Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 08:30:36 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Search:     Advanced search
we're back, baby
*
Home Help Search Login Register
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  Game Design/Development  |  Topic: Are class imbalances an MMO marketing strategy? 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Pages: 1 2 [3] Go Down Print
Author Topic: Are class imbalances an MMO marketing strategy?  (Read 25209 times)
Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280

Auto Assault Affectionado


Reply #70 on: April 15, 2009, 01:11:18 PM

People will still gravitate toward the skills that make them a) the most powerful, b) the most useful to a group, or c) both.    Classses merely select templates containing those skill trees already selected.
This is sort of exactly what I am talking about.  You pick your skills to suit your style of play.  There can be multiple 'thrusts' of development analogous to classes in a sense but they are individually selected.  You decide if you want to be a jack-of-all trades capable of working competently but in a limited fashion alone or if you want to focus on one aspect of your character to the point you have to have others around you to make up for the things you are lacking in.  It's your choice and in a good system the choices will be presented at a time when you are ready to make them, rather than at the login screen the first time you fire up the game.

I think it's an illusion that such a style of character development [skill based] is any harder to balance than a traditional set in stone class system.  For every skill based system that has had to have a skill nerfed due to abuses I can probably show you a similar scenario that has occurred in a class based system.

It may actually end up being easier because each skill being able to be treated independently allows you not to be responsible for any particular groups viability as a whole.  Add in mechanics such as respecs and/or a completely open and available tree like Eve and the players can rationalize any change you make without it being seen as a personal attack or vendetta (i.e. SOE hates Shadowknights!) which should help keep discontent down to a minimum.

The problem is you also have to get into managing combos, which still involves plenty of nerfing and mistake making, if not more than with a class based system (cf. Guild Wars, and all CCGs ever made.) It doesn't look any easier to balance to me.

The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT.
Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474


Reply #71 on: April 15, 2009, 01:25:13 PM

The problem is you also have to get into managing combos, which still involves plenty of nerfing and mistake making, if not more than with a class based system (cf. Guild Wars, and all CCGs ever made.) It doesn't look any easier to balance to me.

I'm actually all for synergies involving several players that provide drastic improvements.

Regardless if it's more work to balance a pure skill based system it has been done successfully before and I think the rewards from such systems more than out way the penalties.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280

Auto Assault Affectionado


Reply #72 on: April 15, 2009, 02:39:12 PM

Well, group-based synergies are a common potential problem area in both systems - I was more speaking in terms of combos in a single character's 'deck' of powers.

The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT.
Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
DLRiley
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1982


Reply #73 on: April 18, 2009, 05:40:30 PM

Well group based synergies or any synergies breaks the skill based model, because ideally each skill is its own little universe that more or less competes with other skills while at the same time existing in a vacuum.
Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474


Reply #74 on: April 22, 2009, 08:54:37 AM

Well group based synergies or any synergies breaks the skill based model, because ideally each skill is its own little universe that more or less competes with other skills while at the same time existing in a vacuum.

I think this entire statement is wrong.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Glazius
Terracotta Army
Posts: 755


Reply #75 on: April 22, 2009, 01:04:19 PM

Lemme give a personal example here.

After CoH introduced dual builds I made one for my primarily team-focused radiation defense/sonic attack defender.

In team mode she has various team-useful powers: Assault and Tactics ("power pool" leadership toggles providing a weak buff to the whole party), Recall Friend ("power pool" teleport, does what it says on the tin), Vengeance ("power pool" leadership, needs a dead ally in range, buffs the whole team), and Fallout and Mutation (radiation defense powers that explode a dead ally for damage/debuffs and rez/buff a dead ally, respectively).

So I run low-power buffs for the entire team, and if shit goes south and somebody dies, I can yank them over to a knot of enemies, buff us, drop a giant chunk of damage and debuff on them, and then raise the dead.

In solo mode I toss all those powers out for Swift, Health, and Stamina ("power pool" passive abilities that increase HP and power regen), Shout (a strong ranged attack), Siren's Song (a cone sleep attack), and Screech (a single-target stun). So, more attacks in the chain, more power to cycle them all, and crowd control.

I guess that's more deliberately creating synergies that weren't there before, rather than emphasizing one stat at the expense of another. But I'm not sure how CoH's "power" model maps to a traditional "skill" model. Maybe somebody can help me there.

The limits of team synergy are roughly as follows: resists and damage buffs cap based on archetype, to-hit is kept between 5% and 95% before being modified for level difference and rank. Aside from that, go nuts. (This has the quiet effect of creating potentially greater synergy between a buff set and a debuff set on the same team than two buff or debuff sets acting in unison.)
Pages: 1 2 [3] Go Up Print 
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  Game Design/Development  |  Topic: Are class imbalances an MMO marketing strategy?  
Jump to:  

Powered by SMF 1.1.10 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC