I think it has to be pointed out that 90% of combat in Lusternia is done in a group context. There is very little (ie. next to none) 1v1 combat outside of arena spars. So while the intent behind these changes may be to make affliction-oriented tertiaries more effective, and to make underused afflictions more potent, when the suggested combination effects include things like 1) unconsciousness, 2) shutting down potions 3) preventing movement 4) making warriors/monks incapable of fighting back 5) reduced vitals, these -will- break the little semblance of balance in group combat we have right now, and break it badly.
There are so many abilities that give more than one affliction at a time, be it actively or passively. To have to look at each and rebalance them subsequent to this introduction would be a monumental task for admin and envoys. One example? Ur'life is three disease afflictions by itself. As a beast power...
Afflictions like worms, vomiting and pox could certainly use an upgrade, but I really don't think combination effects (which as pointed out before will essentially be new 'meta' afflictions) are the way to go. Should these changes go through, the idea of staying a warrior is
not an appealing one. That such powerful combinations are added to
classes which are -already- very viable just creates a 'why bother?' reaction.
We're trying to get constructive feedback (and for those who have given some, thank you!), but really if all you're going to do is say 'everyone on the forums says it's a bad idea' or 'you have better things to do' or accuse us of being disconnected or not listening, etc., then you are not adding to the discussion, but rather closing it down.
When I start threads like this, I'm looking for more than just 'this is a bad idea' (or even 'this is a good idea') but for constructive feedback on how best to make it work if we go forward. I'm thinking of deleting posts that aren't constructive or are overly hostile/snarky just so we can review the ideas and feedback on the thread without the drama. So before I resort to that, let's try for constructive feedback going forward!
I feel like there is a disconnect between what you, and particularly Eventru, are hearing, and what people in this thread are saying.
There has been a tremendous amount of helpful criticisms with suggestions. I haven't seen anyone being malicious or sarcastic, and no one has said "this is bad" without giving reasons.
I feel like there is a disconnect between what you, and particularly Eventru, are hearing, and what people in this thread are saying.
There has been a tremendous amount of helpful criticisms with suggestions. I haven't seen anyone being malicious or sarcastic, and no one has said "this is bad" without giving reasons.
Well, we did delete a few posts which you may not have read, but the point is when we ask "assuming this goes forward, what would be the best way to balance it" (i.e., not even admitting that anything will be implemented but asking for feedback on how to balance if it were) and we are met with very vociferous variations of 'you aren't listening' or 'you have better things to do' or 'everyone on the forums agrees it's a bad idea', etc., etc., even after repeatedly asking for constructive feedback on how to balance if we proceed, then I really don't believe the disconnect is on our side.
I think I will stand by Shuyin on this one. The major stack afflictions are looking quite painful, to say the least. I think some level of interaction between different afflictions might be interesting, but more a case of increasing the strength of said afflictions rather than adding more effects to them. That would simply unnecessarily complicate matters.
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
We are trying giving feedback: this is a massive undertaking, which would require tremendous amounts of effort to implement, and later on 'balance', effort that could, in our eyes, be utilized on other aspects of the game. Please do not add another bloat to the already-convoluted aspect of Lusternia that is combat.
In its current form, combat is already impossible to balance, due to criss-crossing effects, skills, techniques, etc. Adding this will only worsen that problem.
If the administration is set on 'revamping' afflictions, though, it would be less of a headache to simply increase the power of certain lackluster afflictions (Shuyin's idea) rather than add compounding effects, like affliction A + B + C = D.
EDIT:
We are not just saying "No no no no no", we are saying "No, because X Y Z." There are valid reasons why we are against this idea; please hear them out.
We are not just saying "No no no no no", we are saying "No, because X Y Z." There are valid reasons why we are against this idea; please hear them out.
You're saying that, not everyone is saying that. >-
(And who says were not hearing out valid, constructive concerns?)
If the administration is set on 'revamping' afflictions, though, it would be less of a headache to simply increase the power of certain lackluster afflictions (Shuyin's idea) rather than add compounding effects, like affliction A + B + C = D.
Man, Sojiro makes a post explicitly saying he's agreeing with the idea, and somehow he ends up with all the credit.
If the administration is set on 'revamping' afflictions, though, it would be less of a headache to simply increase the power of certain lackluster afflictions (Shuyin's idea) rather than add compounding effects, like affliction A + B + C = D.
Man, Sojiro makes a post explicitly saying he's agreeing with the idea, and somehow he ends up with all the credit.
What a rogue.
Because people keep feeding into his Hero complex.
We are not just saying "No no no no no", we are saying "No, because X Y Z." There are valid reasons why we are against this idea; please hear them out.
