Publish 16

[Prometheus]

I'm curious to see what alot of you think about these changes coming up in Pub 16. Here's my take on the major points:

Taming changes: Good idea

Taming needs balance, and they are handling this the right way. The concept of control slots makes perfect sense to me ... I picture someone trying to walk, say 10 dogs, at the same time. Do you honestly think he could control them?

Barding changes: Good idea

Again, they are doing this right.  My bard is on my other account, and I currently don't use it, but I still remember how unbalanced it was.

Earthquake damage and effect: BAD!

If anyone reads the adventures of Adam Ant, then you know that GUL holds pit fight nights weekly, and it is a well recieved, and anticipated event.  Jade, in a post on the GUL site, stated a horrible griefer scenario in which groups of blue players will stand outside and cast Earthquake repeatedly, killing all the reds just trying to have a nice, honorable fight, and "farming" them for Justice points.

Felucca Dungeon changes: Arg!

Seems to me they are trying to draw people to Felucca dungeons and, in their own words, create "PvP hotspots" in Felucca dungeons. I really really don't see that happening.

AR changes on Valorite Plate: Bad

I seem to be the only one I've seen against this ... partly!! I am in favor of having the AR be higher, as it makes sense. BUT having it be only 1 less AR than  a set of full Invul plate? (That's what the numbers on TC2 are)  

That's my major beef with Publish 16. 75% of it are good, needed items. Again, I am *not* bashing OSI or anyone there, but I do not see any reason for most of these changes, they were not asked for, and yet seem to be continuing despite the LARGE quantity of unhappy players. Is anyone there listening? I am worried that after Pub 16 goes through, I will again lose interest in this game ... I don't want that to happen!

Anyways, that's my rant/thoughts. Anyone else feel the same way?

[Balandar]

Taming: Don't care

Barding: Don't care

Earthquake:

Since most RP guilds right now are allied via the War option... if they cast EQ or some other spell they are going to hurt their allies instead of their enemies. So it doesn't really help out much for us.

Felucca Dungeon changes: Whatever

AR changes on Plate:

Everyone will want to wear Valorite, this is a real pain. I can understand the new leathers for us mages but 86 some AR on Valorite with a shield is insane. Next they will be beefing up all of the monsters and magic armor will be pointless now. They should place colored armor on monsters as loot now.

GGS and no power hour:

I don't like this in the least. It will take to long to get GM in anything, which is the reason I am trying to GM all the skills I want GMed before pub 16 hits, everything except for resist and poisoning. I think those will be easier after the publish... well cheaper at least.

Skill and Stat scrolls: Cool

125 in any skill now without scrolls:

We'll see a lot more 110/10/115 type characters. Good for Mind blast.

Tailoring Bulk Order deeds:

Works for Blacksmithy.. might as well have it for the tailors as well.

Summoning:

5 Slot rule per person... I dislike that. Can't ride my mount and have a demon. And Balandar is not exactly a good type of person and likes his Demons.

Ethereal mounts will now have a 3-second “summoning” delay: GRRRRRR!!!

Players will no longer be able to “run away” from arrows/bolts:

Archery has been kinda low on the skills lately.. about time they do something new for it other than slayer bows.

Unarmed “to-be-hit” changes (chance to get hit while unarmed is now the better of either Wrestling skill, or an average of Anatomy & Evaluate Intelligence):

More tank mages. I am not going to be changing Balandar's template for this. There will be more healer type mages now then before.

The dexterity stat will no longer affect at what point in the swing animation a hit or miss occurs:

This will not help people who use spears.

Mace weapons will now do less damage to armor then before:

Nerf Macers now!

Housing Changes: Whatever.. I only have one house now anyway.

[LizShue]

Taming: Good

Barding: Finally, the economy is pretty much shot thanks to Bards, Tamers, and Duping anyways - but its a step in the right direction.

Earthquake: Don't care

Felucca Dungeons:  Great!  I can't wait to get in on a big group hunt of the champion.  Irritating to lose an entire feluccan dungeon rune library, however.

Plate AR Changes: Don't care, but seems necessary for warriors to survive with all the hard-hitting melee monsters OSI sems to want to add.  They should add a monster that is fairly weak to melee but does tons of damage to mages. (Something like Golems, for example).

GGS: GREAT idea.  So much better for my style of play (as you all know I never macro or even really play with a goal of skill increase).  

Skill / Stat Scrolls: Groovy

Tailoring BOD: Groovy

Summoning:  I'll live with the control slots in exchange for the very very increased power of our summons again!  Finally able to have a decent ally.

Ethereal Mount Summoning Delay: BULL####.  Shouldn't change 3RD YEAR REWARDS like that....

Eval/Anat:  Works great for Liz - I can drop wrestling (no more stun punch, however) and pick up some other fun skill TBD.

Macing: BULL####.  They only thing macing had anymore was armor damage, and now they nurf it so people don't lose armor?  What with Valorite plate being like Invuln armor, it would do the economy well to lose armor more frequently

Housing Changes:  Somewhat disappointed - I was interested in playing Siege someday, but now I can never hope to own a home there and on Cats.

