When Are Random Crits Good? 

They are good when I get them. They are bad when they kill me. Easy

Something you're off about is that crits were originally introduced in Table Top games to help simulate the chaos of actual combat, and they remained in RPG games for largely the same reason.

Imagine if MVM robots had random crits enabled. It's wave 1, a dozen Soldier-bots jump down and - whoop, there goes the medic.

10:31 As someone who not only used their Torterra to sweep the entire game as a kid, but ALSO named them TWIGGY aswell, this hit like a sledgehammer crit to the gut, but in a positive way.

Crits in TF2 manage to do a marvelous thing where they're both semi-random AND a snowball mechanic for people dealing high damage. Two bad mechanics in one, how amazing!

I think a lot of people forget that criticals in tabletops can often times be less luck. Pathfinder 1e was designed with crit builds in mind, and it's completely valid.

Pokémon crits don't just ignore defense buffs, they also ignore your own attack drops. That alone makes a crit from the opponent far scarier than a crit you get yourself, something may seem helpless but if they get a crit and aren't a burned physical attacker you're suddenly put on the back foot

In competitive pokemon, low accuracy moves tend to decide matches more often than crits. Aaron Cybertron Zheng missed 3 will o wisps in a row and gamefreak buffed the accuracy from 75 to 85 in the next generation. I get that these moves are balanced with their accuracy but it feels bad when you end up in the receiving end of Fissure hitting 3 times in a row or Draco metor missing 3 times in a row which both has happened to me.

random crits in tf2 have always seemed like a strange case to me

To be fair, TF2's designs generally indicating function only applies to the character designs. Things like unlocks are fairly hit or miss in terms of what they look like relating to what they do.

easy, always. They are gifted upon thee who are new, struggling with keeping up, holding their melee steadily in their new-born arms and- of course the soldier with the three unusuals got two in a row

There’s a single game I know besides the one you mentioned that actually lets you choose how random the game is and that’s Panzer Corps 2. Literally just gives you a slider from 0-100 that lets you choose if you want to have your tank unit die in one hit or not. It’s great!

I have a good idea for a video: why don’t you go through some of the weapons on your rehabilitated server, your original thought process, and how that thought process changed when you began seeing them in game.

I like random crits because its funny deleting someone and when I die to a random crits theres usually a funny rag doll win win. Also jumping into a dumb situation and dying is the heart of tf2 rocket jumping into the entire enemy team and praying to get a random crit is the best feeling but when you die its kinda funny.

There are only two times I appreciate random crits in TF2: dealing with the power combo that's stomping your entire team, and killing the b-hopping squirmers who SOMEHOW manage to wriggle their way out of death over and over again. Sending these people back to spawn by any means necessary, even if it's only for a few seconds, is one of my guilty pleasures.

Shounic had an interesting event/video on TF2 random crits, where he made your weapon have crit glow before you shoot a random crit. It definitely changes how unfair random crits feel, you know when you're going to crit and so does the enemy. The only "downside" is people farm for crits to have a guaranteed crit before leaving spawn or entering a fight, however in Shounic's video they explained that it didn't seem to be overpowered since both sides can do it and ofc the crits are visible. It's not a perfect change but if it were implemented in TF2 id see it as a welcome change, apart from F2Ps/new players learning that farming for random crits is a mechanic which is not a good thing to learn early on.

I like how shounic did it. He had a plugin where random critz would have the same shine as normal crits. Though it could have some improvements.

I like how random crits are handled in XCOM 2, most classes are capable of crazy crit builds and the ones that don’t are balanced with big guaranteed damage or insane action point efficiency. The potential damage has counters as well, with units that are crit resistant making a pure crit build less reliable. My only gripe with it is that almost every enemy in the game *can* always crit. Not necessarily a problem, most of the time it’s punishing players who have poor positioning or didn’t prioritize the right targets. However, unlike the player, enemies can crit even when you did everything right. As the saying goes: “my soldier in full cover got killed by a crit.”

sure, they make highlight and "how the fok did i get out of that" moments but when you are the one getting cheated out of your kill or just instantly vanished from a 1v1 cuz luck is a lot worse than the good feeling and just like lazy purple said "yes i know random crits ARE funny but its like a joke i heard 1000times i just feel bad now" so now the guy getting crited feels cheated and i feel bad for them

Random crits are like Crowd Control effects (slows, stuns, etc): Terrible in PvP, kinda fun in PvE Edit: Crit builds in Risk of Rain 2 are pretty fun, too!