They're heard, they're just not germane to the conversation. I feel like you guys are mishearing what Est is saying: the question isn't 'should' we or 'why shouldn't we', the question is a hypothetical 'if we did, what would be some balance issues to arise'. "No no no" or "No, because X Y Z" aren't constructive feedback, a they don't really answer the question (what balance issues arise, where specifically will there be trouble from them, what suggestions to you have on the how "how" of implementing them – how to scale them, should they scale hard, where they should scale hard, what to do with 'vomiting blood' in Bonecrushers, etc).
None of that means she's going to go ahead with it, nor does that qualifier mean she isn't. It's a question of what's the effort, not do you think she should.
Honestly, I love the concept of the combined effects. And, my combat system's curing queue is already tailored perfectly to handle combinations of afflictions and meta-afflictions (thanks to @Rivius). Being able to script the logic for curing things is one thing, however, and actually being capable of executing the cures in a timely manner to stay alive is a whole other thing.
There is still the issue of boosting the effects of afflictions without also toning down the things that deal the afflictions, and that's the real trick, isn't it?
And rather than keep editing my previous post, let me just rephrase: I think what people may not really understand is when I say "assume this is going to happen, how would you balance it" is taken as "this is really going to happen so suck it up". What I am really looking for is to exhaust all possible avenues on how to make it work if some version goes in. So while I understand people don't like the idea for what could be valid reasons, I don't really care what those reasons are. What I am more interested in is how to make it work if we decide to go this route. In other words, don't tell me that you don't like the idea or why it can't work, rather tell me how it could work, even if it means looking at other skills. Tell me what other skills and what would need to be done to make it work. If that's too much work for you, that's fine, but don't accuse us of not trying to get feedback!
Skills that do multiple afflictions per use will need to be re-examined, especially the ones that have no power cost (whammy, crow spit, I imagine the entire Cacophony plague aff theme, telepathy). While crow spit for an Ebonguard doing 2 affs is fine since we're sacrificing an action (and the person could just cure it), how will that go when stacked up with either a Wyrdenwood's passives + spit, or a Crow huddling in their demesne with spit and some judicious application of Sap thereafter?
I honestly can't tell you without actually seeing it in action, but I can say I'm hesitant because that sort of buff seems a bit strong in such scenarios.
Honestly, I think that's why you're not getting many answers here. It's pretty unquantifiable given how many classes and archetypes have access to these things. They've been put in a lot of skills as "filler" afflictions, to help balance out more powerful ones (chance of getting the good, or some filler affs that are less-good). Buffing the filler affs means that these skills also need another look (for example, Crow Spew).
To claim that players are "disconnected" is laughable at best, It is true that this thread is a vast improvement over silent implementations of skill changes (in this case, affliction changes). And I think it's safe to say every player participating in this thread is actually thankful they have a chance to voice their opinion (objections, in this case). The replies that are saying this proposal is unworkable is every bit as valid as the replies that give feedback on how to improve it. The posters are asked, "What can we do to make this better before we implement it?" And they are answering "Nothing! I forsee too many problems with its implementation!" What's invalid about that?
You can choose to ignore them, sure, and say that they are wrong. As players, they don't have the code to look over as a resource to draw on, so it's understandable they may be wrong. However, to pass it off as a player disconnect is equivalent to stopping your ears to criticism and shouting lalala to the wind.
I am opposed to the implementation of this proposal in its current mechanical form. But if you must force this down our throats, then here's my suggestions with reasons:
1) Remove ALL non-damage effects from the compounding nature of the mechanic. No hunger, no extra anorexia, nothing. I'm inclined to include bleeding here, but I guess we can let that pass as just damage.
2) Make each triggered effect give a very small amount of said damage. Around 100 or so at max. Bleeding, if included, should be within this limit as well.
The reasons: The exponential effect makes it imperative we have a soft cap on this new mechanic's effects by making them small on their own. Upon getting all 3 intestinals, you will be given 400 extra damage on top of the original effects of the affs, if you follow my suggestion. This is plenty. This is a flat, unconditional +400 damage to the affs as they stand, without taking into consideration the strategies that originally use these afflictions. By making it pure damage, you remove factors like archetypes already able to give these affs by themselves easily becoming overly potent because the compounding effects shut down their opponents entirely. 400 is a small enough number that it won't break anything (theoretically, it might still break group combat, though that's much less likely) but also not a number a person can just shrug off. 400 is at least 10% of a non-demi's health pool, and 10% of a faeling demi's health pool.
