I have been reading posts regarding the Armor Revamp 1 changes and the majority of the responses have been negative. As we all know, users are generally going to be reluctant to any changes that effect something they already own or have achieved, in this case their armor. I am not advocating that we should stop the publish or alter it in some manner. What I am advocating is that the Dev team help guide users along in with testing, by giving them use cases and more specific details regarding the publish's changes.
Lets start with the overall goal. (Please note, I am not attacking your goals, I am trying to understand what changes are being pushed.) What is the point of the Armor Revamp? I think mine and everyone else's assumption is that you want all armor types to have some value or fill some role. Right now meddable leather is king and many non-meddable pieces are lack luster, underpowered, or plan forgotten (Dragon armor). Are we correct in this assumption? Are there additional goals we haven't though about? Perhaps you do not want melee combatants wearing meddable armor at all, and you would rather they be wearing metal(non-meddable) armor types.
Now lets target use cases. In a game such as Ultima, it can be very hard to create a use case for users to follow as there are so many different skill, armor and weapon combinations and perhaps you do not create a use case for each publish. You can start with a very generic one as, users should no longer be able to solo dragon, balrons, champion spawns etc. And once given more time to compile a better case, you could create encounter difficulty and have a success or difficult rating associated with each. I think it is important not to focus solely on the high level/geared players and completely forget about the newer/lower powered player. I hope the goal of this patch isn't to require more powerful armor as the newer player may have trouble adjusting.
I was reading a post from a user. He was using a sampire build that was roughly...
Swords: 120, Tact: 120, Bushido: 120, Chiv: 101, Necor: 99, Resist: 100, Parry: 60.
With suit 4 pieces of woodland armor, glasses, and one ringmail piece with mod equaling...
10 ssi on suite, 100 di, 40 lmc, 181 stamina, 150 str/hp, 60's mana, 45 hci, 45 dci.
Now I recently reactivated and haven't played since 2006. So these stats are quite godly to me. He has 4 maxed out modifiers and, assuming he has 260 base stats, at least an additional 131 in secondary stats (stam, hp, mana). He went on to complain that the stamina changes were devastating and he had trouble killing balrons.
His post goes back to the lack of a use case. Lets start with, should he be able to kill a balron by himself? His post leads me to believe he was able to easily kill balrons in the past and now he has trouble doing so. Would or SHOULD a new heavier set of armor with similar stats allow him to down such a foe with ease? Or are you attempting to curb the soloing aspects of Ultima and require that he have a party member help him kill balrons from now on?
Giving more information on the Publish and outlining exactly what its accomplishing should not only generate better feedback but help with the knee jerk reaction you are getting from current users, especially if what they are testing is something you are looking to remove from the game.
-redman2k
Lets start with the overall goal. (Please note, I am not attacking your goals, I am trying to understand what changes are being pushed.) What is the point of the Armor Revamp? I think mine and everyone else's assumption is that you want all armor types to have some value or fill some role. Right now meddable leather is king and many non-meddable pieces are lack luster, underpowered, or plan forgotten (Dragon armor). Are we correct in this assumption? Are there additional goals we haven't though about? Perhaps you do not want melee combatants wearing meddable armor at all, and you would rather they be wearing metal(non-meddable) armor types.
Now lets target use cases. In a game such as Ultima, it can be very hard to create a use case for users to follow as there are so many different skill, armor and weapon combinations and perhaps you do not create a use case for each publish. You can start with a very generic one as, users should no longer be able to solo dragon, balrons, champion spawns etc. And once given more time to compile a better case, you could create encounter difficulty and have a success or difficult rating associated with each. I think it is important not to focus solely on the high level/geared players and completely forget about the newer/lower powered player. I hope the goal of this patch isn't to require more powerful armor as the newer player may have trouble adjusting.
I was reading a post from a user. He was using a sampire build that was roughly...
Swords: 120, Tact: 120, Bushido: 120, Chiv: 101, Necor: 99, Resist: 100, Parry: 60.
With suit 4 pieces of woodland armor, glasses, and one ringmail piece with mod equaling...
10 ssi on suite, 100 di, 40 lmc, 181 stamina, 150 str/hp, 60's mana, 45 hci, 45 dci.
Now I recently reactivated and haven't played since 2006. So these stats are quite godly to me. He has 4 maxed out modifiers and, assuming he has 260 base stats, at least an additional 131 in secondary stats (stam, hp, mana). He went on to complain that the stamina changes were devastating and he had trouble killing balrons.
His post goes back to the lack of a use case. Lets start with, should he be able to kill a balron by himself? His post leads me to believe he was able to easily kill balrons in the past and now he has trouble doing so. Would or SHOULD a new heavier set of armor with similar stats allow him to down such a foe with ease? Or are you attempting to curb the soloing aspects of Ultima and require that he have a party member help him kill balrons from now on?
Giving more information on the Publish and outlining exactly what its accomplishing should not only generate better feedback but help with the knee jerk reaction you are getting from current users, especially if what they are testing is something you are looking to remove from the game.
-redman2k