Suggestions from Xan

[Xan]

If possible, the preset Quickslots for new characters should include the Essence gem. Should make it more apparent and easier to find when they need to check Essence reserves or open the Rest Menu.

[Xan]

I came across this as I was planning to include this in my tutorial. Considering the Poor Quality Belt has no useable stats on it, and its materials are easy to collect/find, this BP seems to function purely as introductory. The price, 90gp, seems a bit steep for new players when you consider that they must purchase new armor, weapons, abilities, and AMPs. Suggestion: Drop the price of the BP to about 50gp, make sure the difficulty of the BP starts off at Easy instead of Moderate for a new character, and make the poor quality belt worth 23gp (12gp cloth + 3gp x3 leather + 2gp profit). Atm, it's just worth 1gp... doesn't even pay for the cloth you have to buy.

On that note, the whole of crafting needs to be examined closely for balance, but we'll get to that

[Xan]

A general guideline may help in the balancing of gear new and old... just a few ideas:

• Weapons - Damage and attack bonuses (Ether staves give bonuses to max essence... they may also give bonuses to ether cast time, ether concentration, and elemental resistance)
  
• Shields - AC and HP bonuses; small penalty to max Essence
  
• Body Armor - Damage soak, Essence regen, and base resistance type bonuses; occasionally bonuses or penalties to reload/casting time
  
• Waist (Belts) - HP or max Essence bonus, and physical damage resistance bonus
  
• Neck - AMPs... pretty well figured out as it is
  
• Fingers (Rings) - Variety of effects: bonuses to HP, max ES, elemental resistances, ether casting time, ether concentration, firearm magazine size.
  
• Hands (Gloves) - Affects how well a character does something: bonuses to ether cast time, reload time, attack bonus, hand-to-hand damage, harvesting exp (speaking of, why not gloves that increase manufacturing exp?).
  
• Feet (Boots) - Small elemental or physical damage resistance bonus, perhaps a small dodge AC bonus, HP or max Essence bonus
  
• Back (Cloaks) - Primary source of elemental damage resistance, allowing all characters access to some sort of elemental damage resistance
  
• Head (Helms) - Bonuses to ether concentration, status ailment resistance, the effectiveness of taunt, attack bonus
  

[Xan]

In addition to Syn's mission token idea, and the arena, one solution to the problem players have in a team-based game when they're the only ones on may be to create temporary npc henchmen who can be hired like mercenaries.

Another aspect of the game which might attract interest and help to keep interest is to focus on development of player housing... and open up crafting for players to furnish their houses. (It would definitely give greater need to organic materials)

The quickest and simplest solution though may be in implementing the mission token system.

[Xan]

Asheron's Call led me on long line of memories concerning old video games... and when I thought of Quest for Glory 5: Dragon Fire, this came to me.

So our skills gain experience and level as we use them, right? Well what about doing the same thing with attributes STR, DEX, WIS, and INT? This is even an opportunity to include some new things in the Entertainment District... mini-games designed specifically improve your attributes. As you complete each level of difficulty in these mini-games, your character gains a permanent +1 bonus to the specific attribute up to a maximum of +5.

For a series of games of that time, I remember Quest for Glory always as a very unique experience, that you gained something just by doing almost anything. Try climbing a tree enough and you'll increase your strength. Studying for a while can improve your aptitude for mage. Attempt to walk the tight rope at the thieves guild and you can increase your dexterity. Throw stones at a bird's nest and you can get broken eggs on top of your head, and... er wait, nvm. Heck, even working as a stablehand for an entire day netted you some exp for strength and dexterity.

I'm not saying we have to add it to every facet of the game, but using these mini-games in the entertainment district could be a solution to finding ways to boost ability scores. Additionally, if you want players to have a reason to come back to these minigames (besides the fact that they should be FUN), you can make the attributes lose exp every 24hrs... so if you don't play for a long while, or you don't practice to keep your character in shape, your attributes will suffer and reflect your negligence.