From this base, you can slowly tweak up the numbers from further feedback and testing, until you get to the optimal stage of effect from the compounding effects. Remember that this is not a new skillset release. This change affects combat across the board, over multiple classes and archetypes, so you MUST make the implementation underpowered and tweak up, not make it overpowered and tweak down. A new skillset release, if underpowered, can render the new release unusable, so the alternative is the better one. But for this case, the affs currently are already usable, and are in fact already in-use, so there is no reason to release them as anything but underpowered, before tweaking up.
Before I get into lengthy stuff I wanted to know if as part of this you wanted to remove some afflictions as well or purely create new effects from them @Estarra. Is the goal to simplify affliction totals, complicate curing (this does not simplify so I didnt list that), or only to buff afflictions? I will give a properly constructive suggestion based on the end goal. If you are trying to improve affs and remove them too I can include things to remove or roll in.
If this sort of thing would go through, I would go for the ego/phobic stack instead. While I... hesitate to say that any psionics user is weak (just use your meld, your core class feature), those combos would definitely follow a narrower and better defined track with the least repercussions. The intestinal clump would mostly buff nihilists - already a very powerful single and group combat class (right up there with Illuminati at the top of affliction classes, not the bottom).
EDIT: If you're looking for the best ways to revamp how afflictions work, I think that making more of them stacks instead of binary effects would be a more interesting and balance-able direction.
Even if it's just boosted versions of the current affs, and especially if it's something along the lines of the proposed super-combo effects, I'd like to reiterate my concerns about the power costs. I'm not familiar with any precedent for these to come free, nor even any other effect in the game that drastic that would come without one.
Even I could pull off some of these combos (especially the mental ones) with no more effort than a doublewhammy timed with my fae, or even a lucky hit under room Dark.
To that end, I think it would be far more appropriate if these combos would at the very least require a special hex or something that costs additional power to sling, and does absolutely nothing more than check for one of these combos and trigger it if such a combo is there. Hexes is pretty power intensive already, but even so that seems to me a reasonable trade-off for all that extra mana drain.
Mayor Steingrim, the Grand Schema says to you, "Well, as I recall you kinda leave a mark whereever you go."
Sure, and I'd even take it at a little cost. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem reasonable at all that it would come that easily, even to a guild that could badly use such a thing. Especially since it's not just MDs that would be touched by this. I am terrified about what this change would allow the Illuminati to do, among other things.
Mayor Steingrim, the Grand Schema says to you, "Well, as I recall you kinda leave a mark whereever you go."
If this change goes through as written, you will also need to delete aeon-style affs (sap, etc) and any skill that revolves around sticking them. Aeon allows afflictions to stack way too easily to allow some of those higher level combos -- presently its only acceptable because most of the affs you get while in aeon are junk. Other command blockers like temporary insanity and even the stupidity affliction might need to be changed too for the same reason.
If you were to make the combinations of afflictions more powerful, i think it would be better to boost them, rather than adding another affliction altogether. From a medical view, if you had a cold, then got strep throat or something like that, that wouldnt mean you got pneumonia because you had the other two. The strep throat would just make the cold worse. And what i mean by this is, if say worms does 100 damage, and dysentary does 100 damage, then combining them would do 500 damage instead of 200, and definately instead of adding a whole other affliction. Players and admin both are saying there are already too many afflictions and this is in large part because classes are getting to where they are dealing 4+ per combo. Not adding more afflictions, but making the combos do 5+ instead of 4+ really isnt constructive to me.
The proposals also over-reach on their effectiveness. Going from ok, to starving with 4 afflictions and anorexia if you try to cure isnt ok. Going from ok to getting 3 affs, and if you dont cure in time getting hungry, and if you still cant keep up, starving, then if you are still down getting anorexia, that would be better. The time frame it seems like being suggested is between 1-8 seconds tops, some of the proposed being (as stated) in less than 5 seconds. Drastic heavy hits should take a while and take strategy and setup to pull off. A decent fighter with decent system should take 15+ seconds at minimum before getting hit heavy with stuff like this. With the addition of bombs, combat moving more towards groups, etc. the game is moving more towards "lets kill x in 3 seconds then we can move to y to kill in three seconds". It should be "lets focus on x, and if we kill him quick enough then move to y, but if gets away or whatever then do y".