Another game I feel does well with crits is Cult of the Lamb. The ability to deal critical hits are locked behind one Tarot Card that gives a 10% chance (or more on rarer occasions), or Merciless Weapons, a weapon type that will notify you if a crit is ready. Both of these are entirely optional, as you almost always have a choice between 2 tarot cards, and while you could receive merciless weapons at the beginning of a run, the light sound cue and small sparkle next to your character notify you of an upcoming crit, and allows you to waste it with an empty swing

ok, as someone who is into comp Pokémon way too much, turning crits to be more likely the more stat boosts the opponent has sounds good on paper, but in practice will force the meta to shift to very defensive Pokémon naturally, so they get the incredible bulk without the chance to be shut down, or will become a nonfactor because the pokemon are to frail to survive a hit anyway, two key examples i can think of is occa berry ferrothorn and every single gengar past gen 1, in ferrothorn singles, it became a uber staple because it was so damn hard to kill, and still had respectable damage output through power whip or something like that ( i dont like thoes sorts of moves) and would just kinda sit on the field without consequence. and with gengar, its balanced by being really frail, but super fast and strong, so its going to kill you, or your going to kill it, even without a crit like, 70% of the time, probably the most prominent benifactor and easily one of the most invasive pokemon in the recent metagames ( at least in gen 8) incineroar, that stupid fucking macho cat lowers your attack, raises crit chance, deals way too much damage already, along with a higher crit chance now, protect making it stay on the field for way longer that it should, and then parting shot out making your other sweepers more likely to one hit your target, keeping it alive, brining out another pokemon that is either a bulky sweeper, support specialist or a move that will be toxic to play against, swagger, making you take more damage to yourself, have a chance of being crit more, leaving your counterplay a genuine roll of the dice for the cost of 1: some hp or 2: focus sash. so overall, it would need to be implemented very very particular or make comp be a very boring slog of hopium

When you get them, obviously. They make "rare high moments".

My hot take regarding TF2 is that the randomness of random crits wouldn't be such a problem if the crit damage multiplier weren't so ridiculous. 300% damage on a projectile is pretty much always going to 1-hit you unless you're a full health heavy, leaving you no chance of retaliation. I'd scale it down to 200% or something so you have a small chance to survive and either try to escape or turn the fight back in your favor somehow. This is far more interesting than just dying, and it's where I think the concept of randomness in games shines in creating interesting unexpected scenarios. Also to give the Kritzkrieg an edge, it can keep the 300% multiplier.

I think there’s a good point to be made though about making your game too sterile. As I’ve seen gaming ‘grow up’, there’s been a push to make it more balanced and serious at all cost, but I think in that pursuit, it can often gut a lot of the excitement. Some of my favorite games from MMO’s to FPS had some inherently lopsided balance, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be fun.

Honestly my main gripe with TF2 crits is that the two weapons that are the most annoying to get critted by, the rocket launcher and the minigun, also get the most crits because they're innately high damage weapons.

TF2 is so chaotic, random and situationally unfair without random crits that keeping them in gives players a scapegoat. Valve uses them to distract players from how unfair the game really is. You didn't die to projectile spam and frequent, preventable bad luck, you were just hit by a crocket.

"In Pokemon, you can't really spec into critical hits." Meowscarade: [laughs in Flower Trick] Intellion: [cries in removed Focus Energy]

I like the way you decided to go about the random crits thing, by seeing how they work in other games apart from tf2 you really get a whole idea of their existance in video games. Great video!

