What would your special unit be able to do?

[CombatEX]

DISCLAIMER: Though I am about to talk about why I think the Phantom would be an interesting special and isn't blatantly broken in any way I can see, I also do not want a new team/special implemented into Outwitters any time soon. It is already hard enough to balance 4 teams on 8 different maps (just look at Starcraft 2, even 3 races is a nightmare) so a 5th team would just make matters worse. That being said, it's still fun dreaming up new specials =)

CombatEX Wrote:Phantom
HP: 3 (4 boosted)
ATK: 1 to Base, 2 to Units
MOV: Any visible space
VIS: 0

Numbers can be adjusted for balance.

(01-30-2013 03:15 AM)Ja Karta Wrote:  Most of these ideas are either tactically valid, but bland (e.g. boosting, snipers, or super sight) or undermine important bidirectional gameplay concepts (e.g. insta-teleport, burrowing, & also super sight).
[Regarding the second point: a unit has to not only be fun to play, but fun to play against. [...] in the case of invisibility or insta-teleport tend to make tactical calculations unreasonable, thus 'randomizing' the game.]

Actually, contrary to what you might believe, teleport doesn't increase 'randomness' any more than any other special (especially mobi). Perhaps it's useful to think of it more as "predictability and unpredictability" instead of "randomness". Moves in Outwitters are not random! As trivial a statement as that may seem, it actually is a critical distinction. Invisibility does increase unpredictability in a huge way since an invisible unit can occupy ANY hex without you knowing which. Teleporting (as described for the Phantom), however, does not increase unpredictability to an unreasonable level by comparison. For further explanation, see the section at the bottom on "Unpredictability". To put it briefly though, there are only a few hexes at any given time that would be useful for the Phantom to move to. You only need to consider those hexes, a much easier task than dealing with an invisible unit.

Your point about specials having to be fun to play against is interesting. I personally don't find it fun playing against Mobi at all post patch and to a lesser extent, Bombshell pre-patch. It's going to vary on a player by player basis. Different things annoy different people and to different extents. As with anything, it is impossible to please everyone. You just need to strike the right balance.

Phantom Applications
What are the main uses of the Phantom that I could see being annoying (aka effective)?
NOTE: In 'cost to execute' I'm including the cost of the Phantom.

1.
Action: Teleporting onto a spawn space.
Cost to execute: 8 wits (9 to move a unit up for vision).
Usefulness: This is expensive, so it is quite situational. More importantly, it could even be tweaked to be more or less useful by adjusting the HP of the Phantom. This is a key point! If this functionality is deemed overpowered, it can be fixed by modifying stats, the core ability itself is fine.

2.
Action: Finishing off an opponent's base after getting it down to 1 hp.
Cost to execute: 9 wits (10 to move a unit up for vision).
Usefulness: Definitely can be useful. There are a few caveats though. Say your opponent's base only has 1 hp left but your forces have been cleaned up. Now you want to spawn a Phantom and take out the base. How can you do this? You need to get vision of a spot adjacent to the base that is unoccupied and then spawn, move, and attack with the Phantom. This costs 10 wits (if you already have vision of an unoccupied space next to their base you could just attack with that unit instead of making a Phantom for 7 wits =P). Usually after launching the kind of attach that leaves your opponent at 1 hp you don't just have 10 wits sitting around. It will take at least 1 turn of saving which also gives your opponent a chance to block off their base. It's still possible that they cannot, but that's not the important point. There are many times when you can't block your base from taking a mortal blow from a runner. Are runners OP then? And they only cost 1 wit, 3 to execute this maneuver instead of 10! I'm not actually trying to say that a runner is as good as the Phantom, but rather that I don't see anything obviously broken here.

3.
Action: Picking off snipers and medics.
Cost to Execute: 8 wits (9 to move a unit up for vision).
Usefulness: Becomes increasingly cost efficient the further their unit is from their spawn. Most likely this will almost always be used for snipers instead of medics. Since it costs at least 8 wits to pull off this maneuver, the sniper better be quite a ways from the spawn before this is worthwhile (unless the sniper is alone for some reason and you don't have to worry about your Phantom dying after killing it).