In a way it seems like its being said that skills like double whammy and ents are whats causing this change to be over-powered, when these changes are "for" those exact skills. So logically it would seem like the proposal itself is over-powered and needs to be tweaked down instead of the skills that are already considered under-powered. I still think the best course, as many others see it it seems, is to just tweak numbers instead of adding in more afflictions if you have so many afflictions. Something along the lines of "Your dysentery has been complicated by worms causing you to barf" does 1000 damage and bleeding" instead of "you have dysentery and worms so now you are anorexic". If the admin want to look at the afflictions that are not being used or are considered under-powered/ineffective, then getting the envoys to compile a list of them, decide which to remove, which to buff (tic/damage wise), and which to chain together to increase the effect (not by adding another aff, but by adding in exponential damage/bleeding/etc), i think that would be the way to go. Envoys are for the most part the best way to go, as has been seen here, some people tend to be sarcastic or think their skills are going to be toned down or their enemies are going to be toned up and they get aggressive. Envoys should be in it for the good of the game as a whole, so i think it would be better to task them with special reports for things like this rather than the forums as a whole. Post-release, players can talk about it on the forums to offer ideas/criticism. And envoys can always ask the more seasoned fighters for info, rather than people that fought a guy for the first time yesterday and won so they think their the best giving their two cents (or no sense in most situations) on the forums.
None of my statements are meant as sarcasm or harsh so hopefully they werent taken that way, the admin has done, and continues to do a great job at listening to concerns of the playerbase. The fact that you all brought up this big of a change for the players to discuss is a big deal, most games would just be like here you go deal with it.
As a side-note, my favorite times in Lusternia were when i was just getting into combat, there were a dozen demigods tops, and Ixion/Athana would raid Celestia every other night and i would get owned. This might sound dumb, but it was just amazing to watch the two sync together and take out groups of 7+ fighters because they knew what they were doing and deserved to be able to do it. Now there are new players 21 years old in-game that are demigods with the same power. Things are going faster and faster and faster, and need to just be slowed down some instead of moving towards faster leveling, faster killing, faster afflicting, etc. But that is just my two cents.
Things are going faster and faster and faster, and need to just be slowed down some instead of moving towards faster leveling, faster killing, faster afflicting, etc. But that is just my two cents.
I agree with this especially. Damage amounts are getting higher, affliction spam (especially of powerful afflictions) is getting higher, amount of aoe is getting higher. Basically 'powercreep' as Malarious said (in another thread, I think).
When someone can die in a few seconds with both him and his allies being able to do nothing at all, it lessens the amount of strategy available. And the answer isn't "dont get in that position", because it's often unavoidable.
This is a major reason that a lot of people prefer 1v1 and/or small groups. Less feelings of helplessness, and more ability for personal skill to shine through.
It's a common problem for many long-running games, but not an unfixable one. I think we as players are becoming more and more aware of this issue and taking steps to solve it through envoys, and so long as the admins are on board with us, it'll get solved eventually.
Worms + Vomiting: The damage from vomiting task is increased and causes bleeding.
Worms + Dysentery: The damage from dysentery task is increased and causes bleeding.
Vomiting + Dysentery: The vomiting and dysentery tasks cause balance loss.
Removed: Combo for all 3. If an idea is needed for these, make it a chunk damage and auto cure them all as your stomach empties.
Removed: Anorexia from the list
NOTE: The "vomiting blood" ailment is removed and wherever occurs is replaced by vomiting+worms.
I like the idea of worms being an "affliction enhancer" for this group, but as noted by many, the instant starvation is bad. I did want to help calm some concerns though as well. These afflictions do not fire when given, so you have a delay to cure them before they take their toll. In addition the trio is not readily given by any guild that I am aware of unless Wyrdenwood can do all of them at once. Worry about these less, and lets think this one out rationally people!
It was clarified that "shortened breath" is a Tahtetso affliction. The combinations presented would ONLY ever happen in groups, which is a time we do not want it. So I am proposing a change to shortened breath before we look at the combination effects.
Change shortened breath to be what happens when you run around with asthma. It should have a cure of NOT MOVING for a few seconds (falling uncon would therefore cure it). Upgrade shortened breath to slow movement speed (for both tahtetso and asthma side effect). Change punctured lung to place you under the effect of shortened breath if you move, remove its endurance loss effect.
Shortened breath + vapors/black lung/punctured lung (with the above): Give a chance (50%) that you fall unconcious when vapors/blacklung tic (100% if you have all 3 affs) instead of balance loss/blackout. This should result in shortened breath curing.
Give a chance that when you begin moving too fast with shortened breath it converts to asthma, in which case the above combination would not occur.
I tried to meet a halfway point. Asthma should not happen as a side effect of trying to cure. This would effectively remove shortened breath as an affliction for endurance drain and convert it to help lower peoples movement rates while giving a nifty combo effect. This is still primarily in groups but also means running away with asthma and another affliction can effect you.
tl;dr: Shortened breath becomes an effect of some skills and from moving with asthma. Punctured lung and the current shortness of breath will cause this as well as asthma. It will reduce movement speed.
