Character progression and power
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According to your feature spotlight 3 players should expect that 'Your character rarely becomes stronger over time. Instead, it gets more knowledgeable' and 'Whenever there’s something that makes your character stronger, that’s just for fine-tuning purposes, so that there is never a huge power gap between newcomers and experienced players'.
I worry that players will find it unsatisfying, if they feel like the hours they put into the game is wasted, as that Black bear or whatever, is still as hard to defeat as it was in the beginning. Or that a veteran pvp'er will find that his only advantage over the newcomer, will be his amassed knowledge of the game and its mechanics - not rewarded items or abilities for instance.
I totally see why you want to level the playing field initially, but aren't you worried that rewarding players with 'more versatility' instead of 'more power' is going to be a tame sensation?
Or maybe I am misinterpreting something, and the idea is that over time as i unlock more and more abilities, the various monsters become easier as I become more of a Swiss army knife and will always have the right tool for the job? Wouldn't this mean that I would constantly need to rest, to memorize new sets of skills to perform optimally in the adventure next in line?
Maybe I missed the mark entirely - if so, please elaborate on what is going to give me my sense of progression on my character in terms of power.
I am mostly concerned about the pve section of power-levels, but feel free to talk about your thoughts on pvp balance as well.
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The concept that your character does not become distinctly stronger over time is, to be frank, a bit of a pretense.
The fact is that a new character with few to no special moves or perks whatsoever and newbie gear will be floored by an otherwise "equal" character who's learned attack buffs and/or stunning strikes and/or multi-hit spells, empowered by the stat boosts of their late-game armor and ability tree.
The developers can equivocate it however they like, but there is simply no way to prevent gradually more weathered characters from becoming distinctly more powerful other than to prevent them from accomplishing anything worthy of note to begin with.
Fractured merely omits formal, linear levels and doesn't call experience points by that name (in addition to limiting individual EXP sources, making them more of a collectathon.) Your character will absolutely still become staggeringly more powerful as you acquire new powers and better gear to complete your build.
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Your character creations stats are not likely to change. If you at a str of 10 at creation then that will be your str. However the things you learn along with way improve your PC. Eventually you will learn attacks or spells or whatnot that deal more damage (or whatever) and you will be able to train up your skills. You will have a better selection of situation specific armor to choose from and perhaps have better insight into what tactics to use against certain monsters, or what threats you are likely to face allowing to equip the correct skills. Progression should not be an issue.
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@Gibbx I was under the impression that stats do get modified by knowledge and gear. I haven't actually seen if there are hard caps though.
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@Farlander Hard cap should be 25
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flappy birds didn't get stronger as you played but the levels became harder. same with other platform/side-scrolling games.
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@GorTavaro With hard caps at 25 and all stats get something awesome at 20 I do believe that means a character could easily become more powerful using gear and knowledge to advance their skills when compared to a new character. I'm still not convinced on gaps between new and old characters. I'm glad actually because I want to feel I have progressed
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I think the balance between old and new players is always hard to manage.
But I also would like to see myself getting stronger - at least a bit.
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I believe their statement about new players being able to stand with veterans mostly applies only to PvE situations. With the game the way it is, it is possible to outfit a new player with good gear and have them be able to go out fighting monsters with you, and gain the knowledge at a team member without too much fear of being totally trampled.
In regards to PvP, I just don't they ever will be able to for the simple fact that a new player just doesn't know the mechanics nor will they have the versatile skill set needed to compete.
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@Ostaff yes that is it.
All depends on Knowledge.
An old player will have more Knowledge, skill and real experience wise.
But if an old player wears same as the Newbie and just take the starter spells in their action bar, they will be theoretically equal.
The old player will still be more comfortable with the controls, but is not stronger or weaker than the new one.
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@Kralith said in Character progression and power:
@Ostaff yes that is it.
All depends on Knowledge.
An old player will have more Knowledge, skill and real experience wise.
But if an old player wears same as the Newbie and just take the starter spells in their action bar, they will be theoretically equal.
The old player will still be more comfortable with the controls, but is not stronger or weaker than the new one.you are vastly underplaying game play experience.
it could be possible for a noob to kill a vet IF the vet isn't setup (spell selection) against a noob set.
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@Jetah Well, i said, real experience is always a thing.
There are people who jump into a game and can handle it perfect.
Others will not know how to play even after years.And absolutely true, the choice of skills is important.
If i run around with just a gathering skill set, a Newb with some of the first nice skills will probably easy killing me.
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As with about any other game, who claims horizontal progress and a level playing field, it's merely propaganda. Developers throw out these buzzwords to convince players with less time to play, that they can compete with the hardcore crowd. The only real mechanic that will allow new players to be useful against veterans, is the lack of levels. As typical level based progression system has a built in damage mitigation based on level difference between players. In Fractured, it's like everyone is the same level. The only differences will be your gear, knowledge of abilities, and perk tree, barring a new unknown progression system.
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Don't you guys worry about what you are going to spend your time doing after two weeks or something like that?
I was really hoping that base character power would be increased over time by raw hour dedication.
I know that the developers seem to think that grinding is bad per definition, but I do not share that 'approach'. If the alternative is 'You're forced to explore a lot and do a lot of pve' doesn't that lock you in to a forced progression? Ok, im not sure if this is even an issue.
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That will be their biggest challenge I think, endgame content to keep the majority occupied and happy.
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The best way to test this is by having a vet player make a fresh alt and then play it.
Due to his game experience, he will not have much problems playing against other vet players with his starter set of spells due to game being horisontaly progressed, and there you see the advantage of horizontal progression.
New players that do not understand controls yet will surely loose, but there is no way around that whatever you do.
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@Gothix I would say most players would adapt to the controls within the first week. However, I don't feel someone that has been working a character a year and unlocked alot of knowledge and gathered a decent amount of gear will have much trouble with a character that has been around a month even. My personal feelings though
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@Farlander said in Character progression and power:
@Gothix I would say most players would adapt to the controls within the first week. However, I don't feel someone that has been working a character a year and unlocked alot of knowledge and gathered a decent amount of gear will have much trouble with a character that has been around a month even. My personal feelings though
I think that's a safe assumption. New characters will have a limited pool of abilities, limited gear availability, and likely a very limited or completely empty perk tree. People can call it horizontal all they want to if it makes them feel better. The only real difference is that there aren't levels. BUT. While that's true, almost everything else that comes with a level system is included in the game. Abilities usually gained through levels are gained through knowledge points. Perk/Skill tree points usually gained through levels are gained through knowledge points, converted to perk points. Speaking of the knowledge system, it's simply the experience points that a leveled system has. But instead of being used to level your character automatically, it's used to unlock the abilities and perks manually.
Like I said earlier, it appears that the only game changer is that there isn't an automatic damage mitigation applied to your characters based on your level, in comparison with your opponent. And that should allow newer characters to compete to a point. I'd love to revisit this conversation when the majority of the progression system is implemented, along with all of the typical gear, and see just how slanted a fight would be in a veterans favor. A veteran who's perk tree is largely complete, who has high level gear and a large and varied ability pool to choose from. Until then, while it seems obvious to me, it's still speculation. Even the developers likely don't know exactly how this will play out in the long run.
