Everyone needs to check out this thread.

[Ferrum]

Here is a couple interesting....quotes.

These quotes are from Devs.


Casual gamers have always been catered to in Conan all through the development, the amount of resources put into making it friendly far outnumber the people who have ever touched a "raid". We have an approx 9 day played to 80 leveling curve designed so that even a casual player can get there in a few months

9 days. Think about that for a moment, and then remember how much the core of HA plays per day. :eek:

Second, and this one bothers me more.


we have quest designers and dialogue writers burning the midnight oil for years to make content and the only thing you can choose to complain about is "omg do i get the uberest of the uber by doing something else if theres another way someone besides me can get whaa whaa

What does he mean exactly? It almost seems like he is knocking hard core players.

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=37953

[Fraktal]

I think he is knocking people who just do quests for rewards.

He basically says his crew puts alot of time into the content/quests, and he wants people to appreciate that more than the uber lewts.

Thats my take.

Of course, being me, I don't care whether I rescue a kitten from a tree or burn a witch at the stake, if the reward sucks.. sorry!

[Ferrum]

Ok I can accept that..

But, 9 days to 80? W T F lol

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While one can certainly make the case for having elements one doesn't like in a game, the claim of us "losing our way" is not even remotely accurate. Our vision for the game has -not- changed, nor have 99% of the core mechanics or features of the game over the last many years.

1) Nothing has changed about gear compared to the plethora of statements I have made about it over the last couple years.
2) The combat system is still mechanically and fundamentally the same from a gameplay perspective.
3) Stealth still works exactly how I have described it in the past.
4) The Battlekeep design has been unchanged for nearly two years now.

I have made a lot of posts about most of these elements, but if people wish to disregard them I suppose it is their decision to do so. Either way, speculation about what may be "changing" about the game doesn't make it actually change, and as creative as some of the speculation has been at times, very little of it is accurate.

I'm more than happy to answer questions about the various topics--and have on many occasions--but posts like these aren't very productive. It would be far better to simply get clarification on how stealth works (it isn't inviso-stealth at all, and just because you are "trying" to stealth doesn't mean people can't see you) for instance, rather than leaping to the conclusion that something has been dramatically changed.

Fact of the matter is, I play WoW--among many other MMOs--and I play Conan daily. Playing Conan feels very little, if anything, like playing WoW. While people can speculate to the contrary, that's just a simple piece of info I can offer you. Certainly, there are any number of "similar" mechanics, being that it is the same genre of games, but from a feeling and gameplay perspective, the combat experience in Conan is considerably different.

At any rate, I'm sure people will come to their own conclusions about things at present, but realistically one will have to play the end product to experience anything in an accurate way. Until then I'm happy to try to clarify what I can for those who haven't.
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Originally Posted by tkis View Post
Then please do so Jayde, i would really love some facts, things got so fuzzy and cryptic lately:

1: will it be possible to run the game using the old combat system, not remapping hotkeys to resemble it ?

2: will it be possible to change your mind mid-combo and pick a different one (e.g. instead of q123 do q121) without loosing any combo progress ?

3: what is the actual meaning of directional attacks by now ? is the combat solely based on combos, so trying to do directional attacks outside of a combo string is as pointless as autoattacking without using special powers in current MMORPGS ?
Currently in the demos and such, #1 and #2 are disabled as combo "protection" however, as far as I know, there has always been the intention to allow one to do things fully manually if they wanted to.

Although, I would note that the example of #2 never really happened in the old system, simply because there isn't that much overlap between the sequences. Even when you had 8 combos equipped, the chance of having a 3rd or 4th level overlap with 5 directions available is exceptionally small.

Another thing I would note is that by not using openers, you pretty much lose the ability to get instant effects from openers. This was a point where the old system was severely lacking--sometimes you need to do something right away, instead of waiting for the entire combo to play out.

However, from a pure gameplay experience standpoint, I can't say that playing with openers feels any different at all to me. It's just another thing to consider when I'm attacking a target. It's not as if in the old system that one randomly button-mashed directions after playing a while--you set out with a purpose, to either attack a certain direction or do a certain combo.

