A good game should play out like a good book, strong story, meaningful fights and just rewards... Who care if you kill one giant per 30 minutes if the fight is epic and the EXP reward is the same as grinding 25 trash mobs in the same time frame. It shouldn't be a grind - please stop trying to McDonald's the experience. I don't believe the goal should be "9 billion Mobs Killed". Fights should be worth remembering and require strategy and a little luck. If what you want is rinse and repeat every 30 - 45 seconds get a job at a car assembly plant. That should be enough to suppress those feelings forever. This is supposed to be a adventure - not a replication of mind numbing work in your own home. Not often I disagree with the general consensus but I am strongly opposed to what I am reading here. At the end what does number of mobs matter anyway? It's progression per hour balanced with how long of a break between fights... If a fight takes 10 minutes and another 5 down time or respawn time and the loot and exp was the same as 15 minutes of 30 second kill time mobs which would be more memorable or meaningful?
Really like the idea of LAS. Reminds me of GW1 and creating builds for your class - obviously in the ideal scenario there wouldn't be a single cookie cutter build and it will very much be situation, environment and mob type dependent as well as change based on your own party composition
Headstone - firstly I don't especially like grinding at all and would rather get my experience mostly from quests and from things I do in connection with quests.
Secondly, if I had to grind I can tolerate killing 100 kobolds an hour to get 10,000 xp (numbers totally made up). If I had to spend an hour looking for a giant, killing the giant, and regaining abilities after the fight - for the same 10,000 xp I would be intensely bored. 100 kills an hour is tedium if there is no reason for me to do it other than kill xp. 1 kill per hour is *boring* tedium if there is no reason to do it other than kill xp.
Now if the giant is terrorizing a town and I am tasked with killing it, recovering stolen goods and rescuing two kids waiting to be eaten - that to me is far more memorable even if it takes a full *day* to get the same 10.000 xp. I want a reason for doing things. I want to be helping the locals and interacting with the world in a meaningful way. I don't want to just be focused on killing for the sake of killing that is so ...amoral.
I'd have to say: if the game is leaning towards using different skill or ability set for every scenario, then, I would hope it's not as complicated as when knowing a Wizard should use Fire type damage and the enemy is susceptible to a certain type of damage to that enemy. I mean, how many times do I have to change my spell set every time I engage a mob? I rather be more linear but yet change once in a while for Rare and Elite type mobs than to change my favorite spell set every time I encounter an enemy. If the game can keep me engaged to do that, then, I hope it's not as straining as to having 14 set of spells on an action bar and having to change spells (sets) in the middle of an encounter. Now, THAT, is tedious as hell... Yeah, please rectify how you implement it, Mr/Ms Dev. >:)
Raidil said: I don't thank you will have to change it that often put more like where u go to a new area or for a rare spawn. The deeper u go into a cave may mean a change or spells or skills compared to the entrance of the cave. Or your in an area that is very cold and the deeper u go it gets warm so you will need to change stuff. it won't be every mob but maybe a random mob may pop in that your favorite set is not ideal for. So being in a group of others you can still take out that random but just not in the same way your teams been downing the mobs
That's good and all. But as a Wizard, I have always had the notion as to being mastered in Fire damage (at least that's my own preference). So, I guess the only way I could describe what it would be ideal.. is to just have Fire spells only on my action bar than to have to use Fire and Ice on the same encounter... that just feels generic and not as entertainintg to have a feel like my damage means something. In games like WoW or GW2 (I think) they both have 2-3 different specializations that a Mage (in this case Wizard) like Fire, Frost and Arcane (example) can use.
People are afraid they will be asked to play in a certain way by certain groups. It will happen just like being asked to spec a certain way or use a certain rotation. You will never get away from the micromanaging mentality of some players.
The LAS and mastery systems come into play when you are specced to set the target up with a particular disability. If you maxed out masteries on your freeze nuke then let the group know that is what you will be doing a ton. If someone wants to or can synergize with that debuff they will change their ability to do so. Don't be one of the micromanaging minmaxers demanding the warrior spams Ability12 to set up big damage for yourself. Let those players play with themselves. Play the game and work together if you want to.
