Balancing the areas... Ya I know, but need Immort feedback too!|U6
Posted by Shemp on 09/06
Note: these are just my opinions based on playing here.
Currently, 3 of the 5 hometowns are the basis for 90% of the characters.
Why is this? Well, here's why:
Agrabah -- easy, 3rd circle spells, all the best mages are from here.
Tara -- 2nd circle spells, plus all the druid skills, you can make 60
spir druids, mages, fighters who can brew, nice and rounded chars.
London -- best fight skills, guns, best surgery, you can make the best
surgeons and the best fighters from here.
Why not Klein and Lima? Well, anything you can do from here another
hometown can do better with more options.
Suggestions? Well, I vote to give Lima augment, but reduce the heal
amount by 33% across the board. This will give Lima a big boost and
I think you will see a good blend of druids/snipers from the different
hometowns. I also think Klein needs a bigger boost than the tiny bonus
they get to fight skills. Any mage from Klein gives up the druid skills
for what - repair? - so what if Klein got first aid equiv to Limans and
a new skill or a change to forge (Klein chars only) that allows them to
make swords and daggers that don't suck, much like the makestaff skill
for druids. The druid makestaff is very nice damage-wise (could use some
innate stats but thats another topic).
Thoughts, flames, whines append below.
-Shemp
|U6
From: Kaige
Tuesday, August 27 2002, 04:23PM
Being curious, I went to see what the breakdown was. Those three hometowns
only account for around 70% of all characters, only about 10% higher than
truly random choice would predict.
Oone difference that may not have to do with playability issues at all
is that Celtic Ireland, The Arabian Nights, and Victorian London are all
popular mythos and cultures that people have a lot of familiarity with
unlike Viceroyal Peru and some indistinct and vague "Medieval Germany"
If you're making a new character for the first time... they're the two
less likely choices as well.
Not that I'm saying there isn't a perceived disadvantage from being
from Lima. I do know several players who find the generalist abilities
they can get there to be useful as well.
But I'm also not saying this is something we've never noticed (we have!)
or something we haven't been thinking about as well.
-Kaige
|U6
From: Christopher
Wednesday, August 28 2002, 01:07AM
I always make my 2c mages from Klein, just cuz
I think it's cool.
So there :P
Kaige has a big point with the familiarity.
It also has to do with area familiarity.
I could not for the life of me tell you how to get
to Lima, so I would almost never create a character
from Lima.
When's the next hometown a coming?
Like another Indus hometown with some cool
ability. Like something from SanFran
where you get a shooting bonus, but only
with Pistols, and you can do something else
cowboy related that no one else can do.
|U6
From: Stygian
Wednesday, August 28 2002, 07:36AM
Okay with the familiarity, why not make rome?
|U6
From: Aegir
Wednesday, August 28 2002, 08:17AM
just curious kaige, if you could look at the breakdown for level 50
pk-enabled chars who have actively pk'd in the past year, if you would
still see the 70%? i think it would be much higher.
you are right, newbies often pick towns for RP reasons vs. balance
reasons, and most who make a liman or klein char go and make another
char once they realize the, hmmmmm, lesser skill set the aforementioned
two hometowns receive.
as for new hometowns, that would be skills trees
From: cough
From: pipe dream
From: cough
From: many years from now.
anyway, since you did state you are aware of the problem to some extent,
what are you thoughts on the suggested changes?
giving lima a reduced poultice is RIGHT inline with the current skills
they get, i.e. all druid skills except augment, and they already have
a reduced (vs london) first aid/surgery, so its possible. i guess the
klein changes are a bit more difficult, however, making a sword/dagger
option thats equiv to makestaff staves (and no_drop, no_give) is pretty
easy to do.
|U6
From: Somar
Wednesday, August 28 2002, 09:08AM
You also have to keep in mind that Klein characters do have
noticeable advantages for combat skills - I've got a Klein
2c mage that is pretty darn scary, and while it's not
entirely due to the Klein bonuses (high stats, old eq help),
the skill bonus is very handy to have.
|U6
From: Aegir
Wednesday, August 28 2002, 10:14AM
not sure doing 3 extra points on a headbutt is noticeble =P
and, having 2 old herens and old SSS and old riding gloves is more
what makes your char evil =P
|U6
From: Stygian
Wednesday, August 28 2002, 08:29PM
okay as I was saying before my I was DC
From: grumble
From:
Okay with the familiarity, why not make rome?
mean we have a roman briton, but that aint anywhere
near as cool. You could have great hitters, the colleseum,
a gladiator quest, ceasar quest etc etc. But here you could
get GREAT fight skill/other fight bonuses, eg more hp per con
than other hometowns. You could have all this cool stuff
and more!
there thats better...
|U6
From: Benjamin
Wednesday, August 28 2002, 09:54PM
I could be wrong, but I think Ancient Rome was an ongoing project
of Matrix's for quite a long time, and now his work is being
continued by Haley.
|U6
From: Freja
Thursday, August 29 2002, 06:15AM
Benjamin's right. Haley's working on Rome.
|U6
From: Thundarr
Thursday, August 29 2002, 07:36AM
besides, adding new hometowns with NEW skills does not in any way
what-so-ever balance the current ones. in fact, it will probably
un-balance them even more!
new skills = skilltrees. there, i said it. let it sink it.
re-read it if you must...
to balance the current starting towns the current skill-sets need to
be balanced.
|U6
From: Darla
Monday, September 02 2002, 03:20AM
My ideas on how to balance Lima:
-leave augment off. It would make Limans too powerful.
-increase field surgery to equal that of london surgeons.
-add extra high-level surgeon skills, only to Londoners. I believe at
some q&a recently HerbertWest mentioned having many ideas for these.
-add extra bardic skills (useful ones!) only for Limans, or with a bonus
for Limans. These should be useful enough that someone may be a bard, not
just a surgeon who had the right stats and practices to spare.
|U6
From: Mazrim
Monday, September 02 2002, 02:18PM
It would be nice if there was a skill that took 80 spirit or
something and you could boost the morale of your fellow man
which would give them hit/dam boosts and faster regen or
something, but unfortunately nothing is going to be added to
the game until trees, so any ideas you have will probably
be forgotton by the time they actually get to bardic skills.
Lima sucks, and will continue to suck for a very, very long
time.
|U6
From: Benjamin
Monday, September 02 2002, 10:10PM
I would be greatly surprised if any substantial changes are made to
the skills code on Legend, including new skills, ever again.
|U6
From: Varnel
Friday, September 06 2002, 10:34AM
it seems to me the idea of skilltrees is holding us back! alas
we should just forget about them :P
|U6