As for the meaning of directional attacks, they are lower damage than combos and combos are still the emphasis--however, you do have to perform 3-4 directional attacks -while- doing a combo, so they see heavy use anyhow. There are still directional weaknesses, directional blocking tokens/evasion, and the shielding system to consider...so directions still play an important part in how combat works. Players are still stamina-limited in regard to combos, though, so one may have to rely on directional attacks if they fail to have enough stamina available to perform combos.

Mashing directional attacks was never optimal, however. Combos have always been the key part of the combat system, so I don't really feel anything has really changed in that regard.
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Originally Posted by Fez View Post
Jayde,

Can you comment on the stealth system? From the Assassin video, the guy does pretty much pop in and out of stealth at will, even when out in the open. Are there any constraints on where you can turn on stealth, or is it more like you can turn it on, but if you're out in the open it's worthless?

Thank you
As I stated in my first post, just because one is attempting to stealth doesn't mean it's actually useful. Stealth doesn't work the same as WoW, and that's actually the "problem" here--as people are leaping to the conclusion that it does, and basing it off that perspective.

It's quite possible that in most cases, if someone was stealthing in the open areas of the playfield there, other people would still see them. Just because you are in stealth mode doesn't make you automatically a ninja--there are a lot of detection rolls going on in regard to the "light" level of where you are standing, your hiding skills, and the perception skills of the people around you.

You won't get "out of stealth" because people see you, but you do have an indicator (not sure if it was present in the demo version, though) as to if people can see you.
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Originally Posted by Frush View Post
- So basicly "normal" attack are gone? and are replaced with combo starter aka you bind your combo starter to q123e?
They aren't gone. You can leave them exposed if you want. Even if you "overlap" the mapping, you will still be doing them while performing combo sequences, and you would still be performing the base directional attack if the combo mapped to that direction was on cooldown or you did not have enough stamina to activate the combo.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
Why no responce to:

1. then why has there been ABSOLUTLY NO INFO about ALTERNATIVES to raiding for uber PvE/Raid type gear????
Why would there be any info about it at this point in time? I've already been very clear over a long, long period of time what the loot transition is like, how much (or in this case, how little) high-end gear is an upgrade over normal or crafted gear, and many other related things. As I said in my first post, nothing about itemization has changed AT ALL.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
The “drifting from the AoC vision” that I, and apparently others, are seeing has to do with an adult game for ADULTS (that means the teenage raidcrowd would have far less of a priority for you), with a new dynamic combat system (that seems less new and dynamic with every release).
Last time I checked, most of the devs were adults with jobs.

Either way, there are a billion topics (and have been in the past) in regard to itemization, and given that nothing has changed now or recently about it I would rather not get into a big, pointless "casual vs. hardcore items" debate at this time.
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Originally Posted by Randoms View Post
Main issue: bindable combo starters to Q123E. Why is this a good idea? What if I want to simply start smashing the left side of an opponent by pressing [e] and [3], without starting a combo? How can I simply just take swings at the enemy, I want the choice to -not- start a combo!

Is the only way of dodging this, to map combo starters to 4-0 ? That is also a problem, as it is out of reach.

Please tell me you are looking at alternate routes for doing this! Like switch button, that switches the functions of the 1-3 keys, or something of the likes, cause right now, as seen from videos and player descriptions, the interface is very messy (I don't mean graphically)
I'd say that aiming to do that would be somewhat of an "advanced" tactic, so it's probably something that would require a more fine-tuned keyboard setup. (Most of the time, you probably -will- want to use a combo...especially when soloing or doing "normal" types of things.)

But, to go into your question, mapping 4-6 and Shift-4-6 for combos would be options, as would be mapping Shift-Q123E to normal attacks, for instance. There are a lot of potential options for those who want to play with their controls and set up a more customized UI/bar setup.

The controls and UI are always things we will be tweaking based on making sure things are as smooth as possible to play. In the end, a UI is a facilitator--and if the UI is blocking access to the mechanics, it will be tweaked to make sure it doesn't. We've already tweaked many things about it in the last week, down to the way running attacks interact with the combat queue, changing the window of the combo chain highlight while moving, and many other things to make the game control in a more fluid way. It's really a complex and touchy topic, but we will always be doing our best to make sure it plays well and is fun.
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Originally Posted by Rahxephon View Post
So I'm wondering Jayde. Whats your key setup for say a melee class?
Q123E I'm assuming these are dedicated to performing combos regardless of what your combo initiator is. But do you yourself use Q123E to initiate combos as well?
I haven't totally tweaked my settings for the new UI yet, since they have been working on it over the last few weeks and it's not totally finished yet. Probably won't get down and start really playing with stuff for a couple more weeks.

