Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
"Quality of life addons" as class, artisan, and social abilities.
Sathrago
Member, Alpha Two
I brainstormed this in another thread, and it struck me as a decent idea. Addons and other quality of life features of modern mmos such as inspecting another player, judging the range to a target, determining a targets health or mana pool, etc should be introduced as usable skills in the game. I will give a few examples, and if you can think of any post them and Ill add them to this list.
Range finder: Aptly named, a Ranger can use this ability to mark a target, or targets, that allows partied allies to see the approximate distance to said target. give it a cast time, a 300yd range and this can help with coordinating attacks on enemies as well as serve to warn enemies of an impending attack if they are not aware of it. Of course this is just my interpretation of what it could be, changes of course are welcome.
Expose Weakness: A Rogue ability that can only be used in close quarters but can be used without breaking camouflage. This will give the rogue the current health and mana values of the target as well as any weaknesses the target might have (pve use or if the target wears items that give weaknesses) to varying types of damage or types of cc they are susceptible to. I believe this would fit a rogue's toolkit perfectly and the more skilled your rogue is at scouting the better prepared your party will be for upcoming fights. There is an element of risk to this but I feel the information is worth it and a cool mechanic that expands group and solo play for rogues.
Craftsman's Insight: Artisans that can make an item can identify it at a glance, allowing players to inspect and see items they have the recipe to. Basically if you have armorworking you get the choice to inspect other players, and can only see armor pieces that you have the recipe learned for. This reinforces the usefulness of having high level and accomplished crafters as apart of your guild and can be useful in scouting out enemy guilds and figuring out what gear they like to use. What you do with this information is up to you, but It would create another dynamic for guilds to explore.
Pat down: Those from the Thieves' Guild gain a fun ability that will flag you as combatant when used that gives you a brief look at the target's current droppable materials. Because this is a social organization I would expect this to require a higher standing than normal, but an interesting tool nonetheless.
These are my examples, any you wish to add I will do so below.
Rumor Mill: those with the bard archetype gain access to a global chat, as we all know bards love to travel and share stories, making them well informed.
That's all I got for ya, so please feel free to let me know what you guys think. If you support the ideas please do not forget to comment as that keeps threads alive.
Range finder: Aptly named, a Ranger can use this ability to mark a target, or targets, that allows partied allies to see the approximate distance to said target. give it a cast time, a 300yd range and this can help with coordinating attacks on enemies as well as serve to warn enemies of an impending attack if they are not aware of it. Of course this is just my interpretation of what it could be, changes of course are welcome.
Expose Weakness: A Rogue ability that can only be used in close quarters but can be used without breaking camouflage. This will give the rogue the current health and mana values of the target as well as any weaknesses the target might have (pve use or if the target wears items that give weaknesses) to varying types of damage or types of cc they are susceptible to. I believe this would fit a rogue's toolkit perfectly and the more skilled your rogue is at scouting the better prepared your party will be for upcoming fights. There is an element of risk to this but I feel the information is worth it and a cool mechanic that expands group and solo play for rogues.
Craftsman's Insight: Artisans that can make an item can identify it at a glance, allowing players to inspect and see items they have the recipe to. Basically if you have armorworking you get the choice to inspect other players, and can only see armor pieces that you have the recipe learned for. This reinforces the usefulness of having high level and accomplished crafters as apart of your guild and can be useful in scouting out enemy guilds and figuring out what gear they like to use. What you do with this information is up to you, but It would create another dynamic for guilds to explore.
Pat down: Those from the Thieves' Guild gain a fun ability that will flag you as combatant when used that gives you a brief look at the target's current droppable materials. Because this is a social organization I would expect this to require a higher standing than normal, but an interesting tool nonetheless.
These are my examples, any you wish to add I will do so below.
Rumor Mill: those with the bard archetype gain access to a global chat, as we all know bards love to travel and share stories, making them well informed.
That's all I got for ya, so please feel free to let me know what you guys think. If you support the ideas please do not forget to comment as that keeps threads alive.
5
Comments
https://knightsofember.com/forums/members/winner909098.54
I'm of the mind that you don't actually need three dozen skills to make an MMO have depth
First we have to know what those will be.
And, we have no clue what will or won't be available for Artisans.
I think we will only get augments from Social Organizations rather than abilities.
I think the Thieves Guild will be more faction v faction than versus individuals.
(by faction I mean guilds, social orgs, religions, etc.)
As long as it's not required to fulfill the classes primary role as a dps tank or healer I believe it's ok to have extra bells and whistles. Players can decide If they wish to use the skills or not and this can in turn allow the more skillful players to shine a bit more.
A good example of this would be rogues offering their services as "Private Investigators" who will go in and gather Intel on a certain person or guild for coin. Imagine how guilds will behave if they have to be worried about enemy guilds scouting out their members for strategic attacks? I believe it adds a great alternative to everyone getting all the information at face value.
Something Bard & tavern related could be cool too, like the ability to get info about recent patrons from the barkeep so you can gauge how active the area is?
You know, what if bards were the only ones with a global chat? the thought being they spread stories and legends across the world. This one might be a bit of a stretch but hey, I am here to brainstorm stuff that's fun for the game.
Lmao that'd make bards a heavy favorite for being the troll class, other than griefing rogues. I love it.