If 2 or more phobias, causes .5% drain of max ego per second per
phobia (i.e., if you have 4 phobias, you’ll be drained 2% max ego per
second until cured).
If 3 or more phobias, you will automatically be afflicted with omniphobia.
If 4 or more phobias, bromide potions will heal less for every affliction (say 3% less per aff).
Removed: Fear and Paranoia from the list. One is a pseudo aff (fear), and the other is not a phobia to me, it is a completely reasonable suspicion of everyone else.
Added: Loneliness to the list.
Contrary to original concern, the drain is not game changing but does benefit telepaths so it has been left in place. One thing we are not told is how quickly some of these effects go, for instance is amplifyphobia useless? Is it better to try to do 3 fears and you instantly get omniphobia or is it a 4 second delay or such? In the event you are stacked with affs I have removed the "bromide cures nothing" and simply made it cure LESS. This way in groups you are not shut down, but you are at a detriment. This only said BROMIDES, sparkle, scroll, and beasts would still heal as normal.
REMOVED. This is not a group in need of buffs, I could not come up with anything that a few guilds (I shall not name) would not completely break. The majority of guilds this effects are already high/top tier, and have no need of buffs to them.
Disease ( pox, scabies, sickening, rigormortis)
If pox or scabies present, APPLYING has a chance to cause minor bleeding.
If 2 or more diseases, weakened immune system, pox and rigormortis hit more often. Should give a line to show your immune system is overwhelmed with disease.
Removed: Sunallergy from the list.
These afflictions are already part of Cacophony primary offense, and with the spike, they do this readily. These effects were toned down considerably but still have a benefit to multiples. Pox hitting more often will mean more damage, and rigormortis would mean more hindering.
If weakness and any other aff, target gets -1 strength (ala enfeeble) until weakness is cured.
If 2 or more nervous ailments, movement speed is at a -1.
If 3 or more nervous ailments, movement speed is at -2 and being too hasty can cause you to fall and lose balance as your nervous system is in disarray (and should note such).
Removed: clumsiness, deadening, dizziness, sensitivity, and enfeeble from the list. We had 4 poisons in the list before adding healthleech. Trying to tone that down to 2. Enfeeble strikes me as being weakness+.
Added: healthleech and scrambledbrains to the list.
Remove enfeeble, replace instances of it with weakness + healthleech.
Change the effect of trembling from increased endurance loss to minor balance loss (1s) on a tic (every 3s/4s?)like scabies but caused by nerves instead of insects.
Change scrambled brains to cause minor loss (1s) on a tic (every 3s/4s?) instead of increasing willpower loss.
NOTE: This removes the enfeeble affliction and would therefore change some skills.
There were alot of afflictions in this group, and poisons would quickly lock you down to being unable to wield things in groups. I changed scrambled brains and trembling to give them more potential use, as they are presently used little and people dislike attrition.
I tried to put aside my original distaste to find alternatives I do not think would break combat, even in groups, but that gave some afflictions more use. I tried to explain all the changes made in the list and I would love feedback. I tried to improve unused afflictions or make them more useful by changing the effect. Lists were adjusted to try to avoid fast gang stomps. Hopefully this makes everyone a little happier, or is at least a good place to get people to compromise.
Shortness of breath could be left as an aff if needed, but I would still cause asthma to give shortness of breath, and change punctured lung to treat you as being under shortness of breath.
Other possible mini categories: Blood (Relapsing, Haemophilia, Hypochondria), Perception (Reckless, Paranoia, Dementia)
EDIT: It was noted that shortness of breath was changed with the aerochem report to effect HOLD BREATH. I would still like to see it have an effect on attmepting to move and remove it as an aff myself.
I think if you wanted to do drastic changes to afflictions, the following steps would be more beneficial:
1) Review each affliction, possible sources, and its effects.
2) Where possible, consolidate afflictions or flat out delete them. Trembling is a prime example of this: unless the new skillsets also give trembling, Ninjakari are the only guild that can give it, and the affliction and skill that gives it both are used 0.00% of the time. It's utterly worthless.
3) Once the afflictions are streamlined down to a reasonable number with reasonable cures, you can revisit the combinations ideas.
4) Once combinations are hashed out, review how they affect exiting guilds, potential sources, etc.
5) Tweak where necessary and cycle back to step #3.
6) Once the above is in a good state, get player feedback, at least from envoys. Let there be extensive testing.
7) Release.
