View Full Forums : The Growth Path


Panamah
08-05-2003, 11:22 AM
Might as well start the thread here, my threads all tend to end up here eventually. What can I say? I just have a knack for sparking controversy.

I'm pretty excited about SOE's LDoN announcement about those "bonus" things. If they do a good job of it, I could see it becoming THE way to get upgrades at any level of the game, whether you're raiding or dungeoning.

Raiders could get big ticket bonuses off their uber mobs while groupers could earn smaller ones.

Speculating, you could even play the game from level 1-65+ wearing your newbie armor you get from the newbie quests these days, just applying your bonuses as you earn them.

So, I think that the bonus thing addresses quite a few issues.

1) In the dungeon revamps SOE does, the loot is often just not really all that attractive to anyone that has done even light raiding. It's usually something you'd give to a high level twink or sell in bazaar.

2) What incentive, other than curiousity, would anyone have for going in these revamped places, if you're sporting pretty good gear?

3) How can you add new content that both ubers and casuals will find value in without either making loot that's hugely upgraded for casuals or else unappealing to ubers?

4) Mobs drop too much of this, too little of that. Remember how some pieces of loot, like ornate leather, drop like mad while another piece doesn't drop hardly at all (being hypothetical). If mobs drop bonuses, especially if the bonuses are configurable and can be given to anyone, you don't have this uneven distribution of stuff.

I like it. I think it's an excellent change to the game and I hope they implement it well.

Wrote a spawnweek article about it: www.spawnweek.com (http://www.spawnweek.com)

Autumn10
08-05-2003, 06:22 PM
You hope SoE implements it well? Don't hold your breath. It's an interesting concept, not sure if I like it or not it yet but I doubt it will have the breadth and depth you want. I have a feeling LDoN will either be a pleasant surprise or an utter disappointment when it comes to these new features. I'm betting on the latter.

L1ndara
08-05-2003, 09:19 PM
Well, depending on how it's implemented it can be interesting because it means ubers and non-raiders won't grow further apart in power, both can grow by the same amount.

<strong> You hope SoE implements it well? Don't hold your breath.</strong>

/agree. When has SOE not fumbled the ball and turned a potentially useful game-mechanic idea into a suck impelementation?

Panamah
08-05-2003, 09:30 PM
After I started thinking about it some today I started realizing how they and my initial exuberance wore off.

I'm doubting they'll let you stack stuff inifinitely. Otherwise, you could end up with some kind of obscene weapon. Or maybe it'll just let you add stats, and not AC or damage. :mad:

I'm betting they'll seriously limit how many bonuses you can apply to an object. So you might end up with a slight increase to a lot of different things, but you won't end up with one killer thing, unless it started out that way.

/sigh