Anyway, just a crazy idea I thought we might steal from an old but cool game series. I won't be hurt if you choose not to use it.

[(,,,) Syn Kitten (,,,)]

Jun 23, 2010 3:32:16 GMT -5 Xan said:

Asheron's Call led me on long line of memories concerning old video games... and when I thought of Quest for Glory 5: Dragon Fire, this came to me.

So our skills gain experience and level as we use them, right? Well what about doing the same thing with attributes STR, DEX, WIS, and INT? This is even an opportunity to include some new things in the Entertainment District... mini-games designed specifically improve your attributes. As you complete each level of difficulty in these mini-games, your character gains a permanent +1 bonus to the specific attribute up to a maximum of +5.

For a series of games of that time, I remember Quest for Glory always as a very unique experience, that you gained something just by doing almost anything. Try climbing a tree enough and you'll increase your strength. Studying for a while can improve your aptitude for mage. Attempt to walk the tight rope at the thieves guild and you can increase your dexterity. Throw stones at a bird's nest and you can get broken eggs on top of your head, and... er wait, nvm. Heck, even working as a stablehand for an entire day netted you some exp for strength and dexterity.

I'm not saying we have to add it to every facet of the game, but using these mini-games in the entertainment district could be a solution to finding ways to boost ability scores. Additionally, if you want players to have a reason to come back to these minigames (besides the fact that they should be FUN), you can make the attributes lose exp every 24hrs... so if you don't play for a long while, or you don't practice to keep your character in shape, your attributes will suffer and reflect your negligence.

Anyway, just a crazy idea I thought we might steal from an old but cool game series. I won't be hurt if you choose not to use it.

Xan you know I love ya but.... ---SWAT---

As much as I have complained about the lack of items that raise ability scores, if we give players the ability to raise them, even if it is just +5. that plus five will cause Zun alot of work, as well as cause players to have uberic characters in areas that are meant for normal people to accomplish. I will explain both points.

More work for Zun.
Currently baddy tiers are COMPLETLY controlled by the available gear sets. AB, DMG, ATKs per round, AC, and Soak being controlled by Zunath allows him to make the enemies in conjunction with the gear. Not only that but many skills, per previous discussions are set up to take modifiers into account to accomplish stronger or weaker tasks. If we all of a sudden allow players to get boosts to their stats it throws off the balance that the gear/baddy ratio has.
Another arguement to this is that on this server we are normal humans/aliens. Base stats for a normal human is 10's down the board, which is what we are. I disagreeumption is that the modifications given by the other gear is either due to the gears properties or the bio-enhancments the AMPS give. Allowing a player to boost a specific attribute point by accomplishing a quest, goal, or winning a game doesn't make sense raising you to a HERO level.

The ability sets that are currently in place, if memory serves me correctly run off of your base stat modifiers. IE - healing spells will do something different with a +1 wisdom mod, Black ether will do the same with a +1 int mod, reputation adjustment will do something with a +1 cha mod, NO CON MOD >>> ...<<< PERIOD! <<~ for those wondering why, it will break you. lvl 40 +1 con mod = +40 HP so thats a no. Str and Dex mods correlate to the weapon ability discs and if they do not they should.

The more you use somethingt he more skilled you get is good. But not ability stats. Lets leave those for the AMPs and Gear.

Sooo.. Don't get mad at me!

[Xan]

Was only an idea, so I wasn't looking for implementation 100% of the way I presented it. I Don't know the best way to implement it. But you're right; making it an easily accessible stat boost may unbalance characters. So what about keeping the mini-games restricted as quests? Each of the quests are restricted to characters with access to various places and/or items/abilities to keep it more of a later-game thing. That, and you're right about the human base 10 stats... so give the stat boosts a different face. Make them the rewards of the quests by giving bio-enhancements or cybernetic implants.

The main thing I'm looking for with this idea is finding a new option to give players who want to increase their stats. That's all.

