Invincible Army post mortem

First impressions matter, especially when you are trying to convince people to give you money.

 

And Yu Jing having somehow made HI with the weaknesses of both Ariadnan and HS power armor (hackable, 1w, *and* no shock immunity) is not a good first look.

 

Alternatively, presenting something left field, rather than obvious beatstick, might pique the interest of people who aren't planning on playing an army of meatheads...

 

Yeah, that would've been a good choice as well, but they chose to present the Zhencha so we'll simply have to wait for the full army release to get a decent picture.

 

I think they did it because many people said that IA is a Limited Insertion only firepower army. Zencha is a skrimisher with good ARM and BTS, and 2/1 wounds, at the moment the only one who looks similar is the Dao Fei, but cheaper and with Climbing Plus, something very useful if you have to play in midfield

 

Presenting a 1w Shock-vulnerable hackable model was out of left field, just not in a good way.

 

If, as people playing a game, we have to accept that every force must have its limitations, then presenting troops with more obvious weaknesses, and unusual strengths, isn't a bad way to go.

Not everyone's cup of tea, for sure, but previewing the mowang and yan huo Haris would present a different picture of IA as a more obvious sledgehammer. That'd put me off, for sure, and I can only guess there are others like me out there...

We (myself included) on the forums shouldn't get carried away with how universal our opinions are.

 

I have but one like to give

 

The obvious weakness is being a HI and thus more heavily impacted by EM and Hacking; the unusual weakness is being a Shock vulnerable HI. The unusual strength is Climbing Plus.

The reason it's a bad way to present IA is because it's sitting CB severely weakening a unit purely to justify it being a mostly HI Sectorial.

Showcasing the Daoying would have been better: it seems to be a key support unit, so seeing that instead of half neutered HI would have been more interesting. Or showing us something that has Counter Intelligence, or Lt2, even.

Not removing a well loved and, until the no-reason-retconning, an established Invincible unit would have been better.

 

Oh, yes. I'm very much looking forward to the reveal there... I suppose you want to keep some of your powder dry for closer to the release...

 

Well said, well said bro.

Exactly what I wanted to see.

 

Plus Mimetism, as @Koni leaked here. Pretty nasty!

 

I'm honestly looking forward to IA don't understand the low mood in the yu jing forums. Yes I know losing JSA sucked

 

Maybe CB weren't initially pitching IA to the Yu Jing players, but to people outside the faction. After all, we're already likely to buy into at least some models...

 

Actually, speaking of models, I just realized we've yet to see any new IA CADs. Odd.

 

We probably won't see any until December. I don't think they IA starter has a confirmed release date yet unless I am mistaken. Hopefully they will show some concept art for the Hulang and feed some more tidbits before we go stark raving mad from the lack of news.

 

Early next year is what I think has been said. I think January release, but who knows, it could be pushed back.

 

Because CB has used up pretty much all of its 'Good Faith' stock, and these first "inspiring" profiles...aren't. They aren't necessarily bad, and they might be fine, but they aren't exactly awe-inspiring new releases.

Also, y'know, we've waited 8-odd months for even a sniff after the shitshow of Uprising for anything. That's a long time to burn that garbage fire of a marketing decision.

Personally, I'm not likely to pay CB a fucking penny for a good while. They've lost my business until I've proxied the shit out of IA and am happy that it's actually decent; until that point, they haven't re-earned my custom.

 

• Community management up to this point has been tone deaf at best and mocking at worst. Lots of little cuts and enough big ones drained the goodwill reservoir.
• No management of expectations nor shepherding the community through drastic changes. Uprising sundered the faction abruptly, and there was no clearly elucidated plan/timeline about the future of the faction. People dealing with loss generally want stability/certainty.
• By introducing the new sectoral with non Ariadnan single wound HI without the caveat that these are exceptions, CB creates the impression that there will be more troops that get all the detriment of being HI without any of the perceived benefit. Something we already experience with the CC tax.
• Conflicting or out of date information not cleared up until last minute. Tigers and Daofei come to mind.
• Being given BS justifications and questionable numbers. The design space argument rings especially hollow since JSA largely didn't overlap and here we get are more meatheads.
• Base design weaknesses which could be partially covered up are fully exposed. Why pay the CC tax when you are no longer in the running for the CC faction?
• Flanderization of faction (Hello War Crimes division) and continuation of legacy as the only faction that loses stuff without gain (hey Ko Dali) leaves players thinking "I didn't sign up for this." Lack of a clearly communicated core vision/identity compounds this.
• Loss of unique assets while other factions gain them. When we lost our bikes, everyone seems to be getting their hands on them.

For a number of players, myself included, this has resulted in a loss of trust in CB and general skepticism of IA. There have been genuinely bad times in the faction's past, and it's up to CB to prove that we aren't in for a repeat.