Show us what Specialization Is Doing

I would love to be able to hold down control, like we can do with a crafted weapon or armor and see what bonuses are being given on a skill that we have specialization on it.

I'd like to know.

 

some of them do, but only some. for instance:



on the other hand, i have no idea how much the percent window on coup de grace is changing.

 

@Alley Oop

For Thrust, does the chance to add a healing modifier increase with the level of specialization? Maybe Nelzie also means some specificity to show you how your progression for Specialization is affecting the skill per skill point you put in the Specialization.

 

that 5% is built into the description text, and that's static. it must vary the duration.

 

I opened a bug on the coup de grace tooltip as it should update with specialization.
Most skills have a blurb about what specialization does for them, but in general the tooltips arent very good and this transfers to spec.

 

Would not be at all surprised if it's bugged

 

well the issue is I dont know if they backed out the coup de grace change or the tooltip doesnt update... never got an answer.

 

It would be nice to see more statistics on your paperdoll. I know that this is counter to LB's core tenants of what makes a good game. That's a shame, because when Ultima Online finally expanded the displayed core statistics, it brought a nice amount of detail to an otherwise overly-simplistic presentation of the core statistics. I felt then, as I would now, that being able to see actual, effective numbers for things like Critical Hit Chance presented as an actual, accurate modifier. Not a loose calculation that we don't understand the efficacy of or not. As it is currently believed to be implemented, Critical Hit Chance (total cumulative) is designed in a way that the maximum attainable with skills at 120 and equipment crafted, is not good, and certainly NOT effective at designing an entire build around. Not only does that seem wrong, it seems poorly designed. Why kneecap any type of build before it even APPROACHES an overpowered state? So what if someone can hit you with a critical hit exactly 50% of the time, that's the way magic spells critical hit ME from other players and monsters, why can't I have equal opportunity as a swordsman or archer? Not ranting, just being direct and realistic. The "balances" which we tend to see as a "fix" is often worse of an implementation, clearly not "fixed" as true intention would indicate..

I think the problem with this "nerfing" or "move from one extreme to the other" is an aspect of the balancing coming from someone not in touch with playing a non-God-mode character, or, from testing a specific issue from a very narrow context. I believe strongly that the best play testers are those that start from zero experience and level up through the natural curve. If you do not experience that process, you cannot make measured changes that maintain game balance. Rather, you end up worsening an already broken situation. Just my thoughts. Some other statistics that I personally would LOVE to see in a more simplistic and intuitively displayed fashion ON THE PAPERDOLL would be:

(This is obviously not an exhaustive list, just some of the ones that I believe would REALLY ADD to a players experience, brand new, or level 150.)

Dodge, presented as a chance or modifier as well, as opposed to adding up a number that doesn't mean anything to anyone who can't see the code for calculating Dodge Chance.

Similarly, I think the opportunity to Miss an attack should be brought back into the realm of reliability. This could possibly be an alteration or straight up, renaming of Dodge to Hit Chance. Someone can now have a reliable and consistent idea of how likely they are to hit a target, challenging or not, regardless. I would never fight a dragon if I knew the cold hard fact that I have only 10% of a chance to dodge a dragon's attack of ANY sort, however... If I had a 50% chance to dodge every single type of attack... Then I would at least TRY to solo that thing. Hit Chance should be a thing that I can gauge instead of spending 3 hours trying to kill something that I will never have a chance to kill.

Combine Attunement and Resist into one statistic. Calculate with the same number. Simplify. One number relates to both resist and attack efficacy for Each Circle. Call it Attunement if you like, but have one number for both aspects, resisting and attacking/casting a spell. The character sheet could display just the short name of the Circle and have the number behind it, possibly represented as an integer bounded by (-100,100). That seems like an easier calculation to work with after the fact, if/when new spells are implemented in the future.

