Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

[Astroking112]

I think an important thing to keep in mind is that the game was never designed specifically for tournament play. As a kid, I always had a ton of fun using Taelord with my one squad of Omnicron Snipers on castle sieges, but I also played 700pt+ games. Since nearly a decade has passed since the cancellation, most of the casual fans have left, which skews our perception as to the value of certain units. Hatamoto Taro paired with Samurai against knights in a large game is horrifying, for example, and I'm sure that Deathwalker 7000 being able to explode and deal a ton of damage (even if he almost never will) showed up in playtesting.

While there are certainly some units that I wish I could confidently take to a tournament (Hatamoto Taro probably being the most prominent one, since I love the Samurai and his theme), not every unit can be balanced in a 400-600pt tournament format, and I don't think that was the designer's intention. That said, I am also very curious if there are any units that Craig thinks could've been improved.

On this topic, @Craig Van Ness , can you shed any light on the playtesting process? I'd love to know how many games playtesters would play on average, if you felt like time/a quick schedule ever inhibited the tests, or anything else that you can share.

[Craig Van Ness]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I think an important thing to keep in mind is that the game was never designed specifically for tournament play. As a kid, I always had a ton of fun using Taelord with my one squad of Omnicron Snipers on castle sieges, but I also played 700pt+ games. Since nearly a decade has passed since the cancellation, most of the casual fans have left, which skews our perception as to the value of certain units. Hatamoto Taro paired with Samurai against knights in a large game is horrifying, for example, and I'm sure that Deathwalker 7000 being able to explode and deal a ton of damage (even if he almost never will) showed up in playtesting.

While there are certainly some units that I wish I could confidently take to a tournament (Hatamoto Taro probably being the most prominent one, since I love the Samurai and his theme), not every unit can be balanced in a 400-600pt tournament format, and I don't think that was the designer's intention. That said, I am also very curious if there are any units that Craig thinks could've been improved.

On this topic, @Craig Van Ness , can you shed any light on the playtesting process? I'd love to know how many games playtesters would play on average, if you felt like time/a quick schedule ever inhibited the tests, or anything else that you can share.

I set up a playtest forum, with groups from all over the US. I think there were about 6-8 groups. Also, participation varied, some groups were very active, others would chime in not as much. Each unit had a thread and all changes were tracked. Some of the early playtesters transitioned into freelance game designers for Heroscape.

Timing was always a factor. We tried to plan ahead as much as possible, but sometimes things change, schedules change, line plans change.