Numbers, Percentages, Stats and the serious lack of good information.

Discussion in 'Skills and Combat' started by Lathiari, Apr 12, 2018.

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  1. Lathiari

    Lathiari Avatar

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    I do hope we can get some serious input on this thread, if anything I am asking here is misguided please do not hesitate to tell me so.

    I have returned to the game for launch, I have brought a few people with me and I am having a great time, let me just get that out of the way first - I am eating crow on many things as it does really seem like Port has managed to do some serious work. I don't know their complete roadmap for the future, and I am not sure what has been mentioned already but I did want to make this thread to discuss something that is bothering me about this game and I hope it can be taken seriously enough to warrant an answer.

    I am an avid RPG player, one thing that I love about these games is character building and I think that Shroud has a great character building scheme in place, in fact I would argue it is the strongest argument for what is good about the game right now. I have noticed however that allot of the information we have on the web regarding this game is very outdated, it exists from previous builds in the alpha or is just not there at all. I understand it will take a long time for the community to build a sort of knowledge compendium that is better than our current unreliable narrators but I do find it baffling that we have such a serious lack of displayed information in game.

    One such example of this is in the fact that I have to type an in game command to print a stat sheet to a notepad file to be accessed outside of the game. Why is this stat sheet not IN the game? This is such an obtuse thing and I do recall earlier iterations HAVING that info in the game on a giant menu. As it stands right now, I have almost no way of understanding if it was a wiser choice to enchant my sword with more strength (as I have no clue how strength is actually effecting my damage/mitigation) vs enchanting my sword with 2.5% extra damage. As it stands right now, I have almost no way of understanding if it is a wiser choice to socket fire warding gems into my gear and gain "20" fire resist or to rely on building "attunement" in the fire tree, I don't know what % of resistance "20" actually breaks down into, "20" doesn't tell me anything - furthermore I don't even know if attunement being NEGATIVE after socketing everything with "20" fire resists has a bigger impact on just how hard I am getting fire ball'd to the face than it would if I had just stayed positive attunement and not bothered with the "20's" at all.

    This lack of information will seriously impact a players enjoyment of the game, especially a new and or returning player to the game. So far I can say that this game seems to have a very great community, I have met allot of you in game and you have been awesome - seriously very helpful people however I do hope the apologists can see that I am not attacking the product I am merely saying with all sincerity that we need more clarification in order to increase enjoyment and reduce headache for those here and those yet to come. The few areas I highlighted above are only a few elements that exist in game and I know there are more, again if I am spreading misinformation I apologize but the lack of these has been a headache for myself and those I play with.

    Thank you for reading and any info you can provide.
     
  2. Stevvcash

    Stevvcash Avatar

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    The fact that when I pull up another persons character sheet and I can't see other players armor stats really bugs me.
     
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  3. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Being able to output stats is the devs throwing us a bone. They don't want us (for whatever reason) to see that stuff at all.
     
  4. Lathiari

    Lathiari Avatar

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    Stat management dates back to table top RPGs though so this is a baffling design decision. Imagine playing something like DND and having such little info.

    Personal opinion they should loosen up on this, it only stands to hurt them in the long run.
     
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  5. Weins201

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  6. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I believe it's an LB thing, the idea being that obsessing over stats breaks immersion- he's on record saying his preference is that we don't see any numbers anywhere. But given the inconsistency with which "breaking immersion" is used as a reason to do or not do something, coupled with the fact that most players want stats, it does continue to perplex.
     
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  7. Mugly Wumple

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  8. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Indeed it does, Cora - indeed it does.
     
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  9. Vladamir Begemot

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    Yes, you're right. /sarcasm But since they are doing that, they should remove the numbers altogether.

    Now that Strength boost will "Make you stronger," or "Really stronger" or "Super the Strongest"

    /end sarcasm The people who are going to min/max are doing so anyway.

    Let the rest of us at least have a clue about what's going on. I love the combat, but have no idea how effective I am. I don't want to change single player save files to see how this changes that.

    I'm not a min/maxxer, but it's also not going to ruin my experience if I occasionally sit here for a little while and obsess about stats. It will improve my fun in combat to have more than a passing knowledge of "I'm hitting, I'm hitting!"

    Here is a ton of information, literally the most helpful thing I've ever read on combat (numbers!) and I highly recommend it.

    The moral at the end is that as it stands right now, if you want to know the nitty gritty bit of how combat works, either alter save files to check, or wait for someone nice to do it for us and post a guide.
     
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