Q&A: Answers To Questions From The Board - 2006-04-13

[soulsnatcher]

I'm releasing today a new Q&A, compiling answers given on the boards from the three communities. Find this time a few answers about the Outposts, Spires, the Ring, the gameplay and other various answers.
Good reading!

[kibsword]

Thanks for the answers

[evalisa]

*deleted, blonde moment*

[rushin]

*deleted, blonde moment*

am pink not blond so gonna post

Concerning the implementation of stats, the devs do understand the problem of missing statistics. But, what if they "activate" them, an important series of tests will have to be carried out to make sure the balance of the game does not collapse, and maybe some of these statistics will have to be revised, and tested again... This is thus a long process which can quickly be spread over several months depending on the difficulties encountered. Remember for instance, that two-handed weapons had to be modified, along with the activation of their statistics.

open up an ats shard for this, there will be plenty of players who will be more than happy to do the testing, with i imagine a few CSR to oversee things needs 'hardly any'* dev time, the CSR give us things to test, then pass a list of mods to the stats for a dev to implement and test again. would be a fun little project honest

*above post is made from reasoning in rushin's head and no warranty is issued to the accuracy of said statements

[ajsuk]

The launcher, when it was designed, was meant to be one of the most powerful weapons of the game in terms of damage (even the most powerful), used to start up hostilities against a pack of kitins or in PvP for instance, or as a backup weapon at a given time. But it was not designed to be used during the whole fight.


Since the beginning, this branch was not supposed to be a primary but a secondary skill: once the grenades had been used, the artilleryman had to use another skill if he wanted to carry on the fight.


The mektoubs could constitute a way to ensure a small reserve of grenades, and killing them could become strategic to immobilize the artilleryman (who ideally should not be able to access his grenades anymore).





But, since this skill branch was created, some other branches have been revamped (magic became more powerful to give just an example) but not this one, increasing the imbalance with time. This relative power thus disappeared with the modification of other settings of the game.





To put it in a nutshell, the big constraints concerning this branch were originally due to the importance of the damage inflicted. But now, they remain, even though the power compensation is gone.





A lot of things could use revision in the launcher skill, like simply the difficulty to grind this skill. Considering the constraints on the ammo, we could have imagined, for example, that it would take less XP to go up levels. That way, the constraint during battles would be kept, but would not excessively penalize the person willing to go up in that skill.





Another idea would be to rise a little the damage value a grenade can inflict, to give back a meaning to the constraints. The current level of power of the other skills in the game should be taken into account to see which values would be imputable, and then possibly readjust the constraints (of bulk and weight).

Yeah, we already know this stinks, could we have a fix for it though? Its hopeless trying to level this skill, if it was fixed it would give the higher level players something else to do. I can't imaging it would be a major hassle to change the elements to leveling/balancing. Just requires a little thought on what would be balanced. So please lets have something done about it.

[vguerin]

Yeah, we already know this stinks, could we have a fix for it though? Its hopeless trying to level this skill, if it was fixed it would give the higher level players something else to do. I can't imaging it would be a major hassle to change the elements to leveling/balancing. Just requires a little thought on what would be balanced. So please lets have something done about it.

Maybe also a type of ammo with less AoE that could be used to level the skill. Currently the ADD coming from the AoE makes it less than helpful in a team as it cannot be controlled. You hit plants, mobs and even the passing tribes all the time. When you can hold only 9 rounds max, it's a bit hard to help a team.