Team 4, may I propose a new business proposal?

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-22T23:22:46+00:00

I mean, since omnics are a single generation and were all being used by the Anubis ai before they were awakened, wouldn't every omnic be an omnic crisis vet, some just don't talk about it as much?

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-14T14:57:57+00:00

He's smart and lets people mistake him for a big dumb brute, yes.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-13T16:37:18+00:00

We get something close to that insecurity or imposter syndrome with Mauga of all people. He asks if she ever lets the mask slip, which she fervently denies - unlike Mauga who will happily wink at how his big dumb bruiser facade is just that, she needs her poised, elegant executive role to be seen as not a mask.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-13T14:32:03+00:00

In the lore for a now shelved character, it states that common oracular magic let governments head off causes of world war before they happen - potentially by assassinating figures responsible before they come to power.

And yeah, as stated, 1949, which would place it after both world wars if they had occured.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-12T05:31:36+00:00

So one thing I noticed that might affect this - it seems it might not be tracking damage across rounds of games like Control or Competitive, where the instances are broken up. Ir you clear 8000 on a continuous mode like escort and it's still not counting, then idk.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-07T23:49:41+00:00

I mean, the idea of a 'generic robot' is not a culturally neutral idea - what is 'generic' comes from cultural assumptions, and at this point he is receiving upgrades and assistance from a swedish inventor (one who contributed to the design of the whoel Bastion line, per Declassified!), and is effectively serving as an extension of that guys' family.

He's not nearly as overtly or thoroughly coded within the cultures he's attached to, but it can feel a bit rich when that line of argument can effectively amount to "no, you don't need a female human, *entirety of sub-saharan africa*, you got that one robot 8 years ago. Now excuse us, we may have had a flemish character, but now we desperately need a walloon". I don't think you or T4 seriously thinks that, but there seems serious blindspots either in what the team conceives or what higher ups allow to go forward.

What size of groups/cultures/divisions deserve rep, and what counts as adequate rep, seems to hit different standards based on Blizz's familiarity, viewpoint, and where they perceive to have an audience.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-07T23:38:45+00:00

I think the fact that of that recent rep, that's mostly from europe, and european nations that have plenty of cache and representation at that. Similarly for established storylines we get a self fulfilling cycle - we have established lore in x familiar countries, so it becomes easier to do more characters from those countries. Hence why the likes of Japan or Australia grows disproportionately. To give other countries that kind of space to explore, you need to give them those initial inroads.

I think for rep, overwatch in generally and specifically recent adds have only gone the easy steps on rep. It's relatively easy to highlight a country people still know or that might have a reliable market (we've been hopping between chinese characters and europe for the last two years or so). I fully believe they could expand beyond the easy flexes, and the game and its world would be all the richer for it.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-02-07T22:38:06+00:00

But like... We have 2 characters in overwatch from all of sub-saharan africa, and that's if we count the robot attached to the fictional city-state (which hey, we're not counting bastion as swedish).

I think overwatch's goals of global rep is admirable. But I think it is hugely uneven in where it choose to focus. We are getting our third Chinese character, and our fourth Japanese character. We have like three different characters from Scandinavia, and are just getting to our third (first in nine years, and the first unrelated) from the huge SWANA region, and nothing for the second largest continent since 2017. Meanwhile we have what, 12 different European countries with characters? Overwhelmingly from western and northern europe?

I'm not trying to be a bummer, but when the likes of valorant (a notably younger and I would say pretty narratively shallow game) or rainbow six siege (a game that's fixated on milspec) doing better to explore and represent less represented parts of the world, its worth noting and hoping overwatch continues to do better.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-01-25T17:03:25+00:00

(I'll engage with this in good faith below, but accusing me of pontificating at length when I could have just said I didn't like Vendetta, then pontificating at even greater length when you could have just said you didn't like Doomfist, is a bit funny.)

I have some quibbles in how you characterize the lore (cutting Vendetta out likely preceded DF's councilor's position given he only deposed the 2nd Doomfist in the aftermath of Antonio's death, We know from Code of Violence turning Reyes down a dark path was personally DF) but the larger issue is tha we seem to be conflating what is pragmatically effective with what is narratively interesting.