The proposal, as is, is a huge undertaking. Perhaps not in coding, but definitely in balancing, and with the 300+ existing afflictions, is rather unnecessary. If the administration is looking to undertake a project that has such a great effect on balance, I think it would be better to review each guild and skillset individually, remove/consolidate afflictions where possible, rebuild skillsets, and go forward. That way, at least the consolidation and reduction in complexity would allow for a more achievable balanced game. I think getting experienced players involved in the process from the beginning will go a long way in reducing the overall work involved. Players would be able to identify problems/imbalances in the planning stage rather than post-implementation.
I'm kinda curious as to who exactly this affects and how much. Cause like, I'm looking at it and it doesn't seem like the afflictions directly correlate with the Hartstone to the point that ancestral curse seems to be where we'd get most of the afflictions on the list from.
I think I've seen a pre-requisite affliction mentioned throughout the thread, which I think could be interesting though seems along the lines of Jinx. Wouldn't mind having some curse of the stones for the Hartstone, with varying effects for the wildewood and druidry users.
As a side-note, my favorite times in Lusternia were when i was just getting into combat, there were a dozen demigods tops, and Ixion/Athana would raid Celestia every other night and i would get owned. This might sound dumb, but it was just amazing to watch the two sync together and take out groups of 7+ fighters because they knew what they were doing and deserved to be able to do it. Now there are new players 21 years old in-game that are demigods with the same power. Things are going faster and faster and faster, and need to just be slowed down some instead of moving towards faster leveling, faster killing, faster afflicting, etc. But that is just my two cents.
This choked me up just a little bit. I'm glad that something so positive came from our actions. I've said it before and, trying not to let any nostalgia cloud reality, I'll say it again-
Combat was incredibly fun before the advent of monks and bards (I only mention them as a timeline placeholder. I see them as the beginning of the major decline of the combat system) because quite simply: - Battles were longer and more drawn out - Movement and engaging strategies really could win fights, and a couple people could take down legions. It was harder, but still possible. - There were less afflictions and affliction combos that could completely lock you down with little-to-no effort. - Things like monks exist in that they have the very best warrior afflictions with no skill based prepwork (you roared menacingly at someone or picked a scab on their arm for a few seconds? Let's give you combos of the best a warrior can do as a reward for next to nothing.) - Less afflictions should yield less spam, which lets you read and keep up with the big picture in fights. Teamwork was employed quite extensively, and you had the time to do something about it. Not feasible now all too often, too many affs and damage sources, on top of no escape/win situations. Chestpain? Oh you have 3 seconds to move or hinder them entirely or it's essentially a guaranteed death. It's pretty telling when deathsongs and other instas are not being used that much, because you can just guarantee kills in mere seconds anyhow, or know passives will just shut them down anyway.
I mention all these things as something to consider for the big picture in the future of combat in Lusternia. Every change that produces more combinations at this point, I believe, will reverberate detrimental ripples in combat that will not be fixed for years, or never fully repaired.
That said I think Lothringen and others were spot on in their assessments of the proposed ideas. I agree, and hope that they are not implemented in its current state. I also agree with some of the other suggestions to altering affliction classes.
Also, I personally think combat would improved via: - Looking at the weak or largely unused afflictions and making slight upgrades to them on a case by case basis without grouping them, or by removing them. Grouping them and adding bonuses is preordained to be inequitable. Others mentioned the baby step approach and I think the above has merit as a first step action. - A more in depth look at kill methods and tweaking viability. Just as an example, psymet users are 99% immune to sacrifice via bonedensity. As such, are other kill methods viable to displace that near immunity? What about vs hartstone druids. If they can't break limbs can they still stick sap to kill? Do we really want hard counters to certain kill methods? If not, how should we change it? Etc etc etc.
Are you kidding? As a squishy Furrikin monk, I have trouble building up wounds in a single kata form. Everyone keeps telling me "oh shofangi deal a lot of damage" ...yes only if you're someone like @wobou with a trans everything and demigod with a peace pony or @sondayga with his Harmony death touch. Otherwise, best I can currently hope for is "survive, hinder and try not to die"
Are you kidding? As a squishy Furrikin monk, I have trouble building up wounds in a single kata form. Everyone keeps telling me "oh shofangi deal a lot of damage" ...yes only if you're someone like @wobou with a trans everything and demigod with a peace pony or @sondayga with his Harmony death touch. Otherwise, best I can currently hope for is "survive, hinder and try not to die"
The difference here is that you don't need to build wounds as a warrior does. Our best afflictions only come after we've built A LOT of wounds on a body part, then we generally have to swing (RNG), hope for a hit (RNG), hope for an affliction at all (RNG), then hope for that good affliction (RNG).
Monks get momentum then push a button.
edit: Forums are eating my quote. I don't know why.
