Matt Ward was Matt Ward. Not that surprising, but it's goddamn annoying that anyone is letting him write anything besides rules.
Hmm... this topic kind of went crazy so I'll just close out by apologizing for the perfect storm of events that caused long-term confusion! Normally confusion on an announcement would be cleared up pretty much immediately if the people who could answer questions weren't out of town and booked solid. If all goes well this shouldn't happen again for a long time! Oh and founder weapons being sidegrades versus purely equivalent to in-game ones (of some level) hasn't been decided yet, just make sure you've given your reasoning to David on the matter. Annnnd yes the Outcast Ranger is spec'd with specialization towards shooting people from a long range but the founder character should be considered more a step towards a sniper class than a full-on sniper spec'd towards the extreme end of the sniper role. Keep in mind that with all of the Founder Program characters, the draw is in their unique identity more than specific gameplay mechanics. The purpose of any special mechanics/tuning they have is to support that identity, not to give them an advantage over loadouts earned in game!
I'll leave that choice alone. ^_^ Keeping it balanced is all that matters there and I know you're thinking about that. All well and good. I read that you'll be careful to avoid infringing on balance to reward founder's and that's very good to hear, but let's be sure to not take away the agency of future players to reward Founders. If one wanted to be a ranger and not necessarily this particular kind of ranger as presented in the newsletter but just a ranger, then it would be upsetting to know they could never do such simply because they came too late. It's fine if they missed out on a particular variant, but it would be disheartening if they could simply never be a ranger. Removing one player's identity to reward another player is pretty hefty for what is still technically a role-playing game. I'm asking that there still be another standard, non-Founder 'Ranger' character put into the game somewhere. Doesn't need to be shiny...just a ranger.
Hey, you guys did address it and clear it up so I can't complain! It's still too early to have much to talk about, so we tend to get worked up about the smallest details That's going to be the tricky part. This is an MMO. So even when you so something like 9 strength 8 speed vs. 8 strength 9 speed, someone within days will write an entire essay showing off a formula that proves that 8 strength 9 speed is the better choice in most situations. Everything will be optimized to the hilt. Even if it truly isn't better the moment the FotM involves a Founder only item or even a cash shop item, you'll be branded as P2W in the public's eyes. I wouldn't say it's impossible to pull off, but that it might be a lot easier to just avoid.
So Iyanden went from the craftworld that got nommed to being a badass craftworld? I fail to see that as a bad thing. Before the Iyanden Supplement, Iyanden was known only for one thing: being dumb enough to think they could take on an entire hive fleet and almost dying because of it. Ward's supplement actually fleshed them out beyond that one battle, gave them some cool victories, made sense of the Ynead fluff and not only gave them a goal as a faction, but gave all Eldar a pretty solid endgame. It's some of the best Eldar fluff in years.