Preferably, I'd probably have Q123E mapped to short-cooldown DPS/debuff/buff combo-starters, with Shift- for using base attacks, 4 being my reactive attack trigger, and 5-7 being longer-cooldown "rare" combos (like the 60s CD stun for Barbarians, or the 45s CD knockback) that I don't want to trigger accidentally.

If I was playing a steath class, I'd probably re-map the stealth key to ~ for easy access.

I'm known for really tinkering with my control setups a lot, though, so time will tell what I end up with.
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All I can say is that the reports of the WoWification of beta are greatly exaggerated.
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Originally Posted by Stiler View Post
Yea, but still if the effects of a combo are instant, is the "instant effect" just some small part of the combo or what exactly is instant?
Currently, using the starter does 50% more damage to that single attack than a normal directional, and -may- have a small initial effect. However, if you don't finish the combo chain the combo will still go on 50% of its cooldown.

This is likely something we will tweak, although having the freedom to design instant abilities is something that I personally like as a designer, and felt was lacking from the old system. It brings a bit more strategy to the table.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
please tell me you can shift+click+drag all GUI aspects so I can move that damn annoying yellow bar somewhere other than dead center
That is placeholder, and added a few days before GC as the castbar hadn't been integrated into the new GUI yet.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
All that could go wrong, the signs and portends of AoC’s mediocritization, broken promises, lies, and misleading statements.

Lets break it all down…

Gear:

The “raiders get PvE/PvP gear but crafting is as good for PvP” is not a good sign, its bull… for one thing we’ve heard that song and dance before, it was called WoW beta, and we ALL know how that worked out. IF [and that’s is a BIG if] FC holds true to that it will be a slight improvement over the WoW/EQ dynamic of item centricity, but only slight.

What happened to the love for the casual players that this game was supposedly targeting? Where are the chain quests for the uber gear? Someone who can’t spend 6 hours at one sitting in a raid still is willing to do 6 hours worth of work in 2 hour blocks (or whatever).

Why have we heard NOTHING in that avenue?

If FC is already pandering to what they and the gaming industry has acknowledged as a SLIVER of the market, how are we to think that anything else but the “WoW-epic” paradigm will return in AoC… where is the love for the adults with families? Or just the adults with jobs, so can at best only raid occasionally on the weekend, but who have no qualms about putting the effort for the reward, just not in on big block of time?

ALL assurances have been to pander to the handful of vocal whining raiders… “RAID = both, craft = ONLY” NOTHING in the opposite direction.

Combat:

It’s got its threads, but this is supposed to be comprehensive so I’m going to cover it here. Its being watered down at every turn, and while it MAY still be innovative, its certainly won’t be AS innovative. I defiantly agree with Enarion that this is “don’t upset the fruitbasket” thinking… while innovation is risk, where there is risk there is reward, where there is mediocrity there is apathy.

Stealth:

Seriously, WTF? I’m pretty sure we can dig up “no stealthing in front of people” or “no stealthing in an open field in broad daylight” from Athelan and Jayde, yet here we are with the “inviso-steath”… in Shadowbane there are at least ways to flush people out or break it… What about in AoC? Will Rangers have a “stalk invis” power? A “pop-stealther” to flush them out? Will DoTs and AoE’s break/prevent invis?

This is really crap, all the crying about "lying" over the delay should have been reserved for this.

Battlekeeps:

Seriously, it WILL change… Funcom WILL have to patch in a new way for BK system to work. Anyone who had played Shadowbane knows that the way its setup know one or two big guilds, one at least will be some ARAC game hopping zerg guild, will dominate a server or two and something will have to be changed to make the system more workable.

HERE IS THE QUESTION: Will this be done BEFORE people have gotten fed up and migrating servers leaving it a ghost town/canceled their accounts, or will it be done AFTER when it’s too little too late? Now, that estimation could change once I get a hands on, but experience teaches me otherwise.

