Okay, this may sound a bit bias initially. As a Tank, I do miss the days of having multiple gear sets.. and yet I also do not want the return of needing say.. three or four, or five gear sets. That is just cumbersome and obnoxious within.. really any inventory system. However, a Tank carrying multiple armor sets, or shields and such more than likely being a thing, which is fine and dandy.. we can adjust. Here is my major concern however.
Tanks must use armor sets.. even in the most basic of basic in the old days. We needed at least one pure bred every day type (Which is more fixed around physical damage) and then one for Magic. Now, for instance.. this is within a limited scope and a pox upon me for bringing up WoW, but in vinalla.. Tanks carried.. lets see. (note this is a proper raiding tank.) Normal Gear, Fire Resist, Nature Resist, Frost Resist. We needed all of these. That is four seperate gear sets and that is cumbersome.. you know whom didn't Really have to deal with that as much? Anyone else.
Now, if you are going to constrained my inventory and force me to wear many armor types, I think others should have to deal with it to a certain degree as well, even if a bit less than a Tank. Just want a general opinion on the matter, or counter-points against it.
Aradune said:Yes, inventory manipulation as it relates to wearing the optimial gear for the right encounter is a big part of Pantheon. That said, we hear you loud on clear about item manipulation/storage/organization/potential hassle. And those are smart questions -- I like how you're digging deeper -- saying something like situational gear sounds cool is fine, but those are real concerns: if more items, then how can we avoid extra hassle of dealing with them?
First, it's a UI/Ux issue. If we're going to make a more item-centric game with situational gear being a part of that then it's our responsibility to take as much of the hassle away from you.
Here's a short list of the direction we're headed as it relates to this issue:
1. Players can define Outfits for their characters. That means you can create a set of gear, name it and save it, and then put it on with 1-2 clicks. I think being able to organize, sort, and take on and off Outfits is going to be essential.
2. Containers are going to be very important, possibly more important than many other MMOs at lower levels. While a huge weightless 'Bag of Holding' would still be quite rare, containers that hold more gear and reduce (and eventually remove) the weight of that gear is an important part of inventory management.
3. Sorting and searching for a piece of gear important.
4. Being able to add a Tag to a piece of gear that you can later search for/locate easily is key.
5. Switching to your optimial outfit for the next encounter if primarily about Bosses. There could be a dungeon that has a theme to it (say it's really cold). Then you need to prepare before you enter said dungeon. But we're not stopping there -- in different areas of this dungeon there may be different atmosphere/climates. Our dungeons are huge and I don't see why environmental conditions would remain static. And then there's the bosses. It's quite possible one outfit is serving you well in one region of a dungeon, but then you come across a boss mob that changes that equation (by his behavior/disposition, by the types of spells he/she casts (fire based? cold based? ethereal? etc.). So while you're not swapping outfits constantly, encounter to next encounter, making it a hassle, *special* encounters may encourage you to Outfit yourself in a specific way.
The bottom line is that atmospheres/climates/situational gear are supposed to make the environment matter more (as I sometimes say, let's put the E back in PvE). There supposed to make difficult encounters require different tactics. They *can* be used as 'soft keys' -- in other words, you probably ought to have certain items before you head into this particular region. But don't take that too far and picture a world full of soft keys -- that's something that certainly could be taken too far and we're aware of that.
And the other big thing, as mentioned, is making the boss mobs require different tactics. Death to tank'n'spank mobs (e.g. simple bosses that just have a ton of HP). That's the lazy way out. In Pantheon you'll need to learn the best tactics for a region or a specific mob. Variety is good. Learning how to overcome a particular environment is key. Not simply employing the same tactics regardless of boss mob is important to us.
And this goes beyond having the best gear for the situation. It goes into having the right abilities prepped, the composition of your group, positioning of your party during the battle, etc. One of our goals is trying to minimize repetition, and that includes there being one or only a few ways to deal with every important mob.
Outside it could mean that you approach an encounter differently depending on weather conditions (again, making E important, not just pretty because we made rain or snow look cool). Inside there could be rooms filled with absolute darkness, or areas of high pressure, etc. Then again add in there different dispositions and behaviors -- having particular mobs choose different tactics during the battle and having to learn the right way to counteract those behaviors is a big part of the game.
Bottom line we think all of the above and more will make for a better MMO and is part of our efforts to move the genre forward (again I always am compelled to let you guys know we are not making an emulator of EQ or VG or any other game). Players of past MMOs should feel right at home, and in that case we are making spiritual successors. It's who we are, it's what's in our blood. We are not content with simply re-creating the past.
But that being said, we are acutely aware that this also means a powerful UI that helps you deal with, in this case, inventory mangement. That's on us. And we take it very seriously.
Lastly, restrictions on when and where you can swap gear (particularly in and out of combat) is TBD right now. We want to mess with it in alpha and beta.
Mayceus said:Okay, this may sound a bit bias initially. As a Tank, I do miss the days of having multiple gear sets.. and yet I also do not want the return of needing say.. three or four, or five gear sets. That is just cumbersome and obnoxious within.. really any inventory system. However, a Tank carrying multiple armor sets, or shields and such more than likely being a thing, which is fine and dandy.. we can adjust. Here is my major concern however.
Tanks must use armor sets.. even in the most basic of basic in the old days. We needed at least one pure bred every day type (Which is more fixed around physical damage) and then one for Magic. Now, for instance.. this is within a limited scope and a pox upon me for bringing up WoW, but in vinalla.. Tanks carried.. lets see. (note this is a proper raiding tank.) Normal Gear, Fire Resist, Nature Resist, Frost Resist. We needed all of these. That is four seperate gear sets and that is cumbersome.. you know whom didn't Really have to deal with that as much? Anyone else.
Now, if you are going to constrained my inventory and force me to wear many armor types, I think others should have to deal with it to a certain degree as well, even if a bit less than a Tank. Just want a general opinion on the matter, or counter-points against it.
I understand where you're going. But your post is kind of misleading. As a tank you absolutely needed FR for rag... but that's really it. So you didn't have to carry that around with you, you would just grab it before your MC raid.
You didn't need nature resist until AQ, and again, you would only need to grab it when you knew you were raiding.
And there are very very very few people that need frost resist gear...
So while you had to hold onto this gear, wow made it very easy to mule items to alts and what not. There was never really an issue with space.
Since it was brought up... I'm not a super fan of "resist" gear. I don't think it adds much depth to an encounter - it's just an extra chore that doesn't get much thought devoted to it beyond, "Well I guess I'm equipping fire resist gear for this fire boss."
Encounters are dynamic due to choices you're forced to make during the fight. I could see interest added to an encounter if we were able, for example, to designate primary and secondary weapons and those weapons supported different spell selections/playstyles. This would allow you to alter your combat choices dynamically depending on how an encounter is going.