That way they unintentionally RP as a Trickster or a Charlatan, the bard/rogue combos
I like the idea of a server wide (or even game wide) chat channel that is only for bards. It fits the class quite well. I would like to see it be a channel that you have access to if you have Bard as primary or secondary class, this would create a core of bards in the channel, with a somewhat larger transient population of people as they change to and from having bard as a secondary.
I like the idea of having secondary bards join temporarily, as the primary bards will still be left with the most information in the long run.
It is a little harder for them to do that when they can't accurately gauge the target. They at least have to think twice before attacking someone. Especially with cosmetics.
That said, I would not mind some of your suggestions applied to Mobs in PvE. In Star Fox the reason to save Slippy was that he made boss health bars visible. I always thought it would be cool if some of that type of utility was not just given to the player, but something the player had to include in their build or rely on others for.
The bard channel I like a lot.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
In terms of gear, I am of two opinions.
The first is that I believe the game should allow players the ability to spot what gear players are wearing. To me, this is one of those situations where player ability should make a difference, and those that know the game well will be able to tell what people are wearing, and thus glean a good amount of information from that.
However, Steven has already said that this won't happen - the desire for cosmetics overrides the desire to have a good game.
So, to me, the next best thing would be to have our characters able to determine what it is that people are wearing. If I am heading off in to battle, I will be paying some attention to what those that are trying to kill me are actually using to try and kill me, and what they have on them to stop me from killing them. I see no reason why our characters would not be the same.
This is in part being included by the game telling us the armor type of rivals in PvP, and the quality of it. To me, this is suitable for a base level.
However, if I am a weaponsmith, and I am going up against someone in combat that has the type of weapon I spend my life making, I should have more information about that weapon than others have.
How this would be represented in game is that any item a rival is wearing that you are able to make, you should be able to see the exact stats of. I would personally also go as far as to give that information to the group/raid, as it stands to reason that if I have information of note, I would pass it along to the rest of my allies.
I really dislike this idea in an MMO. I feel this is better in a single player game where getting back to the fight is relatively manageable. In something like Ashes though I don't think every single fight needs to feel like Dark Souls and Corruption already adds a ton of risk to PvP.
I really can't shake that this idea of mega-hardcore combat that some have championed in this forum isn't better on paper whereas in practice it'll just be exhausting and cause people to not want to play at all.
I guess I am just more conservative about this than you. I would take having to know how to make the gear before seeing the stats as a compromise, but being able to pass that to a whole raid is a bit too much for my taste.
Like I have said. It is much more interesting to me when you hit someone and have to gauge by eye how far their HP bar moved. Using that HP bar movement to determine their relative gear and level to you is just my preference for open world PvP.
I can see how people that are used to more tools would want more information. It is not about cluttering up the screen to me. I have seen that argument in the past and I don't like it. It is just about making the open world more interesting. Everything is a potential threat, even a level 3 walking by.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Well, it's not a dealbreaker for me. Just my taste. It may be better on paper.
Sathrago's idea of taking some of this stuff away and allowing players to spec back into having it is cooler than outright giving the information away for free.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
For sure, I never did like when Blizzard went the whole "bring the player not the class" route so I certainly don't mind unique buffs like this.
However, it's this whole "No UI" mantra that rubs me wrong. Similar to the thread on range finders. Whereas the OP of that thread originally wanted it so as to better plan engagements I pointed out that a numerical range finder allows those that are colorblind to know when they're in range for their abilities.
A UI isn't all evil, somethings should be a simple toggle in the options so that everyone has a chance to play the game.
I am not a fan of the "No UI" non-sense myself. The only reason that I was against the range finder is that gauging distance is another skill you get to do as a human by eye.
If I had a dollar for every time an "Ult" missed in Smite because the target was like 1-2 feet out of range...
To me, it just makes combat more interesting. When someone thinks they are baiting but are really just too far over extended anyway... That is when it feels good.
The ranged indicator is another great example of something that some people could choose to spec into. Maybe I trust my eyes and want to use the talent points on something else? That just sounds like character build options.
To truly "min/max" you could not pick many of these quality of life features favoring more damage.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Imagine you are an adventurer in Verra. You see someone coming up to you and you know there is going to be a fight.
Without even having to think about it, with just looking at the person, you would know what type of weapon they have, whether or not they have a shield, what type of armor they have, and from all of that, you can likely guess the fighting style they will employ.
Additionally, you can make a fairly solid judgement as to the quality of their gear, just as you can usually judge the quality of someones suit, or sneakers. While the quality of someones suit is not always an indicator of how effective a rival they will be in business, and the quality of someones sneakers may not always tell you how good they would be at basketball, just knowing the quality of what they are working with could well give you some insight as to what to expect.
To me, the game telling us what gear a rival is wearing is basic information that our characters would know in Verra. The game is translating that information that our characters would know in to stats that we can understand.
The information the game is giving us represents the absolute minimum that a person would see. It is basically the equivalent of telling you that the person has a suit, or has sneakers on, and that said suit or sneakers appear to fit. There is a complete lack of ability for the player to improve their own skill in gear recognition, and also a complete lack in allowing the player to progress their character in gear recognition.
I can fully get behind a game that doesn't offer up this information as standard, but I can't get behind a game (not fully, at least) that has a clear path for either/both player and character progression, and decides to do neither for no actual reason.
I also understand the surface argument of how stats shouldn't be a thing that characters deal in. I even agree with it. However, to me, stats on characters, gear and buffs are the games translation of the way things are, rather than being the way things are. People understand numbers fairly universally, so translating that information to numbers only makes sense.