What do you want out of the Backgrounds system?
arkileo
Member, Founder, Kickstarter
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Backgrounds
Backgrounds are something that has hardly been expanded on at all, beyond that they're meant to replace racials. I assume racial augments have gone the way of the Dodo, because they seem incompatible with previous statements (Plus, Vaknar asked about Backgrounds feedback in my Racial Augments thread, so I'm reading that as Backgrounds in and Racial Augments out). So that raises the question, what do you want out of backgrounds?
For me, I'd like to avoid any mistakes that can be made during character creation, the time when you know the least about the game. There's nothing worse than getting 20 levels in and realizing that a different, irrevocable choice would have given you something you only now realize you want. I would also like the choice of background to be meaningful, though. So to get the discussion started, here are my two ideas:
1. Have the benefits of the background earnable by everyone. Hard to say without knowing what the background system entails, but say you can pick the "Soldier" background, representing your past life on Sanctus. As a result of this choice, you start with a sword, shield, heavy armor, and a few free points in your active block skill tree. These benefits would be regardless of your archetype choice, and since they're all things technically available to everyone, it isn't locking you into anything. I think this would be the simplest way to implement a fair background system, and give players a jump start into their playstyle of choice. It's kind of boring though.
2. Make the benefits of the background only relevant early in the game. These could be exclusive things to that background, like maybe the "Priest" background gives you a trinket that can be used to give a flat shield. As you level it would become less and less useful. Or even an augment, something that doesn't scale well but is useful early on, maybe the "Cultist" background grants an augment that causes an ability to heal you for 20hp when that ability causes a killing blow. Useful early on for sustain, but such a paltry number by higher levels that it won't be useful anymore. Narratively, it would be like symbolizing your character moving on from their old life and embracing the magic Verra has granted them when you finally replace that augment or trinket.
Backgrounds are something that has hardly been expanded on at all, beyond that they're meant to replace racials. I assume racial augments have gone the way of the Dodo, because they seem incompatible with previous statements (Plus, Vaknar asked about Backgrounds feedback in my Racial Augments thread, so I'm reading that as Backgrounds in and Racial Augments out). So that raises the question, what do you want out of backgrounds?
For me, I'd like to avoid any mistakes that can be made during character creation, the time when you know the least about the game. There's nothing worse than getting 20 levels in and realizing that a different, irrevocable choice would have given you something you only now realize you want. I would also like the choice of background to be meaningful, though. So to get the discussion started, here are my two ideas:
1. Have the benefits of the background earnable by everyone. Hard to say without knowing what the background system entails, but say you can pick the "Soldier" background, representing your past life on Sanctus. As a result of this choice, you start with a sword, shield, heavy armor, and a few free points in your active block skill tree. These benefits would be regardless of your archetype choice, and since they're all things technically available to everyone, it isn't locking you into anything. I think this would be the simplest way to implement a fair background system, and give players a jump start into their playstyle of choice. It's kind of boring though.
2. Make the benefits of the background only relevant early in the game. These could be exclusive things to that background, like maybe the "Priest" background gives you a trinket that can be used to give a flat shield. As you level it would become less and less useful. Or even an augment, something that doesn't scale well but is useful early on, maybe the "Cultist" background grants an augment that causes an ability to heal you for 20hp when that ability causes a killing blow. Useful early on for sustain, but such a paltry number by higher levels that it won't be useful anymore. Narratively, it would be like symbolizing your character moving on from their old life and embracing the magic Verra has granted them when you finally replace that augment or trinket.
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Comments
However, if the idea is for it to not matter, then why is it being added?
I understand they wanted to take racial traits away from races, allowing players to pick a race purely on aesthetic merits - that's fine. However, if that was the reason, why add in backgrounds if the idea is not for them to matter? If racial traits were only valid for a short amount of time, or were things that players could quickly work to gain anyway, then race would already be a purely aesthetic choice.
Thus, I have to assume they want backgrounds to matter.
As such, rather than seeing things that are easily made up in game, I'd rather see things that are a permanant bonus.
An example could be a "smith" background. This gives players a permanant boost to using hammers in combat (either a boost to hammer skill, or a fraction of damage as additional damage). Players also gain an advantage with any "smith" related tradeskill tasks.
Other than that, I would like to seedialouge and quest options vary at least a small amount based on background.
An example could be if you picked "noble" as a background. You could be doing some quest for a religious organization or some such, they recognize you as a noble from Sanctus, and offer you a different path to complete the quest if you perhaps offer up a tithe or some such. On the other hand, you could then find yourelf working with some underground lowlife on a quest, and someone there also recognizes you - and they give you the option of either a much harder path to the next quest update, or you pay them a bribe to carry on as normal.
The suggestions of having earnable benefits for all or limiting the significance of background-specific bonuses to early gameplay are quite reasonable. This approach could balance meaningful choices with the flexibility to adapt as players learn more about the game.
On the other hand, some players feel that backgrounds should retain unique, race-specific augments that align with the lore and culture of each race, emphasizing the distinctiveness of each character's origin. This uniqueness could be crucial for immersion and role-playing, even if it means making careful decisions about race and background from the start.
It will be intriguing to see how Intrepid Studios further develops this system, especially considering the feedback from the community. Do you think backgrounds should offer significant gameplay advantages, or should they focus more on role-playing and lore aspects?
I don't mind if the stat ones are still slightly relevant at the destination. So for example if one chooses 'Scholar' and this gives +5 INT, then depending on the stats at cap, this is probably a small bonus compared to the starting point.
I also hope it can't be changed. Optimally there would be two, and it would be similar to choosing one's Primary Archetype.
I don't really think it's bad to have some 'meta' style picks for people who want to play certain ways when it's in the form of backgrounds, that's just common sense in an RPG. If a person wants to be a 'stealthy hunter' and 'stealthy' gives some bonus that makes them less easily detected by lower level mobs (decaying as they get closer to level 50), and 'hunter' gives some bonus to 'how fast your Hunting/Tracking Artisanship profession levels up', then at endgame, it's possible that neither of these things are affecting it anymore.
A background giving bonuses to the growth stage of characters, particularly with Ashes' long leveling phase, should still feel fine, and if someone wants to metagame it so that they're slightly better at something from 1-48ish, that should be okay, I think. Basically, by the time they regret any mild difference in 'statistics' or 'effectiveness', it's basically 'worn off' and their actions in Verra have now either reinforced or replaced that background.
And at level cap, the real background is the stuff you did along the way, etc.
Other than that I kinda liked a specific aspect of the BDO horoscope system but I don't think I'd care about seeing it in Ashes. Just 'every NPC that you can form a relationship with, has an astrological sign, and it's easier to gain favor with NPCs of the same sign.
They put a surprising amount of work into ensuring that the star sign of the NPC somewhat matched their personality and place in life, affording the tiniest extra bit of immersion when you find yourself liking one NPC more than some others and then realizing they share your star sign and you can actually get more favor with them.
Is 'choosing the Key sign so I can repair gear ever so slightly cheaper at Grandus' a big enough deal that someone would consider metagaming it? Who knows. I admit to being slightly happy that it worked out that way though, even as oft-pointless as such systems are.
Hmmm... I think you may be taking some leaps with this statement 😅, but there is still good merit to your thought starter here.
Here is my comment in your other thread in which I engage with follow-up questions
Admitting here - > i didn't even dare to comment anything here before Anyone else didn't pointed out at least this much.
What else can a Background be aside some "(hopefully)" sweet Opportunity for an RP-Flag plus freely choosable Boni of different kinds that one might have in the Game ?
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Kinda starting to look for a Guild right now. (German)