Truely epic/heroic skills

This is something i've never seen in a MMO, and yet keep wishing it will someday be implemented.

In all MMOS or even single player RPGS, there is a common element. Your character is some sort of hero or villain, or powerful individual. But thanks to balancing and game mechanics, you still feel, idk, lackluster.

example. When i cast earthquake in this game, i get a 2 foot radius dust cloud that does a small amount of damage. In world of Warcraft earthquake was almost as lackluster. It was a 2 foot DOT dust cloud.

In the original UO, earthquake was a little better. It's radius was the entire screen and it did decent damage.

Why do we never see truly epic spells though? If I'm a high level arch mage, why cant i summon tornado, doom storms, rain of fireballs, and earthquake the entire battlefield? Because its hard to balance in pvp? PSHHHHHHH

throw us a bone here. make us feel like actual epic characters. It would make the game WAY more interesting especially in pvp, if we had to deal with epic skills.

a good example of a balanced epic spell would be true earthquake. The radius would be like the entire battlefield, and would cause DOT damage and stun. It could be balanced by offering characters stun resistance and making the mage have to channel the spell so it could be interrupted.

 

This is Episode 1 of a 5 part series. If you have truly epic powers on day 1, where is the progression over the next 5 years?

 

i think you missed the point

im not asking for them now. im asking for them in general. ive never seen ANY game impliment them.

think about this. By the end of world of warcraft, you are a hero archmage who slays demons, dragons, and even gods, but you cant actually do anyhting "epic"

 

How epic would something really be if it didn't cause mass destruction? Going back to the massive earthquake spell as an example. It doesn't change the landscape.. it doesn't cause massive damage.. how epic is that? Game balance exists for a reason.

Besides, if you did it all then ALL skills would have to have some epic ability. So what about the non-magic user? What is the epic blundgeon skill? Ranged? pole arm?

 

well there arent many options for epic melee skills unless you are a mage hybrid.

it doesn't necessarily need to be 100% balanced all the time. sometimes having a cool feature is more important than balance

 

Honestly I don't see a problem with balance as long as magic has costs, and it ends up costing a lot to cast powerful spells. The balance problem is when people want magic to be extremely easy, but be extremely powerful at the same time.

 

An unbalanced feature can ruin the game.. and if only magic users get to do epic stuff.. there won't be many people who will want to go melee. This is multi-player. Balance between all combat skills is a must or combat will be broken. Costs or not.. in this scenario combat would be ruled by mages.

 

Just ramp it up a bit in each episode and when we are getting less than 1 skill point per level during episode 5 it will have much more meaning.

 

If there is a super powerful epic spell in the game that creates huge amounts of devastation then almost everyone will just look to acquire it and then everyone will be casting it - because it is just too good - and suddenly it is not special anymore. That's the problem you end up with when you have a world full of "heroes".

 

Perhaps play D&D?

 

Would be nice to see some bonuses for players that progress from Episode 1 to the next episodes. Rewards loyalty and is a great incentive to get into the game from the beginning.

Not sure what those bonuses would be. Items and skills, generally.

Same concept as Royal Founder. Get in early and get more in-game perks.

 

you are correct but part of the point of this discussion is to discuss how to implement such a feature. also your logic is flawed. in UO people could tame dragons, but lots of people still just picked up swords. its more about balance than coolness in that regard. just because arch mages can bring forth doom storms doesn't mean people wont want to be warriors

you cant deny that being an actual arch mage wouldn't be cool right?

instead of being a naysayer, humor me. it is completely impossible to implement such a feature and still balance it?

 

every saturday actually ^_^ either that or magic the gathering depending on who shows up

 

perhaps there is another way to implement such spells

such as group spells. 5 mages work together to make a super spell

or perhaps environmental spells. if a guild does a specific thing or uses a specific item, maybe they can work together to bring forth something epic

 

Well you never know YuriGaDaisukiDa. It never hurts to mention your ideas. Yes there were also epic moments in UO. I am expecting no less in this game.
Sadly much is not easily visualized at this time since we are just getting small pieces to test out. Also I bid you Welcome if I haven't said it already.

 

i dont actually expect this idea to be implemented.

but it was worth a try ^_^

i really do want to see a game made someday though, where powerful mages actually feel like powerful mages

the game dragons dogma is the closest one ive played

 

I hadn't heard of that game, just watched the trailer which was great. Yes definitely it is always worth a try.
Hopefully mages will shape up, I know they are working on them.

 

if you have an xbox 360 definatly rent dragons dogma and play it over a weekend

it is a single player rpg and its a great experience! i wouldnt buy it though personally i dont like spending money on single players games

 

I'm still waiting for the part where my logic is flawed. Simply being "cool" is not the end of good design. Tamed dragons could be killed. When they were overpowered at first, a lot of people tamed dragons. You might recall they were adjusted. When something was overpowered, it was toned down. It was because they tried to keep things balanced that people could still pick up swords and be competitive.

The problem here is that you're not asking for something that's balanced. You're practically asking for something that is intentionally unbalanced for the sake of being 'cool' and to heck with everyone else. Otherwise all you really get is a big show that is otherwise meaningless and that's not really "epic".

If it's not balanced.. it's game breaking. If it is balanced.. it either can't be 'epic' in power.. or everyone needs to be able to achieve the same power.. even non-magic users. That is not negotiable.

 

sorry if it was a miscomunication
you said everyone would be using the epic spells. i just disagreed that is all

this is not true.
if you recall i was asking how we could balance it, and admitted if it wasn't entirely balanced that i personally am ok with it

like i said its a discussion

you are still just being a nay sayer instead of contibuting

whats your opinion on my other comments? what if guilds could have an epic items and work together to get it to work to do epic things? are there really no ways to balance epic stuff ingame?

even world of warcraft as much as i hate that game, was on the right track with their alterac valley battleground/