Update on the racial rebalance project

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

Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Cherek » 26 Jan 2023 14:49

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

Budwise
Veteran
Posts: 207
Joined: 01 Jul 2010 10:17

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Budwise » 26 Jan 2023 16:39

Maybe get the Thaumathurgist some assistants so we don't have queues and fighting over who goes first?
(Never visited though, so don't know if it will be an issue) Also if it involves dying, even without statloss,
you wizards need to help Lars bake some more cookies. I'm not waiving my tea and cookie-privileges.

Also maybe a back-up, so we can go back if absolutely everyone hates it or it has nasty bugs in it.
Betcha none of you wizards thought of that... ;)

B
Last edited by Budwise on 26 Jan 2023 16:50, edited 3 times in total.

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

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Cherek » 26 Jan 2023 16:54

Backups?! Thats no fun. Everything we do is final. No way to undo anything, sorry (but seriously, we do lots of different automatic backups all the time).

Thaumaturgist, dunno how well he handles many requests. It's a good suggestion to double-check that.

Kalandil
Novice
Posts: 4
Joined: 28 Jan 2012 23:17

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Kalandil » 26 Jan 2023 17:13

Look forward to seeing this in action.

From personal experience in my professional life, Changemanagement, the human factor is so critical as so many people refuse to embrace change and want to stay in the status quo.

Super excited to see what my puny human will be like when i can really set my stats to a much more granular level.

Kalandil

Archie
Apprentice
Posts: 25
Joined: 19 Jun 2010 08:19

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Archie » 26 Jan 2023 21:45

Hey,

if hobbits and elves get to get a fleet of feet, which can be quite many, can I go with "forwarned is forarmed" and be able to wield four weapons?

Archie

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

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by TaranGoatWalker » 26 Jan 2023 21:49

Archie wrote:
26 Jan 2023 21:45
Hey,

if hobbits and elves get to get a fleet of feet, which can be quite many, can I go with "forwarned is forarmed" and be able to wield four weapons?

Archie
Scissor arms?
Stabby stabby stab stab.

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Snowrose
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Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Snowrose » 26 Jan 2023 22:39

probably have to wait for thri-kreen is added as a cirath race guild to get quadruple wielding lol. sadly something like tgat will probably have a very small list of occ options, considering they are giant bugs.

Archie
Apprentice
Posts: 25
Joined: 19 Jun 2010 08:19

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Archie » 26 Jan 2023 23:00

Snowrose wrote:
26 Jan 2023 22:39
probably have to wait for thri-kreen is added as a cirath race guild to get quadruple wielding lol. sadly something like tgat will probably have a very small list of occ options, considering they are giant bugs.
Hmmm... I can work with that.

Archie

zizuph
Veteran
Posts: 234
Joined: 17 Jun 2021 01:52

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by zizuph » 09 Feb 2023 22:47

It’s been two weeks. Time for an update.

There are 17 new racial abilities being added. These are all coded and being finalized/tested. Each race will get to pick two of a subset of them.

The death sequence is coded and being finalized, where players pick their two abilities.

The Thaumaturgist has been convinced that free upgrades. His ability to send players through death again is done and being finalized.

Things left to do:

Add the shortened selection path for existing players, so they don’t need to die to get their abilities. This is half done.

A new command to explain your active abilities. This is it partly done.

Lots of help file updates.

I think we are aiming to launch this by Christm.. Actually, the Armageddon after next. My fingers are crossed.

Thalric
Rising Hero
Posts: 343
Joined: 14 Jun 2016 16:34

Re: Update on the racial rebalance project

Post by Thalric » 17 Feb 2023 15:08

Once you get finished with this...

Do you intend to make the transmutation guy stay in Palanthas, or perhaps move a copy to Sparkle?
My idea would be a temporary room below the church.

Either way, can I suggest you make his room a safe room?
I would hate for a ton of people to show up, just to be assaulted and slaughtered by someone who likes that.

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