White hits and teleportation, 6 months later.
Posted: 18 Sep 2021 15:00
On March 6th the Arch of Balance gave notice and explanation of upcoming changes to melee, particularly white hits, with emphasis on his intention to even out the differences between casters and fighters. An upcoming change to caster guilds and magic in general has been announced without an ETA. I was struck with a sense of urgency as I think it's important that this debate happens prior to the rollout of the new system.
Half a year has passed since the change, and I must assume most, if not all, have grown accustomed to and comfortable with the new reality. A couple consequences worth highlighting are:
•Myths have gone from above a set wimpy to death in single swats
•Guilds that were previously known to do little to no damage are now much more playable/enjoyable
•Avoiding hits has become significantly more effective than (attempts at) soaking them
•The rate of experience gain has increased
Special attacks
My understanding of the current system is that for the last six months we’ve enjoyed a total of 100 combat aid from our occupational guild and 100 combat aid from our white hits. Or said more sensibly: Our distribution of help in combat is now 50% from special attack (offensive and/or defensive) and 50% from normal hits with a weapon (not counting layman guilds for simplicity).
Logical. Sensible. Sounds like balance, yes? I think so too.
I honestly think there are more positive outcomes than bad ones, but I’ve also never really been able to shake one particular observation made by a few in the thread that followed, namely the diminished relevance (see also attractiveness or relative effectiveness) of the various guilds’ special attacks and I think it’s worth discussing now, six months later.
Purists will say you choose your guild solely on how it speaks to you from a character building perspective and whatever identity you wish upon your character and that the power of the special attack plays second violin. This was lauded to the point of hilarity among the roleplay oriented guilds which (by sheer coincidence?) just happened to be the most effective of all pre March 6th. I think the purists’ claim holds more true post March 6th, but I also think we are poorer because of it.
Dude, roleplay got you into the “OP” guilds prior! The power provided became a clear incentive to actually play a character and challenge yourself. The sense of achievement upon success and the subsequent efficacy (see special attack) could be enjoyed with a clear conscience.
- “I worked my ass off for this! Yeah! #winning!”
From a min-maxer’s perspective, the difference between your typical melee fighter guilds with little to no roleplay requirements (well, at least not forced) has become negligible since the pot from which to draw actual guild power has shrunk globally relative to white hits. Now I don’t know the actual numbers, but based on the kind of experience you only get with age I’d say that the distribution was more in “70-80% guild and 20-30% white hits”-range before.
While the 50/50-model makes the actual balancing act easier for the ones in charge of bringing it to fruition (see also math, coding, logic), it’s simultaneously also a helluvalot easier to communicate with a broad appeal to the masses through rhetoric utilizing logic, fairness and equality. Perfect, right?
Well, shit.. *wields broad pen* - This rule-bound framework severely limits guilds to stand out! Be it as “apex” or “elite”, “overpowered” with globally unknown restrictions to justify said “OP-ness” or what have you - the previous system had much more room for variation, asymmetry, uniqueness, attractiveness, efficacy and specialization. It was probably excessively harder to balance within, but the difference in “grind speed” between otherwise fairly similar guilds would in most cases boil down to intentional or design-forced “combat aid leaks” or obsolescent defensive abilities after reaching a certain size.
It was probably a bigger nightmare to both create and balance within, but damn some guilds really were much, much cooler (more attractive?) pre March 6th. We were richer!
Do we really want a bunch of equal or close to equal guilds? Really? Is that a goal?
Anyway, before I touch on the current growth rates, it boils down to:
Can we at least discuss what other balancing models would look like? How about 60% guild/40% white hits? 70/30? What are the pros and cons to said options? Are there other models worth exploring? Are we willing to tolerate more imbalance if it also means that our guilds become.. special again?
Growth rate
As mentioned above the increased overall damage, while obviously part of a bigger plan to bring global balance across the disciplines, has manifested in player sizes entering the “too big to fail”-category. Objectively, an effort to slow down growth should be made, but a reduction in actual killing speed, even though it hits everyone equally, would effectively feel exactly like a nerf – nobody likes those.
