Comments

[bountyhunter9]

Here is where you can post any comments you have on The Living Force.

[Jm419]

Ultimately one of your best. This set is very nice, with some fascinating combos that I haven't seen before, with many possible new squad builds. This really does represent some of your best work, and I would consider it on par with your third and fourth sets - it's really quite well rounded. Karma for your hard work.

[bountyhunter9]

Thanks. I think it'll be better once we get some of the tougher characters (namely GG, Battlemaster and the NR Luke Skywalker) down better. I think this may be the best I've done with non-Uniques, because VF was centered around the 501st and making them work, so I feel these more generic non-Uniques are better.

[Jm419]

The NR Luke is an interesting piece, he just needs his niche. Same with GG. I always thought that Non-Uniques were the hardest to make, and Fringe is even harder - you have to think about every possible combo in-game, which is huge. I tried to make VwH a Non-Unique set, and failed miserably. LaD sort of was a Non-Unique set - there are quite a few (which reminds me, I need to do those summaries) - but it was really more of a balanced all around set, like FotR, even though LaD introduced a lot of Non-Uniques. TLF, on the other hand, does Non-Uniques masterfully, better even than I can do them, in most cases.

You've really developed as a customizer - I say that every time, but I'd say you're on par with Gwek or Fuzzball now. You've already far outstripped me, with your five sets to my three. Lol. Seriously, nice work here.

[bountyhunter9]

Yeah, there's really no precedent for a piece like that, and fitting him somewhere between uselessness and abusive is very hard, because of how he's designed. We'll fit him somewhere, but it may take a lot of time and even more major revisions. GG's sort of dormant for now, I'll look at him in a few weeks and see if I can make him better, but Triple/Twin and Parry, the core of the piece, is hard to fit onto a piece below 100 points. Thankfully, the Separatists, with very few CEs that affect living followers, means that there are almost no abusive combos to worry about.

I think I did the non-Uniques well in TLF because I really worked with them. Some of the Uniques, especially the Jedi Masters, I just came up with on the spot, but with the non-Uniques I looked at their species, class, and all possible abilites that would fit on them, and then tried to pick out some combos that would work or specific abilities that give them that "perfect" feeling. It's a pretty slow process, and effectiveness varies depending on the piece, but for some pieces (like the Rakatan Guard Droid, Jedi General and, to a lesser degree, the Rodian Fringer) it works very well.

Lol. Thanks. I knew I was always good at making big, powerful Uniques, but as I made more customs I grew to prefer the streamlined character over the insanely powerful character with lots of abilities and Force powers. I've still done a few of those (Darth Revan, Sith Lord back in DSR, Darth Sidious, Dark Lord in RoT, and Darth Vader, Sith'ari in TLF), but generally I like to keep my customs as thin on abilities as possible, while still making them feel "right".

You and Gwek have influenced me the most, you teaching about how to make custom abilities and to look for abilities that have good synergy with each other, as well as the difficult art of costing, and Gwek about game balance and WotC's guidelines, all of which are very important. Karma for all your help (and I'm going to go Exalt Gwek too).

Oh yeah, I forgot about those summaries too. I still have to do one for TLF, once we get some of the more difficult characters pinned down. They're a lot of work (and I'll have to find a good Yoda or Luke quote!), but they usually only take an hour to an hour and a half.

[Jm419]

Yes, GG is going to be tough, and I just don't want to kill your concept. As for Luke, we can sort of compare to GMLS, but not really. The two of them are your two controversial pieces, just as my AAT was a huge problem in LaD.

Huh. That's fascinating. So you literally think, "would a Bothan be able to dodge blaster bolts? How much equipment can he carry?" when you invent a piece? That's dedication. Very impressive.

I much prefer the balanced piece. Anakin CotL, Luke CotL, and Darth Revan, Dark Lord are my three personal favorite pieces, because they are powerful, there's no denying that, but they also aren't stuffed full of abilities. I really like finding the right niche for a piece, and making it work for it's role. The key is the right ability core - make up your own, if you need to, and fit the piece.

Lol. Thanks. Custom abilities are so much fun to do - it's a neat feeling to get a piece exactly right. As for costing, that just comes from doing a thousand pieces, and being able to say "Let's look at other pieces in the same cost range. How would they do fighting this piece?" We're only here for costing - every piece is balanced if it's costed properly. Even GOWK would be okay if he costed 85. Luke, Jedi Knight should cost about 10 or 15. Costing is really the most important thing about a piece, which is why it tends to come last, after all the abilities have been hammered out.

