NickName wrote:
We know that there's no formula,
We know no such thing. Rob has said on several occasions that it's not a "hard-and-fast" formula, but there is a formula. He said in an online chat that the Stormtrooper weighed in at 5.8, so they're using something to determine that.
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but we also know that the disadvantage of Melee Attack was underestimated, and it's now resulting in a bigger discount than in earlier sets.
My guess is that they didn't anticipate the community-at-large running their Jedi characters headlong down the battlefield where ranged attackers could pick them off. I remember my early games of Rebel Storm, even the occasional skirmish. Luke JK was a favorite choice of mine, but I kept him hidden as much as possible and relied on his 22-in-cover defense to keep him alive. Once he entered combat if he faced high HP enemies, then yeah, he had problems. But he was a great Stormtrooper killer back then.
Alot of the other people I played against when they used melee characters such as Darth Vader or even Mace Windu or Yoda relied less on walls and low objects and just hoped more on the luck of the dice. Those players tended to get beat on a regular basis in those situations.
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But how much?
Ideally, there would be a figure with very similar stats and abilities between an old set and a newer one, with little but a change in price.
But I can't think of a couple good examples.
Any ideas?
Back in the day, I came up with a rudimentary formula for character design. While I won't bore everyone with the details, I was able to develop something that seemed fairly accurate for what we have. Every ability and force power had a cost, and there were costs for stats, and linked costs for stuff that had synergy (Careful Shot + Deadeye, for example). When Bounty Hunters came out, that system went out the window because of all the damage-changing effects (a Dengar that could do 30-40 on a normal attack, for one).
As far as melee goes, I started it out at -4. By the time Universe came out, it was up to -6. The Jedi Weapon Master reset it to -8 (even with the faux pas removal of Unique from his card), and from the looks of things in FU, I would say it will likely fluctuate between -6 and -8 from now on. Some of that may be an overcost on my part of the new Force powers, and some of it may be based on balance-in-set, meaning that ranged and melee still have to be balanced against each other in the set in order to provide stability. The better ranged is, the better melee Jedi need to be to compete.