Skill based combat
-
So will this adapt a GW2 like system for pvp where gear dosnt matter? How much of success is gear based and how much is skill based?
-
All gear is equal overall, but some is more suited to certain situations. Victory depends on picking the right gear for the situation as well as your skill as a player. However, there won't be any gear that is strictly better than others. It's all very situational.
-
so, we can expect something where there is some "generic" gear that serves as a baseline for each type of gear, and then variations.
as an example, armor. here are the three weight classes, with each weight class giving some known effect: (defense prevents hits, protection prevents damage. somehow. not getting into the weeds on this)
Light ------------------------------- Medium ----------------------------- Heavy
15 Defense --------------------- 12 Defense ------------------------ 10 Defense
15 protect --------------------- 20 Protect ------------------------- 25 Protect
Effect
+5% evasion --------------------------------------------------------------- -10% evasionNo, these aren't verified. I'm spitballing all over the place because we need to have something to cogently speak on.
We'll then get specialist stuff - lose 5 points of defense or 2 points of protection (couple of other negatives...move speed? more cooldown? you get the idea), gain...5% more damage with one sort of skill, 2% in every skill of martial or spell nature, 1% for EVERY form of damage, 5% mana cost reduction for 1 sort of skill, etc. etc. etc.
Probably some mixed sets - a paladin set that gives +3% for warfare and restoration skills in return for 5 points of defense again, to keep things uniform~ish. Some specialist sets like a poisoner set that gives +3% to damage and duration of Damage over time effects, regardless of skill origination, etc. Some oddball edge cases - The Mega Clanky Clanker Plate that gives 50 Protection, no defense, is Heavy, and also slows you down and screws all magic casting, or the berserk tiger skin thong/bikini that gives you +10% damage to everything for -10 defense and protection (or something) - weird stuff that could foreseeably be of use to someone...
The big question, then, becomes how many armors do you actually want?
on one extreme, there are several thousand, allowing you to fine tune exactly what you want it to do, given 15 or 20 different forms of buff/debuffs, within certain baseline parameters and centered around certain algorithmic equations (ie, this debuff is worth any of these buffs, pick and choose). -Except you can't find anything in the sea of options (visually, I imagine we'll get maybe 6-10 armor types, plus colors. ain't nobody got time to spec for 1000 armor types. or even 100)
On the other, we could have set values, and get a manageable 100-200 in total, and if the dev's didn't think of it, you are boned. -like, I'm sure there will be some buff to Damage Over Time, and some Buff to general mana cost reduction, but if the devs didn't consider your trappist mage-thief character, you will never see armor that does both at the same time.
Personally, I like the options, assuming they are balanced properly, so I'm in favor of going to the former, over the latter, but what do you all think?
One way to tame the sea is that the npc's sell basic pieces - the 6 to 10 visual armors, for example, and then all the effects are player-added using skills. simplifies the basic sale, and you only get an ocean in the auction house, which will, hopefully, be sortable.
Alternatively, you can limit which buffs are on which piece of a set - armor can have health and mana buffs, weapons can have damage buffs, and [whatever other gear we get] can handle the effect buffs.
One interesting aside - if buffs can be added by players through a skill, what the multiple levels of a skill might relate to is controlling the effective debuff - like - synthesizing a weapon with a bone shard makes it gain a warfare damage bonus, and 1 of 4 possible debuffs (because we have to maintain balance vs the basic stuff, per the dev's wishes), with each level of the skill letting you eliminate 1 of the possible debuffs - so, at level 3, you can effectively pick which debuff you get, while the lower levels have some rng, but a guaranty that the debuff you want the least won't be in the mix, without actually gating any particular buff, maintaining the desired goal of a newbie being within striking distance of a pro, stat-line wise.
