Hey everybody. Last week the gang and I had a long laundry list of things to go over, but I didn't want to pack it all into one unmelodious story. But as Endarion alluded, there's more left in store!
Right after Aberon is restarted and the revised priest is completed, the design team will begin the next set of projects already in planning.
First, grafting bonuses will be changed considerably, to make all of them worth using. Currently, of the normal materials, the yellow ones are by far the most valuable and powerful while red and blue are neglected, even in masterful combos. By extension, the two bread-and-butter masterful combos in use are too powerful: +2 agility, and +2 willpower from a single three-slot item is too much. And incidentally, neither combo incorporates red or blue!
The design team's adjustments will involve changing the effects of single colours, balancing existing combinations against each other, and creating many new combos with a variety of attributes. The final goal is to establish a new system where the grafts will perfectly complement any and all types of heroes, without sacrificing overall efficiency (that is, grafts for all and no unbalanced grafts for any). The grafting system will be done before anyone on new-Aberon reaches level 12. This change will affect both worlds at that time, but items on Baradar that have already been grafted will not be affected.
Second, Weapons and armours need large overhauls. No bones about it, it will be a long-term project but there's no better time to get started! Certain fan favourites are eagerly sought after while some equipment is never used. Useless weapons and armour need to be removed to clean things up a bit and to make room for more useful stuff.
In weapons, two-handed weapons are of special interest. Usually slow and cumbersome, warriors tend to be better off with a pair of one-handed weapons. Only one or two exceptions come to mind. The team is looking into making them useful again; what kind of game is WoD without warriors wielding wild two-handed weapons?
Other things being looked at involve a hero's personal weapon progression (it should be more interesting than upgrading twice in a lifetime then carrying a dream weapon forever), and what each weapon type brings to the fight. Currently, most weapon types are uninspired and not all that different from each other, the main difference being damage type. A swordsman should be drastically different in a fight from an axe fighter, who should be different from a knife fighter, and still different from a fencer (and so on).
Likewise, armour needs to be more
special. Heavy armour, like heavy weapons, are planned to be made more attractive to heroes. More logical restrictions on armour (like no chain mail for jugglers, and no wimpy leather armour for knights) and class-specific armour will make loot more evenly distributed and worthwhile to find, and better define the classes.
Whew. Okay, I'm all tapped out. Regular blog installments begin soon when this deluge of news ends.
Edit: Cleaned up grammar and made corrections. Grammar will be the death of me! -_-