I really appreciate the channels like this exist where they talk about the game design and balance. I play a game called HomeWorld DOK, and because of how bad the balances it’s not fun at all. thanks to channels like this I hope people will learn more about what a balanced game actually is so that we can have more fun experiences.

Elective crits in fallout 4: I shleep Random crits in fallout 3: REAL SHID

-Enters video -"When you get them" -Exits video

For the nuzlocke point I'd say that the random crits don't screw you over as much if you play around them, and given the move/mon resources and easy ability to calculate crit damage, I'd argue it adds more depth to nuzlockes

Random crits feel less frustrating if they are common, because you can anticipate they will happen. That's why some people argue for keeping them on melee weapons. But on every other weapon, they are so rare that no one plans around the existence of random crits and it always feels bad when they happen. Like, I will legit hit my killbind if I get a crocket that happens to take out 3 people.

7:45 "...the only person to try and make a defense for random crits in TF2 was a Heavy main" Man, now you have me missing Rydercycle :(

I feel like your pokemon argument misses the entire point of random critical hits in those games, as well as other JRPGs. Crits exist as a way to provide surprise danger and comebacks in situations that it would be impossible to have without it. They exist to stop the endless calculation and provide surprise circumstances to work through. Bad beats happen yeah, losing your favorite in a nuzlocke is rough but it provides a story and struggles, and the moment when you are a hit away from death and are saved by getting a crit is something that you remember and can tell stories about. There is a reason they still exist in fire emblem, even when for the longest time they were exclusively permadeath, they lead to good stories, both good and bad. I believe that you are correct that they're shit in TF2, but that's entirely different than their use in turn based games

This mechanic is just like how bad tripping was in brawl

I find it kind of strange you left shin megami tensei (3 onward) out of this discussion. Crits in those RPGs with the press turn system I find to be really well implemented and overall a positive impact on the game. Especially since you can manipulate the crit rate with certain skills, but those often come with the downside of low accuracy.

In Hearthstone there used to be a card called "Yogg-saron puzzle box" which would cast random spells. It was good as a last resort to get out of a losing position. I think that's the best use of luck in pvp games. A last resort to overcome a doomed position, which may not even work.

tf2 players when their wacky casual fps game has an unpredictable mechanic

Crits never bothered me. To me it's always like the guy who manages a bullseye through sheer luck, or the guy with the pistol who panic fires and manages a headshot. It's a thing that can happen, it doesn't bother me.

TF2 random crit is fun, I dont care how many people complain about TF2 random crit. It still fun for me. It makes the predictable TF2 gameplay far more chaotic and its still fun to play after all these years. It makes me wonder, after 15 years of TF2's existence, why are people starting to complain about it lately?

Random crits in Team Fortress 2 are a game mechanic that is as antiquated as it is obsolete as it is self destructing. This mechanic for potentially breaking stalemates/pushes/holds was introduced when the game first launched, all the way back in *_2007,_* when the rocket jumping barely got you up to the awning over the bridge in 2Fort, the Pyro didn't have airblast, and there weren't even any other weapons aside from the base default load outs: _Heavy didn't even have the Sandvich._ Breaking stalemates, pushes, or holds as can now be done with things like the Kritzkrieg, the Phlogistinator, the Buff Banner, and so on, almost all of which have to be earned but which both teams -- yours and the opposition -- can still account, plan, and react to. The "need" for random crits and the "justification" they were included for in the first place has been rendered null and void by how much the meta has changed and evolved, but random crits have not changed, at all, whatsoever, *_since 2007._* George W. Bush was still president when random crits were introduced. But if that wasn't bad enough; Valve invalidated their own """justification""" for including random crits by making them more likely to happen the better you're playing. It doesn't end stalemates or stomps, it makes them more likely to continue. Random crits never even worked the way they were intended anyway, because if a team or the other doesn't have the skill to prevent or break out of stalemates without random crits, the occasional pick from a random crit is almost never going to turn the tides anyway, because the team won't be good enough to capitalize on them. There's a reason that, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been another FPS in the history of PvP video games that has ever had random crits, and that's because it's one of the biggest injustices to balanced mechanics that you could ever possibly put into a game.

