| |
 | |  |
 |  | And, To Finish the Week, Your Grab Bag |  |
|  | Posted By: Sanya Thomas | 2002-10-18 20:04:34 |  |
| |  | 
Very short this week –
Q: I was wondering if you’d ever consider adding a spell at level 50 to (insert spell line here). It sucks that there is no point in speccing to 50 or taking the line past 47.
A: What you’re seeing here is a design decision. We wanted to allow people the option of not taking a skill all the way to 50, to give them room to try a more varied spec if they chose to do so. So, not all the lines have a “50th” spell. But speccing to 50 DOES do something – it increases your damage range and average. So, you decide – is that little extra edge in damage worth it to you, or would you rather use the 147 points for something else?
Q: When each realm has an equal number of keeps, how is the “tie” broken for control of Darkness Falls? Do the battlegrounds have anything to do with it?
A: Nope. The battlegrounds have no effect on anything outside their borders. Darkness Falls defaults to whoever had been winning before it was a tie.
Q: In an old Grab Bag, you said that empathy did nothing for a bard, that only charisma mattered in terms of our power pool. I’ve tested this out, and while it is true that only charisma affects our power pool, empathy definitely affects something – the amount of direct damage we can do! Do you have any plans to change this so that our damage and our power are affected by the same stat?
A: You are absolutely correct, your damage is affected by empathy. I’m sorry my earlier answer was incomplete. There are no plans to make any changes at this time based on testing and feedback.
Q: Why is evade not affected by either dual wielders or large weapons when block and parry take penalties against them?
A: It was a design choice; not right or wrong, just evade is not included in the calculating formulas.
Q: New classes, new races, old classes, old races, where are the details as to which combinations we can enjoy?
A: Delayed yet again. =( This week had some other topics take a great deal of time this week (see the earlier Herald post about the tradeskills :)) for the person who is writing out that class/race combo document. Also, there are some other details we’re still working out. We don’t want to tell you a class and a race can combine if we turn out to be unable (or for whatever reason, unwilling) to do it.
(I know this is the second delay, and I regret that. Please understand that when I’m writing this column, it’s the end of a week – and sometimes we get a little optimistic in terms of we can finalize in the next week. I feel bad when this happens, but all I can do is keep you posted.)
Q: I just have a question on the dueling system – will people get realm points for duels? Is there any benefit to winning?
A: The only benefit to duelists is a good time. Well, that and to satisfy your offended honor ;)
Incidentally, a good time is all you should expect from a duel – we will not look at dueling results during any discussion of class balance. The classes in your own realm were never intended to stack up against one another in a toe to toe battle royale. Some classes aren’t built that way, some classes need the element of surprise or first strike, etc. Just letting you know in advance – enjoy your duels for what they are, and don’t try to interpret the results too much.
There is one exception – if you’re just measuring damage numbers (my spell lands for this much when my opponent is wearing this kind of armor) I will be willing to look at your logs. Just don’t send me something “proving” this class is “better” than that class, that’s all.
My, what a week. The grab bag will be longer next week, that’s for certain. I have a little stack of topics I had to put a hold on while I waited for verification, and so next week’s column will have those answers as well as a full complement of new questions. Thanks for your passion and excitement, as always. A special nod and smiley emoticon to the players who hang out at the DAOC Tradeskills forum for such good discussions =) Be safe, be well, be victorious in battle!
|  |
| |
|  |
| |
|  |
| | |
Herald Features
Game News
