Project Pokemon Playtesting Thread : Sandshrew and Abra

[jwindjackal]

Welcome to the Project Pokemon Playtesting Thread!

To start off, Project Pokemon would like to thank C3G for modeling for us the correct way to playtest our creations!



The goal of this thread is to provide quality feedback on the effectiveness and in-game useability of figures passed to us from the design thread. In order to ensure that the information provided in this thread is up to the highest standard, we ask that the following procedure be made for each Playtest:

Spoiler Alert!

1) Announce in the Playtesting Thread that you will be attempting a playtest, and inform this of a figure your playtesting

2) Test the figure on a map that has a variety of terrain, elevation, and obsatacles that a figure would commonly encounter in the game of 'Scape. If you can, it is preffered that you attempt to use BoV maps as they provide more accurate results.

3) Playtest the figure in the following scenarios:
- play a minimum of three 1 on 1 matches against heroes with similar point values
- play at least three 1 on 1 matches against squads with a similar point value. If no similarly priced squads exist, you may use more than one squad in your test.
- Play the figure at least twice in an army. Each test should use a different army. The figure should have a place in each army based on its intended role; it is not to be thrown into any "A+ stuff" army as an afterthought. Both armies should be fairly balanced, remember its not which army wins, its how well the figure performed.

4) Provide a detailed post on your playtest. Include the pro's, con's, and overall flaws in the figure's design that you found while playing.

5) State whether or not you feel the figure is ready to pass as an official unit with either a YES or NO vote.


Also when playtesting a figure be sure to check the following:

Spoiler Alert!

- THEME TEST/ Check to see if there are any powers or stats on the test unit card that does not accurately reflect the theme or likeness of what the character would and could do. Also consider destructible objects, and whether or not this characters powers should affect them.
- MIRROR TEST/ Check to see if the unit were played against itself, if there would be any loops that would upset the balance of the Game.
- BONDING TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing Bonding abilities to make sure there are no continual Bonding possibilities that do not stop appropriately or do not stop at all. This is to prevent loops in Bonding.
- SYNERGIES TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing synergies to make sure there are no factors that could break the game by making any unit to powerful or too weak.
- POWER CHECK/ Consider the test unit and all existing units and all glyphs to compare to and check for any powers that could be over amplified and break the game. Each power must define when it takes place, who or what it affects, and What are the stipulations on the power if there are any.
- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
- FUN COMPETITIVE TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play against.
- DRAFTING TEST/ Consider whether or not this design is worth drafting.
- USAGE TEST/ Consider whether or not all of the powers on this card were used or at least usable.
- STRATEGY TEST/ Consider whether or not the design offers any real strategy or interesting tactics to the overall game.

Any member of Heroscapers.com may playtest a figure from Project Pokemon, and you're efforts are greatly appreciated. Units must be playtested by 5 people, and at least a 4/5 majority is required to pass. If it passess it is an official unit, if not we send it back to the design thread for fixing.

Current Units in Playtesting Are :

Spoiler Alert!

Abra

Charmander = http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/a...anderproxy.png
Pikachu = http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/a...kachuproxy.png
Pidgey = http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/a...idgeyproxy.png
Magnemite = http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...emiteProxy.png
Squirtle = http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/a...irtleproxy.png
Sandshrew = http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/a...shrewproxy.png
Abra = http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/a...abraproxie.png

For any of those wondering, here is an excellent example of how to show your playtesting results originally posted by tcglkn:

Spoiler Alert!

Heroes:
Battle 1: Charmander vs Kumiko
Kumiko won on the first turn of round 2 due to an initiative switch. Niether of Charmanders or Kumiko's abilities were used. Kumiko had 1 wound.

Battle 2: Charmander vs. Zetacron
Zetacron dominated Charmander. Charmander could not roll smokescreen, and Zetacron engaged him to prevent him from rolling it. Zetacron was woundless when he won.

Battle 3: Charmander vs. Shiori
Charmander won! In round 1, turn 3 Charmander killed Shiori. Charmander was woundless.

Squads:
Battle 1: Charmander Vs. Marro Warriors
Round 1 - Charmander killed 2 MW and took no wounds due to smoke screen.
Round 2 - MW cloned one of their fallen back. Charmander moved to get in range, but a MW on heights one shot killed him when he failed smoke screen.

Battle 2: Charmander vs MRT x1
Round 1 - Charmander rolled smokescreen a couple of times. No casualties.
Round 2 - Charmander failed smokescreen and took 2 wounds. He killed one MRT
Round 3 - Charmander fell to an engaged MRT

Battle 3: Charmander vs Capuan Gladiators x 1
Round 1 - Charmander kills one Capuan Gladiator, then takes one wound of Lava Field damage at the end of the round.
Round 2 - Cap Glads kill Charmander on turn 2.

