@rolanstorm Someow, i feel like having a player turn into a really powerful monster, but completely cutting him off from the "civilized" world (no access to cities unless hidden, no interaction with NPCs other than combat) is not imbalanced. It just adds another dimension to the game, allowing you to become the villain. Perhaps forcing you to find a hide spot where you can build up your "lair" and strengthen it with infected monsters or even other PCs. Left unchecked this lair would become a threat to the nearby city and a raid party would have to be organized so they can clear the lair, defeat the powerful vampire and then cure him. There's plenty of cool things a developer could do for a game, with the right mechanics implemented. It is a whole different story, to persuade stakeholders to actually take that risk though.

How about poetry? Here's a saga

At last, the altar lays before his eyes.
Tall, menacing a runic armor stands beside
with arms resting on mighty cross guard
of flamberged obsidian greatsword.
The runes are old... unknown to him,
and dreadful chills make resolve thin.
As he steps forth with fading grin,
Whispers... envelop from within.
He grabs the hilt, ready to swing,
He prays for Tyrios's blessing
And steps inside the skull ring
as crystal shines and voices sing
... of life soon ending.
Loud cracks and scratches fill the room.
The armor gains emerald gloom
and with no care for why? or whom?
it swings to doom!
He dashes backwards with despair
as flamberged greatsword cuts the air
leaving behind a blazing trail
with roar, that makes the soul feel frail.
Halfswording, he steps in, plain,
to block the swing and thrust for gain.
His plan, was sound in his own mind
yet his blade shattered in the bind!
As edge and curiass loudly grind,
he staggers heavily behind.
A burst of rage! floods soul and mind...
Of fury! hero becomes blind.
"How can this be?! O, great Tyrios!
I wear your crest even in Tartaros!
I champion Your name through chaos!
I cannot fall! For I am pious!
Yet you've abandoned me in dire!?
This cannot be! I am no squire!
I am a champion with fire!
A knight! with glory and desire!"
He pulled his rondel dagger fast
and lunged forth in a breath... his last!
He fell scorched true by flaming blast.
His story, is one of the past...
Behold! Dear friends, the wretched story
of He, who lusted for great glory...
For arrogance 's greatest of sins
And Tyrios withdraws his wings!
'cause shallow faith, will stray the path
away from righteous, into dark!

@lehuan5062 I think having your decisions stick with the character, gives meaning to your actions. It makes you consider possible consequences. This stimulates certain behaviors, discourages grieving and encourages true role play. In addition to this adds to the immersion of the game, and overall improves your experience. If you want to be the bad guy, have the world respond to it. If you reconsider your actions, you must still pay the consequences and be forced to redeem yourself. Should the devs choose to walk this path, they'll have plenty of material for good, immersive quests that actually feel real. Have purpose and meaning in the game world, even though it's an mmo.

Settling for a certain niche is certainly a bold move that would greatly improve the experience of those who fit the niche. Still, from a marketing perspective is not very wise to cut off everyone else unless you already have a strong resource flow, and your niche audience is large enough to support your project. It's pretty risky business. So it's better if you have your target set for yourself, but allow your project cater to a larger audience, at least a bit.

What about teachers? Players that have mastered a skill, could teach the lower tiers of that skill to other players. The speed at which the skill would be taught, should depend on the teaching skill of the master, as well as his charisma and intelligence modifiers. The skill learning process only takes place while the master and student play together. (in the same party, within shout distance). Teachers could demand a fee for their time, of course!

Empty off hand! Games tend to discredit the empty off hand so much... Yet in reality, it was extensively used for grappling, disarms, throwing objects to distract the opponent, to regain balance, or if it was armored, to straight forward block with it. Very few games ever addressed this and only slightly. I'd love it if fractured would put that empty off hand in it's rightful place.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone! You make this community fun! Still don't be confused. I'll still stomp all over you if you're a daemon and dare corrupt my beloved Syndesya.

@finland Even if there are low increments, higher lvl skills will give an edge. It's the same for better gear (crafted with better materials, by a much more skilled craftsman). There WILL, therefore be a straight forward power difference between a new player and a veteran. If you factor in the fact that the veteran has more experience with the gameplay, and the "feel" of his kit as well as how his opponent's kit performs, we have quite the power gap between the two. I'm not saying this is bad. It's in fact good. There needs to be some form of progression... still, stating that there will be no power difference between players as a justification for something you want or don't want in the game is... well... sophistic to say the least.

I'd Like to call it a Dragon Knight. Hitting the front line decked in Enchanted heavy armor, buffing my brothers as well. Should it be possible, a little Alteration would help with controlling the flow of fights. As for the hordes of petty foes not worth a gap closer and a swing, fire breath will do fine.

