Anyone know if there are any plans for more mini-expansions? Especially new environments. I've seen it stated that there are more expacs and another mega in the works. But the minis seem like a great way to change the game up without having to release a full blown boxed expansion.
I can confirm that min-expansions are likely. I specifically asked Christopher about that in October. He didn't give me any details (of course), but said that mini-expansions are in the plan.
I hope that they will continue the pattern established by Shattered Timelines of releasing two Environment mini-expansions for every one Hero or Villain, so that eventually we will have equal numbers of each. Currently there are 23 heroes, 23 villains if you count the Vengeance Five individually (rather than either as one team or as 16 permutations of that team), and only 14 environments. This needs a lot of work.
I really doubt that we'll see equal numbers of environments to heroes and villains, considering that we'll probably have around 30 or each by the time the base game is done. We'd have to more than double the current number of environments to get equal numbers and it's hard to imagine it being worth it economically for GtG to realease that number of mini-expansions.
I've said this before, one data point is not a pattern.
Although I do hope for more environments too... but not at the cost of more heroes or villains
I would completely take it at that cost. We have enough of both to provide huge replayability, and repeating the same 12 environments over and over is getting incredibly tedious. They don't even begin to suggest all the places a battle can happen.
What would be really nice would be if there was a set of "generic" environment decks where you shuffle two of them together to create an environment. Say "Jungle", "desert", "ocean", "ruins", "creatures", "storm". One of the first three plus one of the second three...nine combinations. "desert ruins" and "ocean ruins" would be like Anubis and Atlantis respectively, while "desert creatures" might be the Final Wasteland, but that'd still be three new environments we don't have, and a quadratic potential for more.
When I first started playing this game, I thought more generic environments would be great (in fact, I made a handful and posted them to my site). But as things have progressed, I've found I really enjoy the specific nature of the environments. It's a subtle difference, but I think it would be less interesting to play in a generic Egyptian tomb or floating villain fortress. I like playing in one that's tied so closely to the story going on in my head.
Having fewer environments also makes sense from a flavor point of view.
Most comic book battles tend to take place in a select few places. Astroid M, Gotham, Metrolpolis, the X-Mansion, New York, Space, the Negative Zone, the N Zone, the Savage Land.... etc...
ALso, the number of heroes tends to outweigh the number of villains. So, I prefer having more villains and heroes than environments. If solely on flavor alone.
More heroes/villains is of course a great thing. My thought is Legacy, Tachyon, Tempest vs Omnitron on dino island has a completely different feel than Legacy, Tachyon, Tempest vs Omnitron on the mars base. Environment decks would seem cheaper/easier to make. All I'm saying is couple new environments should be a relatively inexpensive way to breathe a little new life into the game.
I agree that Environments do change the game a lot, and I’d like more environments. But i have to disagree with Envisioner on how many environments there should be compared to heroes and/or villains
[quote="Envisioner"]
I hope that they will continue the pattern established by Shattered Timelines of releasing two Environment mini-expansions for every one Hero or Villain, so that eventually we will have equal numbers of each. [...]
[/quote]
I like more environments, but not having equal amounts of everything. To me it's not "flavorfully" sensible.
If I understand the plan for the remaining expansions, we will likely end up with more villians than heroes, and more heroes than environments. But frankly, environments are the least important of the three, and heroes have more combinations than villians do, so I think that this pattern makes sense.
Well considering at least 2 villains simply used the same Nemesis as before (Iron Legacy and The V5) there are still many heroes who need Nemeses. This will meant here are more villains than heroes - if just by 2 extra, or more for other repeated nemeses patterns.
Which is, yet again, a tremendous failing on their part, which I believe modern works should not emulate. If the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man all have their headquarters in New York, then why the bloody hell would anyone try to commit crime THERE, when they could go knock over a bank in Podunk, Idaho and get off scot-free? There should be battles in the Canadian pine forests, battles on paddleboats going down the Mississippi, battles in rural Mexico with drug cartels shooting at both sides, battles in the Amazon rainforest, battles in the Australian Outback, battles at a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, and battles at some random village in Bavaria. Anywhere might be the location of a dimensional rift, a lost artifact, or just two supers who both walk into the same bar and then argue about whose fault it was.
Spider-Man doesn't have a headquarters. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers aren't crimefighters.
Could you develop this a little more? I think I mised you point, as my reading of comics is that there are considerably more villains than heroes. A simple way of looking at it is each hero has a stable of villains, with some villains doing double duty but generally staying with "their" hero. Look at the following sets:
Doctor Doom, Mole Man, Galactus
Baron Nemo, Loki, MODOK
Green Goblin and clones, Clones, Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Vulture
Magneto, Sentinels, The Brood
This is not solo heroes though, how many of those threats were big enough to warrant a team of super heroes going against them?
We have a new group of Nemesis that would probably warrant some pretty good comic storylines vs. their opposed hero, but they are minor players in a fight vs. a team of heroes.
Who is "Baron Nemo"?
It seems that my points weren't explained clearly, and I will do my best to give my best explanation. It might be long but hopefully it works.
Though there seems to be a lot of villains, ESPECIALLY on Spider-Man and Batman's side, there are more heroes. I am not counting the X-Men, the Avengers and the justice League as one hero. But how many Teen Titan's, Mutants, Avengers, and JL members are there?
One of the biggest problems in comics now is trying to introduce new characters, and places. For the most part they don't fare well. They either get called redundant for being too similar to something else, such as a teenage-this, or a female-version-that, or these-IN-SPACE, or those-but-alternate-uiverse.
You can't add a new location simply because it's new. It has to be different enough to be interesting, but not too crazy that it's kitschy.
