Not too long ago I was lucky enough to interview Michael Plummer, Game Development Manager at AMG, regarding the first year and a half of Shatterpoint. Following the May update, I submitted another round of questions focusing mainly on the changes. Much like the first time around, Michael’s answers are in-depth and thoughtful, so I hope it’s a good read!
Following each question and response, I’ve added some blue, italicized text with any additional thoughts I have after the answer.
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I’d like to start with one of my favourite changes in this update: the removal of Coordinated Fire: Expose from ARF Clone Troopers and Elite Squad Troopers. The ability hasn’t been removed from the game completely, but it should now be much less common. What was the impetus for removing the ability from these two units and why was the line drawn where it was? (As opposed to also removing it from things like Nightsisters and Leia Organa, Freedom Fighter).
Coordinated Fire: Expose is an extremely potent ability to help “chew through” tough units and the amount of counterplay available to mitigate its impact on the game is very small. For the ARF Clone Troopers, in particular, our analysis of player patterns in both competitive events and in casual play found that they were being included in a large majority of lists that were focused on Galactic Republic Tag synergy. We experimented with some other changes to the ARF Troopers before the removal, but the feedback on those changes did not move the needle on whether they were considered an “auto-include”. Once we removed it from their Stat Card, testers started to have far more interesting conversations about the “best” or “most optimal” choices of Clone Trooper units, which is exactly what we were looking for.
Once the ability had been removed from the ARF Clone Troopers, we took a focused look at every other Unit that had the ability. Many options in the game that have the Galactic Empire Tag are already extremely combat-effective, so we made the decision to remove it from the Elite Squad Troopers. The other iterations of the ability exist either on Primary Units, where we feel the ability’s potency is not “meta-warping”, or on Units where the Tag callout in the ability doesn’t have a wide enough reach to warrant concern that its presence puts serious constraints on Unit choice while building a strike team.
As noted in the question, I’m a big fan of this change. If ARF still had CF: Expose, I agree that they’d still be an auto-include, which just isn’t interesting. Now it feels like there are actual choices to be made in both the 4pc and 3pc slots for clone supports, and SF: Dash feels more tactical than simply “haha, you don’t get defensive expertise.” The Elite Squad did get caught in the crossfire, but if you’re getting rid of Republic-wide expose on a support then I think you have to get rid of Empire-wide expose on a support. As Michael notes, keeping the ability on a primary (Endor Leia) or limited tags (like Dathomirian) seems reasonable.
If the biggest overhaul wasn’t Anakin’s, he’s at least on the podium. During the Adepticon panel, it was noted that he went through a lot of discussion to get to a point where everyone was happy. What were all the considerations that went into overhauling such an iconic character and making him feel right?
Anakin Skywalker’s update definitely spurred a lot of discussions, both internally and from our external testers. Having made so many Units for the game at this point, we have a pretty solid idea of what makes a Unit “good” on the tabletop. We also have a very solid design concept behind every character in the game that outlines who they are, how they fight, and what specific characteristics of that character we want to focus on and manifest in the gameplay. This design concept acts as a proverbial “north star” for all our development decisions while we’re working on a Unit and we do our best to ensure that the overall “feel” of playing a character doesn’t shift too far from our original intent. This isn’t verbatim, but the overall “gist” of that design concept for Anakin Skywalker is that he is the big hero who swoops in and saves the day, and that he probably didn’t follow orders or the chain of command in doing it.
We pinpointed fairly early on that Anakin Skywalker really wanted a way to move other characters around the battlefield. We tried several different ways of doing this, but eventually settled on the final change you see now as the most representative of Anakin Skywalker as the “big hero” whose daring action inspires his troops to win the day. Once that change was fairly solidified, the addition of a ranged attack and the adjustment to “I’m Going to End This” fell into place pretty naturally as ways to help make sure that Anakin has ample opportunity to be that “big hero”.
