Bringing up something I mentioned the other day and have been caught up in a couple arguments over, I just wanted to know how other people feel about the power tiers of bios as they stand.
Specifically (and I'm talking about bios and clans here, not universals), but do you think abilities of different tiers should be defined by how strong they are, or how strong they can be?
Inherently, a Six Paths Sasuke bio is stronger than a Hozuki bio by order of magnitudes. It's different worlds, almost, but I don't really have a problem with that.
The question is, should that be hard enforced and cemented as a fact, or should it be mutable?
Fundamentally, the default strength of a bio will always heavily influence its potential strength. Given this difference in power floors and 'base stats', I personally see no reason to take things a step further and cement 'power ceilings'.
In my mind, if someone can think of ways to enhance and build on their Hozuki to the point where it far transcends its initial tier, and can actually match or even surpass a Six Paths Sasuke bio, then power to them.
Because ultimately, nothing is stopping a Six Paths Sasuke bio holder from similarly fleshing out their bios inherent strengths. If they get out-done by something that has a much lower power floor - then that's purely their own failing; and a sign of either incompetence, a lack of creativity, or a lack of effort, because from the start they not only had higher base stats, but also more options to explore.
However, as things currently are, it seems apparent that the opposite approach is being taken. Not only are lower tier bios and clans intrinsically weaker, but their power ceilings are being hard capped so that they literally cannot rise above a certain point.
I'd argue that it should be the opposite, and the development of lower tier abilities should actually be encouraged and rewarded in the spirit of diversity, specialisation, and personalisation.
Instead of rules being made to undermine and limit the options and potential of weaker bios, rules should instead be made for rewards that can be gained through farming, and would be designed so that enthusiasts can expand upon the options that their HA/KG could logically grant. (I.e, perks like my steel bios are now upgraded, or a damage bonus to a field, and so on. I'm sure there's a variety of options that could be added - mainly little things that can scale into bigger differences in the right hands)
I'd like to see other peoples opinions on this. It really is a matter of design theory/philosophy, so I imagine there'll be a lot of different opinions, but the general sentiment is;
Do you think tier differences should be enforced, or do you think that 'tier mobility' should be encouraged, and perhaps more avenues introduced to facilitate for it?
Bare in mind, I'm not talking about free power or hard buffs/nerfs, but rather more options in the form of perks that can be worked towards/farmed.