Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: What clan do you hate mostly NA (MERICAAAA) ?

« on: November 03, 2012, 05:10:44 am »

1. why is the federal communications commission an option in this poll
2. I voted hosps because everyone hates KUTT for not hating the hosps enough

2

Game Balance Discussion / Re: New Archery System Proposal

« on: June 18, 2012, 09:43:41 pm »

Look at this - I found another Clausewitz...

I think we must test your «Stamina» system on infantry first. Remember those extrafast persons with 30+ kg weight of equipment and 150+ cm weapons that can jump over horse and run endlessly?

I used the word Stamina bar but I don't want to give people the impression that this is about incorporating some realistic notion of stamina into the game. It could have more realistically been referred to as an arm strength bar. It's simply a way to signify the relationship between the power of a bow and the requisite strength needed to draw it, and how powerdraw would help conserve rather than reduce accuracy.

3

Game Balance Discussion / Re: New Archery System Proposal

« on: June 18, 2012, 01:33:22 am »

Sorry, I just felt sad that noone had answered yet, so I gave it a try.

Oh, I thought you were criticizing it as benefiting archers or something.

4

Game Balance Discussion / Re: New Archery System Proposal

« on: June 17, 2012, 09:39:20 pm »

Or archers could have homing arrows that hit their target with certainty, but they have to type the name of their victim for each shot. This way, archers' typing skill would skyrocket in a few days. For a headshot, you'd have to write the name backwards.

I fail to see the relevant comparison.

5

Game Balance Discussion / Re: Light armor gets +4, medium and heavy +5 armor bonus when tripple loomed

« on: June 16, 2012, 08:11:56 pm »

Why not have loomed light armor have lower weights?

6

Game Balance Discussion / New Archery System Proposal

« on: June 16, 2012, 08:04:26 pm »

I understand the rationale behind making more powerful bows have less accuracy, what I DON'T understand is why having a higher powerdraw for any given bow would result in an archer being less accurate.

I have no problem with archers as they exist now, but I genuinely don't think that the problem that other people have with archers are 'snipers', but the archers that can fire rapid shots at close range into groups of melee players in the face [accuracy being irreleant at such a range] Often times switching back and forth between melee and archery.

I'd like to suggest an alternative system, I'll first explain the system and then explain the benefits. I'm not CERTAIN if this system can actually be coded in the game, but I will assume it can.

Before you read on let me make a preemptive strike against people who might accuse me of advocating a system based on 'realism'. I don't want to argue that this system is more realistic than what exists already; since there are a number of people who see anyone who calls for more realism threatens the balance of the game. I genuinely think this system will help the so-called balance issues with archery. 


First, All Archers have what might be called a "Stamina" or "Energy" bar.

Second, This stamina bar is drained from the period between when a player knocks the arrow [places the arrow on the bow and prepares to draw] to when the player looses the arrow. It does not drain when the player actually grabs the arrow from the quiver.

Third, This stamina bar regenerates automatically so long as the archer is not drawing his bow.

Fourth, As the Stamina bar drains, it hits a series of thresholds, the precise number of thresholds can be decided [Or a continuum could be implemented, It doesn't really matter] The lower thresholds have lower accuracy levels, I.e. the more drained a player's stamina the less accurate the shot will be when loosed from the bow.

Fifth, When the Stamina bar is depleted entirely, the player is 'exhausted' and is unable to draw the bow any further until the stamina bar is sufficiently.

Sixth, Weapon proficiency determines a player's draw speed and accuracy at all thresholds. Two players using the same bow with the same stamina level will have different accurateness if their WPF differ.

Seventh, The more powerful a bow is, the greater the drain on stamina.

Eighth, Powerdraw REDUCES the drain on stamina caused by drawing any given bow AND/OR increases the speed at which stamina regenerates. [Either should suffice]

Ninth, In this system, for the sake of balance, POWERDRAW would not be as important in determining the damage of a bow. 

