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Special Weapons

Unstructured ideas, requests and suggestions for the development of the game.
Mark Howard
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Special Weapons

Post by Mark Howard »

I've been playing this game for years. Thanks for all your hard work. One issue doesn't seem to get addressed in the game: Please consider readjusting the special weapons earned after the first several quests to be more fun or advantagous. For example, many are daggers with weak damage (1-2 damage), or unbalanced penalties (-2 damage resistance). The wolf den leather (weak) needs to be readjusted. Vileguard & Remgard weapons (weak). Charwood dagger is also weak. After grinding a long time on a quest only to end up with a weak item takes the fun out of the game. We love this game. Please make some exciting item improvements, like finding secret passageways, hidden treasure chests and flaming swords!
Last edited by Mark Howard on Fri Jul 20, 2018 2:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by rijackson741 »

Hello Mark Howard, and welcome to the forums.

Not all items can be the best item. Many are just filler items, but that is necessary. Even the Wolfpack's animal hide. Sometimes what you get at the end of a cave or quest is good (DoSP for example), other times it's not. If you have specific suggestions for improvement that would make an item more interesting we would be interested in hearing them though.

We do intend to add more hidden treasure that you can just stumble across (if you look hard enough).
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Mark Howard
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by Mark Howard »

I mean look at the weapons: the brutal club in Loneford has very high damage and you don't have much to do to obtain it. The balanced steel sword from the Crossroads Guardhouse has low damage and you have to go through a lot to get it. If anything, spruce up the Charwood special dagger you get in that quest. It needs a better special item than the Blade of the Defiler dagger. There's enough swords and daggers. Make it something different like a bow or crossbow of fire, or a buckler shield with 25% invisibility.
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by rijackson741 »

Well, there are no ranged weapons, so bows are out. I'm not sure what an actor condition "invisibility" would be, but that's an interesting idea.

We know the weapons and armor need balancing, but that is a big project and will not happen for a while. It does not necessarily mean later items will get better. It will almost certainly mean items are rearranged, so you cannot get the very good ones so early. The stats of many (even most) existing items will also be changed. I would go so far as to say that the way the stats work could change (this has already happened in earlier releases). The problem is not just the order in which you can get certain items, it's bigger than that. For example, in almost all situations low attack cost weapons are better. So that's what everyone uses. If we fix that, then that gives a huge boost to the range of viable weapon options. This project has been started, but is on hold until we get the next release out. It is a big project though, so do not expect the changes too soon.
Level:71, XP:6493739, PV:608, FQ:84
HP:210, AC:212, AD:58-77, AP:4, ECC:16%, CM:1.5, BC:188, DR:3
Gold: 237559 | RoLS:1, RoL:1, GoW:1, VSH:1, RoFLS:1, WoB:1
HH:1, WA:1, CS:2, Cl:1, IF:4, Ev:3, Re:2, WP:DA:1, WP:1S:1, WP:B:1, AP:L:1, FS:DW:2, S:DW:1
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by Voom »

Weapons and armor definitely need to be balanced better, but a way to conceptualize what changes need to be made will take a lot of thought and discussion. This is something that's not a priority right now for the obvious reason.

However, I will go as far as to say that our approach to figuring it all out might upend some of the current premises of equipment and builds. One of them being the idea of an "exact science" as opposed to "creative ambiguity" (terms I've heard discussed elsewhere). Of course, we wouldn't want this discussion to cast a shadow over the main course: the AT story line. For that reason, weaning ourselves off the cold, hard calculations (we inevitably do as players) of theory crafting could hopefully allow the creation of builds to be a more fluid and enjoyable experience, in so far as, one build cannot rule them all and where creativity is rampant.
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by nyktos »

Another minor, but impacting change will be when items locations are moved.
For example, vendors currently sell different gear than they did in earlier versions of the game.

If an overpowered item is being sold in the first few towns,
it might get moved further away - keeping it out of weak hands.

On the other hand, the update has a lot of new gear for the early levels...
giving us more choices than ever & I think it feels better than ever! :twisted:


Mark Howard wrote: Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:12 am Make it something different like a bow or crossbow of fire, or a buckler shield with 25% invisibility.

Maybe a shield that grants a level of Evasion?!

(or has a chance, when you take damage, to bestow an "Evasion-like" Actor Condition for a short period of time) 8-)
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rijackson741
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by rijackson741 »

I thought about an actor condition that gives Evasion, but without code changes that is not possible.
Level:71, XP:6493739, PV:608, FQ:84
HP:210, AC:212, AD:58-77, AP:4, ECC:16%, CM:1.5, BC:188, DR:3
Gold: 237559 | RoLS:1, RoL:1, GoW:1, VSH:1, RoFLS:1, WoB:1
HH:1, WA:1, CS:2, Cl:1, IF:4, Ev:3, Re:2, WP:DA:1, WP:1S:1, WP:B:1, AP:L:1, FS:DW:2, S:DW:1
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by beastisback »

Would it be possible to make bows a viable idea without having them as a ranged weapon? Like using them at melee range?
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Mark Howard
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by Mark Howard »

That is a good idea. I was thinking the same thing. They don't have to be long range. It would add more diversity and fun into the game. Every Zelda type RPG game usually has bows and crossbows in them, except this game.
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Re: Special Weapons

Post by Voom »

Actually, that makes. It's not too much of a logical stretch either. A bow is a bow, the closeness of the sprites when combat begins can simply be a representation of combat. Think of Pokemon when you walk through a bush or tall grass and combat ensues.
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