Posts by Moroi

Namus wrote:

You say that as if end game is the only content available in the game. Many people enjoy lvling process and don't want to rush to end game. Games with many expansions usually lower xp needed to lvl up or raise xp gained making lvls that where hard to get incredibly easy.

When WoW launched it took quite a bit of time to get to 60 unless you played Hunter/Warlock and just grinded mobs nonstop while today someone can get from 1 to 60 in few hours if they want.

I'm not saying endgame is the only content. however, in any "theme park MMO" it is clearly the focus when it comes to content - these games live and die through their ability to engage players with a regularly updated endgame.

nobody is saying you can't or shouldn't enjoy the leveling process (all the better if you do, honestly), but the way it is structured in so many games makes it unlikely that you will enjoy multiple reruns of it. heck, I don't conceptually dislike the leveling phase in MMORPGs, even if I do view it as more or less an arbitrary obstacle - I find it important to let the player get used to the game and their class at a pace that enables them to actually take in all that information. what I do personally have a problem with is having to perform tasks such as "kill x " or "collect y" over and over, especially if I want to try another class. I would most likely view the whole progress with much higher regard if the tasks involved were more engaging.

Namus wrote:

Raising a lvl cap is really important so new players can catch up because if you just keep adding more and more content for same lvl cap it ends up bloated and eventually most players will stop doing older (but needed for new players) content so it can get hard for new player to progress.

I think a new lvl cap every 1-2 years is probably a good idea.

when you keep raising to the level cap, is that not precisely just adding to the things a new player needs to do before they get to the endgame? sure, elongating the leveling phase does put everyone at the old max level onto an equal playing field, but only for a very short while. it isn't a very sustainable system in the long run. in a game such as WoW you have so many outdated expansions to slog through that the leveling process actually takes a good bit of time to complete. it's not necessarily a bad thing the first time around, but the second, third, or eleventh time around you'll be wishing there wasn't so much old stuff to jog through to get to the actual meat of the game.(not to mention all the stat squishes they've had to perform due to this over the years)

if by older content you refer to dungeons etc. you run while you're still leveling, keeping already established players running those on their main characters isn't necessarily the solution, especially if there is no content level scaling system in place. a steady influx of new players - or older players creating alts - is what keeps leveling dungeons lively. the steady growth of the playerbase provides help to a multitude of other problems too, but if you can't be sure this will be the environment the game ends up in, you'll need to start thinking about incentives for players to alt.

Akkadian Knight wrote:

My main goal in game is to have fun and to improve my character and make friends. Just cause i don't like lvl caps does not mean i do not like end game content. I have seen so many people hit lvl cap run through the end game then get bored and leave until they raise the lvl cap again. As i said in my previous post that hitting lvl cap takes away the goal of increasing and growing your character. Until they increase the lvl cap.

raising the level cap isn't the only (or best, imo) way to keep people engaged in the game for a long time. there absolutely can be content updates without adding to the time you need to spend running through leveling content

though this can only work in a game in which the engame is the focus, and not so much the leveling.

Zeen wrote:

To be quite honest, rather than all this discussion of addons, I feel like we need to address how the UI seems to be uncustomisable (to an extent) by the user's preferences, which, if I'm not mistaken, isn't currently being worked on nor is there a major focus for the lack of customizability that Bless currently has, unless I was misinformed.

aye aye. probably the easiest thing they could do to alleviate this is enable users to move around and individually scale single UI elements. it'd enable so much customizability for fairly little development workload.

Depore wrote:

maybe add ons for ui and so on could be supported but I wouldn't support addons like aim bot or things of that nature that take skill out of the equation. add ons are also tough to get support for and implement into a game that's already been coded a certain way.

I don't think programs used for cheating or altering game files should really be called addons.

indeed, if the developer doesn't overtly support the idea of addons, implementing and distributing them becomes difficult - even if their functionality is something minor that in no way distorts the game from what the developer intended it to be, or even purely cosmetic.

while waiting for Bless I'm waiting for Monster Hunter: World to descend upon the PC land and deliver me from all evil.

but in the meantime I tinker with Battlerite & the occasional session of Starbound to chill

Namus wrote:

But does Bless have MMR? And what about world PvP? Again Bless is pretty much competitive game and difference between casuals and hardcore will be amount of time they can invest and not playstyle. There are plenty MMOs for casual playstyle you are sugesting so i dont see why would they play this one.

I don't see any reason for the structured PvP to not have any kind of ranking system. the lack of one just creates chaos and bad matches for everyone.

is the difference in time invested into the game not more or less synonymous of their "playstyle" as a whole? otherwise I'm not sure what you're trying to say there.

again I'm not sure what you mean by "the casual playstyle I'm suggesting". to assume the entire playerbase of a game would consist of hardcore players just because the game is very competitive-oriented is pretty absurd. if you think beyond the MMORPG genre for a bit, and take just about any game that's entirely built around competition and you'll see they have their fair share of casual players as well - anything from FPSes to MOBAs and so forth.

