This was inspired by some discussion in the Quiz topic. Could any of the other playtesters help talk about how currently-published heroes, villains, etc. varied from their current state during playtesting? I thought it'd be interesting to talk about. My particular input was how generally BAD the Scholar was in his first few incarnations. copy-pasta'd from the other thread:
Ok, so, at first, his elemental cards were all limited, and not NEARLY as utilitarian as they are now. Mortal Form was "whenever the scholar would regain HP, he deals that much damage instead. Power: destroy this card" Solid to liquid was "double all heroes' HP regeneration. you cannot deal damage. Power: destroy this card." Flesh to Iron was pretty much the same as it is now, but with a 2 card cost per turn.
He did have SOME things he could do. Expect the worst caused him to turn all damage he would take into HP, and would only go away once he actually regained HP with it, so having it with Mortal Form would turn him into an infinite redirecting machine. But that's pretty much it, and as any game developer will tell you, when a game with a cast of characters like this develops a single, dominant strategy, that's pretty bad.
If you have any playtesting stories or questions for us regarding game elements (that are already out; please don't tempt me with spoiler questions) as they were in playtesting, here's the place for it, I guess.
If you're talking about Scholar and how he was bad, please don't forget the period of time in which he was a game ender, too. It didn't last long, though.
Good ol' playtesting, been a playtester since Rook City. Back then, I would of willingly admitted that Mr. Fixer was a weaker hero, because the first build we had recieved wasn't really the best.
The Meditation we know today used to retrieve styles from the trash or it could retrieve a Overdrive from the trash aswell. While another card allowed searched his deck for a style.
Riveting Crane increased damage dealt to the targets hit by Fixer. Which practically made it the go to Style, probably the reason for the change.
Harmony and Charge were not a thing
There was a card that allowed Fixer to draw a card at the start of his turn if there were no environment cards in play.
Salvage Yard only retireved equipment cards from the trash equal to the amount of cards in the environment trash. Lacked the put Overdrive into play. (As you probably guessed after Meditation and the other were joined is when Salvage Yard got that)
Dual Crowbars allowed for hitting a third target. For a bit it lost the +1, which made it a worse Jack Handle, so instead it lost a target and regained the +1.
Harmony (went by Synergy) almost increased Fixer's damage for the turn when he played a Style and/or a Tool. Which would be able to give him a +2 for the round if he could play 2 cards.
I tried a lot to try and get Bloody Knuckles to remain in play, but sadly Christopher would never budge.
Expat didn't change much, only Speed Loading (at the start of her turn, it allowed her to search the deck or trash for an ammo card to put into hand. It lacked the "put an ammo into play" part) and Shock Rounds (was a whenever the gun is used to deal damage, it increases damage dealt to that target by 1).
Presumably that bit was moved to Salvage Yard, making it the uber-card it is. Debatable which version was better.
Riveting Crane increased damage dealt to the targets hit by Fixer.
Instead of making it irreducible, or in addition? If the former, I might have preferred it…it wouldn't be as redundant with Grease Monkey Fist as the existing RC is with Alternating Tiger Claw.
There was a card that allowed Fixer to draw a card at the start of his turn if there were no environment cards in play.
Now that is something I wish he had kept. I assume it's name was something along the lines of "Peace and Quiet".
My only regrets with him is that Riveting Crane isn't SLIGHTLY more effective vs. high DR (it's still decent with low-mid DR), like maybe throw a +1 damage on it or something. That, and your inability to search for and recover tools.
But only if they get into the trash in the first place. Though there are ten Tools and only eight Styles, Meditation gives you effectively three more Styles and the ability to pick and choose the ideal one…the five different kinds of Tools are applicable to very different situations, and Tool Box is not very adequate as a method for collecting them. Granted, the ability to keep the extra ones in your hand rather than trashing them makes a big difference, but in view of Salvage Yard I almost think it should have gone the other way. It wouldn't quite make sense for you to constantly have your existing tools break whenever you play new ones (the causality is presumably the other way around in-setting; you keep using one tool until it breaks), but it makes even less sense that when you shift into a new martial arts style, the knowledge of how to assume the previous one again instantly vanishes from your mind. And destroying the Tools instead of the Styles would mean Salvage Yard could get them back, whereas currently it usually doesn't interact with his own equipment except for Grease Gun…it's awesome for his team, but only if they aren't all Incapacitated (or Visionary).
I'd sure like it if he had a way to actually put them in the trash. It'd be nice if his typically larger-than-average hand could aid the players in other ways than just playing cards.
But that is neither here nor there. I remember when Chrono's Bounty cards almost had no other classification than just "Bounty". They couldn't be destroyed by any card short of Another Reality's Debt, their own destruction trigger, or Jim's Hat (Which originally prevented further hero card destruction when it was destroyed, but that was revised before I even got a chance to playtest it!). It was ultimately decided to keep them in line with other hero cards by classifying them as Ongoings, as all Hero cards are Ongoings, Equipment, One-Shots, or Targets.
I wasn't getting hostile. I was just saying that he does have a card for Tool recovery and that I disagree that he (plus a lot of other heroes) need search cards to function.
And I didn't say he NEEDED them to function. Just, considering he can search for styles at will, and he relies heavily on having exactly the correct style and tool at the right time, I wish he had a tool seach. and you saying "yeah, because EVERY hero needs a search for every card in their deck" sure sounded hostile, or at least rude and sarcastic, to me.
Okay, guys. I don't think anyone is really trying to be hostile, but there are already plenty of threads about Mr. Fixer and/or Ex-Patriette. It might be good to keep this one focused more on playtesting differences.
Most of Rook City villains remained the same as their current forms. Chairman had an ongoing at one point, which would bring an Underboss from the trash at the end of the villain turn, it was replaced with Prison Break. Plague Rat had an ongoing that would play the next villain card when he was dealt 5 or more damage in a single source, replaced by Shadowy Ambush.
Now Spite, had the biggest change. When you saved so many Victims you would automatically win, instead of it dealing damage to him when he flipped. Also he would win if he had a certain amount of victims in his trash. Another thing is he had a max HP of 250, but started at 60. So not hitting him wasn't an option, unless you wanted him to heal a lot.
Plague rat was originally a kitten named Mr. Nummy, and he shed a lot so he'd cough up hairballs and leave them all over the city, and the heroes had to go clean it up, which is pretty gross. If you've dealt with kitten hairballs you know what I mean.
The trouble was he was so cute nobody would hit him, so they turned him into a gerbil that just ate a lot of food and it cost your entire allowance and you didn't have money for comics, but that made everyone so mad they would rip up the cards, so then they made him a Rat.
At first he just played basketball, and if he pushed the button the heroes got a shock, but the other button everyone got food pellets. The food pellet mechanic was broken and lightning damage was wicked with leaky room so they created Pike Industrial and made the rat toxic based and a ninja. But that was too much like Mr. Fixer and his gang of turtle friends so they just made him do toxic damage. The funny thing was they eventually dropped the whole turtle angle to Mr. Fixer, So Plague rat could have been a ninja anyway.
This actaully didn't happen. I'm not a playtester, I was just feeling left out.
Not to mention that things starting below their max HP would be otherwise unprecedented. Even so, the outcome that they were trying to avoid, where you just ignore him pre-flip rather than trying to beat his healing, is indeed exactly what tends to happen, particularly on Advanced.