NDB -> My suggestions (6/14/2018 18:00:26)
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The following are my ideas for a better EpicDuel. Some suggestions may come off as being very specific. A few may be unrealistic/impossible at this time. But the idea is what counts. Game Features 1. Leaderboard All-time Experience leaderboard. We already have Rating, Influence, and Fame, so why not? 2. Bot prevention Mandatory battle captcha. Random rearrangement of skill placement each battle to deter pre-determined auto mouse clicks. Perhaps more full-time moderators. 3. Changing class Credit-only option to permanently unlock a class, similar to unlocking a hairstyle, for, say, 250000. Once a class is unlocked, players can “retrain” to that class for a small fee of, say, 1000 Credits. 4. Skill Cores Option to buy a permanently unlocked (reusable) version of a Skill Core for a high price (say, five times the Credit price or two times the Varium price) so that the core can be equipped to an unlimited number of weapons. Under the current model, cores are lost when replaced by a new skill core, making it unreasonably expensive to test new combinations. This will allow players to freely unequip and re-requip cores without having to pay unreasonable amounts of Credits/Varium each time to re-buy cores. If the above is implemented, then skill cores locked to Rare weapons (e.g. Curse on Delta weapons) should automatically be permanently unlocked for the players who own them so that an option can finally be made to remove these cores from their original weapons without losing them forever. If the above is implemented, then, for fun, a new category of Achievements can then be made for each Skill Core a player has unlocked. For example, a player who permanently unlocks the Frost Shards Skill Core will unlock the corresponding “Frost Shards” Achievement on their Skill Core Achievement page worth, say, 500 Rating. Rare cores, Varium-only cores, and Endless cores can be worth slightly more ratings. 5. Legendary Ranks Additional rewards for higher Ranking players. Currently, Legendary Ranks are beneficial for PvP up until Rank 80 and the last Legend-exclusive shop unlocks at a mere Rank 50. Moreover, Ranks diminish in their usefulness at high Ranks for all builds (a Strength build, for example, has little use Robot Damage and minimal use of Auxiliary Damage and Gun Damage so will only really benefit until Rank 50) whereas the Underdog bonus does not. (A Rank 50 is not more powerful than a Rank 200 player when fighting a Rank 1 player even though the Rank 1 player receives a far greater Underdog bonus when fighting a Rank 200 than the Rank 50.) To help solve some of these imbalances and to give high ranking players an incentive to continue ranking up, I propose a new Legendary shop. This shop will unlock at Rank 100 and sell a series of Armor Skill Cores granting stat bonuses, purchasable by Rank. For example: - Legend I (purchasable at Rank 100): +2 Str / +2 Dex / +2 Tech / +2 Supp (This is the same as Eternal Enhance.)
- Legend II (purchasable at Rank 125): +2 Str / +3 Dex / +3 Tech / +2 Supp
- Legend III (purchasable at Rank 150): +3 Str / +3 Dex / +3 Tech / +3 Supp
- Legend IV (purchasable at Rank 175): +3 Str / +4 Dex / +4 Tech / +3 Supp
- Legend V (purchasable at Rank 200): +4 Str / +4 Dex / +4 Tech / +4 Supp
- Legend VI (purchasable at Rank 250): +4 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Tech / +4 Supp
- Legend VII (purchasable at Rank 300): +5 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Tech / +5 Supp
- Legend VIII (purchasable at Rank 350): +5 Str / +6 Dex / +6 Tech / +5 Supp
- Legend IX (purchasable at Rank 425): +6 Str / +6 Dex / +6 Tech / +6 Supp
- Legend X (purchasable at Rank 500): +6 Str / +7 Dex / +7 Tech / +6 Supp
6. Achievements Evolving Achievements for battle record based on the current “rank” system. Example scaling: - Rookie (1 wins): 50 Rating
- Fighter (11 wins): 100 Rating
- Soldier (51 wins): 200 Rating
- Veteran (151 wins): 300 Rating
- Warrior (301 wins): 400 Rating
- Champion (1001 wins): 600 Rating
- Hero (2001 wins): 800 Rating
- Warlord (5001 wins): 1000 Rating
- Commander (10001 wins): 1500 Rating
- Emperor (25001 wins): 2500 Rating
- Grand Emperor (50001 wins): 4000 Rating
- Legend (100001 wins): 6000 Rating
- Epic Legend (250001 wins): 8000 Rating
