M
Maximinus Thrax
Guest
Below is a letter I emailed to UO development, of course it probably was never seen since they all have been busy moving. Take a look at it and tell me what you think. (It's a tad long).
Hwaet!,
This letter is in reference to the recent change made to the evasion special move for Samurai. I feel that the change made is without much precedent, and it could lead down a road of similar changes for other skills. It is a road I do not feel would be positive for the future of UO. Setting timers on skills is not something I believe to be in the best interest of anyone.
I admit I have not played this game for the past 10 years, but I have played for well over two, and almost exclusively as a Samurai during that time. I actually returned to UO (I played it back in 96 for awhile) because of the SE expansion pack. I feel it was a fantastic expansion, and I don't regret having sunk as much time and money into the game because it has given me exactly what I was looking for.
I'm no expert when it comes to development matters, or programming, or really many of the details when it comes to non Bushido skills. But I think you may want to entertain my next suggestion, and I feel you will find it to be better then the current nerfs you have in place (though I can't really speak for Ninjas).
What I propose is that you simply treat evasion as the primary and secondary weapons skills are treated. When someone casts evasion, it plays out like it normally did before the recent nerf. When they go to cast it again, there is an increase in mana, depending on how shortly after they last cast it. That increase and the durations would require tweaking I understand, but I think the time and effort put into it would be well worth it.
The results of this would solve many problems, and put to rest almost every complaint pre and post nerf:
It wiill give Kengo Samurai an advantage, because they have those few extra seconds where evasion is activated, thus reducing the increase in mana required to cast it in succession.
It will prevent mages, and other low levels players from spamming it in succession, as they would end up sapping all of the mana just to avoid attacks. But at least it will give players the power to choose (freedom of will is very important imo).
Therefore there is no advantage to successive (and excessive) use of evasion, as you will have no mana remaining for other abilities.
Now to some concerns. Where is the balance? (This is where my lack of programming and development hurts. So I may be completely wrong in some areas.)
I'll provide examples that will hopefully display how it can be balanced out, and to show it's effectiveness and how superior it would be over the current, seemingly arbitrary, 20 second timer.
Some issues:
A mage with Bushido -vs- A Samurai with no other major profession:
Let's say you're a mage, the duration evasion lasts would be shorter, but you have high LMC and MR, making the mana hike meaningless to you. This would give an advantage to mages then, right? They would actually use Evasion better than an actual Samurai, eh?
This is where balance is an issue. You want to make the mana cost high for mages and other non Samurai, but you don't want to hurt real Samurai who are simply new and lower in skill.
So a balance would have to be made, one that would achieve the following outcomes:
Veterans/high skilled players:
> Templates that have Bushido as their focus will use Evasion more effectively and efficiently.
> Templates that have Bushido subordinate to other major professions (magery, chiv, necro, etc) will use it less effectively and efficiently.
Newer/lower skilled players:
> Templates that have Bushido as their focus will still be able to use Evasion without sapping all of their mana
> Templates that have Bushido subordinate to other major professions will not be able to use evasion in succession.
Potential solution:
> Tactics and Bushido should go hand in hand.
Much like how eval and magery go hand in hand, and spirit speak and necro go hand in hand.
Thus, tactics should not only modify the duration and effectiveness of Bushido skills, it should also reduce penalties and costs.
Example:
Player X: 120 Bush / 120 Weapon / 120 Parry / 120 Tact / 120 Anat / 120 Healing
Player Y: 120 Bush / 120 Mage / 120 Eval / 120 Weapon / 120 Parry / 120 Med
Player Z: 100 Bush / 100 Tact / 100 Mage / 100 Eval / 100 Parry / 100 Weapon / 100 Med
Player A: 80 Bush / 80 Tact / Misc...
My Char: 120 Bush / 120 Parry / 120 Fencing / 110 Anat / 100 Tact / 100 Healing / 40 Resist
Let's assume the following (for sake of easy math):
120 Bush + 120 Tact = 12 second evasion stance
120 Bush + 0 Tact = 6 second evasion stance
100 Bush + 100 Tact = 8 second evasion stance
80 Bush + 80 Tact = 6 second evasion stance
120 Bush + 100 Tact = 10 second evasion stance
The Evasion Skill Dissected:
> Normal cost - 10 mana.
> Recast Penalty - 30 mana (costs 40 mana total to immediately recast evasion). This penalty can not be reduced by LMC modifiers.
> Recharge Timer - 30 seconds (meaning it takes 30 seconds for it to return to it's normal mana cost).