Another good example are the Marvel RPG games Raven Software made like 20 years ago. You start out with 0% crit chance, but you can level up a few stats (depending on the character) for crits with certain types of attacks, and there's gear that does the same thing. And there's a mirror in that you ALSO have gear that provides flat damage buffs. You can choose not to engage with it, or build your whole squad around rolling crits for max DPS.

I was playing showdown ranked once and had 3 pokemon while the opponent only had one left. The win was surely mine. They then proceeded to get 3 crits in a row and sweep my team. I don't play showdown anymore

As a black box conch user my ability to summon random crits (by staying alive long enough to manipulate my odds with damage) is a guilty pleasure.

Pokémon nerd interjection time, As the generations have gone on, stall has become less and less concrete as a playstyle due to the offensive powercreep that keeps being brought in. That being said, there has also been defensive powercreep that introduces some stall elements, like regenerator, but for the most part offense has been outpacing defense in pokemon. Even in the older Pokémon metagames, competitive have been shifting more and more relatively offensively, though gens 1-2 are still very slow compared to every generation that follows, due to the lack of tools. Secondly, the AI has no qualms with using stall tactics, because the AI heavily favors using status over attacking directly. Many players such as Fish himself can attest to this because of the confusion spam of zubat and golbat, as fish mentioned, the minimize/double team spam on Pokémon like chansey and swellow, and Pokémon that spam acid armor or amnesia like muk and slowbro. The games AI has no issues with making battles indefinitely longer for no reason because they favor status moves if they can’t OHKO you. Aside my issues with those 2 points, i do wholely agree that crits are largely frustrating and unhealthy for pokemon as is. i have slightly different opinions on how to balance it, but i do think Fish is mostly right on the money here.

Random crits in rpg's are mostly a non problem because of how in most situations it just creates a more back and forth dynamic gameplay in a long draw out battle, mostly never being a instant loss because of how many options and choices you have just being a extra to spice up gameplay making it never the same player experience. The reasons random crits are bad in tf2 is, because you aren't playing alone where you don't feel bad when you crit the enemy and it instantly shuts down an encounter between the players creating the feeling unfairly or unearned.

"In Tabletop/JRPGs where people are more tolerant of them for some reason" That "some reason" is immersion and roleplay. Randomness forces improvisation, which is valuable in Tabletop and RPG games where the point is less "winning" and more "creating an interesting experience". If you know exactly what moves you're going to do every turn of the battle in Final Fantasy, you're not engaging or improvising. Video games, especially multiplayer games, are unique among sports, tabletop, even board games because the point is invariably winning, winning consistently, and winning efficiently. Few non-video games are played like this - chess is the only one that comes to mind.

9:08 ok im the 1100s elo player on showdown but i feel like that really isnt the case, at least not in gen 9

When I get a random crit: Hey that’s nice. When I get killed by one: ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING I HATE THIS GAME!11!!!!11!

You single handedly covered 3 franchises I love on a controversial topic on all of them Nice job

I like this type of video talking about game mechanics as a whole in relation to TF2. Love seeing how far you've branched out from BWA and am excited for more unique content!

