tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6477169190731480241.post5538351488788861515..comments2023-10-22T13:29:51.766+02:00Comments on The stuffed Yammob: Towards a deeper skill systemLanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06835095269839169484noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6477169190731480241.post-84181825381572980622009-03-29T21:17:00.000+02:002009-03-29T21:17:00.000+02:00Ok, that could have been more... nurturing :-sSorr...Ok, that could have been more... nurturing :-s<BR/>Sorry for that first response. It wasn't quite phrased the way I should have done. <BR/><BR/>I really do like your concepts and have been thinking about them off and on. While I'm still inclined to say stay with classes, I'm warming up to your Skill-tree thing. On a side note, you'll probably want to include a 'self' icon too, unless every skill & spell you devise will affect foes / allies /pets&minions only. Which could be a design choice.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, some things you said and what that made me think of are finally coming together in my mind. For one I share your dislike of too large skill-bars. I'd prefer 20-24 skills maximum. Distributed over 4 hotbars of 6 hotkeys.<BR/>1st row uses 1-6<BR/>2nd row uses CTRL 1-6<BR/>3rd row uses ALT 1-6<BR/>4th row uses SHIFT 1-6 (or CTRL+ALT) or META if available.<BR/><BR/>Hotbars can still be 10 long (not 12!) but that's for incidental stuff you don't need in a fight. This really ought to apply to every game. <BR/><BR/>Something else: <BR/>Age of Conan has a very cool melee system where you use directional attacks 7 or 8 in total in a string or chain combo. This makes the game stand out. Sadly, Casting is pretty much the same as in every other MMO. Making the game stand out not so much anymore.<BR/><BR/>Something (not quite) else:<BR/>Your Skill tree concept. Why make that a once in a blue moon thing? How about if you have to make those choices on the fly? In a combo maybe?<BR/>See where I'm heading?<BR/><BR/>Now for the U turn:<BR/>(Bugger. The Commenting system will not allow me to do what I want now, so this will become a post then.)Lanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06835095269839169484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6477169190731480241.post-63494503830084303962009-03-28T20:57:00.000+01:002009-03-28T20:57:00.000+01:00I really like your Skill workshop concept. It remi...I really like your Skill workshop concept. It reminds me of such old-skool games like Dungeon Master, where you could create your own spells from runes. (Within the rather expansive limits of the game designers' imagination)<BR/>I really like it a lot. You could spend hours perfecting your skills and maximizing their efficacy for your personal needs.<BR/><BR/>I wouldn't want to play your perfect MMO though.<BR/><BR/>I mainly see the detrimental effects to the social aspect of Multiplayer gaming. <BR/>You see, a classless system in an MMO means one or more of the following options:<BR/>A) Everyone plays a self-reliant character, I.e. a tanking, healing DPSer.<BR/>B) People default back to specializing into the unHoly trinity anyway,and those who don't won't get into groups.<BR/>C) Huge flavor of the weak trends. If you're not running this week's preferred LifeTransferrer build, you're out.<BR/>D) Just imagine all the three letter ICA's you'll have to memorize if group-play is any concern to you.<BR/><BR/>It all depends on whether or not you're allowed to change your build, how often and how easy this is made. But I believe that's what you'd like to see. Easy reconfiguration of your class-less skills. GW has a shaky 'Magic Circle' due to it's Magic the Gathering setup but your game would be worse in that regard I fear. It'd be great in a signle player RPG, something along the lines of a new Elder Scrolls game perhaps. Bethesda's games already are nearly Class-less as it is. What classes there are are nothing but loose skill-combinations with a few boosts to the ones you expect to use the most.<BR/><BR/>I have always liked the low level cap in GW and the way you start progressing 'sideways' by increasing your stack of skills rather than progressing steadily on a linear curve where you and your skills get n% more powerful and the mobs become n+1% more powerful.<BR/>But mostly I liked it because after about 4 weeks 90% of the concurrent playerbase was (potentially) in grouping range level-wise. <BR/>The secondary profession swapping on the other hand never really saw much use by me. Not that there's anything wrong with the mechanic, it just reduced attachment to my character if I kept changing such a huge part of 'me'. Come to think of it, I never much changed my Builds either. I preferred to play characters, not ever changing Builds.<BR/>As I said, GW never was big on the Magic Circle thing. It was immersing nonetheless, but in the end that lack of attachment to my characters because you had to keep changing them so much added to my departure from the game.<BR/><BR/>Additionally I foresee huge problems with your skill workshop and balance. Keeping well-defined skills matched to well-defined classes balanced in a PvE environment is a huge undertaking. Imagine the work going into such a free-flowing system.<BR/>Customer Support departments would need to triple in size to deal with all the hack/cheat/balance complaints and when alterations are made, to deal with all the complaints about unfair nerfs. *shudder*<BR/><BR/>No, while in essence your idea's are lovely, I think they're not suited to a Multiplayer environment, let alone a Massive one.<BR/><BR/>Guess I'll have to start on that classes post of my own real soon now, if only so you can poke at my harebrained idea's in retaliation :-)Lanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06835095269839169484noreply@blogger.com