4.
Action: Blocking your backdoor (Glitch, Reaper, and Foundry) or a vulnerable unit you have in the center of the field (preventing a sniper from dying by blocking it with a Phantom).
Cost to Execute: 8 wits (9 wits to get vision of your backdoor, but only 8 wits to protect a vulnerable unit since you already have vision there)
Usefulness: Blocking your backdoor can be extremely helpful if the Phantom is balanced to have 3 hp+. With 2 hp, though still useful, it would become a very expensive sacrifice to block a soldier for one turn. However as stated above, this is a numbers issue, not an issue of the core concept. As for protecting a unit, it can be useful, but also quite expensive and not necessarily worthwhile. For example, assume the sniper has 2 hp. Then, speaking on a basic level, protecting your sniper with a sacrificial Phantom is cost efficient if the sniper is at least 6 spaces away from your spawn. That's not something that only comes into play at very specific times (usually with predeployed snipers). Note that this is the Phantom's team, so no mobis.

5.
Action: Blocking your opponent from dealing with a unit you have in their backdoor (Glitch and Foundry, not Reaper though).
Cost to Execute: 8 wits (+ however many wits it cost to move the unit up to the backdoor)
Usefulness: Now this is probably the most annoying thing you can do with a Phantom. It's also the most expensive since you need to get a unit up to the backdoor for this scenario to occur. The important question is, is it broken? Only testing would show for sure, however I don't think it would be necessarily. As I stated in my original post, a good special in my eyes is one that changes both how you play and how your opponent has to react. If you are playing against a Phantom team, this is one of those adjustments you'd have to make, prioritize blocking your backdoor. This is just like how you have to adapt differently to any other special. Threat of a mobi sniper? Block your base, but you wouldn't have to do this against the Feedback's special. In fact, in some situations you may even need to do the exact opposite! (Move away so your unit doesn't get scrambled and attack your base).




Having gone through these potential uses I now really want to try it! I've realized that the Phantom can not only be used offensively, but also quite well defensively.
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Unpredictability
At first it seems overwhelming. A unit that can teleport ANYWHERE? How am I supposed to prepare for that?! However, on closer inspection, one realizes that the Phantom is actually far more predictable than one would originally assume. If you read the section on applications of the Phantom above you'll see what I mean. On a general level though, the point is that there are a limited number of useful hexes on which to move the Phantom. What are these?

1. Next to an enemy unit.
2. Next to the enemy base.
3. Blocking pathing to protect a friendly unit.

The first two are relatively easy to account for. Your opponent has only 1 soldier in range of your soldier and no other units that can threaten it? Against any team except Adorables or the Phantom's team, your soldier would be safe. However, in the case of Adorables or Phantom, you now need to consider the possibility that your soldier could still die. Is this kind of 'randomness' excessive? Doesn't seem like it. It's not any more of a problem than a Mobi when it comes to predictability. All these specials have pros and cons in the way they 'attack' enemy units. The Scrambler can steal a unit, but is the weakest. The Mobi can do the most damage out of nowhere, but it is the most expensive to pull-off and requires an additional unit. The Phantom can aid the fight the turn it is spawned, but has the weakest offensive capabilities (2 damage melee range vs mobi's 3 damage at range vs scrambler's 1HKO and a stolen unit).

Now how about blocking pathing? This, too, is not as hard to analyze as you might think. Simply consider where it would be hardest for you to deal with and that's that. Going for a backdoor maneuver? Okay, just keep in mind that if your opponent sees it coming s/he can try to block it with a Phantom (though it is expensive to do so). My opponent has a sniper in the middle of the field but only 1 soldier to protect it? I can kill that soldier this turn and then be in position to kill the sniper next turn (no other soldiersrunners/heavies in range to protect it). But wait! I have to keep in mind that my opponent plays the Phantom team so if s/he has saved enough that sniper could potentially be protected with a Phantom.

So, you see that while there always will be some uncertainty with the Phantom, it's not much greater (if at all) than what occurs in the game at present.