-LizShue

[Ange Sans Ailes]

Barding: Bout time they "fix" this...though it was cute seeing people with (young) above their head.. and then opening their paperdoll and seeing the Glorious Lord

Earthquake: Eh.. dun really care bout it

Felucca Dungeons:  Power Scrolls... well I guess you HAVE to have one if you want a fire steed.. so I guess I like that.. Woulda been nicer if you just need GM Taming to get the steed.. but.. OH WELL!!!

Plate AR Changes: What's the point of magic armor then? I'll just walk around in Valorite. Forget fighting for good armor... I'll just pay someone to make it.

GGS: OSI introduced Powerhour to make it easier on the newer players (and thus attracting more). Guess they got all the people they want playing the game.. so we'll go back to how it was before.. Bah

Skill / Stat Scrolls: Same as Felucca Dungeon comment

Tailoring BOD: UBER SWEET!!! I can't wait for this!

Summoning:  Eh.. s'cool

Ethereal Mount Summoning Delay: Don't have an Eth mount.. but I dunno.. no biggie to me.

Eval/Anat:  I love it.. no more deciding whether I should get wrestling or resist.. I'LL TAKE BOTH!!!

Macing: Yeah.. there was no reason to change this. Woulda been nice to have with all the silly UBER STRONG valorite armour around.

Housing Changes:  Bah.. so much for making my own lil town..

[Lord Ser Brightblade]

Well I either like or will live with the changes coming for most things but have some comments on some.

The armor changes in my opinion are good, however if this is done then magic armor needs to be changed (which should have happened long ago) so that it has unique properties such as fire resistance, electric, and the sort.  Perhaps unlimited RA to an extent teleportation with build in delays, stat and skill bonuses.  Come on its MAGIC armor.  Its supposed to be rare as hell, expensive and truely set the wearer apart depending on the power of the magics bestowed upon it.  Lets see em move towards that.  I also think things like Mithril and Adamantite should be found.  Image armor with less dex loss because its super light?  Or more durability because there is nothing that can shatter it?  So much can be done in this field and I believe OSI has made a good first step, and one that must be made before going forth and making even greater changes creating true rarity for magic items and uniqueness.

Tank mages: Shoulda never been brought to their knees the way they have.  It takes/took good coordination of all skills a tanker had developed in order to be great.  With some of the changes coming a tank might actually reappear and be able to hold his own in PvP.

Ethereals: Don't mess with Vet rewards.  THey are rewards for long playtime and should be given some leway.  Rather than change this OSI should just keep such things in mind for future rewards and implementations.

EQ  A worthless spell before or after changes.  Personally I think the whole spell system needs to be totally revamped including damages, casting times and spell types.  There should be a great many spells created and there should be categories. i.e. cold based, poison based, fire based, elecity, and magic.  The only way to create diversity is to allow for such things.  Allow disciplines in magery to develop strength in certain paths and weakness in others.  This will create diversity even amongst GM mages.  Hell I have several mage characters and if it meant getting and revamping spells I would sacrifice ALL my spells and set out on quests to obtain them all (and get the new ones) again.  Spells should need to be researched as well......I could go on and on what needs to be done to magery but I'm sure you get the idea.  (similar things could be be done to melee by developing fighting disciplines i.e. rach certain sword tactic level and one can set about a quest to learn a fighting style...again I could go on but you see where I'm headed)

Taming Barding: Bout damn time still much that could be done though...including strengthening of pets a bit since the number used by single tamer will be reduced (this could be done through tamer specialization)

Fel changes.  Personally I will muddle through.  Players of today dont know what PvP/PK hell is really like.  Being a 5yr vet working around PK's under current day rules isnt nearly what it was in the past.

Lastly this has nothing to do with the publish but I need to say it:  BRING BACK SEERS!  THe current quest/Scenario generator is good to maintain things but nothing can compare with the diversity and the creativity that a PC foe/ally can add.  They encourage roleplay and can be used to allow for even more diverse choices within a scenario.  Currently the scenarios while well though and interesting become stagnant due to lack of interaction and the "unknown factor"

-BB

P.S. Forgive typos, seems Im learing how to type and play with a little one on my knee these days and she doesnt always allow me clear thought or a keyboard free of her hands.

[kodoz]

this being the first ive heard about some of these changes is very hard to me to take.

Armor: great, i just bought 10 valorite plate suits for 20k. im unstoppable.

but now there is no point in going to ilshenar. Someone go slap OSI

EQ: no clue whats going on with that

Barding: no clue whats going on with that

im uninformed

Taming: finally, people cant wander in dungeons with 10 white wyrms and block vision and kill everything. 2 white wyrms like lora has is plenty.  

Ethereal mounts: OSI needs to go play and hide and go F*** themselves. i am not a vet but know how much this is going to PO vets. Next youre gonna have to stable your ethereal mounts.

Tank mages: as my brother Bill is trying to be one, this pisses me off. Now a freaking mong bat could kill you if you werent careful

 

Felucca dungeons: dont really care i hate fel anyways. well thats all folks

the uninformed Kodoz is signing off