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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.
Driveby buffs
I was wondering if there will be spells or abilities that will provide longer lasting buffs, say 2,5 or 10 minutes plus. I enjoyed casting a longer lasting buff on random people as you passed by them in the game world and it was a nice surprise to receive such a buff from a random person. To me it just fosters in a small way a closer community, to know that someone you may never interact with has taken a brief moment to help you on your journey.
What do others think is it a good idea for longer lasting buffs or do people not want such buffs to be on a somewhat restricted action bar?
What do others think is it a good idea for longer lasting buffs or do people not want such buffs to be on a somewhat restricted action bar?
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Depends on if they link it to the flagging system also. We know that healing someone flagged purple will turn you purple also. Depends on whether giving them an active buff would qualify the same.
I would hate to get flagged for that
"So, combatants are people who either aid other combatants or attack other combatants or noncombatants, so those are combatants… those are flagged players, they’re purple."
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fvr9KYT104i8WYppCup1v6SUTZFJTobVz8uRHDas4YM/edit
One option they could go with if the mechanics and depth of their flagging allows.
If you are green and heal someone who is purple and they are not in combat, then you stay green.
If you are green and you heal someone purple or red in combat you become purple.
It will be interesting to see which way they go, personally I think if you heal or buff someone who is in pvp combat then that may well flag you to purple. Another option could possibly be flagging red if you lend aid to anyone with corruption or flagged red, though this seems a bit harsh tbh.
A quick stop at a bonfire or a nice beer in a tavern.
But to just get a buff by walking past someone is a bit weird, but maybe plausible.
It can be a system that could work, like imagine your city with a lot of buffed people/aura's they have of buffs because of happiness from a good meal or whatever. That could affect the whole city like a slow plague of happiness.
What I mean by buff spells that some classes may have that provide some sort of stat increase when they are cast, it may only last a few minutes. Not like a food or potion buff, I guess these type of longer lasting castable buffs have tended to vanish from more recent games.
An example from above was the intelligence buff mages could cast in wow, you would see someone out in the world and just cast it on them to provide the buff for a while, just a friendly thing to do.
As far as buffing strangers goes. I always used to do it. But then again, I would be one of the people that would type /moo whenever I met someone (As a Tauren)
Yes they can be tedious with such short durations.
Marked Shot is one of the skills that Ranger has. It places a mark on a target that increases the damage they receive. You can see its second skill progression offers an increase in duration.
http://aocwiki.net/Ranger
I personally think we will see other buffs have a similar theme in which skill progression offers an opportunity for longer lasting buffs.
OR
Perhaps a skill progression that offers shorter lasting buffs which are more powerful.
I also believe augmentations may also offer diversity on the duration off buffs.
I'm very very very excited to learn more about buffing
P.S I moved you to Ashes of Creations Systems and Mechanics
I always found it very disappointing in other games when you could only buff those you were grouped with.
I hope that buffing of anyone is possible, including NPCs, and that simply applying a buff does not flag you. Or that you would be only able to buff those of the same colour, that would be ok.
If you are green there are three options:
A - Can buff anyone, but it you buff a flagged person it auto flags you (I know part of people will have a problem with this, being careless who they buff and ending up flagged)
B - Can buff other greens. If you attempt to buff flagged person, your buff will fail. To buff a flagged person, you must first actively flag yourself, then you will be able to buff.
C - Can buff anyone (even flagged players) and remain green (Again, part of people will have problem with this considering this unfair).
As I see it option B is a compromise here.
I would agree you can buff anyone you like while you are flagged with no penalty. I think that option A is perhaps the most appropriate to my way of thinking, you buff someone who is flagged you become flagged, would also stop flagged people being buffed by their unflagged green friends.
Just my thoughts, good options though @Gothix
Much smoother experience is if you are just able to buff only unflagged people as unflagged yourself, and casting the buff on flagged would simply *miss* the target.
AoE buffing as unflagged would buff only unflagged in area, and flagged would be missed.
You still have the option to manually flag yourself if you wish to be able to buff flagged people.
Another option is to add a setting in options to work the way you want. Then each player could decide for themselves.
You could be, in combat with mobs.
An example:
You and few of your buddies hunt bears, some other people there too killing bears and you are involved with several bears that you pulled. It's hard fight and you are struggling with staying alive or healing your friends, and in that moment you are attacked by someone wanting your loot.
Some of your friends, or nearby people engage this person. You quickly click AoE buff to buff your friends, and any nearby allies, but some were flagged.
Poof you get annoying popup you must close while 3 bears were on you and you were moving away from them to stay alive. Popup screws you up and you get killed by bears (or by player).
You now end up hating popups.
Something like:
_ Allow buffs to affect PvP flagged players (become flagged yourself)
_ Allow heals to affect PvP flagged players (become flagged yourself)
Both being unchecked by default. ( or just have a single buffs/heals setting instead of two separate )
Traditionally in non-faction restricted games, the healing/buffing has been restricted to group/raid. While this has worked in the past, I would prefer a more dynamic system than that for Ashes.
We know that specific PvP zones will exist in areas such as sieges and caravans, where you can declare yourself for one side or the other, and effectively be grouped with a side. But what about for purely Open World PvP - which is where a large amount of interactions are going to take place.
The way AoE damage and heals/buffs affects players will be a really interesting topic to watch.
What if you are chucking out AoE heals but you don't actually want those heals to apply to anyone outside your party?
Complete waste of realism, down the drain.