Supply and Demand Benchmark Unlock Discussion

Games SotM: The Video Game
61

I definitely think I must be missing something... played the full Team game (Baron Blade, Fright Train, Ambascade, Plague Rat, Friction) in that order at Freedom Tower vs Benchmark, FS Parse, Setback, Freedom 5 Legacy and Setting Sun Ra. Won with all hero’s incapacitated apart from Benchmark and Legacy who were at 1 hp. Revenant got taken out (although not by Benchmark). All members of the Slaughterhouse six were defeated.

Then did the follow vs Blade in Megaopolis with FS Parse, Setback and Benchmark and played a hardware - no unlock...

62

I tried two set ups.  Both with Legacy, Stuntman, Setback, Parse, and Benchmark against Blade, Ambuscade, Friction, FT, and PR at the Block.  followed by Blade at Megalopolis. 

First game used DW Setback and base Parse, Setback and Parse were incapped.  No unlock

Second game used base Setback and FS Parse, and only Setback was incapped. No unlock. 

Tried it a third time with both base Setback and FS Parse getting incapped during the first fight.  Still no unlock. 

63

Unlock games as best as I can tell have featured:

Benchmark, Expatriette, Setback,Fugue Parse and Ras setting sun vs RevoCorp kill squade

The ra setting sun seems like an odd neccesity but an obvious strong choice to help win this game against Ambuscade

I tried with Legacy instead to see if Ra Setting sun was really neccesary. To my surprise after winning a fairly easy game with all heros standing...

I did not get the unlock with 

Legacy, Fugue Parse, benchmark, expat and setback

I would guess that rather than Setting Sun being required it is that wins that include setting sun will nearlly always lead to an outcome that triggers the unlock, while the legacy led team manages to turn the game into a lock down if things go well and dioesn't trigger the unlock.

The most straight forward would be that at least 1 hero must be incapped

or it could be something with the number of heros with low hp.

 

64

Tried again. Benchmark was the only survivor on 3 HP, used Setting Sun Ra's incap ability to take out Plague Rat for the win. Predictably, no unlock.

What the heck is this mystery factor? I'm checking the logs again...

EDIT: Okay, I checked the two prereq logs here, and I noticed something that I think may be the key to it. It could be a coincidence, but it stood out a bit, so it could be important. 

At no point in either game did Benchmark defeat a villain by using a power. The environment was 'allowed' to take out a villain, but whenever Benchmark took out a villain character card, it was with Fly-By, a Hardware effect (Onboard Cooling Tubes and Secondary Cannon), or Countermeasures. 

I'm going to test this when I get the opportunity, but right now, my hypothesis for the unlock condition is, "Win a team villain game against Baron Blade, Ambuscade, Fright Train, Friction and Plague Rat, using a team including Benchmark, Fugue State Parse, and Setback. Fugue State Parse and Setback must be incapacitated, and Benchmark must not defeat a villain using damage from a Software card. Then, Benchmark must play a Hardware card in a game against standard Baron Blade."

This needs refinement, because, duh, but for now, that's my thinking. Feel free to tell me if your unlocks ruin this idea. 

65

That is an interesting idea. My only thing to note is that while Fuge Parse and setback make sense because of incap art, we shouldn't discount that both Expat and setting sun ra have also been included in unlocks. I doubt both are neccesary but I notice a lot of non-unlocks without expat that seem like they should have worked. When testing this idea of power usage, I think you should try on a team with expat before throwing away this idea. In fact, the best way to test this hypothesis is to include both setting sun Ra and Expat and then make sure that a benchmark power does finish off a vilian. I suspect that you will get the unlock independent of power usage kills but I would be very interseted to find out this result.

............

Ok I tested it. Indeed the power kills might be an issue.

I had a pretty tough game in enclave and made a special effort with Benchmark to finish off BaronBlade with a power.

My team:

Ra setting (incap but not disapeared), Benchmark, Fugure Parse (incap), Expat, Setback (incap)

Against RevoCorp

Fright, Friction, BB, Plague, Ambi in the Enclave

I loaded some odd games and played a hardware and no unlock

Notably when I loaded the BaronBlade megaopolis game and then played a hardware I thought for sure it would unlock and it did not.

I will now try to do the unlock game with the full team again but avoid the power usage kills and see if I can actually get the unlock.

66

The newest Sentinels live stream debuts tonight! On Deck features Pirate Savvy and Dover, and starts at 7 PM Eastern at http://twitch.tv/handelabragames . There will a special message from Revo-Corp.. you'll have to tune in to hear it!

67

Oh thank goodness, hopefully we can crack the Revo-Code with that special message.

68

Yeah, I just tried a game with Expat.  It did not go well.  Parse went down, but then so did Benchmark--Blade took out Benchmark and then himself in the last turn of the game.  I don't really want to beat my head against that wall if I don't have to.

69

Well, I managed to have a game where Benchmark never KOed a villain using a power. Plague Rat took out Fright Train, Countermeasures got everyone except Plague Rat, and finally the environment took out Plague Rat. 

No unlock.

Either I did something wrong (which isn't unlikely, to be honest), or the lack of power usage was a coincidence. 

70

For those that couldn't tune into the stream, here's the message.  I screencapped it for y'all.

71

Today's clue:

"We all know it's a crowded marketplace out there.  The demand for the latest devices can often far outstrip the supply.  You can always trust Revo-Corp to provide plenty of the best equipment for your needs."

So presumably something about the number of equipment cards involved?  That would explain why Expatriette seems to help, with all the equipment she plays.

72

What was the RevoCorp message?

73

That fits with Meemitone’s observation on Steam about the unlocks all having more hardware played than software, perhaps?

74

Thats probably the most likely explanation.  But the clue says “devices” as well, so it’s possible that there could be something else to do with Baron Blade. 

75

Just for kicks, I tried Wraith, Expat, and Benchmark (to get tons of equipment) vs. Operative, Friction, and Baron Blade (for devices).  Many things were played.  No unlock.  There's probably several conditions involved.

76

Hmm. When I get the chance, I might drop Sky-Scraper into a game, try and search for all the Hardware with Micro-Assembler and Deployment Actuation. 

77

Ooooh! Maybe Ra works so well because of ongoing/equipment destruction! 

What if that’s the key, destroying your own stuff? Expat works with Ammo, Setbback works because, he’s setback. Setting Sun works because of everything!

78

Hey guys Revo Corp devices aren’t just in Benchmarks deck what if it’s a benchmark must defeat villans and destroy all their devices Omniblade, Stolen Gear, Impulsion Beam, Negation Bands, Displacing Teleporter.get rid of all revocorp devices, destroy the supply and benchmark has all the demand. So maybe defeat all revocorp villans with Benchmark not using powers and destroying all enemy devices. I’ll check over the success logs and see if that theory holds up.

79

That might be why Wraith and Omnitron are in the weekly one-shot.  They both can obliterate their equipment with cards.  I suspect we need to have Parse and Setback hanging around as well.

80

So further investigation reveals that

In my game:
Impulsion Beam 1 frazzat
Impulsion Beam 2 expat
Stolen Gear Ra
Shock Dampeners Ra
Omni blade benchmark

Nyxs game:
Impulsion Beam plauge rat
Omni blade- Ra
Stolen gear-plague rat
Shock dampeners-plauge rat

So I’m amending my theroy to a hero must destroy an enemy equipment card. Maybe benchmark is the only one to have equipment in play