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=ED= March 22, 2019 - Status Report

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3/23/2019 9:43:58   
One Winged Angel1357
Member
quote:


March 22, 2019
Bunnyzooka-Bunn-anza!

Status Report
One major project I've been planning to implement is the return of Passive skills to the skill trees. I'm very close to having the logistics ironed out for this project but I will need some programming advice to make sure nothing breaks. Changing Passive skills to Active skills was a major change that took a long time to implement so it shouldn't be surprising that reverting the change is taking longer than anticipated. Some of the Passives no longer exist so they must be recreated. Plus, modifying the skill trees is a complicated process that is very unforgiving. It's possible to break every character in the game with small mistake! No pressure, right?

Next week, I will be traveling to visit family so I there are no updates planned for next week. I know that's a bummer, but I haven't taken a real break since...

Hmmm...

I don't remember. Anyway, I should return ready to tackle this major project to restore a bit of what you loved about the old battle engine. Hopefully, we don't prove the old saying true, "Be careful what you wish for..."

Now where did I put that Gamma.exe?

Another issue I'd like to address is the speculation of plans for EpicDuel's future. In the near term, I've been able to secure additional help with creating art assets to make meatier releases. The increased attention EpicDuel has received also motivated HeroMart to restock old merch and create new merch. I've noted people expressing fatigue with the weapon releases, but developing new or restoring old features is mostly beyond my capabilities alone. Many of the new features you've enjoyed have been due to snagging snippets of Titan's time for consultation or development. Larger features that require days or weeks are trickier as he has regular obligations to AQ3D. It's frustrating, but Titan's new role comes with less autonomy than he enjoyed as the EpicDuel lead. That's part of the tradeoff when you sign up to work for a company rather than running your own business.

What about EpicDuel 2? ED2D? EDBR? I see people demanding these new projects enter the pipeline constantly, and I agree with you! You don't have to convince *me* that EpicDuel is awesome and deserves an awesome future. I don't need convincing, but I don't have the autonomy to greenlight a project. As I understand it, the plan is to use AQ2D as a basis for converting the Flash games to Unity. Why does AQ2D get preference? AQW is much, MUCH bigger than EpicDuel. Even at EpicDuel's peak, it was orders of magnitude larger by nearly every metric. For those of you clenching your fists like the Arthur meme, note I said bigger, not better. Big is big. If that weren't the case, why on earth would EpicDuel only have one dev? That said, EpicDuel's players are some of the most enthusiastic and devoted fans of all the games, and that doesn't go unnoticed. I love our humble little PvP game, but I understand the rationale, especially when working with limited resources. I can't build the game on my lonesome as I've tragically dumped all my stats into art and charisma (obviously).

What I can do is continue building on EpicDuel, creating new releases, updating balance, and adding features whenever I can. It's in my interest, and AE's interest to see EpicDuel thrive, contrary to claims of sabotage I've seen. I've lashed myself to the mast of this project for over a decade and I really don't know what I'd do beyond it -- a scary thought that's kept me up many nights, but maybe that's a nudge toward better personal development. I'm 100%, full-time EpicDuel and plan to continue for as long as you'll allow it.

That's what I know at this current moment. That knowledge is always subject to change based on news I hear from on high, and I'll certainly update you all when that happens. I won't tease a project before it's 100% official. Thank you for your patience. If you're frustrated, know that it's mutual, but I aim to make the best of the present situation.

Duel On!

Tags: Nightwraith




I felt that this design note was important enough to break into two different posts as they would generate two very different kinds of conversations from the community. You can find the other half here



Have merged your 2 posts on this thread together to avoid double posting, but agree that these design notes should be separate so tagged and bagged ~ Tanky

< Message edited by TankMage -- 3/24/2019 19:56:29 >
AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 1
3/23/2019 10:33:56   
8x
Member

A good step towards simmering down the player frustration with large quantity of unwanted/useless weapons, would be to completely forget the concept of E/P weapons. Stop making doubles of everything. The concept of E/P in most cases limits you to two base colours. And that makes everything look bland. And I'd suggest to keep AQW imports to the bare minimum, I have a feeling that most ED players don't want to see anything AQW related in ED.

Edit: And please don't just add years to the weapon names... Like the Ghoul Cannon 2019 you have stashed in the item finder.

< Message edited by 8x -- 3/23/2019 10:35:52 >
Epic  Post #: 2
3/23/2019 10:58:36   
One Winged Angel1357
Member


 There was talk awhile back from NW about returning to the original idea of physical and energy weapons being thematically different. Energy weapons being high tech gear and physical weapons being modern day or primitive gear would be fun to go back to.
AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 3
3/23/2019 13:06:55   
sippingcider
Member

I love that this guy is still working on the game, even if it isn't as popular as it used to be! Thanks a lot Nightwraith, seeing that it is still being worked on has gotten me back into this game!

I also like the idea of returning old passives. I have started to grow fond of the energy ones, but I really miss hybrid armor and reroute. I wonder how much the skill trees and other skills will have to change to accompany the old passives?
Post #: 4
3/24/2019 16:48:14   
dfo99
Member
 

 spirit meld don't in fact remove anyone armor, it is free full mana restore lol..
Post #: 5
3/27/2019 22:44:25   
Xendran
Member

Passives need to be tied to a resource that isn't the same as active skills. If you have them use the same resource, there is no reason not to play a level 1 bunker / plasma cannon / whatever other skills are good and spammable at low levels build with all passives maxed. Having them use the same resources instantly kills any builds that need to use a high amount of skill points, because they cannot max their passives.
AQ DF Epic  Post #: 6
3/30/2019 12:21:36   
Remorse
Member

Loved reading this post nightwraith.
I think you're spot on when you say your game has managed to build a very devoted fan base (even if it's small).