Army Test 1: Charmander, Fire Elemenal x4, Water Elemental x4, Crixus, Raelin (RotV) 500 points vs. Estivara, Wyvern x2, Fyorlag Spiders x5, Isamu.
Round 1 - Fire Elementals move out. Wyvern moves out with spider, and Estivara.
Round 2 - Fire Elementals kill 2 Spiders. Wyvern kills 2 Fire Elementals. Wyvern takes Lava Field wound at the end of the round.
Round 3 - Wyvern kills 2 remaining Fire Elementals. Water Elementals kill 1st Wyvern.
Round 4 - New Wyvern moves out, kills one Water Elemental. Spiders kill 1 Water Elemental and remove 2 OM from the Water Elementals (one was the X) Water Elemental killed 2 spiders.
Round 5 - Crixus moves out. Wyvern commits suicide to kill Crixus. Crixus rolled a 20!
Round 6 - Estivara moves out to support the spiders. Crixus puts 3 wounds on Estivara. Water Elemental attacks and kills Estivara.
Round 7 - Charmander moves out to help clean up spiders. Charmander kills one spider and takes 2 wounds.
Round 8 - Charmander dies, Crixus cleans up 3 spiders.
Round 9 - Water Elementals take out 3 spiders. One Water Elemental is killed.
Round 10 - Water Elemental kills 2 spiders, Crixus kills one.
Round 11 - Water Elemental kills the last of the spiders.
Army 1 wins with Raelin, 1 Water Elemental, and Crixus left.


Another army battle left to do, but so far I have been highly unimpressed with Charmander's performance. He needs more defense or more life, and I would boost his Ember attack to 3 dice. I didn't inflict a single wound with Ember SA, so there wasn't even a chance of a Burn occurring. So far I vote NO to pass Charmander as he is.

Successfully Playtested and Passed Units:

Spoiler Alert!

Charmander!
[
Pidgey

Pikachu


Magnemite

Squirtle

If you have any questions about playtesting, either post it in this thread or send me a PM. Good luck, and happy playtesting!

[tcglkn]

When will we get Charmander here?

[jwindjackal]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

When will we get Charmander here?

As soon as Mac send sme the mock up

[tcglkn]

I have difficulty making most BoV maps due to only having a FotA, RttFF, SotM, and VW set. With some random tiles. I don't have a complete RotV set. Can I use fair balanced maps that I build?

EDIT: When Playtesting vs. Squads can I use multiple Charmanders?

[Xn F M]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

I have difficulty making most BoV maps due to only having a FotA, RttFF, SotM, and VW set. With some random tiles. I don't have a complete RotV set. Can I use fair balanced maps that I build?

Playtest on Embattled Fen?

I'd say if you run the map by the group first so that we can see what your're working with. If you want to a bit of research, any map that wasn't accepted for the BoV because of looks should be valid too.

[tcglkn]

I have a simple map on my map thread called fissure. It uses SotM and VW. Its relatively flat. I am going to use this. I don't think it is broken...

[Xn F M]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

I have a simple map on my map thread called fissure. It uses SotM and VW. Its relatively flat. I am going to use this. I don't think it is broken...

Originally Posted by tcglkn

Fissure
This is a map where the swamp splits open to reveal the a flow of molten Lava

The only potential issue I see with this map is the lack of any real height. I think you would get better tests on Embattled Fen than this, but if the others are open to it . . . .

[Balantai]

For Ember Special Attack, I have a couple proposed wording changes:

...If you roll a 19 or higher, remove all Markers from the defending figure's card and place one Burn Marker on that card...

Are Status Markers defined in your rulebook? If not, I would try to avoid that term. I, instead, just referenced markers.

...At the end of each round, each player must roll the 20-sided die once for each figure they control with the Burn Marker on their card....

I don't believe "...in turn..." sounds very official. It can also cause confusion between this power activating on rounds vs turns. I reworded to remove that phrase.

[Xn F M]

Originally Posted by Balantai

For Ember Special Attack, I have a couple proposed wording changes:

...If you roll a 19 or higher, remove all Markers from the defending figure's card and place one Burn Marker on that card...

Are Status Markers defined in your rulebook? If not, I would try to avoid that term. I, instead, just referenced markers.

...At the end of each round, each player must roll the 20-sided die once for each figure they control with the Burn Marker on their card....

I don't believe "...in turn..." sounds very official. It can also cause confusion between this power activating on rounds vs turns. I reworded to remove that phrase.

I added the phrase "in turn" because the wording before it was unclear that you roll for each instance of a burn marker seperately. We can try to come up with a better phrasing before the card is finalized though.

We will have to define the statuses in the rulebook. If we change the phrasing of the ability it would also remove wound marker, experience markers, and negation markers. While those second two aren't that big (they're still undesireable) the wound markers thing is a pretty big one.