There good when I refect them

They are good when I get to slam the Black Box Conch Soldier with a Random Crit

Just an additional thing regarding Pokemon: Crits also bypass any OFFENSIVE DEBUFFS your pokemon has, and honestly has much more significance than the defensive buffs. Buffing defence isn't really something you do in competitive pokemon anyways, because if you are going to set up buffs you may as well make it something that lets you outspeed and one-shot everything. But the debuffs are much more prevelent. Take intimidate for instance. This is a staple ability in doubles and VGC for it's ability to cut both opponent's attack by a third. Doubles is very fast paced, so any loss in monentum is extremely impactful. That's partly why Urshifu was so good in doubles in gen 8, it's surging strikes/wicked blow guaranteeing crits was invaluable to beat intimidate. Another good example if crits bypassing debuffs is found on Hydreigon in gen 9. While not necessarily it's best set, a very viable and dangerous set it can run is scope lens+focus energy. The combination of the two lets it crit on every attack, which is extremely important since draco meteor, its strongest move, also halves your special attack each use. While it lacks the immediate power of, say, choice specs or life orb, and requires a turn to set up, it gets to have the benefits of both without any of the downsides, makes the downside of draco meteor nonexistent, and turns it from a wallbreaker to a sweeper.

I feel like random Mini-Crits would feel much more fair, and I don't see why they didn't go for that. Also, with Pokemon you could have crits start as a 1.2 multiplier and then add an additional .2 for every level of defense or evasion the opposing Pokemon has.

12:34 I think the game where random crits sort of need to exist is actually competitive pokemon. Put down your pitchfork at me but they basically are a deterrent of hard stall or endless matches. They are sort of here to speed games up and to have blissey wake up in a cold sweat The nerf of crit rates in post gen 8 has actually gave rise to teams that constantly buff defenses or all stats as they didn't need to worry. Evasion is flat out banned or not viable in most formats thankfully

Why is it always when I come across an escape plan soldier or disciplinary action soldier he ALWAYS hits first with a crit and kills me from full health? I honestly can't remember ever winning a fight against one of these soldiers. The moment they whip out their melee, I immediately get that sinking feeling from pavlovian conditioning knowing that I'm gonna be feeling a cool -195

I think that only melee should have random crits because they are sometimes funny, but you need to use melee in a bullet game for a chance at this

You should add a server plugin that makes weapons glow when they are slated for a crit next shot on your rebalance server

With hades, the artemis rng feels feel more 15% then 1% especially with the fist and gun.

This better be good. I was in the middle of watching trail cam footage.

Random crits are actively one of the best mechanics in tf2

Another game where I think random crits are implemented well is in the Xenoblade games, mainly 2 and 3 but they're pretty well implemented in 1 as well. In these games, enemies have high health pools and your crits only do 25% more damage, so getting a single random crit won't change the flow of battle or be the difference between winning and losing. However, getting a critical hit contributes to something called "party gauge" which lets you do all sorts of important things like revive party members and start chain attacks, which are essentially party-wide coordinated efforts to dish out a ton of damage. In Xenoblade 2 and 3, critical damage is what's called an "independent multiplier", in which the bonus damage done by critical hits is calculated in a separate pool from other damage increases. What this means is that critical damage allows you to greatly magnify your damage output because it essentially strengthens all your other damage increases, to the point that many of the strongest characters use crit-based builds used in conjunction with means of increasing your critical damage via accessories in Xenoblade 2 or a gem in Xenoblade 3. There are also ways that you can buff critical rate on either your crit-based party member or the entire party all at once. There's also unique mechanics like gaining more party gauge on critical hits, healing from critical damage, increasing your own damage from critical hits, etc. And even then, getting a single critical hit is unlikely to completely change the battle or make it hilariously one-sided. There are also plenty of strategies and builds that don't involve centering around critical hits that to a perfectly fine job of dishing out damage as well, so crit builds are far from your only option. Simply put, Xenoblade 2 and 3 allow you to build around getting critical hits in such a way that getting them won't completely change the nature of the game.

crits should be balanced around how much you believe in yourself

I hate how People use random crits as an excuse to beat "Bad comp players/Pubstompers" You beat people by being better, not having RNJesus bless you. RANDOM CRITS also give bad habits

Now hold on. Artemis lets me get dopamine right into my monkey brain by seeing big fucking numbers

Artemis is best girl. No truer words have ever been spoken

Im a big fan of crits in TF2. Its nice to see a video that doant immediately trash them for once.

TF2 crits are important because they're a constant reminder to relax and not take the silly party game so seriously.

