Release 11 staying open for testing longer duration

Would be cool if you expand the list on levels in order if you could include hours of play against each person

 

Another option would be something like diminishing returns. Instead of a hard cap, you'd have something like each additional level in a skill (let's say the passive Strength one for example) would add fewer points. Something like [base] + [base] * (sum of([bonus%]/[skill level]), so if [bonus] were 10%, then at level 5, you'd get [10% + 5% + 3.33% + 2.5% + 2%] = [base] + [base] * ~22.83%

Those who want to minmax could spend their extra points to get a tiny edge, while those who diversify can do so without feeling like they're completely unable to compete.

(I played EVE Online for years, and that's pretty much how they handled minmaxing vs diversification)

 

yeah possibly. However if this is forced upon us then we are leveling and wasting skill points on skills we already have that were reliable already before the skill minimum raised. So then the question again is why level?

I would rather get less skill points per level than have to keep fudging with my deck to keep up with a deck minmum. Also to buy level 6, 7, 8 in a skill costs more than one skill point at a time. So not only are you fixing a deck that was working at a lower level, but it costs you more levels to do it.

EDIT: I do agree with you 100% though. If we have to put in usless, or skills that just aren't our style into the deck, then it is basically like having a slug.

I may not want to have 5 copies of some defensive skill. Also having the minimum cut off at 20 or 25 glyphs allows us to basically pick the skills we want to have so we aren't all the exact same.

*************************

This is why I think in the future they need to add innate skills on individual weapons too, so we can specialize in individual weapons within our chosen skill sets. (or give us the potential to learn a second weapon style like archery for a separate deck).

 

I like this a lot. I love how the skills aren't so cut and dry as to what is the EXACT best path. If there's a way to keep us guessing a bit then we will really see lots of variations in players. Some people will be massive damage dealers with lower health, others will be ballanced, and yet others might be massive tank people that wear people down because they can take so much damage.

I really hope the end result of the game leaves us with options, and some obvious short cuts to victory, and some more unusual variations that work well within a players style of play.

All in all I'm liking what I see. This is how I hoped this game would be developed.

 

This is why it would be useful to select your deck size. There could be a drop down on the page (next to draw speed for example) At level 20 you might be able to select 10, 15 or 20 deck size, at level 40 you might be able to select 10,15,20 or 25 deck size.

The point is that levelling will give you the option and not actually force you in to larger decks. In terms of natural slugs, these would just scale on the deck size as it does now.

 

Would adding a method to choose the minimum deck size actually serve any purpose though ?

Why would anyone choose a higher size than 10 if they had a choice ? There is no maximum deck size, so choosing a larger minimum does not provide any benefit.

Or are you also suggesting there be an additional benefit to having a larger minimum deck size ?

 

Excellent idea, I will take advantage of the opportunity to do more testing..

 

I'm sure they will work on it. Also a deck isn't destroyed at 30 or 35 glyphs. People can build decks that large and be quite effective. Using a mixed deck of locked and free glyphs. However not everybody wants to play like that. Some people want to learn lots of skills, others like to keep their skill set very specialized.

However, I am not opposed to hearing the dev's ideas on why to increase the minimum if they have a really good reason for it. We have spun our wheels in these forums over stuff that actually turned out to make good sense. So the devs might have some brilliant idea as to why an increasing deck minimum is the right way to go, and how it will benefit us. If that is the case maybe some clues as to what they are picturing would be nice too.

 

Well the issue with large decks is actually having the skills to fill it without having the additional slugs. By giving the player the options gives them the choice to focus on some of the innate skills without suffering the penalty. Ultimately the best templates will probably diversify into different skill trees and probably use 2 decks. The early stages it all needs to be about choice.

EDIT ... Scrap that....it ALWAYS needs to be about choice.

 

It's awesome how skilled so many of you players are!
..every time I jumped in over the weekend, I got stomped into the ground!
As a dev, this pleases me.

I held back from turning god mode on, and held back the godly wrath of kill commands, as I took the beatings from the skill warriors known as our backer community. On the dawn of next day (about an hour later) I set out to avenge the slaughter of my poor level 0 avatars who had fallen only hours before (a few minutes earlier)
As I was then defeated again, I resurrected & rewarded the victorious killers with my prized weapons & armor.
'Twas truly a good day of battle!

