Individuality in zOMG!

[tangocat777]

Valheita

gataka

I have a hard time seeing how you could balance these. Attack has the most perceived value and impact, Healing comes second with less of each, Buffs are very hard to judge ( the consequences are way too numerous ), and improving CCs in such a way... You just can't apply 30% to each and expect them to be equally interesting. And figuring out how to balance them is nightmarish.

I would argue that Attack is the least useful of the skills for most.

Killing a monster is easy, staying alive to kill it - that's hard.

Staying alive is the least concern to a crew that has every buff. in most cases you'll stay above 50% health just by letting healing halo do its thing. Heck, you can solo Stone Coatl on hard with Halo as your only healing ring. Attack is really important for farming efficiency. Not only would it make killing things faster, you'd be able to save stamina by having more damage per hit.
Getting orbs to drop from every chest is the next most important thing.

[Valheita]

tangocat777

Valheita

gataka

I have a hard time seeing how you could balance these. Attack has the most perceived value and impact, Healing comes second with less of each, Buffs are very hard to judge ( the consequences are way too numerous ), and improving CCs in such a way... You just can't apply 30% to each and expect them to be equally interesting. And figuring out how to balance them is nightmarish.

I would argue that Attack is the least useful of the skills for most.

Killing a monster is easy, staying alive to kill it - that's hard.

Staying alive is the least concern to a crew that has every buff. in most cases you'll stay above 50% health just by letting healing halo do its thing. Heck, you can solo Stone Coatl on hard with Halo as your only healing ring. Attack is really important for farming efficiency. Not only would it make killing things faster, you'd be able to save stamina by having more damage per hit.

Well yeah, but that's only if you're crewed. Healing/Buffing is probably more valuable for most soloers, or maybe just me.

You might be able to, I couldn't even take Coatl on Easy with Bandage >.>;;

[gataka]

Yar, it's you. My point still holds: not easy to balance, not perceived as equally interesting. More cookies with the same shape.

[Valheita]

*shrugs* Then those who pile it into attack will possess the SADD builds of the next generation, and the world will move on.

Yes?

[tangocat777]

Valheita

tangocat777

Valheita

gataka

I have a hard time seeing how you could balance these. Attack has the most perceived value and impact, Healing comes second with less of each, Buffs are very hard to judge ( the consequences are way too numerous ), and improving CCs in such a way... You just can't apply 30% to each and expect them to be equally interesting. And figuring out how to balance them is nightmarish.

I would argue that Attack is the least useful of the skills for most.

Killing a monster is easy, staying alive to kill it - that's hard.

Staying alive is the least concern to a crew that has every buff. in most cases you'll stay above 50% health just by letting healing halo do its thing. Heck, you can solo Stone Coatl on hard with Halo as your only healing ring. Attack is really important for farming efficiency. Not only would it make killing things faster, you'd be able to save stamina by having more damage per hit.

Well yeah, but that's only if you're crewed. Healing/Buffing is probably more valuable for most soloers, or maybe just me.

You might be able to, I couldn't even take Coatl on Easy with Bandage >.>;;

Granted, getting everybody in a crew to bring two buffs is easy in theory, hard in getting people to change their habits.
And it occurs to me that the general goal in MMOGs is to be social and have fun. If you want to be social and give abilities that are useful to soloers, by all means, but keep in mind that there are many soloers that use nothing but attacks, so being able to increase the range at which you can ill something before it kills you is a big deal for many new players. However mindless it may be.....

[gataka]

Valheita

*shrugs* Then those who pile it into attack will possess the SADD builds of the next generation, and the world will move on.

Yes?

If balance is achieved, yar.

And everyone should try SAD/D and never stick to a particular build. I'm probably the only one who does that.

[Valheita]

Well, the alternative to a straight level up would be to unlock skills.

Rank 1 Attack -> 10% Extra Damage
Rank 2 Attack -> Decreased Cooldown.
Rank 3 Attack -> Decreased Cost.

Rank 1 Healing -> 10% Extra Healing
Rank 2 Healing -> Decreased Hate Building
Rank 3 Healing -> 50% Extra Healing

Rank 1 Buffer -> Main Effect 10%
Rank 2 Buffer -> Secondary Effect 10%
Rank 3 Buffer -> ???

Something like that. Don't much like it though, needlessly complicated. I don't feel that zOMG! is a game where balance is really so essential that the original approach couldn't be used.

[gataka]

All the options should be worth taking or there's no point in having them.
Adrenaline doesn't get much love, no need to introduce a new one that will cost Gold to part with.
The original approach can be taken as long as the players feel none of the choice is inherently less useful.
I don't think this can be done. I'll try and think of a way. What are the goals I must satisfy?

[Valheita]

Well, given that it's built upon the ring system, given a suitable variety of rings, there'll be a suitable level of usefulness.

Similarly, players will always feel that some are less useful. I've talked to a great many players who feel that Buffs are completely useless.

[Aesop The Raconteur]

Valheita

Well, given that it's built upon the ring system, given a suitable variety of rings, there'll be a suitable level of usefulness.

Similarly, players will always feel that some are less useful. I've talked to a great many players who feel that Buffs are completely useless.

Espeon touches the Thread inappropriately

Or that the healer class is useless.
Hot damn that makes me want to punch the ******** out of people.

Anyway;
A possible way to make each ring similarly (loose term there) useful would be to make each ring have a self buff on it. Like if you're wearing rock armor - a health or defense boost would be most obvious.
Eh. I haven't been thinking too hard on this still, but I'm sure once I get a lot of time on my hands I'll fix up some long drawn out plan to fix all these ring/playerskill/individuality problems d:
And then you can shoot me down because I'm chill with that. d:

Another possibility is to create a more defined ring set system.
I'm sure that if each and every combination of four different rings (order not important) were to affect your stats, then people would wear a certain ring they might find useless if the buff they get from the set is useful to them.
Hah. Watch people start carrying adrenaline. d:
Thread feels awkward and runs away!

[gataka]

You forgot Context.

Aye, it's all relative. Weird players.

Now, you give design directive :3

[Valheita]

You're to design 3 ranks of bonuses which can be applied to blanket ring archetypes (Healing, Attacking, Debuff, Crowd Control, Buffing).

Your bonuses should be kept simple, and refrain from being unprecedented where possible.

Your idea should further be built in such a way that the investment is worthwhile even for sets of rings which are very limited in scope (there are 1/10th or less of existing rings that fall under that archetype).

Something like that?

[gataka]

Valheita

You're to design 3 ranks of bonuses which can be applied to blanket ring archetypes (Healing, Attacking, Debuff, Crowd Control, Buffing).

Your bonuses should be kept simple, and refrain from being unprecedented where possible.

Your idea should further be built in such a way that the investment is worthwhile even for sets of rings which are very limited in scope (there are 1/10th or less of existing rings that fall under that archetype).

Something like that?

Aye, capt'n. That'll do. I think play styles would be better than ring archetypes, but it's not meh job to think.

Wait.

[Valheita]

gataka

Aye, capt'n. That'll do. I think play styles would be better than ring archetypes, but it's not meh job to think.

Wait.

Well... I'm not really trying to build classes >.<;;

I also think that ring archetypes are more precedented - since they are listed as such within the menus, however dubious the devs definitions are xd

[gataka]

Valheita

gataka

Aye, capt'n. That'll do. I think play styles would be better than ring archetypes, but it's not meh job to think.

Wait.

Well... I'm not really trying to build classes >.<;;

I also think that ring archetypes are more precedented - since they are listed as such within the menus, however dubious the devs definitions are xd

I've come to understand their choices. Sorta. I must use their listing?