I've been enjoying Jrose11's pokemon challenges where he takes a weak pokemon through 1st generation and figures out how well it does. For example, beat the game with a squirtle (never evolving it), and compare that to a ghastly. A major component of the challenge that makes it possible is the 1st gen AI, bless it, which can be exploited heavily, and also challenged over and over again until he figures out a strategy or at least gets lucky enough, and makes it through. And it's got me thinking, that would be an interesting challenge to set up for X-Wing.
Essentially, this would be a single-player game vs AI where you want to defeat a series of standard opponents, then a set of elites with strong fleets. You pick a fleet and try the challenge.
I believe we have the needed components:
- an AI opponent (which, as I understand it, is implemented to auto-run in TTS and maybe Vassal? has anyone tried it?)
- imperfections in that AI to exploit
- assorted fleets that are interesting to fight as the gyms
- strong fleets for gyms and the elite four (which might not be so strong in the hands of the AI: it doesn't necessarily fly aces perfectly, for example, but every elite four needs a Bruno)
Each Gym Leader would represent a common (though not necessarily powerful) theme, such as Rebel/Resistance Beef, TIE Swarm, Scum Junkyard (kihraxz + kimogilas), FO Aces, Resistance A-Wing Swarm, TIE/sf missile team, two-ship list like Hera(VCX) + Dash or Dengar+Fenn. The elite four would be the strongest teams like a vulture swarm, imperial aces, boba-fenn, and jedi aces, nantex swarm, etc.
But here's the quirk : For a first go you can bring something really strong and just plow through the AI. However since it's an AI opponent and you can keep retrying, the challenge isn't to bring something you know can win, but to bring something bad , or at least not great. I'd take Wullffwarro War Crimes or Hate-Asajj+Torani+2xJakku , Four Kimogilas , etc. Your fleets that don't compete, perhaps don't even belong on the table, the ekans and krabbys of the x-wing world now get their time to shine.
Since there's no leveling system, you might as well be allowed to challenge the gym leaders in any order. Though maybe Brock of the bunch could be a two-ship bulk list like Dash-Hera.
The main problem I see with this challenge is, x-wing matches are much slower than pokemon, so iterating on a tough fight could be time-consuming. That said, the AI opponent doesn't know how to rely on NPE strategies like running away for 75 minutes to eek out a small MOV victory, or fortressing, etc, so a lot of matches could be over pretty quickly either because one side or the other crumples, or the player knows it's done and calls it.
Extra thoughts to consider, but not too deeply:
- Extra idea: Gym trainers are optional battles that would have just one or two of the ships on the gym leader's team. You can bring points equal to theirs plus up to 10. These fights help you practice various late-game pairings, e.g. if you're down to your support ship against a couple of TIE Fighters. If you're over the 10 point limit, you're assigned a faceup status-related damage card etc per 10 over (so you can field the k-wing in a 25-point battle but you'll start the fight with weapons malfunctions etc). How you limit yourself is up to you since these are optional practice rounds for approaching the gym leader. Not sure if this is worth defining out though.
- Extra idea: If you want to compare your fleets against one another in a ranking, good metrics include how far they got (total gyms & elites they could beat, if you hit an impassable wall), your total MOV, and perhaps total time taken.
- Extra idea: Rival fights in addition to the gyms, and they'll be your final elite fight. Pick a combat style that's not easy for you to defeat, and that's your rival, e.g. aces or swarms or beef. We could define a few fleets per style that your rival would cycle through, of increasing power, until they get to the really solid version of that fleet design for the final showdown.
- Extra Idea: You're allowed to minorly adjust your fleet as you fight the gyms, as you shake out how it should be built, but you must keep your fleet the same through all the elite four members.
- Extra idea: You have the option of saving in between elite four members or having to beat them in sequence without failure. It's more challenging to have no saves, but also potentially very time-consuming.
- Extra idea: If you cannot beat the challenge, you may add points to your fleet until you can. This is like over-leveling your pokemon to power past stronger opponents. This would be included in the comparison rankings.
Questions:
- Is this possible & viable with the solo rules?
- Would you try doing this challenge or does it sound too flawed?
- What fleets should be in the regular season (gym leaders), and how many would you have? (doesn't have to be exactly 8 )
- What fleets should be in the playoffs (elite four/five)
Opponent fleets should range from off-meta to quite strong (elite four), without being overwhelming (for this challenge we probably shouldn't pick a fleet the AI can use so well that even good fleets struggle, if any such list exists). I'll need help on picking good opponent fleets... I haven't been keeping up with the meta these last few months, and with the points change I don't have a firm grasp on where the nantex swarm and its normal prey stand now.