Classless becoming classed.

"Dereck Visaard: Can masterwork and enchant please get a pass to incorporate specialization? I know Atos would have fun with it .
STARR: Yes we intend to add specializations to crafting"

Come on now, its already bad enough you forced specialization on us with adventure skills, now your going to force it on crafting too? I am sorry some people cannot just NOT learn something if they want to specialize, like their finger has a mind of its own and just keeps turning things on to green arrow. Every time you do something like this you take a unique aspect of sota away and it just starts to look like all the other games.

 

I dunno. I think the specializations added another layer of strategy to character building.

It's not really something I feel very strongly about one way or the other, but I don't think it's really fair to say that specialization in SotA makes character building just like cookie cutter MMOs where you create a shaman and go get your shaman spells and do your shaman quests for your shaman armor that you read about on the shaman forum. SotA is still not anything like that.

 

also specialization is not permanent... you can always switch if you want... I had a level 80 specialization on Polearms then switched to Blade got it back to level 80 then switched again to Polearms... LOL

 

Once 100% unlearn is off, switching is going to cost you exp, I dont think many people are going to just want to throw away exp like that. Self sufficiency is going to be lost if they implement it in crafting. Ill have to search around for the proper crafters and then trust that person with my stuff, or make alts to do it.

On a side note, why do only mages have a penalty applied with their specialization in - to opposing school.

 

this

 

I'm with Mac. Not a fan of the specializations as implemented. One of the main draws of this game for me was that you can train any skill you want , but were limited to only using what you put in your deck. The balance was supposed to come from the limitations of the deck system.

If specializations followed the same idea (allowing you to learn them all, but only use 1 or 2 in your deck at a time) then I'd back them 100% because they do offer more strategies in deck building.

But, since training one up sets all the others but one other you want to maintain to "unlearn"... that part is what kills the whole system for me. I don't like being forced to lose something I already spent hours to train/learn just because I want to spend more hours training/learning something else new.

If this same type of system gets ported over to crafting (where producer xp is already hard enough to accumulate) then I likely won't like it there either. If I have to train one crafting spec up to be able to add a certain stat type to a sword, then need to train another to add something to a bow, then need to train another to make a super food (as the others I just learned now start dropping levels)... then I have to retrain the first one again to make another sword... that roller coaster ride is going to get very frustrating!

 

They will crash with this system .
There's only a few players here who like the "effort stuff " and self sufficency etc...
It destroys everything UO stands for.

Still hope for changes. Else i cannot see a lot of players who are satisfied with this sort of a sandbox without dependencies and balance.

I bet they will cut levels in pvp Zones or something like that to balance hardcore and casual and try to balance stuff.
But with this sort of a flick carpet.. . Idk

Hope for you Portalarium has enough players who like the effort= strength and reward Formula and progress grind.

At least i recognized in other Communities that hard caps or no progression at all are significant to build a real rpg sandbox.

 

I feel like it’s good to have some kind of limits and forced choises even in a classless system. Otherwise it will be that more is always better, and not much more thought to it is needed. This way we have more reason to think and theorize about different combinations of specializations and non specialized skills and what we want to acomplish. This will hopefully create more varitey without taking away the option to learn anything at any time.

The above is for adventuring skills. When it comes to crafting skills, the benefit of specialization would be that it creates more reason to trade between players instead of being self sufficient.

 

Your greatest nightmare is my greatest hope. Self sufficiency kills the MMO Part.

 

But some of us like the challenge and accomplishment of being self sufficient. The more that gets restricted, the more I start looking for a different game to play.

I get a sense of satisfaction knowing all my gear was made by me. I also can't stand to pay way more than an item costs to make, just so someone else can profit. I would much rather make it myself for actual cost.

 

I guess you guys trust people more then I do, didn't hear about the crafter OWL had in their guild that was just keeping stuff and told them it broke.

 

I understand, I like that challenge myself. But there is a conflict between promoting self sufficiency and promoting a well functioning economy. Even if both options should be there in some form, the game systems have to compromise between them. In my view the best compromise is a little more towards economy, but wherever they draw the lime, everyone can’t be happy.

 

Best move Port made in a while........this is a mmo, crafting and combat should generally be about interaction and teamwork, this helps.

Specialisation is a 'small' leveller for many players. It allows people with not as much time in the game a chance to be good at something and stops the power grinders being the best at everything. I read on the forums specialisation is a bit 'meh', true things out there aren't super exciting, it is not god mode but it really does give everyone a chance to excel at a particular area.........but would love 3 and not 2

 

This game needs far more interdependency if it is going to flourish as an MMO. A small population of demi god like players who can do everything will not = success for SOTA.

Specialisation is a small step in the right direction but there needs to be condiderably more changes like it imho.

If everyone can do everything then there is no point in SOTA being an MMO and we might all as well play in offline mode.

 

The cake is not being taken away. Its just that a certain flavor of icing is being added on top.

GM crafters already are very self sufficient. Specialization will not be taking that away. Specialization is more of an enhancement a group of skills, rather than being a skill of its own. With specialization, you will still be able to train any skill you want. Its just that a handful of those can now be selected to be enhanced. Its icing on top. I don't believe that SOTA is a lesser game for specialization. If anything, it gives crafters a chance to better distinguish themselves.

 

Agree with Mac on adventure tab side but not crafting. Also, Specialization seems like a forced way to give grinders something to do. It breaks the entire classless concept. The desk system works fine to limit overall strength. The only part I like about it is being able to protect 2 trees from decay.

That said I LOVE the idea on the crafting side. Self sufficiency in crafting is the total opposite of what I'd like to see. I want an economy where things other than raw materials and have value. Can't imagine how they are gonna implement this thou this far into the game.

 

I like the specialization benefits and extra 'features' on the skills, but not really fond of the increase in exclusivity that is getting thrust upon us more and more.
First it was avoidance buffs can't be cast concurrently, now its base stat buffs - buffs which needed to be cast only once every half hour and really didn't need to be limited; they weren't a bother.
Now we've got specialization funneling us into specific skillsets and there's no simple re-spec without high untrain/retrain cost.
If you're going to have specialization, and make specialized schools stronger, then perhaps reconsider some of the other imposed limits (like stat buffs, taming penalties, etc. etc.) which are less relevant now that specialism will drive people toward specific skill trees.

 

I don't see why you need to trust anyone to buy crafted gear from them. Items can be priced based on expected cost instead of actual cost.

 

1 for each Tree, makes 3
I asked Chris about and hope he will consider...

 

I like the idea of specialization in crafting if it means that those who take it for say , blacksmithing, will experience less breakages and more consistency in effects added whenever a piece of armor or weapon is made. It really doesn't make sense that you can be a master craftsman in everything. Maybe we can finally have people really excel in the type of crafting they love and not just be part of the GM crowd with nothing special to show for it.