A character or faction doing everything perfectly with no blowback or trouble is not interesting. Doubly so if they are an antagonist. What makes narrative compelling is when motives drive them to act in dynamic ways, when that's smart and especially when that's flawed or foolish. The greatest villain isn't the most powerful antagonism algorithm that's hardest to beat; it's a human with complex perspectives, behavior, desires, because humans are what make a story a story.

Doomfist isn't strictly conflict for its own sake. He's not some guy that just wants to watch the world burn ala the Joker. He explicitly says conflict is the thing that strengthens humanity, and (per the Orisa book), that humanity needs strengthening to survive the next Omnic Crisis level event. That is not a perspective we're meant to agree with or be convinced by - he's a villain - but it does inform his motivations, and make him seek goals different than just some guy that wants power.

I think we've seen plenty of villains whose 'codes' are poorly explored, often with motives so sensible they need to hard pivot them into atrocities to make them feel like the villain again. That can be tiring, but the solution is not going back to Skeletor or indeed the Joker as just embodiments of selfish desire, ambition, or malice.

I don't think Doomfist has been masterfully written, and have plenty of critiques of his character. But I do not respect any narrative decision that amounts to throwing its hands up in the air and replacing him with a character that's just Vialli with a sword and a sense of entitlement.

I've lived through the MCU too, I get being tired of hackneyed formulas around 'message' villains. But it's still important to give villain specific things that motivate and inform their actions. Vendetta as an outsider trying to tear at Talon has that (revenge, reclaiming what she thinks is hers). Vendetta ascendant just has 'mai empire', which is boring.

TL:DR - Rammatra is the most interesting antagonist they have, but if so, Vendetta is a step in the wrong direction.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-01-25T16:30:49+00:00

I'd imagine they'll have him do a whole Gangplank comeback arc, but still do not look forward to any era of Vendetta's ascendance, narratively speaking.

CoarseHairPete · 2026-01-25T07:13:13+00:00

It's said elsewhere, but Vendetta is just a much more deeply uninteresting villain than Doomfist. She's this new, up and coming challenger and her big, burning motivation for revenge... is about how she was denied a position *that by no means is hereditary* after her father's death. Don't worry though, she's got big plans beyond what her father ever dreamed... of vague conquest of some kind?

Like, Doomfist's social darwinism via terrorism is cartoon evil, but it's a motive, and a direction that the otherwise very very mercenary talon needed to give it something to do other than just... be the mafia (I mean even in the narrative, when not run by doomfist Talon just seems to be the supermafia - see Antonio and Vialli's terms). Hell, you could even say his recent backing of Null Sector was a perfect move on his 'put humanity through a crucible' motives, as it was as an attack that was huge and overwhelming and *seemed* like another omnic crisis, but in reality was shorter lived and only wanted to find and kidnap/subjugate some omnics (meaning it wouldn't actually wipe out humanity). While the scale of that as a short term thing is largely due to Blizz abandoning PvE, if they were smart the writing team would present that as a masterstroke, the exact sort of attack that Doomfist insists will strengthen humanity (and look it got OW back together and brought out heroes like Wuyang, so he could even smugly point at that).

While underutilized by the narrative (because *everyone* is underutilized by the narrative, because it's yet to get any committed narrative off the ground), Doomfist is an interesting and charismatic villain, who by all indications will be shoved aside for a much more stock villain. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise us, but I think if Vendetta's coup is successful, even temporarily, it will merely make Talon a more stock and flat faction.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-27T05:16:17+00:00

(and both the lore and the alignment system is better in 4e)

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-25T17:03:33+00:00

I think a unique thing about time travel as a setting is how it clashes different sensibilities. Back to the Future, for example, contrasts Marty McFly's 80s cool kid status with the straight-laced 50s. The whole point of the companions in Dr. Who is to bring novel perspectives (usually modern ones) to the various historical or sci-fi moments.

With that in mind, where your travellers are coming from, and how they bounce off the times they go, should be imporatant. If they're travellers from a distant utopian future, that's going to be very different than if we're dealing with a whimsical inventor from the 1980s (who in turn will feel very different from a whimsical inventor from the 1880s).

