make a gamier version of Falling or Slamwich. And by gamier I mean "trying to do more math really fast, with needlessly complicated special character abilities." Played it once at Gen Con 14, haven't felt the need to play it again.

Sellswords: Did you like Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8? It's Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8.

[Upcoming] Millennium Blades: Yugioh: the Anime: the Board Game. You are CCG nuts playing the fictional Millennium Blades card game. Plays like Galaxy Trucker crossed with a tableau builder, with a much more relaxed timer and a more interactive resolution phase. Game is split into two phases: Deckbuilding, where you build your tourney deck (tableau), buy/sell/trade cards with the market and other players, and assemble collections for bonus points; and Tournament, where you assemble and manipulate your tableau and try to disrupt your opponents. loving huge table eater like Argent. On my "must buy" list after one game at Gen Con. I will probably never get it to the table ever.

Disc Duelers/Power Play/Resistor/NOIR/Master Plan/Exceed: Never played 'em.

[Bonus round] Golden Sky Stories: Made in Japan, translated by Star Line Games, sold/distributed by L99. The single most twee, sugary tabletop RPG ever created. You play small animal spirits on the outskirts of a rural Japanese town straight out of Miyazaki, doing good deeds for the human townsfolk and the minor gods of the forest. Will rot the teeth out of your head. Sample adventures include:

Resolving an argument between grade school kids

Befriending a lonely and reclusive fox spirit

Guiding home a drunk who got lost in the forest

Convincing a lovesick god that she's being kinda creepy at her mortal crush and should probably tone it down a notch, geez dude
I have this on my shelf just to have it, and will probably never actually play it. Keep out of the hands of gross neckbeards at all costs.

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Aug 5, 2015

# ¿ Jul 10, 2015 05:03

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

potatocubed posted:

I made an automated BattleCON PBP moderator.

It's basically a gmail account attached to a spreadsheet in google drive, with a script which fires every minute to check for new messages. All it does is keep move choices secret until everyone's finished ante-ing -- it doesn't check any rules, make sure card combos or antes are valid, answer queries, or any of that. You'll have to work that out with your opponent. It's also not particularly robust: I designed it for use by people playing in good faith, so I'm sure a dedicated dick could break it over their knee with little effort. (From an infosec point of view though, it's all hosted in the Google cloud -- so it's exactly as secure as that is.)

I've tested it a little bit bouncing moves back and forth between two of my email accounts, and it seems to work okay, but I'm sure you talented folk can find ten thousand faults if you feel like giving it a test drive.

Known Problem #1: For Battlecon Bot to work, you and your opponent need to agree on a unique game ID. If you accidentally pick someone else's, you'll probably all get error messages or weird move choices.

Known Problem #2: There are no takebacks. Once you've sent your move or ante in, that's it. Locked.

...unless you send in another move or ante so quickly that Battlecon Bot reads that one first, since it checks from newest messages to oldest. This might be a bug or a feature depending on your point of view.

Known Problem #3: It's for 1-on-1 games only.

With those caveats aside...

INSTRUCTIONS

1. You and your opponent choose characters* and come up with a unique game ID between you. This is also where you'll set up the PBP thread, etc.

_{*I just now realised I didn't build in an option for this. But you can improvise a mutually hidden character selection easily enough using the same bot.}

2. Each of you sends an email to sabattleconbot at gmail doot com. The subject line should be your game ID. In the body of the email you should put:

Required: "Move:" followed by the move you've chosen.
Optional: "Active:" followed by "Y" if you're the active player this beat. For the purposes of finding out who antes first.

(If you use both, make sure they're on different lines.)

If only one of you claims active, that player is set to ante first. If both or neither of you claim active, it ~~goes to whoever's email Battlecon Bot read first~~ chooses between you at random.

You should both get a confirmation email, and one of you should get an instruction that it's your turn to ante.

3. You ante by sending Battlecon Bot an email containing "Ante:" followed by your ante. So long as the subject line contains your game ID this should work just fine; I know it works if you just click 'reply' to the message Battlecon Bot sent you, so... maybe just do that? And I'll try to make it more robust when I have time.

When you ante, you'll get a confirmation email and your opponent will get an email offering them the chance to ante. These messages go back and forth until both of you pass by anteing nothing.

When both players have passed, Battlecon Bot emails both of you the moves and antes, and then you can hie to your game thread and work out what all that means.