- Eternal Legend (500001 wins): 10000 Rating
- Demigod (1000001 wins): 15000 Rating
Increase cap for evolving War Achievements. Example scaling: - 750000 Influence (tier 13): 7500 Rating
- 1000000 Influence (tier 14): 10000 Rating
- 3500 Super Items Used (tier 11): 4000 Rating
- 5000 Super Items Used (tier 12): 5000 Rating
Increase cap of Epic Stylist now that so many new hairstyles have been released. Example scaling: - Epic Stylist IV (unlock 100 hairstyles): 3000 Rating
- Epic Stylist V (unlock 200 hairstyles): 5000 Rating
Non-evolving Achievement for capturing War flag. Perhaps 2000 Rating. Also, consider adding a count in Factions for their number of flag capturesss. Non-evolving Achievement for bank space, similar to Epic Hoarder. 7. Arcade Tokens(/War Prizes) As per the massive Arcade Achievement tier increase last update, it makes sense to add a permanent free-player method of obtaining Arcade Tokens besides the occasional daily mission or the 3-week War rotation such as a 1-5% battle drop, which has been suggested previously by another player. This will serve to create an incentive to play during War Cooldown as well as gratification for players who wish a return of some sort of item battle drop system. It will also serve to make the Arcade Achievements more similar the War Achievements which, currently, represent, for the most part, time spent playing but reward less ratings. Consider adding more Influence tiers to Wars that reward more Arcade Tokens and/or Credits. Alternatively, make the Arcade Token and/or Credit reward be a factor of a player's total Influence at the end of the War, such as 1 Token and 1000 Credits per 5,000 Influence gained. Alternatively yet, consider making new tiers of Arcade Tokens, e.g. "Silver" and "Gold" Arcade Tokens that guarantee a Silver or Gold prize when used, either as exclusive rewards for reaching very high Influence goals or placement on the Total Influence Leaderboard at the end of the War. As an example, the player who places first on the Total Influence Leaderboard could be rewarded one "Gold" Arcade Token; places 2-3, 3 "Silver" Arcade Tokens; places 4-10, 2 "Silver" Arcade Tokens; and places 11-20, 1 "Silver" Arcade Token. 8. Bosses Legendary Nightwraith boss! First non-mage Legendary boss. Similar to Titan; Legendary version will have the same skills and skill levels as the normal version with the exception of Reroute. The only difference will be buffed Health (20k), Energy (20k), and stats. Balance (Ideas to be tested) 9. Class Skills Bounty Hunter Smoke Screen: Increase scaling from 2 to 3 Dexterity points per level. Debuff skills are greatly underpowered at higher levels (but not necessarily at lower levels) due to diminishing returns. Static Grenade: Lower the base number, but add player level scaling similar to other skills. This skill is overpowered in the lower levels but becomes underpowered at higher levels, even with high Support. Reflex Boost: Re-implement some sort of Reroute buff, perhaps similar in mechanics to Blood Commander. The two classes that have it (Bounty Hunter and Blood Mage) are very limited in their control of Energy compared to other classes, which has rendered them the two weakest classes in PvP at least since the last balance change. Massacre: Consider adding a 30% health gain to make it on part with Super Charge and Surgical Strike. Currently, the skill is not useful enough as purely a damage skill and is clearly underutilized by both hunter classes. If this change is made, Energy cost can be slightly increased if needed. Venom Strike: Lower Poison damage by 20-30 at all levels; increase damage from 85% to 100%. Poison skills have the potential to be too powerful for their relatively small energy cost, both in the low levels and high levels. This will also counter the rise of Poison-based hunter builds should Static Grenade and Massacre be buffed. Tech Mage Plasma Bolt: Increase Energy cost by 20 points; reduce base damage by 10 points. Since the last buff, this skill has become far too powerful relative to its Energy cost. Technology-based Tech Mage builds, particularly non-Focus types, are in need of nerfing, especially in the low levels. Malfunction: Increase scaling from 2 to 3 Technology points. Debuff skills are greatly underpowered at higher levels (but not necessarily at lower levels) due to diminishing