Warrior General Games

Crazy suggestion but thought it would be worth putting out for discussion.

ISSUE
Every season we have changes, whining about changes, more changes, then a certain amount of agents just making their way thru that season's sim because the game mechanics have changed for a small part, or in other seasons, a large part of the game. Why does this happen?

Perhaps not entirely...but certainly a large part is because the mechanics are fundamentally flawed due to EQ skill points being applied to a single skill. So you can't balance the mechanics of primary skills and the secondary skills of other dots because the 2 are way too disparate.


SYMPTOMS
We've seen this with many of the issues in the sim & subsequent bandaids to address:
* Buffing C's ability to block outside blitzers (wtf?!) because the LB is too fast
* Nerfing LB placement on the DPC because of same noted speed.
* Nerfing LB coverage on WRs (and god knows what else)
* Buffing G's speed when pulling because HBs are too fast & outrun them in 2 ticks. (which leads to other issues because the HB is now all alone with the CB & the SS rather than having the G involved in the interaction).
* Nerfing agility on DEs (back in the day) so that they can't dominate the game & insta sack on 50% of the pass plays.
* Nerfing bTE strength because LBs are flattened every time.
* Creating a diminishing returns concept with regards to ANY skill. Seems they should be all absolute values rather than have "governors" put on them.
* I'm sure others who are much more knowledgeable than I can add many more to this list...


SOLUTION(s)
Anyway...the suggestion is simple in terms of implementation really.
1. Remove all EQ skill points associated to leveling. This effectively eliminates the need for basic EQ.
2. Continue to allow the same skill point bonus (such as +3 speed) for a piece of AEQ.
3. Continue to allow the same % or SA bonus per level structure. No change in BTs per level.
4. Continue to allow CEQ skill point bonuses & %/SA bonuses.



Thoughts?

About 20 seasons too late on this train, bro

I know its not the first time its been thought of but my thinking is if it never gets brought up it likely never happens.

There is no "likely" involved here.

It is definitely not going to happen at this point. It would have have such far reaching effects on the game that it would take another year or two of changes to get the sim back to a watchable point.

20 seasons ago, it would have made sense.

At this point, and after "beta", it simply isn't going to happen.

Understood on the impact & beta status side but I'd at least rather suggest it than to leave it off the table completely.

I'm not sure I'd agree that its less likely now than 20 seasons ago based on the word "beta" no longer being applied to it. Its not like they didnt accept money for the game in S11. I (obviously) dont see the GLB balance sheet but I would imagine business was better in S11 than S31. And if I were protecting my revenue stream, I'd be more careful with my business when revenue appears to be heading upward than stagnant or downward.

You're right that it wont happen but saying nothing about the elephant in the corner doesn't make it weigh any less.

The issue is that EQ, as a whole, is the largest factor that sets dots apart from each other. With trimmed EQ, builds are too similar and you have to then re-emphasize differences in attributes with alterations in the formulas for each action. In a way, you don't really end up changing anything unless you keep things the same and then we're all more or less clones of each other and dots are no longer 'performing'.

There's been a lot of EQ altering suggestions in the past, including on the test server/old advisory board, but they're all generally flawed because they restrict differentiation. Of note, I remember ones suggesting the removal of EQ and likewise applying the same skill caps we see with SPs, granting EQ of 'SP worth' instead of flat values.

I get that maybe dots are too fast, but that's what we've rolled with for so long. Making dots a % slower across the board doesn't do anything but slow down the dots and make them less interesting to watch, too. GLB is in a game, and part of that enjoyment means dots doing "stuff".

I dont see the cloning argument though. I'm dense but dont we have the same issue today then? You cant be an elite WR without xxx speed or DT without xxx strength...the only difference is that you are going from xxx=160+ to xxx=~118. What changes is your perception of what number defines what elite speed is. Not much different than the idea that dots have gotten better over the last 30 seasons. 120 strength was ok for a S1 DT & clearly we've changed that perception (albeit slowly over time).

Dots are still going to do things they just wont have hidden buffs & nerfs making them do it. And the game speed can be increased if the concern is that the game will appear slow.

I'd think a gradual phasing out of AEQ SP could even be done rather than abrupt all at once. Meaning, we lose 2 SP per EQ piece per season until S36 when they are completely phased out. Might help with bringing the balance back but doing it slowly & with lesser impact at once.

Wasn't this thread just locked on the first page?

Originally posted by Chysil
removal of basic EQ only is NGTH...

currently basic EQ serves a very valuable purpose. Some builds only require 3 or even 2 pieces of AEQ... without basic EQ this would no longer be an option as the penalty for not getting 4x AEQ would be crazy high


so, going to lock this as NGTH

just a few threads down.