Tenth, You *COULD* also increase the drain on Stamina caused if a player draws his bow whilst moving, in order to penalize players who use bows like throwing weapons. I'm not adamant about this, but I don't see why Bows need to function as close range Hit-n-run weapons when throwing weapons already function as such.

Eleventh, things like arrow speed and damage and accuracy are kept in the same general way as they are now, as far as slower draw speed, and higher arrow speed.

What this means is that it may not be necessary to have mandatory PD requirements for more powerful bows, because, for example, a player with 0 PD who tried to use a longbow would find it impossible because his Stamina would deplete before being able to get the shot off. And even if he could get the shot off before exhaustion kicked in, the shot would be hopelessly inaccurate.

In this system, Powerdraw does not INCREASE accuracy, but it does help PRESERVE accuracy. Likewise high WPF for a high powered bow does not guarantee accurate shots unless you can maintain a high stamina, which requires  1. sufficient levels of powerdraw and requires that you 2. that Do not try to rapidfire your bow 3. Do not hold your bow in the aimed position for too long

So let's say you have a level 30 with 8 PD using a short bow, that player might be able to fire arrows continuously because his high powerdraw completely negates the relatively small drain on his stamina. However, the shots from an 8 PD shortbow would only be marginally stronger than the shots from an 4PD shortbow.

This system, if implemented correctly, will PROBABLY make a high-level longbow user quite a bit superior to a crossbowman [Because longbow shots now have the potential to be extremely accurate] But I view this as reasonable considering that many crossbow users do not require any skill points invested in their weapon, and some do not even use that much WPF. Whether or not it actually does would be based upon the specific way the system was tweaked. Also the longbowman cannot 'hold' his shot without losing accuracy, nor could he fire many shots at an enemy without each subsequent shot being less accurate than the next. [Unless he waits between each shot or has a very high PD, in which case his WPF suffers and is less accurate overall]

In general, this system will probably benefit archers at long range and melee users at close range, AS IT SHOULD BE. It will also help dedicated archers who as I've said before are really not the main source of frustration for melee users.

7

Suggestions Corner / Re: Weapon Proficiency Levels

« on: June 16, 2012, 06:54:34 pm »

I think he wants a steeper curve after approx 130wpf peaking at 160-70 giving a bit more advantage to agility.


From what i understand the change in weapon speed beyond 140wpf is negligible. I don't know if this is true because I haven't ever gone past 144 on a serious build and I am very fast already, with  both rotation and blocking.

Basically yes.

8

Game Balance Discussion / Re: compensate for taking away polestagger

« on: June 15, 2012, 07:49:23 pm »

As a pike/longspear user myself, I never used spinstab. I don't think they're underpowered insofar as they are not treated as Solo weapons.

I think some of the heavier polearm weapons [Poleaxes mainly] need some form of compensation ONLY because the damage they deal is basically the same as the heavier 2h swords, except the 2H swords have superior animations and a more reliable weapon reach. The only real advantage the polearms have is their ability to break shields more easily.

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Suggestions Corner / Weapon Proficiency Levels

« on: June 15, 2012, 07:28:47 pm »

My issue with weapon proficiency is that the differences between each individual WPF point so marginal, that the difference between 130 and 140 WPF is neglibile with respect to human reflexes. In my opinion it would make more sense to implement a WPF system where there were fewer levels, say ranging from 0-10, [with a few extra levels for hypothetical but generally unused super-agility builds] Where each level is noticably faster than the next. I'm providing a HYPOTHETICAL way that this could be implemented but Do not focus all of your attention on the particular assignments I gave to each weapon mastery. 

Weapon Proficiency Points

Level 1 = 1
Level 2 = 3
Level 3 = 5
Level 4 = 10
Level 5 = 16
Level 6 = 21
Level 7 = 28
Level 8 = 36
Level 9 = 45
Level 10 = 55
Level 11 = 66
Level 12 = 78

This just shows the number of WPF points [seen on the right] required to purchase one single level of Weapon proficiency.



I am thinking that level 6 or level 7 is your functional "115 WPF", where the weapon speed is where the stats suggest it would be. Supposing 7 was your '115', Level 8 would be noticably faster than that, level 9 noticably faster than that, and level 10+ is your extreme range.

