This is the whole patch and some general discussion from Alan and Brad. I
like the idea of more xp bonus for grouping and certain underused dungeons.
I agree we will see how exactly "Working as intended" is defined this time.
Snip from Alan:
We've got a lot of changes planned for the next patch. Changes for hybrids,
a change to the way that movement spells work (specifically Root), and a bug
fix for Lure spells (among many other things). First and foremost I want to
explain the fix to Lures. Right now (before the patch), creatures that
should not get a save versus Lure spells are getting saves based on their
levels. This has been broken for a while. We fixed it on test before
Christmas, but this is the first patch since then, and the fix should go
live with the patch. Basically, Lures will become less resisted after the
patch.
The changes to hybrid disciplines and powers are as follows. Hopefully these
will be the last.
1) Resistant Discipline will last five minutes instead of one minute.
2) Holyforge Discipline will lasts five minutes instead of two minutes.
3) Sanctification Discipline will last fifteen seconds instead of ten
seconds
4) Lay on Hands will have increased healing for each level after forty of
the paladin. After forty it will do approximately twenty points per level
more (for levels 41-60).
5) Normal Harm Touches will save as all or nothing. There will be no partial
resists.
6) Harm Touch will increase ten points per level for levels one through
forty. From levels forty-one to sixty it will increase thirty points per
level instead of twenty
7) The Harm Touch discipline will increase Harm Touch damage by fifty
percent instead of twenty-five percent
8) Weaponshield discipline will last twenty seconds instead of fifteen
9) Leechcurse discipline will last twenty seconds instead of fifteen
10) Deftdance will have its duration increased from ten to fifteen seconds
11) Puretone will have duration increased from two to four minutes
12) Hybrids will no longer reset weapon timers after casting a spell
(further explanation below)
13) Trueshot discipline damage calculations will be changed (further
explanation below)
We will also be giving Hybrids a new spell at level fifty.
Now for the further explanation:
Trueshot damage was messed up. Basically it was giving low damage bows too
much damage and high damage bows too little damage. We are making the damage
more in line with the base damage of the bow. This will reduce the damage of
the discipline for some and increase it for others, depending on the type of
bow you were using.
As for the timer/casting thing... As it is now, casting a spell while using
a
weapon will cause your weapon swings to be delayed by the casting time of
the spell. So, making up numbers here, lets assume you would swing your
weapon every ten seconds. If you were to cast a five second casting time
spell directly after a weapon swing, then your next swing would occur
fifteen seconds after the last one (adding the five seconds for the spell).
For hybrids, this will no longer happen. So if your weapon takes ten seconds
to swing, spell casting will no longer increase that swing time.
Movement Rate Changes:
We have made some changes to the way movement enhancement/reduction works.
Essentially, Root and Snare are now completely different spells. This means
that Root will suppress snare, but it will not overwrite it. That's the
primary change. But there is also a side effect to this change.
Bard songs will no longer break root. Root will also suppress songs that
enhance movement.
We are aware that this will be seen as a 'nerf'. However, I'm pretty sure
that most of you understood that bard songs were never intended to break
root, and this is, in fact, essentially a bug fix.
Alan
end snip
and snip from Brad:
Hi all,
Well, we've been giving all of this (the downtime issue) a lot of thought
(as have you all). I've been thinking about the issues in two separate
contexts: 1. What could be done with EQ to make it better in this area? and
2. What could be done in the future to make MMOGs but probably not to EQ.
So, focusing on #1 for the time being, here are a few things we might try
short term:
1. The post that probably disturbed me most (actually, I didn't respond to
it because I wanted to give it more thought) was the one that claimed many
classes could advance more efficiently soloing than in a group, but that
soloing inherently involves more boring downtime, so therefore we encourage
boring downtime for those who want to play efficiently with that subset of
classes.