_{If you want to improvise a secret character select, make your first move the name of your character then ante nothing. That'll work just fine.}

HOW IT WORKS
Basically, the script reads all the unread emails in Battlecon Bot's inbox every minute, and vacuums up anything following the phrases "Move:", "Active:", or "Ante:" as a plain string. It then compares these to what it knows about the game state, checks to see if they're valid inputs, and either returns an error message or records the appropriate details in its companion spreadsheet.

It never shares anyone's emails -- it sends its messages individually.

After every beat is complete, it wipes that record from the spreadsheet, and it runs a cleanup every week to delete anything that's over 7 days old. In this way I hope to keep the spreadsheet down to a manageable size.

AND THAT'S IT
So, uh... go ahead and test it, if you feel like playing some PBP Battlecon. If you manage to break it leave a message here or DM me. You could theoretically email Battlecon Bot, but the only time I ever look at that mailbox is when I'm testing it, so you might be waiting a while for an answer.

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Jun 18, 2016

# ¿ Jul 10, 2015 05:04

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Cerepol posted:

Hello friend I have recently tried and enjoyed this game on TTS and am up for some sort of match. I haven't used any of the non base games stuff (expansions etc.). Do we set a game up here or post a challenge in the PbP area?

Match requests go here! Yes, that is a major purpose behind the thread.

I'd offer to moderate for you, but I'm in bottomless work hell for a couple weeks, and don't have the time. Anyone feel like stepping up?

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 06:48

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

We use all three sets interchangeably for PBP, and I intend to do the same at the table when my copies of War Remastered and Fate arrive.

As for expansions, Light and Shadow is largely just an expanded version of the EX/ALMIGHTY variant from Devastation, which we've played with here. It's not actually very good for many-vs-1 games like advertised.

I've never seen a Strikers or Armory game myself.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 20:44

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Dire Wombat posted:

I am ready to run a match if anyone wants to play.

I'm game to play one. Might be a bit slower than usual, though. Currently in perpetual work mode.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 21:23

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

...ohh, I think I misunderstood the question. By "base sets,". I assumed you meant War, Devastation, and Fate. Not the sets of different bases (regular, beta, delta, ex, almighty, etc).

# ¿ Jul 12, 2015 01:55

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Wol posted:

No idea what Delta is.

They come in Armory, I think? I haven't picked it up.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2015 03:53

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Cerepol posted:

So is there any nice way to play online in realtime other than TTS?

Presently, no. L99 is working on BattleCON online, and plans to launch the kickstarter in the next month or two, once they finish up with War Remastered and Pixel Tactics fulfillment.

Aside: Dire, you still want to run a game, cuz I'm still interested in playing one.

And Acting Power, have you got that newbie fight up and running yet?

# ¿ Jul 13, 2015 23:59

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Shadow225 posted:

I believe 68, including the promos. Be warned that you will need a few of the 50 count boxes to fit some comfortably, and if you care about sleeving cards then you will probably need perfect fits, which are expensive.

Way more.

58 canon fighters

5 bosses (including promo boss Ramos)

Borneo
Juto
Anath Adrasteia
Evil Hikaru
Boris Rumaldi

Bridj
VG Gal Iris
Mark.PTO
Legacy
Claus & Wyndhal
Ernie the Geek
Danny the Sinner
Robert the Saint
Takeshi Kamikaze
Lucius
Iskra Brimstone
Prince Elien
Vincent Gray
Bruce Lee
Nehtali
Raederick Blackforge
Eliza

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 06:40

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Not yet. But he's going to be the unlockable character for Fate, like Anath and Evil Hikaru, so packing solutions should probably account for him.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 07:42

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

For the old War Promos, you're kinda SOL. Claus & Wyndham, Danny, and Robert are gone. You can still pick up the Ernie the Geek promo here, however. And the fifth War promo, Takeshi Kamikaze, is getting a relaunch with the War Promos

I don't know anything about the status of the Devastation Promos (Bridj, VG Gal Iris, Legacy, Mark.PTO, Ramos), but if they're out of stock, they're probably gone as well.

The nine War Promos (plus the physical print of Anath Adrasteia) aren't out yet, but they'll be in supply soon. The general rule on current promos is, ask Brad at a con and see if he has any. He'll give them out.

---

That said, there is hope that some of the promos will come back around. One of the (unmet) stretch goals for War Remastered was a Claus & Wyndhal reprint. I'd bet that stretch goal might show up again if Trials of Indines goes on Kickstarter next year.

