As per the topic.

Mine would be the new Criminal identity, new Corp identities, and Criminal decoder ICE.

New Criminal Identity. Gabriel Santiago isn't bad, but I chafe at how his ability is so focused on the Corp's HQ. It's a solid, fitting, and flavorful ability but I'd like to see a Criminal who is more flexible when it comes to target selection.

New Corp Identities. We already have Whizzard and Chaos Theory; the Corp needs some love!

Criminal Decoder ICE. Criminals don't have any in-faction way for defeating code gate ICE beyond using Femme Fatale to specifically target them, and that's only against one particular instance of a code gate. A little outside their faction, their only option is Crypsis, which isn't geared specifically for code gates and is slow to use. Criminals have to dip into another faction's 'breakers to beat code gates efficiently.

I would like to see a new corp identity. We will be seeing the new HB one soon enough as the first data pack is on the way but we have yet to see any of them previewed but have so far seen the runners in pack 1 and 3. Next runner (Criminal) is likely in pack 5 if they keep the every other pack going.

I'm really curious about how new Corp Identies will be handled. Will they be the same corp with a different tagline and ability? Will they be Sub-Corporations? (Mirrormorph perhaps?) Or will they be CEO's? (Director Haas needs some love!)

I agree, a corp identity would be a sweet preview -- really curious about those. Besides that, I'd like to see a new icebreaker (don't care which faction).

Master Fwiffo said:

The runners all had diferent traits on their cards (Identity: Cyborg, Identity: G-mod, Identity: Natural), but all 4 corp factions had Identity: Megacorp. I am wondering if this will change soon, and if we will ever see cards that reference these traits.

Keggy said:

My guess is that the traits are there for (a) flavor and (b) to open design space at a later date. I suspect that FFG won't do anything with them for a year or longer, but at some point they will release a data pack cycle that focuses on cards that are better/worse when played in/against those traits. This is how it works in Game of Thrones, where you will have seemingly random traits on cards, then a particular cycle or expansion that will focus heavily on them. I'd also point out it's seemingly random what the design focuses on…one trait may get a lot of attention/support, and another might remain ignored indefinitely. An example in Netrunner might be something like "If your runner has the cyborg identity, you may install [card name] without using any MU."

I hope they don't go down this route too early though. In Game of Thrones, what has frequently happened is that design releases a bunch of cards in the same data/chapter pack cycle with a narrow focus on a trait, and they slightly miss the boat. Decks that focus on that trait become overpowered (and key cards are errata'd after running amuck for a year) or not quite powerful enough to warrant playing. Unfortunately, that means that there is either a whole batch of non-trait-focused cards that are either slightly underpowered (relative to the other cards released) and rarely see play, or the trait-based cards are too weak to run outside of "fun" games. Focusing on trait-based mechanics seems to work better, using Thrones as a guide, when the card pool is sufficiently large to offer a variety of approaches.

Judging by the spoiler articles, it looks like FFG is taking a smart approach and focusing on building out some preexisting mechanics, starting with traces. There's a lot of opportunity to increase variety by printing new identities as well. These seem roughly similar to Thrones' "agendas." Again, if Thrones is any indication, we should see a variety of identies released, possibly even a few new identities every chapter pack cycle. In Game of Thrones, we typically have 1-2 new agendas per cycle, but they are "neutral" agendas that can be ran out of any house. New identities for every faction seems a bit much for Netrunner, but I'm guessing on average 1 new identity per faction per year. If they alternate, then the runner will get new identity cards this cycle, but the corp won't.

If FFG follows suit with some of the original CCG, there will be interactions with these card traits. For example in the original game, there were a trio of agendas that worked with the Black Ops, Gray Ops and Research traits. Each was a 3 difficulty, 1 agenda point agenda. The Gray Ops agenda made Research agendas easier; the Black Ops agenda made Gray Ops agendas easier; and the Research agenda made Black Ops agendas easier. There were also upgrades that made agendas with each of the Black Ops/Gray Ops/Research traits easier to score.

I just realized its been over a month since the last chapter pack announcement. I wouldn't mind seeing a new one of those, or a "what lies ahead now for sale" announcement.

Cards I'd like to see:

NBN - Some stronger (maybe not quite Scorched Earth-level) card that cares about the runner being tagged, in-faction

Jinteki - An Operation that transfers advancement counters from one card to another. So when you've got a Project Junebug that's been Exposed or the runner has guessed what it is and is avoiding it, you can drop an Agenda on an empty server, move the counters off of Junebug, and score

Weyland - More Transaction Operations. The two that exist are good, but there's still only two of them.

Anarch - A cheap Virus that returns to your hand when it does its thing, allowing you to retrigger Noise's passive. Some kind of credit generation card would be nice too

Criminal - In-faction Draw would be nice. An in-faction Decoder would be nice too, given the fixed strength of Anarch's and the high influence of Godian Blade

Messenger said:

I really don't like seeing previews…it's like looking at candy through a glass door I can't go through until it's "ready". I'd rather see the caards in my hands because until it's released, I can't do anything with it and there may be other cards not shown that are better than the one previewed.

wildfire393 said:

HB's new identity is now revealed. It's still HB, it's still a megacorp, but its new slogan is "Stronger Together".