OP
OP
Shadowsong
Game Developer & Graphic Designer
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 3,446
- Solutions
- 21
- Reaction score
- 3,001
- Location
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- YouTube
- ShivaShadowsong
Basically, the spells between all classes heavily vary in their way of scripting and the way the damage dealt is determined.
And like it happened to all weapons and melee/distance classes, where all weapons and damage formulas got changes, in the same sense, ALL spells that heal or deal damage will be changed.
This means we'll be taking every single spell, starting with low level ones and climbing up to the higher levels, and changing their formulas and even effects. In some cases, spells will be entirely removed and replaced with new ones.
This will affect every class.
Why?
Because I want to start off with a clean slate, and introduce a sense of consistency and improvement into the way the spell formulas work. Most likely, your base spell will receive a starting formula, and each spell after that will have an upgraded version of the formula of the previous spell. It will also be very easy to keep track of damage and balance between different classes. This is a project that will take quite some to finish, but the work on it has already began.
Furthermore, while this is being done, some heavy focus will go into changing some classes and their mechanics. Without going into too much details, here's a rundown of how I feel about every class right now, and what you can expect:
Swordsman
I feel like swordsmen among all, are one of the more balanced classes. They really offer a variety of spells and mechanics and 3 different passives, and quite a bunch of equipment as well.
The only beef I saw people having with swordsman is the fact that they have to turn on their buffs (marks) and use them every x seconds because they expire.
This may or may not change, to bigger extents, to smaller extents, I don't know yet, but I feel like Swordsman is in a rather nice place at the moment and I'll avoid making fundamental changes here.
Berserker
Berserker right now is a rather good class, however, due to the lack of equipment and the variety in weapons that we actually do intend to provide, they might seem a bit stale at the moment.
I've seen positive feedback, negative feedback, and all in all, a lot of thoughts written about Berserkers, but in the end the conclusion is that they are actually exactly the way we want them to be.
A high risk-reward class with intense gameplay.
This is the class with the least amount of spells in the game right now, and that will most likely change, especially because a few of their spells feel kind of clunky and unusable right now.
And of course, the core change that will benefit Berserkers is the addition of new weapons and more things to choose from in their level 20-70 path.
That will also be worked on, but the item/equipment update will follow this one later.
Wildheart
Received a lot of feedback on this one, and while the class itself is fine in the game, even with various broken spells and missing stuff, I will of course address the major issues with this class.
The issue that the forms and transformations currently have a very linear timeline. You always use the form that was most recently unlocked, and some spells and forms serve no purpose when compared to others.
I will look into adding more forms and changing them so that the usage of the form does not depend on your level and what form was most recently unlocked, but on the environment itself.
As suggested by someone (and I like this idea), you forms will get better the more time you spend in them. Similar to how the [Bear Claws] work right now (bear form deals more damage with spells and auto-attacks the more your sharpen your claws by playing in Bear form), we'll rework all the forms to have such a benefit.
More details will be posted when the time comes, but this is one of the classes that will receive a major change and a lot of work will be put into it.
Defender
I don't have too much to say about defender right now. I feel like they fulfill their purpose just fine, maybe even a bit too good (their passive might need some changes in values and how it works), but all in all, defender seems to be alright. Some spells are currently not working as intended or a little bit broken, but aside from fixing such bugs, no big rework is coming for this class.
Hunter
I feel like Hunters are in a really good spot right now. They behave and do exactly what I wanted with their design, and when a few bugs, especially the "Courier" ability bug is fixed, they will be even better.
I am aware that they suffer from the lack of ammunition, but not only is new ammunition getting obtainable a bit easier in the future, it's also going to be craftable. I'll write about that below.
I feel like that will resolve their problem.
Marksman
Not much to say here, they face the same problem with ammunition as Hunters do. Once the ammunition crafting system is implemented, I feel they'll gain some more comfort as well.
Obviously, since this is a heavy DPS class, focus will be hard on the damage of their spells during the spell rework, but we'll make sure we don't move them too far from their current state.
Spearmen
Ho hoo... This one has already received quite a bit of attention, and I feel like they'll be fine with the changes that have been recently implemented.
Problem with spearmen lies in their gameplay, which gets a bit stale frankly, and I'll look into changing that by implementing more... interesting mechanics for their spells, to say the least. Or something along those lines.