Fear not, fellow travelers! As the world is reconstructed and improved, your mind may be wiped, and you'll need to re-learn your skills. However, you may find that you will also learn of many new improvements to your existing understanding of the balance toward attacking, defending, crafting, harvesting, and improving upon what you currently know of the systems. Your combat knowledge will grow stronger, as new systems are introduced and modified, and as you experience the culmination of the planned outcome of the grand design of New Britannia.
It is through your valiant efforts of re-experiencing your path that you will soon find yourself venturing down the Live path, and all that you had learned will then come to play! Huzzah!

Ok, I think I'm done for today...gonna go home and sleep.
...ah, pre-alpha

 

One thing I was concerned about early on was changing your character from mage in light armor to warrior in heavy armor with the switch of a deck. However, after seeing how the attributes are set up, I think that might not be as easy as I thought because a great warrior would likely have more strength etc. While a great wizard might be high in Intelligence. So switching decks to a different type of character might be possible but in that situation it might just be your secondary style.

Gandalph could use a sword. I'm not opposed to hybrids, I'm also not opposed to a guy switching from mage to warrior if in fact his intelligence stays the same, and physically he or she is the same person strength, dexterity, and intelligence wise.

So if I had to bend on my former thoughts about character sytle and the ability to change styles by switching decks in order to strike a ballance between deck minimums I would err toward the side of a character having the ability to be versatile and swap light armor for heavy (not instantly). The Avatar could master everything. I'm not a fan of mastering everything, but I rather see versatile characters instead of the constantly increasing deck minimum.

 

Oh, I agree on that.

However it appears the current implementation of the "minimum deck size" is being used as an enforcement mechanism to maintain a balance between active skills and passive skills. The devs up the minimum to force users to apply points to active glyphs, rather than applying them all to passives.

If you provide the option to remove that artificial restriction without any penalty, then everyone will simply do so, and you might as well remove the restriction entirely.

 

Sorry to hear, can definitely be frustrating. Not sure if this will help your specific situation, but try 64-bit toggle as well if not already done? Are the tour guides in SPO - maybe a quicker load?

 

Yeah but you would have to be a rather high level to start getting a lot of the other passive skills though. Maybe that could be the benefit of being an epic level character.

For instance in UO Magic Resist became very difficult to raise to GM for a while. At least while I played it was one of the tougher skills to GM. Either way a 7x GM character was very difficult to come by even though there was a skill cap. Due to the simplicity of that game in comparison to SotA, it was very clear what your path would be to become a master in your chosen skills. Everybody knew if you were a warrior you needed tactics, parry, and anatomy for sure. Those could be GMed quite fast. maybe a month or so if you went at it really good. So you master a weapon skill and those other three in a month.... game over right??? nope. I still played long after that.

So the benifit of maxing out your skills in SotA could be to pick up some inate skills from some of the other skill sets. Earth magic innates seem to be a good one. If you have the extra skills it might be nice to get some fire resist or electrical resist. Then maybe the sun and moon magic innates that boost your attributes while in sunlight or moonlight...

That seems reasonable. It also seems like it would take LOADS of skill points. The reason being is how far do you want to max out your attributes through tactics and focus skill trees before dumping skill points into Sun and Lunar? (That's why I think it is a great idea on the dev team's part to make those attributes able to be upgraded indefinitely with diminishing returnes). Given what we know so far it seems that there would be vast differences in opinion between us players as to what is the best path after you reach level 40 or 50.

 

This would be cool except I can't patch..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

this is great... I don't have enough time in the weekends to play but this will give me an opportunity to explore the new scenes... thank you very much...

 

Very glad to hear that the deck cap will be adjusted - it was the primary reason I stopped leveling at 47. Going forward I foresee it's going to be a tricky balancing act to manage

I don't know how you plan to calculate cap, perhaps a ratio of glyph and skillpoint combined versus level. I haven't cracked my head on that logic yet, but wow, that's not going to be easy!

 

Thanks for the extra time Starr, I jumped back on tonight and noticed my avatar on the overland map was waist deep in the map, and the next time he disapeared altogether and then I was stuck, had to log off...

The x86 client started crashing too when I was zoning to a new area... And someone forgot to put in the "empty vials" for cooking, and the "bottles of wine", I can't find any anywhere.... no recipe to make them either...

Could you patch it please, pretty please...

 

You probably shouldn't hold your breath. They haven't done anything about making that stuff available since it was first noticed over the weekend.

 

What does "no wipes" exactly mean?
Does this mean that we get to keep our heroes from now on? Will there be no wipe even for the final release?
What does this mean for the story of the game? Will everyone start the game in Braemar even in the final version? I though that we would arrive at some special place in New Britannia and then be introduced into the world and what is going on... How will this work if there will be no more wipes?