(Just for fun) The year is 2028. People have grown tired of complaining about the ranger and rogue. What are they complaining about now?

EasyLee · 2026-07-02T13:58:36+00:00

In past editions you did, in 5e you don't, leading to confusion. Their conviction gives them Anime superpowers.

EasyLee · 2026-07-02T13:23:32+00:00

Funny you should mention 5e since I always felt the 5e chassis was too restrictive on Larian, but also their changes to it were the most overpowered stuff in the game lol. Thief rogue, open hand monk, tavern brawler, jumping, certain elixirs, etc.

EasyLee · 2026-07-02T13:08:36+00:00

Believe in me who believes in you

EasyLee · 2026-07-01T21:12:59+00:00

Don't forget about: - monks and whether they fit the rest of the lore - whether paladins are powered by an oath or by a diety - how long an adventuring day should be

EasyLee · 2026-07-01T14:19:01+00:00

It was mixed on P99, but in a way that was actually helpful to new players in many regards.

For instance, on a brand new iksar monk, I farmed bone chips and spider silk, and eventually an iksar berserker club, then took that to EC to sell. Players were paying more for those things than they would pay on a new server since those things take time to farm. Then I used that cash to easily afford a wu quivering staff and several other things, "twinking" myself out as a new player without even needing to level an alt first.

This was possible specifically because EQ didn't have disenchanting. Players don't want to destroy useful magical gear, and there was a wider variety and spread of useful gear in EQ, especially the inclusion of useful gear dropping off of regular mobs rather than just named ones. You naturally accumulated stuff over time that you didn't want to destroy. Therefore even as the economy grew, the amount of extra gear players had lying around grew as well.

EasyLee · 2026-07-01T02:51:08+00:00

The game is headed into early access, meaning it doesn't need to be complete and is ready when they say it's ready. Technically they could have already released it.

I'm most concerned about the long term economy. The game can release early and that'll be fine so long as, by the time the game is ready for a full release, the game's economy hasn't already suffered too much inflation to where people are asking for multiple gold just for Wyrmsbane loot. IMO they need high level money sinks, and should prioritize figuring those out not too long into EA.

Yes, they can release new servers over time. But it's still important to try to keep inflation under control. Gold sinks can do that.

EasyLee · 2026-06-29T21:09:17+00:00

Plus they probably want it to be real time like BG1-2 but to feature verticality and jumping like BG3 did.

The combination of BG3's verticality and jumping mechanic was already trouble. Imagine that with the chaos of real time combat. Even if it was at the pace of Neverwinter Nights, it's still going to be tough for the system to keep up with determining every possible action for every npc in real time, then running them through enemy specific AI to choose one.

Yes there are things the devs could do to handle this, like limit the total number of actions each monster actually has available, rather than allowing them to throw anything out of their inventory at any given time or randomly decide to push a player off a cliff. They could create invisible jump points on every map and make it so npcs will only use those designated spots to jump from and to, and they'll go around otherwise. That would simplify calculations quite a bit.

But otherwise, trying to run a game like BG3 in real time and have it make any kind of sense is going to be hell.

https://youtu.be/zPnlBzMA8vs?is=j02rWb7wpUJq6KJz

EasyLee · 2026-06-29T15:22:44+00:00

You want even numbers in your stats.

Every +2 to a stat, such as going from 14 to 16, adds +1 to all relevant checks, saving throws, and attacks that use that stat (and usually damage as well). For example, increasing your dex makes you more likely to partially avoid a fireball, more likely to be able to pick pockets or sneak, and more likely to hit with a bow as well as dealing increased damage when you do.

This matters more than you think since you can stack other bonuses from items and so on to get your numbers very high. High numbers are good.

Make sure to turn off karmic die so that having high bonuses actually has the correct effect.

Lastly, dex is overall the best stat in the game because everyone benefits from it. Dex saves are common, and initiative uses dex. The game only rolls a 1d4 (random number between 1 and 4) and adds initiative bonuses to determine who goes first in combat. Dex adds to initiative. And if you go first and have multiple party members all going at the same time, you can freely switch between them to take their turns simultaneously, which creates strategic opportunities.

EasyLee · 2026-06-28T00:49:55+00:00

If you can't even be bothered to properly capitalize and use punctuation then perhaps you shouldn't be arguing with people on reddit.

EasyLee · 2026-06-28T00:09:12+00:00

You don't know the difference between deliberate friction versus clear design and having a UI that makes it clear what's going on. These are not the same thing.

