Alright, so with missions, we can finally see the tags (roles/genders/races/etc) of our Crusaders.

I'd like to discuss this, both in regards to defining some of the tags, and also which tags which might be missing or misplaced. Some Crusaders could also get some changes to their skills to get new tags (as some are sorely lacking), but I consider that to be for a different thread (as this one is long enough already, though I'll mention some VERY brief examples)

There is a TL;DR at the end, but if the TL;DR catches your attention, please don't hesitate to read the whole thing!

So, let's begin:

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Animals = Partly or fully non-human and/or found in the wild.
Most Crusaders labelled Animals fit this bill, but there are 2 that makes me scratch my head a bit (although, from the Dev's PoV, I can see why they have their labels).
Jack O'Lantern and Frosty the Snowman.
Aren't they almost entirely Supernatural beings? Or are they considered animals for the simple reason that the devs want a more specific "race" tag on each Crusader? (which is my guess)
These don't bother me TOO much though, as they are very helpful tags in missions, but I'd like to know WHY they are considered animals.

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Supernatural = Energybased creatures and/or creatures from other realms/dimensions (or even outer space?) and/or beings created with magic (And/or possibly a being with innate magical or mysterious powers)
This definition is a bit harder to define in the context of Crusaders, so I'd like some help on why some certain ones are or are not considered supernatural
1) Gold Panda: I presume the panda is considered supernatural due to a mysterious affinity for gold? Makes some sense imo.
2) Dark Gryphon: Really have no clue why the gryphon is not just a "plain" animal. Sure, it's not a "normal" animal, but the same could be said of Sal and Robbie, who are NOT considered supernatural...
3) Artaxes the Lion: Same as with Dark Gryphon, what makes the Lion supernatural?
4) Sal the Merman: Considered an animal, but NOT Supernatural, despite being more humanoid than the others (which is, imo, making him less purely an animal). What gives?
5) Robbie the Raccon: Same as Sal. Why is he NOT a Supernatural, when simpler animals like the Lion and Gryphon are?
6) Brogon the Dragon: In a universe with lots of Dragons, I guess Dragons are not deemed Supernatural. But why is then a simple Lion considered one?

Some explanation on why these 6 are or aren't Supernatural, or rather, what makes a Crusader a Supernatural being, would be very helpful. (More animals could probably be discussed, like the new Serpent King Draco, but I guess those examples are enough)

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DPS = Character that has the potential and/or intention to be a main damagedealer.
This tag will be discussed in two ways:

A) Crusaders that should have the tag, but doesn't have it:
That would be:
1) Pete the Carney: He could just get some minor boosts to his skills, then he could be quite easily become both a DPSer and a Support
2) Kizlblyp (resolved!)

B) Crusaders that are not DPSers, and needs their skills updated:
Many older ones have LOTS of self-dps-increasing abilities, but they are still too weak to be considered main DPSers (and are not even tagged as such).
Examples: Sasha, Detective, Monkey, Witch-doc, Gryphon, Phoenix, Merci (and a few others could need small updates, but those mentioned have THREE or more self-dps skills while still not being intended/potential main DPSers, bar from maybe the VERY early gaming hours).
Most of these just need some self-dps skills changed into utility skills. Of these, I can think of 2 even getting new tags:
1) Sasha > Tank + support (changing her DPS-skills and her DPS-item (that item being a SHIELD for crying out loud!) into tankrelated stuff could easily make her a tank)
2) Phoenix > Healer (a mild one) + support
But those ideas are for another thread, a thread I'm working a lot on!

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Goldfinder = Character that can directly increase your goldgain in some way.
One character can do this, even without any gear required, yet he isn't labelled as one. That is Bat Billionaire (Smart Investing ability). Why is he not considered a Goldfinder?

