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I had to balance around the fact that it needed to be simple and easy to understand while not making one thing overwhelmingly good. All of the stats are individually important but none are "better" than any other. You'll also have more Str/Dex/Int to play around with to buff up your damage as I push through item changes in the coming months that will separate out the main damage stats from the other ones.

The problem is the more complex we make it the more there is to balance and the more loopholes players find because we did miss something. The other side of what you're saying is that yes, it would make the game more complex, but how complex should DF be? Should every stat have 4-6 functions like a typical RPG? DF tried something similar at the start and it didn't work out mainly because players got confused really easily.

I would have liked to make all of the stats have different secondary effects. Dex increasing dodge chance by a %, increasing your chance to Crit. (basically filling the holes Luck is patching at this point) Str decreases damage taken by %, increases the damage a crit does. Stuff like that. The problem is we would have to both increase the amount of stat points you get at any given level, then adjust the amount of all the secondary effects to scale properly both by level and by amount, then move into re-balancing all monsters accordingly. Just doing the item changes alone is a monumental task and something that's going to take me months to get through. If we actually gave stats all the effects they need it'd take years to get DF functioning in a way that works with those stats.

There's also the issue of players getting confused. Remember when Int actually increased your mana? Players were so confounded by that, along with the fact that Str and Dex didn't have similar secondary effects, along with how Mages then got a "bonus" for being a mage that neither of the other base classes got. There was more thought put into builds but it ended up confusing most of the general playing population if even the amount of people asking on the forums was any indication. Confused players make bad decisions, as is seen in AQ where a "balanced" build of chucking points into every stat is still seen today as all those secondary effects are confusing for players. That's why I simplified the damage formula's in the first place because the amount of people who couldn't do the math and just put points in because they were told to wasn't right.

If DF was akin to W.o.W. I'd agree that the stat system needs to be overhauled into having a lot more depth. Personally I'd love having a combat system that's built like that and that would allow us to design fights that do things we could never do with DF's engine. As it is I'm trying to push the boundaries in certain ways in upcoming classes along with a few bosses, but that's neither here nor there. DF has a simplistic engine that was never built for what you're asking. It was never considered at the thought you'd have more than 6 elemental resists and maybe 4 statuses at a time. The status/resistance panel is proof of that. The game was meant to be very basic to pick up but to be engaging in other ways. Half the decisions weren't based on, "the math involved with stats..." it was based on, "man this would look cool....can we make the player do X?" The game itself just can't handle that and never was intended to. Today we're already pushing the limits of what it can handle and a complete re-write is out of the question. This is something that needs to be brought up for AQ3D and those games NOW though while they are still in the planning stages. It's honestly a little late to try for DF.

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In hindsight though, the previous set-up did... inflate the three main stats usefulness where, let us be honest, to the low amount of choices that were viable,

So we're being honest about this, Str/Dex/Int in the previous setup just did what they're doing in 14.0. The only difference is the amount has changed. (Not all that much at 200 Str/Dex/Int either) It never inflated them simply because Luk and Cha were useless to even attempt to put any points into at any time for any reason. If you did anything but "Main Damage Stat / End / Wis" you just lost damage over all. The difference now is all the stats do something so they all work. Now it's just more apparently that DF's stats are more singular than other games and have been from the start.

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The only ones who would not like these balance changes are those that want to 1-hit through everything.

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The only ones who would not like these balance changes are those that want to 1-hit through everything.

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Tanks to the update, my Elemental Unity is only good for Stats. It makes WAY less damage than a standart attack

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Do not mind but why is balance so important for in this single player game for you?

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I got the feeling that these update will have a DEEP impact for wars. Dmk's are the spine at the warmonger's army (and maybe kidneys, lungs and stomach as well). With these update, a lot of them won't reach the counterbreak as they can't shred through the Waves like a titanium sledge hammer through wet toilet paper

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A game without rules isn't a game. Even the most basic of games, like Tic-Tac-Toe and Rock/Paper/Scissors, have rules. All balance is is a more in-depth set of rules for you to play by.

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I'm still onehitting my way though everything though? But that's not it it just feels like I lost a big part of myself when I see my mana just going from 1K+ to -1K :P Oh well I went though quests and still had like 200 mana left without the use of any potions or healing stuff, I guess m stats was made to adjust to exactlly this from the start as if it knew it was coming and look that way. YAY for a noob who just rnadomly looked at guides and used his own imagination instead of following them to the letter

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try it with your base class and see if you can 1 hit everything

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If you're playing the game and only want to one hit kill, pick up shiny things, and maybe watch a cutscene or two no RPG, DF included, is the right fit. RPG's are meant to make you think a little bit, to plan your actions, to defeat enemies that might be difficult. Even an RPG as open ended and lacking in any real sense of "balance" like Skyrim still has progression, monsters that get tougher as you level, and caps on things. Every game is balanced in some way, DF now actually is starting to follow the one it needs to.

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I am looking from the perspective of that class only because I like his animations the most they are simple and mostly not ranged and it looks cool.

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And the balance you did ruined the usefulness of this class for quite a few quests and it is the base class that suffered the most in this ubdate because of the lack of defense skills.

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Lets put it this way before the ubdate you did noticed that your level mattered for example the higher your level the higher your critical becomes and monsters even if they scale to you with more damage and health you still killed them in less turns(its not in the next level but in about 5 levels you see the difference). Was that not progression? There is still a difference now but you need more levels to see it. Now how was that bad and unbalanced. The fact that you fixed the guest dragon summoning exploit and wiz, luck and maybe cha stats is all good but its just seems that there is no reason to level up anymore.

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Also warrior is even weaker now and in spite the fact that I have most classes none have so good animations warrior has. Lets not forget warrior is the weakest of all base classes especially against bosses and now it became impossible to kill even more of them with it. I told you this because I am looking from the perspective of that class only because I like his animations the most they are simple and mostly not ranged and it looks cool. And the balance you did ruined the usefulness of this class for quite a few quests and it is the base class that suffered the most in this ubdate because of the lack of defense skills.

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Overall probably things are better but I am not talking overall because what happened here happened in all games I played you fix things at the sacrifice of other things and that is why I hate balance as it has to make some things worse to makes some things better.

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Balance is not really balanced and never will be

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but its probably done to improve the experience of most player but I am not one of them I just expressed my dissapointment in this ubdate and the balance it is now hoping to be one of those vocal minorities that got what they wanted.