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[GAMING CHANGING] RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
NewWolf
Member
resource management
Currently, all 4 archetypes shown: fighter, ranger, cleric and tank spend the SAME resource when using their abilities: a mere mana bar. That way the gameplay may becomes somehow lazy. For example: a new player, who just started playing and a very expert cleric players, will have the same difficultys when managing the best way to use their resources: NONE!!! This means players who dedicate themselves to play only one class will not be rewarded for doing so.
Furthermore , having different and unique resources for each of the 8 archetypes would make the gameplay of each of them UNIQUE and SPECIAL. The game would become 100x more interesting if each class had its own resource, instead of all of them using the “mana”. In this discussion I would like to exemplify different types of features (some well known and some new) that will surely be better elaborated and discussed by the experienced members of Intrepid Studios.
Fighter: The fighter archetype could have a resource called “RAGE”. This rage bar is reset when out of combat. Each time the fighter lands an attack with his equipped weapon, he generates a certain amount of fury (up to a maximum to be defined). Each skill consumes part of this resource. If a skill requires more rage points than the amount currently available, it cannot be used. The amount of points allocated to a skill and the different augments available can decrease how much "rage" a skill spends to or even cause a skill to generate rage instead of consuming it.
Ranger: Unlike the Fighter archetype, the ranger's resource (an "ENERGY" bar) fills up when this class leaves combat and recovers slowly every second. All ranger skills consume energy when used. Again, unlike Fighter, attacks with an equipped weapon neither consume nor generate energy. If the ranger's energy is less than the amount needed to use a skill, that skill can still be used, but with reduced damage.
This was a brief example that serves to show how the gameplay of each archetype can become UNIQUE when the resource used is different. If you want to continue reading, here are some more ideas:
Cleric: Instead of using mana, like in other games, Cleric could use a resource called "Faith Points", which would be displayed as small golden circles under the health bar. Let's say a cleric has 12 faith points. Healing/buffing skills that benefit a single target would spend less points than skills that benefit all party members. Also, damage skills DO NOT spend faith points. This is because faith points are recovered when the Cleric DEALS or even TAKES damage. This is cool because, if a player decides not to have any damage skills, he will still recover his faith points when attacking with his equipped weapon or taking some damage.
Tank: The resource used by Tank, “VITALITY”, could work almost the same way as mana. All skills consume vitality and each attack he defends also consumes a certain amount of vitality. The difference is that when the Vitality bar reaches 0, it starts to recover faster than normal until it fills to the maximum. During this recovery time the tank CANNOT use any skills and NEITHER defend. That vitality bar recovery time can maybe last between 5-10 seconds (which is a long time), making this resource something REALLY important and that should be taken into account.
Bard: (on this one I mighty have gonne a bit too far). There are 7 musical notes. The idea that came to my mind would be to have these 7 musical notes as the resource used by the bards. When the Bard uses a skill, it spends a certain amount of resource, but also recovers a certain amount. Example: At lv 15 a bard could have 6 points for each musical note: DO - RE - MI - FA - SOL - A - SI. When using a skill, he spends like 2 points of DO, 1 point of MI note and, at the same time, recovers 2 points of SOL note. It would be a “give and take” gameplay, where each skill spends and also generates resources. (I know it would be VERY difficult to do because of balancing. But, there must be a way to make bard gameplay unique and fun).
Mage: To be honest, for mages to use mana is quite ok!!! I believe this is the best resource for this archetype. If all, or almost all other archetypes use different resources, having a mana bar would be what makes the mage a unique archetype.
Summoner: To Summoners i thought of something similar to Pokémon games, those where each Pokémon's ability could be used a limited number of times until it was recovered at a pokemon center. What's the idea here: Summoner skills can only be used a certain amount of times per day (in-game day). Besides having to think before using an ability, because of the daily cap, this would also make players have to be aware of the in-game time to decide whether they can "go all-out" or "keep calm and belive in your party members".
Rogue: “BLOOD” feature. I didn't think much about this archetype, but it would be nice if Rogue had a mechanic of spending its resources to inflict certain conditions, like bleeding, blinding or some sort of stun.
If you've read this far, congratulations!!! I can't even believe I wrote so much. Summing up all the text written above: EACH ONE OF THE 8 PRIMARY ARCHETYPES CAN BE DIFFERENT, UNIQUE AND SPECIAL IF THE RESOURCE SPENT BY IT IS ALSO DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE. THANKS !!!
Currently, all 4 archetypes shown: fighter, ranger, cleric and tank spend the SAME resource when using their abilities: a mere mana bar. That way the gameplay may becomes somehow lazy. For example: a new player, who just started playing and a very expert cleric players, will have the same difficultys when managing the best way to use their resources: NONE!!! This means players who dedicate themselves to play only one class will not be rewarded for doing so.
Furthermore , having different and unique resources for each of the 8 archetypes would make the gameplay of each of them UNIQUE and SPECIAL. The game would become 100x more interesting if each class had its own resource, instead of all of them using the “mana”. In this discussion I would like to exemplify different types of features (some well known and some new) that will surely be better elaborated and discussed by the experienced members of Intrepid Studios.
