Brawl Is Just Sumo Again

[corona_wind]

The shrinking ring and full-contact weaponry make it substantially the same challenge.  Disappointing.

[Micha]

We tested it with range weapons, but the fights were super exploitable and way too fast.
Do you have an idea for a different ending so we don't have the shrinking ring?

We need to end the match at one point if the drones are not destroying each other.

[Weikor2]

5 hours ago, Micha said:

We tested it with range weapons, but the fights were super exploitable and way too fast.
Do you have an idea for a different ending so we don't have the shrinking ring?

We need to end the match at one point if the drones are not destroying each other.

Yeah, youre right, its hard. But for the sake of making the modes different, maybe add "some" limited access to default basic range weapons, lower their damage or increase their cost to balance them. I think thats the main interesting thing in a mode like this.

As for the shrinking circle, maybe base it on damage dealt to the core? or damage dealt to the drone?. I feel like brawl should really be about destroying each other rather than having the strategy involved in sumo.

The 2 modes need to be different

[STM]

Maybe let the shrinking circle (rotating hexagon?) have blades that deal increasing damage over time the farther it has come to the center.

So there WILL be an end, no matter what...

[corona_wind]

Perhaps different winning conditions?  If they can't destroy each other, percent damage to the drone core is counted, higher loses.  If neither is damaged, no winner.

[corona_wind]

A lower maximum part count would encourage drones that actually fight instead of sitting there and taking it until the timer runs out.

[Micha]

A win condition based on damage could be a solution.

And maybe a countdown that starts as soon as the drones stop dealing damage and ends the game if you have two passive drones.

[Markus]

Very good ideas and discussion here  

I'm also not 100% happy with the current solution. I personally don't mind the shrinking space (as in it being a differentiator for the sumo mode). I personally dislike it because there often is a case when the shrinking rotating blades wedge the two drones in the center and it seems the winning drone is random and there's not much you can do against that (except maybe for making a center spinner  ). We tried to balance it with timing and damage for the blades, and while it got significantly better, the problem still occurs from time to time.

I also like the idea that damage could be a part of the win-condition. Maybe the amount of damage dealt could be an indicator, but I'm not yet sure if that could be exploited somehow (like mining damage of broken off parts or the like). Maybe it should really be damage dealt to the core, but if it's very good protected, maybe that's too difficult. Another problem may be, that a small drone which can super quickly evade may be a good solution, because there's not much you can damage and therefore not ramp up tons of damage. We have to test  

Also on the note of distance weapons: How much do you really miss it? When playing brawl I was having quite some fun and thought it was different enough from sumo.While it is true that some of the sumo strategies work really well in brawl, some adjustments need to be done to be really successful.

The main problem with distance weapons is that giving all options is not a very fun way to place. Rockets are too overpowered, and burning weapons can kill you way to fast as well. We could maybe just allow blasters? But that would probably not be very fun as well (more blasters = better). There's not much you can do against it except for firing back. And other weapons might seem more fun, so why limit it to only one type. And that's only with kinetic weapons  

Keep the ideas coming  I think brawl is a very important mode for Nimbatus (like Sumo, which is something you can spend hour and hours on it) and it would be sad if we could not make good usage of the mode. So improvements are very welcome