I want to see a larger range of primary stats, also. As it stands last I played, practically everyone seasoned was between 500 and 1000 Health, with some obvious high-end outliers, but very few. There should NOT, IMHO, be so much emphasis on equipment, and so LITTLE contribution from skills to things like Focus and Health. The way it is now, items are king of determination of a character's play style and capability. So much more-so than skills are deterministic of the same measure. I feel that the perfect scenario is that they are reversed in importance, so that skill development carries the majority of determination of base statistics and other such things, and items remain significant, yet, not primarily so. Say a 66-33 split in favor of skills. I feel this could and would address the "issue" of everyone having the same skills, simply using them differently. That may be categorically "classless" but it is not remotely indicative of "fun" after you hit level 100. Something needs to change in order to MAINTAIN replayability for any amount of time spent on the same character, past level 100. I see there being a significant improvement to the Game if a high end player could legitimately skill and equip for less health and more focus and find success with such a build.

I think the same of someone choosing to Minimize 2 of the 3 Base Statistics and Maximize the third Base Stat (300/50/50) for some actual benefit over a balanced approach of Maximizing 2 Base Stats (200/200/50), or Balancing All 3 (100/100/100, per se). I think there should be layers of decision-making required to design a play style. This would create a demand and a purpose for multiple characters. Trust me, I'm right.

Since I don't want to drone on forever, there will be just one more idea. I want to stimulate a USEFUL REACTION to these ideas, not vitriol or flat-out being ignored:

I'd like to see the implementation of a new statistic, and this is going to seem stupid or ingenious, depending on you as an individual who reads this: I want to see Character Age implemented as the STAT-IEST STAT OF THEM ALL!!

Let me explain. It will be worth your time to consider it.

Player Age will get calculated in New Britannia Years from the time the character was created. Can be figured easily for the entire character database from creation and then set in stone. Why would anyone care or be interested in this seemingly pointless aspect of our character? Well, I'll tell you. Everyone will care about their Character's Age if they can only live to be 100 New Britannian Years old. Avatar's aren't immortal, they are time travellers. They still age in their base timeline. I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole, however.

The gameplay aspects and considerations would possibly entail, when a character is no longer playable and a new one must replace it. Call it the New Britannian version of "New Game Plus" mode that you may have seen in other games. Let's say you get to carryover something from your previous character, to JUMPSTART development of a new one. Something that is UNIQUE and UNOBTAINABLE through any other means, short of retiring a 100-year-old Character.

A possibly superior alternative to When Character Created would be using existing Player Level. So when a character hits Player Level 100, they are forced to reincarnate.

Think of it as reincarnation where you retain aspects of your "past life". This is important to consider because it will further add to the replayability and perpetuity of players. If you can, let us say, retire your old character, and start the new one with 10% of your accumulated experience from before AND (more important) carryover the Total Virtue Score, doesn't THAT seem like a FASCINATING reason to play INDEFINITE ITERATIONS of this 100-New-Britannian-year lifecycle?

Then you could enjoy the fruits of tuning your Overall Virtue Alignment to exactly as you envision roleplaying your character. The consequences of your "past life" follow you forever as you "reincarnate", and you have to work even harder to change them if you wish to. Starting a new character would be a reprieve from the monotony of endless GRINDING and give a semi-rewarding reason to DO SO.

I'm about tapped out of ideas at the moment, heatstroke is a sonovabitch.

Please seriously consider at least SOME input from this missive, @DarkStarr @Lord British @Chris @Chaox @Undone @Cerus @Portalarium

I've been in love with Ultima since I was 7 and my Dad played Ultima 6 as one of his very first PC Gaming experiences. Ultima and I have shared a nostalgia and a fondness that is only (arguably) eclipsed by the early adventure games of Sierra text-parsers and point-and-clicks. Nothing else I have ever played has been as transformative for me as the Ultima series, far be it from me to dwell on the efforts of a long-dead and soulless studio like Sierra.

We can do this. It's not over.

 

Nope... a set 5% for 30 seconds despite thrust or specialization level.

 

well, that's disappointing.

 

It likely increases the proc chance, which is still fairly low even at 80 skill in specialization.

 

I just want to know what the difference is with or without specialization so that I can have a better understanding of whether or not maintaining a specialization is worth the effort/energy in focusing on that particular skill.