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My two posts to COD
that are getting a good response.
Yesterday someone brought
up AC2, a serious discussion.
Someone else questioned wether
a class based system was better since
it is easier to balence,
and balenceing a skill based game is very
hard.
I've been
thinking about that a bit.
Why AC fails as a skill based
game.
AC would be wonderful if the skills were worth what
they cost, and
also, if you had LESS points to spend on Skills,
not more.
Ac was advertised as the game where you could play
a mage in full
armor if you wanted, as long as you had enough
Strength to carry it.
Of course, you were SUPPOSED to be
sacrificing things in other areas
to do this, but thats not the
case.
In Ac, you can actually play a mage that uses a sword,
picks locks,
and teleports their friends to their favorite
dungeon. All of this is
great and all, but it would have been a
lot better if...
1. The skills were worth what they
cost.
2. You started with LESS skill credits, not more. I
know this means
stagnation, but it also means more unique
characters.
3. The skills were even more divided. Portal
Magic should obviously
be its own school. Life magic divided up
into Necromancy,
Protections, Healing.
As it is right
now, when you create a character, you have what?
thirty choices
for skills you can base your character around? Well,
only if you
are a newb. Everyone really knows you don't take
appraisals,
fletching, alchemy, missle defense, sword (heh), cooking,
thrown
weapons etc.
In reality, you have only a few choices to
choose from for skills.
Melee Defense
Mana
conversion
Item
Life
War
Creature
Healing
Arcane
A
good weapon skill, or if you are smart, any racial
weapon.
This is essentailly the skill list you have to choose
from, in a
skill based game.
Makes your choices on the
character selection screen look a lot
different doesn't
it?
With so few choices for actual real skills, the game
falls apart
because everyone becomes
clones.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Then people
started to respond, and I
clarified.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And also answering
some questions.
Someone has already responded that class
based systems have problems
with balence as well.
I do
not think that is the fault of either system... I think that is
the fault of not enough time taken in development. (not a slam
on the
devs, this is an awesome game, I play it 6 hours a day,
12 on
weekends)
What is the most powerful class in Diablo
II?
Look how long they worked to balence those
classes.
What is the most powerful race in Starcraft? Does
everyone play
terrans? Does everyone NOT play
terrans?
And, to the poster who responded with he enjoys
playing with
templates, its one of his greatest joys. I have to
agree. Its one of
my greatest joys too. I always want to break
the mold.
Now look at it this way.
If you make skills
costs more, or give people less skill credits, and
divide up the
schools, think about this. Lets assume that all the
schools
actually mean something. All the skills actually are worth
the
skill credits invested, and you only get 40 skill credits by the
time you are level 100
Imagine a fighter specialized in
Magic defense, who can train healing
and melee defense, and
thats IT. And yet, he can tank big monsters,
resist war spells,
and actually acts like a warrior. He can wade into
magic casting
monsters willy nilly, but he can't debuff them, can't
portal
home, can't heal his friends, can't buff his weapon.
His
friend is a true mage. Trained in the healing aspect of life
magic, war magic, and portal spells. He will never have monster
debuffs, never have melee defense, and never has magic
protections.
He is very weak in protecting himself, but can
portal (OOOOOO
neat!!!!) his friends home, heal them in battle,
and blast them with
war spells. And thats IT. He'll never get
another 20 spells to cast.
The third member of the group is
an enchanter, trained in monster
debuffs, chacter buffs,
protections for everyone, and protections for
self. Does not
have war magic, but can stand in a hail of obsidian
golems and
tuskers in a robe and laugh about it. Combined with the
Tank
warrior and the war mage, his debuffs RULE. Alone, he is not so
effective.
The fourth member of the group is a theif.
Trained in some appraisal
skills, has a weak racial dagger
skill, but trained in deception.
Monsters do not detect him on
radar until he makes an attack, so he
is essentail for scouting
out the area, and finding good spawns and
secret locations. He
is also invaluable in getting to the lowest
levels of the
dungeon, and opening locked chests. Quick, light, and
fast, with
melee defense, deception, lockpick, and appraisal skills
to see
what everything does. His first attack is always a critical.
(backstab)
The fifth member of the group is a barbarian.
Specialized in Axe,
trained in healing, melee defense, missle
defense has no magic
defense at all, but since he specialized
axe, does more damage than
the first guy speced in Magic
defense.
The last member is a necromancer, trained in the
harming aspects of
life magic, the debuffs of creature, and has
mana conversion, so his
mage friends are always jealous of how
many spells he can cast.
Think about the templates you could
make NOW.
Having everything means that playing with templates
means a little
less str, not getting item until 9 instead of
starting with it, and
killing with war instead of UA.
And
thats about it.
If you think upper level life is rough with
no more skill credits,
well, look around. Everyones identical to
you except for how they
finish something.
I'd rather have
a world FULL of unique characters, than characters
that all look
the same at upper levels.
Thats what I'm hoping for in
AC2
Laterz
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this page last
updated
11/29/00
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