Likewise, L99 has latitude to reprint those promos based on properties owned by L99 or its employees. So they can reprint C&W, Takeshi, Bridj, and Eliza at will, and they can reprint Lucius and Mark.PTO with permission of Eunice Tiu and Fabio Fontes. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up as downloadable PNPs at some point.

Properties owned by other companies are a bit trickier, and are only permissible under license. This is why we will never see Danny the Sinner and Robert the Saint again--L99 no longer has a contract with Iron Clown Studios. (No big loss, since Danny and Robert were refined and reimplemented as Voco and Lesandra, respectively.)

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 17:57

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Hmm. Are we talking "ideal list in a vacuum" or "pick order for draft?"

Lixis and Kajia are both on my ideal list. Last slot is a tossup, depending on environment and how I'm feeling on tournament day. Probably between Tanis or Mikhail. Though Shekhtur is probably the smart metagame pick, with Cadenza/Cesar/Alexian in the mix.

But in an actual draft environment, I'd probably prioritize Mikhail, even over the characters I prefer, because he's likely going to be a high pick on everyone's list. Whereas Kajia might wheel back around the table. And if she doesn't, Karin or Tanis are fine backups for my Tactician slot. But Mikhail is the only heavyweight I personally feel confident with in this list. Hrmm. Might also need to reevaluate Lixis in my pick order, since she got a huge boost with War Remastered.

Unfortunately, none of my real favorites ended up here. No Ottavia, no Iri. I love Tanis for one-off games, but I don't know if I want to run her for five or six matches in a row. The brain burn would probably cost me a crucial play somewhere.

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Jul 17, 2015

# ¿ Jul 17, 2015 06:37

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

OmegaGoo posted:

Screw Force Gauge.

Oh? Why?

# ¿ Jul 21, 2015 18:50

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

I'll offer a few, then.

Pros:

Pulse and Cancel, and their stupid rules interactions, get buried in a shallow grave outside town.
Force Pulse is a much, much cleaner option.
Being able to swap your finisher mid-game is nice.
"Feels" more Video Game-y than the SAC. This is actually important for teaching new players--the more a newbie can file new rules under a preexisting mental box, the faster they'll grasp the concepts
Seriously, Pulse and Cancel make no goddamn sense half the time.

Cons:

Force Gauge games have even more tracking, adding to the burden of comprehension and calculation, particularly for newer players. You already have to track your life, their life, their available styles/bases, their pool of Widget Tokens, your pile of Doodad Markers, and now the Force Gauge. Congrats, you've added another wall of fiddliness to alienate newbies.
Still couldn't figure out how to not put a dumb extra card in the players' hands, eh Brad?
The Force Special can start in a discard instead of a Style? That's loving ludicrous. You'll always choose it for Discard 1.
Marmelee is very sad without Pulse/Cancel. Voco is probably also sad, but Voco is always sad.

My opinion? I don't like either Force Gauge or Special Actions as a tournament format. We should just go back to ante finishers, like god intended. It's cleaner, it snaps nicely into the basic rules architecture of the game, and Baenvoir can loving suck on it (no you can't Spellbreak my Laser Lattice you prick).

# ¿ Jul 21, 2015 19:44

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

OmegaGoo posted:

I really like the Special Action cards, and I feel the characters work much better with all three options (once) than with either both options... or whatever else the Force Gauge gets you. Doesn't Force Gauge allow you to spend for Stun Guard? I'm not ok with that.

ActingPower posted:

IIRC, the Force Gauge allows you to spend 2 Force for either: 2 Stun Guard, 1 Soak, +1 Power, or +2 Priority. If you have 7 Force, you can "Pulse". And if you have more Force than Life, you can do the whole "Activate Your Finisher" deal.

This is correct.

With Force Gauge, you start with 2 Force, and gain 1 Force every recycle step, or 2 Force if you're at 7 or less life. Force Maxes out at 10.
As an Ante, you may spend 2 Force for an "Overcharge," which gives the above effects. You can Overcharge multiple times, but must choose a different effect each time (so no +4 initiative or Stun Guard 6 or whatever).
As an End of Beat Effect, you may spend 7 force for a "Pulse" - either Move 3, or Move an adjacent opponent 3.
You also have the "Force Special Action" style, which is played like the old SAC. If played when your Life < Force, it replaces your pair with your finisher. If Life > Force, you gain 1 Force on reveal and may flip your Finisher over, then you execute the attack (which is just the unmodified base).

So yeah, you can get Stun Guard, although it's below the magic number (3) by itself, and you have to ante it blind. It does boost Shot a bit, since SG4 shot is almost as reliable as Strike.