So the time when random crits is the best is when it isnt truly random, since you have to opt into them.

No mechanic is inherently bad, there is only poor implementation. TF2 crits are very much an archaic design that should've been changed or removed. Conditional crits are fine tho (Headshot, backstab, etc) If you want a truly awful crit FPS then check out Shogo, fun for the most part but enemies can randomly oneshot you because they can crit just like the player does, nothing like getting turned into salsa by a shotgun merc who got lucky

I think the purpose of random crits in TF2 is to keep the players playing longer. Hear me out, while the implementation of random crits in this game are arguably the worst in gaming history, I think that only applies during the short-term. Yes, it feels unfair in the moment, but that unpredictability helps create unique experiences for the player throughout their time playing which makes them subconsciously want to keep playing. Sure, you won't remember every instance you got destroyed or destroyed someone else by a random crit, but I think that's maybe the point. The concept as a whole is still talked about, but when I think back in my time of playing TF2, unless I have it recorded, there's not one instance that sticks out in my memory it all kind of just melds together into the concept of imbalance and unfairness that's usually associated with random crits. TF2 is the subtlest Lovecraftian Horror.

Shout out to hero in smash. Random crits in a fighting game are really dumb, but really funny

9:50 Renegade Platinum is the GOAT romhack.

This just in, Fish admits that items in Smash Bros are a healthy gameplay mechanic. >completely optional for the player >you know the abilities provided so none of it is a surprise >have the express purpose of giving characters gameplay options they otherwise don't have >when decided to be used, only violates the rights of people that don't have any (Smash players)

Here is the problem with your entire discussion on TF2 random crits... RNG was BUILT INTO THE GAME FROM THE START. Random bullet spread, random DAMAGE spread, random crits. These were the literal identity of the game, until people cried about it enough for valve to change it. Also, the reason random crits are in the game is to prevent stalemates where people are unloading for fucking ever at each other but no one gets a kill because healing can be absurd when stacked. OH AND LOOK, you even think that breaking through defensive stalls is a GOOD reason to have crits in a game.

Despite it's flaws, Borderlands 3 has my favorite random crit system of any game i've ever played. Normally, Critical hits only come from shooting a specific critical point on an enemy. Like, headshots and shit. In comes the Hustler class mod. (Class mods are character restricted and usually only effect skills. Hustler is a Legendary class mod with an additional effect.) "Hitting an enemy with Non-Critical Hits stacks a buff up to 5 times. Non-Critical hits have a 5% Chance to consume that buff and deal +25% Damage for each stack." Zane, the associated character, has plenty of options for builds focused on crit damage. Not only does this act as a fallback for missing crits (but still hitting the enemy), it also allows this crit-build Zane to make better use of less accurate, high firerate weapons, which can synergize nicely with some of his other skills. It's also very useful for keeping up with enemies that don't have easily accessible crit spots.

How ive always looked at crits is how often the action that triggers them occurs. In mobas like dota, the action that triggers them happens a LOT, and thus, they are much easier to balance as what is effectively just a boost to the overall damage you deal.

