Melee Combat 1. Buffs.

I rest my case.

 

I think you are missing my point Mac... From what I've seen and experienced in this game, outside of the questing which I hate with a passion, is that this game is impossible to balance.... period. You can't balance a game with no limits. That is what is killing this game. ON TOP OF..... players killing QoL suggestions because they disagree with the OP, players trying to influence how the game should be designed is another reason. Feedback is great if it is just that... feedback. The moment they start demanding that it stays as is or demand something changes is another.

Has this post been derailed? Yea.... I played a huge part on that, but- That dude seriously is making my point easy to make. Hate to point it out as well but you are one of those reasons why they CAN'T balance the game. In all fairness tho, you did put all that time into the game so NO ONE can ever complain about balance and risk vs. reward. As Chris likes to state, this game is a "Classless" game... but you will be hard pressed to find a game with TONS of subscribers or players without ROLES. That is what this game is lacking above all else.

 

And you just proved my point. Again....

 

Well, now I need to ask what do you mean by balance? A player that has played 100 hours should be able to do what a player who has played 10,000 can do? The sun tree should have as much utility and damage as the other trees? I am having a hard time thinking of the reason I am one of the reasons they cannot balance the game, can you break that down for me and show me how?

 

Im surprised this hasnt been fixed yet ... just because players found a way to circumvent a poor game mechanic with buff decks doesnt mean it works as intended .... one of the reasons i dont fight much is because i dont like micro managing buffs ... Hope Chris takes some time and adresses this issue also.

Fighting should be about fighting and buffing during combat should be just a small part of the proccess ...as it is now combat is a permanent glare at what buff expired or is about to.

The short buff duration makes it an unfun feature ... i think we can/should do away with it ( by increasing duration to a min 30 mins for all buffs ) and allow players to focus on other things during combat...like stacking/charging , analising the battlefield , healing if need it , creating combos and more....

 

Balance in a game is something that can be weighed and measured to be fair and impartial. I can give a few general examples such as:

• A fireball doing 100 damage to a player but doing 80 damage to a mob with no fire resist. That would be considered unbalanced. Most people have a basic grasp of "balance."

What I am meaning by you being one of the reasons why they can't balance the game is simple.

• There is no limit to the game. There is no ceiling.
• The amount of time you have invested in the game to get where you are can't be considered the norm. (Sorry dude.... you can't refute this)
• Because of ^ "newer" players can't "catch up" and rightfully so.
• The damage you do reflects the amount of time you have spent in the game and rightfully so. I'm a proponent of this.

Each time Catnip attempts to curb or make something more "challenging" it will never work for long because of players that have invested an enormous amount of time into the game will simply make it look easy, or to follow Mr. Glamrock's example, cheat the system from how it was intended to be played.

A game can't be balanced if there is no limit. I love the idea of not having a limit to the skill points being spent. That to me is what makes this game unique in its own right and something that I hold on to from UO. That I feel is what will separate a dedicated person in that school or field of combat than the average person. However, not having a cap on the Adventure levels is what is breaking this game. Unless I am mistaken, Adventure levels provide the following:

• Chance to hit the target / Chance to miss the target if they are higher than your AL
• Chance to crit the target / Chance to not crit the target if they are higher than your AL
• Chance to do extra damage on the target / Chance to do less damage if they are higher than your AL

It affects both PvE and PvP.

Alot of people say you, Mac, are the exception. Whether or not Catnip judges game difficulty by how easy or hard of a time you have going thru it is a moot point. Its never going to be balanced to begin with because they can't establish a foundation on difficulty because there is no cap on it to begin with.

 

None of this has to do with the lack of ceiling ( of which there is, soft cap and hard cap ). This has everything to do with deck building and how the FACT that deck are meant to be limiting for the simple sake of limiting a player's version of a class. People complained about that and they added the possibility of more decks... if you want to help TANKS be valuable, we need to limit the amount of decks and emphasize specific tanking specializations as an example.

AND also eliminate any form of kiting and leashing of mobs. GOOD LUCK...

 

Would love to see you stream your ability to aggro-tank Eastreach CP, @OzzyOsbourne .

 

Your first example of"unbalance" does not really sound like unbalance as much as just different mechanics for nps and players, maybe even possibly just rng.

There is no limit or ceiling. This is not something of balance but once again its game mechanics.

Why would I try and refute that I am not the norm when this is something I have said myself before. Dont know what this has to do with balance at all.

New players cant catch up. Actually they can. If someone was playing more hours efficiently then I am, they would catch up. I am not the top level anymore so someone has caught up to me and passed me. Again, this is not an issue of balance, this is an issue of how much free time people have compared to each other.

I dont know what mr. glamrocks example of cheat the system from how it was intended to be played is, I do not see a post from him in this thread. What you are explaining here is not a question of balance though, you are explaining progression and power creep. As people level and get more powerful, things that were once hard get easier.

A game cant be balanced if there is no limit? Now this is why I asked what do you mean by balance. I will give you my definition of balance as an example of how to answer this question. Balance in this context I see as meaning equal, weighing the same, no one with an advantage over another. In a classless game, balance is achieved by everyone being able to do the same thing others can do. There is no skill that only some people can get and some cant like there is in classed games.
Now your saying not have a cap on adventure level is whats breaking the game for 3 reasons that you list.

The hit chance thing was taking out long ago, that is no longer level dependent so you are mistaken about that. Before they took it out, if you were fighting a red mob, all you saw was miss miss miss miss miss. You do not see that anymore.

The chance to crit the target would have to be tested to see if what you are saying is true, I dont know, I would have to test. But if you dont know, then its only a valid argument if you are correct, if you are not, this does not apply and your statement is moot.

