Match of the Millennium

A long time ago, Predator felt way too weak, so I kept buffing it. Unfortuantely, in the process of buffing it for feel, it crossed over the line for how strong of an impact traits are indicated to have. In even average use cases, it was rivaling or exceding the health gain potential of B rank RESTORE for a single trait slot. Originally, you only got stacks for clean hits and the stacks capped at 10%. I changed it so that you also got 2 stacks for attacking and the stacks capped at 15%. This double buff is what pushed it over the edge of desired trait-level influence. I've made the following two changes and after some test fights, PREDATOR is pulling in numbers closer to what I was hoping for: - The percentage cap has been reduced from [15]% back down to [10]%. - The stacks gained for attacking have been lowered from [2]% to [1]%. I will monitor the outcome of these changes over time to see if its typical health restoration falls within the intended ranges. Sorry all you predatory types! -GLaDOS

Sometimes things do not get nerfed. This means they are not on Daniel. For example: EMPOWER - Speed bonus on next attack increased from [8]% to [10]%. - Reserve gained raised from [5]% to [8]% up to B rank, and from [8]% to [10]% at A rank. - Block bonus increased from [8]% to [10]%. - Dodge penalty increased from [8]% to [10]%. - No longer lose ANY super or reserve if you dodge or interrupt after empowering. This handful of minor adjustments are to improve the quality of life for using the ability. The speed buff is just to make it a nice round 10% while the fact that you no longer lose your resources for dodging or interrupting makes EMPOWER all around more versatile than CHARGE. CHARGE continues to be the king of massive resource gain, but now you gain more flexibility for where you may want to use EMPOWER instead. Enjoy. Unless you don't have EMPOWER. Then you get nothing. -GLaDOS

With the advent of A Analysis that causes focus to not decay when taking damage, focus has started to last far too many rounds in fights. With focus/direct plus TACTICAL, focus would always last 7 rounds of the global average of 8 round fights, which is a lot stronger than intended for a single passive action. Back in the day when focus sprung forth into the world, it used to be one of the only ways to increase your hitrate against opponents. Now there are tons of ways, with ability ranks, traits, etc, and focus in and of itself doesn't need to be quite as strong considering it stacks with all of them. As such, we've made a few changes. FOCUS - Now always lasts 4 rounds. This means focus will never fall off before your 4th turn after focusing no matter how small the bonus gets. But it also means if you are using focus/direct with A Analysis, it isn't going to last forever either. TACTICAL - No longer has any effect on the rate at which focus decays. - Tactical grants you a reaction bonus to dodge/block/endure equal to [33]% of your active focus bonus, peaking at [6]% on your first turn following a focus/direct. For reference, this means for focus/direct with A rank + TACTICAL, you can expect your focus ticks to shift from: 20/16/13/10... to 20/14/10/7 For those without TACTICAL, you will notice almost no difference. -GLaDOS

In celebration of Blazblue's invasive takeover of the game, we bring you a batch of tasty new CSYS treats fresh from the MotM Enrichment Center bakery. Introducing: Overdrive Effects Overdrive Effects are special effects that are significantly stronger than normal attack effects. To keep their awesomeness in check, they can only be applied to your character's supers with the following rules: SUPERS can have 1 Overdrive Effect MAXs can have 2 Overdrive Effects ULTRAs can have 2 Overdrive Effects Their awesomeness does come with a trade off, however. For each Overdrive Effect you apply to your attacks, the base speed of the attack is reduced by [10]. With this update, ULTRAs will be changing in the following ways: - ULTRAs will now have the same baseline speed bonus as MAXs do. - ULTRAs can have [2] Overdrive Effects. - ULTRAs do NOT lose speed from having Overdrive Effects. While ULTRAs have been a pretty fun and intense mechanic since they got added, their damage and speed potential is so great that they often decide fights entirely by their massive and reliable damage, rendering the rest of the fight's actions and choices less important by comparison. By bringing their speed down to the level of MAXs but giving them bonuses in how they interact with Overdrive Effects, we believe this will keep them feeling awesome without being quite so fight-deciding when they're used. The next post will go into the flags themselves! -GLaDOS

