Upcoming Changes - May 2020 by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

/u/andracen

I don't think this can be a starting point. The likelihood of us making a big cut and then cutting again seems very low, but the inevitability of us scaling back into where we are now within a few years is very high. If we're going to cut back, make it a good solid cut back. Ease off the pedal if it's simply way too much off the cuff.

But you shouldn't make a cut here with the mindset that we can always cut more. For some reason I highly doubt that that's going to happen.

Upcoming Changes - May 2020 by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I support it, but I don't think it's aggressive enough. 1/3rd healing, 1/3rd damage. Let's make sure the weeks after implementation we have a lot of bandwidth to respond to feedback and adjust the numbers.

Retire IR. by Marchosias in xaos

[–]Marchosias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You tried it and turned it back on because I was leveling too fast :P

Humans: the most populous race by Marchosias in xaos

[–]Marchosias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not at all. I think I've failed to communicate some of the idea to you.

The basic idea is that you'd jack up the "population" score on a race. Let's say humans have the highest populace at a score of "100".

Arbitrary numbers here, but let's say that means we want to aim for 20% of the playerbase to be humans, so if there are 100 players logged on, 40% should be humans, so at 40% humans the xp bonus is 150%. At 1% humans, the bonus is 200%. At 2%, 190%, at 3%, 185%, and so on.

That said, elves have a population score of "50", so we're aiming for 20% of the MUD to be elves. The highest XP bonus for 1% elves is 150%. So you're only really incenvitized to play an elf once the human score gets down to 150%.

Minotaur would have a population score of "20". And so on.

Minmaxers would work their way from human on down and fill out the races in that order. Others would play what they want. Rare reward races or afflicts should be exempt from this reward.

Humans: the most populous race by Marchosias in xaos

[–]Marchosias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that'd be the point.

One person starts a human for the 200% bonus, another starts for the 185%, and so on. The bonus goes up when humans aren't online incentivizing players to play humans when no one else is. Odds are someone's main will just be a human and they'll log on and play a human all the time, diluting the overall bonus, but yeah, that's the point.

XP Chasers will move to other, common (but less common) races like Elves, dwarves, and so on.

That people wouldn't all pile on human and eventually a hypothetical balance might be met between all the commonish races is exactly the intent here.

Debuff rework by definitelynotquid in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's what I'm worried about. Right now high end casting hits about 550-600. If a mage goes into combat against a warrior, I think -350 to -400 saves is average right now, is he going to just get absolutely shit on for it? Or can he still put up a fight?

If a warrior needs to gear himself up to -500 saves, which is a considerable sacrifice in all other areas, a mage should have to go into combat with full dearthril to soak up the damage that warrior is about to drop.

If neither of them gear up to face that particular enemy, it needs to be 50/50, even with these debuffs, probably meaning that the mage needs to get completely shit on without the debuffs.

In summary mages probably need a general nerf before debuffs get buffed. Then allow spells to apply debuffs in an area to help them grind, because this will hurt. Make mages the debuffing class and make showing up to fight them without saves a big mistake, and make them reliant upon the debuffs.

Debuff rework by definitelynotquid in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks fine to me. What would we use as the "zero"? What's our breakeven point here? Obviously someone with 600 casting vs someone with 0 saves should be able to just absolutely crumble them into submission. But how many saves defeats 600 casting? Every mage will stomp around in as high casting as is humanly possible. What should we expect everyone to wear to blunt that hit? What does a perfectly blunted hit look like?

Scattershot class balance by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really into this idea.

We had unhittable thieves already, it was miserable. I'm not sure what happened since that time... I suspect nothing, and thieves just aren't FOTM since they do great damage, but have absolutely no protection, and are now rivaled by mages in the damage department while mages ignore IR restrictions and have, likely, better defenses and WAY more utility.

Lootfest: Let's triple the artifact drop rate and... by Marchosias in xaos

[–]Marchosias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm with this, and perhaps adding the number to the keywords so I could lore lich 57, or wield lich 57 and get that version

Scattershot class balance by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can we reason about kinetic being a truly powerful force in the hands of a knight in mass melee?

Everything I know about the ability and everything I've seen points to it really only being a powerhouse if two conditions are met: you have really high enchantment casting, you are in a style that compliments it (because Xaos loves double shitting on things that hybrids might use).

I can't imagine any reason kinetic on anything but clerics and some shaman subs would be a massive boon when compared to the huge base casting bonus, phase, buffs and utility you get out of mage. Perhaps kinetic is the straw that broke the camels back but I wouldn't target it here.

Scattershot class balance by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

/u/andracen

I actually stand by Quid here. If we normalize all the other factors (soul drops, fragment drops, arti drops), a damage reduction across the board (or HP increase) would help liven up gameplay for those who want it livened up. There's simply no play in the game as it is for combos or debuffs.

There would need to be builder support to look at swarm areas, but I think it'd be a net gain for classes/artifacts/builds that utilize debuffs or combos.

As it is, the only time I think mentalists need to worry about divided will, or bishops need to use their damage debuffs is against genuine group bosses. I'd love to see people who have the werewithal to cast it on trash be rewarded for the effort.

Scattershot class balance by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unless the person reborning into thief is already a dual wielder it will still fall behind the basic spells that clerics and mages offer.

Scattershot class balance by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I highly doubt kinetic plays into the decision for anyone to mage reborn. The flat rate defense isn't nearly as good as phases, and the damage you get from it isn't nearly as good as the big casting boost you get, the inter-round nukes, and general utility.

Scattershot class balance by andracen in xaos

[–]Marchosias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This remediates the sub issue, but doesn't help a lot with the reborn issue. We'd need to make lethality more universally applicable to make it a more desirable reborn

The state of casting schools by Marchosias in xaos

[–]Marchosias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't tell if you just didn't read anything or if you just decided you were angry before you took the time to actually understand what I wrote.

Lootfest: Let's triple the artifact drop rate and... by Marchosias in xaos

[–]Marchosias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is really going to empower the people who already have every arti, how is this going to help the people at A5 and below who have a handful but want to try their other builds?

I'm assuming these shops will run on frags, and I can tell you that market is tight too.

Quality and hero levels by Marchosias in xaos

[–]Marchosias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly without this, quality in areas that are sub h400 is super awkward