The key is that for each level, especially levels 6-10, there is a noticable increase in speed, one which could potentially make a difference with respect to actual human reflexes.



As I said before this is an an example, but let's say a level 1 starts off with 3 free points. You could implement a system where the player gets 1 additional point every other level. So ignoring WM and agility, a level 30 gets 17 WM points and a level 31 gets 18, a level 33 gets 19, and a level 35 gets 20. I personally regard it as fair that a player who hypothetically

Level 1 = +4  [4 total]
Level 2 = +4  [8 total]
Level 3 = +4  [12 total]
Level 4 = +4  [16 total]
Level 5 = +5  [21 total]
Level 6 = +5  [26 total]
Level 7 = +5  [31 total]
Level 8 = +5  [36 total]
Level 9 = +6  [42 total]
Level 10 = +6 [48 total]
Level 11 = +6 [54 total]
Level 12 = +6 [60 total]

10

Closed Requests / Re: Ban request Bends,among other names.

« on: May 25, 2012, 12:54:27 am »

I was on the server when that happened, I can testify that the OP is being truthful. <--- Admiral Snackbar

11

Beginner's Help and Guides / Consider the following

« on: May 11, 2012, 05:35:32 am »

I've recently switched from a polearms build to a 2h sword build, I wanna be the guy that runs around like aragorn with the bastard sword.

My original polearms build was 18/21 [balanced] with 6 points in IF,PS,AG,WM, and 164 points in polearms. My preferred weapons were usually either the english bill, long awlpike, awlpike, or spear.

I noticed that in spite of having a slower weapon, with only 2 [and in the pike, 1] attack dirrection, it was often significantly easier to kill someone with a long spear weapon than with a sword. Not simply because it takes fewer hits to kill someone with one than with the other, but even counting the number of times i was able to hit opponents.
I was shocked at how easily people will let down their guard.

I was wondering why and I came up with some ideas, I'd just like to know what your thoughts are on the plausibility of these.

1. Enemies are more acustomed to fighting against swordsmen than spearmen

Quite alot of people end up going 2h swordsmen in CRPG, and quite alot of them are good at recognizing 2h and 1h animations as a result. They're also more comfortable with timing their attacks with respect to the spacing of the range of a sword rather than a long weapon. I noticed alot of the kills I got were as a result of people not being able to properly judge the distance they could reach me compared to  my distance to reach them. Often times I would backpedal with the billhook, [agility 21, athletics 6] and outpace slower heavier players, they would swing at me before I swung at them but I'd still end up killing them because I'd be out of range.

2. My strategy with polearms is usually different than with swords, using the english bill or the pike I was able to very easily get involved in sword fights between other people. Even  with a fairly long sword often times it's difficult for another person to attack someone who is already in a fight, so you end up attacking people who are not focused on YOU.

3. I played MM and now NW quite alot, so I'm more comfortable with polearms.

12

Game Balance Discussion / Re: Solution to the Strength Madness???

« on: March 19, 2012, 11:43:36 pm »

This is a bit of a radical solution...

Why don't you simply REMOVE strength and agility entirely and make the skills the sole determinants in a players stats?

Currently, the two attributes perform two [and a half] functions.

1. Hedging the maximum that a player can invest in a given skill
2. Strength - Increased Melee weapon damage, increased HP, Agility - Increased movement speed, increased melee speed
3. For Strength, certain melee weapons are restricted if the player lacks the

Now for the second one, all of the core functions of strength and agility are already subsumed under all of the skills...

Strength simply bolsters attributes covered by Powerstrike and iron flesh, and agility bolsters attributes already covered by athletics and weapon mastery. So in the process of eliminating strength and agility you bolster the

This wouldn't directly solve the problem of strength being the more effective attribute than agility, but it would make it easier to balance the strength based skills with the agility based builds, since the skills are no longer being proxied by anything.