Edit: I'm going to send a request to the art dept. to put the word "status" on our status markers so that it's a little more clear.

[jwindjackal]

Originally Posted by Balantai

For Ember Special Attack, I have a couple proposed wording changes:

...If you roll a 19 or higher, remove all Markers from the defending figure's card and place one Burn Marker on that card...

Are Status Markers defined in your rulebook? If not, I would try to avoid that term. I, instead, just referenced markers.

...At the end of each round, each player must roll the 20-sided die once for each figure they control with the Burn Marker on their card....

I don't believe "...in turn..." sounds very official. It can also cause confusion between this power activating on rounds vs turns. I reworded to remove that phrase.

Unfortunately at this point it is too late to make changes, its already passed, all it can do now is be playtested, from their if it fails, we can send it back to the design thread for fixing up.

[tcglkn]

Heroes:
Battle 1: Charmander vs Kumiko
Kumiko won on the first turn of round 2 due to an initiative switch. Niether of Charmanders or Kumiko's abilities were used. Kumiko had 1 wound.

Battle 2: Charmander vs. Zetacron
Zetacron dominated Charmander. Charmander could not roll smokescreen, and Zetacron engaged him to prevent him from rolling it. Zetacron was woundless when he won.

Battle 3: Charmander vs. Shiori
Charmander won! In round 1, turn 3 Charmander killed Shiori. Charmander was woundless.

Squads:
Battle 1: Charmander Vs. Marro Warriors
Round 1 - Charmander killed 2 MW and took no wounds due to smoke screen.
Round 2 - MW cloned one of their fallen back. Charmander moved to get in range, but a MW on heights one shot killed him when he failed smoke screen.

Battle 2: Charmander vs MRT x1
Round 1 - Charmander rolled smokescreen a couple of times. No casualties.
Round 2 - Charmander failed smokescreen and took 2 wounds. He killed one MRT
Round 3 - Charmander fell to an engaged MRT

Battle 3: Charmander vs Capuan Gladiators x 1
Round 1 - Charmander kills one Capuan Gladiator, then takes one wound of Lava Field damage at the end of the round.
Round 2 - Cap Glads kill Charmander on turn 2.

Army Test 1: Charmander, Fire Elemenal x4, Water Elemental x4, Crixus, Raelin (RotV) 500 points vs. Estivara, Wyvern x2, Fyorlag Spiders x5, Isamu.
Round 1 - Fire Elementals move out. Wyvern moves out with spider, and Estivara.
Round 2 - Fire Elementals kill 2 Spiders. Wyvern kills 2 Fire Elementals. Wyvern takes Lava Field wound at the end of the round.
Round 3 - Wyvern kills 2 remaining Fire Elementals. Water Elementals kill 1st Wyvern.
Round 4 - New Wyvern moves out, kills one Water Elemental. Spiders kill 1 Water Elemental and remove 2 OM from the Water Elementals (one was the X) Water Elemental killed 2 spiders.
Round 5 - Crixus moves out. Wyvern commits suicide to kill Crixus. Crixus rolled a 20!
Round 6 - Estivara moves out to support the spiders. Crixus puts 3 wounds on Estivara. Water Elemental attacks and kills Estivara.
Round 7 - Charmander moves out to help clean up spiders. Charmander kills one spider and takes 2 wounds.
Round 8 - Charmander dies, Crixus cleans up 3 spiders.
Round 9 - Water Elementals take out 3 spiders. One Water Elemental is killed.
Round 10 - Water Elemental kills 2 spiders, Crixus kills one.
Round 11 - Water Elemental kills the last of the spiders.
Army 1 wins with Raelin, 1 Water Elemental, and Crixus left.


Another army battle left to do, but so far I have been highly unimpressed with Charmander's performance. He needs more defense or more life, and I would boost his Ember attack to 3 dice. I didn't inflict a single wound with Ember SA, so there wasn't even a chance of a Burn occurring. So far I vote NO to pass Charmander as he is.

[jwindjackal]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

I have a simple map on my map thread called fissure. It uses SotM and VW. Its relatively flat. I am going to use this. I don't think it is broken...

Originally Posted by jwindjackal

2) Test the figure on a map that has a variety of terrain, elevation, and obsatacles that a figure would commonly encounter in the game of 'Scape. If you can, it is preffered that you attempt to use BoV maps as they provide more accurate results.

Your fissure can work, I'd advise adding some more elevation to simulate the elevation he would encounter in other maps. Other than that I'd say its fine, as I've mentioned above BoV maps aren't required. I know for one I can't make any of them because I only have RotV and SotM, I do however know that I can make maps just as decent as the BoV maps with what I have. So in summary, add a little more height to fissure and you are OK!