Balancing issues in Malifaux - a general discussion

[Yipikayey]

Yeah, i understand that bloating the card space when playing is not good either. The compromise is not easy to find. From a game balance perspective bloating seems better, from a gameplay standpoint, maybe it doesn't.

[Adran]

For what its worth, I was here when they eratta'd all the cards for the first edition. When it was just 1 book. 

Wyrd offered to replace all the cards for free, we just had to send our cards to them and a postal order to cover the postage back. There was also electronic copies of all the cards on line which had a change (which leads to a huge number of questions from new players why they can't see their card, and when is their card going to be posted) (And levi still needed to get a version 3 card, if not a version 4). 

It was a lot of hard work and cost for everyone involved. I really don't want to go through all that again if there is a different way. 

One of the advantages of the upgrade system that they mentioned was that if a model was seen to be weak they could issue an above strength upgrade (or more) to improve it. 

This means that they don't need to get rid of the cards for models that are weak, they just need upgrades to improve them, meaning I have to replace fewer cards. For me that is easier. 

Since we've seen 4 different ways they have used upgrades to improve models (Upgrade, Free upgrade, Free upgrade that doesn't take up a slot and Upgrade on another model that effects models of the chosen name), there is a wide variety of possible costs solutions. 

[tomjoad]

I think if we were to brainstorm a list of things that would kill Malifaux dead, that Wyrd deciding to start issuing a lot of errata would be near the top. It makes player acquisition harder, it makes retention more challenging, it reduces the amount of trust people have in the company and game...there are few things I've more strongly agreed with Wyrd on than the position they've taken that errata should only be used as an absolute last resort.

[Math Mathonwy]

 

Not everyone that plays the game is plugged into the regular updates. Even if you time stamped them, how would you know that the most recent version is unless you were constantly plugged in. Show up to a tournament and a new player from out of town looks at your crew and says your using an illegal version of the card, what do you do at that moment, and how does that affect your impression of the game?

But this happens with all the errata that they have issued already. Levi, Rats, Metal Gamin, Lynch, and so on. And note that we're talking now of situations where the illegal card would be strictly worse than the legal card.

Edit: You also need the Upgrade card. I mean, technically you don't but you're obviously short-changing yourself badly if you don't use a no-drawbacks 0-cost Upgrade. So you still need to be on the pulse. But all that said, I wish to re-iterate that I can see the cons as well and I'm not even advocating for a change here. I find Errata-through-Upgrades clunky but it most certainly isn't nowhere near game-breaking. A mild annoyance at best. And I don't even want Wyrd to cater to my every need as I understand that some of my "needs" are peculiar.  

 

Of course a lot of the discussions are somewhat moot because we have a new head of design at the helm now, and a lot of what we are discussing may not be valid any longer because we don't know how Aaron's philosophy of design, balance, and errata is going to line up with Justin's. Justin was a big believer in making errata in miniatures games rare, who knows how Aaron lines up. 

Seems like a perfect opportunity to have this discussion, then. But I would be utterly astounded if Aaron made drastic adjustments to these things and I'm not even advocating for that. All I'm really, actually advocating for, is a veritable monsoon of errata that hits the two Pillar effects in the game. Now, somehow this has ballooned into "ERRATA EVERY CARD EVERY MONTH!" or something to that effect in some people's minds, apparently (not yours, mind you)  

[Math Mathonwy]

 

I think if we were to brainstorm a list of things that would kill Malifaux dead, that Wyrd deciding to start issuing a lot of errata would be near the top.

Bah, that wouldn't make even the top five of my list:

1. Switching to 62mm scale on the minis
2. Upping the prices 500%
3. Switching to a system where one player activates all their models and then the other player goes
4. Introducing a faction of space ships
5. Not errataing broken stuff like the rat engine

 

[Omenbringer]

I would add to your list:

6. Switching to pre-assembled, pre-painted miniatures.

[Durza]

Age of Malifaux.

[Math Mathonwy]

 

I would add to your list:

6. Switching to pre-assembled, pre-painted miniatures.

 

I'm laughing but also crying inside...

[Tris]

I really have to thank all of you for the input, I´m glad that so many participated

It was an interesting read and I think I achieved my goal to bring people together and get insight at their reasoning behind certain posts etc. .

It´s a very difficult topic where everyone has a different opinion on what`s good for the game, but in the end we all want to make this incredible game even better - and with a community like this, where even a topic as controversial as this one is discussed calmly, that seems very much possible^^