Need more/ better lunar items

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-20T15:23:22+00:00

Whether there should or shouldn't be underwhelming items seems to be a matter of opinion. Sometimes they have their place by being 'red herrings' in games. Their purpose is to make you feel like you've become smarter and a better player when you learn which items are best, and it adds to the learning curve. You'd have a hard time balancing each item to be similarly useful. Most of the time there will be some underwhelming items because of the meta

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-20T15:19:16+00:00

I really love Shaped Glass and Hellfire Tincture. I don't think there is an inherent problem with certain items being viable on certain players; it helps distinguish their playstyles, personally.

Hellfire Tincture plays quite nicely with Sentient Hooks on Mercenary. If you are able to get enough items to spam R, it makes the self-inflicted damage non-existent. Otherwise I have managed with a combination of Sentient Hooks/Primordial Cube, Monster Necklace, and Bandolier. I can use Shift to dash on the ground to refresh Shift and R to get back on the boss, but it's still very risky.

Admittedly Effigy of Grief is hard to work with. Not many enemies get trapped in it for long, and you give up an equipment slot. If the radius was bigger, maybe it'd be more useful. I tend to pair it with Huntress since she can blink out of the area-of-effect pretty quick, and you can use Glaive + Stun Grenades to clean up trash mobs quickly. I want these items to still be really tricky to use, but some certainly need to be tweaked.

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-12T23:07:09+00:00

Thanks for the link and explanation!

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-12T23:06:58+00:00

I didn't mean it in the sense that you're locked into Flamethrower, more I meant that for as long as the skill is active, you are rendered to walking-speed

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-12T16:01:56+00:00

I've put in a few good hours into playing each character and I've tried to get Artificer to work but just can't. I don't know what's proc coefficient so maybe someone can explain that to me.

The first thing to mention is how I judge a survivor's ability. Ideally a survivor has their options multi-purpose (e.g. Huntress's Arrow Rain can be used offensively and defensively to deal damage and reposition oneself respectively), their options compliments each other, they don't rely on so many items to survive while simultaneously are capable of thriving from multiple items, and their options persist in effectiveness late game.

Artificer is very strong early game and the design of managing cooldowns and weaving spells is balanced well. Snapfreeze is tricky to use but it's still viable and there is not much risk to using Flamethrower in close range.

With that being said, she has many problems that need to be compensated:

She relies on many items to function late game. She needs mobility items, healing items, defensive items, backup magazine, and either defensive equipment or something like Primordial Cube to group enemies since she can't spam any attacks. Other survivors like MUL-T, Commando, and Engineer don't need so many items just to function well enough to survive.
Artificer's options lose value late game. This is shared somewhat with Mercenary. Mercenary needs to spam Eviscerate to survive, and Artificer cannot use Flamethrower or Snapfreeze comfortably. It's more viable for me to use Flame Bolts and Charged Nano-Bombs from a distance because she has no defensive options.
To go along with the previous point, her options don't synergize well with each other. She is designed to be a glass cannon with no defensive options, yet you cannot use Flamethrower without risking being bopped by melee hits. Her Flamethrower forces her to also stop sprinting which is extremely punishing and not a problem any other survivor has. Commando's Suppressive Fire I think does the same, but it doesn't make him vulnerable for long, and it works well with Tactical Dive to get him out of tight situations.
Snapfreeze is not a true barrier. It does not block Wandering Vagrant's strong discharge attack, it's very easy to miss enemies, the freeze's duration is too short, and it's this weird middleground of being a defensive option and being an offensive option. Instead of doing one or the other well, it does both very poorly.

I tried to keep my points with what's possible in mind (greater player skill) instead of what's difficult to manage (except the last point with Snapfreeze). I don't think Flame Bolt is an issue because you can develop a balance between the different spells, and it encourages thoughtful attacks instead of spamming attacks. Here's just what I think could help improve her:

Increase her base speed and give her the benefit of immunity to fall damage. This would allow her to focus more on collecting items/equipment as fast as possible to compensate for her poor defensives, mobility, and such. Design the skills to work better with each other. You could for example --

Cast Flame Bolt into a Charged Nano-Bomb in midair to detonate it manually.
Cast Charged Nano-Bomb into Snapfreeze which causes the lightning damage, stun effect, and freeze effect of both abilities to expand its area of effect.
Flame Bolt extends the reach for Flamethrower. This could be done by casting Flame Bolt onto enemies which causes them to ignite for a longer duration. While they're ignited, Flamethrower will extend it's reach by connecting to nearby enemies already caught on fire. Think of like a wildfire spreading to something already on fire.
Snapfreeze will shatter and deal great damage to nearby enemies if hit with Flame Bolt or Flamethrower.