Frezia wrote:

Because of this DPS meter we even have those charts online with the DPS ranking. Less experienced players will just look at them and pick what they see it performs better or spec performs. Some of those people will refuse X class in a group because "hey, why should i take you when Y class can perform even better" - regardless you can finish your objective with either - after a few rejects X gets frustrated.

if you're referring to something like Noxxic's dps rankings it should be widely known by now that those rarely depict reality and are hardly a good metric for determining "what's the best class". I know that's an easy new player trap, but is that really the first place you'll look when trying to determine what you're going to play?

if you're looking at it from a purely casual viewpoint, the presence of a dps meter can be beneficial in that when you are able to track your performance, it's much easier to improve - if your dps is looking a bit low, you can start wondering what you're doing differently, change your playstyle around that, and do better.

Namus wrote:

Its very simple just because someone is casual it doesn't mean they don't want to win in PvP otherwise whats the point of playing it? If i was a casual i know i would be frustrated that i can win only 1 out of 10 arena matches because i cant spend 5+ hours daily to gear up and at that point i would just stop wasting my already limited time on this even though its a major game feature. On the other hand i sure as hell don't want to play arena against people that are too easy to beat because its not fun.

that's why there are things such as MMR in any competitive PvP system. you can't be expected to do well against someone who's playing at a completely different level, so why would the game match you up against them? as you stated yourself, it's not a pleasurable experience for either side. I don't see separating casuals from hardcore players as a solution to the problem you're presenting - any competitive environment pretty much requires players of all levels to stay healthy.

not sure if this kind of split is healthy for the community as a whole in the long run.

I can see why a PvP/PvE server split might be beneficial, since if you're more into one than the other, joining a server dedicated to just that will ensure you'll be able to participate in your preferred activity more easily.

but the difference with the casual/hardcore split is that they still may want to participate in the same content, but at a different pace and difficulty level. so if a server were to completely lack the other crowd, there might be some content left completely untouched, and as such resulting in the lack of certain items & resources in the server's economy, while there might still be demand for them.

Namus wrote:

That way casuals wont have to worry about being unable to keep up and hardcore players will find the challenge in PvP.

see, I don't really get this - if you don't play the game at the hardcore level, why would you ever have to worry about keeping up? is that not precisely what it means to play the game casually?

Frezia wrote:

After a while it becomes meta. Take example Method, the guild that does 1st world kills in raids in WoW. If a comp will do 2% improvement, they will do that. It's because of the standards that the community sets on the long term. There's a reason why in WoW ranking (which has addons for ages), 2 types of healers class simply dominates (out of 6 healing classes) in Mythic dungeons. Not because you can;t adapt to the other healers playstyle/comp, but because of mid-maxing (valid for DPS classes as well). Yes, some people will still stick with what ever they want to play, but they won't feel good when they won't be accepted in a group because X spec performs % better than yours.

Sadly that's how mentality ends up in the big picture, on the long run, when you are able to analyse every small % of DPS, HPS , skills kit etc

I wish it wasn't so, but it is.

while I do agree that a lot of stuff that is declared superior by the high-end players does bleed into the "mainstream" of the playerbase, it can in no way be expected that the majority even cares about optimization and min-maxing. not everybody will play or even want to play at the highest level and efficiency possible. yes, there will inevitably be a meta among the high-end players, but that segment of players will also be a very small percentage of the overall playerbase - the elite will always be a minority.

also, when it comes to one build performing better than another, there are so many more factors to consider other than "the damage/healing output is higher". if we go ahead using WoW as an example, three things to mind right away, if we ignore variance that a human player inevitably introduces to the equation;

1. stat weights
2. number of constant targets within an encounter
3. length of the encounter

even if I have seemingly very good gear, if it doesn't provide me the secondary stat which my build/spec primarily utilizes, my performance won't be anywhere near optimal. secondly, if a boss encounter has more than one target available most of the time - maybe twin bosses, constant stream of small adds, etc. - classes/specs/builds with good cleave or multidotting will always shine. lastly, if your class/spec/build relies on burst for high damage output, you will most likely perform better in a short encounter, or one with clear burn phases.

Frezia wrote:

Neh. Addons are not 100% a good thing. Like DPS meter: Because of the mid-max /elistist mentality. Like why play a BM hunter when a MM hunter can do 200k more DPS? (WoW example). Or why bring X spec when the other spec does 200k more AOE dmg. Classes/specs being pushed aside or being forced by need (because if mid-max mentality players around them) to play a certain spec but not the one they actually enjoy. When it can be very well done with any of them if just do the mechanics right. But hey....if i can do this and save 5-10min more...why not.

