Q&A on the new Sticker mechanic
On 22 April, we made an announcement about your data transfer to the official server. Today we would like to share with you another new feature that’s available now – Stickers!
Since the update, the maximum level for heroes has been increased from level 5 to level 7, and the Sticker mechanic will unlock upon reaching this new cap. This is a brand-new active skill that every hero (excluding Alice for now) at max-level 7 can get. You can collect Stickers of max-level heroes from reward chests or from the shop. Since this new mechanic is likely to be confusing to you players, we decided to craft this article and answer any questions you might have while playing the updated game.
What do Stickers do?
Think of them as an additional skill per hero to help add a level of depth to them. For example, we particularly like Mikko's Snowball Marble, in which Mikko turns into a snowball and jumps up in the air before landing and performing a heavy attack on the opponent. Fast drop can be used while falling.
Stickers will enhance fighting capabilities with alternative skills (both defense and attack) for each hero. Even if you choose the same hero as your opponent, you could still discover different styles to fight.
Why did you develop Stickers?
Just like all other games, we want Flash Party to continue evolving so that with each update, there is always something new or refreshing to learn in the game. We want to avoid frontloading all features or mechanics from the get-go, such that everything related to a hero is already there when the hero is obtained. By adding Stickers, we are able to increase the depth and complexity of battles by giving you a new skill choice to modify your gameplay strategy.
Are Stickers too complex for new players to understand?
We recognize that the addition of Stickers might make the learning curve too steep for new players, so we have made it so that players unlock them upon reaching a hero’s level cap. Compared to traditional combat games that force you to learn everything when you first begin, Flash Party introduces new aspects of the game gradually so that it is easy to pick up and have fun as you learn. We hope that those of you who manage to reach level 7 are excited to unlock these Stickers, as there are more skills to explore and master now. And of course, this means more fighting styles and strategies for you to choose when fighting your opponent!
Q: Will Stickers make the game more difficult to play?
Using Stickers only brings you one new skill per hero, the control of which is similar to other skills. Since it’s not a novel way of controlling the heroes, it shouldn’t be too difficult to pick up and master! However, there are also these considerations below to highlight, depending on how you view Flash Party as a game.
From the perspective of a combat game: The gaming experience stems from the player vs player experience. Therefore, if your opponent becomes stronger and more cunning with the use of Stickers, the battles will indeed become tougher.
From the perspective of a pure action game: With these Stickers, we are striving to provide you with an experience of battle control that enhances your sense of immersion, instead of making it a burden.
From the perspective of a strategy game: Stickers are designed with a few purposes in mind. Some are for breaking counterattacks, while others are for expediting the K.O. process. Some are designed for showcasing skills, while others make the battles easier to handle. Since there are more avenues to win the battle, you can choose the way that suits you best.
After launching Stickers, will players who do not own them be overpowered by those who do?
Stickers do not give attribute buffs to the heroes, and instead are countered when you dodge or break the momentum of your opponent’s attacks. For this, the skills you have at the beginning should already be good enough, so it is not necessarily a lost battle if you’re facing off with an opponent equipped with a Sticker.
Is it difficult to obtain the Stickers? For players who only battle a few times a day, will it be impossible for them to obtain the Stickers?
From our viewpoint, we believe that players need space to experience the changes brought by new elements introduced per update. With Flash Party, we wanted to reveal the content and fighting rules step by step for our players. In this way, you can just have fun in casual fights and still become a master of action games without having to train too hard for it. Collecting heroes and Stickers is a process we designed to help players gradually progress in the game without seeming too easy or straightforward, and we want it to feel the same with Stickers.
Rest assured that we are still testing the best and fairest way for you guys to unlock them with just the right amount of challenge. In general, we want all skills’ final effects to follow the rule of ‘powerful, but not excessively powerful’, with these two points in mind:
Easy, comfortable, and practical control Not excessively powerful, possible to be countered by the opponentLater on, we will launch a Task System (think of it like daily or weekly goals) to help players who battle only a few times a day to get more in-game rewards.
Q: Will there be new Stickers in the future?
There are no current plans to add new Stickers - we gotta see how it goes with this first round! We do have high hopes for this new mechanic; this is something that has not been done by others before, and there will be tons of trial and error before we can get this right, so do be patient!
As we go along, we will adjust the Sticker balance just as we did with hero abilities. Our underlying principle is not for Stickers to overpower others, but to add flavor to the game while maintaining game balance. Who knows, the results might be worse than we expect, and we might have to start from scratch again!
Will the Stickers be adjusted if they are found to be overpowered/underpowered?
Stickers are supposed to give players more possibilities in areas such as skill selection and fighting strategy, and are not meant to be overpowered. We are stoked to see interesting battles you might face – if you realize there are excessively powerful skills that make your battles boring, passive, or repetitive, we will make adjustments.
Q: Will we be able to see the opponents’ level or whether they are equipped with Stickers during matchmaking?
This information will only be displayed in the actual Competitive Rank Mode (details to come later!) that will be launched in the future. Currently, we still hope that you’ll have a fair gaming experience based on the ranking system put in place after the update.
Q: Will the usage of Stickers introduce more skills, making the game increasingly difficult? What happens if I misclick?
Only one skill is added per hero, and that’s it! We will ensure that the button control works precisely with no accidental moves. We believe that all hero controls should just go through these three buttons, and thus far we want to honor this as much as possible.
If you’re familiar with arcade fighting games, you can think of activating the Sticker as similar to pulling fast combos by advanced players. For example, if you wanted to chain combos, the physical action is to ‘swipe’ or ‘rub’ the buttons very quickly by fast-tapping on them, or even using the base of your palm to smash them. However, the Stickers are not meant to make skill moves more difficult to perform. It is meant to be a controlled action that pays tribute to the days where we used to spam the buttons on the arcade machine.
Q: The heroes’ maximum level has been increased to level 7, which means the gap between new and veteran players is now wider. Will there be any changes to matchmaking to adjust for this?
We will probably not consider the differentiation of hero levels in matchmaking, because we are already using star counts to determine the matchmaking brackets. Having said that, we will reduce the size of different brackets (e.g. 100 to 300 brackets to be reduced to 150 to 250) in the star count-based matchmaking.
In theory, high-level heroes should be matched with one another, and it is extremely unlikely to have, for example, level 1 and level 7 heroes matched, unless smurfing is involved. However, if the gaps between you and your opponent reach 4 levels and above, the Underdog mechanism will be triggered as well. (As mentioned in previous articles, the Underdog mechanism is triggered when your opponent’s star count is 400 higher than yours. So now a second alternative trigger condition will be added.)
Q: Are there any free trials available for Stickers? Are we able to use Stickers that we have not obtained yet in Friendly Battles?
The heroes in Friendly Battles are fully upgraded by default. You can choose whether to activate Stickers or not. If you do, you can use Stickers as free trials. It does not matter whether you actually own them or not.
Alright, that should cover it! If you have any other questions, ping us by leaving a comment here, and we’ll get back to you as fast as possible.
Till then,
XD
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