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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.
Comments
By taking importance off of gear and placing it on needing different playstyles and abilities to succeed, I feel the community will be more cooperative with each other and actual stategy and planning will come back into the genre.
@Gothix
Wise words
I prefer it to be locked. But, I understand in modern day mmo's it's all about gearscore, which is why I prefer a different type of progression system, character progression, rather than gear progression. Gear is fine, of course, but if the differences are minimal, min/max people, will still have a small edge. Besides, I think character progression is a lot more meaningful. Remember the old forum RP days? Forgot the names, but you paid a sub, to RP in a forum, and your character progressed really slowly. Keep using the sword, and after a few months, you'd be a lot better at it, but hardly ever maxed out. Anytime you gained a level, it felt like an absolute milestone.
A progression system like that is preferable to me, and if a system like that were implemented, then gearscore would not factor in so much, and I doubt people would care about it being hidden.
I'm also a huge proponent of bringing people you enjoy playing with, people you forge bonds with, rather than a nameless gearscore x class.
With the ability to inspect, you can target whatever level you want. Without the ability to inspect, you can't even target good enough, let alone the very best.
Without an inspection option, and without a parser, how will they know who needs to be replaced? Something has got to give.
I'm neutral on this and feel like we should trust in the devs as we don't know how this game will play. It shouldn't be a hard feature to implement so if we feel we need it they could add it in quickly.
Situational awareness. Basically paying attention to how the fight is going outside of their own little bubble, if they can't keep track of everything going on should they really be the ones leading the fight?
I am still not seeing why this is an either/or. As for my response to Gothix, he claims people with good gear that don't perform can be replaced. So however they would determine that, with people in good gear, I assume they can without knowing someones gear. Otherwise you would never replace someone with good gear even if they were under performing, there would apparently be no way of knowing.
If the gear is good how would they know to replace under performers? The same way they would without knowing if the gear was good I would guess.
Even if you could do that you still can't tell if someones arrow did 10 damage or 1500 damage. No situational awareness will help you there.
Situational awareness can only help you see if tank will get one shotted or not... but there is no way to see how much DPSers do damage.
And if tanks HP goes down slowly, there is not way to tell if it's due to a lacking tanks gear, or weak healers healing.
Only parser can tell you that.
And "asking people"... good luck with that... maybe 1 of 40 people will tell you the truth... lol.
So please give up on the "smart little bubble sayings".. they are so smart...
1. I would disable gear inspection
2. I would enable voluntary linking of your gear score somehow (in a way that it can't be faked)
This makes open world PvP unexpected and fun.
It also allows people to form raid groups to their own preferences.
And again, whoever isn't happy with someone elses preferences, can move his butt and work a bit on forming his own raid, where he can set rules and requirements how he wishes.
I understand perfectly the concept of optimal gear, and optimal skill deployed at the right time in the right place for the right reasons. The concept of efficiency is not lost on me. My stance is that it comes with a cost that is destructive to the community as a whole. There is also a big difference between optional self improvement to your own timeline and compulsory imposed improvement to someone elses.
I know you want this advance information to satisfy the requirements of a dungeon equation in the most efficient manner, to ensure a predictable outcome for a predictable encounter. AND that is the whole point of my argument.
This whole predictability leads to the search for optimal gear, skills, playstyles, builds to answer that known encounter in the most efficient way. It leads to min/maxing to find the optimal builds and elitism to enforce it. That is why themeparks become boring and people demand new content. Because eventually they know the scripted event backward and can do it with their eyes shut. Such scripted events then become obsolete leading to ever less content and an insatiable appetite for more applying ever more pressure on the DEVs. A demand for a narrow band of content that can never be satisfied
Remove the predictability and there is no script. No script means people must rely on their personal skill 'as a player' and filling the holes in each others builds to be prepared for the unexpected 'as a group'. You dont need to prepare for the unexpected and be built for it when there is no unexpected element. Nor can every group have the required make up to be optimal for every situation when the content is unknown so the only requirement id diversity and skill with it.
I hope that you can contrast the difference between build requirements for unexpected content and expected content. Unexpected content demands diverse builds and adaptability. Where players must have immense skill specific to deploy their unique build. One leads to variety and one does not. Predictable content enforces cookie cutter FoTM builds. Unpredictable content enforces build diversity and harmonic skill collaboration.
As long as I have the option to allow someone to view my gear, I don't see it as an issue. The focus here seems to be on "elitists" judging others, not allowing them to raid, whatever. I'm not sure I have a problem with that, actually. If I might be the cause of a raid's success or failure because of my poor gear, perhaps I shouldn't be raiding. True, having good gear doesn't mean that someone can play well. But, certainly, having bad gear can prevent someone from playing well regardless of ability.
However, there's another reason for allowing someone to view my gear. It can be beneficial. In EQII, especially early on, more than once someone who understood how to play my character class better than me, or simply understood gear, was able to give me advice on what gear was best for me. And later on, as I became more experienced, I was able to do the same for others.
Being able to view gear is not necessarily a bad thing. I probably don't want to be playing with elitist snobs anyway.
Think of it as a business. Are you going to hire a person with relatively no experience or certifications over someone with 10+ years of experience and applicable certifications? Probably not. There's always going to be outliers, however.
I've played with plenty of stellar players who wouldn't meet a gear requirement or would have no hope in passing the eye-test so to speak. Take some time to see where their game knowledge is at by asking questions. The good players will know the ins and outs of their class, period. I'd even wager they know the ins and outs of every class. It's obviously not a perfect solution by any means, but I'd rather have 8 good players with bad gear versus 8 average players with the absolute very best gear.
Assuming there is a best gear and not tuned gear that is build specific.
Case in point: "link achievement!" "LFM Y exp only pls"
Seen that in other MMOs without gear inspection.
It's unfortunate, but I think a lot of players are looking at a scapegoat, not wanting to blame another person (probably because that creates conflict, which people instinctively avoid) but rather a system for the elitism.
Personally, I like it when MMO atleast gives me an option to allow other people to inspect my character, for vanity reasons if nothing else since I tend to wind up with top tier gear in the games I play.
@Rune_Relic
CopyCat Country Club show your credentials at the door.------------------------------->
No street people or working class dwarfs allowed!
A real life example of this is when I purchase large ticket items, I tend to do my research dressed comfortably and casually. I sometimes look like I should not be researching the specific items. The sale and the commission goes to the stores and salespeople that treat me well. They do not have to go out of their way but a polite enquiry and answering quick questions will get the sale. I expect if inspection is required I may try the same tactics.
On the other hand, knowing what gear another player has is important, to make sure he is appropriately equipped for his level and the difficulty of the content being attempted. If there is a costume/transmog/wardrobe system then there needs to be a way to see past the outside appearance to the actual underlying stats, which is what the typical inspection window offers.
Sometimes, sure. But there are gaps that skill can't overcome.
I for one welcome this, as i am getting older my reaction time is slowing, but my knowledge and experience is growing. with a mechanically inclined mind, high capacity of critical thought and 19 yrs of creating meta in mmos i can't wait to see all these class combos..../drool #excel but don't ignore in game functionality and common battle scenarios that don't necessarily factor in mathematically (which is common mistake with meta builders) they can get ya in the ballpark though. I just hope the game and class/ability building is as advanced as i hope it's going to be.
please bring back the brain...i know it's a seldom used tool in today's society, but i swear it's capable of amazing things....