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Combat balance
First off this is a rough idea and criticism/ideas are totally welcome. I figured if anything it'd be entertaining to write up.
Alright, typically combat balance in games is a bit wonky. So my suggestion to start is a rough set up to player damage sustain. So starting with a rough ratio of 2-3 hits for the squishiest characters on the scale and about 5x that for tanks, so 12-15. With that as a rough middle ground you can keep things in a bit of an easier check. This is taking into consideration an environment based on player skill and DR as I doubt many mechanics are set in stone yet. Things like skill shots and tactical use of said skills would matter more than spamming the mouse click in this type of combat.
Which leads me to my next point Tanks. Usually they end up being overpowered or simply a brick wall with no backlash. I'd prefer to see them get dps but in a more controlled manner requiring short term disable (.25-1sec roughly) to give them just enough time to land a slow but powerful hit.
So something like this: Shield bash(.5sec disorient) Overhead cleave(heavy damage) bull rush(short range knockdown moderate damage) Forceful Jab(heavy damage)
Rather than the "basic attack" kits most people use I'd like to see a skill oriented environment where basic attacks trigger when you can't perform said skill. This kind of combat style though forces tanks in particular who have a short range to either focus burst that target and take direct hits, go totally defensive or mix it in a little bit for a semi-viable damage rate. Now I don't want to see them get insanely OP I just think it makes more sense for them not to be worthless in the offensive departments.
Back to the 2-3/12-15 ratio this would be in place for a rough understanding of 80%dr as the maximum and all characters have access to all armors/weapons from what I gather. So I feel this is a rather good base ratio. The damage I'm expecting this to come around is monsters/players in roughly the 5-7teir(on a scale of 1-10 as I do not know the devs plans on damage output) damage wise. This mostly would encompass your general powerful monsters, mini-bosses, solo/small group bosses etc.
I don't see any creature reasonably attacking once then standing still for several seconds so in this ratio you could still be "instant killed" if not careful on a squishy build. Pretty much this allows anyone who can get out of a combo a chance to survive or die very quickly should they make a serious mistake and fail to correct it. Tanks however, will still be "safe" in that getting instant killed with be very hard to do unless you are critically undergeared preserving their "I face check this for you!" mentality.
On the offensive end for players you have a broader spread and more extremes so balancing that would probably consist of average output being roughly on par with monster tiers. Still that means a good pure dps mage, rogue etc. could ruin a tanks day if they don't properly avoid or guard against skills in pvp. Personally I do think player dps should be limited to avoid the One shot fiasco that's common in these types of games. If your not prepared that's one thing but if they can just do it because WHY NOT BE OP then it really just cripples balance and good mechanics.
Keep in mind generally this will have variances in any manner of game with lots O, numbers like this one will. This leaves a rough middle ground to reign things in should they get out of hand though. Creates a clear tier function for players to min/max on and let's your general casuals find an easier path to "Oh hey! I might not max out but this will be viable so I can enjoy the game well enough!"
I had more but I'm tired lol. Questions, thoughts, criticism all welcome might be fun to make a balance system in the forums who knows?
Alright, typically combat balance in games is a bit wonky. So my suggestion to start is a rough set up to player damage sustain. So starting with a rough ratio of 2-3 hits for the squishiest characters on the scale and about 5x that for tanks, so 12-15. With that as a rough middle ground you can keep things in a bit of an easier check. This is taking into consideration an environment based on player skill and DR as I doubt many mechanics are set in stone yet. Things like skill shots and tactical use of said skills would matter more than spamming the mouse click in this type of combat.
Which leads me to my next point Tanks. Usually they end up being overpowered or simply a brick wall with no backlash. I'd prefer to see them get dps but in a more controlled manner requiring short term disable (.25-1sec roughly) to give them just enough time to land a slow but powerful hit.
So something like this: Shield bash(.5sec disorient) Overhead cleave(heavy damage) bull rush(short range knockdown moderate damage) Forceful Jab(heavy damage)
Rather than the "basic attack" kits most people use I'd like to see a skill oriented environment where basic attacks trigger when you can't perform said skill. This kind of combat style though forces tanks in particular who have a short range to either focus burst that target and take direct hits, go totally defensive or mix it in a little bit for a semi-viable damage rate. Now I don't want to see them get insanely OP I just think it makes more sense for them not to be worthless in the offensive departments.
Back to the 2-3/12-15 ratio this would be in place for a rough understanding of 80%dr as the maximum and all characters have access to all armors/weapons from what I gather. So I feel this is a rather good base ratio. The damage I'm expecting this to come around is monsters/players in roughly the 5-7teir(on a scale of 1-10 as I do not know the devs plans on damage output) damage wise. This mostly would encompass your general powerful monsters, mini-bosses, solo/small group bosses etc.