My big problem with Force Gauge is the inclusion of the Force Special Action card, which is inelegant as hell. You could have easily just made the Finisher an Ante effect, and make flipping the finisher an Overcharge option. But no, we have to have this extra wasted card. Which, may I remind you, can sub for a style in your opening discards, what the actual gently caress Brad.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2015 23:39

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Glazius posted:

The Overcharge option being "spend 1 Force to take a style back into your hand and only use the base"? Or...?

"Overcharge" is when you ante 2 force for (+2 Pri/+1 Pow/2 Stun Guard/1 Soak). I was saying, you could add a fifth option of "flip your Finisher card to the other side."

# ¿ Jul 22, 2015 16:17

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

djfooboo posted:

Played Milleniun Blades with Brad Talton

Trip report after Gencon.

Spoiler: Insta-buy

Last night around 9PM-11PM? I was the blonde gal playing the Shur Wen Na clashing deck.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2015 15:15

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Pulled top four at BattleCON Worlds at Gen Con, with a draft team of Lixis, Mikhail, and Vannah. Lost first round, then swept the losers' bracket up until losers' finals, where I fell to Shektur.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2015 04:57

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

gently caress I still need to write that post. Here's the short version:

Pixel Tactics: Concept is a card game version of tactics RPG combat, like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea. You have three ranks of dudes (vanguard/flanks/rearguard), and each unit has different abilities depending on which rank they're in. Amusing concept, but huge and swingy and unbalanced out of the box. Might be saved by the drafting variant from Super Pixel Tactics, which I'm told will be the official tournament variant. Alien Rope Burn and Tollymain know more about it than me.

7 Card Slugfest: Real time card game. Sorta feels like Brad wanted to make a gamier version of Falling or Slamwich. And by gamier I mean "trying to do more math really fast, with needlessly complicated special character abilities." Played it once at Gen Con 14, haven't felt the need to play it again.

Sellswords: Did you like Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8? It's Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8.

[Upcoming] Millennium Blades: Yugioh: the Anime: the Board Game. You are CCG nuts playing the fictional Millennium Blades card game. Plays like Galaxy Trucker crossed with a tableau builder, with a much more relaxed timer and a more interactive resolution phase. Game is split into two phases: Deckbuilding, where you build your tourney deck (tableau), buy/sell/trade cards with the market and other players, and assemble collections for bonus points; and Tournament, where you assemble and manipulate your tableau and try to disrupt your opponents. loving huge table eater like Argent. On my "must buy" list after one game at Gen Con. I will probably never get it to the table ever.

Disc Duelers/Power Play/Resistor/NOIR/Master Plan/Exceed: Never played 'em.

[Bonus round] Golden Sky Stories: Made in Japan, translated by Star Line Games, sold/distributed by L99. The single most twee, sugary tabletop RPG ever created. You play small animal spirits on the outskirts of a rural Japanese town straight out of Miyazaki, doing good deeds for the human townsfolk and the minor gods of the forest. Will rot the teeth out of your head. Sample adventures include:

Resolving an argument between grade school kids
Befriending a lonely and reclusive fox spirit
Guiding home a drunk who got lost in the forest
Convincing a lovesick god that she's being kinda creepy at her mortal crush and should probably tone it down a notch, geez dude

I have this on my shelf just to have it, and will probably never actually play it. Keep out of the hands of gross neckbeards at all costs.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2015 19:06

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

UNRELATED: New info on the upcoming tournament format for BattleCON, according to conversations with Brad.

Bring a stable of any three characters from War, Dev, and Fate (with caveats, see below). Before the match, you will simultaneously ban one of your opponent's characters and vice versa, and pick your fighter from the remaining.
Swiss pool, cut to top 4/8/16 based on tournament size.
Swiss matches are single game and move on. Playoff games are best of 3, where the winner of each game must keep same character, and the loser must switch characters.
Borneo and Juto are legal. Anath, Evil Hikaru, and Boris are not legal at this time, pending future review. Guest Promos are obviously not legal and never will be.
Four characters are currently banned: Arec, Ottavia, Kaitlyn, and Endrbyt.

