Game Director Letter – April 2014 Discussion

[slackjoint]

To sum up this letter : It is complicated

[Kurt2013]

They are caught in the D&D powerloop

If they go t5, they really should disconnect pvp from pve. But then they would have to admit the adjustment of pvpgear and grind in pvp was not a good idea, so i doubt this will happen. So there will be even a bigger gap, more grind and less new players.

What will be done as new stuff or gameworld expansion for the whole game population (e.g. lvl20-80, sub AND f2p)?

No mention of random elements, new lands or cities, craft revamp, factions, achievments...

...and what about guild renown??

But the part with "the hyborian race" was understandable.
About unchained minis: Check the old neverwinter nights multiplayer modules. Plenty of ideas how to handle these and arenas.

Will the anniversary give something for f2p to participate, too?

The "shadows of the past" idea looks nice so far, too. I hope it will be doable for normal people and involve no permanent replacement of old content But revisiting and expanding sounds fine!

[Redd]

A nice info there, I like the fact that Cetris will be released as a whole, looking forward to T5 and all of those new cool additions. But FC must hurry up, that raid is long overdue.

[Rathothis]

They are caught in the D&D powerloop

If they go t5, they really should disconnect pvp from pve. But then they would have to admit the adjustment of pvpgear and grind in pvp was not a good idea, so i doubt this will happen. So there will be even a bigger gap, more grind and less new players.

I admit that I was really looking forward to Unchained minigames. But I don't quite get why you think the adjustments made to pvp gear were a bad thing? I mean PvP T1 is quite easy to get in game (even easier for credit card warriors of course). And it now is reasonably competitive.

No doubt Unchained minigames would have been preferable since they would have made minigames independent of future PvE progression. But I take Joel as saying that they don't really have the resources to pull this off in a reasonable amount of time.

[Lady-Zarathustra]

so other t5 raids are coming before the Palace of Cetriss, this is nice and I hope they will be those long fargotten instances mentioned in-the game (or dev screenshots from 2009) as TEMPLE OF TURGA or the TEMPLE OF YMIR in cimmeria.

I am curious how will the gear progress look like then, as for now we are locked on T4 max cap, and all those unchained dungeons/dragon spines are minor upgrades or alternatives to khitai gear.

[-tomhet-]

so other t5 raids are coming before the Palace of Cetriss, this is nice and I hope they will be those long fargotten instances mentioned in-the game (or dev screenshots from 2009) as TEMPLE OF TURGA or the TEMPLE OF YMIR in cimmeria.

hoping the same

[Kurt2013]

I admit that I was really looking forward to Unchained minigames. But I don't quite get why you think the adjustments made to pvp gear were a bad thing? I mean PvP T1 is quite easy to get in game (even easier for credit card warriors of course). And it now is reasonably competitive.

No doubt Unchained minigames would have been preferable since they would have made minigames independent of future PvE progression. But I take Joel as saying that they don't really have the resources to pull this off in a reasonable amount of time.

My problem with the gear is simple and situational:
- it is not balanced (i can proof this with calculations)
- it is orientated along the more powerful gear, thus keeping the gap and philosophy behind the existing progression (if you draw the power progression curve, it should be obvious why i am not satisfied with the changes)

This results in more people fighting with this gear (which means a lot of con, prot, critigation and tenacity), making it maybe faster for new 80s to get it, but not easier or more fun. The right way would have been to lower the progression in pvp a lot. What they can do now though, is to work on fun ways to pvp (like a consequence system in open pvp, a reward change to avoid people picking only easy targets etc.) and add more steps gearwise like a tier0 and t0,5 set (or otherwise) to close the gap.

Another thing about unchained minigames is to look at how "mount and blade" handled the tournaments.

[lmagowz]

So many promises and they so complicated

[Religolibri]

but new weapon combos, new items and new ways to play your favorite class are all on the table!

I had a hard on. Especially new combos and new ways to play classes. I have high expectations about rangers, at melee especially ^^ but whatever, exited by this a lot.

[Marechal]

I had a hard on. Especially new combos and new ways to play classes. I have high expectations about rangers, at melee especially ^^ but whatever, exited by this a lot.

again melee combos?? last new combos for a class focused ranged (yes ranger this it) was deft stabs and cripple, two combos focused melee, ridiculous. Melee combos for Ranger is a complement, for help in some situations, mainly CC.

Ranger needs new bow/crossbow combos.

you should have a problem of self affirmation, as you seem to say:
Religolibri: "hey, I play with an easy class, but I use melee combos, I'm not too ridiculous, only slightly!"

is how I see,

You will want to play class one-handed? go play with a dark templar and good lucky!