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Human = Well, a human being :P
There are two characters that need some clearing up here:
1) Leerion the Dwarf. He is considered a human (which is fine, he is then a human with dwarfism), but he is ALSO labelled as a Dwarf (the race per fantasy definition, as can be hinted at from the stereotypical Axe-tag). So, is he labelled for his disorder? Or is he BOTH a Dwarf (the race) AND a human? Thus, a half-dwarf? Would just like to know what is the definition here.
2) Then we have Larry the Leprechaun. He is not considered a human (no tag or anything), yet Emo can't be near him without losing his Lone Wolf buff... huh? Either the buff needs to say that he can't have humans and leprechauns nearby -OR- Larry should be allowed to be near Emo.

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Support = A Crusader which aids others (and possibly themselves in the process) by means that do NOT include healing or by being tanks themselves (as that would grant them a Healer and Tank tag respectively.)
So, what about:
1) Kyle? Isn't he a decent support character? He can buff people with Get Smashed and he has both an all-DPS skill and an all-DPS item. Or is his DPS-buffing powers just below the treshold to be considered a Support?
2) Rocky? After all, he can make females twice as tanky, which is now a possible tanking strategy with both Broot and Metal Soldierette existing as female tanks.

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Magical = Wielder of magic, but by practice, rather than as an innate (possibly Supernatural) power.
There is one Crusader that seems to have been overlooked (Princess), while the others mentioned here are highly debattable:
1) The Princess. Isn't she a magic-wielder per definition with all her fiery magic? She, to me, is DEFINITELY a Magical Crusader, without hesitation.
2) Sally: While she might be a demon, are all her powers truly innate? This one is very 50/50 for me, wether she should be called Magical too.
3) Frosty the Snowman: While a supernatural "animal" and thus snow being part of him, is his summoning of snowstorms (Blizzard) also an innate part of him? If not, then I'd consider him Magical too.
4) Fire Phoenix: Similar to Frosty, are Phoenix's powers purely innate powers, or are some of them "learnt" abilities? If learnt, then I'd consider Phoenix a Magical character too
5) Brogon: So, he is a Dragon who does various fiery things. He fits as an animal, but shouldn't he have at least a Magical or Supernatural tag on him (wether the powers he have are all innate to him from being a dragon or something he (partially) also learnt)? I'd say: Skip the Dragon-tag (he is already an animal, feels pointless to ALSO call him a Dragon) and slap a Supernatural tag on him instead (as I guess his powers are innate on him)

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Robot = A Crusader either entirely composed of high tech electronics/robotics, or using it a lot in their gear.
RoboSanta, RoboTurkey and RoboRabbit all make sense here, of course. I thought it was also really cool that Metal Soldierette, a human wearing a high tech suit, was thus categorized as both Robot and Human.
But what about the new alien, Kizlblyp? Shouldn't she also have Robot added as a tag? She is definitely using hightech gear (she is riding some kind of mechanical four-legged device after all), along with presumably using magics of some kind, to have some fun in regards to one of Arthur C. Clarke's laws (his quote being something along the lines of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"). So, the Magical tag is funny and fitting in a way, but imo that shouldn't be a reason enough to not give her the Robot-tag AS WELL.

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Healer = A Crusader that can heal others (or at least itself?)
There are a few Crusaders that are missing here, some more obvious, some maybe questionably so.
1) Merci and Bat Billionaire: While these 2 fellows are not the most supreme healers (considering they have a big cooldown on the heal), they still CAN heal the entire team. These 2 really ought to have the Healer tag, imo.
2) Metal Soldierette: This is questionable, but the Soldierette heals herself constantly, so shouldn't that make her viable for the Healer-tag as well?
3) Alan the Archangel: This is VERY questionable, but considering that he can resurrect a dying Crusader (which is equivalent to restoring its health by 100%), couldn't he also be worthy of a Healer-tag?

