7 replies to this topic

[Neofito]

I was wondering if there will be something like this in the skills system.
What I mean is:
Same school interaction (let's say magic school)

• Mob is under a DOT burn spell.
• A Fire Ball spell is casted on this mob doing damage and increasing the DOT in a 10%.

Different schools interaction (let's say magic/melee schools)

• Mob is under a freezing spell.
• A slash skill is used on this mob, and due to the freezing state of the mob the base damage of the slash skill is increased a 15%.

[Crasken]

Something like that would be interesting indeed as it allows players to plan more advanced combat strategies and makes finding out the best ones more laborious. There are always players making actual research on how to optimize their strategy to pull out best DPS rates etc, and it would be nice if it required something more than repeated casting of that basic fireball spell. ( mage example, but I'm sure you get the idea c: )

[Xero]

Yes, our skills will have these sort of interactions. I'm not certain off the top of my head if there are "school crossovers", but "same school" interactions are definitely in place. We also have situations where some skills would stack a status effect over a mob, with other skills unleashing extra damage based on the amount in that SE stack. If memory serves me correctly that mechanic is used in the "Assassin" skill tree.

Like you guys said, it allows for tactics and strategies to come into play, rather than spamming the same thing over and over.

[Neofito]

Great news, thanks Xero .
I would like have the "schools crossovers", but by other hand I think that it would lead to have certain char builds/paths overpowered by the cuore design of the game, what would mean that the "experimental builds/paths" would be penaliced, and how I've told in other post it's an undesired game feature (at least for me).

[Savanc]

Another way to avoid spamming the same attack over and over is making certain opponents partly immune to certain attacks.
That way all attacks have strengths and weaknesses so with different creatures you will find different attacks more suitable.

It makes little sense to try to kill a fire elemental with fire, an elephant with tiny darts or a butterfly with a bludgeon.

[Xero]

We originally had a really complicated system like that in place a few years ago. Damage & Resistance was broken into Fire/Ice/Nature/Blood/Light/Dark (for magic) and Crushing/Piercing/Slashing (for melee/ranged). A problem came with available mobs. Since the Eldevin Kingdom (main area for first 40 levels) is biased towards Nature, there are more Nature mobs available right away. So during testing a few years ago we found everyone would choose Blood spells to oppose Nature (think of the opposing forces as life and death) since it was a greater overall benefit. It was a bit of a nightmare to balace, and feedback was that it was too complicated.

What we've done is simplify it, so we have melee, ranged and magic damage. We've still grouped say fire spells to work together for example, to give added bonus damages etc. Straight away it was easier to balance, and feedback has been very positive in that we now have a really enjoyable combat system, with some depth there to allow tactics to come into play. I think we've stuck a nice balance.

[Savanc]

Balance is good.
Personally I don't mind a bit of complicatedness in games but I guess it doesn't appeal to most others.



Btw, is the combat / character upgrade system based on a system that promotes specialisation or one that promotes diversification?

With that I mean if players are given incentives to:

• Specialise, in for example Fire magic because the spells work together, and the further you learn Fire magic the much better you improve your combat skills.
  
  • For example, if a player has 1 level of Fire magic then he does an X amount of damage, if he has 2 levels in fire magic then he does 3X damage, if he has 3 levels of Fire magic then he does 6X damage, and if he has level 4 Fire magic then he does 10X damage. This way the damage increases each level per level (compared to the previous level the first gives +X damage, the second +2X, the third +3X and the fourth +4X; instead of +X at all levels). This will promote specialisation into one chain of damage (magic/melee/ranged).
• Diversify, in for example a Paladin type that combines melee damage with a sort of white magic (healing, purification, turning undead, etc.).
  
  • It could be that the bonuses of specialisation are diminishing (in the example of Fire magic above it could be X damage, 1.9X damage, 2.7X damage, 3.4X damage for the 4 levels, which are diminishing bonuses for each consecutive level (compared to the previous level the first gives +X damage, the second +0.9X, the third +0.8X and the fourth +0.7X; instead of +X at all levels)).
    
  • It could also be that the costs of specialisation are rather high (for example a level 1 skill costs 1 skill point, a level 2 skill costs 2 skill points, a level 3 skill costs 3 skill points, and so on). If you have to spend a lot of skill points just to get from level 3 to level 4, while the cost of getting from level 0 to 1 in other areas is much lower then you'd be more likely to go for a lot of lower level skills than an expensive high level skill (provided that the extra level 1 skills are beneficial additions to your character).
    
  • And it might be that skills across the three damage paths strengthen each other (for example, a healer who knows melee damage is better at healing melee damage injuries than he is at healing other injuries, or a ranger can benefit from Nature magic to track down creatures), or skills on diverse paths within the three damage paths strengthen each other (for example Cold and Air magic can be combined to a snow storm, or Fire and Earth magic make a nice volcano).
  • In all these cases players are encouraged to create a character with diverse skills because the benefits of such a character outweigh the benefits/costs of a specialised character.

[Xero]

There are actually benefits to both specialising and diversifying your character. Specialising your character will allow your to unlock better skills giving greater damage/healing/etc., whereas diversifying may restrict you from getting those top-end skills, but allows you choose a varierty of others to enhance you in other ways.

For example, if you specialised in the Assassin type you could unlock some really brutal top-end attacks. You may decide to lean into the Paladin type instead, sacrificing those attacks to become an Assassin-Paladin hybrid. This would allow you to backup your firepower with the help of some white magic. How much you lean from one to another is your choice. You could even lean into 3 or 4 types, although you start to saturate the benefits at that point.

At this point mixing doesn't give hybrid abilities (like a healer who does melee being better at healing melee injuries), but it's definitely something we should consider. I like your idea!