I imagine a player's access to Armor be determined by their iron flesh instead of their strength. A player's access to melee weapons would be dependent upon either weapon proficiency or Power strike would vary depending on the weapon in question. For example;

Weapon Proficiency; All one handed Swords, Lighter Two handed swords [Katana, longsword, Bastard Sword] One handed picks, 'Lighter' spears [Warspear and red tassel spear for example]

Power Strike; Maces, Heavy Twohanded weapons [Mauls, large two handed swords, and large polearms]

13

Suggestions Corner / Re: Please change the black armor.

« on: March 19, 2012, 08:57:35 pm »

my issue with the black armor currently is that unlike the other plate armors, it doesn't give the viewer a very good impression that the plate armor is actually plate armor.

that is to say, the plates for the gothic and milanese plate armor are convincing because they don't show very much clothing underneath. But if you texture a breastplate over clothing, it looks like you've simply 'painted' armor ontop of a jacket of some sort.

Also the fact that the black gauntlets look very large relative to the suit.

Now THIS... is Real black armor.

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

14

Beginner's Help and Guides / Re: Post Your Character Builds

« on: October 08, 2011, 03:01:35 pm »

I'm a polearms user who formerly was planning on making a build around the english bill... My plan for level 31 was as follows...

S/A=18/21 IF=6 PS=6 Ath=7 WM=7  Pol=160 [con 6]

My Armor consisted of a Chapel De Fer, a Haubergon, Mail Boots, and Mail Gauntlets, so it was a medium to medium-heavy armor build.

I got used to the English Bill when I was at level 25 and found it to be a superb weapon. The high piercing damage for thrusts and swings meant that I did not have to hit my opponent more than 3 times to kill him and very often could kill him in 2 hits. [my powerstrike at this time was either 5 or 6, and my strength 17-18] Also, because I wore relatively light armor, had a decent agility and athletics, and was a competent at dodging and blocking attacks, I didn't have to rely on armor or a shield to defend myself, I would simply maneuver out of attacks and exploit the longer range and higher damage of my weapon.

I was actually doing great with it [slightly less than 1 week ago] But then i accidentally respeced my character twice, and so it took about 4 days or so for him to get back to level 26.... I came back to using using the English bill [after going back to level 18] starting at lvl 24-25 and I noticed that I was using the weapon terribly, and the mechanics of the weapon also felt different. I heard other people saying the same thing.

The overhead swings felt much slower than before, and if the overhead swings are too slow, the English Bill becomes too predictable [thrusts are fairly easy to block after all, if you can't surprise them with anything else] I also noticed a change in the hit detection of the overhead swings. I tried compensating this by using more feints with the weapon, but most people are able to detect the feint in time so it ends up just wasting time.

Note that when I was at the top of my 'game' with respect to using the Ebill, my level was 28, my agility was 18, my ath/wm were at 6, and my WPF was about 150, however I had gotten used to the Ebill and became good at it as low as level 25. I am currently at level 26 and still find the English Bill to be a completely different...

So when I got into combat with my English Bill again, I noticed players with heavier armor than me and 2h swords were as fast as I was, so I made my armor even LIGHTER:

- kettle hat
- white tunic over mail
- leather gloves and boots
Total Weight: [Including English Bill] 15.8

And of course, lighter means more vulnerable.... But I still felt slower than a lot of these guys. And after blocking one of their side swipes, my english bill was not fast enough to deliver an overhead swing before they were able to attack a SECOND time with their 2h swords... And I couldn't get away from them in time either.

Now I'm not here to argue/complain against the changes if they were actually made, it might just be my imagination.  But I am saying this to explain that I need to focus on a different polearm weapon with roughly the same speed and range... and since that polearm weapon would not require 17 strength, I could focus my points into WM/ATH and Agility at a lower level.

Here's what I came up with...

