Proposal: Server Automated Statistic Tracker?

skafftaruss

Have you ever wondered what class or tradeskill to become based on needs of a server? Have you ever picked a class or tradeskill with a glut and were't invited to raid groups? I'd love to do an assessment by pulling up some sort of intrepid tracker that summarizes real-time statistics and demands on classes, tradeskills, node types / locations, and their respective levels. Do you think perhaps this my be a good tool (OR) should these remain hidden for the player to discover? In essence could such a tool be seen as a nerf? As races and classes become more definitive, wouldn't such a tool be useful? Your thoughts please. Skaff.

StrawHat

It sounds like a neat idea to me

Damokles

There are tons of fansites that do it themselves already for other games (WoW and GW" to name two)
It would also only be a small thing for them to implement in the later stages.

Happymeal2415

While I agree it's a useful tool I personally would prefer trying to find them in game by searching them out rather than pulling up the relevant spreadsheet. Maybe a middle ground could be localized lists at each node in the townhall or something?

Lol realized this was on the last page not first. Doh

Atama

@skafftaruss this might be the best idea you've ever had on these boards. This is really good.

bloodprophet

I disagree. Everything should be hidden.
I would like to see the map grey back out if you haven't been in the area in the last two weeks and go black again after a month. Keeps people moving instead of standing in one place. And with the nodes changing you need to go find what is new there.
Where is peoples sense of adventure. Looking this stuff up on a website removes the sense of wonder in the world.

Tulima

Could be good to have statistics in some regards for example combat classes. However, I don't think it would be good to include live statistics for how many people are certain artisan classes because understanding supply/demand of a node/server and finding money-making opportunities is also a skill

tautau

While it would certainly be cool to track and know, I am going to give this a thumbs down.

I realize that asking for 'realism' in a fantasy world is an oxymoron yet stepping into a world and not knowing what is going to be there seems to be a part of the fascination. You can get hints, eventually, by living in the world and talking to people and seeing what needs doing. Perhaps your first character should be a planned alt whose goal is to learn the needs of the world so you can make your main character according to those needs? However, when the nodes first open up, the only way to have much prediction of the future is to have closely followed these discussions and the wiki...and to be smart.

But perhaps there is a middle ground. In level 3+ nodes, the town hall might have a citizen listing showing some information. After all, the need for crafters isn't really server wide, it is local. There may be a shortage of crafters down by the beaches and too many up in the mountains, where metal is plentiful.

Atama

tautau wrote: »

I realize that asking for 'realism' in a fantasy world is an oxymoron yet stepping into a world and not knowing what is going to be there seems to be a part of the fascination. You can get hints, eventually, by living in the world and talking to people and seeing what needs doing. Perhaps your first character should be a planned alt whose goal is to learn the needs of the world so you can make your main character according to those needs? However, when the nodes first open up, the only way to have much prediction of the future is to have closely followed these discussions and the wiki...and to be smart.

A game should have challenges. In the game itself. As you play it. Suggesting there should be challenges just learning about the game, completely outside of the game, is ludicrous. I can’t see any benefit to anyone by doing that. Intrepid has nothing to gain by hiding it.

That doesn’t mean they have to share that info in a convenient format, of course. But it ridiculous to suggest it should be suppressed for… Immersion? WTF?

Boanergese

One of the problems of this is the needs of the server should change from time to time and be fluid. So, for example you might notice that there are a lot of blacksmiths on the server and not as many potion makers on the server. There may be enough of them based on the needs of the server. The other problem with data is it could sway people to try to all rush to a crafting class thinking they could rich because other people are getting rich. The flavor of the month club is a problem in MMO.

As other people mentioned games like World of Warcraft have fan websites like Wowhead and Warcraftlogs with can give you data on which trinkets people are using, the DPS of each spec, the talent tree picked, and the percentage of classes. A problem it can create is also the flavor of the month club. Someone sees that Fire Mages are topping the charts and decides to roll a Fire Mage. The problem is that they don't have the ability to master the fire mage and to do the proper rotations needed to get the maximum damage so there DPS is average instead of fantastic. It's not the class, it's the player.

The third problem I see is when you say which classes are needed. How do you determine if there are not enough people for the class? There are only so many tank spots in a raid and healer spots. There are generally more damage spots available. Second, the composition of a 40-person raid may be different than the composition needed for defending a node in a siege. You additionally may form parties different if you are raiding merchant caravans. I think it would simply be easier to find a guild that you enjoy participating in and then asking them what they need. The needs of the guild could also change, if people leave the guild and now they have new class opening. Remember, from what we know now you will be locked into your archetype and may be able to change your augment. It would suck to spend 300 hours developing a character and then finding out you don't enjoy playing that class or are not able to play the class optimally as a player. If the developers develop the classes properly, then any class should be viable. The question I would ask is what is my role in the group? Am I tank, melee dps, ranged dps, healer or some other form of support? Does the group need me to focus on single target damage, area of effect damage, or crowd control? I would just play the class that you find the most enjoyable.