[Xan]

When we get the Arena up finally, can we create an test NPC to beat on? He should be an enemy that cannot die, cannot move, cannot attack, has 50 HP and 50 ES. He should also be his own neutral faction. When you start attacking him (changing him to hostile), a timer will start. After a full minute or two, he will become invulnerable, gain full health, and change back to neutral (making characters unable to target/attack him further). At this point he will report the average damage per second he took during the minute/two-minute span. After 10 seconds, he becomes vulnerable again, allowing players to repeat the process. This simulator should be in a No-PvP area, possibly a Practice Room of sorts, and the damage simulator could even be a humanoid hologram.

This should give testers the ability to determine if it's worth it to carry certain weapons, abilities, or spells to inflict damage. It should also give us, as developers, hard facts as far as abilities and damage go, which is important for balancing stuff.

Why not expand on the damage simulator and do the same thing with the simulations using damage soak -5 and -10 and elemental resistances.

I know you don't want people min and maxing, but this is a DPS averager which we will be using as *testers*. The game is not at the stage where it needs to be tested to see if it can be done without knowing the min and max of every ability. As mercuryman put it, we're technically still in alpha testing. And when we get to closed beta, you may want to keep the simulators in anyway, expanding on them when we figure out how to get mobs to use the same abilities that players do. When we get to open beta, THEN it's time to see if the game runs smoothly without letting the testers see the mechanics going on inside everything. Open beta will bring fresh players who won't know the difference.

[Xan]

So I was playing around in the toolset and checked out a tileset called VirtuNet. Pretty devoid of features, but I still thought it looked kind of cool. Then an idea hit me.

I'm thinking we could make it a remote meeting place for players to socialize and communicate over long distances while remaining IC (In-Character). Their characters activate their cybernetic link to the VirtuNet and they lose consciousness of the world around them (their character remains on the spot).

Each time they enter the VirtuNet, they must select an "avatar". This is done by having them possess a base model created in the VirtuNet and then customizing that model's appearence.. They should be able to appear any way they like in the VirtuNet... this is, after all, virtual reality. This creates opportunities as well for RPing hidden identities.

When the player wishes, he or she can leave the VirtuNet, returning to their character's real body, and the avatar is removed from the game. For characters wishing to use the same appearance again in the VirtuNet, it is probably best if players have the option to store a number of avatars they have designed for future use. If a character's real body dies while surfing the VirtuNet, he or she will immediately leave the avatar and the VirtuNet, returning to their corpse.

As a note: VirtuNet should probably be No PVP to avoid problems between avatars there.

As an idea for the future: There might even be a quest or two to do in the VirtuNet, or, as a further twist, characters may become "hacked" and stuck in the VirtuNet for a time.

[Xan]

As most of us know by now, SOO is pretty complex. Overwhelming even, to new players. So we've needed to come up with ways to present the complex systems, which help make the game so interesting and different from others, to players in a manner that is simple and easy to follow. Most new players will enjoy it more if they can just jump right in. I shall list a few things which can be developed and implemented to help with this.

• Guidebook (a walkthrough tutorial which encourages the player to explore the world they will be playing in)
  
• Academy (a series of tutorials which explain in greater depth some of the more complex parts of the game)
  
• Library (the books here should be sorted alphabetically and easily search-able for a particular category [Lore, FAQ, Guides]. There should be books here that act as a reference later when needing to look up info on things like class abilities or locations where players can find common crafting ingredients)
  
• Starting Packages (after purchasing such a package, the character can activate it and create several items in their inventories which are suited ideally for a character of that class)
  
• An option to skip all that rubbish, grab your starter pack, and go through the jungle and kill stuff!!! (admit it, you all know someone like this. Maybe you're one of them ;D )
  

The locations of the library and the academy should be apparent from the start (should the player wish to study, rather than gallivanting off). The guidebook should continue to appear in each new character's inventory, and it should also be added to the library for anyone who happens to "lose" their book.