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Item Variation, making players feel special
Janaos
Member
Item variation, the beautiful thing that makes you feel a rush of dopamine when you get that rare holy sword or that classy guardian armour. Humans need visual tools to differentiate object effectively and games need to provide them, and I’m sure that in most parts ashes already has this covered, either way I wanted to mention some of the main things and ways they can make weapons and items in general feel varied and unique.
-looks. kinda obvious but looks play a massive role in this, you want each weapon to have a varied and unique look, this requires work but it’s worth it, it makes each weapon feel one of a kind and unique, and I’d say this especially applies to high level rare weapons. Essentially, I’d say EVERY weapon should have at least a slightly unique look, even very similar ones. Sure the difference between a steel long sword and a iron long sword is not going to be massive, but the hue of the blade, it’s glossiness are all things that will make each sword feel unique.
-style- another factor is the style of the blade, depending what region it was made in or bought from, weapons could differ in both ability and appearance. An iron sword might look different if it was made by elf’s or humans, and due to these small aesthetic changes it’s stats and price may be slightly affected
-price and availability - I guess this kinda ties with the economy, but the price of weapons (and I mean when u buy them of npc’s) should differ as well. Certain weapon merchant could charge more or less for the same weapons based off who u buy from. I think this would introduce an interesting aspect of bargain over convenience, and would have an interesting impact on the economy. The availability of different weapons should also obviously differ. Alternatively the same merchant could sell the same weapon for different prices depending on which time of year it is (winter could be more since it would be perhaps more difficult to forge weapons in the cold) some weapons could even be exclusively forged at certain times of the year or due to certain events/developments being reached. This I think would work very well with the sort of game ashes want to make, where the world is ever changing.
Abilities and stats- another obvious one, the stats and abilities should change with weapons as well. However, I wanted to especially highlight the importance of abilities and special functions. Special functions are imo very important, they are what makes weapons truly unique. You may have different functions or abilities as you change weapons, for example: a mushroom staff may have increased healing abilities and a boost to vitality due to its mushroom nature. On the other hand, a Phoenix staff would have boosted fire damage, and fire resistance or something. I also wanted to highlight that even if a weapon is similar the ability effect should still be slightly different, just like with the appearance. I think special features is one of the most important aspects of weapon uniqueness.
Visual effects- this basically means the animation of a weapons or items skill, basic attack or any other function it may have. I think different animation for different weapons even of the same type is a really nice extra touch for all the games that want to take that ones step beyond. Having unique effects and animations for my previously mentioned special functions is also something that can really bring the experience to another level. I also want big effects, I want to feel op with my attacks as a high level, massive explosions reality bending sword swings might be frying gpus but will make the game feel so much better if done properly. There’s not many games that go big with the attacks so that you really feel the damage. In most games nowadays damage is only shown through little numbers that appear on your screen, a tiny fireball might be slaying bosses while some big explosion injuring goblins, and I personally hate this. Make damage look and feel impactful, make lower levels shoot fire balls, but make higher levels do fire storms. I might be going or on a tangent here but I though I would mention it either way.
That’s mostly it for now though if I come up with anything il be adding it here. Now I know there’s gonna be someone who’s gonna come and comment “oH bUt aSheS alreAdy hAs tHiS” and to that I say, awesome! I never said they weren’t, I am simply listing the things that I think are important and if ashes already has them then that is beyond amazing, I really couldn’t be happier. And if you’re an ashes dev team member then please consider some of my points, I really do think they could make the game go above and beyond!
-looks. kinda obvious but looks play a massive role in this, you want each weapon to have a varied and unique look, this requires work but it’s worth it, it makes each weapon feel one of a kind and unique, and I’d say this especially applies to high level rare weapons. Essentially, I’d say EVERY weapon should have at least a slightly unique look, even very similar ones. Sure the difference between a steel long sword and a iron long sword is not going to be massive, but the hue of the blade, it’s glossiness are all things that will make each sword feel unique.
-style- another factor is the style of the blade, depending what region it was made in or bought from, weapons could differ in both ability and appearance. An iron sword might look different if it was made by elf’s or humans, and due to these small aesthetic changes it’s stats and price may be slightly affected
-price and availability - I guess this kinda ties with the economy, but the price of weapons (and I mean when u buy them of npc’s) should differ as well. Certain weapon merchant could charge more or less for the same weapons based off who u buy from. I think this would introduce an interesting aspect of bargain over convenience, and would have an interesting impact on the economy. The availability of different weapons should also obviously differ. Alternatively the same merchant could sell the same weapon for different prices depending on which time of year it is (winter could be more since it would be perhaps more difficult to forge weapons in the cold) some weapons could even be exclusively forged at certain times of the year or due to certain events/developments being reached. This I think would work very well with the sort of game ashes want to make, where the world is ever changing.
Abilities and stats- another obvious one, the stats and abilities should change with weapons as well. However, I wanted to especially highlight the importance of abilities and special functions. Special functions are imo very important, they are what makes weapons truly unique. You may have different functions or abilities as you change weapons, for example: a mushroom staff may have increased healing abilities and a boost to vitality due to its mushroom nature. On the other hand, a Phoenix staff would have boosted fire damage, and fire resistance or something. I also wanted to highlight that even if a weapon is similar the ability effect should still be slightly different, just like with the appearance. I think special features is one of the most important aspects of weapon uniqueness.
Visual effects- this basically means the animation of a weapons or items skill, basic attack or any other function it may have. I think different animation for different weapons even of the same type is a really nice extra touch for all the games that want to take that ones step beyond. Having unique effects and animations for my previously mentioned special functions is also something that can really bring the experience to another level. I also want big effects, I want to feel op with my attacks as a high level, massive explosions reality bending sword swings might be frying gpus but will make the game feel so much better if done properly. There’s not many games that go big with the attacks so that you really feel the damage. In most games nowadays damage is only shown through little numbers that appear on your screen, a tiny fireball might be slaying bosses while some big explosion injuring goblins, and I personally hate this. Make damage look and feel impactful, make lower levels shoot fire balls, but make higher levels do fire storms. I might be going or on a tangent here but I though I would mention it either way.
That’s mostly it for now though if I come up with anything il be adding it here. Now I know there’s gonna be someone who’s gonna come and comment “oH bUt aSheS alreAdy hAs tHiS” and to that I say, awesome! I never said they weren’t, I am simply listing the things that I think are important and if ashes already has them then that is beyond amazing, I really couldn’t be happier. And if you’re an ashes dev team member then please consider some of my points, I really do think they could make the game go above and beyond!
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