Match of the Millennium

The following balance adjustments have been made: - SURGE, the S Rank Charging ability, is now a FREE action instead of an ABILITY action. This means that you can do any other ability action in the same turn that you SURGE now. The primary motivation of this change was to solve the issue of not being able to CHARGE in the same round you used SURGE, which felt a bit clunky since they come from the same ability and CHARGE is already tricky enough to use anyway. In evaluating that problem set, it was decided that SURGE should be fine as a FREE action. - SUPPRESS now blocks [30] super on the opponent rather than [25]. This change mostly reflected that since SUPPRESS is an S Rank ability granted DM Action, it should at least negate the globally available DM/Super when applied. - CALCULATED is now a DM Action instead of a FREE Action. The CALCULATED mechanic of INSIDIOUS is one of the more player-controlled traits in the system. And it's a fairly strong one at that. It was decided that rather than targeting its mechanics directly for a nerf, its ease of use would be reduced slightly by preventing the use of DMs on the same turn. - BLITZ - Targets now have to react to BLITZED attacks in the order they were executed. This change gives the BLITZING player a bit more control to counter attack the typical response of endure->interrupt that BLITZ tends to provoke. While it was felt that the Sig Abil is strong enough and flexible even with this common counter play, ultimately, we'd rather put the control over this situation in the hands of the person with the SIG Abil rather than their opponent. So now you have to react to the two attacks in the order they came in. - S Rank Toughness's passive damage reduction has been redesigned as follows: Now reduces the incoming attack by a fixed power level based on how bad the odds of the block were. For example, failing a 90% block will only reduce the incoming attack by 0.1 PL, but failing a 20% block will reduce it by 0.8 power levels. This damage reduction currently stacks with all other mechanics. In exchange, this damage reduction mechanic no longer works off of DODGE or ENDURE. The motivation for this change was to remove the RNG aspect of its damage reduction as that variable made it too hard to tune it. However, by making it a fixed amount, it made it too rewarding to just spam low odds dodges. ICly, this mechanic is supposed to represent the character's innate toughness, which we felt is represented by an attempt to block, whether or not the block is successful. By limiting it to only block, I felt it was okay to try letting this defensive bonus stack with other mechanics, but we'll keep an eye on how it feels. That's it for now! -GLaDOS

Fortify has been adjusted: - Now only [1] charge of FORTIFY is available. - The damage bonuses for the different tiers have been changed: [0.2] -> [0.4] [0.5] -> [1.0] [1.0] -> [1.5] [1.5] -> [2.0] The main problem here is that resetting block penalty was simply way stronger than we assessed when the mechanic originally went live. For characters that are built around being good at blocking, being able to reset their block penalty twice a fight basically gave them solid blocking odds for an entire match even if they leaned on it heavily, nearly erasing the need to manage block penalty at all with the opponent left with no way to counter the style of play that endless blocking enabled. We've been debating what to do with it for a long time, considering reducing the amount of Block Penalty it can recover, or even doing a full redesign. For now, we wanted to see how its balance turned out if we simply reduced it to [1] charge instead. This makes the fortify user consider more carefully how they want to ramp up their Block Penalty before using Fortify, since they now no longer have access to two resets. To compensate for the loss in potential damage boosting due to having only one charge, the bonus damage potential of the single charge has been increased. Keep in mind, FORTIFY's damage bonuses stack with all other mechanics, so properly utilized, they are quite strong. Sorry if this nerf feels severe. I know it can be unpleasant having your Signature Ability targeted for nerfing. But even with being dropped to 1 charge, we're confident that FORTIFY is still really quite strong, which just goes to show how overly strong it has been all along. As always, we'll continue to monitor how it performs and feels to see if any other adjustments are needed. -GLaDOS

VARIABLE has seen the following changes in mechanics: - Builds are now capped at [3] VARIABLE Flagged attacks. - VARY can no longer be used to ad hoc the COUNTER or REFLECT flags. SKILLED - The speed bonus applied to VARIABLE attacks is now a Trait speed bonus, which means it doesn't stack with any other traits that affect attack speed. VARIABLE has long existed as a mechanic that largely did CONTROL's job without requiring investing in an ability slot OR even using an Active Ability. Its only downside has been the loss of [5] speed off the attack, something you could mitigate down to [2] by picking up SKILLED Encroaching so much into an ability's design space has always been problematic and often the reason not to take CONTROL was because you could accomplish more with greater ease and lower build cost by just using VARIABLE and SKILLED. To offset this problem EFFECT, it's been hit with the nerfbat. Adjusting your attacks on the fly to accommodate moment to moment needs is the domain of CONTROL. For now, VARIABLE survives, though you can only have [3], and it can no longer apply COUNTER and REFLECT on the fly. In addition, the speed bump SKILLED gives it survives, but it's so small that it will be overwritten by any other trait-based speed boosts, so that's just something to keep in mind. I was sorely tempted to make VARY also require an Active Ability use, and may still in the future, but for now, I will hold off on implementing that to evaluate how the current changes affect things. We won't go and manually remove your VARIABLE flags to drop you down to [3], just know that the Training Dojo will no longer allow you to complete a build update if your build still has more than [3]. This cap extends across both modes for builds that have 2 modes, meaning you can't have [6] VARIABLES if you have MINDSET. -GLaDOS

