For reasons unrelated to the previous post, I ended up doing a lot of object work in the last couple of days. I discovered that the linkages between rarity, and the bind/artifact/rare flags were not just overly complex, but in some cases really inappropriate. It took several hours and multiple tries to work out all the details, and we now have a much better rating system for flags and rarity.
The general summary is that binding is much weaker, artifact and rare are stronger, you get an extra artifact per rack, and rarity is being deprecated.
Rarity I was the most surprised about; there were literally thousands of objects with rarity on the game. I wrote a function to remove it from everything that didn't strictly need it; this cut the number down to under a thousand. It's still a useful mechanic to have on certain special items, but having it on this many of them really doesn't seem appropriate. Rarity will also be a major issue with a larger player base, and we need to use a new mechanic for a lot of these things.
Weakening the bind flag caused issues with a lot of equipment that was built to take advantage of binding. A good chunk of it was in newbie areas, where I myself used it to get fairly powerful equipment to low levels. On the other hand, a lot of the other binding objects were problem objects that needed to be adjusted anyway. We've had a problem with bind flag overuse for a while now, and this helps address that.
The addition of another artifact flag is a major change, but it comes with a caveat: one artifact flag has to be bound, while the other must be unbound. A similar restriction is in place for rare flagged items.
This seems to be a really interesting idea. The bound objects are slightly more powerful but cannot be sold; the unbound objects can be sold and will serve to keep the equipment market functional. The fact that builders must build both bound and unbound equipment should help with equipment diversity and address some of the concerns that players have about "everything becoming bound".
All in all, I've been getting a lot of positive feedback on it. I know it's inconvenient for builders to update things (I make a point of it to personally take my share of pain from the older areas), but so far the consensus seems to be that it's worth it.
Showing posts with label eq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eq. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, November 21, 2008
Miscellaneous Update
I have been a bad developer, and have not posted recently. Part of this is due to things going on in my life, but more of it is due to lack of incentive on my part. I seem to have cyclical swings, and if I follow the historical pattern I should come out of it here in a week or so. But enough about my problems, let's talk about the game!
Of the major events recently, I'd say the biggest two are quicker movement regen, and the str/dex changes. The movement regen change is really only a net improvement of about 25%, but the important part is that it regens on every prompt instead of every tick. For new players, this is absolutely critical; nothing sucks more than being one step away from a safe room and unable to walk there for the 30 seconds it takes for another tick to hit. It changes the newbie game from a 'move a few squares then rest for 30 seconds' kind of game to a 'move more slowly through a few squares and look at stuff' kind of game. It's definitely more pleasant for me when I'm playing, and I've gotten similar remarks from pretty much everyone else.
Strength and dex are another matter. Several very vocal people have already complained, though since I was expecting it, it bothers me less than it initially did. It also helps that nearly everyone who is complaining has already figured out how to change equipment with the least amount of damage. There are also a handful of people who dislike the change because they feel it hurts their characters, but at the same time see the logic behind it and support it. In their view, it affects everyone equally, so it's fair if nothing else.
I only put in the first stage of str/dex in this last update. This limits the spells to +6 and widens the range of boosting to +8, flat across the board. (It used to be +5 or higher depending on how low your natural stat was.) In February, I plan to lower the limit to +5, and in may to +4. I don't think I'll raise the boost range, as it seems to me that +8 is probably sufficient. I'll have to collect more information on this going forward.
One minor change which is actually pretty major is a sort of 'freak' multiplier for randoms. It's just a single line in the changelog, but it's actually a pretty big deal from an equipment standpoint - it's like getting a really kick-ass unique in games like Diablo II. There's four different levels with about a 1 in 8 chance for each successive level. Each level adds 30 composite points to the total, so if you get all four (about one in 4000 odds), you can add nearly 4 hit/dam to the total of the object. Of course, odds are good you'll end up with most of the points going elsewhere, but it basically allows for 'super' random objects to appear from time to time. I don't think this will break the game, as it will be much harder to accumulate sets, and it's much more likely to happen on bound equipment.
Of the major events recently, I'd say the biggest two are quicker movement regen, and the str/dex changes. The movement regen change is really only a net improvement of about 25%, but the important part is that it regens on every prompt instead of every tick. For new players, this is absolutely critical; nothing sucks more than being one step away from a safe room and unable to walk there for the 30 seconds it takes for another tick to hit. It changes the newbie game from a 'move a few squares then rest for 30 seconds' kind of game to a 'move more slowly through a few squares and look at stuff' kind of game. It's definitely more pleasant for me when I'm playing, and I've gotten similar remarks from pretty much everyone else.
Strength and dex are another matter. Several very vocal people have already complained, though since I was expecting it, it bothers me less than it initially did. It also helps that nearly everyone who is complaining has already figured out how to change equipment with the least amount of damage. There are also a handful of people who dislike the change because they feel it hurts their characters, but at the same time see the logic behind it and support it. In their view, it affects everyone equally, so it's fair if nothing else.
I only put in the first stage of str/dex in this last update. This limits the spells to +6 and widens the range of boosting to +8, flat across the board. (It used to be +5 or higher depending on how low your natural stat was.) In February, I plan to lower the limit to +5, and in may to +4. I don't think I'll raise the boost range, as it seems to me that +8 is probably sufficient. I'll have to collect more information on this going forward.
One minor change which is actually pretty major is a sort of 'freak' multiplier for randoms. It's just a single line in the changelog, but it's actually a pretty big deal from an equipment standpoint - it's like getting a really kick-ass unique in games like Diablo II. There's four different levels with about a 1 in 8 chance for each successive level. Each level adds 30 composite points to the total, so if you get all four (about one in 4000 odds), you can add nearly 4 hit/dam to the total of the object. Of course, odds are good you'll end up with most of the points going elsewhere, but it basically allows for 'super' random objects to appear from time to time. I don't think this will break the game, as it will be much harder to accumulate sets, and it's much more likely to happen on bound equipment.
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