Chance to deal more damage, once again, this would have to be tested to see if what you are saying is true, I dont know, I would have to test. But if you dont know, then its only a valid argument if you are correct, if you are not, this does not apply and your statement is moot.

I do not think this ever applied to pvp, players do not change color depending on their level compared to yours.

The only things I KNOW you get from adventure level is hp, focus and carry capacity.

Now it SEEMS like what you define as balance in this context is we need a level cap so the devs do not need to make higher content and this is the only way balance will be achieved.

Now, I can understand having a lot higher skills in pvp gives an advantage, but this can be fixed with level capping in some pvp zones. What I do not understand is, how me having higher skills and gear and stuff has anything to do with another person playing the game aside from pvp. If anything, this has helped me help other people from having understanding of these skills at higher levels. We do not have to compete for zones, bosses or pretty much anything as we can go to our own instances. Anything I can do, others could do as well if they are willing to put in the time, and not even as much time as I did, leveling is easier now.

 

Dude..... Per Chris/Atos, this game is not intended to be a game that has no "classes" which is great and is what makes this game a niche. However, there are NO ESTABLISHED ROLES in this game.

I have tanked/DPSed/Healed multiple MMOs such as Dark Ages of Camelot, Shadowbane, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 and Elderscrolls Online. I have seen the strengths and weakness of each game. I'm seriously trying to understand where you are getting your references and experience from to help build this game and have it grow in population and gameplay.

This game has its niche..... I'm trying to get people to realize its potential but they're killing this game without them knowing it. Having no QoL simplification is one thing that will detract other players from sticking to this game if they try it out. I know... alot of my friends from WoW and some from ESO try this game and they didn't stick for a variety of reasons. What suggestion would you have to convince players from other MMOs to join us here and stay?

 

If there are no established roles, then why do you call yourself a tank? Why do some groups say looking for a tank, a healer or/and dps? I know when im trying to form up a east reach party, I try and get a healer and 2 physical dpsers.

"What suggestion would you have to convince players from other MMOs to join us here and stay?"

All we can really do is tell them to try it out. You cant really convince them to stay if they do not want to.

 

A fireball doing 100 damage to a player but doing 80 damage to a mob with no fire resist. That would be considered unbalanced. Most people have a basic grasp of "balance." - I should have clarified my apologizes. If this was the max damage for the "fireball" and with no RNG involved then that would be unbalanced.

This is the reason why there CAN NOT be a balance because there is no cap.

You can't establish equality without defining two ending points and finding the middle. I understand what you are trying to say on this but no. You can't establish what is balanced/equal or unbalanced if there is no limits.

That is surprising for me to see. Still, how many days would an AVERAGE player need to spend in a control point to catch up to you if they can only play at or around 3hrs a day and that's if they even play every day? Now that will also imply that you are not playing every day and just stop.... is that something that would be feasible? SotA has become a grind plain and simple.

Its got nothing to do with you in that regard. Its got to do with "catching up" to top end players like yourself.

Agreed. Did not ever dispute this fact. But this is all that SotA is now. A grind game.

As I've stated above, I have tanked/DPSed/Healed multiple MMOs such as Dark Ages of Camelot, Shadowbane, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 and Elderscrolls Online. Alot of my friends from WoW and some from ESO tried this game and they didn't stick for a variety of reasons. What suggestion would you have to convince players from other MMOs to join us here and stay?

 

There is no established roles. I was one of the first players to call myself a "tank" when most people/alot still do consider a tank as a guy in heavy armor doing melee. Its only catching on now when I was doing this when Upper Tears first came on. The players created the roles but in reality there is none. Compared to other MMOs, there is nothing in the skills that would help support a "role" but QoL fixes would fix that.

Yep.... thats pretty much it. What reason do they have to stay in SotA compared to the other games? Right now, I can't think of one but I'm still here.

 

Of course there are roles. You put on heavy armor and use the skills from the heavy armor tree to attract aggression. Why do you think those skills exist? Classless just means that you are not limited to that one role. You can put on other gear and play a different part.

 

"This is the reason why there CAN NOT be a balance because there is no cap."

You need to give the definition of balance as you are using it here. What does no cap have to do with balance?

"You can't establish equality without defining two ending points and finding the middle. I understand what you are trying to say on this but no. You can't establish what is balanced/equal or unbalanced if there is no limits."

Yes you can very easily. When you all start off the same, you are equal. I REALLY need to know your definition of balance in this context. What does no limits have anything to do with balance, balance is a comparison between 2 or more things, it has nothing to do with no limits. That is like saying this road that has no speed limit breaks the balance. balance of what? The road? The drivers? The cars? the speed limit? What are you comparing?

 

That is my case and point. No one started off the same. When new players come in, there is no catching up if they are a "casual" player.

 

This is off topic but wtv;
Limit deck amount to only 2. Create worthy boss mechanics that rival other games. Stop catering to solo players. Get rid of loot attenuation. Get rid of exp attenuation. Create actual dungeon crawls that rival other games. Actually have some MF PVP AND REWARD PVP.

 

Umm, we all started the same. No one started with more exp, gear or gold then anyone else. Yes, a new player coming in now is not going to have the exp of someone who has been playing a while, that is true of every mmo. Now, this new casual player will not be able to catch up, well, is the only reason to play a game to be the top level player or is the point of playing a game to have fun?

Why is it so important to catch up? Why are you more worried about what other players are doing then what you are doing yourself? What does it matter what my level or the top leveled peoples level is UNLESS you are talking about pvp?

 

Loot attention is gone now, been gone for like 2-3 releases now.