Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Class Diversity: Keep It Diverse
Diversity: As Different As Possible
I'm scared of "The Great Homogenization" that has befallen many an MMO.
I am very excited about the class structure hinted at by the devs for Ashes of Creation. You choose your primary class, then can choose a secondary class that modifies the skills and abilities of the primary. A fighter with a charge takes the mage sub class, and maybe the charge teleports you to the target. This is very interesting, and very exciting!
My fear rests in the pitfall that many MMOs have experienced. As a game matures, the player base does as well, and they begin to beg for their favourite class to be as effective as the others at their given task. Given enough time, DPS classes are balanced with other DPS classes, healers with healers, and tanks with tanks.
For the sake of balance, for example, each tank would be given a "damage reduction" ability on a short cooldown, and better "damage reduction" ability on a longer cooldown, etc. On and on, over and over, and eventually over the course of time a lot of the classes begin to feel the same.
Please keep things diverse. Please allow the different classes to function differently, with unique playstyles and mechanics, even at the expense of "balance". There will be a class that deals the most damage, there will be a tank that lives the longest, and there will be a healer that heals the best. Short some obscene unbalance, keep things as diverse as possible.
TLDR: Classes in many MMOs are too similar all in the name of balance. Try your best to keep class diversity as different and unique as possible.
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Comments
That's my fear also. Diversity is good and makes for better game play and more fun.
I like having an mmo gamer as a lead designer. It make me feel somewhat safer.
Though overbalancing causes exactly the same problem from the other side.
Euch. Tricky one, good luck Intrepid!
I think "balance" has become a horrible, dirty word in MMOs, justifiably so. I think that a player building a build that satisfies them, and lets them operate within their comfort zone, will naturally incline that build to be better for that player, regardless of how the rest of the community will see it.
In the last 10 years or so, I've watched one question become more prevalent, in regards to MMOs, than almost any other. It's this:
"What's the best build for XYZ?"
Before the influx of min-maxers with meters to measure everybloodything, the answer to that used to be "Whatever suits your playstyle best." Then the above-mentioned influx began, and it became easier for people to adopt someone else's build than it was for them to play around with the options, explore what made them happiest, and go from there. In short, the producers of games changed the games so that the LCD could always be viable, and experimentation and exploration went out the window. I sincerely hope that "balance" isn't pursued nearly so strongly as exploration is.
Ah, yes, good times
The other established game developers criticize that which is different because they fear the change it represents.
- Class stats
- Secondary class stats
- Gear stats
- Node stats
- Guild stats
- Religion stats
- Profession stats
- Flask/pot spell stats
Many of these things are dynamic and may go up and down over time, say when your node is attacked or destroyed, or your guild rank changes, or your deity decides to up and leave. There are so many factors that affect balance, I can't see how there could be a simple rock paper scissors way of pre-determining who should win a fight.Also, these stats don't take into account player skill. Some classes might be so hard to master that the average output on the stats might have to be scaled to take that into account.
Some class combos might be insanely OP or very weak compared to other single classes, but when combined with other class compositions to provide buffs, heals or mitigation, the opposite might be true!
Given all of this, I don't think class balance is going to be straightforward. Selecting good playtesters will be critical, because Ashes will probably be several times more complex than other MMOs.
I really hope we see this game( as it's promised) be the new benchmark for MMORPGs.
MIX. MATCH. MANY OPTION.
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