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Now for something extra:
Quality of Life in the UI-department. It would be nice if, when hovering over a character's portrait in the bench, you could see all their tags, sorted in the following manner:
1) Gender: Female and/or Male
2) Role: Clicker, DPS, Tank, Healer, Support, Goldfinder
3) Race: Human, Animal, Robot, Angel, Demon, Orc, Elf, Dwarf, Leprechaun, Dragon
4) Other: Royal, Supernatural, Magical, Event


TL;DR:

* Jack and Snowman: Why Animals?
* Supernatural, definition? Explain Panda/Gryphon/Lion vs Sal/Robbie/Brogon(/Draco), please!
* Update self-DPS skills on many old Crusaders into utility, please!
* Bat Billionaire: Not Goldfinder?
* Larry: Why Human for Emo?
* Leerion: Already Human, why ALSO a Dwarf-tag? Half-dwarf or unnecessary dual-label?
* Kyle and Rocky: Not Supports?
* Princess: Not Magical?!
* Sally, Frosty, Phoenix, Brogon (all highly debattable): Not Magical?
* Brogon: Already Animal, why ALSO a Dragon-tag unnecessary? Instead, why not Magical or Supernatural?
* Merci and Bat Billionaire: Not Healers (Alchemy)?
* Soldierette and Alan (both debattable): Not Healers (Self-heal and Resurrection)?
* QoL -> Hover over Crusader portrait in bench shows gender, race, role and other info!

Please discuss! :)

There are 3 healer and 5 magical atm

Raymond, that could be an excellent solution as well. Right now I have to wait a lot to do some mission because I need to wait for a crusader with a certain tag to be available...

@ Yukonos: yes, my bad, I didn't consider Larry and Khouri since they always are in my formation... btw, Khouri is both healer and magical, "locking" him gives even less freedom with missions...

@Tecschio - Well, game balance is indeed #1, but some of the "fluff" is still important too.
And I'm both with your idea of increasing the number of crusaders that fit into those categories (as long as they make sense) AND with Raymond's idea of making the missions represent the Crusaders actual diversity (which either means changing some tags required in missions or restricting the amount of "rare" tags occuring at once).

@Raymond - Yeah, I agreed (as you can see in my reply to Teschio), but I also agreed with Teschio that adding a few tags to some of the existing Crusaders would be great along with that.
Like the examples I mentioned above:

Bat Billionaire -> Add Goldfinder (he can increase gold with Smart Investing)
The Princess -> Add Magical (she has lots of fiery stuff going on, VERY likely magical)
Pete the Carney -> Add DPS (he would need some minor buffs for that though)
Sasha Warrior -> Add Tank (she needs to have all or most of her DPS-skills become tank-related though, along with her Shield item changed into a tank item)

I have a lot to update in the following thread, but you can see some of the ideas there for Sasha and Phoenix: http://forum.codenameentertainment.com/?thread_id=12051

I'll get to it to update that thread, as I have tons of new ideas and revamps of my old ideas!

As for THIS actual thread, any words on my actual questions and suggestions?

@zaqqaz
Well, she can be a DPS almost purely based on getting tons of enchantment points and having a few DPS skills. But really, she isn't a good DPSer later on.
That's the reason why I think making her remain a buffer, but also converting her DPS-skills and DPS-item (i mean, it's a shield...) into Tank-skills and a Tank-item.

Once again, I refer to this (somewhat outdated) old thread of mine, please don't ignore it this time:
http://forum.codenameentertainment.com/?thread_id=12051

@Luukkaah - Thanks! I agreed, a quick explanation (even if just here on the forums or whatever) would be very nice.

And now onto an update (I'll edit this part into the OP too) in regards to the current Independance Day event:

Robot = A Crusader either entirely composed of high tech electronics/robotics, or using it a lot in their gear.
RoboSanta, RoboTurkey and RoboRabbit all make sense here. I thought it was also really cool that Metal Soldierette, a human wearing a high tech suit, was thus categorized as both Robot and Human.
But what about the new alien, Kizlblyp? Shouldn't she also have Robot added as a tag? She is definitely using hightech gear (she is riding some kind of mechanical four-legged device after all), along with presumably using magics of some kind, to have some fun in regards to one of Arthur C. Clarke's laws (his quote being something along the lines of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"). So, the Magical tag is funny and fitting in a way, but imo that shouldn't be a reason enough to not give her the Robot-tag AS WELL.

