Move Speed Penalty & HP/Focus Regen Penalty

Can the move speed penalty & HP/Focus Regen penalty be made to only apply if the character has either received or dealt damage within the last 5-10 seconds, instead of it applying if the character draws their weapons.

I mean I know plenty of people, myself included, who actually likes running around with their weapons drawn 24/7, because it looks cool. But also it is rather annoying when running from archers having to sheathe the weapons over and over, or being dotted by a mage, and having to sheathe the weapons over and over.

The movement speed/regen penalty could act as a debuff that is automatically applied whenever you take damage, and it could last 5-10 seconds and just automatically refresh whenever you take damage, or deal damage.

An alternative option, would be to make it so that the characters automatically sheathe their weapons, when we arent in combat, and just give this a 5-10 second cool down to automatically sheathe weapons. This could be established as a game options checkbox. As someone could go into the game options and opt in or out, as to whether or not they want to have their characters automatically sheathe their weapons, if they haven't dealt or taken damage in the last 5-10 seconds.

 

Yea, the speed nerf pissed a lot of people off, because it was so freekin' drastic.
There was a thread on it, but it got deleted 'cause one of the posters got a bit too personal in his attack.
I think that thread deletion spooked people enough so nobody has brought it up since....
But it still suks bigtime.......

 

They did just reduce the timer for leaving combat dramatically so that people can get rid of the speed debuff much faster/easier.

 

Agreed the timer is great, but having the debuff work only if damage has been dealt/received wouls be way better! I too was a fan of running with my weapons in my hands

 

The speed debuff practically ruined the game for me. Playing as an archer hasn't been all that fun for awhile, removing the one remaining strength I had was my ability to move faster than melee characters and many mages. There's nothing fun to keep me interested now.

 

Yea, it's sad and the rational behind it made zero sense...

 

I mean... I can understand why they did it, but I think they could have done it better. There are plenty of games that do this, but they do usually tie it to if you have done damage, or have taken damage within a set time frame. Opposed to tying it to whether your weapons are drawn or aren't drawn.

 

My beef is that it was done rather crude.
It was for technical reasons, OK with me.
The way though it was done, not so much.
Since i play i have seen an chipping away on archer skills, a few things there, a little bit here.
But no compensating for it.
Balance (and technical reasoned chances) should not be done by just clipping pieces of, it should be done by rethinking mechanics and CHANGING them.

Nerf=removing stuff and be done with it
Balancing = changing rules for the desired outcome but by adding something on the other side of the equation.

I would make recommendations but:

I have no idea of the underlying mechanics so it would be crude guesswork, hell 90% of the skill i use i have not the foggiest about what they really do and if working on them is an good idea.

I love the classless approach but it is only fun as long i know what i do.

Fallout was pretty much classless too, you took up skills and did so with an limited amount of points, but in general there was little guesswork involved regarding what training an skill did for you.

In Sota it is two fold, skills are vague, and refining the systhem by nerfing (instead balancing) frustrates me to the point i only log in twice a week for guild stuff, otherwise the game is by now not that interesting anymore.

 

@KenoZuki
Even if I personally see the point with drawn weapons different I have to admit that it would be reasonable that the regen of health and focus is not associated with weapon usage…just "unexpected changes" should influence it. E.g. if your health is lowered by a hit or if you cast a spell your regen should stop for a while. For example normal regen could be +0.5% hp and +0.5% focus per second. These base values could be always active and are just modified.

You are losing health by e.g. falling down or being hit by an enemy.
0-2 seconds -0.5% hp regen modifier = 0% hp and +0.5% focus per second
3rd second -0.25% hp regen modifier = +0.25% hp and +0.5% focus per second
4th second back to normal = +0.5% hp and +0.5% focus per second

You are casting a spell or lose by something else some of your focus.
0-2 seconds -0.5% focus regen modifier = +0.5% hp and 0% focus per second
3rd second -0.25% focus regen modifier = +0.5% hp and +0.25% focus per second
4th second back to normal = +0.5% hp and +0.5% focus per second

Each new event is resetting the modifiers. E.g. if you get every two seconds a hit your regeneration is basically deactivated and the same with focus if you are casting continuously spells.
By your avatars skills you are adjusting either the base regeneration or the modifier. E.g. with each skill point you could raise your base regen by 0.001 with a result that at a skill of 100 you even under relentless attacks still have normally a regen of +0.1% hp per second.