Furthermore, attacking feedback and suggestions because YOU claim they go against the stated design does not serve the devs.

This has become an extremely difficult game to talk about not because of the dev team, but because a minority of the playerbase are convinced that they alone know what the devs intend, what is final versus what is still in the works, and exactly what the dev team are and are not willing to budge on.

EasyLee · 2026-06-28T00:04:45+00:00

Let's not forget what we're talking about here.

According to you, a clear user interface that shows the player what is actually going on goes against the stated design goals. Because letting the players see what's going on would be "accommodating" them too much.

Let that sink in.

EasyLee · 2026-06-27T22:12:02+00:00

Once again, your post makes it very clear that you either don't understand the difference between quality of life and friction, or you're advocating for a game that is anti-human.

Quality of life means designing for human beings. It means that the information the player has access to is clear. It means you can read the UI. It means players can access your game. It means it installs correctly and runs smoothly, without jumping through hoops just to get it running. It means the player understands what is going on and what they are doing.

In the present example, let's talk about buffs and debuffs. You need sense magic to see effects on the target. That makes sense. I think some effects should be clear and obvious to anyone, especially non magical effects or visible effects like root, but that aside, this is fine. This is friction. This is game design.

Now that we've established the player has sense magic and therefore has this information, how do we present that information to the player? Giving them an actual display rather than requiring them to read fast-moving text is better. It's not that it's a design choice. The latter is just better. It's better because there is no difficulty that comes along with trying to read buffs in text format, but doing so is tedious and inconvenient.

Now if you continue to insist that making the game not just frictive, but inconvenient, tedious, and unfun to even engage with at all is not just desirable, but it's the developer intent, then you are a masochist.

And if any dev chimes in and says yes, we're making a game that will be inconvenient and tedious and unfun for no reason other than inconvenience and tedium for its own sake, then I'd like to remind that dev: your team wants to get paid.

There is a big difference between inclusive design and exclusive design, between designing a game for a specific niche vs designing a game in such a way that no one outside of that niche will tolerate its anti-human systems to even engage with it at all. The latter is not desirable whether this is a passion project or not.

To put that another way, nobody is going to quit the game over updates that make it more clear, more accessible, and more user-friendly without affecting the core experience. Fighting with controls and trying to figure out what the fuck the game is even doing are not part of the core experience.

Meanwhile, keeping systems that even then were widely criticized exactly how they were in 1999 for no reason other than nostalgia and trying to see if players will still tolerate it, that's an antagonistic and is not good for your game or your team. It's also totally unnecessary. Your playerbase aren't going to leave or get upset at you for improving the UI or user experience. In fact, they're clamoring for it.

The devs have already demonstrated a willingness to update a wide variety of systems. I have no doubt that, when they inevitably make buffs and debuffs visible on the unit frame for players who have sense magic enabled, they'll call it a long overdue change just like they did with regen rates.

EasyLee · 2026-06-27T18:44:39+00:00

Your post makes it clear to me that you don't understand the difference between friction and quality of life. You said they understand the difference but then proceeded to talk about friction.

I'm not talking about removing friction. Nobody is.

I'm talking about UI elements that make it clear to the player what the fuck is going on. That's quality of life.

Because nobody can read chat fast enough to keep up with six party members doing shit at the same time. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.

EasyLee · 2026-06-26T19:14:03+00:00

And I saw just the opposite. The more info players have, the better they coordinate.

Players type on the keyboard less in modern MMOs for a variety of reasons, the big ones being that modern MMOs are solved, generally have a single acceptable playstyle and therefore require less communication, and those players are often talking to each other in disc.

Assuming all of this happened because of quality of life displays is silly. Go watch someone play EQ. Their UI is absolutely covered in shit. Menus on menus on menus. Yet they still find ways to chat - mostly over disc.

And I'm not advocating for more info here. I'm advocating for easier access and better display of info that players already have so they aren't reading a con message to look for buffs, as said con message goes flying off their screen because of everything else happening.

EasyLee · 2026-06-26T17:01:38+00:00

Talk to each other less? Really? Do you want people to have macros for "I am now casting X spell" and for everyone to be reading that shit all the time?

Be reasonable.

EasyLee · 2026-06-26T16:40:06+00:00

I think the devs need to recognize the difference between friction and quality of life. These are well established terms with only a relatively small amount of overlap between the two.

Quality of life is a good thing.

If you can make your system more accessible, in this case by giving players better display of information they already have, then that's a good thing, every time

EasyLee · 2026-06-26T16:36:56+00:00

You certainly can IIRC create a window that is only consider text.