Add to that: She is FAR stronger for DPSing than her slot-partner Nate is, yet she doesn't have a DPS-tag, but Nate does... that must be a complete oversight, no?

I have a few questions regarding your requests:

Why do you need an explanation from CNE for each of the tags? What would it change? Your opinion on which crusader needs other/more tags? Or is your hope to understand clear rules and guidelines for each tag?

Why do you think, that when more crusaders have the tags as you ask, the game is more fun? I.e. you want four additional healers and especially strange for me, you want Pete the Carney to get a tag AND to get him buffed so he actually can fit into what you think the tag requires? The last example is really bold in my point of view.

Here are my two cents to this:

Rare tags like healer or magic or even more the special 'races' like robot, angel, demon, orc, etc. are fine examples of a complex gameplay. Of course, there have to be tags that are rare but are asked for relatively many times. Because of this, the game requires the player to actually think and not blindly click away the crusaders on missions. This kind of micromanagement is half the charm of the missions for me and I don't think it needs major changes. Yes, there might be crusaders where tags might fit in theory, but think of balancing the game. If you want to keep it exciting and demanding for a longer period, limiting some of the tags - or asking certain tags a lot in epic missions - is one way to achieve this.

From my point of view, this would also explain, why you will hardly ever get an answer from CNE that will satisfy you. Because the only answer I can envision right now is: We set up the tags for game balancing purposes. And while I know that I am fine with this, I guess, you will not :)

the day ALL crusaders are 'balanced' is the day I and everyone will quit this game cause that's when it becomes boring and takes no thinking and strategy.

Azamagon, from my point of view, there is a difference between the last balancing patch and what you are asking for.

Basically, what I am reading from you is that you want to make missions easier than they currently are by inflating the number of available tags for crusaders. From my point of view - and I think, also from Raymond's even though I don't want to talk for anyone here - this would have two effects.

In short term, this would make everyone happy since you can run a lot more missions in parallel.

But in long term, it would lose its appeal. Already today, I don't find it too exciting to send my girls out on a girl's night or rescue that farmer's tractor because it's the same thing again and again without spending more than a second who should go. It's clicking things away without getting the feeling for a reward. However, the long term missions - upwards of an hour or two - are difficult. And from my point of view, should stay difficult to manage. This would mean to keep certain tags to a bare minimum - even though this might not make too much sense from the crusader's stats/gear/updates, etc. - and to ask for them on rare/epic missions.

Tags are only valid for missions anyway, so I don't really spend much time, thinking about whether a DPS/Magic/Healer/whatnot tag makes sense for a certain crusader. Plus, I have the feeling that - suggestions for individual crusaders aside - there won't be a huge change for all crusaders ahead.

And "balancing" in this part of the game doesn't mean everything is at the same level or worth the same. Balancing, from my point of view, mostly means that all changes/upgrades/additions still follow the general strategy of the game.

Now, in terms of a second patch to improve or align the abilities of crusaders, if I'm not mistaken, Erika has written somewhere (in an AMA, I guess, but am not sure) that thoughts might be under way. But please, let's not discuss patching the crusader's abilities or stats to valid their mission tags. From my point of view, this is the wrong way around. Even worse since, as I wrote above, the mission tags are not 100% linked to the crusader as the missions themselves are just a small add-on to the game itself.

p.s. Come to think of it: An alternative to adding a lot more tags to the game would of course be to ask for a lot of more tags in the missions. I.e. an epic mission with four spots is asking for one healer and every crusader gets this tag (since they can heal themselves once leveling up), the conclusion would be to ask for four healers in this mission. However, my fear is, this would simply make the tag itself useless. wouldn't it?