If the stays true to what has been said this time, it will still be a fun game that will go through some serious heartache and have to make some changes, but it hasn’t stayed true to the last batch of promises, so what are we to think now?

I’m not saying “AoC HAS lost its way and WILL fail” I saying it COULD and MIGHT, and all signs point to OMGWTFBBQ Clusterf**k.
I am not sure what information about Border Kingdoms that you are specifically referring to that has made you go OMG 1 guild will rule everything flame flame flame. Maybe if you were more subjective, or objective I could actually give you a decent response.

Everyone has access to stealth, in addition everyone has access to perception, this has always been this way, this means shockingly enough anyone can detect stealth players if they train the skill, the fact that the classes setup for Leipzig didnt have this does not mean this went away.

Part of the reason why Crafted items are important is because they will be able to craft those items that have the PvP specific stat modifications that can be more important than their PvE counterparts.

Casual gamers have always been catered to in Conan all through the development, the amount of resources put into making it friendly far outnumber the people who have ever touched a "raid". We have an approx 9 day played to 80 leveling curve designed so that even a casual player can get there in a few months, we have quest designers and dialogue writers burning the midnight oil for years to make content and the only thing you can choose to complain about is "omg do i get the uberest of the uber by doing something else if theres another way someone besides me can get whaa whaa" Maybe its just I see where the blood sweat and tears are applied when it comes to who works on what on this project but this is seriously something you need to stop worrying about.

The recent changes in the combat system and UI are just that changes, another iteration. This is iteration 8 or so I believe for the combat system and it will change again. The biggest issues I have with the limited experience I have with the newest stuff is I dont like the UI I miss my combat rose, and it just doesnt feel as comfortable or unique to me. Granted like all new stuff I expect there to be a combat revision 8.2 or 8.3 or 8.7 within a matter of weeks knowing how we work on this stuff from experience.

Plus you are basing all of this off one minor now public hands on part of the game. There is nothing saying that the stuff seen at GC is complete, far from it, the playfield could have been missing the lightmap needed to make stealth not work everywhere, the characters could be lacking perception in their buff scripts, yada yada yada the list goes on and on. If you want to sit on a corner bathing yourself in ashes and proclaiming the end of the world fine, but the rest of us have a game to finish.
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Unread Aug 24th, 2007, 23:00:15 #196
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Originally Posted by Acidbaron View Post
Athelan since you replied to the crafting/gear part bit,

Is there a Durability or decay to destruction system in place as current info/dev quotes doesn't say much give a real "yes" or "no".

Thanks in advance.
We have not at this time incorporated item decay or durability into the death system or money sinks for the game. However I believe that the crafted gear will probably be non tradeable once equipped and you won't be able to swap the stats so you will require more pieces to make different set of gear (like HP, PvP attack rating, Pve defense rating yada yada)
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Originally Posted by CripLord View Post
Apparently you all missed the class on why WoW ultimately fails as a game.

When everyone can achieve the highest level in mere days of playing, there is no prestige or sense of accomplishment through obtaining the highest level.

When it is so easy to achieve the highest level, everyone will be the highest level, regardless of their skill or adeptness at playing.

Being the highest level is not what drives people to play. Having content to go through and fun things to do is what drives people to play.

Do you think people love doing the same instance hundreds of time to get a .00001% chance at some obscure drop?

It's rarely the pinnacle of achievement in an mmorpg that entices people to play, it's more often the journey to capture that apex.
There is a big difference between what you are citing as WoW's issues and speed of leveling. Doubling or Tripling the speed it takes to level doesn't change any of those things, it does not even mean there would be more content, just you have to consume 3 times more of what is there to get anywhere.

We feel that player community is where the longevity of a game lies which is why we are putting so much effort into player villages and the PvP. When people get to max level these are the things that will make them interested in the world and want to stay, not grinding something over and over to try and get .0000001% drop off a mob, thats certainly not what we have been working very hard to design the game around as far as priorities go.

[Quote]:
Originally Posted by CripLord View Post
I'm sorry to hear that. Without decay and durability hits, crafters will become obsolete one month after release.

