07-13-2003, 06:28 AM
'Lo Lurkers,
Here is a question no one has asked so far - just how complicated can this get?
Now, when Roland begins his latest modding endeavor, he won't want as much complexity as may be offered. Hopefully we here at the lounge can help him hammer out a coherent, balanced, and mostly simple approach. But while everyone is in the speculation phase, what sort of crazy, off-kilter ideas can we come up with? Feel free to shoot me down if an idea is not possible because of programming issues. Other than that, feel free to join in with what-if's of your own. Think of stuff that might be possible, but that never occurred to the Blizzard programmers. Or even the stuff that they threw out because it was too hard.
Some stuff I'd like to know:
- Can you apply anti-synergies? I.e., can a penalty to a skill be applied for pumping another skill? This could add balance to skills that are maxed because a character cannot possibly be viable without them. For instance, it might be a fix for the all too common 'Just drop 20 points in bone spirit, and never worry about any boss, including the ancients, again.' syndrome. Wouldn't want these to be too harsh, or everyone would just avoid that skill. This might also be good for something like berserk and concentrate. Every point in berserk reduces you defensive rating a bit when you use any other offensive skill, while maybe adding a bit of damage. Each point in concentrate could increase the defense rating for other attack skills.
- What about an initial penalty that could be overcome with a 3-4 point investment in a given skill? Might take some of the air out of one-point wonders. For example, what if teleport was non-functional or too mana-intense to use unless you had several skill points in telekinesis? What if a teleport actually did a bit of damage to the user, which could be mitigated by warmth, or eventually, heal the user a bit? Or something like that...
- Could pumping one skill actually add a skill level to another? Say at a 5:1 or even 10:1 exchange? Can't think of a good reason to do this, but it would be nice to know if you could. :blink:
That's all that I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe it's time for me to get down and dirty with the data files, and check some of this out myself. Any suggestions as to starting points? I've heard the Phrozen Keep mentioned as a modders site - is this correct? I'll go check it out.
Thoughts? Feedback? Flames? New crazy synergy ideas? Bring it on! B)
-V-
Here is a question no one has asked so far - just how complicated can this get?
Now, when Roland begins his latest modding endeavor, he won't want as much complexity as may be offered. Hopefully we here at the lounge can help him hammer out a coherent, balanced, and mostly simple approach. But while everyone is in the speculation phase, what sort of crazy, off-kilter ideas can we come up with? Feel free to shoot me down if an idea is not possible because of programming issues. Other than that, feel free to join in with what-if's of your own. Think of stuff that might be possible, but that never occurred to the Blizzard programmers. Or even the stuff that they threw out because it was too hard.
Some stuff I'd like to know:
- Can you apply anti-synergies? I.e., can a penalty to a skill be applied for pumping another skill? This could add balance to skills that are maxed because a character cannot possibly be viable without them. For instance, it might be a fix for the all too common 'Just drop 20 points in bone spirit, and never worry about any boss, including the ancients, again.' syndrome. Wouldn't want these to be too harsh, or everyone would just avoid that skill. This might also be good for something like berserk and concentrate. Every point in berserk reduces you defensive rating a bit when you use any other offensive skill, while maybe adding a bit of damage. Each point in concentrate could increase the defense rating for other attack skills.
- What about an initial penalty that could be overcome with a 3-4 point investment in a given skill? Might take some of the air out of one-point wonders. For example, what if teleport was non-functional or too mana-intense to use unless you had several skill points in telekinesis? What if a teleport actually did a bit of damage to the user, which could be mitigated by warmth, or eventually, heal the user a bit? Or something like that...
- Could pumping one skill actually add a skill level to another? Say at a 5:1 or even 10:1 exchange? Can't think of a good reason to do this, but it would be nice to know if you could. :blink:
That's all that I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe it's time for me to get down and dirty with the data files, and check some of this out myself. Any suggestions as to starting points? I've heard the Phrozen Keep mentioned as a modders site - is this correct? I'll go check it out.
Thoughts? Feedback? Flames? New crazy synergy ideas? Bring it on! B)
-V-