Fighter: The fighter archetype could have a resource called “RAGE”. This rage bar is reset when out of combat. Each time the fighter lands an attack with his equipped weapon, he generates a certain amount of fury (up to a maximum to be defined). Each skill consumes part of this resource. If a skill requires more rage points than the amount currently available, it cannot be used. The amount of points allocated to a skill and the different augments available can decrease how much "rage" a skill spends to or even cause a skill to generate rage instead of consuming it.
Ranger: Unlike the Fighter archetype, the ranger's resource (an "ENERGY" bar) fills up when this class leaves combat and recovers slowly every second. All ranger skills consume energy when used. Again, unlike Fighter, attacks with an equipped weapon neither consume nor generate energy. If the ranger's energy is less than the amount needed to use a skill, that skill can still be used, but with reduced damage.
This was a brief example that serves to show how the gameplay of each archetype can become UNIQUE when the resource used is different. If you want to continue reading, here are some more ideas:
Cleric: Instead of using mana, like in other games, Cleric could use a resource called "Faith Points", which would be displayed as small golden circles under the health bar. Let's say a cleric has 12 faith points. Healing/buffing skills that benefit a single target would spend less points than skills that benefit all party members. Also, damage skills DO NOT spend faith points. This is because faith points are recovered when the Cleric DEALS or even TAKES damage. This is cool because, if a player decides not to have any damage skills, he will still recover his faith points when attacking with his equipped weapon or taking some damage.
Tank: The resource used by Tank, “VITALITY”, could work almost the same way as mana. All skills consume vitality and each attack he defends also consumes a certain amount of vitality. The difference is that when the Vitality bar reaches 0, it starts to recover faster than normal until it fills to the maximum. During this recovery time the tank CANNOT use any skills and NEITHER defend. That vitality bar recovery time can maybe last between 5-10 seconds (which is a long time), making this resource something REALLY important and that should be taken into account.
Bard: (on this one I mighty have gonne a bit too far). There are 7 musical notes. The idea that came to my mind would be to have these 7 musical notes as the resource used by the bards. When the Bard uses a skill, it spends a certain amount of resource, but also recovers a certain amount. Example: At lv 15 a bard could have 6 points for each musical note: DO - RE - MI - FA - SOL - A - SI. When using a skill, he spends like 2 points of DO, 1 point of MI note and, at the same time, recovers 2 points of SOL note. It would be a “give and take” gameplay, where each skill spends and also generates resources. (I know it would be VERY difficult to do because of balancing. But, there must be a way to make bard gameplay unique and fun).
Mage: To be honest, for mages to use mana is quite ok!!! I believe this is the best resource for this archetype. If all, or almost all other archetypes use different resources, having a mana bar would be what makes the mage a unique archetype.
Summoner: To Summoners i thought of something similar to Pokémon games, those where each Pokémon's ability could be used a limited number of times until it was recovered at a pokemon center. What's the idea here: Summoner skills can only be used a certain amount of times per day (in-game day). Besides having to think before using an ability, because of the daily cap, this would also make players have to be aware of the in-game time to decide whether they can "go all-out" or "keep calm and belive in your party members".
Rogue: “BLOOD” feature. I didn't think much about this archetype, but it would be nice if Rogue had a mechanic of spending its resources to inflict certain conditions, like bleeding, blinding or some sort of stun.
If you've read this far, congratulations!!! I can't even believe I wrote so much. Summing up all the text written above: EACH ONE OF THE 8 PRIMARY ARCHETYPES CAN BE DIFFERENT, UNIQUE AND SPECIAL IF THE RESOURCE SPENT BY IT IS ALSO DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE. THANKS !!!
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Comments
I think the design intention is like what Dagnar says - resource stats on gear works on every class (although technicially you could just have global resource modifiers on gear instead of specific ones - but anyways).
I think this will mean it's possible for some super weird niche build to arise, like a tank who absorbs damage into their mana pool and has crazy mana regen, or a ranger that does more damage the more mana they spend.
Question is whether Ashes intends to be THAT flexible with build choice or not.
(Coz Mana flexibility in PoE is an important mechanic of the game)
That being said how is this gonna function with archtypes ur basee class splits slightly into 8 others. so if a fighter chose mages to be a secondary archtype what not do they keep using rage system and somehow conjure spells like attacks with there rage, do they get a new mana bar and have 2 resources to manage? or do they now just have magic swords that does thae magic for them? thats the issue what happens when a physical personchoose a magic type as a secondary or vice versa?
personaly i think they may aswell keep the mana and add a secondary effect to each class like courage from cleric and grit from fighters that carries on it use with the archtypes it makes more sense having that kinda of system.
if it realy bothers you, you just call the mana bar Ki or Energy cause that can be used across the board and make sense, energy or ki can fuel physical attack along with pulling energy from you for magic attacks and so on
Don't they have conviction and courage for cleric and tank
Both in addition to mana?