W
Whinemaker
Guest
Hi,
I have just finished reading the notes on the "Immunity/Diminishing Returns System", posted in the General Testing section of UO.com.
Although it seems that the development team's main concern right now is the effectiveness of healing potions, the article has brought up an interesting point:
"There are quite a few 'rinse & repeat' combat tactics in game currently. Some of these are because of limitations of choices in template play styles, or just from the fact that they are just so 'effective' there's no reason to do anything else."
It also seems that it is the development team's desire to "promote diversity of playstyles, improved combat tactics and hopefully rewards players for investing in both their characters' skills as well as their own gameplay skill."
Putting the issue of whether the "Immunity/Diminishing Returns System" is the proper solution aside, I think the development team should also use this chance to review some of the "less effective" elements, and perhaps give them a boost, so that there could be more options and more "reasons" for other play styles, template-wise at least.
Strictly speaking from a PvM point of view, for example, there isn't much reason to play a male human pure warrior (unless role playing as one from Jhelom I guess), because of the character's "ineffectiveness" when compared to, say, a female elven "sampire".
(Based on my perhaps biased opinion that female and elven characters have access to more equipment, the mana and energy resist boost elves receive, and my impression that a pure warrior without any of the supporting skills such as Chivalry would not do as well as one with it)
Some of the items, such as certain Doom Artefacts, have also lost their worth and become quite useless because of the players' tendency to depend on certain item properties, and as a result severely limiting the options in suit-building and character building and so on.
Perhaps by giving some of the less valued skills and item properties some "love", rewarding warriors without Bushido/Chivalry/Magery/Necromancy/Taming (and/or other classes in a similar fashion), introducing male and human only armour, tweaking game mechanics in a way that it becomes less item dependent, the development team may at least succeed in encouraging more people to experiment with different kinds of template and play style.
I have some reservations about how far this could go though. It is probably human nature to "rinse and repeat" once a method is discovered, and currently I strongly feel that meta-gaming/power-gaming is the only way to keep up with the changes made to the game. Nonetheless I'd still love to see the development team explorer the possibilities on this topic.
Just my two cents.
I have just finished reading the notes on the "Immunity/Diminishing Returns System", posted in the General Testing section of UO.com.
Although it seems that the development team's main concern right now is the effectiveness of healing potions, the article has brought up an interesting point:
"There are quite a few 'rinse & repeat' combat tactics in game currently. Some of these are because of limitations of choices in template play styles, or just from the fact that they are just so 'effective' there's no reason to do anything else."
It also seems that it is the development team's desire to "promote diversity of playstyles, improved combat tactics and hopefully rewards players for investing in both their characters' skills as well as their own gameplay skill."
Putting the issue of whether the "Immunity/Diminishing Returns System" is the proper solution aside, I think the development team should also use this chance to review some of the "less effective" elements, and perhaps give them a boost, so that there could be more options and more "reasons" for other play styles, template-wise at least.
Strictly speaking from a PvM point of view, for example, there isn't much reason to play a male human pure warrior (unless role playing as one from Jhelom I guess), because of the character's "ineffectiveness" when compared to, say, a female elven "sampire".
(Based on my perhaps biased opinion that female and elven characters have access to more equipment, the mana and energy resist boost elves receive, and my impression that a pure warrior without any of the supporting skills such as Chivalry would not do as well as one with it)
Some of the items, such as certain Doom Artefacts, have also lost their worth and become quite useless because of the players' tendency to depend on certain item properties, and as a result severely limiting the options in suit-building and character building and so on.
Perhaps by giving some of the less valued skills and item properties some "love", rewarding warriors without Bushido/Chivalry/Magery/Necromancy/Taming (and/or other classes in a similar fashion), introducing male and human only armour, tweaking game mechanics in a way that it becomes less item dependent, the development team may at least succeed in encouraging more people to experiment with different kinds of template and play style.
I have some reservations about how far this could go though. It is probably human nature to "rinse and repeat" once a method is discovered, and currently I strongly feel that meta-gaming/power-gaming is the only way to keep up with the changes made to the game. Nonetheless I'd still love to see the development team explorer the possibilities on this topic.
Just my two cents.