Post by Anonalbe on Dec 8, 2004 1:43:44 GMT
A few of my thoughts, and maybe an idea or two.
Personally, what I would like to see in a new server would be considerably different from HG's current incarnation. Don't get me wrong, I like the current HG, but as we all know there are serious things wrong with it, hence the reason Rip consistently refers to it as a "broken" mod. Seems thing to be spiraling out of control with the current HG, creating more work for Forsaken and any others who may help with scripting, item/map making, and balancing issues. Also, most of the way things work in HG seem to be backwards to me, which I will explain in a minute, although that is more of a personal opinion than anything.
Currently, HG is a very high magic world. That fact alone means spellcasters are already marginalized. I would like the new HG to be far less magic intensive, mainly by restricting access to scrolls, potions, items with spellcasting ability, etc. Also, weapons would be far more restricted on damage types, b/c as it is now, the damage types that represent some of the strongest spells are resisted by so many mobs to cut back on weapon damage that spellcasters are again hurt b/c their spell selection is far more limited than a fighter's weapon selection. Case in point, more than 5 magical resist on any given monster severely curtails the usefulness of one on the best spells (IGMS), but many monsters have at least 10 magical resist, I assume mainly to cut down on the damage that fighter types can do with the plethora of weapons that have magical (and many other) damage types on them.
What I meant earlier when I mentioned that many things seem "backward" is that a lot of the way things work in HG are counterintuitive. I think quite a few things are almost opposite of how the system is designed to work. For instance, most two-handed weapons are either weaker to or no stronger than single-handed weapons when playing in higher level areas. This is caused by very high physical resistances or immunities on many mobs in high level areas. Some of this loss of damage is compensated for by damage bonuses on the weapons, but since you can add more damage bonuses to single-handed weapons than you can to two-handed weapons before you hit the lvl cap, you run into the odd situation of smaller weapons that frequently do more damage than large ones. This makes large weapons essentially useless since you end up doing the same or even less damage with them while losing your shield slot. Also, characters with 0 STR can now hit just as hard, or close to, chars who max STR.
Next (and it's possible a lot of this is wrong, if so, sorry. I've only made one caster, a lot of this is from observation only), fighter types can easily out-damage mages now, even over a short time-frame with the mage dumping every spell he has. This is not always true, especially if horrid wilting works on the monster/s in question, but quite a few times it doesn't, and that's one of very few spells that does damage now. As I mentioned previously, IGMS is seriously curtailed to the point of being useless in many places, and that goes both ways, for player mages and NPC's. Most of the elemental spells are similarly curtailed. While I know there are still a couple good spells that do damage, builds and play styles are still very limited if you want to even do damage. Casters are mostly reduced to walking buffers and MAY get a few status effects in if lucky, and I frequently see them have to use Acid Sheath or the barrier shield (for lvl 40 wounding whispers) and try to get hit just to do damage. And to add insult to injury, most, if not all, of their buffs can be found on items anyone can use anyway. It seems to me (opinion again, I know ) that a good caster should be able to out-damage any fighter types over any given 5 minutes, but this is simply not the case most times.
Last, but not least, is that the special abilities are pretty mush nullified by things on the server. Near everything is crit immune, so Rogues and Assassins can't rely on sneak/death attack to do damage as is their specialty. The number of crit immune monsters is probably b/c of dev crit, which I certainly agree is overpowered, but can you not just keep players from taking the feat? Making mobs crit immune or giving them high fort saves hurts other classes as well. Some classes have special abilities that have a static DC, but the saves of most mobs are too high for these abilities to have more than a 1 in 20 chance of hitting. Any class that relies on or uses summoned allies are hurt b/c even the epic summons last 4 seconds in this environment (but many of the summons, even the epic ones, are pretty weak so I'm not sure there's much you can do about it). Many classes have essentialy been branded useless b/c of many reasons, either they don't have the AB to hit anything b/c most stuff seems to have its AC set to a ftr's AB (one with maxed out STR), or all their abilities are available on items anyway, or their special abilities are nullified by resistances that are very high, both PC's and NPC's.
Also, about damage and resistances... it's at the point ( see, i.e. Manatakloss) that if a newb is unlucky enough not to know the right equip for any given area he'll be lucky to survive 1 minute.... Build variety for PC's is slim and they're mostly variations on themselves.... if you want to be effective, pick A. a fighter type with the highest AB you can possibly get or you hit nothing (65 or so it's a good target) B. A spellcaster that must have the few spells that do damage now and is essentialy a light ftr with the equip, mostly having to use the same stuff or C. a monk, cause they're gods
We basically have the same builds with the same equip for most chars on the server b/c there are very few builds and gear setups which work now.
I have to go now, but those are a few of the things I see that I would personally like to see changed in a new HG. I think making the new HG a low magic world and removing Dev Crit would probably restore a lot of the parity to the server. That and dialing back damage types and resistances to free up on experimenting. Don't have massive physical immunities on PC's and NPC's so that you won't need extra damage types on everything, then have to increase resistances to the extra damage types cause those are now doing too much damage, and in the process hurt casters who can't create new spells when the scripter is bored. Make clerics and other classes useful again by restricting non-caster classes to their buffs and spells.
