Code: Select all
Hello,
So, about a month ago I wrote an announcement about an upcoming
change to racial balance, and I asked for your feedback. It's
time for an update.
Our original idea was to even out all racial stat modifiers and
give each race one strong and one weak stat. The idea was to make
these strengths and weaknesses quite small as well.
Many of you did provide feedback on boards, on forums, in mails,
and on Discord, so first of all, thanks for that. As I mentioned
on the forums a while ago, there was one particular piece of
feedback that I took to heart.
"If the difference between the races is so small, why have
differences at all?"
Well, that's a good point. The more we looked at it, the more we
realized that this statement is true. Our suggested changes would
indeed be quite hard for players to even notice, and if you can't
"feel" your race, what's the point of having differences between
the races at all?
After lots of discussions in the AoB team, we arrived at two possible
solutions:
A - Make the stat differences bigger than in the original idea, but
smaller than what we have now. The positive aspect of this is
that there will be distinct differences that you can feel as a player,
but the problem is that the races will still end up imbalanced and
some will be better / worse for different guilds and playstyles,
which is something we wanted to avoid in the first place. There is
also a risk that we end up with some races simply being better/worse
than others overall, just like today. Even if the differences will
be smaller than today, it's still not a very good system.
B - Set all stats evenly for all races and have another system that
isn't stats to differentiate the races. While even stats for all
races is 'unthematic' (which is the main drawback) it does guarantee
perfect stat balance, and all races also become perfectly valid choices
for many different guilds and playstyles. Adding new race-thematic
abilities that differentiate the races will make you 'feel' your race
more than you do today, without it becoming imbalanced. Especially if
you get a choice about which abilities to choose (see below).
We weighed the pros and cons of both, and eventually decided to go
with the much more complex, but in our view, better option B.
So, this is how the new races will work:
- There will be NO difference in terms of stats between our races.
The humans, who currently are the mathematically weakest race will
receive a small boost to all stats. Then, all other races will get
those base stats as well. That will mean ALL players will end up
slightly bigger than after the change. There is one exception,
though. Gnomes will actually become a tiny bit smaller, since they
are currently mathematically the strongest race. However, in reality
gnomes will feel a lot stronger too, since their current stat setup
with two very strong stats and four weak stats isn't actually very
good in reality, even if it is mathematically the best.
So, all goblins, elves, humans, dwarves, and hobbits will see their
stats grow a little bit after the change (some more than others),
while gnomes will see a tiny tiny drop in their stat average. The
end result is that ALL races will have the same stat average, which
is not the case today. And that's always been strange.
- Learning preferences, that is when you <set> your stats when you
meditate, will also be updated. You will get more freedom in terms
of how to set your stat focus. So, if you want to have 'goblin-
like' stats, you will be able to set your focus to achieve that.
Basically, you will be be able to get roughly as 'extreme' stats
as you can today, the difference is that ALL races can get 'goblin
physicals' or 'elf mentals', or whatever you want.
So, to all goblin players: After a visit to the Thaumaturgist you
can get stats that are very similar to what you have today, you
won't suddenly become 'boring' humans after the change. Same goes
for all other races of course.
- To differentiate the races we will introduce a new concept called
'racial abilities'. If you have followed the discussion on forums
and Discord the last couple of years, you'll know this is a system
I have talked about for many years. The problem has always been that
it's a big project, but we have now decided it's worth the time and
effort it will take (we've already made quite a bit of progress).
Each race will get to select TWO (or maybe three, depending on what
we decide) special racial abilities from a quite large pool of
abilities. Some of these abilities will overlap, while some will be
selectable by one race only. For example both hobbits and elves will
be able to select 'FLEET FOOTED', which allows them better fatigue
regeneration when not in combat or not moving. However, an ability
like the 'GNOME DISCOUNT', which provides better exchange rates in
banks, will be something only gnomes can select.
Each race will get about 5-6 options to choose from (we haven't
decided on the final number yet), and you get to select two or
three (also not decided). The abilities are selected at character
creation, can be freely changed in the tutorial, and otherwise
changed if you select a new body when you die.
Existing players will be asked to select abilities when the
change goes live. And you will continue to be promoted now and
then that yo need to to select them, until you do.
- All players will get a free race change AND a free stat
redistrubution at the Thaumaturgist in Palanthas. You can of
course also use your free race change to re-select your racial
abilities (with or without changing race) if you do not like
the ones you pick on your first attempt. If you still aren't
happy with your selection, the Sparkle giants will be able to
assist you, as always.
When it comes to the abilities, I am sure many of you will ask
me to reveal which ones they will be, and many will want to provide
feedback, ideas, and input. However, I feel that this is a choice we
who are directly involved in the project will have to make based on
what is realistically doable. I also think this is something where
more opinions will simply make it harder to reach a decision, because
everyone will have their own ideas about which races should get which
abilities. It's hard enough to reach a conclusion with just a few
people involved, and involving the entire playerbase will make it
more or less impossible.
Also I already have a VERY long list of possible abilities. Stuff
I have come up with myself, but also a lot of stuff other players
and wizards have come up with. We've already had public
'brainstorming sessions' regarding this in the past. Both on
the forums and on Discord, so many of you have already been
involved in this. We have more than enough ideas, and we have
already made the selection, and many of the abilities are already
coded. We are well beyond the idea stage at this point, and should
we decide we do need additional brainstorming help we will let
you know.
Regarding a timeline for this change, it's always hard to say.
It's a much bigger project than just changing a few racial
modifiers (which could be done in minutes). This one requires
100+ hours of work, or more. So, it is not something that will
happen within the next couple of weeks. However, we are very
determined not to let this project stall, and we have made
good progress already, so barring any completely unforseen events,
this change WILL happen. When? I don't know, and I don't want
to speculate. However, we're talking weeks or months, not years
or decades :)
Cherek - Keeper of Genesis