Wave 5 design issues

[Augray]

It seems that some people have issues with the designers and the wave 5 powers. I started this thread to discuss these issues and not clog up the “Rules Questions to Hasbro” thread. We should try and keep that thread for discussing questions to be submitted Hasbro Customer Relations.

First let’s deal with some issues with the process, whatever it is, that Hasbro is using. Some have said they need more/better playtesters because of the “mistakes” that have come up.

Originally Posted by happyjosiah

You are 100% right. And I am often one of the people that will stand by the point values and playability of various units to the bitter end. I usually trust very much in the designers playtesting. Howver, this one does not seem to be a case like Taelord where they may have been playing him with disengage and it got worded funny. This one really seems like they went back later and said "oh crap this is really effective. We screwed up." If it happened the way it seems, you are right, they need more/better playtesters. Compared to something like a CCG, heroscape has very little crazy interactions and tactics that need to be considered. This should be doable.

I’m sure the playtesting process is not an easy one, granted as Josiah said Heroscape is not as complicated as a CCG, but there are 87 cards with about 120 unique powers currently in Heroscape. With about 120 powers they made “mistakes” on two: Taelord and the Deathreavers. That is not bad. They rectified each instance. With the Deathreavers they were very quick and responsive to this community. It was obvious they were “watching us” and were aware of the issue. I see this as a positive.

As I mention in the Deathreavers thread, my wife writes/edits math text books. There is a well established and meticulous process to prevent errors making it to the final version of a book, but they still do. Many software programs go through rigorous testing process with many testers yet how often do you get a patch within 6 months of a release. How many CCG games have illegal cards that snuck through, or were made too powerful by later powers? If all the users on heroscapers.com reviewed every card before it was produced, I guarantee that some Joe Schmoe would come out of nowhere and discover a valid“mistake” in some of the cards.