BCZ Retrospective XXII: New Beam Weapons.

If Melee Weapons needed more utility/aoe potential and Shooting Weapons needed more generalist tools, then Beam Weapons needed to complement existing builds using similar Energy costs. This may seem like a sort of OCD-ish quirk, more than a legitimate requirement concerning game balance, but it doesn't matter how powerful your gun is if it's too expensive or its drawbacks are too impractical for your build. Likewise, if it is too weak and cheap, then it won't slot into builds that are already made with higher costs in mind. So I deliberately looked for abilities that could make sense at costs 2, 3 and 4. My original idea was to focus primarily on 2 and 3, but most of the ideas I could think of were too powerful and thus leaning towards 4. Here's how it all ended up:

Boost 1: 2 Weapons.
Boost 2: 6 Weapons.
Boost 3: 4 Weapons.
Boost 4: 8 Weapons.

I'm not super happy with the Boost 4 glut there, but it's sort of how things turned out. I think that if I'd had the opportunity to do all 20 Beam Weapons at once (instead of doing them in two waves for two books), I could've figured out a way to make half the Boost 4 Weapons into Boost 3 and reshuffled some other abilities to make them more consistent. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I had to keep the new Weapons balanced not just with each other but also with the older options. With this in mind, their Boost cost will be an important metric for my judging.

And about that balance... Well, I guess it's time to get started on the individual entries:

Magneburst
It's a Weapon that works as a Defense, and is better than Maneuvering if your Systems/Speed are super low. This used to be able to gain Long Range and it was ridiculous. It is still kind of obnoxious, specially since a ton of Grunts can spam this to make a Rival or Boss immune to everything but AoEs. While we could argue whether this is balanced or not, I'll just say that creating a cloud of Interference Terrain is not a Boost 2 effect.

Burnout Edge
A handy debuff, but suffers from not having an effect that lasts a whole Round. This way, they still refresh their Energy, so all it really does is stop Active Defenses and possibly Boost Powers. This would've been better as a Boost 2.

Fangs
Fangs are the only Remotes optimized for tanking. The idea is that you use them to Engage while staying away, that's why they have a Guard of 10. With some Active Defenses like Shielding Aura, they can pull off the feat of fully dodging some Weapons and only being weak to automatic Damage and lucky rolls of 8+. I think this merits its Boost 3.

Gravity Knuckle
Gravity Knuckle used to push for 5 Zones doing an added 5 bonus Damage. That was kind of insane, so I toned that down to 3 Zones and 3 bonus Damage. It's an okay utility Weapon for Melee or Beam specialists, but the Boost 4 really hurts. It's a decent pick, but you rarely want to spend that much Energy on anything but a finisher, so I wonder if I could've tweaked with the numbers until making it balanced for Boost 3.

Ground Zero
It is with a deep and heavy sigh that I admit I screwed up with this one. Ground Zero is worth using without Boosting, and if you do Boost it, then it probably murders the fuck out of the battlefield. This used to gain Long Range when Boosted, which was the most insane thing ever and allowed optimized glass cannons to make a 21x21 square of absolute death that didn't hurt allies. The only easy fix I can think of would be a flavor fail: It would be only an aoe, without a longer Range than 1, when Boosted. Then it would be good, but not as ridiculous as it currently is. It's definitely a Boost 4 Weapon, I got that part right at least.

Graviton Gun
A pure utility gun. It's not a big effect though. At first it pushed or pulled the target towards either end of the line, but that was a little bit much when it sent multiple baddies crashing in one direction. It's handy, but not super exciting, so I guess it is okay at Boost 2. Not super proud of it but at least it isn't awful.

Point Singularity Projector
This was a commission from the Kickstarter. The idea was to have a Weapon that wants to be used withthe Assist Action much like other Weapons want to be used with Aim or Suppress. It's got a good rate on Advantages to Energy spent, encourages teamwork and brings a new kind of build to the game. It's really good! It was, in fact, so good that I completely forgot I was supposed to get back to the creator about it because all the other commissions were so much harder to get right. After like a year of our last contact, I got back to them again and things were fine. Boost 2 is maybe a bit too generous but it's not a noticeable balance concern.

Bits
Ah, Funnels Dragoons Aerods Flying Shooty Things Bits, a Mecha staple. Now, at last, people can actually use them as a Weapon and not as a Support Upgrade. You can either protect them with a combination of Range, Crippling and Active Defenses or just send it to the other end of the battlefield so that Enemies won't be able to blast it and you at the same time. Boost 3 is perfect.

Lux Cannon
This was a Weapon that I tried out in BCG but it was too good. So what changed? Well, now there's more ways to build shooty beam dudes than to make them glass cannons and there's more ways to build tanky characters meant to withstand punishment than to hope your Absolute Barrier holds. It's still quite strong, so it's worth the Boost 4.

Oblivion Buster
It's the strongest single-target Weapon in the game, and it shows. While the ability to destroy Threshold Levels instantly is great for keeping super tanky PC/Rival builds in line, this Weapon shows how much of a problem it can be when Bosses are vulnerable to it. Bosses are at their most threatening for a very brief window of like 1 Turn, which Oblivion Buster can bypass. Even if you give them things like Oldtype, it's taking out at least 2 Levels. Buff it enough, and it's going to be 3. It's appropriate, but probably a bit much, and shows that destroying Levels as a Weapon effect is a worse idea than just bypassing Active Defenses. Definitely earns that Boost 4, though, and all its other drawbacks too.

So, Beam Weapons. Some are good, some are meh, and some are exceedingly exploitable. I'm a lot less happy about them than I am about the rest of the armory. I also think I screwed up with the Boost costs in general but that would've needed a rework of a bunch of BCG Weapons to do it properly, so it's not as much of a problem to me on a personal level.

But that's just me being a perfectionist! Feel free to tell me how wrong I am, how much the 'meh' Weapons are really cool and good, how the exploitable guns are fine and I'm just an overreacting whiny baby. I'd make a poll but it looks like Blogger removed the option to add those for some reason. What the crap, Blogger.

Next: Boss Powers.

Gimmick Out.