The imbue toggle is now a FREE action when turning Imbued Normals on or off. The old behavior was to be a FREE action when turning them on but then require an ACTIVE action to turn them back on. Now days, with the number of things characters might have to juggle each round, it was decided this restriction was too punitive so has been adjusted for quality of life purposes. We don't think it shifts the balance of Imbued Normals in any meaningful way. -GLaDOS

Over the past few years we've made several quality-of-life improvements. Tools like the autologger, state, pot, and meters/last commands enable people to carry out combat RP even if their RL schedules don't intersect in any meaningful way. But there has been one area which, up till now, meant that certain players would really need to be logged in to view: CSYS messages. Say you've entered a fight with someone, but your internet connection went out when they responded to your attack. With just +pot, you would only see that they got hit, and then you would have to +check to see what they threw. Not bad, but not... great? With the new +recap command, you would be able to review the fight progress: CSYS: Showing the last 5 actions in this fight: (Type 'recap/all' to see all.) [ 1m] CSYS: Nagase has targeted Honoka with Unrelenting Fire. [ 1m] CSYS: Honoka has used BLAZE. [57s] COMBATSYS: Honoka blocks Nagase's Unrelenting Fire. [21s] CSYS: You notice something odd about Honoka. [11s] CSYS: Honoka has targeted Nagase with Power Strike. Well, that's a bit more informative! Here, have some bullet points. - Typing 'recap' by itself will show the log for your last two combat actions. - Typing 'recap ' will show the log for your last combat actions. - Typing 'recap/all' will show the entire recap log. - The recap log will record all COMBATSYS or CSYS messages broadcast to the room, such as attacks, interrupts, Overburn DMs, etc. - The recap log will also record CSYS actions detected by Analysis as well, such as active ability and DM uses, etc. - The recap log will begin once you enter the fight. - The recap log will be erased once you are KOed or leave the fight. - The recap log will be preserved through state/save and state/load. I think I've managed to track all the COMBATSYS messages, but if you find one that slipped through the cracks, let me know and I'll patch it in.

The following balance adjustments have been made: - SMASH's active now costs [2]% reserve if you have S Rank SMASH. Since S rank already gives you a passive damage bonus, activating SMASH is giving you less additional damage, costs an active action, and inflicts a defense penalty on the following turn. With all this in mind, it was felt that activating it shouldn't cost the same amount of reserve as builds that do not have S rank. - BRACE's active now costs [3]% reserve if you have S rank BRACE. This is for the same reasons as outlined in SMASH's adjustment. The reason it is [3]% instead of [2]% is because of BRACE's reliability, and because the damage debuff of BRACE is less punishing than the defense debuff of SMASH. - ULTRAs no longer cost reserve! Now that ULTRAs are as fast as MAXs, their only advantage over a MAX is that they do not lose speed from the newly introduced Overdrive Effects. With that in mind, we felt it was no longer necessary for it to be as punishing to use ULTRAs but rather they can become a more commonly used tool in your attack list arsenal. They still cost an unavoidable 100% super, however. As none of these adjustments buff Daniel, they were deemed acceptable by the Keep Daniel Contained Committee. -GLaDOS

The following two adjustments have been made to PREPARED: - There was a bug that was allowing you to change your DMs at will. That has been fixed. - You can now use PREPARED once/fight, and it is no longer restricted to just the first round. This adjustment gives better ad hoc adaptability to the Trait. -GLaDOS

A few OVERDRIVE related adjustments: ENERGIZE - The reserve tick has been lowered from [5]% to [4]% to tone the flag down slightly. ENFEEBLE - Buffed to apply a [6]% penalty to hit from [5]%. Also, now applies [3]% penalty to hit and [0.3] PL additional damage taken (Half the effect) for 3 rounds if the super gets blocked or poked. IMPACT - Buffed to apply a [6]% penalty to react from [4]%, buffed the PL reduction from [0.5] to [0.6]. Now applies a half effect if the super is blocked or poked ([3]% penalty to react, [0.3] damage reduction). The IMPACT and ENFEEBLE changes were to make them more balanced alongside the self-buffing OVERDRIVE flags. -GLaDOS