@Gothix First of all, you get crime points for attacking, so it does have consequence for the griever crew. Especially since they will most likely need to reinforce that tag every 10 seconds or something, thus racking up those crime points really fast. The victim could also log out and hit an alt char that's in Aroboreus, where this sort of grieving is not possible. Plus, when several players waste their time on a single char, they will not achieve much on the grand scheme. So unless they are psychotic or something, they will get bored of it quite fast.

@Tuoni I'm quite certain everyone here wants a great game. It would thus make sense for all of us to refrain from judging persons and stick to debating the subject at hand.

@Jetah another option would be to have combat and exploration mode. in combat, weapons are drawn and you don't interact with environment unless it's a specific combat interaction (vault over obstacles, trigger traps, set fire to bushes, break obstacles activate leavers, doors etc). In exploration mode, weapons are sheathed and you may interact with the environment. This would also add to immersion. I would even dare suggest dropping the backpack when entering combat mode for added immersion as they do in a different title, but in an MMO that would leave your inventory vulnerable to theft and i think most players wouldn't really appreciate that... even with the crime system in place.

@Gothix I know i'm quite late and the party is long overdue, there's no more rum, and the hookers are exhausted... I'm still going to drop this. Even though acceptable behavior is indeed subjected to cultural (more likely survival compromises dictated by ecosystem that have become traditions and stuck even though the reasons behind them are overdue) dominance, there still exist what the ancient Romans defined as "natural rights". They recognized such rights to slaves and animals and even objects. It basically refers to not deliberately hurt another without proper cause. Yes the Romans where businessman and profit was proper cause. But they where acknowledging it as an evil act. Also, selflessly helping another will always be an act of good. Therefore. Good and Evil can be universally defined. What confuses people is the judicial recognition of an act as acceptable or unacceptable in a certain law system. That is indeed subjective to context. In the same country, under the same administration, death sentence is forbidden during peacetime and common during wartime! Still it will always be recognized as a necessary evil!

@Shadowphoenix I agree. You can't stop guides from happening and you shouldn't really try to. It definitely shouldn't stray you from implementing immersive mechanics. Those who wish to break their own immersion will always find a way. As a dev though, you should consider those who are looking for immersion and provide. Esp since the ones that are immersed are the ones most likely to play the game for an extended period. Instant gratification adepts usually drop out fast. I should know. I'm both

Congratulations everyone!

an off-hand tankard to parry with, or just to fill it with the blood off your foe and quench your thirst mid-fight!

@jetah Switching weapons at a campfire will be an out of combat activity. So actual combat will be very much similar to a MOBA. Planning, in my opinion has two stages. One is the overall plan before going out for adventure. You plan your general objectives and equip according to what you expect to encounter. Obviously, the more game knowledge you have, the better your decisions will be. A second stage of planning happens as you identify a threat. You look at an opponent, and you should be able to identify what that opponent will be throwing at you. This is where the type of weapon they are wielding becomes important. Not being able to get a general idea of their fighting threat just by looking at the gear, means you completely erase this decision making process since at this point you will no longer have time to click and inspect the attributes of their gear. So all encounters will be reduced to... dish out your rotation and hope for the best. No room for outplays, baits, or any other sort of creative combat.

@vicious Flails hit quite fast. A very strong dueling weapon if you ask me. The reason they weren't very popular is that they require significantly more training to master, and while a poorly trained maceman is still quite efficient, a poorly trained guy with a flail is pretty much useless. There is little expertise today in regards to formation fighting, but my guess is flails wouldn't be very reliable since you need to "chamber" your swings and you might not have room for such actions when fighting in formation. It definitely looks cool though, and is very effective in bypassing your opponent's defense in a duel. so it might be a great addition to the game.

@jetah said in What unusual weapon types would you like to see?:

what if all weapon groups did the same damage but a skin (aka magic) was applied to make it look different/unique?

1h swords would do the same damage. all 2h would do the same. all dual wield would do the same
1h mace, same with 2h. same with dual wield
1h hammer, same with 2h. same with dw
1h daggers, same with dw.
1h scythes, 2h, dw
etc.

this opens up the game to be more "play what you like visually" instead of play hammers because they have stun even though you really like flails or spears or whips.

maybe effects, like stuns, could be crafted in instead of innate.

I'd be quite disappointed with that. It just dulls down any sort of game knowledge, strategy, and planning. Decisions will no longer matter ... you could just set a bot on autoplay and that's it. Especially where horizontal progression is at play, you want to give the experienced player, tools that he or she can use to gain the upper hand. The ability to use game knowledge to understand how a certain kit is likely to behave and either equip to counter, or just play around the strengths and weaknesses of that particular kit. Consider a MOBA. You know the kit of your opponent as soon as you see him/her. Without such knowledge, any engagement is narrowed down to who has higher level abilities or slightly better equipment. Maybe, just maybe, better mechanics, like animation canceling could give an edge, but that's just it. No strategy involved.