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Obstacle Analysis

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Talgian

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« on: <09-01-14/1615:41> »
I really want to create custom missions to both have some thematic fun (anyone else want to play the Arcology Shutdown in Crossfire?) and be able to really do a campaign. Going off of Close the Portal, I figure that'll require curating Obstacles and maybe even making custom ones. To that end I'm trying to understand Obstacle build and balance. I broke down the Obstacles and thought others might find some of the information interesting. To be clear, this is a *very* basic analysis. You're not going find anything more complicated than medians here.

Color: There are 10 of all four colors for both Normal and Hard Obstacles. Pretty straightforward.
Types: Here we see some differences between Normal and Hard:
NormalHard
TypeQuantityTypeQuantity
Human16Human15
Elf4Elf3
Dwarf1Dwarf4
Ork4Ork3
Troll3Troll1
Tech7Tech6
6th World56th World8
Humans are the dominant metatype, as expected. This has some effects on crossfire cards like First To Wake and Humanis Mercs. For example, with the Big Uglies crossfire event, you're actually less likely to add new Obstacles if the crossfire threshold is reached (17.5% chance from normal Obstacles, 10% from hard). Okay, onto the main stats.
Stat Breakdown:
Normal
QualityAverageMedianMinMax
Nuyen6.055.5411
HP Total7.0257412
HP Levels4.05428
Attack1.4251
Hard
QualityAverageMedianMinMax
Nuyen4.275426
HP Sum10.52511414
HP Levels5.3548
Attack1.652
I think this puts to rest any idea that there isn't a real difference between Normal and Hard Obstacles. Hard Obstacles give you less nuyen, require more damage to kill, and that damage is spread out across more levels. Not to mention they are more likely to have 2 attack strength.
Attributes
Now there are also some other attributes that matter, like passive abilities (ex. Spirit of Air also attacks the Mage), as well as Flipped and Defeated abilities. These are a little harder to measure. The Defeated abilities are almost always good (frag you, Gargoyle), while Flipped tend to be bad. I categorized whether an ability has a positive or negative effect on the runners. A couple caveats here:
1. I counted anything that cycles Black Market cards as negative. While sometimes you really are happy to clear out the drek taking up all the slots, in general I think an effect that forces you to suddenly change plans is negative, even if the effect may occasionally benefit you.
2. Security Goons, a Normal Obstacle, has both a negative Flipped ability (black market cycle) and a positive Defeated (heal). I counted both effects.
I also counted how many Obstacles do 2 damage, just to get an idea.
NormalHard
AttributeQuantityTypeQuantity
Positive9Positive4
Negative22Negative28
Flipped15Flipped10
Defeated6Defeated4
2 Damage172 Damage26
No major surprises. We see that Hard Obstacles have more negative effects, and those effects are continuous as opposed to one time Flipped abilities.

I hope this was helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Going forward I'll probably break it down by Color and Type to see how those interact. I'm also working on the crossfire cards, but those are much harder to quantify since they have so many conditional effects. If anyone has ideas, I'm all ears!

Shaidar

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« Reply #1 on: <11-17-14/0558:12> »
I'm working on a Google Spreadsheet to be used a Mission Planning resource.  Crossfire Mission Planner Google Spreadsheet

If you used a spreadsheet to compile your data it would be helpful if I could snag a copy of it, to add it to my Google spreadsheet.  I ask because I think it could be a good resource for the Mission Contest.
« Last Edit: <11-17-14/0634:10> by Shaidar »

T2-Keks

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« Reply #2 on: <11-18-14/0740:33> »
This is great and can be used to give a good idea against what opposition the base game is balanced. Hope to see missions that put the data to good use :)

Shaidar

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« Reply #3 on: <11-21-14/1548:01> »
I'm working on a Google Spreadsheet to be used a Mission Planning resource. 
Crossfire Mission Planner Google Spreadsheet

Almost all done.  It appears that a recent play has my #6 Obstacle Missing In Action.  Can anyone give a Chummer a hand?

Jamelfr

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« Reply #4 on: <11-21-14/1845:41> »
I'm working on a Google Spreadsheet to be used a Mission Planning resource. 
Crossfire Mission Planner Google Spreadsheet

Almost all done.  It appears that a recent play has my #6 Obstacle Missing In Action.  Can anyone give a Chummer a hand?

You want the name and attributes? In any case... #6 is a normal obstacle:

Name : Sudden Fade
Health Track : 3 colorless / Hacking / Hacking
Attack strenght : 1
Nuyen : 4
Special abilities : None
Type : Tech
Color : Green

Hope this helps.

Jamelfr

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« Reply #5 on: <11-21-14/1853:05> »
By the way, the Google document you are creating is interesting. Since I am writing some fan missions, it would permit me to do some writing without having the cards in front of me all the time.

Thank you for your work (and patience to enter all those data!).

Shaidar

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« Reply #6 on: <11-22-14/1204:52> »
That hit the spot Jamelfr, thanks.

Everyone bear in mind that I have paraphrased the Abilities and Effects text as I understand them.

Jamelfr

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« Reply #7 on: <11-22-14/1319:51> »
Ah okay, thanks for the explanation.

Dancer

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« Reply #8 on: <11-29-14/2353:25> »
This data majorly helped me already. Keep up the good work.