Modifiers:
> Bushido - For every 20 Bushido, Recast Penalty is reduced by 1; with a bonus reduction of 1 at - 100, 110, and 120.
> Tactics - For every 20 Tactics, Recast Penalty is reduced by 1; with a bonus reduction of 1 at - 100, 110, and 120.
Put into action:
> Player X casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 12 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 18; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 0.
The player can therefore recast evasion as he normally would prior to the recent patch.
10 mana total.
>Player Y casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 6 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 24; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 15.
The player must wait 15 seconds before recasting Evasion for the Normal cost.
If not, the player will pay 15 mana on top of Normal cost - 25 mana total.
> Player Z casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 8 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 22; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 10.
The player must wait 10 seconds before recasting Evasion for the Normal cost.
If not, the player will pay 10 mana on top of Normal cost - 20 mana total.
> Player A casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 6 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 24; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 16.
The player must wait 16 seconds before recasting Evasion for the Normal cost.
If not, the player will pay 16 mana on top of Normal cost - 26 mana total.
> I cast Evasion for 8 mana (lmc mods), Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 10 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 20; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 5.
I must wait 5 seconds before recasting Evasion for my own Normal cost.
If not, I will pay 5 mana on top of my Normal cost - 13 total.
Conclusions:
If I'm in a heated battle, and I can't take the chance of leaving the Evasion stance. So I decide to recast it only 8 second into the stance, I end up paying 15 mana! That's a huge difference since LMC mods don't affect it the penalty. Therefore I will likely wait between casts with my current template. But I'm a Samurai by trade, so it makes sense that I would be able to use my Evasion skill more often in the first place.
As you can see, the non Samurai, and newer players alike, are still forced to wait roughly the same exact period of time they currently wait with the simple 20 second timer. But the fact of the matter is they now have the choice to recast it in emergencies; or more importantly, they can use it more often when they are PvM'ing and tend to have more mana recharging abilities (honoring, mana leech weps - hitting for higher damage).
I feel this suggestion and these changes will fix the problems you were looking to solve when you decided to implement the 20 second timer, but it will also fix the problems that resulted in that implementation. On top of that, it will provide a new avenue for UO and it's development to travel down, with more free will and choice left to the players, and away from the restrictive and stingy system of timers and such.
Thank you for your time,
Maximinus Thrax
Hwaet!,
This letter is in reference to the recent change made to the evasion special move for Samurai. I feel that the change made is without much precedent, and it could lead down a road of similar changes for other skills. It is a road I do not feel would be positive for the future of UO. Setting timers on skills is not something I believe to be in the best interest of anyone.
I admit I have not played this game for the past 10 years, but I have played for well over two, and almost exclusively as a Samurai during that time. I actually returned to UO (I played it back in 96 for awhile) because of the SE expansion pack. I feel it was a fantastic expansion, and I don't regret having sunk as much time and money into the game because it has given me exactly what I was looking for.
I'm no expert when it comes to development matters, or programming, or really many of the details when it comes to non Bushido skills. But I think you may want to entertain my next suggestion, and I feel you will find it to be better then the current nerfs you have in place (though I can't really speak for Ninjas).
What I propose is that you simply treat evasion as the primary and secondary weapons skills are treated. When someone casts evasion, it plays out like it normally did before the recent nerf. When they go to cast it again, there is an increase in mana, depending on how shortly after they last cast it. That increase and the durations would require tweaking I understand, but I think the time and effort put into it would be well worth it.
The results of this would solve many problems, and put to rest almost every complaint pre and post nerf:
It wiill give Kengo Samurai an advantage, because they have those few extra seconds where evasion is activated, thus reducing the increase in mana required to cast it in succession.
It will prevent mages, and other low levels players from spamming it in succession, as they would end up sapping all of the mana just to avoid attacks. But at least it will give players the power to choose (freedom of will is very important imo).
Therefore there is no advantage to successive (and excessive) use of evasion, as you will have no mana remaining for other abilities.
Now to some concerns. Where is the balance? (This is where my lack of programming and development hurts. So I may be completely wrong in some areas.)
I'll provide examples that will hopefully display how it can be balanced out, and to show it's effectiveness and how superior it would be over the current, seemingly arbitrary, 20 second timer.
Some issues:
A mage with Bushido -vs- A Samurai with no other major profession:
Let's say you're a mage, the duration evasion lasts would be shorter, but you have high LMC and MR, making the mana hike meaningless to you. This would give an advantage to mages then, right? They would actually use Evasion better than an actual Samurai, eh?