Raid addons for mechanics? I seriously doubt Bless has hard content like Mythic raid in WoW. But maybe I'm wrong on that.

there's a bit more to it than that, though. if somebody wants to be very performance-centric while playing, why shouldn't they have the tools necessary to track and improve their progress? if that's not you, why would you mind that a spec you want to play doesn't perform the best at highest level of play? there will always be people who want to optimize all they're doing, but that doesn't mean everybody should be playing like that.

since the whole point of addons is to provide some further customization of your gameplay experience, it's honestly hard for me to see much of any inherent negatives with them. sure, if the system itself is poorly implemented, it could pose some security problems, and without a dedicated manager/installer, corrupting the game files becomes a very real possibility. but honestly the long and short of it is that addons are meant to provide you with options. if you don't want to use them, there's absolutely nothing forcing you to do so.

Surrender wrote:

Class change.. hell no. Inb4 pay 20$ after every single patch in order to play the best class during raids/pvp else kicked from guild. No thanks.

Namus wrote:

I am against class change cause that would make too big impact on the game. Imagine a class becoming OP after balance patch and 90% of pop switching to that class... Race change would be a good and harmless way for devs to make money though.

it's a fun thought exercise to imagine the re-gearing fiesta after every patch and reroll if such a system actually did exist.

Namus wrote:

It is important to keep people playing lower lvl content so that new players can enjoy it. First impressions are important and if a new player cant find group for dungeon there is a chance he wont bother reaching end game where 98% of players will be. I think FFXIV did a really good job with that. I never felt like i had to do low lvl dungeons but i also never had issues getting a grp for them.

there's some obvious problems with this, but the concept isn't without its benefits either.

for one, I agree that the low-level content needs to be very accessible and offer a solid introduction into the game for new players. but if we're going to go down the road of having max-level players clear the low-level content on a daily basis, I can sum the biggest concern with it into one word - repetition. I can guarantee that you are not going to find much joy in clearing the same content for the 86141487th time day in day out, especially when at that point said content should be extremely easy for you.

the benefit of having the kind of system as FFXIV has, scaling down higher level players to do the beginning dungeons with newbies, is that the more experienced folks can offer some guidance with the mechanics of the dungeon or the game itself, which is great. then again, this relies on the experienced players to be civil, patient and accommodating towards their less-experienced peers.

Forgo wrote:

Most of the time in games like this, you are doing the dungeon for what the bosses drop, not for the daily quest reward. Having an extra daily reward changes nothing.

this honestly depends on what the reward is. if the reward is something you can make use of continuously and if having larger quantities of it is beneficial, you're subtly forced into doing all the dungeons daily to be rewarded. on the flipside, if the reward is something negligible, there isn't much of an incentive to run all of the dungeons. all in all balancing out the reward is definitely tricky

I actually love that you made it so dark! I sit in front of the monitor very late into the night, so dark wallpapers are a must if I wish to keep my eyes functioning, an accidental tab into a bright background could be fatal!

Krimzin wrote:

I think the time of long lasting games is at an End. The way people play and the time they invest is changing.

while I couldn't agree more that MMORPGs as a genre need to evolve big time to bring relevant new titles into the market, the two aforementioned games are still going strong. I do believe they will inevitably come to an end at some point in time, but that doesn't seem to be anywhere in the near future. duh, everything will come to an end eventually. the real question is how long they will be able to stay relevant, and what kind of changes they need to make to achieve that.

the market for MMORPGs right now is just incredibly hard to enter for new games in its current state, not to mention how huge of a gamble developing one is, since the devcycle and costs are higher than for pretty much any other genre on the market.

Krimzin wrote:

I am however, not a fan of xp potions and other leveling incentives you can buy with Cash.

while I understand why you would feel this way, in a game (such as WoW, since it was brought up before) completely centered around endgame to the point that the leveling phase is more or less an arbitrary obstacle to get into the "real" content, I don't see why something to help you get through it faster would be a bad thing. sure, it may be counterintuitive to speed up the progress the first time you're playing through, since it's also teaching you the necessities about the game and your class.

but when you've been playing for years upon years and have leveled dozens of toons, the leveling experience inevitably gets really damn old. in such a case i warmly welcome the free max level boost i get with every expansion pack I purchase, and I'm sure I'm not alone with this line of thought; especially since the gear they put on your newly boosted toon won't get you into any raids.

Krimzin wrote:

To many snowflakes in this world who want everything given to them, even though they cant put in the time to get it.

this is a rather broad statement. as much as I dislike any system built on P2W in gaming, I don't think the disdain should be directed towards the people buying into such a system, but rather those who implement it.

BigRekt wrote:

Just because you can't no life a game doesn't mean you are at a disadvantage, or that the people who can play longer hours have an advantage.

from a strictly objective and hypothetical standpoint, you are bound to achieve more in the game if you play 8 hours a day rather than 4. how significant the difference between the two might be I can't say, but if we're indeed talking about advantage in progressing in the game, unless there are other severely limiting factors, (skillcap, paywalls, etc.) the one who puts in more time will very likely get further ahead.