Chernyy Volk
Wolf lord, footsie bully, chronic corner abuser.
Since there were so many people on REO's podcast last night Burrito and I really didn't get a lot of time to REALLY lay out our opinions on this subject. I wanted to offer mine, in detail, in isolation and start a discussion.
So for the record, before I even start here, in the lead up to the games release I was team #nokustoms to an adamant vehement degree. I thought it was a HORRIBLE idea for competitive play than, I think it is now. I think NRS should've NEVER, FUCKING EVER even entertained the idea of kustom variations, and as a matter of fact I think the inclusion of the system is solely responsible almost for us having a boring, shallow game. I want to talk about why Kustoms are a bad idea, both from a concrete and theoretical standpoint, HOW YOU COULD implement kustoms in a satisfactory way if it were to be done, and how at the end of the day there are still better solutions within the game itself that require no drastic system changes that would facilitate the things people think kustoms in competitive would.
Let's start with the reasons people think Kustoms would help this game
1: People find the game boring. Kustoms would add diversity and exploration that would make it not boring.
2: People think it would increase the depth of the game.
3: It was an advertised on the box feature and should be fully available to the consumer
These are the most common complaints I see I think, so I just want to start by saying that kustoms change none of this. There's a myriad of reasons why
1: Most moves are not good and there is often an obvious optimal move combination
2: Characters, by design, do not have enough tools for adaptability or options. The slot system just leads to you being able to make the same half finished character... just however you want? I fail to see how this is a win for anybody because you can't even do that due to slots.
3: All this will ultimately result in is the top tiers becoming better, and the characters below them dropping in viability even with all their options. This games tiers are defined by base kits, not the loadouts. If you just give these characters access to their best possible move combinations it doubles down on the problems the game already has.
I want you guys to open up your game, and really look at the moves every character has and critically really think about how this would actually benefit the majority of the cast. Only about 4-5 character communities would benefit from this, Lao, Frost and Sub off the top of my head for some of them. This mostly changes NOTHING for the majority of characters. You'll find that either, most of these moves have no synergy at all, or that it's so obvious NRS intended for moves to be used together in a set that the game wasn't even designed for customizing at all.
I also want you to consider NRS's balancing history, their tendencies, which is to say that they tend to NERF OVER BUFF in most cases. If you open up kustoms, you are opening up the potential for a world where patches take characters apart piece by piece. Congrats, you now have a game with "freedom" but everything is like hitting people with twigs. People are definitely not gonna get bored of that.
So let's say NRS DID implement kustoms, I do not think the system is there to implement this in a way that is satisfactory for anybody on a gameplay front who see's the potential here. IMO this is what would need to happen to implement kustoms in competitive, and in general, to create a satisfying user experience.
1: All move conflicts that are not straight replacements or on the same input are removed
2: Slots are entirely removed. You can now put any three moves on of your choice.
3: You keep slots, but buff the slot count to 5 from 3.
If you did these things? Fine, I'll bite. You'd be able to make really well thought out loadouts of your choosing. I'd be 100% down for giving this a shot, even with my current cynicism about the idea.
However, I don't think this is the solution. I think the solution is simply adding moves to tournament variations, making moves that are current variation specific into base moves, and condensing variations. This would be easier to do, more practical from a balancing perspective so NRS still gets to micromanage, AND lead to a deeper, more fulfilling gameplay experience.
Example I'll use is Kano.
V1: Optic blast, Snakebite, Lumbar Check, Rackoff, Manhandled
V2: Magnetic Pull, Magnetic trap, acid, molotov, vegemighty
I just created two Kano variations with distinctly different playstyles with more than enough tools to adapt around bad MU's.
Another example I'll use, Scorpion.
V1: Demon Breath, Demon Dash, Fireball, Teleport Cancels, Demon Slam
V2: Sin Blade, Misery Blade, Death Spin and Death Spear Kombo, Flaming Spear
Now Scorpion can choose playing between a turtly version of himself, or a rushdown/higher damage version of himself.