The good thing about having only a set few of tools is that writers and artists don't need to constantly create, new worlds, and explain what they are to the heroes, why they should be there, how they got there and what it is. Doing something new without explaining WHY or HOW is a risky move in the comic book industry.
In relation to SOTM? I like the way the things are numbered. H>V>E
Also, I believe what i just did was create an off-topic post. Should I, or if it is a moderator/administrator's duty, move it to a different section of the forum? I don't want to go off the intended topics goal.
I think he means Baron Zemo, a perennial Captain America (and Avengers) foe.
There were also many Baron Zemos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Zemo#Other_Baron_Zemos
I think we can all just agree that we all want more of EVERYTHING!! :D
Obviously, the evil fish villain of Captain America. :) Yes, I meant Zemo. Thank you PlatinumWarlock.
UXM266, thank you for your explanation. The question was whether or not you were referring to SotM or the comics on which it is based. I agree that in the game I'd rather more heroes than environments or villains, simply as you use 3 to 5 times many heroes as either of the others.
I went searching for Baron Nemo.
I did not find Baron Nemo, just some aristocratic turtles and a deposed shark.
No Problem Amnachaidh.
I am always willing to clarify my ramblings!
Alas for the lack of appreciation for classic literature in today's America (unless you're not American).
Did you intend for those to be the only "ors" there?
You can't add a new location simply because it's new. It has to be different enough to be interesting
I totally disagree. I would love to have Environments for cities other than Megalopolis or Rook City (Silver Gulch doesn't count)…one of the current SCUverse games had to be set in Time Cataclysm because it was the closet I could get to a "generic" setting, and I'd already used MP two games before and was saving RC for a game or two thereafter.
The good thing about having only a set few of tools is that writers and artists don't need to constantly create, new worlds, and explain what they are to the heroes, why they should be there, how they got there and what it is. Doing something new without explaining WHY or HOW is a risky move in the comic book industry.
They wouldn't have to explain if the characters went off to fight crime in some real-world location; no explanation is needed for anything that actually exists. That they're better off not making up too many strange new dimensions, that I do agree, but too many people dismiss the Earth as an ordinary and boring place…in actuality, our homeworld contains a mind-boggling breadth of diversity, and I'd love to see more comics Do The Research and engage in vicarious tourism of the many fascinating places worldwide. Imagine a comics issue taking place on the slopes of Macchu Pichu, or in the Scottish highlands, or the coast of Cozumel, or a remote African village of subsistence farmers with a unique tribal culture. Sometimes these could just be backdrop for super-battles, but other times they could be the focus of stories where the superheroes take time to connect with ordinary people, and solve problems that don't just involve punching something at lightspeed.
"Captain Nemo" wasn't a baron.
D'oh! Well neither was Baron Zemo a captain.
If you're serious, try out the homebrewed city of Kadwell, posted on the Board Game Geek variants forum. There are other environments there, but that's the only city I've noticed. (Full disclosure: It's my creation, but I'd love to have feedback. 
)
Spiff's environments include a sewer. I don't know if that counts.
I would rather have officially published cards, instead of just homebrew....
Sometimes you have to compromise to get what you want.
"Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon."
Originally said by a man with no hygiene, only one friend, has a fetish for refrigerators and speaks and writes in a creepy, ominous monotone.
There is a role-model for you!
At least he had a happy and meaningful life.
That's cold, man
I don't think we're talking about a compromise.. (which infers he had any bargaining power to begin with). I think we are talking about "settling" for what he is given or available to him.
That made me chuckle. I have to admit. slow clap
But… entitlement!
For all that I don't agree with Rorshach's politics, I admire his conviction. In this regard, we are united. A better match for my philosophy, though still fairly out-there, would be the Red Talon tribe from "Werewolf: the Apocalypse". They're werewolves who are more wolf than were, and filled with a Rage that is driven by the realization that their people (meaning the actual wolves) are quite literally being hunted to extinction, and they can't stop it. I identify with their desperation, their unwillingness to give one more inch to the enemies who have already taken almost everything from them.
(Not that this really pertains to the question at hand, I'm just speaking in terms of my general personality, which expresses itself in all manner of strange and often disproportionate ways.)
A very similar, much more upbeat idea: "Never give up! Never surrender!" That one I actually disagree firmly with personally, but admire even more in those who have the conviction to live such a way.
Random thoughts after reading this thread...
While a bunch of new mini-Expansion Environments would be cool, what percentage of Sentinels players would buy them? The people posting in this thread would. I would (I'm a horribly-crazy completionist when I love something). But would the more casual Sentinels players? probably not. There's likely a point (which we may already be at) where it wouldn't make financial sense for them to do Environment expansions. Villains and (especially) Heroes, yes. Environments, eh...
I do kinda like the mix and match setting + theme generic Environment theme. I think it has some real potential.
On the other hand, what makes the existing Environments so cool is how flavorful, detailed, and specific they are.
Someone (I'm too lazy/tired to scroll back up) said that there are several Heroes w/o Nemesis Villains yet. I do believe (since I was looking at this while building a list of battles I'd like to fight) that there are six. Given the 2H + 4V + 2E pattern of most of the expansions, we'd need a minimum of three more to complete the Hero-Villain match-ups, providing the 6 new Heroes all had their Nemesis Villains within the 12 new Villains.
Sure we'd all love 100 Heroes, 100 Villains, & 100 Environments, but the poor, sad, gamers out there that haven't discovered Sentinels would be overwealmed.
Official Environment expansions would be cool, but there's nothing inherently wrong with a <strong>well done</strong> fan built one. I'm looking forward to trying Spiff's space station one as soon as I replace my printer. (You do not want to know what the cats did to the old printer.)
I think I had several other thoughts but they seem to have gotten bord and wandered off...
--MIchael
What he said