PROFICIENT ---------- A proficient super costs -[20] super to use, however it reduces the speed of the super by an additional [10], making the attack [20] speed slower than a normal Super but also [20] speed faster than a normal Special. In addition, PROFICIENT supers earn [50%] of the normal super gained by dealing damage as opposed to no super at all like normal Supers. These are for those attacks that are not quite supers but still a cut above specials. Cannot be used on ULTRAs. Abbreviated as: PROF, PF. ENFEEBLE -------- An ENFEEBLE super causes the enemy to take [0.6]PL additional damage and suffer a [5]% penalty to-hit for [3] rounds if they are cleanly hit by the attack. If the attack doesn't hit cleanly, then ENFEEBLE does nothing. This flag can be used to represent any kind of attack designed to hinder an opponent's ability to fight above and beyond just straight damage. Abbreviated as: ENFE, EN IMPACT ------ On a direct hit, the opponent deals [0.5]PL less damage with their attacks and has a [4]% penalty to Dodge/Block/Endure for [3] turns. If the attack doesn't hit cleanly, then IMPACT does nothing. This flag occupies largely the same design space as ENFEEBLE in that it staggers or throws off an opponent's game enough to leave them reeling for a bit. Abbreviated as: IMPA, IM ASSAULT ------- An assault super grants +[6]% to To Hit and Dodge/Block/Endure on clean hit, decaying over [3] turns. If the attack does not hit cleanly, it grants the attacker [6]% to To Hit decaying over [3] turns but no bonus to react. These are supers that generate momentum for the attacker. Abbreviated as: ASSA, AS VANGUARD -------- A vanguard super grants -[1]PL in incoming damage for [3] rounds on a clean hit. If the attack doesn't hit cleanly, it grants -[.5] PL against incoming damage for [3] rounds. Abbreviated as: VANG, VN DRAIN ----- On direct hit, gain [10]% health immediately. This flag can only succeed once per fight. Subsequent attacks with DRAIN will still be slowed down but will not grant the health. This can clearly be used to represent life-drain supers, but doesn't need to be limited to only those. Concept-wise, can exist with the same kind of justification the PREDATOR trait or Recovery DM might represent. Abbreviated as: DRAI, DN CHAIN ----- This flag represents supers that do not fire unless the opening attack hits. If a CHAIN super is dodged, countered or interrupted, the attacker is refunded [50]% of of the super spent on it. If the attack is blocked or Just Defended, it refunds [25]% of the super spent. Attacks with this flag cannot be used to interrupt and will also never provide a refund if the attack is used as a multi-target attack. Cannot be used on ULTRAs. Abbreviated as: CHAI, CH ENERGIZE -------- An ENERGIZE super grants a [3%] Recovery effect and [5]% reserve per turn for [3] turns if it hits cleanly. Like other recovery, the health ticks don't stack with RESTORE and will overwrite existing RECOVERY ticks if they are smaller. If the attack misses, the attacker is still granted the [5]% reserve recovery ticks for [3] rounds. This flag can occupy the same conceptual design space as ASSAULT in terms of building momentum for the fighter that uses it. Abbreviated as: ENER, EG EXHAUST ------- An EXHAUST super drains [25]% reserve and [25]% super from the target on a clean hit. The drained resources do recover over [3] rounds. If the attack does not hit cleanly, the EXHAUST effect does nothing. This flag is a super enhanced version of the SAP flag, so can occupy the same design space, such as debilitating attacks, special sealing techniques, etc. Abbreviated as: EXHA, EH The next post will provide some final thoughts, such as how you get these flags! -GLaDOS

Okay, to wrap up these updates, here's some notes: - Overdrive Effects can be added via the dojo. They cost NO AP to add. We consider them part of the core building blocks of building a super technique so they do not add any AP overhead to the attack. - As an experimental new feature, all the mechanics are likely to see a fair amount of tuning over the upcoming weeks. It will probably a while before the dust settles on the exact numbers. - We're not going to be sticklers in how you justify these effects. Just like DMs, their interpretations are very liberal. We DO expect you to pose them in your fights, however, so if you're not sure how you would go about posing a certain Overdrive with a specific attack, we recommend you don't put the effect on. When adding Overdrives via the Training Dojo, make sure to give a rough idea of how you imagine the mechanic matching your attack. Again, we're going to be very liberal here, we just want to see that you've thought about it. - As a reminder, in order to have an ULTRA, you must already have 3 Supers or 2 Supers and 1 MAX. ULTRAs must be your fourth or later super added to the build. - Other than the recovery tick of ENERGIZE, all Overdrive effects stack with everything already present in the game. Obviously, we'll be keeping an eye on how things stack up once they start to see some use. - ULTRAs are not eligible for the PROFICIENT Overdrive. - The [20] speed reduction on ULTRAs doesn't happen automatically so your ULTRAs likely don't have the speed reduction at the time you read this. All NEW ULTRAs will have it, and any ULTRAs that get updated going forward will have it Over time, we'll be going through existing ULTRAs and handling the speed reduction manually. To clarify the speed adjustments and costs a little better, it's important to understand that attacks have a base speed bonus built in which is reduced by 10 for every Power Level the attack has. So: SPECIALS have +60 speed built in SUPERS have +100 speed built in MAXs have +120 speed built in ULTRAs are shifting from +140 speed to +120 speed built in. SUPERS with 1 OVERDRIVE = +90 speed SUPERS with PROFICIENT = +80 speed MAXs with 1 OVERDRIVE = +110 speed MAXs with 2 OVERDRIVES = +100 speed MAXs with PROFICIENT = +100 speed MAXs with PROFICIENT + OVERDRIVE = +90 speed ULTRAs = Always +120 speed And that's pretty much it. We hope you enjoy this new expansion in CSYS mechanics and utilize them for their intended purpose in further realizing the unique aspects of your own characters. Keep in mind they will almost definitely see tuning tweaks but you can also look forward to potentially new Overdrives in the future! -GLaDOS

In spite our best of intentions, sometimes great calamities happen. Sometimes, the universe finds a way to make all our lives a little worse. Sometimes... Daniel gets buffed. The super cost for activating RESOLVE to recover a DM charge and +EX charge has been lowered from [40] to [30], or if you are in TOP, the cost has dropped from [33] to [20]. Upon reviewing the price of [40] super, we decided that the fair trade value of a DM charge to super is already established by the [30] super you get from DM/Super. In the past, the [40] cost was to prevent certain looping exploits with DM/Super, but now that you're capped at 3 DMs per fight regardless of where they come from, that concern no longer exists. So enjoy your slightly easier access to RESOLVE and EX charges. Or don't. I don't care. -GLaDOS