There is something about epic duel that scratched a creative itch that I've found very hard to find anywhere else.

The plan of bringing back passives is definitely something that interests me.

The game certainly lost its charm for me around the time they were removed from the tree.

That said I don't think the removal of passives was the games only issue.

It's very hard to pinpoint the exact problem that caused ED to lose it's charm. It may be the case we are blaming passive removal as the games biggest problem and it turn out to be not the underlying issue.

Maybe something to ponder is perhaps it was the oversaturation of active skills that has caused ED to lose its charm for me.

Reasoning being, I remember playing back in the day with passives,
A lot of the strategy was about tracking the opponent's options and playing to their weaknesses.
For example, say your opponent used one of their sources of phys damage and they had no other sources off cooldown for a few turns. You could then use energy sheild and punish your opponent dramatically.
It seems to be the case with the oversaturation of actives, is that players lose their weaknesses. There is not as much tracking required because your opponent will always seemingly have sources of both damage types. This is just one of the many ways it seems punishable weaknesses have been phased out of the game.

I'm not exactly sure if this is the game's problem. I just can't help myself come back to the forums from time to time and add my two cents because I really want the game to succeed.

Good luck with the future.




< Message edited by Remorse -- 3/30/2019 12:31:29 >
Epic  Post #: 7
3/30/2019 12:43:35   
8x
Member

^I think that's spot on. Back in the days you had limited stats and very few attack options and that made battles more interesting. Now you have so many cores and extra enchantments... I remember being so annoyed when they added robots, because it made Intimidate just a bit less useful than Smoke Screen and Malfunction.

Also one feature that I've always disliked and feel like it was a bad idea, is the class change. Before it, you picked a class and had to stick with it. Everyone cheered for their own class in the balance threads and if one of the classes had an OP build, the other classes had to adapt.

< Message edited by 8x -- 3/30/2019 12:44:38 >
Epic  Post #: 8
3/30/2019 13:04:55   
Remorse
Member

^
Just to add more onto that, I don't want to seem like I'm saying cores/enhancements are always bad. Or that extra actives shouldn't be added.

I guess I'm saying more care should be made to ensure builds (and classes) can't do everything.

I guess that's part why passives were liked. Because they added clear unqiue strengths to the classes but the weaknesses were they didn't have the unique strengths other classes had.

More care should be made about giving access to the strengths that should be unique to specific classes.

Also when making other actives. It should be considered how it would add to the options regarding damage types. Players should not have too many sources of each damage type at any given time.



< Message edited by Remorse -- 3/30/2019 13:07:49 >
Epic  Post #: 9
3/31/2019 14:10:18   
dfo99
Member
 

 it took sometime but i finally get the concrete proof, remove myself from the screenshots because i am not an attention you know what..

https://i.imgur.com/ylnQxAt.png
https://i.imgur.com/GSRuWs2.png
https://i.imgur.com/44VWppu.png

as you can see, i strike the opponent with 527 minimal primary dmg and inflict 202 melee dmg, his max def shows 262 - 120 + 111 - 55 = 198
but 527 - 198 should inflict 329 as minimal dmg possible... the difference between 329 - 202 is actually nearly the 111 from hybrid armor, suggesting there was not anymore dmg by spirit meld use...
making it free full mana restore..

i actually lost a match to this guy due his survival by 12 hp, but i don't go this build because soon it will be fixed..
Post #: 10
3/31/2019 14:48:26   
  Exploding Penguin
Moderator


 Bringing back passives is a welcome change.

One of the things that kept me updated with the game's frequent releases in the past (used to be weekly) was that we didn't have the customization options for gear stats back then. So, whenever new equipment was released, it was always an excitement to look at their stat requirements and stat modifiers. The release of some weapons like charfade's claws were exciting back in the day because back then, there were no physical claws that gave a very high tech, which is just what I wanted in my BH focus build. Or perhaps a weapon that gives a lot of support without a high strength requirement (which was fairly rare back in the day so when a weapon that fit that description came out, it was something I really wanted to grab to do more build testing). It would probably be too much to bring these back since the stats for every single piece of gear would have to be reassigned, most likely manually, but that was part of why I enjoyed early phases of ED a lot and religiously played it while excitedly waiting for the weekly patch notes.
Epic  Post #: 11
3/31/2019 16:33:46   
Cataleptic
Member

quote:


One of the things that kept me updated with the game's frequent releases in the past (used to be weekly) was that we didn't have the customization options for gear stats back then.

This is one thing that should really be brought back to the game. Builds are broken more than over right now with all these single stats spamming and taking and regenerating energy for the majority of the match.

A lot of the players appreciates all the work Nightwraith has been putting into the game, and hopefully in do time this is another thing we can get back to the game.
Post #: 12
4/1/2019 2:33:44   
Remorse
Member

@Exploding Penguin.

Completely agree. I remember specifically enjoying going through each store and considering each piece of gear because everything had unique set stats.

There was also powerful stats gear but with low damage like Mjolner. These weapons were great for stacking a particular stats but came with the disadvantage of low base damage.

An unfortunate loss of this system is stat stacking now has less downsides like this.

Stat stacking is not something that should ever be removed from the game. But it should always have enough disadvantages to keep them balanced.

Epic  Post #: 13
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