Moving vs. not moving friends is a big deal for primaries, in my opinion at least. It definitely helps Anakin to have that ability, and I like that it isn’t just another “dash yourself and an ally” type tactic. I think there’s some sentiment out there that Anakin was buffed too much, but I am not there yet. I think they’ve struck a good balance of making Anakin strong and scary, but not overpowered.
In a related note, it used to be that Jedi didn’t get ranged attacks. The exceptions were the two Spectres who use blasters in their show. However, Anakin and Mace now have ranged attacks in one stance each. Do you think this will be a one-off, or could it signal a potential change in philosophy when it comes to Jedi design?
Decisions like this one are made on a case-by-case basis, as evident by the fact that we didn’t add a ranged attack to every Jedi. It made sense for us that these two particular Jedi would have the skill and power to gain advantage from afar with the Force. I can’t comment too much on anything in the future, but I think I can get away with saying that ranged attacks on Jedi characters are not out of the question.
Look, I wasn’t expecting him to say “all Jedi are going to have ranged attacks now!” or anything like that, so I’ll take this. Having a ranged attack adds a lot and helps Mace and Anakin justify the 7sp cost. I’m happy to hear we may see more of it in the future.
Two notable, high-performing units who didn’t get any changes were Commander Iden Versio and Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1. Any chance you could explain why they were not adjusted in this update?
Part of what makes Star Wars: Shatterpoint exciting to play is the sheer power and finesse of Primary Units. Working on the update, we veered away from making too many downward adjustments at all, and particularly on Primary Units. Primary Units are allowed to be strong and part of our work is making sure that every player can put their favorite character on the table and watch them do something awesome by the end of the game. Iden Versio and Kanan Jarrus are very present in the competitive meta, yes, but we don’t think that they fall outside the scope of what a Primary Unit should be capable of.
For the record, I do think it’s very reasonable that Iden and Kanan themselves did not see any nerfs. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t still a little surprised that they didn’t. I very much appreciate that update focused mainly on buffs with only a few nerfs.
Speaking more generally, can you discuss, at any level, the process for choosing which characters got adjusted, and which ones didn’t?
To speak frankly, bandwidth is a huge concern any time that we are looking at doing a sweeping update to any of our lines. The fact of the matter is that there is a deadline that must be met to make sure that the updates can be released as planned. Between that deadline and the needs of other upcoming releases, there is a limited amount of time to do the actual work of making updates. Early on in the process we had a relatively short list of Units that we knew we wanted to focus on while we were making adjustments. Our external testers also came to the process with a list of Units that they wanted to see changes on. We work hard to make sure that our playtest conversation is a two-way-road. When our testers brought their list to the process, we made an assessment of what they brought to the table and widened the scope of our work. I think we probably said “no more additions” at least half a dozen times, but inevitably we would find something else that could use adjustment. In the end, we’re really happy with how everything turned out. It’s certainly possible that there are other Units in the game that warrant some adjustment, but focusing on the ones that we did allowed us to make sure that these updates were handled with an appropriate amount of care and testing.
I’m glad to hear the conversation is a two-way street. I would assume the team of external play testers outnumbers the corresponding AMG staff, so more voices that also have a variety of experience would certainly help get a better end result. Of course, many people pining for changes would also lead to a big, long list of units, so I am not surprised there wasn’t the capacity to address everything. Here’s hoping for some future love for characters who, in my opinion, fell through the cracks this time around.
In your opinion, which change made in this update is the most important for the long-term health of the game?
This might come off as a bit of a cop-out, but the changes all work in tandem to create a more balanced ecosystem inside the game. Shick often talks about how Game Development is a lot like tending to a garden. Pulling the weeds, trimming the hedges, and planting new seeds are all tasks that work in tandem to create a beautiful and bountious display. In that same vein, each change and adjustment that we make on one Unit helps to inform the decisions that we make around the others and leaving any of the updated units behind would change the overall game balance to some degree or another.