Just a few thoughts... if you don't like my ideas that's fine, you asked though
Personally, what I would like to see in a new server would be considerably different from HG's current incarnation. Don't get me wrong, I like the current HG, but as we all know there are serious things wrong with it, hence the reason Rip consistently refers to it as a "broken" mod. Seems thing to be spiraling out of control with the current HG, creating more work for Forsaken and any others who may help with scripting, item/map making, and balancing issues. Also, most of the way things work in HG seem to be backwards to me, which I will explain in a minute, although that is more of a personal opinion than anything.
Currently, HG is a very high magic world. That fact alone means spellcasters are already marginalized. I would like the new HG to be far less magic intensive, mainly by restricting access to scrolls, potions, items with spellcasting ability, etc. Also, weapons would be far more restricted on damage types, b/c as it is now, the damage types that represent some of the strongest spells are resisted by so many mobs to cut back on weapon damage that spellcasters are again hurt b/c their spell selection is far more limited than a fighter's weapon selection. Case in point, more than 5 magical resist on any given monster severely curtails the usefulness of one on the best spells (IGMS), but many monsters have at least 10 magical resist, I assume mainly to cut down on the damage that fighter types can do with the plethora of weapons that have magical (and many other) damage types on them.
What I meant earlier when I mentioned that many things seem "backward" is that a lot of the way things work in HG are counterintuitive. I think quite a few things are almost opposite of how the system is designed to work. For instance, most two-handed weapons are either weaker to or no stronger than single-handed weapons when playing in higher level areas. This is caused by very high physical resistances or immunities on many mobs in high level areas. Some of this loss of damage is compensated for by damage bonuses on the weapons, but since you can add more damage bonuses to single-handed weapons than you can to two-handed weapons before you hit the lvl cap, you run into the odd situation of smaller weapons that frequently do more damage than large ones. This makes large weapons essentially useless since you end up doing the same or even less damage with them while losing your shield slot. Also, characters with 0 STR can now hit just as hard, or close to, chars who max STR.
Next (and it's possible a lot of this is wrong, if so, sorry. I've only made one caster, a lot of this is from observation only), fighter types can easily out-damage mages now, even over a short time-frame with the mage dumping every spell he has. This is not always true, especially if horrid wilting works on the monster/s in question, but quite a few times it doesn't, and that's one of very few spells that does damage now. As I mentioned previously, IGMS is seriously curtailed to the point of being useless in many places, and that goes both ways, for player mages and NPC's. Most of the elemental spells are similarly curtailed. While I know there are still a couple good spells that do damage, builds and play styles are still very limited if you want to even do damage. Casters are mostly reduced to walking buffers and MAY get a few status effects in if lucky, and I frequently see them have to use Acid Sheath or the barrier shield (for lvl 40 wounding whispers) and try to get hit just to do damage. And to add insult to injury, most, if not all, of their buffs can be found on items anyone can use anyway. It seems to me (opinion again, I know ) that a good caster should be able to out-damage any fighter types over any given 5 minutes, but this is simply not the case most times.
Last, but not least, is that the special abilities are pretty mush nullified by things on the server. Near everything is crit immune, so Rogues and Assassins can't rely on sneak/death attack to do damage as is their specialty. The number of crit immune monsters is probably b/c of dev crit, which I certainly agree is overpowered, but can you not just keep players from taking the feat? Making mobs crit immune or giving them high fort saves hurts other classes as well. Some classes have special abilities that have a static DC, but the saves of most mobs are too high for these abilities to have more than a 1 in 20 chance of hitting. Any class that relies on or uses summoned allies are hurt b/c even the epic summons last 4 seconds in this environment (but many of the summons, even the epic ones, are pretty weak so I'm not sure there's much you can do about it). Many classes have essentialy been branded useless b/c of many reasons, either they don't have the AB to hit anything b/c most stuff seems to have its AC set to a ftr's AB (one with maxed out STR), or all their abilities are available on items anyway, or their special abilities are nullified by resistances that are very high, both PC's and NPC's.
Also, about damage and resistances... it's at the point ( see, i.e. Manatakloss) that if a newb is unlucky enough not to know the right equip for any given area he'll be lucky to survive 1 minute.... Build variety for PC's is slim and they're mostly variations on themselves.... if you want to be effective, pick A. a fighter type with the highest AB you can possibly get or you hit nothing (65 or so it's a good target) B. A spellcaster that must have the few spells that do damage now and is essentialy a light ftr with the equip, mostly having to use the same stuff or C. a monk, cause they're gods
We basically have the same builds with the same equip for most chars on the server b/c there are very few builds and gear setups which work now.
I have to go now, but those are a few of the things I see that I would personally like to see changed in a new HG. I think making the new HG a low magic world and removing Dev Crit would probably restore a lot of the parity to the server. That and dialing back damage types and resistances to free up on experimenting. Don't have massive physical immunities on PC's and NPC's so that you won't need extra damage types on everything, then have to increase resistances to the extra damage types cause those are now doing too much damage, and in the process hurt casters who can't create new spells when the scripter is bored. Make clerics and other classes useful again by restricting non-caster classes to their buffs and spells.
Just a few thoughts... if you don't like my ideas that's fine, you asked though