returns. Battery Backup: To counter the changes to Static Grenade, Energy Parasite, and Assimilation, buff by, say, 10-20 Energy points. Plasma Rain: Increase base damage by 11 damage and level scaling by 1 to be on par with Multi-Shot. To compensate for lower energy cost, add Staff requirement. Assimilation: Slightly decrease the base number (say, by 10-20) and slightly lower the Strength scaling. Tech Mage Energy control is a tad much for all builds, even at lower levels where Assimilation outclasses the likes of Static Charge and Static Smash. At high levels, the Assimilation on Strength Tech Mages is obscene in its ability to drain more than Static Grenade and Static Smash while still inflicting damage. To make up, all Strength builds can be buffed using a different approach. Fire Scythe: Lower scaling from 20 to 10 Energy points per level. The high base cost is justified because the skill is unblockable and turns Primary Damage into Physical type but the 20 Energy increase per level is not. Mercenary Double Strike: Remove percentage-based damage bonus in favor of a consistent number. All percentage-based Strength skills (Massacre, Berzerker, Bludgeon) are in dire need of reworking as they are severely underpowered when playing in the low levels where Primary Weapon Damage contributes a disproportionately low amount of the total Primary Damage. Example scaling: - Level 1: 20 More Damage
- Level 2: 30 More Damage
- Level 3: 40 More Damage
- Level 4: 50 More Damage
- Level 5: 60 More Damage
- Level 6: 70 More Damage
- Level 7: 80 More Damage
- Level 8: 90 More Damage
- Level 9: 100 More Damage
- Level 10: 110 More Damage
With this scaling, the damage bonus at Level 40 will decrease (current = 42% at max = +147 Damage with +350 Primary), but will be far more balanced in the lower levels. To compensate for the lower damage, make the skill less redundant with other Strength skills, and buff Strength builds, it can be made unblockable and/or scale with Support. Blood Commander: Decrease health gain factor from 75% to 65-70%. The health gain is far overpowered as a support build and/or when facing low defense builds. Maul: It does not make sense for a skill to increase in Stun chance. This is inherently luck-based (no guaranteed benefit for a steep increase in Energy cost) and is flawed in that Stun chance can be decreased relative to opponent’s Support. A better idea is to swap the defense-ignoring aspect with the Stun chance. For example: - Level 1: 10% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 2: 13% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 3: 16% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 4: 19% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 5: 22% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 6: 25% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 7: 28% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 8: 31% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 9: 33% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
- Level 10: 36% Defense Ignored, 25% chance to Stun
This will make the skill similar to Cheap Shot, except with a 25% Stun rather than Critical chance. To make them more on par, the Energy cost of Maul can be changed from 100+20/Level (280 at Max) to 160+10/Level (250 at Max). To make the Mercenary class more interesting, the Defense Ignored can scale with Dexterity, say, +1% every 5 points. Mercenaries currently have no Dexterity-based skills and a disproportionate number of Strength skills. Adrenaline Rush: Lower Energy cost by 20-30 at all levels. Cyber Hunter EMP Grenade: Increase cooldown to 4 turns and/or increase Energy cost by 20 at all levels. It does not make sense to have both Energy control skills (Static Charge and EMP Grenade) have a 3 turn cooldown. Bringing the cooldown to 4 turns will make it easier for other classes to find opportunities to escape infinite drain loops in battle. Alternatively, the base Energy cost can be increased to 110 such that a single use of Static Charge with the Support of a 5-Focus build (typically, 58-9) or less will not grant enough energy to use both EMP Grenade and Field Medic, making it harder for Cyber Hunters to create infinite drain loops. Malfunction: Increase scaling from 2 to 3 Technology points. Debuff skills are greatly underpowered at higher levels (but not