Situational powers, and how to fix them.

Nonce Equitaur 2

Quite a few powers are completely useless in some situations. Here are a few of them, with possible tweaks that offer minor repairs.


Double Double-Cross 7
Elektra has "defected" to the enemy team, working for them while feeding her true allies powerful information. Steals a strike tile, improving strength by 55. Converts 3 basic Purple tiles to strength 9 enemy strike tiles. If the enemy has no strike tiles, this power costs 4 AP less, and just creates enemy tiles.

Radar Sense - Purple 10 AP
Daredevil uses his Radar Sense to avoid his enemy's assault and strike at their weaknesses. Converts up to 3 random enemy Strike, Protect, or Attack tiles to basic tiles and deals 71 damage for each tile converted. If none, the radar pings leave behind a random strength 1 special tile for each team.

Photonic Blasts - Red 7
Captain Marvel unleashes the amazing cosmic power of her photonic blasts, shattering her enemy's defenses. Deals 208 Damage and destroys up to 2 Enemy Protect Tiles. Does not generate AP. If the enemy has no protect tiles, 2 random tiles are destroyed, generating AP.

Manipulation - Blue 11
Dr. Octavius reaches out with his mechanical arms to use controls and devices, smashing enemy plans easily. Swaps 8 pairs of random tiles, destroying any swapped enemy Attack tiles and dealing 110 damage for each tile destroyed. If none are found, he does 440 damage instead.

Redwing - Blue PASSIVE
Falcon's companion Redwing soars overhead, alerting Falcon to danger. If the team has at least 8 blue AP, Redwing converts an enemy Protect or Strike tile into a 4 turn Countdown tile that signals when Redwing will return. If none, Redwing focuses on protecting Falcon, and all damage dealt to Falcon is reduced by 2% for each blue tile on the board.

(( My "Redwing distracts and stuns" idea wasn't nearly as good as Puce's, so substituting. ))

Settlement - Blue 9
She-Hulk flexes her legal muscle, striking a deal to balance the scales of justice. Replaces up to 2 random Protect, Strike or Attack tiles with Strike Tiles distributed between you and the enemy team. The deal is in your favor - Friendly Strike Tiles are strength 12 and Enemy Strike Tiles are Strength 7. If the enemy has no special tiles, a strike tile of strength 1 is created on each side.

Bad Reputation - Black 12
Gamora's reputation as the "Most Dangerous Woman in the Galaxy" precedes her. She converts a basic into a strength 18 Strike tile for every 4 tiles that bear her symbol. If it would be none, all her tile damages are increased until she'd own at least one.

Trickery - Black 11
Loki's trickery turns the enemy's tools against them. Transforms 1 enemy Strike tile into a friendly Protect tile and 1 enemy Protect tile into a friendly Strike tile. If the enemy has none, creates friendly Strike and Protect tiles of strength 11.

Inspiration - Yellow PASSIVE
Falcon spreads his wings, motivating his teammates as he swoops into the fight. When the team makes a yellow match, Falcon improves the strength of 2 friendly Protect, Strike, or Attack tiles by 7. If none, he creates a random friencly tile of Strength 1.

Web Bandages - Yellow 12
Spider-Man webs makeshift slings, healing his team for 142. If 3 or more Web tiles exist he converts them to bandages, healing his team for an additional 149. ?????

PuceMoose

I like these ideas - Anti-gravity Device and Gravity Warp have nice utility even if their primary function isn't applicable.

The only one that I'm not sure about is your proposed change to Redwing; that could make the power temporarily unavailable if a dangerous 1 or 2 turn power drops (like Magnetic Flux.) I like the way Redwing is ready at a moment's notice to take care of a danger in its existing implementation. As an alternate idea: With the enemy's special tiles taken care of, Redwing focuses on protecting Falcon. As long as no enemy special tiles are on the board, and Redwing's countdown timer is not in play, all damage dealt to Falcon is reduced by X for each blue tile on the board.

I'd love to something like the Inspiration change you mentioned, and it would make Falcon considerably more usable (and even more fun to play). I think an alternate amusing description could be If none, his team looks up and becomes so enraged that he's flying around doing aerial gymnastics instead of helping with the fight that a random basic tile is transformed into a strength X strike or attack tile.

IamTheDanger

While I agree that some situational abilities are just annoying at times, and a few of them could use some tweaks, I think they add a bit of strategy to the game. In most situations, a certain character can be considered weak, or useless. But given the right situation, they can sometimes be the the best in the game. Figuring out who to use in what situation gives the game a bit of a challenge and allows use to utilize characters that would otherwise be overlooked or ignored.

The suggestions in the OP are really good. Don't misunderstand. I'm just one of those people that likes to use a bit of strategy every now again, instead of brute force. On the other hand, there are times when my strategy is to use brute force. That's when I break out my 4hor - Force team and put them with someone like Hulk. Then I just Smite, Smash, and Slash my way to victory.

Unknown

I feel like Settlement is too weak/expensive in its current form. If it always changed random enemy tiles it would be much more worth it for 9AP.