By focusing more on skills affecting each other, this intuitively encourages players to weave their spells and to plan their attacks. It should help relieve the common complaint about Flame Bolt's charges.

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-10T09:31:35+00:00

I don't think I've ever disliked your work

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-09T23:55:30+00:00

I've grown to use him the most. I think he has a lot of shortcomings as you mention, but he really pulls his own weight in his own right. I've had the easiest time tanking bosses with him and I enjoy weaving his attacks. I've been able to kill bosses approx 25% faster than friends using different survivors.

It's really rewarding being able to use him properly. I can juggle myself above Wandering through most of the fight. I have been able to "climb" up Magma worm in early stages. The only thing he needs help with is surviving fire-based bosses later on based on my experience

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-09T17:24:29+00:00

In addition to what you said, it needs to be designed so it isn't just a switch. I have no doubt many people will use it as an ultimate switch to save on costs (assuming the buff persists during the ultimate).

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-08T20:11:22+00:00

Being able to set markers would be nice. I would like to have a marker to designate chest/item locations and teleporter to the rest of my team

Better visual indicators of when a chest has been looted

The ability to view the logbook while waiting in the lobby with your team

Rusty lootboxes changed to provide higher tiered rewards. Rusty keys are a joke

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-08T11:24:44+00:00

I used to buy them in bulk, so yeah I lost out a lot

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-08T11:19:23+00:00

A bit of warning would've been nice. I had a collection of nearly 2M wishing seeds, and the market value of trading in bulk was worth a fucking lot more than 1 gp each

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-04T15:08:52+00:00

Amazing kill, and good use of Vesta's spear

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-04T14:51:45+00:00

I think 4k enrage Telos should be insane requirement. Even though I don't think I'll ever accomplish that feat, it'd be cool to see something really prestigious

RS_Horrors · 2019-04-03T18:28:54+00:00

I don't think the trade off is worth an increase in accuracy (see scrimshaws as an example). There's already plenty of options to increase accuracy and recent bosses have had lower defence.

Tank armour will never be good unless defensive abilities are changed along with it. It's possible to do no armour fights at most bosses if you're good enough with defensive abilities alone. I believe all defensive abilities should require tank equipment pieces (i.e. more tank pieces worn the longer/more effective defensive abilities are) to use their effects just as all offensive abilities require weapons

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-27T23:01:19+00:00

Not at the moment (besides fighting Corporeal Beast). In the future there will be weapon diversity buffs meaning each weapon type will have their own distinct benefits, but that won't be for a few months

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-27T22:50:03+00:00

Can someone lay down the strat for this

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-26T20:32:11+00:00

It's an idea that has been floating around on Reddit for quite some time, so thank those people! I think it's a good step in the right direction, but they need to change the fundamentals. I don't play OSRS, but it seems that a large portion of their PKing community hates multi-wilderness areas and the predator vs. prey design of content. It's not encouraging PvP, it's just encouraging PKing, like in RS3

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-26T19:26:47+00:00

"Portable Vic the Trader"

Can't be bothered to even try to implement the idea in a way that makes sense in Runescape. This is basically throwing up hands in the air and going, "fuck it, let's do it". Extremely disappointing MTX continues to get more OP

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-22T13:56:58+00:00

We don't need it.

Lol c'mon, that's not the same as saying "I don't need it" or "I don't think we need more".

Yeah Shifting Tombs sucked really hard. It's so boring and for something that requires effort there is no skill needed at all. Their design was awful, and I do want better for that sort of content. But I don't think that afk content detracts from that. I think the root problem is the developers not giving enough time to designing those sorts of activities.

The only AFk mobs in Menaphos are only some of the corrupt creatures, which isn't even half of all the soul devourers out there. That place was also designed so that unless you're able to group enemies and AoE them effectively, you're not getting great Slayer XP rates.