necessarily at lower levels) due to diminishing returns. Plasma Armor: Decrease Energy cost by 10 at all levels. Venom Strike: Lower Poison damage by 20-30 at all levels; increase damage from 85% to 100%. Poison skills have the potential to be too powerful for their relatively small energy cost, both in the low levels and high levels. This will also counter the rise of Poison-based hunter builds should Static Grenade and Massacre be buffed. Blood Mage Reflex Boost: Re-implement some sort of Reroute buff, perhaps similar in mechanics to Blood Commander. The two classes that have it (Bounty Hunter and Blood Mage) are very limited in their control of Energy compared to other classes, which has rendered them the two weakest classes in PvP at least since the last balance change. Plasma Rain: Increase base damage by 11 damage and level scaling by 1 to be on par with Multi-Shot. To compensate for lower energy cost, add Staff requirement. Energy Parasite: Remove percentage-based energy steal in favor of a consistent number. This will maintain the uniqueness of the skill while making it far more useful and reliable in PvP, although it will be controversial for NPC fights. For example: - Level 1: Drain 10 Energy, Gain 10 Energy
- Level 2: Drain 20 Energy, Gain 20 Energy
- Level 3: Drain 30 Energy, Gain 30 Energy
- Level 4: Drain 40 Energy, Gain 40 Energy
- Level 5: Drain 50 Energy, Gain 50 Energy
- Level 6: Drain 60 Energy, Gain 60 Energy
- Level 7: Drain 70 Energy, Gain 70 Energy
- Level 8: Drain 80 Energy, Gain 80 Energy
- Level 9: Drain 90 Energy, Gain 90 Energy
- Level 10: Drain 100 Energy, Gain 100 Energy
Tactical Mercenary Double Strike: Remove percentage-based damage bonus in favor of a consistent number. All percentage-based Strength skills (Massacre, Berzerker, Bludgeon) are in dire need of reworking as they are severely underpowered when playing in the low levels where Primary Weapon Damage contributes a disproportionately low amount of the total Primary Damage. Example scaling: - Level 1: 20 More Damage
- Level 2: 30 More Damage
- Level 3: 40 More Damage
- Level 4: 50 More Damage
- Level 5: 60 More Damage
- Level 6: 70 More Damage
- Level 7: 80 More Damage
- Level 8: 90 More Damage
- Level 9: 100 More Damage
- Level 10: 110 More Damage
With this scaling, the damage bonus at Level 40 will decrease (current = 42% at max = +147 Damage with +350 Primary), but will be far more balanced in the lower levels. To compensate for the lower damage, make the skill less redundant with other Strength skills, and buff Strength builds, it can be made unblockable and/or scale with Support. Frenzy: Consider making unblockable. Mineral Armor: Decrease Energy cost by 10 at all levels. Field Commander: Not an easy fix, but clearly needs a buff. A creative change could be to make it also grant ~15% Damage Reduction. Battery Backup: To counter the changes to Static Grenade and Energy Parasite, buff by, say, 10-20 Energy points. Atom Smasher: Lower Energy cost by 20 at all levels; perhaps increase drain percentage by, say, 5%. The Energy exchange of this skill is far underpowered, even at Level 1. When playing in the low levels, it is possible for the skill to drain less than its cost. Toxic Grenade: Lower Poison damage by 20 at all levels. Poison skills have the potential to be too powerful for their relatively small energy cost, both in the low levels and high levels. 10. Skill Cores Armor cores Generator: Increase base to +100 Health/+100 Energy, but reduce Armor scaling from +20 to +10. This core is disproportionately weak at lower levels. Piston Punch: Increase base to 100 Energy steal/+100 Energy, but reduce Armor scaling from +20 to +10. This core is disproportionately weak at lower levels. Tranquility: Opposite of Generator in that it is far overpowered in the lower levels but not particularly good at higher levels. Should change to operate as a percent of current Rage points. The current formula for Rage points, according the EpicDuel Wiki is 400+25/Level, so a reasonable model would be ~40% of current Rage points. At full Rage, a Level 1 player would gain 170 Health; a Level 40 would gain 550. Compare this to a constant 500. Armored Roots: Far underpowered versus the default opposition (Generator or Piston Punch). Buff to 50%; increase duration to 3 turns. Chairman’s Fury: Why is an Armor core dealing 