Just as an additonal idea in a later step there could be added multiple additional modifiers.
- Weather conditions (there could be a difference if you are adventuring in a snow storm or during summer’s eve)
- Illnesses (foodborne illness by eating rotten food, breathing poisonous gas, swimming in infested rivers,… could add long time modifiers (5-30 min))
- Interferences (knock down, different dots like bleeding or burning,… could add short time modifiers (5-30 sec))
- Condition (e.g. rested avatar might get a modifier that is fading after some time of adventuring)

Thinking about it this could sometimes even result in a negative regeneration. E.g. 0.5% base regen + (-0.6% for breathing poisonous gas) = -0.1% base regen per second
Basically you would simply gradually die in that hazardous scene if you wouldn't add additonal positive modifiers (e.g. food) or actively heal yourself.

(All values are just examples! )

 

@Lars vonDrachental Thats a lot of thoughts.

I don't really understand what you're talking about when you say, "3rd second" &, "4th second" Although this is giving me a thought.

Perhaps, they could implement a system, where you get a debuff based on the amount of damage you take.
For example:
If you take a hit that only does 5% of your maximum health, then it could debuff you for 5 seconds, which would lower your movement speed by 1.
This would also take away your out of combat regen. **I am pretty sure they wont let us keep any percent of the out of combat regen, and I don't blame them**

Then, if you take a hit that is at least 10% of your maximum health, it could result in a 10 second debuff, that lowers your movement speed by 2.
They could also take this a step further, and say that if you lose 50% of your maximum health, then your movement speed would be lowered by 5 up to 10 even.

This debuff could be set to apply at set percents of your health, instead of set damage amounts as well. So, if youre in combat your movement speed would get progressively worse, if your health is dropping.
They would have to of course make it so that your regen only is debuffed when damage has been taken in the past 5 seconds.

I personally believe that a 5 second debuff for regen is fair, as it gives your opponent more than enough of a chance to refresh it, either by charging to you, or by just continuing the attack.
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The biggest thing for me, is the movement speed, it isn't really fair to anyone, to make it apply so long as your weapons are drawn. I mean, as archers have stated in this post, one of the reasons they are archers, is because they can kite. I don't believe that an archer should have the ability to kite as well as they used to, but I don't believe that they should suffer a movement speed penalty 24/7 in combat.

If they only received a debuff as their health got progressively lower, I don't think that there would be anymore gripes.

 

Damage…one second…one second…one second…one second…and all is back to normal.
During the first two seconds after a hit your regeneration is lowered the most (-0.5% + 0.5% = 0% regeneration), in the third second your regenerations starts to recover (-0.25% + 0.5% = +0.25% regeneration) and in the fourth second after the hit your regeneration is back to normal (+0.5% regeneration).

 

Very interesting thoughts from you all.

I only hope that the quality of a "player's experience" can reach an equilibrium of "perceived" effectiveness and "perceived" fun, a little sooner than the current pace has indicated.

I do understand that small teams with limited time to focus on the most important "thing to fix/improve" of the (literal-and-constantly-evolving) minute cannot make everyone happy.

I think what the core development team needs is a snazzier way to engage new players immediately and for them to have fun RIGHT away, also a way for long term supporters to pay monthly. An example of a definitive reward would be a preferred-routing gateway to game access. Ping can't make you a god, but could give you a marginal edge in your own perception of playing, in most any sort of activity.

Hell, I PVP('d) and ping won't win a fight when it comes to +/-100ms.

It's outside the box. And not detestable.