Level 32:   S/A=16/24 IF=5 PS=5 Ath=8 WM=8  Pol=173 [con 6]
Level 25:   S/A=15/18 IF=5 PS=5 Ath=6 WM=6  Pol=149 [con 6] <--- I make my builds in 5 level tiers so that I can keep track of my progress... and I tend to stop at level 32

Level 25:

Any strength lower than this and the character would be a ninja, and I do not want that. with spear weapons PS doesn't matter as much

The Candidates for my preferred Polearm are the Awlpikes [regular and long], the Swiss Halberd, and the Glaive... I haven't tried the Bamboo spear but it looks like a very weak weapon, even though it does have length and speed.

The problem with the Awlpike is that it is only slightly longer [feels unnoticable] than the Ebill, and is no faster, plus it lacks the piercing overhead swing. The regular Awlpike has good speed but feels restrictively short and often times it feels like you end up having to be as close to the enemy in combat as a 2h swordsman would have to be against another 2h swordsman... [hence defeating the purpose of range entirely] In spite of being shorter, the swiss bill does feel slightly longer than the regular awlpike, but i'm not sure why. It's mechanics are almost the same as the old english bill

The glaive is an odd weapon and I have used it before in the past. I'm not comfortable with side-slashing weapons, although they tend to feel faster. on a few occasions i have killed multiple people in a single turn with it, but it's not as good as the other weapons at warding off cavalry.

Any shared thoughts would be good.

15

Beginner's Help and Guides / Build Progression

« on: September 14, 2011, 08:49:23 pm »

I personally think it's more useful to talk about builds in terms of several steps reaching a final Goal. Since level 35 is the highest level one can achieve, i figured it would make sense to deal with a build that ends at level 35, but also provide intermediate builds that occur at every 5 levels [starting at 15 since it becomes very difficult to be useful at a lower level anyway]

I didn't create these initially to share with anyone, but to try out myself. But I figured I might as well share them. Obviously I haven't the time to try all of them out to their final level, though I have tried the Balanced Polearms to level 26, and the ninja build to level 22, and the xbow build to level 23. 

I'll post my commentary on my idea behind each of them. You can post your feedback, and note that the [1] at the end of each line denotes that an extra skill point is available after all have been spent at a given level, but cannot be used until a higher level is attained. I didn't add what the [skill-to-attribute] conversion was for all of them.


Crossbow [Sniper-Sword] Build:
Level 35: S/A=15/30 IF=5 Ath=7 PS=4 WM=10 1h=130 xBow=161 [con 10]
Level 30: S/A=15/24 IF=5 Ath=7 PS=4 WM=8  1h=120 xBow=130
Level 25: S/A=15/18 IF=5 Ath=5 PS=4 WM=6  1h=105 xBow=120
Level 20: S/A=12/15 IF=4 Ath=5 PS=3 WM=5  1h=100 xBow=103
Level 15: S/A=12/10 IF=3 Ath=3 PS=4 WM=3  1h=75  xBow=84

When I started this build, My idea was for a crossbowman that would use the heavy-xbow or the arbalest, and at close range would follow through with a sword. Hence 'sniper-sword'. This is also why this build involves no shield.

When I used the heavy-xbow [xbow skill at approximately 100] I found it inferior to the light-xbow. 1. It did not appear to be noticably more accurate 2. faster projectile speed [and range] did little for me since the weapon accuracy made it more practical as a medium-range weapon. 3. The higher damage did not compensate for the slower reloading rate.

I'm hoping that as the Xbow wpf increases, and I get an arbalest, things will change. But supposing even if i got close to level 30ish I still found the light crossbow superior, having the same strength level would still probably be adviseable. Having the higher strength allows for purchasing ironflesh/powerstrike, since my build ended up getting 1 kill with a sword for every 2 kills with an xbow. [Regular Espada, mainly thrusting]

On the issue of not having a shield; I didn't find it very frustrating. At long range my ironflesh-strength-chainmail

Archer [Hybrid] Build
Level 35: S/A=18/27 IF=2 Ath=9 PD=6 WM=10 1h=130 xBow=161 [con 10]
Level 30: S/A=18/21 IF=2 Ath=7 PD=6 WM=7  1h=120 xBow=130 [con 8]
Level 25: S/A=15/18 IF=2 Ath=6 PD=5 WM=6  1h=100 xBow=126 [con 6] [1]
Level 20: S/A=15/15 IF=2 Ath=5 PD=5 WM=5  1h=120 xBow=130
Level 15: S/A=12/12 IF=2 Ath=4 PD=4 WM=4  1h=75  xBow=100

Similar to the Sniper-Sword, except the archer is forced to put points into power-draw instead of IF and PS, which makes them less effective in melee. Once again this class is not completely specialized since 130 points are put into 1h melee. I'm kind of nervous about trying this kind of class.