85% Primary damage? Change damage to 15%, like Piston Punch. Buff Rage steal to 100% to make it a more competitive choice versus Generator and Piston Punch. Nanosteel Armor: Buff to, say, 12%. Overshield: Buff to, say, 15%. Primary cores Frost Shards/Frostbite: Reduce damage from 100% to 85%. Energy Storm: Buff to 25%. Curse: Reduce Energy cost to 100. Buff to, say, 40%. Growth Serum: Reduce Energy cost to 100. Buff to, say, 40%. Omega Override: Buff to, say, 35%. Baby/Dark Yeti Charge: Buff to 20 points. Sidearm cores Energy Shot: Buff to 25%. Pacify: Currently, the way that Rage works, the core is often useless (i.e. the opponent gets Rage in the same amount of turns that they would of or, at most, only one turn later). Change this core to immediately reduce the opponents current Rage by, say, 50%. Laser Sights: Buff to, say, 12%. Auxiliary cores Concussive Shot: The random factor of this core is silly. Change to always put the target's highest skill into cooldown. If need be after this change, Energy cost can be slightly increased. Salvage: Reduce Energy cost to, say, 90. There is no reason for this core to be as costly as it currently is. Laser Sights: Buff to, say, 12%. Robot cores Infernal Android: Decrease turn bonus to 3% each turn (increase base from 85% to 91% so that it is still usable on fourth turn); reduce max damage to 115%. Assault Bot E/P: Buff to 85%. As a creative idea, could consider adding some sort of heal effect. (Dark) Botanical Borg: Buff to 90% against two targets. Baby/Dark Yeti (Warrior): Buff to 80% damage. Omega/Pink/Golden (Baby/Dark)Yeti: Buff to 90% damage. Blood Hawk: Consider reducing duration to 2 turns. Pyro Fly: Consider changing to place the top three skills on cooldown rather than disabling one of them. Azrael’s Borg: Buff to 85%; perhaps, even 100%. Bio Borg: Change to reflect 50% all attacks. Reduce duration from 3 to 2 turns. Ballistic/Electro Bunny Bot: Change to function on all attacks. Change duration to 1 turn. (Dark) Botanical Hazard: Consider buffing, but make it a 1 time use. Bot is a serious issue with pure Technology based Tech Mages and Cyber Hunters. In order to buff pure Technology builds (all of which are clearly underpowered), a different approach should be taken (see below). 11. Stats/Mechanics Stun: Consider changing it to reduce target’s Rage by, say, 50% instead of forcing the target to skip a turn. Animation can still be the same. Strength: Slightly increase scaling. Weapon stats: As a creative idea, consider adding class-specific requirements to Smoke Screen, Mark of Blood, Malfunction, Bludgeon, Assimilation, Intimidate, Adrenaline Rush, and Frenzy--essentially all skills involving the Primary weapon except fundamental Energy gain moves (i.e. Static Smash, Static Charge, Energy Parasite). Currently, far too many builds are not reliant on class-specific weapons. Moreover, players are deterred from using builds involving skills that require class-specific weapons because they have lower stats. To make things interesting, the stats of Swords can be increased much further as compensation. As a creative, but possibly extreme, idea, change Focus Bonus to increase the damage of all attacks by a small amount rather than control Robot damage such that it becomes independent of Technology. Then, buff the Technology scaling of Robot to be on par with Sidearm. This will make Technology builds far more viable without indirectly buffing Focus builds in the same way Dexterity builds become more viable after the Sidearm was moved to Dexterity. Moreover, it does not make sense that all stats improve by 1 point increment (each upgrade has an effect) whereas Focus is by every 5 points. To condense these ideas, here is a bullet point summary of the proposed change: - Focus no longer improves Robot Damage.
- Technology scaling for Robot Damage and Robot item damage bonus now mirror Dexterity scaling for Sidearm Damage and Sidearm item damage bonus, respectively.
- Focus bonus threshold begins at 35 Strength, Dexterity, Technology, and Support points instead of 25; Focus Level increases by every 1 point graduation in each stat instead of every 5 (max. level = 25, or 55 stat points).
- Focus bonus = +2 Primary, Sidearm, Auxiliary, and Robot Damage per Focus Level (at Focus level 25, would be +50).
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