Now, EQ has always been a game focused on grouping, with a subset of classes
that could solo if the player chose, but soloing was supposed to be slower
and probably less exciting. No, we don't 'hate' the solo player or some
such, but we think it might be impossible to make a great grouping and great
soloing game (oh no, I probably just started a new gigantic thread with that
one -- if so, please start it somewhere else so we don't get too confused,
thanks). So, we designed most of the game in terms of balance and content
around grouping. But, if we've erred and some classes can solo and gain
experience more quickly than were they to group and these players feel
therefore compelled to solo when they might be happier grouping, then we've
goofed up.
To this end, we are seriously considering significantly increasing the
grouping experience bonus, where the more people in your group, the bigger
the exp. bonus you get.
2. Risk vs. reward, especially in dungeons. One of the very easy ways we
could 'revamp' underused zones would be to increase the experience you get
across the board in that zone (in case some of you didn't know, there's
simply an experience modifier field in each zone header). What does this
have to do with downtime? Well, it indirectly helps out, because one would
advance more quickly in these dungeons, and one could also recover
experience loss due to death more quickly in these zones. For example, would
low to mid level players head to Najena were that zone to give out
significantly more exp.? (Yes, that's a question to all of you)
3. Lastly, we may consider more teleport spots, perhaps with soul bound
keys. Maybe. My inclination is no, but we're going to seriously debate it
today.
Oh, and on a semi-related note, many of you have concerns over our
announcement of our plans to revamp old world zones using techniques similar
to Kunark and Velious. Though Absor alluded to this, I wanted to be very
clear: this does not mean necessarily increasing the difficulty. Our attempt
in general will be to keep the style and difficulty levels of the old world
zones pretty much the same. We realize that old world zones, Kunark zones,
and Velious zones are different also in difficulty and types of groups
required to adventure in them. I think this is a good thing -- players with
different play styles, time available, etc. can focus on different areas of
the world.
What we want to do with many of the old world zones is as follows:
Adjust the experience gained (as mentioned above).
Randomize existing loot (to hopefully help camping issues)
Completely re-do pathing from scratch on some of the bad ones (Mistmoore
comes to mind). We know more about pathing now, and MAYBE we can make some
of these tricky dungeons better -- but no promises (we can't change the
geometry, after all).
Add some cool quests.
Anyway, these are our thoughts going forward, but nothing is set in stone
yet, so we'd love your feedback as well.
Thanks,
- Brad
End 2nd snip
Interesting huh? I got these through an email from a friend so I am not
sure where they came from. Hope this sparks some discussion.
Piemur Draggonsinger
-----Original Message-----
From: Windleaf Mistsong [mailto:
windleaf@...]
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 12:19 PM
To:
eqbards@egroups.com; '
eqbards@egroups.com'
Subject: Re: [eqbards] Changes to Root/Snare
At 07:31 AM 1/9/01 -0600, Mott, Mike J. wrote:
>Alan posted:
>--------------------------------------
>We have made some changes to the way movement enhancement/reduction works.
>Essentially, Root and Snare are now completely different spells. This means
>that Root will suppress snare, but it will not overwrite it. That's the
>primary change. But there is also a side effect to this change.
>Bard songs will no longer break root. Root will also suppress songs that
>enhance movement.
>We are aware that this will be seen as a 'nerf'. However, I'm pretty sure
>that most of you understood that bard songs were never intended to break
>root, and this is, in fact, essentially a bug fix.
>-----------------------------------------
>
>It is pretty bad when I read something like this and think "Great, now our
>chaining songs are going to be messed up because they forgot to test it on
>bards".
>
>One thing this does demonstrate is that "movement" type spell effects can
be
>segregated...so why can they move bard song into a class of its own?
>
>Also, I really dont consider this a nerf since Verant has been saying for 2
>years that bard songs should NOT break root.
>
>Lago
I would agree that it would be nice if Selo's Consonant Chain wouldn't
overwrite Snare as well. While it has a "snare" component, it does have a
much shorter duration. I would think the complication is that if Snare took
precedence over Consonant Chain, then I would think that Snare would also
suppress the ATK SPD debuff of Chain as well.
I do agree that I doubt they've thoroughly tested it. It will be a pleasant
surprise to see this working "as intended". We'll have to double check the
health levels that mobs stop fleeing at as well with Chains.
---Windleaf
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