Anyways, this is just where my brain is at right now. I'm curious what other people think of course, but I think that to implement kustoms without HUGE sweeping changes to the way kustoms work is a big mistake and it's kind of letting NRS off easy.
So for the record, before I even start here, in the lead up to the games release I was team #nokustoms to an adamant vehement degree. I thought it was a HORRIBLE idea for competitive play than, I think it is now. I think NRS should've NEVER, FUCKING EVER even entertained the idea of kustom variations, and as a matter of fact I think the inclusion of the system is solely responsible almost for us having a boring, shallow game. I want to talk about why Kustoms are a bad idea, both from a concrete and theoretical standpoint, HOW YOU COULD implement kustoms in a satisfactory way if it were to be done, and how at the end of the day there are still better solutions within the game itself that require no drastic system changes that would facilitate the things people think kustoms in competitive would.
Let's start with the reasons people think Kustoms would help this game
1: People find the game boring. Kustoms would add diversity and exploration that would make it not boring.
2: People think it would increase the depth of the game.
3: It was an advertised on the box feature and should be fully available to the consumer
These are the most common complaints I see I think, so I just want to start by saying that kustoms change none of this. There's a myriad of reasons why
1: Most moves are not good and there is often an obvious optimal move combination
2: Characters, by design, do not have enough tools for adaptability or options. The slot system just leads to you being able to make the same half finished character... just however you want? I fail to see how this is a win for anybody because you can't even do that due to slots.
3: All this will ultimately result in is the top tiers becoming better, and the characters below them dropping in viability even with all their options. This games tiers are defined by base kits, not the loadouts. If you just give these characters access to their best possible move combinations it doubles down on the problems the game already has.
I want you guys to open up your game, and really look at the moves every character has and critically really think about how this would actually benefit the majority of the cast. Only about 4-5 character communities would benefit from this, Lao, Frost and Sub off the top of my head for some of them. This mostly changes NOTHING for the majority of characters. You'll find that either, most of these moves have no synergy at all, or that it's so obvious NRS intended for moves to be used together in a set that the game wasn't even designed for customizing at all.
I also want you to consider NRS's balancing history, their tendencies, which is to say that they tend to NERF OVER BUFF in most cases. If you open up kustoms, you are opening up the potential for a world where patches take characters apart piece by piece. Congrats, you now have a game with "freedom" but everything is like hitting people with twigs. People are definitely not gonna get bored of that.
So let's say NRS DID implement kustoms, I do not think the system is there to implement this in a way that is satisfactory for anybody on a gameplay front who see's the potential here. IMO this is what would need to happen to implement kustoms in competitive, and in general, to create a satisfying user experience.
1: All move conflicts that are not straight replacements or on the same input are removed
2: Slots are entirely removed. You can now put any three moves on of your choice.
3: You keep slots, but buff the slot count to 5 from 3.
If you did these things? Fine, I'll bite. You'd be able to make really well thought out loadouts of your choosing. I'd be 100% down for giving this a shot, even with my current cynicism about the idea.
However, I don't think this is the solution. I think the solution is simply adding moves to tournament variations, making moves that are current variation specific into base moves, and condensing variations. This would be easier to do, more practical from a balancing perspective so NRS still gets to micromanage, AND lead to a deeper, more fulfilling gameplay experience.
Example I'll use is Kano.
V1: Optic blast, Snakebite, Lumbar Check, Rackoff, Manhandled
V2: Magnetic Pull, Magnetic trap, acid, molotov, vegemighty
I just created two Kano variations with distinctly different playstyles with more than enough tools to adapt around bad MU's.
Another example I'll use, Scorpion.
V1: Demon Breath, Demon Dash, Fireball, Teleport Cancels, Demon Slam
V2: Sin Blade, Misery Blade, Death Spin and Death Spear Kombo, Flaming Spear
Now Scorpion can choose playing between a turtly version of himself, or a rushdown/higher damage version of himself.
Anyways, this is just where my brain is at right now. I'm curious what other people think of course, but I think that to implement kustoms without HUGE sweeping changes to the way kustoms work is a big mistake and it's kind of letting NRS off easy.