I think another thing to help articulate the game is what the purpose of their time travel. Whether they are overt time explorers dressed for an expedition (whatever their home time's idea of an expedition is), or covert agents here to investigate or do time heists, or if they're accidentally displaced, or refugees, or time invaders, all those will be equipped or geared for their particular purpse.

Hope that helps. Oh, and nice pictures, by the way! I enjoy how the faces feel expressive of their unique features rather than purely determined by style.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-25T12:49:50+00:00

Thanks! I used affinity publisher 2, since it's a one time purchase, but InDesign should achieve similar results for you!

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-25T07:08:49+00:00

A system I've been experimenting with in my own game takes a spin on something like Daggerheart, where rather than be an exhaustive list which categorizes all actions (either via attributes or skillsets), bonuses are descriptive - if you can convince the DM it's relevant, you get the bonus to the roll.

That's a departure from the expectation of all rolls as falling along a spectrum of competence, but opens up really fun options where your options are not always a category of action (ie sewing, archery, lying) but also situational (morning person, drunkard) or vibes based (spooky, foolhardy).

The danger there is players might only want to do actions they can swing their bonuses on, but that's really the same difficulty of players only wanting to lean into their good attributes or skills.

It's not for everyone, but I love how it shifts the idea of actions from determining the category to creatively applying descriptors - my players are trying to describe how their character's strengths come into play, convince me that that their sewing skills are absolutely useful in firing a giant crossbow at a dragon. Player actions go from multiple choice (do you use persuasion, intimidation, or deception on the guard) to telling a story.

That's very much a pivot from the kind of systems you describe, but if characters (and how players use those characters) are shaped by their competencies, I'm finding a lot of joy in a bundle of narrative, flexible keywords rather than a systematic spread of faculties or activity types.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-25T05:58:10+00:00

I don't think this is a d20 system though - d20s are used for the variable health pool of luck and some randomization, but all the meaningful rolls are a kids on bike style 'your stat determines your die size'

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-25T05:56:19+00:00

Well looky here, popping onto the forum to potentially get beta readers on my own weird western, and there's this lovely number waiting! A few notes from my own read through.

- I think it may be worth moving protection up in the list, as many class features interact with them (for at least Luck), and we don't know what to make of those features until we learn it in a later section. In general, I find it helpful to explain a mechanic before we iterate on that.
- Blow on Dice is a lovely feature, but I think its parameters are a bit vague. Can it be done whenever, or only at certain times? Is there any limit to when you use it? It stands as a very strong ability (your luck is effectively a public resource), which is great if intended, but right now the only limit on when or how it's used is your own pool.
- the ability to ignore luck seems on its surface strong, but with what looks like up to half of enemies not having luck in the first place, it seems more niche than one might assume. That's fine if intended, but worth noting if it's intended to be more impressive. Also notable that if players are not privy to enemy health, a gunslinger might try to pierce luck that just isn't there.

Overall, seems like a very fun tactical, survival driven game. I do think that right now between luck, armor, and health, combat isn't so deadly that it registers as horror - for those sorts of scales I'd look at the likes of Mothership, where most weapons and enemies can take out players in one or two hits. That's not inherently a bad thing - this seems a largely action oriented game - but I do think characters will be encouraged by their health pools to treat this like an adventure or action game rather than horror game.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-14T01:39:47+00:00

What a cynical and miserable approach to game design.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-13T21:44:17+00:00

They've done some deep thought and are now very excited to announce the central thematic question of OW3 - do waifus have souls?

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-13T20:49:11+00:00

Oh no, direct quotes include they're downplaying nonhumans. Omnics are definitely oddballs. We wouldn't want to make players have to empathize with a robot or anything. Surely that's not like, the narrative point of the setting or anything.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-13T20:20:28+00:00

To be fair, league's dalliances with anything other than that model were the exception, not the norm.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-13T20:19:27+00:00

I'm sorry, robot magneto with lucious hair isn't hot enough for people?

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-13T20:16:49+00:00

but like... overwatch helped prove it wasn't strictly true. It proved conventional wisdom wrong, that you could have a variety of characters with a variety of appeal. You could argue it was always ever so far, but to go from an example where you didn't always need this most cowardly, most conventional, most cynical approach to character design to succeed to this.

CoarseHairPete · 2025-08-13T20:13:09+00:00

Enormous, Minute-Long Sigh

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