Brad's logic:

Arec and Ottavia both need nerf errata. Brad is still working out how to do this and get them reprinted.
Kaitlyn is extremely matchup-dependent, which isn't conducive to the current tournament format.
Endrbyt is a huge slow-play hazard, and makes tournaments take waaaaay too long.
With the Extended Editions hitting wider distribution, most people will have reasonable access to Borneo and Juto, and it's not like they're going to tilt the format. Dan it up if you want, kid.
With the Secret Fighters, the main concern is ease-of-access. Newer players might have no idea that Anath even exists. But Brad is considering a statute of limitations: after a certain point in the future, a given fighter's unlock code might be considered "public knowledge," and the fighter can enter the official pool.
Promos have huge availability problems, especially unreprintable characters like Danny and Robert. Also no, you can't loving play Mark.PTO. Shut up.

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Aug 5, 2015

# ¿ Aug 5, 2015 19:29

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

Did he mention anything about how he wanted to nerf Arec/Ottavia other than the standard errata to Arec?

Just that Arec's current errata isn't enough. He no longer breaks the game over his knee (End of Beat triggers need to be inviolate for certain characters to even work), but he still warps the environment way too much.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2015 19:44

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

stabbington posted:

Out of curiosity (because I haven't really gotten in enough table time with them), what puts these two so far above the curve?

Both Arec and Ottavia commit the cardinal sin of BattleCON: They rarely have to make hard decisions.

For most reasonable board and hand positions, each player usually has 2-3 viable options, often in some sort of weighted rock paper scissors relationship. For example, let's say I'm playing a game, and for whatever reason I anticipate either a Strike or a Shot. If I Burst, I beat the Strike, but lose to Shot. If I Drive, I can stun out Shot, but trade unfavorably with Strike. I can play Strike to clash Strike, hoping to put you on Shot post-clash, but doing so also tips my hand. In this situation, I have to make a tactical call of some sort. What do I want to achieve if I guess "wrong?" Do I want to minimize damage? Position myself for next turn? Press a life advantage by taking the mediocre trade? And so on.

In these situations, both Arec and Ottavia can create win-win scenarios, because they can cover any "bad" decision with their ante. In the above scenario, Ottavia can play Burst, ante 2. If the opponent Strikes, Ottavia wins. If the opponent tries Shot (at -8 priority) Ottavia still wins. And since Ottavia is creating so many win-win scenarios, she can usually have Dash or Cancel available for the few instances she doesn't have a guaranteed win.

And this is before factoring in exacerbating factors, like Ottavia's Shooter base, or Arec's rifuckingdiculous styles.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2015 23:00

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

@Owl/topic in general: How much are people playing online here? I saw a few matches in the old thread but didn't do much more than skim.

(We played in LF at the gencon tournament, I had Kehrolyn/Shekhtur/Byron.)

Usually 3-5 games going on at any one time, stretching from 1-3 weeks. A new one starts up roughly whenever an old one ends, usually. We're just in a bit of a lull right now between Gen Con recovery and busy moderators.

Also: That loser's final game was painful. I absolutely hamstrung myself by banning Kehrolyn instead of Shekhtur. I'd been up for something like 20 hours by that point due to work, and couldn't remember basics like "Kehrolyn cares about discarded styles, not bases" and "Shekhtur doesn't give a gently caress about stun guard."

Not to diminish your victory, you were playing some tight BattleCON. I just wish I'd put up a better struggle.

How'd you do in the finals?

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Aug 6, 2015

# ¿ Aug 6, 2015 03:02

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

I feel like I need to sharpen my claws on someone. Anyone wanna throw down?

# ¿ Aug 6, 2015 06:28

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

Also if Kehrolyn cared about bases and not styles I would only ever play Bladed Drive Strike because I think it beats everything for a billion damage.

Hey, I didn't say it made any sense. This is what I get for trying to have actual fun on a job site.

EDIT: I feel like bringing my A Game. I'm picking a favorite, Goo. You should probably do the same.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2015 17:08

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

Is there a directory of those sheets somewhere? Really interested in making something like that to throw into my physical set.

Read the OP posted:

I want to try this out before I drop cash. How do I demo the game?
Like I mentioned above, this link here will take you to a free PNP Demo you can play with your friends.

But you're a goon, so you don't have friends. We can still help! The SA BattleCON community is almost constantly running Play By Post games. Just ask in the thread if someone wants to play a game, and you'll find an opponent and a moderator in no time. And if you decide you want to moderate a game, you can check out our goon-made PBP aids here!

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Aug 7, 2015

# ¿ Aug 7, 2015 19:53

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

BattleCON Online info from Gen Con.