Comments
There are so many abilities that give more than one affliction at a time, be it actively or passively. To have to look at each and rebalance them subsequent to this introduction would be a monumental task for admin and envoys. One example? Ur'life is three disease afflictions by itself. As a beast power...
Afflictions like worms, vomiting and pox could certainly use an upgrade, but I really don't think combination effects (which as pointed out before will essentially be new 'meta' afflictions) are the way to go. Should these changes go through, the idea of staying a warrior is not an appealing one. That such powerful combinations are added to classes which are -already- very viable just creates a 'why bother?' reaction.
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
We are not just saying "No no no no no", we are saying "No, because X Y Z." There are valid reasons why we are against this idea; please hear them out.
(And who says were not hearing out valid, constructive concerns?)
What a rogue.
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None of that means she's going to go ahead with it, nor does that qualifier mean she isn't. It's a question of what's the effort, not do you think she should.
There is still the issue of boosting the effects of afflictions without also toning down the things that deal the afflictions, and that's the real trick, isn't it?
I honestly can't tell you without actually seeing it in action, but I can say I'm hesitant because that sort of buff seems a bit strong in such scenarios.
You can choose to ignore them, sure, and say that they are wrong. As players, they don't have the code to look over as a resource to draw on, so it's understandable they may be wrong. However, to pass it off as a player disconnect is equivalent to stopping your ears to criticism and shouting lalala to the wind.
I am opposed to the implementation of this proposal in its current mechanical form. But if you must force this down our throats, then here's my suggestions with reasons:
1) Remove ALL non-damage effects from the compounding nature of the mechanic. No hunger, no extra anorexia, nothing. I'm inclined to include bleeding here, but I guess we can let that pass as just damage.
2) Make each triggered effect give a very small amount of said damage. Around 100 or so at max. Bleeding, if included, should be within this limit as well.
The reasons: The exponential effect makes it imperative we have a soft cap on this new mechanic's effects by making them small on their own. Upon getting all 3 intestinals, you will be given 400 extra damage on top of the original effects of the affs, if you follow my suggestion. This is plenty. This is a flat, unconditional +400 damage to the affs as they stand, without taking into consideration the strategies that originally use these afflictions. By making it pure damage, you remove factors like archetypes already able to give these affs by themselves easily becoming overly potent because the compounding effects shut down their opponents entirely. 400 is a small enough number that it won't break anything (theoretically, it might still break group combat, though that's much less likely) but also not a number a person can just shrug off. 400 is at least 10% of a non-demi's health pool, and 10% of a faeling demi's health pool.
From this base, you can slowly tweak up the numbers from further feedback and testing, until you get to the optimal stage of effect from the compounding effects. Remember that this is not a new skillset release. This change affects combat across the board, over multiple classes and archetypes, so you MUST make the implementation underpowered and tweak up, not make it overpowered and tweak down. A new skillset release, if underpowered, can render the new release unusable, so the alternative is the better one. But for this case, the affs currently are already usable, and are in fact already in-use, so there is no reason to release them as anything but underpowered, before tweaking up.
EDIT: If you're looking for the best ways to revamp how afflictions work, I think that making more of them stacks instead of binary effects would be a more interesting and balance-able direction.
If you were to make the combinations of afflictions more powerful, i think it would be better to boost them, rather than adding another affliction altogether. From a medical view, if you had a cold, then got strep throat or something like that, that wouldnt mean you got pneumonia because you had the other two. The strep throat would just make the cold worse. And what i mean by this is, if say worms does 100 damage, and dysentary does 100 damage, then combining them would do 500 damage instead of 200, and definately instead of adding a whole other affliction. Players and admin both are saying there are already too many afflictions and this is in large part because classes are getting to where they are dealing 4+ per combo. Not adding more afflictions, but making the combos do 5+ instead of 4+ really isnt constructive to me.
The proposals also over-reach on their effectiveness. Going from ok, to starving with 4 afflictions and anorexia if you try to cure isnt ok. Going from ok to getting 3 affs, and if you dont cure in time getting hungry, and if you still cant keep up, starving, then if you are still down getting anorexia, that would be better. The time frame it seems like being suggested is between 1-8 seconds tops, some of the proposed being (as stated) in less than 5 seconds. Drastic heavy hits should take a while and take strategy and setup to pull off. A decent fighter with decent system should take 15+ seconds at minimum before getting hit heavy with stuff like this. With the addition of bombs, combat moving more towards groups, etc. the game is moving more towards "lets kill x in 3 seconds then we can move to y to kill in three seconds". It should be "lets focus on x, and if we kill him quick enough then move to y, but if gets away or whatever then do y".
