46 minutes ago, Jeff Wilder said:Whoa. Those ARC-170 costs seem really off, MJ. Any details on the process? I think Braylen got too much of a cost break, and Shara didn't get enough. But it's a big spread of costs (in current terms): 21, 23, 26.5, 29? Thane's and Shara's PS and abilities are really worth those jumps?
Thanks for the sanity check @Jeff Wilder !
Braylen
Only version I looked at is the gunner/stressbot version, and compared to what a "fair" jousting efficiency of a stresshog should be. Braylen's efficiency largely depends on how often he can pull the 2nd stress off so he can get an action; at 55 points I have it ranging from 64.5% (0% actions) to 78.8% (100% actions). A reasonable number is probably in the 30% action (69% efficiency) to 60% action (73% efficiency) range.
Ok, so what's a stresshog worth? That's a harder question. Back in the day, an actionless stresshog was around 73.7% efficient, using the wave 3 meta power curve as a baseline. Using the new power curve it's 68% today, which partially explains why it doesn't get used. Braylen's better in that he has a rear arc, but worse in that he sometimes doesn't trigger gunner. I'm going to spitball a guesstimate that we want him around 70%. That would correspond to a 40% action rate. Now, a good argument can be made that the rear arc really does make him worth more even -- if the target efficiency number is more like 65% (ouch), then his cost would have to get increased a point or 2. I wouldn't be surprised if we tweak Braylen's cost later once we get to beta. First I need to go back to the Y-wing BTL title and give it a buff, so the new stresshog gets a boost, and then run it through wave 1 & 2 beta testing.
Ok, fair enough, I bumped his cost up 1 to 43. He still sees a pretty significant drop in cost though.
Thane
Thane is pretty straightforward, he sometimes gets a free action, which I model as a free TL for his attack. At 46 points and no upgrades, that puts his efficiency anywhere between 85% (never triggers his ability) to 104% (always triggers his ability). If he triggers his ability half the time then its 95%, which is about right. Probably will get tweaked later during testing, but it's pretty close. Since there's a lot of counterplay, he might need to be cheaper, but I would rather take a "wait and see" approach. He's also got both droid slots open at cheap tier 3 pricing, so that's a plus.
Shara
Shara's pilot tier is 3, so that helps a lot with upgrades. So I baselined Shara Bey around the really simple case of equipping Adaptability (-1 points) and Weapons Engineer (+3 points). If she grabs a target lock about every round then she essentially has ATT3 + TL for attack (native ATT3, plus the differential buff to her buddy). Her durability depends if she has a focus for defense. At 55 points that gives her a jousting efficiency between 92.4% (never has focus) to 95.7% (always has focus). I went with an assumption that she will have focus on defense about 60% of the time. There's my problem - if she's always target locking she never has focus. Other intangibles working against her: 1) target locking your desired target is hard if they move after you 2) target locks have to be on different ships which precludes focus fire. Intangibles working for her: 1) the droid slot is still open, 2) combo shenanigans may be better than the simple approach I assumed.
Net result: I just dropped her points by 2, so 51 base.
Loaded up with Adaptability / Weapons Engineer, she's 53 points, and Jousting efficiency is still 96% even if she never gets a focus on defense. Should be about right with the rear arc.
Norra
The jousting efficiency at the new power curve of the three Nora loadouts above are 103% (R2), 100% (BB-8), and 108% (R2-D2, regen every other turn). She's stuck on greens so I could probably risk lowering her a point, but I would rather err on the side of caution. Meta-Wing has her as pilot #20 going back to November 1, so she's not in a terrible place.
P.S. All jousting efficiency numbers are relative to the new power curve unless otherwise stated, which is pretty close to the current state of the game.
Edited by MajorJuggler