Alternate options then? Well, I’m sorry but I've got to touch upon teleports again. While I still hold firm that “team teleport to chosen destination” is still ruining the fun for many on a daily basis, I have an admission to make: I use teleports too! All the time!
I’ve grown so attached to it that I now depend on it to the degree that ANY layman guild that, even though I find it cool, awesome, inspiring, more befitting my character, synergizes better with my occupational or what have you, I won’t leave my layman guild because of my “portal home”-spell.
Why? Well, it vastly increases my efficacy to the point where it makes me properly annoyed at team mates who don’t have it because they slow down me and the rest of the team. It's gotten so bad that I've considered ending whatever relations we have just to not sit through one more unneccessary boat ride again. I’ve ended up forcing people off the team or, in utter relief, celebrated their departure from it. I’ve looked down and laughed at people who choose masochism (boat rides) over comfort and the effortless blitz back to “the hub”. This "addiction" is making me a shitty person. Help me kick it?
Semi-serious jokes aside - it is to me self evident that the complete removal of all manner of guild provided teleportation abilities (occupational and layman)is beneficial to the game as a whole because it will have the following consequences:
Most importantly
•Reduced growth rate in the player base and thereby reducing the scale (or even need) of “nerf” to damage/hit points increase globally
•Eliminate scenarios (I swear innocent keyboards, mice and screens have suffered irreparable damage as a direct result of this scenario) where one travels for what feels like an eternity only to find the equipment-bearing mob dead after fighting one’s way through the guards that were omitted entirely by whoever teleported behind them a few minutes prior.
But also
•Re-introduce the “feeling of distance” that those damn ships are meant to provide
•Re-launch boat rides as a social arena simply by tapping into their nature; facilitating actual conversation
•It would make me (and likely others in the same situation) a better person
Lastly, take any conspiratorial accusations to Flames - I’ll tear you a new one there instead. Serious replies welcome. Thank you!
TL;DR
Can we discuss another distribution between guild provided caid and white hits?
Can we discuss the complete removal of all things teleportation as part of or the solution to the growth rate issue?
Nils’ player.
Half a year has passed since the change, and I must assume most, if not all, have grown accustomed to and comfortable with the new reality. A couple consequences worth highlighting are:
•Myths have gone from above a set wimpy to death in single swats
•Guilds that were previously known to do little to no damage are now much more playable/enjoyable
•Avoiding hits has become significantly more effective than (attempts at) soaking them
•The rate of experience gain has increased
Special attacks
My understanding of the current system is that for the last six months we’ve enjoyed a total of 100 combat aid from our occupational guild and 100 combat aid from our white hits. Or said more sensibly: Our distribution of help in combat is now 50% from special attack (offensive and/or defensive) and 50% from normal hits with a weapon (not counting layman guilds for simplicity).
Logical. Sensible. Sounds like balance, yes? I think so too.
I honestly think there are more positive outcomes than bad ones, but I’ve also never really been able to shake one particular observation made by a few in the thread that followed, namely the diminished relevance (see also attractiveness or relative effectiveness) of the various guilds’ special attacks and I think it’s worth discussing now, six months later.
Purists will say you choose your guild solely on how it speaks to you from a character building perspective and whatever identity you wish upon your character and that the power of the special attack plays second violin. This was lauded to the point of hilarity among the roleplay oriented guilds which (by sheer coincidence?) just happened to be the most effective of all pre March 6th. I think the purists’ claim holds more true post March 6th, but I also think we are poorer because of it.
Dude, roleplay got you into the “OP” guilds prior! The power provided became a clear incentive to actually play a character and challenge yourself. The sense of achievement upon success and the subsequent efficacy (see special attack) could be enjoyed with a clear conscience.
- “I worked my ass off for this! Yeah! #winning!”