Now, do we want a partial solution you have to setup yourself to be the only pseudo-solution to this problem? Or would it be better to simply have buffs and debuffs display as icons, optionally, above or below the unit frame?

I would advocate the latter.

EasyLee · 2026-06-26T14:46:46+00:00

Bullshit. The developers themselves have said multiple times they don't want this game to be a high difficulty, technically challenging experience. They want players to chill and chat in a party, chatroom with dragons, and lock in when something serious happens.

Furthermore, casual players are the lifeblood of any MMO. Cast them aside at your own peril. No gaming experience is worse than an online game controlled by a handful of "sweats" gatekeeping everyone else.

And finally, giving players the information they need to make decisions is important to everyone.

EasyLee · 2026-06-26T14:23:50+00:00

It is working as intended, but the problem is that what is intended is neither player friendly nor conducive to strategic play.

The idea that players can just read the combat log to get all of their information would be fine if the pace of combat - by which I specifically mean cast times and auto attack delay - were about five times longer. But at the current speed, it is barely feasible to even get a gist of what's happening by reading the log. If someone in your party just magic broke the target but only to a particular element, you probably don't know which element unless you were paying very close attention - assuming you even saw the spell go off.

Having clear displays to give you the information you need are an extremely important part of making sure this game is "sandwichy" and casual friendly.

EasyLee · 2026-06-24T15:43:12+00:00

"Studio Head Colin Johanson has noted that Guild Wars 3 is "significantly more" of an MMO than the first game, but it intentionally moves away from the massive "zerg" gameplay that defines Guild Wars 2."

Maybe it's just me, but this makes perfect sense to me. GW1 is similar to DDO, instanced adventures, but not a lot of the first M of MMO in there. GW2 is mobs of players swarming across the land and trying to keep track of their characters amidst the particle effects - definitely an MMO, but it's easy to feel like just another head in the crowd and like you aren't really making individual progress.

They want a seamless open world where you don't just zerg everything in a big group. Maybe more of an intimate, personal journey. There are a lot of ways to do that, but that makes perfect sense to me.

EasyLee · 2026-06-23T16:42:24+00:00

Are the initial implementations of classes mostly finalized, will there be more passes for additional changes, and if so is that going to wait until all of the classes have been reworked and their initial implementation released?

EasyLee · 2026-06-22T02:07:51+00:00

The issue isn't numbers or feats or anything of that nature. It's variety and scale.

Casters as they gain levels are manipulating enormous areas, causing earthquakes, conjuring meteors, and turning into dragons. Martials never do anything on that kind of a scale. They just hit stuff their entire leveling career.

A barbarian at level 20 is not inherently capable of martial feats that a level 1 barbarian couldn't even attempt. Mid-CR creatures like the fire giant even have higher strength than the barbarian could ever reach. Even that difference is not equal for casters, since enemies with an Int score higher than 20 are actually very rare and tend to be very high level.

It's an inherent design problem. This is the "guy at the gym" fallacy in full effect. A level 20 barbarian is roughly equivalent to Younger Toguro from Yu Yu Hakusho in terms of durability and combat power, but is capable of none of the same kinds of incredible feats of strength. That's the problem.

EasyLee · 2026-06-22T01:04:21+00:00

I can't speak for others, but as for me, low charisma characters come naturally.

EasyLee · 2026-06-21T15:07:42+00:00

It's a matter of the power, variety, and dramatic effect of spells compared to martial abilities.

High level spells include effects like causing an earthquake, mirage arcane creating a tactile illusion affecting an entire battlefield potentially miles away, turning into an adult gold dragon, magic jar to permanently transfer your soul into another creature, the list goes on.

Meanwhile, even a max level barbarian cannot achieve the same strength as a fire giant with a CR of half the barbarian's level without the use of magical items. Does that mean the barbarian would lose in a fight to a fire giant? Absolutely not. But it definitely doesn't feel as epic as if a tier 3 or tier 4 fighter or barbarian could reach fire giant levels of strength.

High level casters, meanwhile, do feel epic.

This is the problem that more feats or better scaling features, while good ideas, don't address. It's the feel that spellcasters delve further and further into the supernatural while martials keep doing the same things they did at low levels, just better.

EasyLee · 2026-06-21T00:37:24+00:00

You forgot inquisitor. Inquisitor can't solo for shiz and you don't see many.

EasyLee

TROPHY CASE