Developer Journal 03 - Part One (Archon) - 12/07/2005 Discussion Thread

Message Edited by Walrus on 12-07-2005 04:10 PM

Message Edited by DontEatRawHagis on 12-07-2005 04:20 PM

Message Edited by Septimius on 12-07-2005 04:32 PM

great journal thanks!

looking forward to the new combat changes...

**interesting you can only cap an attribute all lvl 30 now for this..

Message Edited by Aquatium on 12-07-2005 04:44 PM

Chuul I believe this answers some of your questions.

"The average score for a bluepill’s Stats is 5; but players begin with only one score of 5, three at 8, and one at 11. Since Influence bonuses begin at a score of 6, players aren’t “only human”. Once a Stat is 6 or higher, all Influences associated with that Stat get a bonus. "

and

"As a character grows, his or her Stats can increase to a cap of 30, which means you can spend points on several Stats to diversify your character. Not only does this cap make it beneficial to diversify a bit, it also keeps characters from being “crippled” in an area because too many points were spent on one Stat."

Message Edited by Chuui on 12-08-2005 09:02 AM

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Archon wrote:

Convert the combat system to a damage-per-second (DPS) model.

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Chuui wrote:
Addition: To try to further explain my question. Currently each time you put one point in a stat it gives a very tiny bonus for example 0.1 to lock picking or something, but you won't get any return from that bonus until you place 10 points in it.So although each point is adding a tiny amount, it's useless to put, say 34 points in perception unless you can somehow gain enough points to push that to 41 with clothes/items as you'd be wasting three points. (Hope that makes sense, I got a splitting headache right now).

So with the new system, the first bonus kicks in at point number 6. So we will start with the first bonus in four of the stats. But to see a return in additional points, how many more do we have to place in it? Will we actually see a return (addition to bonuses) with every subsequent point after the sixth or will we have to build up x points first?

Message Edited by Chuui on 12-08-2005 09:02 AM

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Im a little worried about something. It said that there are 8 new specialties. Among them were Viral, karate, kung fu, aikido, rifles, smg, and pistols. The reason I am worried about this is because hacker still seems like it has the advantage. A Kung Fu grandmaster will still rely on their kung fu stats, and if they branch into aikido their kung fu stuff will not affect the aikido rolls. However, there is only one viral attribute. This means that no matter which branch a hacker is they still have the same advantage. This would leave Operatives crippled if they change trees but hackers could do it without a penalty.

I suggest there be network hacker, selective phage, and patholigist, as well as kung fu, karate, etc. but eliminate Viral. This would eliminate the inequality between hackers and operatives, and turn hacker into a respectable tree. Whatcha all think?

P.S. Walrus, a comment on this would be great! I am a little worried at the moment.

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Roukan wrote:
By the way this whole revamp thing sounds a hell of a lot like the Combat Idea I pitched in Beta. The whole "Same roll = no hit or both hit." thing. I wish I could find it but SOE deleted all those threads.

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I saw no mention of how stealth attacks would fit into this equation? Is stealth going to be addressed on this new combat revision?

Thanks

Hmmm... I'm still not convinced about the revamping of interlock, and I don't like the fact that it's essentially being called a "new" game (I'd still rather they just fixed the "old" one), but I do like some of the things mentioned in the journal.

Positives:

- Attributes actually meaning something (could a crafting revamp be far behind?)

- More strategy in combat

- Buffed clothes having less impact (assuming buffed clothes count as "ehanced items")

One extra note that kind of scares me, the one about tuning item bonuses to meet the requirements of the new system.  Makes perfect sense, but please tell me this isn't going to mean everything buffed that we currently have will become insta-garbage just like the collector/hideout/archive items after the reflow "retuning".

Message Edited by SephyX on 12-07-2005 09:16 PM

See.......this is why i havent cancelled!  Good Job team!!  Can't wait to get on the test server and see how smooth (:smileywink it goes.

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Chuui wrote:
ByDesign, those two paragraphs are exactly why I asked the questions, as they didn't answer it for me =/ but thanks anyway.

Addition: To try to further explain my question. Currently each time you put one point in a stat it gives a very tiny bonus for example 0.1 to lock picking or something, but you won't get any return from that bonus until you place 10 points in it.So although each point is adding a tiny amount, it's useless to put, say 34 points in perception unless you can somehow gain enough points to push that to 41 with clothes/items as you'd be wasting three points. (Hope that makes sense, I got a splitting headache right now).

So with the new system, the first bonus kicks in at point number 6. So we will start with the first bonus in four of the stats. But to see a return in additional points, how many more do we have to place in it? Will we actually see a return (addition to bonuses) with every subsequent point after the sixth or will we have to build up x points first?

Message Edited by Chuui on 12-08-2005 09:02 AM

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KivoOnline wrote:

Im a little worried about something. It said that there are 8 new specialties. Among them were Viral, karate, kung fu, aikido, rifles, smg, and pistols. The reason I am worried about this is because hacker still seems like it has the advantage. A Kung Fu grandmaster will still rely on their kung fu stats, and if they branch into aikido their kung fu stuff will not affect the aikido rolls. However, there is only one viral attribute. This means that no matter which branch a hacker is they still have the same advantage. This would leave Operatives crippled if they change trees but hackers could do it without a penalty.

I suggest there be network hacker, selective phage, and patholigist, as well as kung fu, karate, etc. but eliminate Viral. This would eliminate the inequality between hackers and operatives, and turn hacker into a respectable tree. Whatcha all think?

P.S. Walrus, a comment on this would be great! I am a little worried at the moment.

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Wait for the 2nd part of the Journal - as far as I know Hackers will be tamed in 3 ways

1.The Damage for certain attacks will be reduced (i.e. a logic blast will not do 700 damage anymore but rather 300 - I'm just making these numbers up of course)

2.The length of status effects will be reduced (i.e. 8 sec Stun 1.0 instead of 20)

3.Reuse timers for certain abilities will be adjusted (i.e. a let's say 3 minute reuse timer for Devastation Field instead of 10 seconds)

Of course these SPECIFIC examples I just pulled out of my *CENSORED* - but the general categories are affected - again - as far as I know.

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Dupz wrote:
Contested withdrawl..hmm sounds interesting. If it is what i'm thinking it will be, it will be Awesome.

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I was already wondering why nobody mentioned this on the first 3 pages ;-D

Yeah - it sounds like hitting the rollout button does NOT mean a 100% rollout anymore - you actually have to WIN THE ROLL in order to successfully withdraw from interlock.

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Roukan wrote:
So let me get this. Right now at level 43 I can take Sattakan to half hp (this is hypothetically and true) if I have RCT and MCT on. He's level 50. So with this revamp I could annihilate him?

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satiricon wrote:
Walrus, could you let us know on the status of the new abilites? (Zen master etc.) When can we expect them to emerge? (and not snatched back from us)

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Hmmmm.  Maybe you could check the 7 billion other threads concerning this topic by using the search function instead of trying to take this thread off topic.  Please and thank you.

I am really excited about this upgrade and cannot wait to test it on the QA server.  The contested withdrawl is going to be a welcomed change to keep all of the *hit, rollout, call in faction mates to do the same, rinse, repeat* PvP crews out there. **ahem quattuor equus homo** (not literal but it works)