The Devolution Battle Royale 2 Feedback Thread!

[Neo Emolga]

@Chakramaster @Noblejanobii @Scytherwolf @C0L0R3D @Voltaire Magneton @arnisd @Shruikan

First off, I want to thank everyone that joined in for DBR2 and I hope you had a great time with it! I also want to thank @Cleobel for being awesome quality control and sending me VMs whenever she caught errors. And she caught a LOT of errors!

Anyway, I wanted to take a moment to get some easy-going informal feedback on DBR2, not necessarily for a possible DBR3, but to at least get opinions about things you like, things you didn’t like, and to rationalize out why certain things were done and to keep bits like that in mind for future events like this.

DURATION - I think it was pretty clear toward the end that things had gotten a bit more ruthless in terms of penalties for losing when certain hosts showed up. That was definitely NOT on the original agenda, but it was around the time we introduced Clover the Ninetales did I look at the stats page and realized “omg, look at all the lineups people still have, this is going to keep going forever!” I can easily say mistakes were made with the MASSIVE amount of coins that were thrown about, lots of Compensator levels were bought, and as a result, the duration of DBR2 had grown exponentially and that the number of backup lineups that people were getting was overrunning the speed that they were getting taken away by devolution/egging. I have a feeling if things had stayed the course that they had started on since the beginning, we probably would still be playing this well into the summer if not even well beyond that. Meanwhile, I was just burning out from how long this had been going on for. I didn’t want to end things too quickly and I still wanted to keep my sanity, so the solution was to have a slow buildup toward higher stakes battles where losing had a tough price, all the way up until it became kind of a tournament where losing meant you were out completely.

I apologize if this seemed harsh, it was definitely not the original intention when we first started. But options in trying to get the game closer to a conclusion were limited and my burnout was showing in the form of mistakes and hastiness (which led to more mistakes!). Usually “nah ha ha, sudden death now” is not on the agenda for games like this. xD

CERTAIN OP ELEMENTS – As much as I’d love to say hey, DBR is finally balanced, eh… it’s not, although it IS in a better state than DBR1 where ghosts ruled the land. Something I thought would be fun to try (being Mew) and wouldn’t do too much damage ended up being drastically overpowered and very-game breaking, especially with a Cheaty Cookie. Don’t get me wrong, Cheaty Cookies were made because ghosts were nearly unstoppable juggernauts in DBR1 and there needed to be a counter to them. At the same time, a sort of semi-counter (Brass Balls) was made to at least be a defensive measure for those wanting to be ghosts, but seeing there were Cheaty Cookies in circulation.

There’s also other things that would need to be addressed if this ever gets a DBR3. Someone could load up their entire roster with nothing but Mew and while it’s legal, it’s… an OP mess. So maybe there might need to be a “you can only be each Pokémon once” rule (even with Wheels, so you would respin if you get a result that turns you into a Pokémon who were already once before). Besides that, someone could also get around the “ghosts cost 2 stages” by loading up their Wheel with ghosts, give themselves lots of single-stage lineups that aren’t ghosts, and then choose Wheel Master and then wheel themselves constantly to get ghost types. Case in point, there are some really killer game-breaking combos that aren’t hard to find and while the game works MOST of the time, there’s an Achille’s heel situation. Things like that would need to be resolved, too.

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DECK – It was a fun idea, but it would need to be reworked. Anything that comes out of the deck should be made a bit more minor and have results that can be undone. Either that, or drop the deck entirely (it did add a lot of extra work after all). Certain cards, such as the “Blast to the Past” card that added extra coins to Friday’s Pay Days, ended up making things go wild to the point where Superpower upgrades ran rampant and there were plenty of people that weren’t even spending all their Coins. Makes me wonder what might have been if they had! And that brings me to my next point.

SUPERPOWERS – These were fun and I liked them more when people just picked one and that’s what they got for the whole game. I think the idea of buying more and upgrading them was a great idea with the best of intentions… at first. And then it got to be kind of a brain scramble trying to remember all the Superpowers people had and making sure they were all accounted for during the battle. And as Cleobel can tell you, I messed that up plenty of times!

I think if there were to be a DBR3, people could choose two of them and they’d start and stay at Level 1.

ITEMS: – I actually don’t have a problem with most of the items. I think most of them are pretty fair and fun, but I’d still impose the hard limit on the number of times you can buy and use Mighty Shield and Second Wind, since those too, could have made the game go on forever. Prices might need to be tweaked here and there a bit, but I think they’re in a good spot to be in. I just think way too many Coins were thrown around and I think only having 1 Coin on Friday Paydays would be the way to go.


Anyway, those are my main thoughts regarding how DBR2 went. I’m curious to know your feedback, too. What were some of the things you liked about DBR2, some of the things you didn’t quite like and would change, and other thoughts about the game. Stuff like this not only helps me for possible DBR sequels, but it helps for other events if I run into situations where “hey, I was thinking of implementing something like XYZ, but it’s similar to ABC that was in DBR2 and people weren’t too fond of that.” It helps a lot either way and I definitely can leverage constructive criticism.

Also, offhand, if anyone wants to put on any of the avatar and banner sets they had during the game, that’s totally fine, just let me know which set you’d like! Here’s the full PostImg page that has all the DBR2 graphics, so if you had a fondness for a particular set you had during the game and want to wear it again, just let me know and I can put it back on you.

Cheers and good times!