God Machine Rules Update

Imm0rtal wrote:

For those of you who don't know, God Machine is the rules update from White Wolf for NWOD.  The new addendum containing the updates will be published in November.  White Wolf has published the update as a free download.  You can find it here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/114078/World-of-Darkness-The-God-Machine-Rules-Update

There are quite a few changes to merits, status effects and how combat works.  All in all it is far more balanced than the Blue Book, and I think it is a great move.  

So I thought I would start the conversation here... What we think about the God-Machine updates.
Do you agree with the rules changes?
Do you think they make the game more balanced?
Do you think they unbalance the current rules systems?

Debate away!

I think all in all it is a good move.

Combat - I think combat is a bit more balanced now. With defense scores now being higher and attack pools lower, I think things will balance out a bit better. Additionally, with the changes in armor, stacking mundane and supernatural armor is far less of an issue than it was. It also appears that the system is moving away from the ability to do multiple attacks, which I approve of.

Merits - I think the merit rebalance was good. The addition of the new merits made fleshing out the mortal side of your character a lot more detailed, and the cost adjustments were a good improvement. I particularly like Professional Training.

Virtues/Vices - More is better, and they added a bunch. Also, they made it so it was easier to gain willpower from your vice, which is nice.

Standardized Badguys - I like how they have standardized a lot of the monster types to be easier to codify. Now that much of it is in the same book, it is easy to reference in one place.

Standardized Rules - As NWOD eveolved, lots of venues brought in interesting mechanics. One example is Soul Loss. It was introduced in Mage. While a very cool mechanic, it was cumbersome to look it up in the Mage book if you had to deal with it in another venue. Now the rule is standardized accross all the venues. I like this.

Obviously, they don't all work for LARP. The rules make it easier to min-max and with the changes in xp gain, things get a little different. However, SPI's addendum is addressing these issues to attempt and keep the game more balanced in a LARP setting. Over all I think it is a move in the right direction.