I think the comments about player choice ring in even stronger when compared to Pokemon, given how much player choice those games are also taking away for any way to experience the games the developers don't happen to like... It's an interesting perspective, and I like this direction for crits, but I would argue that part of the point of random crits in *any* game is to be unpredictable, and crits being simply "you get them or you don't" weakens their impact. You can't have highs without lows. A game can very easily get stale and solved without a hint of spice, and while crits may not be the *only* way to do it (nor the best), I don't think they often factor into game design as much as you say. (Maybe they should! But it depends on who you're talking to.) Even in TF2, a game as polished as it is in every other instance, I think it purely serves to *be* unpredictable. I think it's bad for learning the game and being able to gauge how well you're doing, and I think people being able to queue into games where they are just off would be nice (it shouldn't be *exclusively* Uncletopia, is my point...), but their unpredictability can be amusing, at least to me. That being said, their ability to snowball (which as far as I know, wasn't there on launch - it was to combat crit hacking) is a genuine and absolutely massive problem with their implementation. Likewise, Pokemon's game design is one I think you're giving too much credit to - because Pokemon's crits are there to make sure anything (no matter how tanky) can have a flaw somewhere at any time. Defensive builds are one of many potential strategies that fall under this category, I don't think Game Freak was immediately thinking "this is a way to break stall!". That being said, evasion sidestepping this is a major flaw in this plan, which you rightfully pointed out (evasion is so much worse than crits...). Not to mention, Gen 5 had a lot of experiments I wish they did more with, and Frost Breath is only one of them :c This is all personal critique, I don't think either perspective is 100% right or 100% wrong. I do think that unpredictability is an important way to make sure games have staying power, but crits are one of many ways to do that, and there's also likely to be better ways to do that that we haven't seen much of yet. It makes it all the more interesting that Hades gives you the option of a dedicated crit build in a game as already unpredictable in moment to moment gameplay as a roguelite.

personally i feel in tf2 one of the best ways to heavily lighten the burden of random crits is to relegate them to melees only and then if that needs further improvement, rework the system so you have to build up a crit swing before you can use it and visibility display it to yourself AND the enemy before use, crit effects an' all (kinda like that idea shounic did)

Every time he does his intro, I think he's going to do the PBS "and a special thanks to viewers like you. Thank you." and then he doesn't. It throws me off each time.

the way crits are in tf2 is quite literally just a "win harder" type of mechanic what im curious about personally is how things would change if it functioned more like a pity mechanic where the likelihood of getting a crit increases based on the lack of damage you deal in a given span of time. that way, players that aren't playing well get something that helps keep them relevant in a match instead of just occupying a player slot

I played on a no random crits server once, and honestly, it was painful. It kinda instantly removed melee weapons for me, and just made the game little too much stressful. I couldn't stop thinking about how there's no way I'm gonna get that crit when I would love to have a chance to. Bullet crits are kinda the one when you feel alive. You can still die against that army of four people, but you can also delete them one by one, getting a lot of emotions out of that. TF2 just doesn't feel the same without them

It’s good when you’re bad at the game. Gives the player a little ego boost so they keep playing. Essential it’s a handicap and I kinda like it being there. Sure it sucks when it seems like EVERYONE BUT ME is getting them, but when I get them…that’s a different story.

There is a reason for them, and it makes sense to me. Random crits puts fear into people. It gives the game this sense that you are never safe. Imagine if you are a pro player and random crits are gone, how are people going to get you. You are basically unkillable. It is random crits that prevent you from underestimate your opponents. In comp, if you play spy and you miss you are history. In casual you have a chance to survive with the miracle crit.

17:31 this would have... very weird overlap with laser focus, but to be fair there are moves with identical effects.

Random crits are fine the way they are (except on the skull cutter) they're a fun unique mechanic that keeps things interesting, and removing them would just be one more piece of Tf2's soul chipped away. . I like it when I get crits, and am rarely upset when I get killed by a crit, so as far as I'm concerned their inclusion is a net positive. . Of course they're objectively unbalanced, but Tf2 does not need to be chess, sometimes a bit of bullshit is fun.

another crit mechanic i like is in risk of rain 2, the lens maker's glasses give you a 10% crit chance, stack them ten times and boom full crits

Another game that does crits well is Payday 2, as just like Hades, enemies can't crit and it is entirely optional. If you want to use crits you have to commit it with a different build, as you have to use either the two-piece suit in a dodge-based or anarchist perk deck, or the lightweight ballistic vest with the skill inner pockets aced for certain health-based perk decks. This is because you need to manage your concealment values so that you can get to either 23 or 4 based off of whether you choose to run the skill low blow (one of two skills giving you crits) either aced or basic for a 30% chance to crit. To put simply, to crit, you must rely on random chance, gating damage with armor, or constant healing, and combing crits with headshots is incredibly quick when it comes to killing hordes.

I only appreciate random crits in MvM. When I get one outside of it, I feel like I didn't earn that kill. When I'm on the receiving end of one, my computer ends up on the receiving end of my foot.

In TF2, I never really minded dying to Random Crits, sure I'll get frustrated if it repetitively happens but compared to other games re-spawn times are relativity short which is nice.

I definitely can't comment on them in TF2, but it is definitely a concept I've never heard complained about in any other setting... Ever really. Now, mind you, I don't play competitively in anything because it's just not how I play, but I've always enjoyed the concept of crits in games. I know a lot of people really enjoy the strategic reliability of games... But I find games that can be perfectly 'solved' boring as all heck - a little unreliability goes a long way, but that's just my two bits. They are always a thing that is satisfying to get, or something that you have to keep in mind to plan around with your resource management.

I'd hardly call tf2 a good example of bad implementation of crits, it's more inline with half assed. There are PLENTY of games which implement them WAY worse than what we got with tf2. "..Without any warning or reason." Ya that's a hard disagree. Not only does tf2 EXPLICITLY make different crit sound effects for when one happens, but they have specific team coloured particle effects which draw one's attention to it so they are aware it exists as part of it's design. The only time you won't know one is going to happen is if you are either being attacked with a melee weapon or so out of position that you are point blank with an enemy when one happens.

3:20 the spy with deadringer and kunai after a backstab

I feel like risk of rain 2 is also a good use of critical hits Especially with how railgunner completely turns crit rate increasing items into increased headshot damage

I'd argue that in many turn-based rpgs, enemy's random crits serve as a way to force the player into a bad situation and force them to pivot their strategy until they recouperate. Many RPGs have a shocking lack of meaningful RNG despite what the genre's known for, as such it can be easy to fall into patterns against random enemies and even bosses once you have a winning strategy. Random Crits throw a wrench into that and can create dynamic gameplay when done right. I'd say that there definitely are many situations in which a more specialized approach would be preferable, but the crit system is signifcantly less work to effectively achive the same outcome.

In Gen 6 and beyond, the way crit stacking works was actually changed. It is now possible to gain a 100% critical hit rate when getting a “+3” crit chance. Most commonly, Sniper Kingdra uses this in conjunction with a Scope Lens and Focus Energy to guarantee Draco Meteor crits, which also bypass offensive nerfs. I am also a massive fan of how Fire Emblem handles crits. Critical hits in Fire Emblem are most commonly calculated through a combination of a unit’s Skill stat, and innate weapon crit bonuses. For example, a Killing Edge will usually give you a bonus 30% crit chance. In Fire Emblem, crits will usually triple your damage, but in some games like Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776, it instead doubles your “Attack”, the combination of your Strength/Magic and the weapon’s might. This means that crits in those games deal much more damage to highly defensive enemies like Armor Knights. Since in most Fire Emblem games, your units are much stronger than the enemies, as they have a numbers advantage, you will almost surely have a higher crit chance than them. However, this also depends on a unit’s class. For example, the Hero class can utilize both swords and axes, making them a versatile unit for approaching a variety of enemy types, but a unit like a Berserker may only use axes, but in exchange not only can they have a higher “weapon rank”, accessing the most powerful axes in the game, they will have a passive crit boost for ALL of their attacks. The most extreme example is Binding Blade, where units of these types gain an innate +30% crit to all attacks, essentially making all of their weapons Killer weapons, and making Killer weapons twice as effective. There are several tactics in Fire Emblem that allow you to get 100% crits. You also can reduce the amount of crits a unit takes by boosting their Luck stat, which helps defensive units of your own remain consistent at tanking. While being hit by a crit and losing a unit may suck, it leads to a lot of the flavor in Ironman playthroughs, and gives the game a very distinct identity as far as tactical RPGs go, alongside the permadeath mechanic. I love the approach the franchise has taken to critical hits, and how the potency of them shifts from game to game as they alter other mechanics to give each entry its own unique identity.

Ah good a fellow Artemis Simp. Good to know you have good taste Fish