[0.913] [Balance] Go big or go home

from Elemental Forums

After playing the new version i noticed that the game is much better balanced, but to archieve this balance the power of many traits and items has been reduced. This makes reaching a new level or finding a new item less interesting and sometimes boring.

I think your design goal "Go big or go home" is great and should be applied to the traits and the items, too:

- Hit points, accuracy, ... should not scale with the level

- The level should only increase the number of traits

- The power of the traits should be increased to make them interesting

- The items in the magic tree should be powerful to make the magic tree interesting

- Magic items should be powerful, but always guarded by difficult monsters

3,373 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I think .913 is a huge improvement in balance... for the first time, I find myself actually thinking about some of the choices.  Here are some examples:

+ There's a quest that offers an Ignys Bow or 300g... tuf choice.  I've chosen both depending on the game.

+ I actually took the Gambler's Strike trait for the first time... Love it when it strikes for 3x damage ... Hate it when it misses :-)

+ Designing an 11 ATK / 17 DEF Axe Guy (Backswing), 9 ATK / 15 DEF Spear Guy (Ignores Defense), or an 8 ATK / 17 DEF Dagger Guy (High Initiative + Counterattack) ... Hmmmm, I'll take one of each!

I seem to be picking the same unit traits over and over again so maybe they need a little balance.

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Yep, the weapon choices are great, but the trait choices are less interesting, because many of them are too weak and remind me of playing a MMO (+ 2 % critical chance, + 10 hp when i have already 60 or more hp, ...).

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

10 hp when you have 60 seems HUGE to me...

 

accuracy is useful now, dunno what they did but i miss a lot in 913 so it seems a quite wanted trait

 

crits are still broken

 

all in all a lot more balance in this patch, still missing many things but its a good step

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top


After playing the new version i noticed that the game is much better balanced, but to archieve this balance the power of many traits and items has been reduced. This makes reaching a new level or finding a new item less interesting and sometimes boring.

I think your design goal "Go big or go home" is great and should be applied to the traits and the items, too:

- Hit points, accuracy, ... should not scale with the level

- The level should only increase the number of traits

- The power of the traits should be increased to make them interesting

- The items in the magic tree should be powerful to make the magic tree interesting

- Magic items should be powerful, but always guarded by difficult monsters

End of quote

 

I strongly disagree with the first two, but I'll agree to points 3 thru 5.   Would like to see items in the magic tree compete better with their iron counterparts in warfare tree.  I'd like to see traits both for champions and units get tweaked a bit (bumped a bit in power )  Reason I think accuracy, dodge, etc should scale with level is units.  Unlike champs a unit's base accuracy is much lower.  The last point we can agree that it is in game already,  I've found the more serious a monster group the better potential a magic item.  I've found a few really really awesome weapons in fights against deadly army guarding a lair. 

 

Another thing on traits.  Seems to me there is plenty enough bonuses to everything else besides Attack value.  I'd like to lobby for some traits to increase this.  Path of the warrior may give it an initial bump, but I don't see any other trait that straight up boosts attack.  

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

You are right accuracy and dodge traits are useful now, but the difference between having a trait and not having a trait should be more than a few % in my opinion. For example the new evoker traits or the special warrior attacks are perfect, because you really see if you have them or not.

In the current version i noticed the apprentice swordsman trait (+ 10 % attack with cutting weapons) and that is a great example of a useful but underpowered trait, because you have to specialize your character and only get + 10 % attack. The attack bonus should be increased to + 20 % and the levels of the trait should be reduced to 1. The same applies to many other traits (vital strike: + 1 / 2 / 4 % critical chance, dodge: + 5 / 5 / 5 % dodge, ...). These traits should have only 1 level, too (vital strike: + 15 % critical chance, dodge: + 15 % dodge, ...).