Best posts made by TheRippyOne

But of course, Mammet! how could we not be? XD Welcome to the community.

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% evasion

No, 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.

@codetsilon well, sure, but the affinity falls 8 points short of balance, and the abilities fit some play styles better than others (And some scenarios better than others. No Shadow wants to be caught out in daylight, for example). Much easier to just define what you want to be all the time. Or, at least, that was my thinking.

Well, and this is just speculation - it seems to me that, if you have 6 gods, and 6 stats, and 2 are blatantly linked - Galvanos to Intelligence, and Iridia to Charisma through luck - it might be that thier blessings give something stat related - like, bearing a Blessing of Glavanos might grant a skill to enhance mp regen temporarily?

@gothix okay shadow demon
20, 20, 10, 10, 10, 9
24+38+10+10+10+8=100
(ifs)

like I said, boosting a non-affinity stat is expensive XD

An alternative is to go 2 20, 1 11, 2 10, 1 8 - with the understanding you'll go for the +2 skill boost to keep away from the malus of a low stat. Fibs is right, a 9 might have some value we don't know yet, but the basics we do know argue for taking the slight hit to enhance a more useful stat

We know Arboreus has crystals, that Syd and Tartaros have metal ores, and that each environments have a different selection of plants - though not how much of an overlap there is.

I am very hopeful we see more races. Right now, Lich is at least in consideration - that will be an evil evolved human, I'd assume, like the Beastman Abominations. I'm going to further guess that there is a Saint (working name) version, too - Human gone full good.

After that (cause, really, that is the the obvious stuff), I'm hoping that we pick up 2 more Beasts, and 3 more Demons - give each side a full count for each stat Affinity, and crank out some more options for weird and zany powers. Like, Beast Strength-favored gaining an AoE control ability that drags targets towards them and expands their weapon range, giving it splash damage while transformed. Make it a Cape Buffalo. Or a Hippo. Something territorial, mean, and causes significant human mortality.

Or a demonic eye critter (Intelligence Affinity) that let's any ally (itself included) target anything that any other ally sees with a ranged attack, regardless of intervening space or obstacles. Bit of an Udo power-counter favoring a group play dynamic - doesn't grant any stats directly - power balance to having it always on - but, for example, if a blood lands an attack by this method, it still gains it's blood boost.

Kind of stuck on the Perception-beast. Bat would work, but that's a little off, given that all the other critters are large. Easy buff though - while transformed, sees through Concealment and Illusions, and randomly blinds enemies on hit for a few seconds - in game terms, interface screw in pvp.

Hm...Demon Constitution - obvious buff is obvious (boosted by being damaged) - but we already have blood and Hellfire, so, that's boring. How about reflecting a percentage of damage taken? Make it a walking thorn/spike thing? but, less lame than that sounds.

Demon Dexterity - Spidery thing? or go full cenobyte and make a multi-legged walking mutilated corpse? I dunno. Power is easier - does more damage the more it moves between hits while still in combat. favors charge in/evade out style to build "momentum" to increase impact. Seems boring though. meh. Hits establish a Damage over Time that hurts based on how much the other person moves? specialty then becomes kiting and using push/pull control moves. That feels better. more evil - just shoving a dude around like a puppet and making them bleed to death. Proper cold hearted bastardly conduct. proper villain stuff.

yup. and, as is fairly normal, that -2 con doesn't bother you in the least because you don't get anywhere close to that ceiling XD

About the only thing I'd add is that, while your general attack isn't mana based, as far as we can tell, all your skills are - "mana" is just the catch all term for "thing we expend doing skill stuff" - so while you are fine pinging arrows at someone all day, you care about Intelligence (mana regen) for how often you can Arrow Shock Wave! the unruly masses if they try to zerg rush you XD Over all, I think you have it nailed down pretty well.

@jahlon But I really liked the old lady former Sith from KOTOR2!

@nightcoder I like this idea. nothing major, but making it a bit of a thing. Like, you are allergic to a certain tree's pollen. -10% movement when you are within 20 feet of that type of tree, and for 1 minute after being so - cause you're sneezing.

you're lactose intolerant. potions or foods made with milk or cheese cause -10% health regen for 1 hour after, cause your guts are not happy.

Rock dust is no good - screen gets slightly blurry until you can wash your eyes out. stay out of canyons.