In a way it seems like its being said that skills like double whammy and ents are whats causing this change to be over-powered, when these changes are "for" those exact skills. So logically it would seem like the proposal itself is over-powered and needs to be tweaked down instead of the skills that are already considered under-powered. I still think the best course, as many others see it it seems, is to just tweak numbers instead of adding in more afflictions if you have so many afflictions. Something along the lines of "Your dysentery has been complicated by worms causing you to barf" does 1000 damage and bleeding" instead of "you have dysentery and worms so now you are anorexic". If the admin want to look at the afflictions that are not being used or are considered under-powered/ineffective, then getting the envoys to compile a list of them, decide which to remove, which to buff (tic/damage wise), and which to chain together to increase the effect (not by adding another aff, but by adding in exponential damage/bleeding/etc), i think that would be the way to go. Envoys are for the most part the best way to go, as has been seen here, some people tend to be sarcastic or think their skills are going to be toned down or their enemies are going to be toned up and they get aggressive. Envoys should be in it for the good of the game as a whole, so i think it would be better to task them with special reports for things like this rather than the forums as a whole. Post-release, players can talk about it on the forums to offer ideas/criticism. And envoys can always ask the more seasoned fighters for info, rather than people that fought a guy for the first time yesterday and won so they think their the best giving their two cents (or no sense in most situations) on the forums.
None of my statements are meant as sarcasm or harsh so hopefully they werent taken that way, the admin has done, and continues to do a great job at listening to concerns of the playerbase. The fact that you all brought up this big of a change for the players to discuss is a big deal, most games would just be like here you go deal with it.
As a side-note, my favorite times in Lusternia were when i was just getting into combat, there were a dozen demigods tops, and Ixion/Athana would raid Celestia every other night and i would get owned. This might sound dumb, but it was just amazing to watch the two sync together and take out groups of 7+ fighters because they knew what they were doing and deserved to be able to do it. Now there are new players 21 years old in-game that are demigods with the same power. Things are going faster and faster and faster, and need to just be slowed down some instead of moving towards faster leveling, faster killing, faster afflicting, etc. But that is just my two cents.
Shortness of breath could be left as an aff if needed, but I would still cause asthma to give shortness of breath, and change punctured lung to treat you as being under shortness of breath.
Other possible mini categories: Blood (Relapsing, Haemophilia, Hypochondria), Perception (Reckless, Paranoia, Dementia)
EDIT: It was noted that shortness of breath was changed with the aerochem report to effect HOLD BREATH. I would still like to see it have an effect on attmepting to move and remove it as an aff myself.
Combat was incredibly fun before the advent of monks and bards (I only mention them as a timeline placeholder. I see them as the beginning of the major decline of the combat system) because quite simply:
- Battles were longer and more drawn out
- Movement and engaging strategies really could win fights, and a couple people could take down legions. It was harder, but still possible.
- There were less afflictions and affliction combos that could completely lock you down with little-to-no effort.
- Things like monks exist in that they have the very best warrior afflictions with no skill based prepwork (you roared menacingly at someone or picked a scab on their arm for a few seconds? Let's give you combos of the best a warrior can do as a reward for next to nothing.)
- Less afflictions should yield less spam, which lets you read and keep up with the big picture in fights. Teamwork was employed quite extensively, and you had the time to do something about it. Not feasible now all too often, too many affs and damage sources, on top of no escape/win situations. Chestpain? Oh you have 3 seconds to move or hinder them entirely or it's essentially a guaranteed death. It's pretty telling when deathsongs and other instas are not being used that much, because you can just guarantee kills in mere seconds anyhow, or know passives will just shut them down anyway.
I mention all these things as something to consider for the big picture in the future of combat in Lusternia. Every change that produces more combinations at this point, I believe, will reverberate detrimental ripples in combat that will not be fixed for years, or never fully repaired.
That said I think Lothringen and others were spot on in their assessments of the proposed ideas. I agree, and hope that they are not implemented in its current state. I also agree with some of the other suggestions to altering affliction classes.
Also, I personally think combat would improved via:
- Looking at the weak or largely unused afflictions and making slight upgrades to them on a case by case basis without grouping them, or by removing them. Grouping them and adding bonuses is preordained to be inequitable. Others mentioned the baby step approach and I think the above has merit as a first step action.
- A more in depth look at kill methods and tweaking viability. Just as an example, psymet users are 99% immune to sacrifice via bonedensity. As such, are other kill methods viable to displace that near immunity? What about vs hartstone druids. If they can't break limbs can they still stick sap to kill? Do we really want hard counters to certain kill methods? If not, how should we change it? Etc etc etc.