Dismounted Polearms : [Balanced]
Level 35: S/A=21/21+2 IF=7 PS=7 Ath=7 WM=7  Pol=168 [con 8]
Level 30: S/A=18/20 IF=6 PS=6 Ath=6 WM=6  Pol=154 [con 6] [1]
Level 25: S/A=18/15 IF=5 PS=5 Ath=5 WM=5  Pol=140 [con 6]
Level 20: S/A=15/12 IF=4 PS=4 Ath=4 WM=4  Pol=125 [con 4] [1]
Level 15: S/A=10/12 IF=3 PS=3 Ath=3 WM=3  Pol=108 [con 4]

My favorite class so far, partially because I am most familiar with dismounted polearm combat in the first place. I call it a Balanced polearms build because it focuses neither on heavy-hitting [high strength] or fast-swinging [high agility], but provides an excellent mix of offensive and defensive attributes.

The 21+2 denotes that the 2 additional attribute points gained at level 35 can be invested in either strength or agility with no other consequences.

My preferred weapon with this build was the English Bill, which was long enough to defend against cavalry but fast enough to be effective against infantry; especially with the piercing-overhead swing. This build is also very teamwork oriented; since it relies on overhead swings and thrusts, it can [and should] be used in conjunction with other players attacking enemies from afar. [similar to how multiple longspear or pike thrusts and overheads can be used against a single enemy without any of the pikemen/longspearmen endangering their allies.

Polearm Cavalry:
Level 35: S/A=21/21 IF=7 PS=7 Ath=4 Rid=7 WM=7 Pol=168 [con 4]
Level 30: S/A=18/18 IF=6 PS=6 Ath=4 Rid=6 WM=6 Pol=154 [con 2]
Level 25: S/A=15/16 IF=5 PS=5 Ath=4 Rid=5 WM=5 Pol=140 [con 2]
Level 20: S/A=12/13 IF=4 PS=4 Ath=4 Rid=4 WM=4 Pol=125 [con 0]
Level 15: S/A=10/10 IF=3 PS=3 Ath=3 Rid=3 WM=3 Pol=108 [con 0]

Have not tried this build yet. It's basically the above polearms build with 2 key differences. First, it takes points out of athletics and puts them into riding, second, it converts fewer skill points into attributes to accomodate for additional riding.

The idea behind such a build would be to ride with a lance and another lighter polearm.

Ninja:
Level 35: S/A=15/30 IF=1 PS=5 Ath=10 WM=10 2H=192 [con 10]
Level 30: S/A=15/24 IF=1 PS=5 Ath=8  WM=8  2H=172 [con 8] [1]
Level 25: S/A=12/21 IF=1 PS=4 Ath=7  WM=7  2H=158 [con 6] [1]
Level 20: S/A=09/18 IF=1 PS=3 Ath=6  WM=6  2H=142 [con 4] [1]
Level 15: S/A=09/13 IF=1 PS=3 Ath=4  WM=4  2H=119 [con 4]

I'm not sure what to think of this build yet. The plan was to create a fast moving 2h user. I chose 15 as a cap for strength because most of the standard 2 handed swords max out at that strength requirement. You could alternatively buy a lighter 2h like a Katana and get a build like this...

Level 35: S/A=12/33 IF=1 PS=4 Ath=10 WM=11 2H=201 [con 10]

However I hardly consider the loss of the high damage given by the extra Str, PS, and weapon worth the marginal speed increase granted by 9+wpf