So can looted items be traded after equipping or is this going to be a Bind & Grind game like WoW or EQ2?
This is a piss poor argument as decay and durability don't mean anything unless an item is completely destroyed and I can think of very few instances of any successful MMO in the last 10+ years where item decay meant items actually left the world entirely. The only game off the top of my head I can think of like this is the items destroyed when you die in EvE vs those in the loot can. Even in UO your items were rarely actually destroyed, they just changed hands as people died and looted.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
Why no responce to:

1. then why has there been ABSOLUTLY NO INFO about ALTERNATIVES to raiding for uber PvE/Raid type gear????
Why would there be any info about it at this point in time? I've already been very clear over a long, long period of time what the loot transition is like, how much (or in this case, how little) high-end gear is an upgrade over normal or crafted gear, and many other related things. As I said in my first post, nothing about itemization has changed AT ALL.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
The “drifting from the AoC vision” that I, and apparently others, are seeing has to do with an adult game for ADULTS (that means the teenage raidcrowd would have far less of a priority for you), with a new dynamic combat system (that seems less new and dynamic with every release).
Last time I checked, most of the devs were adults with jobs.

Either way, there are a billion topics (and have been in the past) in regard to itemization, and given that nothing has changed now or recently about it I would rather not get into a big, pointless "casual vs. hardcore items" debate at this time.
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Originally Posted by Randoms View Post
Main issue: bindable combo starters to Q123E. Why is this a good idea? What if I want to simply start smashing the left side of an opponent by pressing [e] and [3], without starting a combo? How can I simply just take swings at the enemy, I want the choice to -not- start a combo!

Is the only way of dodging this, to map combo starters to 4-0 ? That is also a problem, as it is out of reach.

Please tell me you are looking at alternate routes for doing this! Like switch button, that switches the functions of the 1-3 keys, or something of the likes, cause right now, as seen from videos and player descriptions, the interface is very messy (I don't mean graphically)
I'd say that aiming to do that would be somewhat of an "advanced" tactic, so it's probably something that would require a more fine-tuned keyboard setup. (Most of the time, you probably -will- want to use a combo...especially when soloing or doing "normal" types of things.)

But, to go into your question, mapping 4-6 and Shift-4-6 for combos would be options, as would be mapping Shift-Q123E to normal attacks, for instance. There are a lot of potential options for those who want to play with their controls and set up a more customized UI/bar setup.

The controls and UI are always things we will be tweaking based on making sure things are as smooth as possible to play. In the end, a UI is a facilitator--and if the UI is blocking access to the mechanics, it will be tweaked to make sure it doesn't. We've already tweaked many things about it in the last week, down to the way running attacks interact with the combat queue, changing the window of the combo chain highlight while moving, and many other things to make the game control in a more fluid way. It's really a complex and touchy topic, but we will always be doing our best to make sure it plays well and is fun.
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Originally Posted by Rahxephon View Post
So I'm wondering Jayde. Whats your key setup for say a melee class?
Q123E I'm assuming these are dedicated to performing combos regardless of what your combo initiator is. But do you yourself use Q123E to initiate combos as well?
I haven't totally tweaked my settings for the new UI yet, since they have been working on it over the last few weeks and it's not totally finished yet. Probably won't get down and start really playing with stuff for a couple more weeks.

Preferably, I'd probably have Q123E mapped to short-cooldown DPS/debuff/buff combo-starters, with Shift- for using base attacks, 4 being my reactive attack trigger, and 5-7 being longer-cooldown "rare" combos (like the 60s CD stun for Barbarians, or the 45s CD knockback) that I don't want to trigger accidentally.

If I was playing a steath class, I'd probably re-map the stealth key to ~ for easy access.

I'm known for really tinkering with my control setups a lot, though, so time will tell what I end up with.
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All I can say is that the reports of the WoWification of beta are greatly exaggerated.
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Originally Posted by Stiler View Post
Yea, but still if the effects of a combo are instant, is the "instant effect" just some small part of the combo or what exactly is instant?
Currently, using the starter does 50% more damage to that single attack than a normal directional, and -may- have a small initial effect. However, if you don't finish the combo chain the combo will still go on 50% of its cooldown.

