Code: Select all
Hi all,
As Cherek pointed out, with the retirement of Carnak I am
once again shouldering the Scales of Global Balance.
I am writing to let you know to expect over the next quarter
a flurry of activity from the AoB team, in particular
changes focusing on finalising the recode of the magic
system.
In the immediate term, there is going to be a reigning in of
instant travel-related abilities - particularly focused
on teleportation and flying steeds where a player can
self-determine the travel location. It has been a view of
the administration for a while that these abilities needed
more refinement. Carnak was in the process of finalising
a sophisticated global teleportation system... which
with his retirement unfortunately will not be realised.
Instead we are going to incorporate limitations to these
abilities, and revisit travel after more pressing priorities
have been addressed.
Which segues to our pressing priorities.
The magic damage system has been aligned to the melee special
attack system so that it now scales similarly based on a
caster's stats. We will be looking at making it so that it
also aligns to a caster's equipment in the same way weapons
impact a special's damage. So look forward to magic enhancers
rolling out in the near future.
We also need to incorporate magic resistance in to a global
damage mitigation system so that it scales more similarly to
armour mitigation. Right now the scaling is very severe, with
the experience being very polar... that needs to be fixed.
Following that we are going to look at making spell mana
expenditure more dynamic. Mana scales poorly to player size,
with the sweet spot being mid-sized players. We want to change
the mana system so that it allows for players to sustainably
grind while also use their mana for burst usage.
Outside of the magic system we also want to look at guild
defensive skill discrepancies. Since the changes to white
hits, it has highlighted the importance of defensive skills
and abilities... with those guilds with low relative defensive
abilities being noteably disadvantaged. That disadvantage we are
going to quantify and look at accounting for in an overall
guild's balancing.
We are also going to look in to evade abilities to make sure
they scale appropriately.
**cover Varian's ears** We are also going to look in to
finally transitioning the rangers in to the standardised
special system. By Christmas... really!
Once those boxes are ticked, and after we have sat down and had
a nice strong drink, we feel we will be in a position to then
have a bluesky discussion with the community reflecting on
white hits vs guild specials.
So consider yourself informed of our plans. Cherek is happy
to take any questions.
Peace out.
A.K, once again Gilean's Scale of Balance