Spearmen seem to be very profitable at times, because they are the only ranged class whose primary source of damage is not limited by count, so it is very likely that we will implement durability to spears in a later patch.
With such a change, we'll make some optimizations to ensure that crafting a spear is not too expensive.
Shadowstrikers
Shadowstrikers have received a nice change a few updates back, and their damage & access to ranged weapons will be played with a little, to change the damage spikes at certain levels and allow them
to utilize their interesting melee/range switcheroo a bit more. They suffer from not being able to access a lot of their weapons that are implemented in the game because they are hard to craft and I'm aware of that,
but as you may have seen before, a lot of daggers have been implemented and a bunch of them still haven't been assigned any values, so basically, we do have a few more tricks up the sleeves that will make Shadowstrikers able to have even more variety in their selection of weapons.
(A lot of people judge the book by its cover on Shadowstriker daggers, because the daggers have less damage than other weapons, but what happens in the background - their spell scaling as well as their combat formulas, do take this fact in mind and provide results that are surprisingly better than what you'd expect by just looking at the weapon's attack value. Those who have played Necronia 1-2 years back will remember the time when Dual BloodFang Dagger had around 3 more attack, a lot more attack speed (near the 0.6 limit) and more lifesteal. By looking at the stats, the weapon was still very poor, but ingame, it was considered one of the most broken weapons due to the sheer amount of healing and damage it dealt out over extended periods of times.)
Saints
A very controversial class that has received a ton of critique as well as some praise. Basically, right now, they are super good for healing, rather bad for any solo adventure, and mediocre at support. What I'm gonna look into with their rework is boosting up the support factor, maybe toning down the healing a little bit to balance it out with the other support aspects, and definitely changing some things to make them more viable for solo adventuring as well as party adventuring. Right now, some people would describe them in a party as an exp leech more than a support. I would not necessarily agree with this fully, but to some extent it is true, and it's obvious.
Higher level saints are pretty viable if you ask me, and actually needed, but until you reach those levels (65+), what is a saint's purpose? They'll often get rejected from parties because other classes can do it solo and get more benefit that way, and they can't solo adventure thus making them rather difficult to play until high level. This will all be taken into account and changed, but this is one of the classes that will also receive some major changes.
And like it happened to all weapons and melee/distance classes, where all weapons and damage formulas got changes, in the same sense, ALL spells that heal or deal damage will be changed.
This means we'll be taking every single spell, starting with low level ones and climbing up to the higher levels, and changing their formulas and even effects. In some cases, spells will be entirely removed and replaced with new ones.
This will affect every class.
Why?
Because I want to start off with a clean slate, and introduce a sense of consistency and improvement into the way the spell formulas work. Most likely, your base spell will receive a starting formula, and each spell after that will have an upgraded version of the formula of the previous spell. It will also be very easy to keep track of damage and balance between different classes. This is a project that will take quite some to finish, but the work on it has already began.
Furthermore, while this is being done, some heavy focus will go into changing some classes and their mechanics. Without going into too much details, here's a rundown of how I feel about every class right now, and what you can expect:
Swordsman
I feel like swordsmen among all, are one of the more balanced classes. They really offer a variety of spells and mechanics and 3 different passives, and quite a bunch of equipment as well.
The only beef I saw people having with swordsman is the fact that they have to turn on their buffs (marks) and use them every x seconds because they expire.
This may or may not change, to bigger extents, to smaller extents, I don't know yet, but I feel like Swordsman is in a rather nice place at the moment and I'll avoid making fundamental changes here.
Berserker
Berserker right now is a rather good class, however, due to the lack of equipment and the variety in weapons that we actually do intend to provide, they might seem a bit stale at the moment.
I've seen positive feedback, negative feedback, and all in all, a lot of thoughts written about Berserkers, but in the end the conclusion is that they are actually exactly the way we want them to be.
A high risk-reward class with intense gameplay.
This is the class with the least amount of spells in the game right now, and that will most likely change, especially because a few of their spells feel kind of clunky and unusable right now.
And of course, the core change that will benefit Berserkers is the addition of new weapons and more things to choose from in their level 20-70 path.
That will also be worked on, but the item/equipment update will follow this one later.