Peanut allergy (minor) - food containing peanuts give you a 5% poison malus that engages once a minute until the malus is removed, or 10 minutes have past.

Wool - wearing wool makes you break out in hives, which is highly distracting, -5% to accuracy and evasion while wearing wool. may occasionally lose control of the character as they scratch furiously. go naked, it's less embarrassing.

And we will get servers based on need - if there are only enough US players for 1 server, they place it based on player density - if 70% of the players are west coasters, it'll be in LA or OR. Want that Iowa server? get your midwest friends to buy in XD

As far as I can tell, Mages need Perception for accuracy, same as everyone else. And dexterity is all that stands between a wizard and a rogue's concealed ganking, at the moment. Well, a high health probably covers that, too, but it isn't like there isn't a counter to to a wizard, 1v1.

We have no actual clue. There is some dev talk about going angelic/abominable will have a stat effect (+x to 1 stat, -x to another, when you change over), but we have the barest shred of a hint of a clue about other trait effects. It was proposed, as more or less a wild guess, that the evolution would have a relation to the original, but some how have it inverted or changed - A Shadow Angel would get different stats boosted in daylight (compared to what night boosts for devil shadows), or would boost ally stats in day light. Angelic infernals might weaken enemies based on how badly everyone in the party was hurt/how long the fight has lasted, or receive a stat boost based on how much a tagged person has been hurt (so, going from a tank sort of bonus to a dps bonus based on someone else tanking). How this would work for beastmen is even murkier - would Abom Udo get more powerful when there are a lot of enemies, or when there is only 1? Nhee Aboms...who the heck knows? their powers are so offensively-oriented already, making them even less friendly is a conceptually difficult task. Add poison to the claw damage, maybe, and give it an aoe risk each tick, so it miasmas out, to contrast against the more focused normal version? i dunno.

@lovechildbell Well, we also know that learning a skill isn't just "spend x knowledge points, gain skill" - for example, the devs made the example to learn a spell involving seeing it cast (generally on you) repeatedly - to learn it exists - and researching at a library about it before you could spend the points to learn it.

@jetah Jetah's massacre RP - if it's still breathing, they aren't in character XD

@gothix Since I don't intend to play a mage, I certainly am fine with that XD

@jarek Strictly speaking, no one is going to have a single stat build - most will have a double stat build at least (and the remainder aren't necessarily weak. Most humans will have a single dump stat, and a single average, at least, unless they go for a 4-stat build). Sorry to be pedantic.

However, it does mean that every build will be able to have at least 2 viable roles - most Fighters, tank or dps, will also be very good archers at the same time. Most Rouges will be able to dps (at range, if not also melee) And CC or spellcast or tank, simultaneously. Skill selection will make more of an impact on "role" than stats will, because everyone will be able to multiple things well.

The actual debate is more about whether any non-Intelligence build can be as good as an Intelligence one, because of the breadth of skills available to Intelligence builds (8 mage schools +, compared to 4~ish physical schools), and that even non-mages need okay int for it's other benefits, making a 4 18's build implausible for them, while mages can use that min/max ideal.

I think you are right that there isn't enough information, but I also think this thread has several ideas for balancing this perceived issue without contradicting anything we've already been told. In essence, I'm not worried at this point, now that the concern has been expressed, and I'm perfectly fine with a non-specialist being as awesome as a specialist - because no one is going to be a specialist, really.

about rabbits

I don't believe that there is any restriction on alignment, per say - I remember reading that demons killing "evil" things on Tartaros wouldn't improve their alignment, specifically, so it is harder for them to gain positive morality than most other races, but it isn't impossible - same way if a beasty runs around being a murderous jerk, they can go to neutral, and eventually evil, alignments - it's just hard because of Arboreus' friendly fire rules make shooting good things difficult.

Last I checked, just being good (demons) or bad (beasties) isn't enough to trigger the transformation, though what else was required was up in the air. I know religious quests are available for everyone - and that they are useful for moving alignment, since each temple quest moves you closer to that deity's alignment - they only have one restriction; you must be a worshiper of that deity.

I don't think a religious quest is specifically required to get the transformation, since they have their own quest lines to become a Chosen of that deity, and putting the transformation quests into that quest line muddles some things, programming-side.