[Opinion] EQ Next - Game Changers/Breakers

[Scoresby]

Originally Posted by Snifflechomp [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This one is so big I thought it deserved its own reply.

I want a non-arbitrary combat system.

Most games use a model that determines the chance to hit, resist, etc, based on levels. A lvl 5 has no chance to land a spell on a lvl 50 for no reason other than the level difference. Conversely, a lvl 50 might get a huge bonus when attacking a lower level opponent.

Levels should simply give you access to better spells, skills, and gear but should not, imho, place arbitrary restrictions on what you can hit and for how much.

Yeah, I'd actually like to see it where the game essentially had unlimited levels, but with a non-linear leveling curve. To the point that you effectively have soft capped limits in place. Maybe the (typical) max level people reach is 10, but you still have content available for levels 11-20, it's just no one will likely ever reach these.

The levels basically buy you a bigger toolbox of abilities and more damage/efficiency via skill gains. However, each player has the same number of base hps and the major differences are the flexibility a character has by having more abilities and the increase in raw stats from gear (but not to crazy extremes).

A rough balance of this would mean 10 level one characters would have a shot at taking down a level 10 character in head-to-head (in a simple example melee just auto-attacking). Throw in the added abilities of the level 10 and the difference is more apparent with the level 10 winning out easily. I feel a system like this avoids some of the obvious traps of mudflation and actually makes the end game a bit more accessible without reaching "max level" if tuned correctly.

Speaking of that, raid tuning is silly. Let the raids be uncapped. If it takes you 100 people to kill it, that's what it takes. If you can do it with two groups, awesome. The benefits of mobilization/gearing a smaller raid force are clearly better, so any tuning should be a matter of player preference (how many people do we want to do this with?).

Lastly on gear. Gear should be important, but I like the idea of having situational gear that again, improves the flexibility your character has. Fishbone earrings were a good example. This item gave anyone a huge benefit when fighting under water. Think more like Metroid or Zelda, where you have certain equipment that makes things either way easier or possible at all. I feel for raw stat/more better gear, a healthy mix of drops and crafted is the way to go. Unlike a previous post though, I think at least some of the absolute best gear should be crafted (with a chance to fail on combine) using materials that come from rare/raid sources. Doing this actually gives some backbone to crafting and keeping the materials rare ensures the items stay rare (just like normal raid drops).

Everyone has their wishes, those are a few of mine!