Mercenary nerf purpose?

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kelrhys
Apprentice
Posts: 30
Joined: 10 May 2017 16:48

Mercenary nerf purpose?

Post by kelrhys » 29 Apr 2022 17:52

This change has baffled me enough to go back to the State of the Donut to read the Keeper's vision and goals for the game in the next year. But there were none stated, only "guesses".

Which leaves me to only guess at why such changes are made. All I have come up with is that if people are happy and having fun in a guild, it becomes a candidate for nerf.

Since Genesis is unlike other rpgs in that the primary guild is fundamentally tied to a specialized class, players who are motivated to experience all classes do this either by creating new characters for each desired class, or by moving a single character between them. The latter creates friction for guilds which value moderate or greater lore knowledge in order for its members to represent it decently and provide a purpose beyond the endless grind. It takes time and effort to teach an apprentice, and if they will simply leave shortly after this investment is made, it is quite deflating.

Fortunately, Genesis has free to join melee, rogue and magic class guilds which alleviate this problem for new and old players alike! Those who wish to experiment with all the layman options and roleplay however they want without going through an apprenticeship have numerous choices, and the success of these guilds is proof that this is working well. The new hybrid model for vampires is also clearly popular.

It seems to me that a thriving mercenary guild is not a problem but a metric of success with Genesis' population base. If the goal is to drive people into the more specialized melee, rogue and magic guilds in order to thrive rather than because they have a passion for their cause it serves no one well.

Sincerely,
Kelrhys

PS Shout out to ALL the immortal wizards of Genesis for the plethora of new content. Thank you for all your work, it is greatly appreciated!

Chanele
Champion
Posts: 566
Joined: 04 Mar 2010 12:39

Re: Mercenary nerf purpose?

Post by Chanele » 29 Apr 2022 19:24

You are complaining of a small nerf against a guild with no requirements what so ever, no penalty for leaving, being able to get skills better than "insert any guild of choice"?

Noted.

Versitality needs to be adressed, this is one step towards that.

/Chanele

Ps, you can still top all skills if you just use some of those valuable imbue stones like the rest of us, this nerf is minor.

kelrhys
Apprentice
Posts: 30
Joined: 10 May 2017 16:48

Re: Mercenary nerf purpose?

Post by kelrhys » 29 Apr 2022 20:58

My question was not whether the change was minor, but the reason behind it. If it was so minor as to achieve no change, why even do it? You have reasonably guessed that it is because mercenaries had higher skills that other guilds do not have, despite death penalty to leave. Unfortunately Nils and I asked much the same question at the same time in different threads, but Riva's response there was that Cherek had given a different reason on discord which seemed to match what I had guessed. And you have proposed yet a third that it had to do with versatility.

Mercenaries are versatile, which allows them to pair well with any layman and gives players creative free rein. One must go through quite a nifty and long quest to take advantage of this. Why is this a problem? If other guilds deserve superior guru skills where they don't currently have them, why not fix that? Rogue guilds are also extremely versatile, magic guilds are similarly versatile but sohm for example has a lot of spells that are good for emotes only or maybe a quest or two. Other guilds are more specialized but have interesting abilities like plexus. All of this seems fine, not broken. The more playstyle options, the broader the appeal Genesis has for all who get beyond the tutorial.

Anyway I have no skin in the mercenary game I simply don't understand why it would be a goal to drive people out who are happy there and have no desire to be Kalak slaves or lonely Calians, etc.

Thanks for your input!
Kelrhys

TaranGoatWalker
Great Adventurer
Posts: 191
Joined: 04 Aug 2020 23:23
Location: Somewhere

Re: Mercenary nerf purpose?

Post by TaranGoatWalker » 29 Apr 2022 21:39

Did I read correctly that you said mercs have 'death penalty to leave'? I do hope I'm sorely mistaken.
Stabby stabby stab stab.

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Zhar
Wizard
Posts: 1079
Joined: 17 Apr 2012 12:09

Re: Mercenary nerf purpose?

Post by Zhar » 03 May 2022 01:31

Mercenaries never had a death penalty. I don't think even Maligant's mercenaries punished you much for leaving.
Time is precious. Waste it wisely.

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Cherek
Site Admin
Posts: 3609
Joined: 04 Mar 2010 04:36

Re: Mercenary nerf purpose?

Post by Cherek » 08 May 2022 13:49

Kelrhys: I'll just copy-paste the same text I just posted in the other thread about this :)

It's true that I personally feel that it could be a good idea to make neutral free to join and leave guilds slightly worse than other guilds. Partly because I think it might be a good idea to try to encourage more people to join "faction" guilds, but also because I feel that the complete freedom and lack of penalty for leaving should also come at a price. However, that wasn't really the reason for this nerf. Ever since we introduced the new white hits system, we have felt that mercs became a little bit too good, and it's something we have wanted to address since then. So, while it may seem "out of the blue", it's actually somehing we've wanted to do for quite some time. It's just that nobody has volunteered to do it, until Ckrik took on the project a few weeks ago. So, the reason for this nerf is purely a balance reason.

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