Veggienauts Bramble - Suggested improvements to initial beta version

[RandyDogz]

I think allowing a friendly unit to move onto a thorn would be interesting. Right now thorns can really get in the way - while I'm sure practice will help with more efficient placement, right now they seem to be the only friendly unit that can be detrimental. Snipers in particular can get difficult to use when there are a lot of thorns. When standing on a thorn, opponents first attacks clears thorn but no damage to the unit that was on it? Or unit drops to 1 hp when cleared...

3 movement feels like a little much, you could more easily get to spawn/wit points which is a big wit waster to clear.

2 hp thorns could be overpowering for the same reason, needing to send a soldier or 2 runners (plus 2 wits to attack twice) to clear.

I've been trying a lot of thorn spamming, ie aggressively spreading to the opponents base, and it can work. This makes bramble interesting as perhaps it can be played aggressively for offense or more passively for defense.

The other thing that kinda seems off is no +1 wit for thorn kills, just because its different from the rest. And that burrowing doesn't cost anything. One of my fav things about Outwitters is the simplicity and consistency of rules, and I worry that over time there are more and more 'exceptions' complicating things. Especially thinking of new players, you don't want to lose the 'easy to learn hard to master' idea.

But again, I think trying to test drive the bramble AND the +1 wit for kill change at the same time makes it challenging to evaluate. For instance +1 wit for thorn kills is probably too much and would really weaken the bramble, but then maybe 2 hp thorns would balance it out, there are a lot of variables....

All that said, I think the bramble seems pretty well balanced as is. I'm curious, how much 'tweaking' was done on other specials (this is my first beta)? Were initial concerns 'worked out' as people got practice on how the use them??