I agree. Things that should also stop though are CB advertising things and making people buy miniatures for armies they then take them away from, all without a single word of explanation.
Just saying, this image from the first reveal said O-12 / Starmada. It's one thing if this change was made quickly, but we've been sitting on this reveal since November. If this was a change made back then, CB should've told us so that people pre-ordering would be informed. It absolutely feels like a bait and switch.
Hello dear players, First at all, accept our apologies for this miscommunication about the Roadbots availability. It was meant since the beginning to be a Starmada profile only, like the recent Sarko and Sekudroids, but it is obvious that we didn't communicate it properly. For that reason, we will make the Roadbots available to vanilla O-12 too (update will take a little bit, probably tomorrow the change will be effective). Sorry for the inconveniences caused by this. It was never inteded to miscommunicate something like that. Think that we're slowly introducing new "sectorial only" profiles, as you can see with Bakunin or the new from Starmada. PS: I'll thank if the kind of responses like the ones from @tox and @Triumph are totally avoided.
Maybe you think yourself funny and smart, but please go check the Su Jian AVA and try to argue it can't be used anywhere because its combat form shows AVA - - both for vanilla and Sectorial, just like the Roadbot
If that is the case please make that ONLY SOME OF THE ROADBOT PROFILES ARE AVAILABLE IN VANILLA. For game balance perspective I would have preferred the Roadbot to be Starmada Only, but if you have to cater to the cries of people that find this like a ‘bait and switch’, keep the uniqueness of the roadbot for Starmada making that only one or two of its profiles are vanilla. For example, since the box is the submachinegun and sidebot, make that one the Vanilla Profile. This is coming from a O12 and Starmada player. The more the sectorial feels like it’s own thing apart from the vanilla faction, the better. I understand by you’re doing this, and wanting to please the more people. But don’t make one wrong into a double wrong just by copy-paste the whole roadbot profiles into vanilla.
Thank you, @Koni! As an O12 and Starmada player, I for one appreciate this very much. I do agree with @Rabble though that it would be nice to keep some profiles Starmada-exclusive.
Actually, I would suggest that even before restricting profiles, restrict his AVA to 1 in vanilla. This already gives Starmada an edge.
Koni, While that may be the intention, that's not what you are doing in the marketing videos. I'm just now watching the Adepticon video, where Bostria, starting at 11:52, shows images of both the Sarko and the Sekudroid which indicate they are both part of O-12/Starmada. In addition, Bostria congratulates both Starmada and O-12 verbally at 12:22, stating they are "going to need these" for future upcoming events. So given that the marketing documents miscommunication also persists for these models in the same way as the Roadbots, any chance we can get some of their profiles added to vanilla?
The fact we already have the profiles makes this a different situation. People paid money the Roadbot believing they would be in Vanilla, while we already know the other two units will be Starmada only.
You and I do, yes. But let's say you're not a forum junky, you are just a new player who saw this video and is planning to get into infinity to play O-12 after seeing cool pictures on a youtube video. Or you are already playing the game and assume it'll be added when the model comes out - the same basic assumption people had with the RoadBot. The point is, if they are advertising it one way and delivering it another, that creates opportunities for misunderstandings.
I agree it needs tightening up a bit, but colbrook is right - the very-late release of Roadbot on Army is what caused the kerfuffle, not a .3 second image flash showing O12 and Starmada, rather than just Starmada. What's more I think CB needs to retain autonomy over what gets added and how, not have its feet held to the fire over this. I'm happy to see Koni reach out to disgruntled players in this way, but I'd hate to see it become a precedent. The Roadbot is a really strong unit, and it has access to remracers and a packed midfield in O12, which means it might be stronger in the faction CB didn't want it in that in Starmada itself, duo or no. I think that the normal system works great - profile added at around the same time as previews appear. Roadbot was a perfect storm of highly competitive profile, late army publication and confused signalling about faction(s).
I agree on the tightening up if the messaging. The issue isn't just text on a slide, You've also got Bostria specifically claiming it's a necessary new O-12 unit, not just a starmada one. Confusion breeds problems, clarity avoids it. In the Bakunin video where they show the stat blocks, they were excellent on this: "hey, these are work in progress profiles, they may change bit when they hit army." That same approach avoids the roadbot problem going forward.
What really should worry us is that seems the decision is only based on a mistake and not in testing how the unit behave in the faction. The unit may be completely broken in O12 and create shenanigans nobody expected, 'coz it wasn't supposed to be in O12. Is this the way new profiles are added to the lists?
It is fundamentally a difference in perspective, CB views Starmada as part of O-12 (a different way to play it) and a Starmada update is something an O-12 player can play, the community seems to view each sectorial as a unique and unrelated army. I would see the Roadbot as an exception in the process, messaging will be checked for the future, I must point out the studio update was done in advance.