They are a lot of work. I'm putting off mine, I'll do them...eventually. Lol.

Karma for your work on this set, and for all your improvements as a customizer.

[bountyhunter9]

Yeah. Oddly enough, both of those pieces are really only comparable to GMLS, which is quite interesting.

Yeah, pretty much. It really helps if I can understand how the piece would act, think, shoot, etc, to make it better. I usually start by thinking of what I already know/think of them, for example Bothans being Stealth-y and Cunning. Then I'll read up a bit on their Wookieepedia page, about their species's personalities, characteristics, abilities, etc, then look at examples from WotC (ie, with the Rodian Fringer, I looked to WotC's Rodians and Fringers to look for possible stats/abilities). It takes longer, but usually I can come up with a good piece out of it. Of course, doing this to multiple pieces in quick succession means I usually forget the small details about species/character types, which means I have to do the same process with similar characters, because they're usually spaced so far apart in terms of how I think up the pieces, which is usually very, very random.

Yeah, I prefer that too. That's why my two favourite versions of Revan (Darth Revan, Dark Lord in TLF and Revan, Hero of the Old Republic in DSR) are the more streamlined versions, rather than the 100-point Darth Revan in DSR, which has 10 special abilities, 7 Force powers (not including starting Force points), and a 3-part commander effect. I'd need a card the size of the AT-ATs to fit all of that (which actually has the most SAs, not Lumiya, as the AT-AT has 12!). I'm going to update him, changing the CE and dropping some SAs and FPs. EDIT: I dropped two abilities, a Force power, and changed the CE (it's only two parts now).

I competely agree with you there. That's likely why costing is so difficult: it can make or break a piece.

Lol. Me too. Maybe after we finish History of Hatred, but I don't plan on starting work on that until we're done with TLF.

[Jm419]

Yes, it certainly is. Lol. Maybe GG should cost 120...

Hmm. That's awesome. I like your style - that's probably how WotC does it too, you know.

I make some changes every now and then, but generally I run them through Stat Creation, like I did with Darth Revan, Dark Lord in FotR, and I like the new version better. Do you want to reopen discussion in DSR about your Revan?

Exactly. Most people don't realize that costing is the most important part, but it makes a piece playable or errata-ed. Lol.

I'll do it when I get some spare time. I really need two or three hours to do both of them.

[bountyhunter9]

I'd drop Parry before allowing that. Lol.

Maybe. At least with some of their pieces. They generally do a good job in terms of character accuracy. An exception would be Darth Maul, Sith Apprentice in JA, which for some reason had Vaapad Style instead of Juyo.

Sure, I could use some feedback. I'm not really sure how much I want to change him, but if we can make him better, I'm up for it.

Yeah, it really is.

[Jm419]

True. Lol.

It's because WotC didn't want to write up a Juyo. It wasn't a mistake, it was just lazy stat creating.

Fair enough. Open up a discussion, with specifics on what you want me to look at.

Oh good, I get to go to work now. Yay.

[bountyhunter9]

Wouldn't one consider that a mistake? Lol. I most certainly would.

Okay, I'll do that now.

Lol. You had to work today?

[Jm419]

Well...yes, but it was intentional.

On the way over.

Yeah...snowblowing driveways. I got to work for the past 4 days, but I've made like $250.00.

[bountyhunter9]

Lol. An intentional mistake. Isn't that an oxymoron? They're going to regret not writing out Juyo eventually, though.

Lol. At least you're not shovelling them. That's some good cash for four days work. Oddly enough, we've had almost no snow up here. The little snow that has fallen hasn't even been worthy of shovelling...

[Jm419]

That's what I mean. A short term fix, but a long term mistake.

I did some shovelling...my shoulder's all screwed up. But oh well. I can make up to $60.00 an hour, depending on how my snowblower's behaving.

[bountyhunter9]

Yeah. From my point of view, I can't think of any reason they would do it (other than laziness, which is the lamest of possible excuses), but there must have been a reason. Maybe they just didn't want to spend too much time on their Sith pieces, or something. Based on the fact that we only have 37 pieces from a very expansive (in terms of time periods) faction, that would make a lot of sense.

Lol.