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Ashari -> RE: =ED= Design Notes August 30th - A Draconic Design Notes (9/3/2011 2:56:05)
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I'll explain why the DragonCon and Back to School weapons weren't buffed -- it's all because of balance. A big complaint has been that EpicDuel is lacking balance so the balance team is taking many steps, long-terms steps in correcting these issues. Adjusting skill numbers and patching up abusive builds isn't enough anymore... everyone's seen how restrictive gameplay can become when every class is reduced down to a single viable build. In order to achieve this long-term balance -- while opening up build freedom and allowing more creativity -- some short term sacrifices have to be made, like these random buffings.
We've been working on a new stat standard for all items, that I would say is in middle of the road compared to our current weapons. We didn't want newer weapons to completely outshine old ones, nor for old ones to overpower the new, balanced weapons (which would defeat the whole purpose of standardizing stats in the first place). That being said, most Seasonal-Rares are already above or at where they should be considering this new standard. Continuing to apply another buff without thinking it through would be working against what we're aiming for.
I will admit that the previous buffs to past rares did nothing to help balance... yes it was a nice gift, but most of the weapons that have received buffs don't need them. Weapons like Bunnyzookas, Frostbane, Stars and Stripes, Beta Weapons are all well above where they should be in terms of the standard. Other weapons might be 1 or 2 stat points off, but they're not game breaking. This buffing had to end at some point, and we felt now was the time to do so. If we buffed these weapons and continued through to buff Halloween weapons, we'd just be further delaying actually balancing the equipment in the game.
@edwardvulture: I know it might seem that buffing non-Varium weapons helped non-Varium players out, but it really didn't. Since the Varium weapons were getting buffed as well, it's not really changing your overall position relative to other players. The gap is still there. What we're trying to do with standardization is create a controllable gap between Varium and non-Varium players. A gap shouldn't depend on equipment availability. Non-Varium equipment won't be kept back 2, 3 or even 5 levels just to create an artificial gap. Instead that's all going to be reflected in the standard and it's going to create a meaningful (so that Varium is still worth buying after all), but competitive gap.
For example, in terms of enhancements, the new system we've adopted is this:
All items have a base of 5 enhancement slots. They are given extra slots for certain things:
- items receive 2 extra slots for being Varium
- items receive 1 extra slot for being Seasonal-Rare
- items receive 2 extra slots for being Limited-Rare or Rare
- items receive 3 extra slots for being a promotion or Ultra-Rare
This creates a CLEAR and CONCRETE gap between Varium and Non-Varium (2 stat points per item, or a total of 8 stat points from all equipment). In addition to this, the standardization of stats based on level, rarity and item type also clearly defines this gap between P2P and F2P players. Once I clean it up slightly, I'll probably post the standard for all to see in a few days. This ensures that non-Varium won't be held back to lower level equipment (like the general lack of level 32 and 33 items for non-Variums we had in the past months) just to create an artificial gap and that gap doesn't fluctuate wildly leading to the 40+ point difference we have now.
In the long-term this will help non-Variums quite a bit. A meaningless stat buff now would have done nothing to improve the situation for non-Varium players.
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I really don't expect any of you moderators to understand any of this. You volunteer for AE, and many of you get most items/weapons free, and get to test the things we watch get delayed. Your living the high life in EpicDuel. You pretty much can have everything you want, and when you make decisions without asking all of us down here, we get mad. Then you tell us we have no right to speak out against your ideas etc. when its us who pay for this game, keep the money flowing into AE's pockets, to pay Titan and NW to make this game, so you can get all those items for free, test the releases that get delayed, and then tell us our opinions are invalid (illuminator). Do I see some bias here?
This perception couldn't be more wrong. First of all, we have 2 testers (and that number will probably grow) who are players, not mods. Being an ArchKnight doesn't get you any privileges or free stuff in-game so please don't use that argument. Their input in each release is just as important as Cindy's, Wiseman's or any other mod's input and their judgement is valued just as much; this is why they were chosen as testers. I totally understand the frustration with delays, but we're just as frustrated as you are when a release has to be delayed... we aren't just playing around on the test server when a delay happens. If you're on the test server, you have a clear job to do and set goals. It's a real responsibility, not just a free preview of the releases.
Stopping these buffs are for the players' benefit in the long-term. This lets us establish item standardization just that much faster and will lead to a whole lot of other improvements in terms of balance. I said this before, and I'll say it again here: EpicDuel's has had a lot of bandages put over its wounds, but now we have to peel them back in order to treat the true problems. In the short run, it might seem like we're making the problem worse, but there's a long term plan and goal in mind. :)
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