Wildheart
Received a lot of feedback on this one, and while the class itself is fine in the game, even with various broken spells and missing stuff, I will of course address the major issues with this class.
The issue that the forms and transformations currently have a very linear timeline. You always use the form that was most recently unlocked, and some spells and forms serve no purpose when compared to others.
I will look into adding more forms and changing them so that the usage of the form does not depend on your level and what form was most recently unlocked, but on the environment itself.
As suggested by someone (and I like this idea), you forms will get better the more time you spend in them. Similar to how the [Bear Claws] work right now (bear form deals more damage with spells and auto-attacks the more your sharpen your claws by playing in Bear form), we'll rework all the forms to have such a benefit.
More details will be posted when the time comes, but this is one of the classes that will receive a major change and a lot of work will be put into it.
Defender
I don't have too much to say about defender right now. I feel like they fulfill their purpose just fine, maybe even a bit too good (their passive might need some changes in values and how it works), but all in all, defender seems to be alright. Some spells are currently not working as intended or a little bit broken, but aside from fixing such bugs, no big rework is coming for this class.
Hunter
I feel like Hunters are in a really good spot right now. They behave and do exactly what I wanted with their design, and when a few bugs, especially the "Courier" ability bug is fixed, they will be even better.
I am aware that they suffer from the lack of ammunition, but not only is new ammunition getting obtainable a bit easier in the future, it's also going to be craftable. I'll write about that below.
I feel like that will resolve their problem.
Marksman
Not much to say here, they face the same problem with ammunition as Hunters do. Once the ammunition crafting system is implemented, I feel they'll gain some more comfort as well.
Obviously, since this is a heavy DPS class, focus will be hard on the damage of their spells during the spell rework, but we'll make sure we don't move them too far from their current state.
Spearmen
Ho hoo... This one has already received quite a bit of attention, and I feel like they'll be fine with the changes that have been recently implemented.
Problem with spearmen lies in their gameplay, which gets a bit stale frankly, and I'll look into changing that by implementing more... interesting mechanics for their spells, to say the least. Or something along those lines.
Spearmen seem to be very profitable at times, because they are the only ranged class whose primary source of damage is not limited by count, so it is very likely that we will implement durability to spears in a later patch.
With such a change, we'll make some optimizations to ensure that crafting a spear is not too expensive.
Shadowstrikers
Shadowstrikers have received a nice change a few updates back, and their damage & access to ranged weapons will be played with a little, to change the damage spikes at certain levels and allow them
to utilize their interesting melee/range switcheroo a bit more. They suffer from not being able to access a lot of their weapons that are implemented in the game because they are hard to craft and I'm aware of that,
but as you may have seen before, a lot of daggers have been implemented and a bunch of them still haven't been assigned any values, so basically, we do have a few more tricks up the sleeves that will make Shadowstrikers able to have even more variety in their selection of weapons.
(A lot of people judge the book by its cover on Shadowstriker daggers, because the daggers have less damage than other weapons, but what happens in the background - their spell scaling as well as their combat formulas, do take this fact in mind and provide results that are surprisingly better than what you'd expect by just looking at the weapon's attack value. Those who have played Necronia 1-2 years back will remember the time when Dual BloodFang Dagger had around 3 more attack, a lot more attack speed (near the 0.6 limit) and more lifesteal. By looking at the stats, the weapon was still very poor, but ingame, it was considered one of the most broken weapons due to the sheer amount of healing and damage it dealt out over extended periods of times.)
Saints
A very controversial class that has received a ton of critique as well as some praise. Basically, right now, they are super good for healing, rather bad for any solo adventure, and mediocre at support. What I'm gonna look into with their rework is boosting up the support factor, maybe toning down the healing a little bit to balance it out with the other support aspects, and definitely changing some things to make them more viable for solo adventuring as well as party adventuring. Right now, some people would describe them in a party as an exp leech more than a support. I would not necessarily agree with this fully, but to some extent it is true, and it's obvious.
Higher level saints are pretty viable if you ask me, and actually needed, but until you reach those levels (65+), what is a saint's purpose? They'll often get rejected from parties because other classes can do it solo and get more benefit that way, and they can't solo adventure thus making them rather difficult to play until high level. This will all be taken into account and changed, but this is one of the classes that will also receive some major changes.