I have a feeling this system will be huge for duos. Finding out what works great with your friends to set eachother up for nice bonuses. Until players have literally everything unlocked they hopefully cant just minmax for the group if they wanted to. (Until we see how painful respeccing actually is) This will mean long term friends are very important. A cleric may pick a third level mastery to set up their paladin friend to have a ton of bonus radiant damage. A different cleric may simply max out a flat benefit skill because they run with different people every day. A third may run with their summoner wife who sets the cleric up for a low mana stun to shut down problem targets. This idea adds to the variations and complexity of play.
We have already seen these sort of effects from the other side on raids over the years but while trying to block them. I imagine NPCs will be able to shut down some of the synergies through dispositions as well. Remember anything we can do, the NPCs can do. I look forward to synergizing disposition on NPCs that we need to counter act ourselves. We may know how to handle X disposition and know how to handle Y disposition, but what happens when an X and a Y synergize in an unexpected way? Fun the answer is fun... and sometimes TPK.
Jobeson said:People are afraid they will be asked to play in a certain way by certain groups. It will happen just like being asked to spec a certain way or use a certain rotation. You will never get away from the micromanaging mentality of some players.
The LAS and mastery systems come into play when you are specced to set the target up with a particular disability. If you maxed out masteries on your freeze nuke then let the group know that is what you will be doing a ton. If someone wants to or can synergize with that debuff they will change their ability to do so. Don't be one of the micromanaging minmaxers demanding the warrior spams Ability12 to set up big damage for yourself. Let those players play with themselves. Play the game and work together if you want to.
I have a feeling this system will be huge for duos. Finding out what works great with your friends to set eachother up for nice bonuses. Until players have literally everything unlocked they hopefully cant just minmax for the group if they wanted to. (Until we see how painful respeccing actually is) This will mean long term friends are very important. A cleric may pick a third level mastery to set up their paladin friend to have a ton of bonus radiant damage. A different cleric may simply max out a flat benefit skill because they run with different people every day. A third may run with their summoner wife who sets the cleric up for a low mana stun to shut down problem targets. This idea adds to the variations and complexity of play.
We have already seen these sort of effects from the other side on raids over the years but while trying to block them. I imagine NPCs will be able to shut down some of the synergies through dispositions as well. Remember anything we can do, the NPCs can do. I look forward to synergizing disposition on NPCs that we need to counter act ourselves. We may know how to handle X disposition and know how to handle Y disposition, but what happens when an X and a Y synergize in an unexpected way? Fun the answer is fun... and sometimes TPK.
Eh, I'm cool with that. As long as the information given for spells or class specifics describes them in a way everyone can understand them to be more self sufficient with a class so that more people learn classes better, when is known that in today's MMO's as we know it have been somewhat leaning towards doing things alone without having that said team effort we all want when we go out adventuring, then I'm all for it.. but playing as an MMORPG player for the last 9 years, I'd hope people will be more lenient to help people learn by teaching them, then by all means have at it. I personally have done lots, lots AND LOTS of brain picking from different players in my MMO playing career because I couldn't understand things by reading them. I'm quite exhausted from that... not going to lie. I bet you anything. That I'm not the only one that feels this way within a demographic spectrum of different types of people in the game or any game for that matter.
Now, when it comes to synchronizing spells and abilities in a raid setting or group... that's where the actual fun is, people calling things out to synergize the groups / raid composition. Best feeling ever <):) <3
I share the fear of group rotation being jut a bad as solo ones.The way around it i the same as Solo ones - it a desciion with opputunity cost.
e.g. Bob the mage blasts putting MOB in unbalanced state for 10 secs
Dave the monk could sweep kick to consume the unbalanced state and knock down the MOB and allow enhanced damage by all physical classes, but...
Basically have a smaller set of inflictable states that allow choice over how to use them between many abailities in the team.