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Topic: SB 3.0 In Development Patch Update - Droolz (Read 7673 times)
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waylander
Terracotta Army
Posts: 526
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PATCH 3.0: THE SECRETS OF POWER Sixty years have passed since the War of Talons ended, and now the Aracoix are on the move. Agents of the Empire, including dreaded Skydancer attack troops and Savant mindlords, have come in secret through the Runegates. From the shadows, these intruders have organized the Birdmen into new legions, the first Kh'ree to darken Aerynth's skies in decades. A few Aracoix agents have been captured, and the Conclave of Wizards has managed to wring from them more of the secrets of the Runegates, expanding the Traveler's arts. The other aims of the Aracoix Empire remain unseen, but it is clear the Birdmen are looking for something. In the deeps of the deserts, the Aracoix have found an ancient citadel of the Ardani, a ruined library filled with arcane texts unread by any in thousands of years. What secrets do the Aracoix seek there? The few ancient scrolls and tablets brought back by plunderers and adventurers hint at magical arts and theories unseen since the birth of the world. The Aracoix claim that their Empire shall soon take new Glory in the conquest of Aerynth!
Many among the Wise are worried by the new machinations of the Birdmen, but few of the Nations pay their warnings any heed, for the face of Aerynth is aflame with new strife. Working tirelessly, the Dwarves have managed to reopen the ancient Mines and Lodes of old! Gold, enough to maintain empires, lays waiting for those with the patience to exploit it. Greedy for the wealth these new resources offer, the warlords of all lands are scrambling to claim and hold these goldmines and every mine is now the scene of constant raids and daring struggles. How will this new gold rush reshape the face of Aerynth? Which Nations shall gain the most in the fight for Glory and Gold?
Resource Mines (Phase One) Shadowbane will be unveiling the first phase of its long awaited "Resource System". This system will be tied to each zone which will offer a resource type. Currently, the only resource in Phase One is gold but further phases may include additional resources such as wood, metals, and ores. It is designed to add smaller, auxiliary points of conflict for players to fight over. These areas will become highly contested points of interest and will have the opportunity to change hands at least once a day.
In Phase One, once conquered, gold mines will drop gold into warehouses in their cities on an hourly basis. This gold will, in turn, be used to automatically pay maintenance cost of those structures that were given access to the warehouse and are protected by the Runemaster. Additional resources and augmentations will be introduced as the system is fully implemented allowing players to upgrade existing and new assets with functions and abilities to be announced. Furthermore after Phase One is completed, during a siege, the warehouse inventory can be recovered or stolen by anyone. This system will allow nations to focus efforts more on the political and combat faces of the scene and not the maintenance and upkeep of cities.
Centralized Guild Asset Management When a structure in a city runs out of gold during the time maintenance fees are due, the gold will automatically deducted from the warehouse if the funds are available and that structure is under protection by the Runemaster.
Epic Powers In order to provide greater rewards for higher level characters who are reaching the level cap, we will be offering each Class a new power. Each power will be great in might but will be controlled in rarity of use.
Siege Improvements Players will be able to mount siege engines on walls in order to fend off attacking forces. Gold healing will be readdressed and rebalanced to make it less of an issue.
Traveler Discipline Improvements Travelers will be improved with new powers. A Traveler will gain the ability to send him or herself or others to the closest Runegate. From there, Travelers can use the Runegate Powers to move across the world.
New Desert Zone A new zone will be introduced in the desert areas. The principle enemies will be the Serpentmen and a new variant sub-race of the Aracoix will be introduced. This area will also contain a new Epic Encounter, requiring a large group and concerted player effort to succeed against.
Lore NPCs Five additional zones will gain Lore NPCs to inform adventurers about their back stories and history of the area.
Balance Changes
* Aracoix will get an all-new set of light armor, complete with hoods * Two new Aracoix Disciplines will be introduced * Aracoix and Centaurs will get new guild charters * Warriors will receive new weapon powers * Lower-skilled versions of Blade Master and Blade Weaver weapons will be available
If this resource system expands to include metal, wood, etc and gets tied into: --Faster city building/rebuilding --Rolling uber loot on vendors then it will rock. This warehouse thing will give people a reward for sieging a city, and man..that is the potential for a lot of gold to be plundered.
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WayAbvPar
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Pity this is a year too late. It sounds like it would have made the game a bit more tolerable.
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When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM
Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood
Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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One year too late, and six months before it will probably be working well enough to impact game play.
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daveNYC
Terracotta Army
Posts: 722
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One year too late, and six months before it will probably be working well enough to impact game play, and I don't mean server rollbacks. There we go.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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What does this have to do with CoH?
sorry, couldn't resist...
