Weird question for the devs (Bonus rant)

[DoctorEly]

I missed the time frame for the dev Q/A, so I thought I would drop it here, since it came to my mind again.

Before I begin, this is both a question, and a long winded rant.

Is a character's star rating determined before or after their completion? Is it a decision based off of pure design, or does it come after seeing how potent their abilities are?

We can see that the most iconic of Eddies, main album Eddies, are 5 star, with Fear of the Dark, Killers, Storm, and Soldier being odd ones out. This makes sense two ways. I guess it's obvious to make the most recognizable Eddies the ones to be highly sought after, therefore the highest rarity, but ones rewarded for a world completion should be lower. Yet, FOTD is a mainline Maiden album, and a damn good one at that, but is a 4 star. Brave New World has this case as well, with Storm Eddie being a 3 star. Whereas, some Eddies from lesser appreciated or known singles, like Viking (Invaders), Rainmaker, etc, are 5 stars. These scenarios make me think that a character's abilities are factored into the star rating, as well as their design and origins. There are some instances of natural 4 stars being better than 5 stars. I think I'm just over thinking this all, in the end.

Soldier Eddie is a completion reward for a mid-level world, and is pretty mediocre anyways, fitting the bill as a 3 star. Killers Eddie is rewarded after completing all 3 difficulties of Night City, the first story completion Ed to follow this pattern, and drops as a 4 star. He's, in my opinion, disappointing. A good Eddie, but nowhere near worth the effort required for him, and maybe should've been rewarded for completion of Normal difficulty.

Let's move on to dungeon completion Eddies. Virus and Where Eagles Dare require a decent amount of effort to obtain, and drop as 3 stars. They're very unique characters that, to me, should drop at at least 4 stars. Well, maybe just Virus. WED Ed is okay, and acceptable as a 3 star, yet requires a bit of effort, which no problem for long-term players with big rosters (ie, most of you lot), but it can be quite difficult for newer players, or old players recently returning (ie, me) to try and obtain him. Like Killers Ed, he's not quite worth it. Virus Ed, however, is. Now with Gangland Ed on his way as a dungeon completion reward, he's worth it as well. The thing is, these lower tier dungeon Eds (as well as the other purchase-only Eds) have okay passives that could easily be swapped for a decent fury. Not many passives can compete with the likes of KP, Prisoner, etc. I feel like these Eddies would be a tad bit nicer with fury moves, as should be standard for most Eddies, sans the ones I'm about to explain.

Still on the topic of dungeon exclusive Eddies, special editions of certain Eddies are the other side of the coin. Since they use the same skillset as the original, making them reskins, the designers can't get away with just changing up the look. Swapping the fury for a unique passive, and fully skill sharding them out of the box is well enough for me to make them feel like unique characters. Sometimes, the passive is better than the original fury. Other times, it's not, but it's unique enough to make it interesting.
They're unique characters, but not new ones.

TLDR, I want to know the criteria for determining a character's star rarity. I also rant about it.

[Ydex]

In the Compendium, the number of stars is labeled as "Rarity"

[DoctorEly]

In the Compendium, the number of stars is labeled as "Rarity"

I get this. I'm just curious as to the thought process that determines how rare they'll make a character. My stupid rant is basically on a different topic :P

[Kaz_LOTB]

I get this. I'm just curious as to the thought process that determines how rare they'll make a character. My stupid rant is basically on a different topic :P

It's an interesting question and short answer is that there is a heck of a lot that goes into determining that. I'll mark this question down as one to answer in our upcoming Dev Q and A, as it deserves more time to answer than I have right this moment.

-Kaz