Xendran
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There are a lot of really odd interactions and bandaid fixes in epicduel that make the balance incredibly out of whack compared to most games you see.
There are a few examples of this I'd like to mention.
1. Flat values on damage reduction
Because of this, each point in damage reduction is more valuable than the last, because reducing a hit from 100 damage to 50 is 50% reduction from +50 defence, whereas reducing a hit from 500 down to 450 is only a 10% damage reduction.
This is also what allows values to get so extreme that a minimum damage value needed to be set. It is also the reason for its bandaid fix: Rage.
2. Easy access to healing, but usually fast matches
This, combined with the extreme effects of the previous problem cause matches to swing in length wildly. While length variety is not bad, the swinginess is quite extreme in this game.
Because of this, each class needs to be able to manage energy, and effectively have infinite of it.
3. Too much skill overlap, not enough skills.
Increasing the amount of skills and allowing players to customize their skill trees allows for much greater variety.
This also allows a different kind of control over the balance of skills, and encourages a much more even balance over the skills as a whole.
Skill overlap when forced upon the player feels boring and samey, allowing players to overlap skills as a chioce is more interesting. Especially when the skill pool is large.
This leads into...
4. Weapons are overpowered
Weapons simply deal too much damage in comparison to skills. Weapon Buffs are a new type of skill that should be introduced that are required to bring your weapon up to par with using a skill. Different from regular buffs, these buffs apply specifically to your weapon only.
5. Linear scaling on effects
Most notably, block. This suffers from the exact same problem as flat scaling on defence and resistance, but is not compensated for by the current manual diminishing returns.
going from 30 to 35% block is better than going from 10 to 15% block.
This is because..
6. Stats are not logarithmic
By using logarithms (I find base 10 works very well), diminishing returns are handled naturally, rather than having to be forced at certain thresholds.
7. Energy control is too common and too similar
Rather than have energy control skills running rampant, stats should be designed around skills at certain levels being used in builds with certain amounts of Energy.
Each class should start with enough energy (accounting for any effects such as regeneration or reduced cost) to kill the opponent in an average number of turns, minus a few weapon attacks.
Limited amounts of energy control and healing can be introduced to extend or manipulate the course of battles.
8. Equipment is meaningless
You can make equipment more meaningful even if they all share the same damage.
Some options that can combine well with cores:
- Give different weapons different ranges of damage, but the same average range.
- Give some weapons lower base damage, and compensate for it with effects such as critical strike chance or defence piercing.
9. Grind is far too extreme, level ranges can be separated better
Decrease the overall effectiveness of levels, but introduce powerful passive skills at certain brackets of levels. For example 10, 20, 30 and 40.
Your level range can now be within 5 levels, but not outside of your bracket (0-9, 10 - 19, 20 - 20, 30- 30, 40)
Greatly increase the speed at which you reach the level cap.
Everything from level 1 to 39 is simply teaching you how to play the game, getting you ready to compete in the endgame by gradually introducing new skills, options and strategies over time through the levelling system.
It is similar to preparing and learning a deck in a card game, then finally using it in ranked play.
It should not take anywhere near as long as it does to get to this point, and it discourages players from making multiple classes and experimenting.
While I'm sure some players will say this will discourage the sale of class changes, class changes would still be much faster, and there is another aspect to consider:
10. Still too much pay2win, not enough cosmetic microtransactions.
With players having more characters, that's just even more characters for players to customize.
There should be a far greater emphasis on cosmetics in microtransactions.
The best looking equipment should be varium only (but not any stronger).
There should be no paid timed exclusives. Simply not fair.
Offer an extended armour colour palette for a price. Perhaps further restrict the available free palette.
Offer back and head cosmetics such as capes, wings, backpacks, shoulderpads, exclusive helmets, glasses, hairstyles, facial hair, tattoos, etc.
Offer cosmetically enhanced versions of preexisting armours. Create a new version of an existing armour with identical stats but an updated look, and offer it for varium only.
Varium can still be used as a shortcut to getting weapons early, but players should still be able to afford a single full set of fully ugpraded gear for their level at every level. Varium should allow you to have further equipment sets, allowing early experimentation.
Sell pets that do nothing, but permanently accompany you in battle.
Sell the option for one of your robots to be your pet.
Sell the option for your robots and pets to occupy your house.
There are so many ways to monetize without ruining the integrity of the pvp, and actually enhancing the experience of the game.
< Message edited by Xendran -- 3/1/2016 10:09:18 >
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