Some important points:

Designed for multiple platforms, including Steam for PC/Mac, Browser-based, iOS, Android, etc.
BCO will work on a League of Legends-style monetization system. There will be a rotating selection of "free characters" at any given time, and you can pay money to "unlock" a given character permanently. (KS backers will get all launch characters unlocked.)
I've mentioned it before, but there will be new online-only characters, who will use mechanics that would be difficult to track in tabletop form. (Characters who permanently alter their cards, for example.)
New "Turbo BattleCON" variant, designed for async or weak connections. Turbo BattleCON moves all decision making to the Set Pair and Ante step, so that you don't have to wait for the other player as much. Turbo has no post-reveal decisions--so Drive is always Advance 2, Burst is always Retreat 2, et cetera. Dash is replaced by Guard (Stun Immunity, can only take 1 damage this turn). Ante is double blind, rather than the see-or-pass method used in "Classic" BattleCON.
New card frames designed for screen readability. Stun Guard is moved from text box to stat line with range/pow/pri. (It's the number in green.)
Kickstarter exclusives are all cosmetics--alternate art and costumes, et cetera.

gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Aug 9, 2015

# ¿ Aug 9, 2015 05:49

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

*slow clap*

# ¿ Aug 11, 2015 16:19

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

@ People in general: This came up yesterday so I just want to confirm, does that only apply to her Level 0 -> 1 transition or does it take effect during each level? We weren't sure and it was kinda confusing.

Her very first level.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2015 03:43

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

If we're using just Devastation, I might go with Shektur, Rexan, Karin, Alexian, Runika, and Clinhyde.

This gives you a nice variety of playstyles--Fast Disruptor, Control Disruptor, Tactician, Heavyweight, Specialist/Brawler, and Suicide Rushdown. If you want a little more texture, you can swap Karin for Kajia, Rexan for Byron, and/or Alexian for Mikhail/Cesar.

If you expand to eight, I'd also maybe throw in Oriana (charge-up) and Malandrax (pure goddamn nonsense).

# ¿ Aug 15, 2015 06:22

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

"Unlock a brand new online-exclusive character, Riflam Lenshear! Riflam is the chancellor at Argent University..."

Well I guess we now know who canonically "wins" Argent: the Consortium.

Also, I'm kinda sad that Null Seven is an online only character? I've been excited about her since her art was leaked, and was kinda hoping she'd end up in Trials or something.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2015 17:25

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Just got my copies of War and Fate! Yay!

Unfortunately, all the flight 1 characters are badly miscut, to the point of being unusable without sleeves. Boo!

# ¿ Aug 18, 2015 05:32

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Wol posted:

Unusable without sleeves how so?

Miscut along the card edges, meaning the card backs bleed over into white space, or are majorly misaligned, enough to be recognizable when the cards are face down.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2015 05:47

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

Can any of y'all that have Fate in confirm how many Shadow Markers and Evolution Trackers are in there? Makin' labels and waiting for Fate to come in, hopefully soon but probably next week

1 Shadow for Alumis, 15 Evo Trackers for Thessala.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2015 16:47

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

Great, thanks. Since they specified that each enemy had a shadow I thought there might be more but I guess not. Labels updated! But game's not in yet, no tracking number either

Yeah, the game assumes you're playing a standard two-player game for components. Kajia and Adjenna likewise have just enough tokens for one player, even though they need to track multiple enemies separately (and Adjenna needs extra tokens for EX/Almighty fights). That's what the extra tokens are for--the round ones marked with the symbols for the nations of Indines.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2015 17:18

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Vlaada Chvatil posted:

Should I be concerned if I haven't received a shipping notice for the War Kickstarter yet? Are they sending it in waves? I'm leaving town next Wednesday, and I don't want to come back a week later to 25 lbs of moldy, waterlogged BattleCon on my porch.

I'm in the US if that maters.

If you don't hear anything by week's end, contact kickstarter@level99games.com. They might have missed your order somewhere in the giant swarm of fulfillment orders.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2015 17:05

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Andarel posted:

No Anath, no Borneo, no Juto. Back to work, you.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2015 17:12

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

I'm always up for a scrap.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2015 19:08

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 20:31

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

Wol posted:

Aaaaalright, send me your character picks

I was just thinking, has anyone actually taken Evil Hikaru out for a spin yet? He looks hard to play well, and might be an interesting challenge.

I'd like to try Evil if Ldsity is cool with fighting against one of the Secret Characters. Otherwise, random select/mod choice.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2015 07:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > BattleCON & Level 99: I Clearly Cannot Choose the Fist In Front of Me

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