Unknown

Settlement is way weaker than Trickery, and does less than half the effects. It's just an overpriced ability.

Unknown

And you just know that they're going to make Elektra essential on nodes with no enemy strike tiles in the next PvE, right?

Most of us out there will be having just tonnes of fun with our 2 purple covers and no red or black.

(incidentally, the OP's suggestion for double double cross doesn't seem very advantageous!)

CrookedKnight

If the power was discounted with no enemy strike tiles you could use it after a single purple match and have some weak tiles out that won't help them much (don't use it against Daken or Falcon, of course!) but will serve as fodder for another casting of DDC. 10 AP for a few strong strike tiles (which would require a bunch of purple covers to boot) isn't exactly great, but at least it's not 14.

Unknown

Nonce Equitaur 2 wrote:

Redwing - Blue PASSIVE
Falcon's companion Redwing soars overhead, alerting Falcon to danger. If the team has at least 8 blue AP, Redwing converts an enemy Protect or Strike tile into a 4 turn Countdown tile that signals when Redwing will return. If none, Redwing focuses on protecting Falcon, and all damage dealt to Falcon is reduced by 2% for each blue tile on the board.

Inspiration - Yellow PASSIVE
Falcon spreads his wings, motivating his teammates as he swoops into the fight. When the team makes a yellow match, Falcon improves the strength of 2 friendly Protect, Strike, or Attack tiles by 7. If none, he creates a random friencly tile of Strength 1.

Agree on the rest, but if you think these 2 are useless you have never even tried to use Falcon. Inspiration is extremely powerful when coupled with a character that can spam strike tiles (try it with Daken) and can quickly yield enough strike tiles that piled up lead to matches that deal 3k each, while Redwing can completely defuse powerful abilities that create small amounts of special tiles (e.g. Nick Fury's Escape Plan, Sentry's Sacrifice, Torch's Fire Jet).

Nonce Equitaur 2

sunfanel wrote:

Agree on the rest, but if you think these 2 are useless you have never even tried to use Falcon. Inspiration is extremely powerful when coupled with a character that can spam strike tiles (try it with Daken) and can quickly yield enough strike tiles that piled up lead to matches that deal 3k each, while Redwing can completely defuse powerful abilities that create small amounts of special tiles (e.g. Nick Fury's Escape Plan, Sentry's Sacrifice, Torch's Fire Jet).

In other words, Falcon's power is currently situational. I agree that he pairs very nicely with Blade and Daken. But he's mostly useless with BWGS and IM40 when up against Thor, Ragnarok, Hood.

Unknown

Nonce Equitaur 2 wrote:

Web Bandages - Yellow 12
Spider-Man webs makeshift slings, healing his team for 142. If 3 or more Web tiles exist he converts them to bandages, healing his team for an additional 149. ?????

I've always thought that Web Bandages would work as web shields. He should be able to temporarily increase your hit points, like a shield in any other game. I mean, what exactly is he doing, anyways? He's using his webs to patch you up, make a sling, tie you up in a bandage. If you weren't wounded, he'd still be able to wrap you in webbing. It would be the equivalent to, what, leather armor, in any RPG?

The point is, he isn't healing, at all, so there's no need to wait for injury. This should Web Armor, if anything.

If anything, it should be a, "Punch you with the force of an arm that can lift 10 tons." Or, "Swing from the top of a building and drop kick you."

Dayv

I like the idea of making some of these powers (ones that sometimes simply have no use) have a secondary effect, but most of these are a little more focused on the usual effect, or setting up the board for the same skill to be used again, for my taste. I think effects like OBW's blue are more interesting where (at lower skill levels) it either heals *or* affects countdowns. The secondary effect isn't a tiny thing, it's a legitimate alternate goal you might actually prefer under certain circumstances that can create real strategic choices: do I use the AP now, or wait and try to clear these tiles so it does the other thing?

Of course, changes like that would have big effects on balance for all but the most totally underpowered skills, so there would usually need to be changes to the current effect or a recosting of the skill.

FaustianDeal

DayvBang wrote:

Of course, changes like that would have big effects on balance for all but the most totally underpowered skills, so there would usually need to be changes to the current effect or a recosting of the skill.

I agree with this statement. I am sure the new, secondary effect being proposed here would probably lead to a tweak to either the primary effect, or a recosting of the power (+1 AP, for example) that feels like a fair trade to make a character useful in more fights.

I think the saddest person around is the one who pulls 13 covers for Doc Ock and that becomes their first, covered 3*. With 1 power that is completely dependent on enemy special tiles, and a 2nd that is basically just a criminally over-costed board shakeup? At least give them something they can use if they wind up with Ock as their last man standing.

FaustianDeal

I feel like Colossus' Fastball Special also belongs on the 'situational powers' list. I know it might not seem 'situational' but if Colossus is the last-man standing on my team then its like he was reduced to having only 2 powers. Is there a way that power could instead be used in a purely offensive capacity?

If there are no viable teammates left, why can't he throw an enemy instead? In that instance take away the "trigger a power" side effect and just do damage? Or it can have the stun-side effect while still allowing the enemy to be targeted?