This is likely something we will tweak, although having the freedom to design instant abilities is something that I personally like as a designer, and felt was lacking from the old system. It brings a bit more strategy to the table.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
please tell me you can shift+click+drag all GUI aspects so I can move that damn annoying yellow bar somewhere other than dead center
That is placeholder, and added a few days before GC as the castbar hadn't been integrated into the new GUI yet.
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Originally Posted by Sturmrabe View Post
All that could go wrong, the signs and portends of AoC’s mediocritization, broken promises, lies, and misleading statements.

Lets break it all down…

Gear:

The “raiders get PvE/PvP gear but crafting is as good for PvP” is not a good sign, its bull… for one thing we’ve heard that song and dance before, it was called WoW beta, and we ALL know how that worked out. IF [and that’s is a BIG if] FC holds true to that it will be a slight improvement over the WoW/EQ dynamic of item centricity, but only slight.

What happened to the love for the casual players that this game was supposedly targeting? Where are the chain quests for the uber gear? Someone who can’t spend 6 hours at one sitting in a raid still is willing to do 6 hours worth of work in 2 hour blocks (or whatever).

Why have we heard NOTHING in that avenue?

If FC is already pandering to what they and the gaming industry has acknowledged as a SLIVER of the market, how are we to think that anything else but the “WoW-epic” paradigm will return in AoC… where is the love for the adults with families? Or just the adults with jobs, so can at best only raid occasionally on the weekend, but who have no qualms about putting the effort for the reward, just not in on big block of time?

ALL assurances have been to pander to the handful of vocal whining raiders… “RAID = both, craft = ONLY” NOTHING in the opposite direction.

Combat:

It’s got its threads, but this is supposed to be comprehensive so I’m going to cover it here. Its being watered down at every turn, and while it MAY still be innovative, its certainly won’t be AS innovative. I defiantly agree with Enarion that this is “don’t upset the fruitbasket” thinking… while innovation is risk, where there is risk there is reward, where there is mediocrity there is apathy.

Stealth:

Seriously, WTF? I’m pretty sure we can dig up “no stealthing in front of people” or “no stealthing in an open field in broad daylight” from Athelan and Jayde, yet here we are with the “inviso-steath”… in Shadowbane there are at least ways to flush people out or break it… What about in AoC? Will Rangers have a “stalk invis” power? A “pop-stealther” to flush them out? Will DoTs and AoE’s break/prevent invis?

This is really crap, all the crying about "lying" over the delay should have been reserved for this.

Battlekeeps:

Seriously, it WILL change… Funcom WILL have to patch in a new way for BK system to work. Anyone who had played Shadowbane knows that the way its setup know one or two big guilds, one at least will be some ARAC game hopping zerg guild, will dominate a server or two and something will have to be changed to make the system more workable.

HERE IS THE QUESTION: Will this be done BEFORE people have gotten fed up and migrating servers leaving it a ghost town/canceled their accounts, or will it be done AFTER when it’s too little too late? Now, that estimation could change once I get a hands on, but experience teaches me otherwise.

If the stays true to what has been said this time, it will still be a fun game that will go through some serious heartache and have to make some changes, but it hasn’t stayed true to the last batch of promises, so what are we to think now?

I’m not saying “AoC HAS lost its way and WILL fail” I saying it COULD and MIGHT, and all signs point to OMGWTFBBQ Clusterf**k.
I am not sure what information about Border Kingdoms that you are specifically referring to that has made you go OMG 1 guild will rule everything flame flame flame. Maybe if you were more subjective, or objective I could actually give you a decent response.

Everyone has access to stealth, in addition everyone has access to perception, this has always been this way, this means shockingly enough anyone can detect stealth players if they train the skill, the fact that the classes setup for Leipzig didnt have this does not mean this went away.

Part of the reason why Crafted items are important is because they will be able to craft those items that have the PvP specific stat modifications that can be more important than their PvE counterparts.

Casual gamers have always been catered to in Conan all through the development, the amount of resources put into making it friendly far outnumber the people who have ever touched a "raid". We have an approx 9 day played to 80 leveling curve designed so that even a casual player can get there in a few months, we have quest designers and dialogue writers burning the midnight oil for years to make content and the only thing you can choose to complain about is "omg do i get the uberest of the uber by doing something else if theres another way someone besides me can get whaa whaa" Maybe its just I see where the blood sweat and tears are applied when it comes to who works on what on this project but this is seriously something you need to stop worrying about.