This is where balance is an issue. You want to make the mana cost high for mages and other non Samurai, but you don't want to hurt real Samurai who are simply new and lower in skill.
So a balance would have to be made, one that would achieve the following outcomes:
Veterans/high skilled players:
> Templates that have Bushido as their focus will use Evasion more effectively and efficiently.
> Templates that have Bushido subordinate to other major professions (magery, chiv, necro, etc) will use it less effectively and efficiently.
Newer/lower skilled players:
> Templates that have Bushido as their focus will still be able to use Evasion without sapping all of their mana
> Templates that have Bushido subordinate to other major professions will not be able to use evasion in succession.
Potential solution:
> Tactics and Bushido should go hand in hand.
Much like how eval and magery go hand in hand, and spirit speak and necro go hand in hand.
Thus, tactics should not only modify the duration and effectiveness of Bushido skills, it should also reduce penalties and costs.
Example:
Player X: 120 Bush / 120 Weapon / 120 Parry / 120 Tact / 120 Anat / 120 Healing
Player Y: 120 Bush / 120 Mage / 120 Eval / 120 Weapon / 120 Parry / 120 Med
Player Z: 100 Bush / 100 Tact / 100 Mage / 100 Eval / 100 Parry / 100 Weapon / 100 Med
Player A: 80 Bush / 80 Tact / Misc...
My Char: 120 Bush / 120 Parry / 120 Fencing / 110 Anat / 100 Tact / 100 Healing / 40 Resist
Let's assume the following (for sake of easy math):
120 Bush + 120 Tact = 12 second evasion stance
120 Bush + 0 Tact = 6 second evasion stance
100 Bush + 100 Tact = 8 second evasion stance
80 Bush + 80 Tact = 6 second evasion stance
120 Bush + 100 Tact = 10 second evasion stance
The Evasion Skill Dissected:
> Normal cost - 10 mana.
> Recast Penalty - 30 mana (costs 40 mana total to immediately recast evasion). This penalty can not be reduced by LMC modifiers.
> Recharge Timer - 30 seconds (meaning it takes 30 seconds for it to return to it's normal mana cost).
Modifiers:
> Bushido - For every 20 Bushido, Recast Penalty is reduced by 1; with a bonus reduction of 1 at - 100, 110, and 120.
> Tactics - For every 20 Tactics, Recast Penalty is reduced by 1; with a bonus reduction of 1 at - 100, 110, and 120.
Put into action:
> Player X casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 12 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 18; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 0.
The player can therefore recast evasion as he normally would prior to the recent patch.
10 mana total.
>Player Y casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 6 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 24; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 15.
The player must wait 15 seconds before recasting Evasion for the Normal cost.
If not, the player will pay 15 mana on top of Normal cost - 25 mana total.
> Player Z casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 8 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 22; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 10.
The player must wait 10 seconds before recasting Evasion for the Normal cost.
If not, the player will pay 10 mana on top of Normal cost - 20 mana total.
> Player A casts Evasion for 10 mana, Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 6 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 24; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 16.
The player must wait 16 seconds before recasting Evasion for the Normal cost.
If not, the player will pay 16 mana on top of Normal cost - 26 mana total.
> I cast Evasion for 8 mana (lmc mods), Recharge Timer count begins, starting at 30.
Stance lasts 10 seconds, Recast Penalty down to 20; modifiers bring Recast Penalty down to 5.
I must wait 5 seconds before recasting Evasion for my own Normal cost.
If not, I will pay 5 mana on top of my Normal cost - 13 total.
Conclusions:
If I'm in a heated battle, and I can't take the chance of leaving the Evasion stance. So I decide to recast it only 8 second into the stance, I end up paying 15 mana! That's a huge difference since LMC mods don't affect it the penalty. Therefore I will likely wait between casts with my current template. But I'm a Samurai by trade, so it makes sense that I would be able to use my Evasion skill more often in the first place.
As you can see, the non Samurai, and newer players alike, are still forced to wait roughly the same exact period of time they currently wait with the simple 20 second timer. But the fact of the matter is they now have the choice to recast it in emergencies; or more importantly, they can use it more often when they are PvM'ing and tend to have more mana recharging abilities (honoring, mana leech weps - hitting for higher damage).
I feel this suggestion and these changes will fix the problems you were looking to solve when you decided to implement the 20 second timer, but it will also fix the problems that resulted in that implementation. On top of that, it will provide a new avenue for UO and it's development to travel down, with more free will and choice left to the players, and away from the restrictive and stingy system of timers and such.
Thank you for your time,
Maximinus Thrax