From a min-maxer’s perspective, the difference between your typical melee fighter guilds with little to no roleplay requirements (well, at least not forced) has become negligible since the pot from which to draw actual guild power has shrunk globally relative to white hits. Now I don’t know the actual numbers, but based on the kind of experience you only get with age I’d say that the distribution was more in “70-80% guild and 20-30% white hits”-range before.
While the 50/50-model makes the actual balancing act easier for the ones in charge of bringing it to fruition (see also math, coding, logic), it’s simultaneously also a helluvalot easier to communicate with a broad appeal to the masses through rhetoric utilizing logic, fairness and equality. Perfect, right?
Well, shit.. *wields broad pen* - This rule-bound framework severely limits guilds to stand out! Be it as “apex” or “elite”, “overpowered” with globally unknown restrictions to justify said “OP-ness” or what have you - the previous system had much more room for variation, asymmetry, uniqueness, attractiveness, efficacy and specialization. It was probably excessively harder to balance within, but the difference in “grind speed” between otherwise fairly similar guilds would in most cases boil down to intentional or design-forced “combat aid leaks” or obsolescent defensive abilities after reaching a certain size.
It was probably a bigger nightmare to both create and balance within, but damn some guilds really were much, much cooler (more attractive?) pre March 6th. We were richer!
Do we really want a bunch of equal or close to equal guilds? Really? Is that a goal?
Anyway, before I touch on the current growth rates, it boils down to:
Can we at least discuss what other balancing models would look like? How about 60% guild/40% white hits? 70/30? What are the pros and cons to said options? Are there other models worth exploring? Are we willing to tolerate more imbalance if it also means that our guilds become.. special again?
Growth rate
As mentioned above the increased overall damage, while obviously part of a bigger plan to bring global balance across the disciplines, has manifested in player sizes entering the “too big to fail”-category. Objectively, an effort to slow down growth should be made, but a reduction in actual killing speed, even though it hits everyone equally, would effectively feel exactly like a nerf – nobody likes those.
Alternate options then? Well, I’m sorry but I've got to touch upon teleports again. While I still hold firm that “team teleport to chosen destination” is still ruining the fun for many on a daily basis, I have an admission to make: I use teleports too! All the time!
I’ve grown so attached to it that I now depend on it to the degree that ANY layman guild that, even though I find it cool, awesome, inspiring, more befitting my character, synergizes better with my occupational or what have you, I won’t leave my layman guild because of my “portal home”-spell.
Why? Well, it vastly increases my efficacy to the point where it makes me properly annoyed at team mates who don’t have it because they slow down me and the rest of the team. It's gotten so bad that I've considered ending whatever relations we have just to not sit through one more unneccessary boat ride again. I’ve ended up forcing people off the team or, in utter relief, celebrated their departure from it. I’ve looked down and laughed at people who choose masochism (boat rides) over comfort and the effortless blitz back to “the hub”. This "addiction" is making me a shitty person. Help me kick it?
Semi-serious jokes aside - it is to me self evident that the complete removal of all manner of guild provided teleportation abilities (occupational and layman)is beneficial to the game as a whole because it will have the following consequences:
Most importantly
•Reduced growth rate in the player base and thereby reducing the scale (or even need) of “nerf” to damage/hit points increase globally
•Eliminate scenarios (I swear innocent keyboards, mice and screens have suffered irreparable damage as a direct result of this scenario) where one travels for what feels like an eternity only to find the equipment-bearing mob dead after fighting one’s way through the guards that were omitted entirely by whoever teleported behind them a few minutes prior.
But also
•Re-introduce the “feeling of distance” that those damn ships are meant to provide
•Re-launch boat rides as a social arena simply by tapping into their nature; facilitating actual conversation
•It would make me (and likely others in the same situation) a better person
Lastly, take any conspiratorial accusations to Flames - I’ll tear you a new one there instead. Serious replies welcome. Thank you!
TL;DR
Can we discuss another distribution between guild provided caid and white hits?
Can we discuss the complete removal of all things teleportation as part of or the solution to the growth rate issue?
Nils’ player.