In the spirit of giving a more direct answer, though, I think the adjustments to Units in the Core Set are the most impactful in the long-term. The Core Set is the de facto starting point to play Shatterpoint. We want these Units to be a solid building block for every collection and to be “forever friends” that players put on the table again and again over their time with the game. It also bears mention that these Units are usually the ones that people teach new players with. Updating the Core Set Units to better fit the current state of the game was a major focus of this update that we think will do a lot of work to keep the game easy to pick up and engage with from your very first Struggle.
I agree that the first answer was a bit of a cop-out, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t also accurate. However, I do like the “direct” answer about the core set. As Mr. Plummer notes, it’s the starting point for most players so balance there is a big win.
What change made in this update excites you the most?
That’s a tough question. For me, personally, I think the most exciting updates are the changes to various Inquisitiorius Units. I’ve always thought the Inquisition is a very cool part of Star Wars and I’m excited to see how people play them in their newest iterations.
Very reasonable. Judging by the number of Grand Inquisitor lists I’ve seen recently, I think many people would agree.
What is a change made in this update that may be subtle, but you think will have a bigger impact than we may realize?
The adjustment on Luke Skywalker’s Identity looks pretty small on paper, but I think it’s deceptively impactful in practice.
I think this is a good answer partly because I might be guilty of underestimating this change myself! I’m not sure it was enough of a buff to make Luke good, but there are a lot of subtle interactions that could make it more powerful than I realize. For example, it wasn’t until getting Luke on the table with Lando & R2 that I noticed the expose immunity helped a lot with their Element of Surprise ability.
I’m not an MCP player, but I can help noticing that it seems to have settled into a regular cadence when it comes to balance updates. It may be way too early, but do you anticipate we’ll see something similar for Shatterpoint, or at this time do you see these updates as more of a one-off?
Every time we release a new Unit into the game, our goal is that it will be perfect. It’s a great goal, but the reality is that no matter how hard we strive for perfection, we will never actually reach it. Part of the process of developing living games like Star Wars: Shatterpoint is working not just on the new stuff, but also making sure that the old stuff remains exciting, viable, and interesting to players. That being said, we always want to be extremely careful when it comes to how we address Unit and rule rebalancing.
Every change we make has a ripple effect that can have small or large implications across the game’s “ecosystem”. For that reason, we carefully consider all rebalancing adjustments and take a pretty measured approach to how and when we go about them. Overall, we have found that around 18-24 months is about the correct amount of time for us to properly analyze how units are doing, determine any adjustments we feel need to be made, and to then have the appropriate amount of time for thorough playtesting to ensure our adjustments don’t result in breaking more things or causing new problems.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say 18-24 months is a longer timespan than I’d like. However, if future changes are just as thorough and well done as this one seems to be then at least they’ll be worth the wait!
Finally, Shatterpoint recently had its first ever World Championship event, held during Adepticon in March. Was there anything you want to comment on coming out of that event? Anything that you thought was notable?
I wasn’t at Adepticon this year, sadly, but I always enjoy the opportunity to watch how the community responds to these kinds of large-scale events. It was awesome to watch the conversations surrounding the event and the excitement from so many people in the Star Wars: Shatterpoint community about the first ever World Championship. Sometimes, working here at Atomic Mass Games, it can be easy to take for granted the amount of time that we get to spend surrounded by these awesome games, but it’s always humbling to see how many people outside of the studio choose to spend their own time and energy playing games, painting miniatures, and engaging with the hobby in countless ways. Star Wars: Shatterpoint has an amazing player community, and we’re really thankful for everyone who is a part of it. I’m already looking forward to next year’s event and seeing if the World Champion can defend their title.
Well, I for one hope the World Champion does not defend their title. Watch out, Scott!
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Well, there you have it! I for one think the May update has been fantastic, and I’m excited to see how the meta shakes out. Thanks again to Atomic Mass Games and everyone who helped make this possible.
