Having three main stats and only two derivative power pools

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Lord Tachys al`Fahn, Jul 18, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

    Lord Tachys al`Fahn Avatar

    Messages:
    1,728
    Likes Received:
    3,117
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Northern Illinois
    has gimped the development of this game.

    Simply put, moving away from the Ultima (and later, UO) standard this character stat scheme was obviously based on, where you have three basic stats (Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity) and the "power pools" that derive from them (HP, Mana, and Stamina) to what we have now with the same three base stats, but only two derivative power pools, has made Intelligence an unnecessarily important base stat (as your Focus derives specifically from it and skills in the Focus (Intelligence) tree), and as a result has hampered the development of the game in regards to skills, items and buffs that can be gained from both.

    Change my mind.
     
  2. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

    Lord Tachys al`Fahn Avatar

    Messages:
    1,728
    Likes Received:
    3,117
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Northern Illinois
    So I'll take the lack of responses as meaning everyone agrees? *grins*

    All righty then. Case closed :p
     
  3. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    2,199
    Likes Received:
    2,993
    Trophy Points:
    153
    This is where crafted gear takes over with MW/Enchants to offset. We once had the ability to have all 3 buffs running but it created an overpower issue so it was made so you have to pick and choose allowing only the two buffs. Same with Shield skills there is no longer any ability to overlap. I don't see this an an issue so much as there is a lot of gear that can change the dynamic of the "power pools" just my thoughts.
     
    Boris Mondragon likes this.
  4. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

    Lord Tachys al`Fahn Avatar

    Messages:
    1,728
    Likes Received:
    3,117
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Northern Illinois
    You're missing the point. For instance... beyond the potions of ____ that increase Str, Dex and Int by 10-15 points (I forget the exact number right now), and the spells you are talking about that do the same thing, such as strength of earth, nothing gives you the same increase to Int as its counterparts that increase Str and Dex. You have food that buffs strength and dex, but the corresponding food to buff Intelligence gives drastically less, because it affects Focus directly. Same thing for MW/EN's that affect Intelligence, unless something changed that I haven't seen yet?

    Having every active skill in the game dependent on Focus, which is directly related (at least partially) to Intelligence, makes it so they have made it unnecessarily difficult for themselves to add things to the game and keep it balanced.
     
  5. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

    Messages:
    3,054
    Likes Received:
    11,752
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Female
    Intelligence stat has always been significantly harder to raise because of the way the systems are implemented.
    If you specialize sun and really tweak your gear (ie, perfectly mw/ench'd best-in-slot artifacts) , you can get it pretty high, but never as high as you can get strength - there's simply too many passives/active skills that buff strength by comparisons.
    Its been a frustration of mine for a long time - even the food itemization still neglects int after 5 years the only decent int food comes from impossibly rare fish or almost-as-rare boss drops.
    Needing intelligence to power your magic (since there's no spell damage gear, either...) makes this extremely frustrating.
    I agree it makes no sense for melee/archery skills to use the int power pool, it makes character building in Sota a lot more frustrating than it needs to be.
    it also creates a situation in which anyone with an int build has an edge since the int also powers their heals (instead of having skill tree based heals scaling off appropriate stats).
    To compensate, the devs have made nearly everything in game so resistant to magic that unless you're using a fire build or a spec that includes stackable resistance stripping, forget about it, your skill hits for 20% of normal damage. Even still you're better off just picking up a weapon. And because you can only pick one element (attunment, specialization) you end up with pretty limited options on where you can go/what you can do.

    So there's a lot of factors, but the power derivatives are definitely a factor - however I don't see how it could be changed without scrapping the combat system and starting over lol
     
    Anpu and Boris Mondragon like this.
  6. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    2,199
    Likes Received:
    2,993
    Trophy Points:
    153
    I understand now what you are saying. I do agree perhaps they need to add a sta. stat for melee/ranged classes to split it away. That said though mages are just as powerful imo as melee/ranged however they do have one major advantage which is sustained dps where mages once out of focus dont have much luxury of auto sustained dps to the same degree. a ranged class with speed can do more dmg than some mages who spell sling like no tomorrow which is a major imbalance. Also considering that there are creatures 100% resistant to magic and others that are almost immune too that require physical it puts us on the bench in those cases where we can't even compete.

    on the other side of the coin some mage classes with lower int can destroy other classes as the spells scale a little better for dmg.


    Weapons do give spell damage boost but I agree we need more options to increase the damage if it is to be balanced more.
     
  7. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

    Lord Tachys al`Fahn Avatar

    Messages:
    1,728
    Likes Received:
    3,117
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Northern Illinois
    And that is exactly part of the problem I mention: If the system had been designed that way from the start (3 stats, 3 pools) then more thought would have been put into balancing out what skills use what. If we were to suddenly switch to that type of system now, an easy-to-see imbalance would be if physical skills used stamina, and spells focus, then the hybrid character would rule, because it would give that character two whole power pools to pull from.

    If it had been designed the 3/3 way, I could see some balance choices being made where all skills would use some combination of the two, so maybe melee would use mostly stam and some focus, spells mostly focus and some stam, ranged using almost a 70/30 stam/focus mix, stealth using 70/30 focus/stam, and the higher tier skills in all using heavier levels of both. I firmly believe that this situation would make it easier to add things in to maintain the semi-R/P/S balance that the 3 pool system would provide.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.