Darkfriend bonus

[Tim]

Ok. So I have an idea of how I want to do darkfriends in V3. This is just an idea I'm running with at the moment and very well could change before V3 actually gets here.

There will be some skills that are available for all classes to learn and use. My thought is that I will make certain skills cost less for darkfriends to use and certain skills cost more for darkfriends to use (there will be some skills that are the same for darkfriends and non-darkfriends as well). This isn't an earth-shattering difference, but it will be managable and hopefully a strategic choice in the development of your character.

Here's the tricky part though: balancing which skills go which way without totally limiting the reasonable options for character development. The skills that are cheaper for darkfriends need to be balanced compared to those that will be cheaper for non-darkfriends. I don't have a finalized skill list right now, so that'll make this a bit harder, but I'm curious as to what TYPES of skills you think would be cheaper for darkfriends and what TYPES of skills would be cheaper for non-darkfriends.

For example, I would think that some taint skills would be cheaper for darkfriends than non-darkfriends. Perhaps some health gain skills would be cheaper from non-darkfriends.

Once I get the skill list done (or done-ish), I'll go through the list and based on the inputs I get here, flag some as 'dark' skills and some as 'light' skills. I'll then post the list and you guys can give me your opinion (and start strategizing )

Have at it!

[alSeen]

i like it but dont make it like the breaking where the DF's skills were melee and light were ranged because i really like spears and it wouold suck if that happened because i like the light. also u should make it so the light-side characters can go dark but not the other way around making up for the cheaper taint skills, because lets face it, taint is better than healing

[Mat Cauthon]

Taint is not better then healing !

[alSeen]

in the alpha i used healing a lot. taint beat the hell out of me. and also taint adds up way more than healing, healing uses % while taint uses plain damage. plus most taint-talis have poison on it too

[Tim]

Taint and healing were just examples. Not set in stone. One could argue that darkfriends should get healing as a bonus for selling their souls (ala eternal life). Just throwing things out there.

Definately not doing the whole melee/ranged thing of the breaking. Also hope to avoid the old school pitfalls where darkfriends essentially got an exp bonus.

And I'd argue at this point taint's better at low levels, but healing gets more useful at higher levels, but that's just my opinion.

[Tintomara]

While I have no issue with taint and healing as bonuses for either side, I'd love if there was also some attack benefit of some sort on the side of the Light (to be balanced with something from the dark, of course). I like to walk in the light, but I absolutely hate all defensive skills (and I count healing as somewhat defensive, and thus cowardly), and love to maximise attack. Maybe accuracy (suddenly worried about that spelling, looks weird however I write it!) could be better on the side of Light?

[Tim]

The more I think about, the more I don't like this idea actually. No matter how I divide skills and even if I make them available to others at a higher cost, it still will basically force people to choose light or shadow based on what stats they want to use, which isn't right. Other than taint, I can't think of a stat that really makes sense of one side to be better with than the other. I think I'll have to come up with some other way to do a darkfriend bonus...

[Jenlyn]

Darkfriends, by their very nature, are selfish. Why reward that? Let them get hustled by the Dark One and his cheap lie *cough* promise of immortality. That's their bonus--some "I'm gonna live for ever and be powerful someday and show you all" sour grapes to suck on until the forces of Light end their self-centered, bitter little lives.

[rey]

Tim it seems this will be hard to balance between light and dark based upon skills/stats. Since you are adding in npcs, why not make light and dark restrict the kinds of npcs you can attack/can attack you. Give each a very rare unique drop that can't be traded or stored in vault or something like that...?

also if you want to diversify strategies, with the addition of classes, could you limit certain classes to types, ie heavy medium and light (basic example). Each one of those has a certain base stat addition/subtraction and has a limit to the types of weapons/armor/skills it can equip/use or something like that?

[nightshade]

why not set it up so that the names of the darkfriends abilities are seperate from the lights abilities instead of calling it dodge for both groups why not call it fade (ie like gaining an empheral state that takes less damage) for darkfriends and dodge for followers of the light.
give them slightly different bonuses that give almost equal stats yet different effects.

for example fade could give an additional block chance (i.e. since it is harder to hit something that is not all there) and slight attack bonus (i.e. the taint that surrounds them hits the weapon and some of it goes to the user).

for dodge you could increase the chance of dodge for a purer character and maybe add a chance for a counterattack bonus if you have a succesful dodge.

the difference here is a dodge would be a total denial of all damage and the fade would only be a reduction

[Tim]

While that's a cool idea, nightshade, balancing all the stats we have now is hard enough without doubling them. For now I say no.

[wraithwain]

Wraithwain revives the thread.

Mar 24, 2009 22:28:33 GMT -6 Tim said:

Right now only shadowspawn serve the shadow (red name). All other classes will be given the choice as to whether or not they walk in the Light. This is not implemented yet, but I plan to get it in for V3.

That's awesome, isn't it?
What I think is that being a Darkfriend should be a solely RP thing.

a browser-based MMORPG set in the best-selling Wheel of Time universe

The Darkfriends shouldn't have any other benefits since they're really just on the dark side.

Maybe the Darkfriends can have their own little invisible clan where they can communicate with each other, access the Darkfriend vault, but they won't know each other's real names, because a code would scramble the spelling up. Similar to the Bors/Carridin's darkfriend social, he can recognize, but he doesn't know who.

Think of it as a clan, within a clan, with its own agenda... Of serving the Dark One!!! (aka. Tim )

or something like a secret club for darkfriends.