The recent changes in the combat system and UI are just that changes, another iteration. This is iteration 8 or so I believe for the combat system and it will change again. The biggest issues I have with the limited experience I have with the newest stuff is I dont like the UI I miss my combat rose, and it just doesnt feel as comfortable or unique to me. Granted like all new stuff I expect there to be a combat revision 8.2 or 8.3 or 8.7 within a matter of weeks knowing how we work on this stuff from experience.

Plus you are basing all of this off one minor now public hands on part of the game. There is nothing saying that the stuff seen at GC is complete, far from it, the playfield could have been missing the lightmap needed to make stealth not work everywhere, the characters could be lacking perception in their buff scripts, yada yada yada the list goes on and on. If you want to sit on a corner bathing yourself in ashes and proclaiming the end of the world fine, but the rest of us have a game to finish.
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Unread Aug 24th, 2007, 23:00:15 #196
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Originally Posted by Acidbaron View Post
Athelan since you replied to the crafting/gear part bit,

Is there a Durability or decay to destruction system in place as current info/dev quotes doesn't say much give a real "yes" or "no".

Thanks in advance.
We have not at this time incorporated item decay or durability into the death system or money sinks for the game. However I believe that the crafted gear will probably be non tradeable once equipped and you won't be able to swap the stats so you will require more pieces to make different set of gear (like HP, PvP attack rating, Pve defense rating yada yada)
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Originally Posted by CripLord View Post
Apparently you all missed the class on why WoW ultimately fails as a game.

When everyone can achieve the highest level in mere days of playing, there is no prestige or sense of accomplishment through obtaining the highest level.

When it is so easy to achieve the highest level, everyone will be the highest level, regardless of their skill or adeptness at playing.

Being the highest level is not what drives people to play. Having content to go through and fun things to do is what drives people to play.

Do you think people love doing the same instance hundreds of time to get a .00001% chance at some obscure drop?

It's rarely the pinnacle of achievement in an mmorpg that entices people to play, it's more often the journey to capture that apex.
There is a big difference between what you are citing as WoW's issues and speed of leveling. Doubling or Tripling the speed it takes to level doesn't change any of those things, it does not even mean there would be more content, just you have to consume 3 times more of what is there to get anywhere.

We feel that player community is where the longevity of a game lies which is why we are putting so much effort into player villages and the PvP. When people get to max level these are the things that will make them interested in the world and want to stay, not grinding something over and over to try and get .0000001% drop off a mob, thats certainly not what we have been working very hard to design the game around as far as priorities go.


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Originally Posted by CripLord View Post
I'm sorry to hear that. Without decay and durability hits, crafters will become obsolete one month after release.

So can looted items be traded after equipping or is this going to be a Bind & Grind game like WoW or EQ2?
This is a piss poor argument as decay and durability don't mean anything unless an item is completely destroyed and I can think of very few instances of any successful MMO in the last 10+ years where item decay meant items actually left the world entirely. The only game off the top of my head I can think of like this is the items destroyed when you die in EvE vs those in the loot can. Even in UO your items were rarely actually destroyed, they just changed hands as people died and looted.
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[Alkterandorn]

Well that is a bit messy cause I was in a hurry cutting and pasting. If anyone wants to give me a hand tidying that up it will help a ton.

[Sumuji]

9 days played time to hit 80 is a bit too fast, yeah. That does somewhat dissappoint me. They better have one hell of a endgame.

[Fraktal]

9 days played time to hit 80 is a bit too fast, yeah. That does somewhat dissappoint me. They better have one hell of a endgame.

Content 1-75(ish) I could care less about.

Thank God I can blaze through that crap and focus on what HA does best! End-game domination.

[Ferrum]

Content 1-75(ish) I could care less about.

Thank God I can blaze through that crap and focus on what HA does best! End-game domination.

Yeah!

There was another game you did that in, what was it again? Oh yeah! Vanguard. How did that work out for ya :p

[Distratus]

if u play 10 hr days it will take u 21 days to hit max lvl
15 hr days it will take u 14 days to hit max lvl
20 hr days it will take u 10 days to hit max lvl
24 hr days it will take u 9 days to hit max lvl
its around wow terms

2 weeks to hit max.