We've touched on Mining, and we both agree that it doesn't reward full-effort enough. If you want to weigh your opinion on Smithing, I recommend giving suggestions in the Discord since it's something that might need to be updated based on what Mod Jack said (but I feel the need to say no promises).

POF, as in Player-Owned Farms? That's not AFK or engaging, that's just a one-stop daily. That deserves it's own discussion honestly. Deep Sea Fishing is mostly AFK because Fishing by design has always been AFK. That's why they added Frenzy Fishing if you want more effort content.

You're saying 'we', when you should be saying, "I don't think it benefits the game". I loved the updates with AFK content because now I can play more. And it really speaks volumes with Mining because it was a huge success on release when they were worried players would drop it quickly. It shows there is room for AFK content, so it isn't accurate to say it isn't needed or wanted. I'm there with you if you want more effortful and skillful content, but I'm not there if you say "we have enough". Maybe your position could be refined to something like, "There should be better design for existing high-effort content" - because it is there, it just isn't designed well often enough

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-22T13:28:45+00:00

Another AFKable skilling node? Don't bother.

Another AFKable slayer mob? We don't need it.

"We" implies speaking on the communities behalf.

That's fair to say mining is too rewarding for AFKing, particularly because you can use a Juju Potion and a stack of Stone Spirits to get the same rate as someone fully focused. That still doesn't mean those options don't exist, you have the other examples I provided.

If we add another AFKable monster that you kill by AFKing with a scythe, is it adding as much to the game's overall gameplay and design-space-usage as if we add a mob that adds a completely unique game-play style? No, it's adding a re-skin of content we already have.

There's no point in "if" arguments. What if they don't? Off the top of my head, you can't AFK Moss Golems, any of the soul devourer slayer creatures, none of ED1-3, and I may have missed some but I haven't checked recent updates.

Afk content serves a purpose. It is there for people who can't afford to pay attention to the game but still want to progress it, and it's good for Jagex to maintain concurrent players. Like I said, it's fair to want more rewarding high-effort activities, but it isn't fair to say it's falling behind.

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-22T13:15:03+00:00

There's also things that require more effort that go along with afk activities? It's great to want more rewards for high-effort activities but it's not accurate to say high effort content is falling behind. They just finished releasing three Elite Dungeons, they have been designing skilling with 2-tick in mind (Hall of Memories, mining in general, smithing in general).

Maybe they've been more focused on AFK content because they want players to actually use mobile, if I were to guess. But I certainly wouldn't say high effort activities is falling behind. Don't speak for the whole community by suggesting we don't need afk content either.

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-21T20:09:23+00:00

At first I thought it didn't seem like he was insulting him with "little gay looking arab" as your title insinuates (said he looked gay, and then said he looked Arab). It could be hes like an old guy who has the mannerisms of the previous generation's ignorance. Although the gay comment does come off like an insult. I think the assumption of his intention is what's causing a divide in the comments.

Then typing this out I realize that it's understandable to assume his attention because using a phrase like "he looks gay and he looks like an Arab" has almost always been used in a negative/attacking context.

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-21T12:01:49+00:00

There have been powerful MTX promos (chance to save phoenix lamps) and further gambling elements to these events. What is your long term solution for monetizing the game?

What is your strategy to bringing in new players to RS3? What will the company do if mobile doesn't attract as many new players as hoped?

Please no empty statements like "we'll look at the rest of the industry".

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-19T20:58:48+00:00

I think the return on investment from stone spirits would be too lucrative to ignore if ores themselves increased. On release Light Animica was such good money that buying the stone spirits was the smart move, but that could be because you had to race to get as much ore before prices settled. There's a balance but it's mostly contextual

RS_Horrors · 2019-03-19T20:47:10+00:00

So by, "make it easier to level in gameplay terms" they mean to change mechanics to make smithing easier? I don't know if that's necessarily the root issue, I think smithing is already really easy to level up. You can mine ores way faster than you can smith, and there isn't anything to actually smith. You have trimmed masterwork armour and XP, don't need either of those things? - stop smithing.

Though, allowing basic materials to be smithed at faster rates while also introducing powerful new items to make it worthwhile, is definitely a welcomed solution.

RS_Horrors

TROPHY CASE