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Shadowbane is still around?
Fuck, I'm so confused.
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geldonyetich
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2337
The Anne Coulter of MMO punditry
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Seriously, this is a good thing.
Resources: Yes, now there's actually something to fight over.
The rest, all good.
The only question is really this: Is the client and the server structure really stable enough to support massively multiplayer PvP combat?
If so, Shadowbane is where I'd go if I wanted massively multiplayer PvP combat.
Currently, I don't. I want instanced, balanced PvP combat, ala Guild Wars or City of Villians. Because massively multiplayer PvP is inevitably a one-sided gankfest of popularity over skill while instanced maps of PvP combat with even teams is considerably more interesting. With due respect to Shadowbane and Dark Age of Camelot: Time to get with the program.
PvE is okay in my book too, so long as it's CoH "kick the asses of hoardes of bad guys with a plethora of new and exciting abilities I gain every 2 levels" style PvE and not Evercrack "oh my god that green con mob will surely kill me and all I can do is autoattack and pray but when I gain 17 more levels I'll finally get a new ability" style PvE.
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B-prime
Guest
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I'm somewhat skeptical about the new "epic powers" they are adding. Leveling past 63-64 is just horribly painful, and if these new powers are too powerful, I could see it possibly raising the minimum level for PvP effectiveness.
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Anonymous
Guest
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The only way I could stand to play shadowbane is if I started with a maxed out character.
I lack the special something that lets other people sit in powerleveling groups for umpteen hours while they go afk just so they can have "investment" in their character. I could give a shit. I just want to kill people. All those RPG trappings just get in the fucking way.
Now resources, that makes the game much more like AoE, which is the fucking direction we suggested they take about umpteen forums ago. Pity it took abject failure to get them to finally listen.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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SB would be cool if it were AoE with players all being the troops and stuff, building up towns like that. I could dig it.
Except for the pve treadmill, of course.
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Lineage 2 would be cool if it were AoE with players all being the troops and stuff, building up towns like that. I could dig it.
Except for the pve treadmill, of course. Funny how that works.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Planetside would be cool(er) if it were Starcraft with players all being the troops and stuff, building up towns like that. I could dig it. Ooo! A new game!
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Romp
Terracotta Army
Posts: 140
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SB levelling is hardly much of a treadmill, its like a week or 2 to max out a character.
Yes its boring but you can spend most of it afk, its not too taxing a thing to go through
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EWSpider
Terracotta Army
Posts: 499
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Or you can play Test and lower that down to 2-3 days.
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most often known as Drevik
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Alluvian
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1205
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SB levelling is hardly much of a treadmill, its like a week or 2 to max out a character.
Yes its boring but you can spend most of it afk, its not too taxing a thing to go through But if you were listening, Soulflame was annoyed at even spending HOURS leveling up. You are saying WEEKS/DAYS. I hardly think he will yell "Oh goody" and sign up. Just a hunch.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Like Arthur says, the boredom is a challenge. Yay lowered expectations!
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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SB levelling is hardly much of a treadmill, its like a week or 2 to max out a character.
Yes its boring but you can spend most of it afk, its not too taxing a thing to go through 2 weeks of boredom. Yeah, think you missed the point, Sparky. I did my leveling in Shadowbane a number of times, and though it does sound like the game has improved, there are no indications that part has improved one iota. Everyone who has played recently or is playing tells me "it'll be over in X days, less if you are on Test/have a guild who plevels you afk" but I don't want that. If the game requires me to NOT PLAY IT (afk powerleveling) to overcome the boredom, it goes in the Lineage 2 "Barbed Wire In My Urethra" pile.
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geldonyetich
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2337
The Anne Coulter of MMO punditry
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Just goes to show, if you're going to require PvE in order to reach sufficient level to PvP, you'll want to make the PvE fun enough to be worthwhile to do. That people are spending their PvEing time AFK while having a guildy PL them isn't neccessarily an indication that they're lazy bastages that deserve no leveling so much as that the gameplay is simply not worthwhile for them.
Better yet, though, there should be no PvE required to get to the PvP in a PvP oriented game. Maybe if we were to throw those mobs at you at the commands of another player (as a pet/army). But not just "run out, gank stuff for gold" model that is used to pay for actual buildings, yuck.
If you're going to make a PvP game, make it *right*. PvE is only really good for practice, and shouldn't be a required activity to remain competitive in the least.
The Guild Wars E3 presentation was a lot of fun. However, I can't help but notice that all the characters were locked at level 15. I wonder if the game will be nearly as fun once leveling becomes a factor. The developers feel they've compensated for this, but will the limit of 8 abilities be sufficient to remain competitive with the catass-enabled who had a lot more time to level?
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