Establishing a Color Pie and why it makes sense

Phaserhawk

The funny part is, I'm not sure it would really matter if they have a color pie or not, unless the AI gets better it really doesn't matter. You generally chase a few colors, the AI does not, however if you keep matching red and green, which leaves more purple and blue, and the AI has a purple or blue character, they will match it, not because they want to, but because it is the most available match. So color flavor would be superficial only. You might have a better time winning defensively running just black/purple and blue characters for the sole fact that the avg player is going to be running mostly red/green/yellow, increasing the chances of your skills going off because of having more black/purple/blue left on the board. Although if certain colors counter other colors, and there is a popular build, like right now it seems to be X-Force/Daken/Hood well maybe you want Deadpool and Daredevil since they have red and purple which counter that build it would create more diversity, but since the AI is so dumb, it will never matter since the offensive team always has the advantage.

ErikPeter

DAMAGE, SUPPORT
SHUFFLE, PROTECT
DAMAGE, SHUFFLE
SUPPORT, PROTECT
DAMAGE, DAMAGE
DAMAGE, PROTECT

yogi_

Based on this post of mine, let's look at it from a different way - not trying to force arbitrary colours and abilities together. As much as I would love to be able to say this colour does this, I don't think it can work sustainably, reliably and consistently. Let's put a few example things together.

Here is a generic Wolverine. By looking at these links, we see fighting is his thing and picking three colours that most fit with his default personality, we can try:

* 15 Forms - He's having an alright day today, so Wolverine only wants to disable his opponment, not kill them. He attacks them hand to hand... (strike tiles).
* Adamantium Claws - More slicing than dicing... (direct damage).
* Animal Sense - Senses allow Wolverine to use the elements... (some special tile ability, like boosting or protect).

But wait, Wolverine's just been taken to a totally different world and his character has to completely change in the way it's presented (yet still remaining true to the source material).

* Sensory Enhancement - His heightened senses take advantage of the surroundings... (special tiles).
* Overwhelm - Confused by his past, Wolverine lashes out... (direct damage).
* Hand-to-Hand - Wolverine's mastery of the martial arts.... (strike tiles).

Same character, almost identical abilites and colours that broadly connect to the intention and emotions behind them. Easy model to work off and frees you from having to focus on any colour specifically being tied to a required ability. And yes, I know orange is there (it's a default colour in a 7 colour model).

***
Let's try another current 3 iteration character. Storm - her thing is energy projection.

* Let It Rain - Depending on her mood at that second, Storm throws a combined rain, sleet, hail, snow, snowstorms, blizzards and flood at the enemy (strike tiles).
* Lightning Crashes - Bolts of lightning shoot from the sky... (damage and stun).
* Under Pressure - Pressing the forces of the atmosphere against her opponents, slows down enemy attacks (protect tiles).

ISO has unexpectedly fallen from the skies and caused mutations to Storm (Devs, this is a serious sort of story line to use if you ever get to the point where you amend (not balance) characters on a cyclic basis, during the life of the game). Once again, abilities are just samples to demonstrate the colours and description.

* Cloud Seeding - Seeding the clouds with her psychic energy, Storm washes the battlefield... (strike tiles).
* Mist Generation - Storm lowers the clouds in the sky and causes a blinding fog... (protect tiles).
* Thunder Bolt - Summoning thunder bolts from the sky... (stuns and damage).

Once again, same character, same abilities, same overall damage but you can phrase the colours and descriptions how you want.

***
One more. Black Widow - a character with a focus on fighting abilities.

* Athelete - At the prime of her physical abilities, Black Widow uses her... (damage).
* Manipulator - Black Widows uses the battleground to her advantage... (special tiles).
* Widow's Bite - A high frequency electrostatic charge... (stuns).

In this example, much of the character remains the same, but again, it makes little difference what the colours are, as long as you are able to work them around what you want out of them.

* Athelete - At the prime of her physical abilities, Black Widow uses her... (damage).
* Manipulator - Black Widows uses the battleground to her advantage... (special tiles).
* Widow's Kiss - An aerosol instant knock-out drug... (stuns).

Phaserhawk

yogi_ wrote:

Based on this post of mine, let's look at it from a different way - not trying to force arbitrary colours and abilities together. As much as I would love to be able to say this colour does this, I don't think it can work sustainably, reliably and consistently. Let's put a few example things together.

Here is a generic Wolverine. By looking at these links, we see fighting is his thing and picking three colours that most fit with his default personality, we can try:

* 15 Forms - He's having an alright day today, so Wolverine only wants to disable his opponment, not kill them. He attacks them hand to hand... (strike tiles).
* Adamantium Claws - More slicing than dicing... (direct damage).
* Animal Sense - Senses allow Wolverine to use the elements... (some special tile ability, like boosting or protect).

But wait, Wolverine's just been taken to a totally different world and his character has to completely change in the way it's presented (yet still remaining true to the source material).

* Sensory Enhancement - His heightened senses take advantage of the surroundings... (special tiles).
* Overwhelm - Confused by his past, Wolverine lashes out... (direct damage).
* Hand-to-Hand - Wolverine's mastery of the martial arts.... (strike tiles).

Same character, almost identical abilites and colours that broadly connect to the intention and emotions behind them. Easy model to work off and frees you from having to focus on any colour specifically being tied to a required ability. And yes, I know orange is there (it's a default colour in a 7 colour model).

***
Let's try another current 3 iteration character. Storm - her thing is energy projection.

* Let It Rain - Depending on her mood at that second, Storm throws a combined rain, sleet, hail, snow, snowstorms, blizzards and flood at the enemy (strike tiles).
* Lightning Crashes - Bolts of lightning shoot from the sky... (damage and stun).
* Under Pressure - Pressing the forces of the atmosphere against her opponents, slows down enemy attacks (protect tiles).

ISO has unexpectedly fallen from the skies and caused mutations to Storm (Devs, this is a serious sort of story line to use if you ever get to the point where you amend (not balance) characters on a cyclic basis, during the life of the game). Once again, abilities are just samples to demonstrate the colours and description.

* Cloud Seeding - Seeding the clouds with her psychic energy, Storm washes the battlefield... (strike tiles).
* Mist Generation - Storm lowers the clouds in the sky and causes a blinding fog... (protect tiles).
* Thunder Bolt - Summoning thunder bolts from the sky... (stuns and damage).

Once again, same character, same abilities, same overall damage but you can phrase the colours and descriptions how you want.

***
One more. Black Widow - a character with a focus on fighting abilities.

* Athelete - At the prime of her physical abilities, Black Widow uses her... (damage).
* Manipulator - Black Widows uses the battleground to her advantage... (special tiles).
* Widow's Bite - A high frequency electrostatic charge... (stuns).

In this example, much of the character remains the same, but again, it makes little difference what the colours are, as long as you are able to work them around what you want out of them.

* Athelete - At the prime of her physical abilities, Black Widow uses her... (damage).
* Manipulator - Black Widows uses the battleground to her advantage... (special tiles).
* Widow's Kiss - An aerosol instant knock-out drug... (stuns).

I've read this 4 times and I have no idea what you are trying to say, other than you can make anything fit anywhere. The whole point of a color pie is so this couldnt' be done. take your last widow example. Based on your description and what the colors kinda of represent. She should be Red/Purple/Blue. Your first example of her she would be Red/Yellow/Blue.

The thought is to have somethings all colors do, like damage, but some do it better than others red/green/black. But have some colors that only do 1 thing. Like blue being the only color that stuns, or red always having the best AP:Dmg ratio. Yellow could be the only heal color etc. etc. I go back to Magic the gathering but there are similiarites. Purple being kinda of the color or trickery and deceipt could mess up other colors. Like a new special purple tile that redirects damage back to the damage dealer if an ability is used. By having a basic definition for the colors it would actually promote character and skill design instead of, hey lets make Character X these 3 random colors because we want to, and then kinda of fit the colors where we want. It feels like colors are done first and then random abilties are attached to them, vs. character abilties first, and then associating the correct color with those abilties. Take Patch.

B.Rage does dmg and get strike tiles, but give strike tiles to enemy
TBTI. Massive Dmg
Heal.

Well to me he's actually Black/Red/Yellow. Black because he got power but had to give up something which black general does (hypersonic punch, RotP, Inferno, etc.) Red because of massive direct dmg and yellow for heal. However if you make B.Rage do AoE dmg, well now it starts to feel more green. It can be done, obviously it won't be perfect but if they had a few set things for colors, developed abilties first then applied, well you will start to see some more coheseiveness

Unknown

Denying doesn't work on AI unless they've a passive on a strong color that is not covered by the meta. That'd be black for 2* and purple for 3* because stuff like Espionage, Phermone Rage, and Spider-Sense are on those colors even though it's hard to fill a black/purple power at where the level these characters are used. Beyond that the AI always tries to match its strong color which would be covered by something. Red/green/black/yellow is probably all covered by a standard 3* team and you're not denying 4 out of 7 colors, though of course not all colors are equally devastating.