I don't see any creature reasonably attacking once then standing still for several seconds so in this ratio you could still be "instant killed" if not careful on a squishy build. Pretty much this allows anyone who can get out of a combo a chance to survive or die very quickly should they make a serious mistake and fail to correct it. Tanks however, will still be "safe" in that getting instant killed with be very hard to do unless you are critically undergeared preserving their "I face check this for you!" mentality.
On the offensive end for players you have a broader spread and more extremes so balancing that would probably consist of average output being roughly on par with monster tiers. Still that means a good pure dps mage, rogue etc. could ruin a tanks day if they don't properly avoid or guard against skills in pvp. Personally I do think player dps should be limited to avoid the One shot fiasco that's common in these types of games. If your not prepared that's one thing but if they can just do it because WHY NOT BE OP then it really just cripples balance and good mechanics.
Keep in mind generally this will have variances in any manner of game with lots O, numbers like this one will. This leaves a rough middle ground to reign things in should they get out of hand though. Creates a clear tier function for players to min/max on and let's your general casuals find an easier path to "Oh hey! I might not max out but this will be viable so I can enjoy the game well enough!"
I had more but I'm tired lol. Questions, thoughts, criticism all welcome might be fun to make a balance system in the forums who knows?
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Besides if the game is going to be more of less socially based I rarely see conflict between to many random low levels and high levels. Unless that high level is playing bandit murdering anyone in his path lol. Wars/sieges are another matter entirely though... War, War never changes. Innocents will die low levels, npcs, high levels, animals all will be killed the defensive line should have advantage however. With things like city guards fortifications and other players backing them up I think most lowbies/noncombatant players could slip out pretty easily.
I'm just saying I'd rather my gear and skills be fully effective for the work I put in(minus getting debuffed of course =3).
A.A class is to squishy or to sturdy.
B. If DPS (class based or otherwise including monsters) is to high or low.
If kept in a scale where weights can be shifted without creating an entire upheaval akin to totally reworking a system... then you can balance around things that are within perimeters while leaving things that are safe in check. Like having a mage doing way to much damage to the point a tank literally gets 1 shot. That's obviously out of balance and defeats the purpose of the tank for pvp. Now say you also have the issue of the mage having the right dps for pve.
You could do that cheap gear shift and stat change stuff if you really want. Or rework some of the system... but like you said Kodger it can wreak things. That's why now in pre-alpha if everything is scaled in such a way where it fits snugly against each other then it'll be more stable. Basically what I'm saying is if the monsters and the players have a similar scaling structure you can make minimal changes to achieve the result you want.
In the mage example put into this rough system, it's clear that the mages dps would just be overkill in both pvp and pve. So obviously it wasn't an issue with the tank it was power creep on the mages side and simply needs re tuned. To be honest I saw literally this same scenario happen with DDO(dungeons and dragons online). So much so that it got to the point where insane dps was practically all that was viable in game.
Use vertical progression and generate a massive power gap between new players and old players.
These players can never share content together so you have isolated segments of the community.
The content can not be shared by both because the adversaries are in a different league.
Most of the population is at level cap, meaning the content has to cater for the majority population.
New players therefore have to race through XP (content) ASAP to play with friends.
Thus all old content becomes obsolete to old players and nothing but an obstacle to group participation for new players.
Ever more content becomes obsolete, and the devs can never satisfy the need for new content to replace the old.
Option 2.
Use horizontal progression to create ever more focused and unique players.
These players can share all content so there is no segmentation of the community.
All the adversaries are in the same league as every player so there is no scaling issues.
Level cap is meaningless, as all it signifies is the granularity of a players eternally evolving, preferred build style.
New players and everyone else can actually enjoy every moment in the game world, with anyone, at anytime.
All content is eternally relevant.
As no content is obsolete, there is an ever growing abundance of content to experience at your leisure and the relentless pressure for new insatiable content is removed from the devs.
/shrugs
Let act and movement control interfere with that equation.
Use stepped/incremental debuff/unbuff to force players out of rotations and into positional strategic counter play.
Force the choice between spending resource on debuff/unbuff or direct combat.
Every root skill use will crank down an opponents movement speed 10%
Every unroot skill use will crank the players movement speed back upto 100% in 10% increments.
Every control skill use will crank down an opponents efficiency 10% from 100% to -100%
Where -100% is full backfire of all skills.
Every uncontrol skill use will crank the players efficiency back upto 100% in 10% increments.
Now how will you spend your resources ? Indirect or Direct combat ?
You need a push/pull vs anchor skill to go with the above. That suits tanks, healers and damage dealers.
You also need gap close vs escape power.
I'd more prefer a system with vertical growth where skill is the most important factor. Eh... I guess the closest comparison would be something akin to Dark Souls. You can become pretty op and 1 shot low level stuff but making mistakes can still be costly. Resource wise they could generally make things like iron, monster parts, low level unique mats etc. Useful for high level and consumable crafting recipes.