New Skill System Discussion.

[Joseph Visscher]

For the past week and so myself, and other two Lead Scripters - Andy J and a Jarno M have been working on adding a new skill system and experience system into game with more skills and more control (for devs) over how much experience is needed for which level.

I thought to post a sneak peak into the system before its releases so forum fans here have the upper advantage in knowing these skills before using them! This forum will also become the main discussion thread for the skills for rants, suggestions, balancing, etc.

The most major changes to the general system:
1. All increases are a Static Value NOT a Multiplier this means instead of saying 20% more its simply a real number. Main reason for this is its easier to balance the game with higher leveled units in mind.
2. Skills have a maximum limit, you will no longer see archers with 100% skills on damage with 1200 damage each arrow.
3. You will never be able to max out all skills, unit level cap will not gain enough skill points to spend it on everything, choose wisely!


Here are the skills new and old with how much they currently increase, and there skill limit. All of which can change as we balance them in the coming patch and weeks down the road possibly. This will be seperated into 2 segments, normal units and heroes, dragon skills will come later.

Melee Only skills:

2. Improve Fortitude, Armor Resistant Slashing, A static value added to a percentage that is taken off overall damage taken of that attack type. 5+ added upto a limit of 5 skill points which is 25% damage resistance which is 75 damage out of 100 plus unit's existing armor.

3. Improve Strength Armor Resistant Crushing, A static value added to a percentage that is taken off overall damage taken of that attack type. 5+ added upto a limit of 5 skill points which is 25% damage resistance which is 75 damage out of 100 plus unit's existing armor.

Ranged only skills:

8. Improve Eyes, +20 View and Range up to 15 skill points for a total of +300 range, may need to replace normal arrow weapon with a more powerful one at one of the stages otherwise it will not be able to reach furthest target.

7. Fletching, increase Arrow Ammo Cap by 5 per battalion member, decreases arrow Fletching time during idle by 1 second (creates new arrows faster while idle) upto 15 skill points.


All Level-able Units:

1. Improve Attack, +10 increase to damage evenly distributed among all existing damage types(units that do 2 types of damage), up to 30 levels which is +300 damage total.

4. Improve Agility, Armor Resistant Piercing, A static value added to a percentage that is taken off overall damage taken of that attack type. 5+ added upto a limit of 5 skill points which is 25% damage resistance which is 75 damage out of 100 plus unit's existing armor.

5. Improve Health, +50 increase to health, up to 20 skill points for units, +1000 total.

6. Improve Stamina, increases +20 increase to Stamina, +1 Walkspeed and Runspeed per Skill point up to 10 skill points which is +200 stamina, +10 Walk and +10 Run total,

7. Improve Restoration, +2 to Heal Rate, amount of health each member regains every 3 in game seconds; up to 10 skill points for total +20 Heal Rate.




Heroes, right now Heroes have same increases but the limits on the levels are much higher as heroes go upto level 60! Units go to level 20.

1. Improve Attack, limit 90.

2. Improve Fortitude, limit 16.

3. Improve Strength, limit 16.

4. Improve Agility, limit 16.

5. Improve Health, limit 120

6. Improve Stamina, limit 20

7. Improve Restoration, limit 20



Totals:
Level 20 unit has total of 60 skill points to spend.
Level 60 hero has total of 180 skill points to spend.

Unit Total = 85 (110 for archers)
Hero Total = 298


This means in the end battles of highest leveled units will be unique as each player may have chosen a different skill set, highest leveled units wont always be equal.




Experience System allows us to choose how much XP is required for every level, we have separated heroes into their own group and plan to do the same for dragons.
Hero's experience system is very low for the first 20 levels, when you hit around level 50 it starts to spike insanely, good luck getting to level 60 it will take a long time.

[Dreamwalker]

you will no longer see archers with 100% skills on damage with 1200 damage each arrow

Hehe.


These new skills look cool; way better than the old ones, anyway!

Can't wait to see them in game (though I gotta tell you, it's going to be a pain redoing every unit's skills... ).

[Joseph Visscher]

Oh btw, i should mention, already leveled units wont lose all there skills, you will get a refund back if you hit the skill limit on that skill, so if you have 18 skill points on attack damage, on the first load of the new system it will revert it back to max 15 and give you 3 free skill points to spend. And stats will reapply, that 1650 damage per hit will revert back down to the proper level, lol hehe.

[Griegor Mcvennor]

I have to withhold judgement until I see them in action. I do like the fact that we are getting much more variety though.

[Magicmud83]

Sounds nice just wish you could make a system to level the units stats up faster. Clicking on each unit and giving them there skill points after every level or training was bad with only 3 skills now with 8 its going to be something lol. Getting jumped into pvp and taking the first 3-4 mins giving each unit its skills will be tricky.

A way to set up how we want our guys to auto level from a menu in our town could be a idea and would save time during a fight.

[Dreamwalker]

I'm with you on this, magicmud. In every battle, it seems I spend from 1 to 10 minutes of the battle just giving my troops some skills (especcially because of the lag, it takes a while). Nice to see some way to do this before battle (besides just sending your units back to town and giving the skills there, I mean).

[Safey18]

Originally Posted by Dreamwalker

I'm with you on this, magicmud. In every battle, it seems I spend from 1 to 10 minutes of the battle just giving my troops some skills (especcially because of the lag, it takes a while). Nice to see some way to do this before battle (besides just sending your units back to town and giving the skills there, I mean).

Ummm just click the magnifying glass and go into the regions PvE map thingy and allocate your skills there?

[Dreamwalker]

Originally Posted by Safey18

Ummm just click the magnifying glass and go into the regions PvE map thingy and allocate your skills there?

I would, 'cept whenever I do that, the game crashes.
But one of these days, this bug will get fixed, and I'll try that.

[Safey18]

Originally Posted by Dreamwalker

I would, 'cept whenever I do that, the game crashes.
But one of these days, this bug will get fixed, and I'll try that.

Oh that really does suck then! Thats the way I do to make sure I'm ready for PvPs. Man trying to allocate all those skills with PvP lag would be hell xD

[Magicmud83]

Have the same crash problem so ya a out of battle menu would be nice.