Three Specializations

The game is already easy enough. I say we take away a spec Would be a hell of a lot easier to balance stuff with just 1 spec.

2 spec is pretty much god mode for a lot of different builds.

3 would be completely ridiculous.

 

EP1 and EP2 works well with 2 specializations. If you want to do 3, then EP3+ should be scaled to compensate for more player power.

 

Sorry if I'm being rude, but you didn't address your own point that got me thinking.

Additive and multiplicative didn't have any mathematical meaning in this post? I'm not native to English, maybe these words have different meaning than I expected. Where I come from these are clearly math operations. Language issues I guess.

 

I think the issue is Coswald is trying to explain with actual examples and real numbers. Hes putting a lot of thought and information in his responses. You just made up all those numbers about spec power, I'm assuming, as a joke?

 

Went ahead and did a quick video that mostly just showed my testing methodology for the numbers I showed earlier. One thing I didn't explicitly mention is that as you level Air's Embrace naturally a larger percentage of its crit bonus will come from the Dex portion, assuming a fixed Spec level. I'm assuming everyone in this conversation is taking that as granted, and I believe the 1 Dex demonstration at the end is sufficient to show that the Weapon Critical Chance modifier from spe'd Embrace doesn't rely on a large Dex benefit either way. (Though obviously more Dex helps, I can't imagine anyone is thinking otherwise)

Spoiler: Spec'd Embrace Testing Method

Spec'd Sovage Sonata also grants a Weapon Critical Modifier bonus, which is summed with that of Armor Weak Points and Vital Points. Sources of Weapon Critical Chance are likewise summed and indeed applied to the crit chance that's coming from other sources. I assume this is where the hangup is, probably due to my initial sloppy use of terms.

 

I like this.. makes sense, each 'expansion' usually added a level of difficulty back in the day. There would need to be some game mechanic where while in an Episode 2 scene the player's specialization bonuses were restricted to 2 spec's, or?

 

I spent a lot of time thinking on this as well... my concern like many of the other stat crunchers is that 3 specs would make things way over the top imo. It would open up a lot more flexibility but at the cost of to many over powered options which would require a complete rework / rebalance again... unless as you said its limited to new ep3 lands where things are scaled for it but even so I would require rebalance as there would be ways I can see to make immortal builds as well with the melee / archer builds having the best of all words making for some required balances...

There is also a Perk system coming at some point which sounds like it will be another way to invest in your skills to augment them. Not sure when that is slated. We also still have a bunch of new skills coming and that new class they talked about a few months back.... so who knows where things will be

 

New perk system? Sounds like a great idea!
For the new skill tree, I remember they saying it's going to be geared towards advanced players, I expect to see a lot of powerful combos coming up.

 

The first specialization is at level 50, the second at 100, and the third at 150 - it's quite logical. If we omit the real system of specialty, then it is possible to become a specialist only on a certain contribution of points (experience costs) to the branch, then individual skills for a specialist could open up.

 

Adv lvl 150? That's a very, very, very high level. This would lead to such imbalance that the strongest players in the game would become even stronger in a blink of an eye.

 

How about you start with 3 specializations and every 50 levels you loose one.

 

Sounds like something Chris would come up with

 

It's called balance and it looks great on paper. It comes in 6 steps.

Step 1: See, when a new player starts they quit because of the tutorial. So how do we balance the problem? Easy, at level 1 - 50 you get 3 specializations, which will help everyone fly towards leveling and killing strong stuff like zombies and skeletal warriors fast!

Step 2: Then at level 50, due to power creep, a specialization is chosen at random and whisked away by a llama energy vortex. Loose a specialization that was central to your planned character? Skip to step 6.

Step 3: Next, at level 100 another specialization is chosen at random and taken again by an energy vortex, this time its brown, black, and pink to help cover everyone with Deuteranopia and Protanopia, which is key. Again, something goes wrong in your belief [note:what you believe might not be "balanced"] then skip to step x.

Step 4: At 100, if your character was created correctly to survive two rounds of RNG and gets any spec, which are all fair and balanced, especially bard and tactics but not especially subterfuge or sun, you can then continue to level 150! No action is necessary for step 4, it's just good logical code to put it here.

Step 5: Finally, at level 150 the final specialization is gone, just like good armor you spent millions of gold to craft. Your character is already so powerful, a specialization would further interrupt balance. Every level after 150 also has a small exponentially increasing debuff to damage done and buff to damage taken, to help promote group play and interrupt imbalances.

Step 6: Finally, the final step, is that your character becomes so balanced that you feel like you need to make a new character, like armor, and therefore move back to step 1!

I know I know, this is unparalleled levels of balance, taken to a balancing step that is beyond normal levels of balancing. If you are planning on stealing my idea, Tom Sweeny and Andrew Wilson have already been notified so you are out of luck. I plan on applying to their respective companies with these levels of balancing as a consultant with appropriate balanced fees.

I am also open to taking this approach to real world brick and mortar locations for mid level management and the rise of, for balance sake.

 

This is pure gold.

It's the balance nirvana.