Can we get the reasoning behind Changes

[Kintaii]

Why does MP pets get a rewamp but crat pets stay the same? Is their a significant difference between these pets?

ALL pets are getting a revamp. We've said that on several occasions.

[Boltgun]

You can see a pattern in these changes :
- Buffs and debuff not stackable
- Roles more spread with more profs available for one thing
- Different timers for pvp and pvm
- Less dependence on buffs for some professions
- Generally adding more means of damage on profs who had to rely on cookie cutting
- Replacing band aid fixes with actual stat content

And so on, I don't have my notes on hand right now.

[Punfixa09]

Gimps die too fast
KTHXBAI

[cacat]

AO is a very special beast.

I am a firm believer in balancing according to the VERY BEST, the CREAM OF THE CROP, for each profession.

This was not done in the case of LE and we got that mess, overtime, it has changed somewhat.

Balancing according to the select few that push it to the limit, may seem like a weird choice at first, but just keep reading.

If person A is a power gaming, who pushes his characters to the limit squeezing everything possible to the extreme and person B is just an average bloke who wants to use an average setup and won't push for those extra 3-5-20 points in certain segments, we have a problem.

Assuming that everyone is like person B and balancing around it, will make person A that much better compared to everyone else.

You don't know the limits of the profession unless you push it to the limit and balancing around the average will make those few that DO push it to the limit, immensely powerful.

[Obtena]

I don't think it's a problem Pala, especially if it's a mass player setting or people aren't limiting themselves exclusively to duels and other 1 vs. 1 situations. The powergamer advantage is significantly lost when people take advantage of teams, etc...

[Varalea]

no problem with that in my opinion, let there be some guys, with too much spare time, that can be awfully good with their toon, thats just their fair reward, for investing more time into the game than others
sounds just fair to me!

in other words: please balance around the "average(tm)" player and everything will be fine

[GCBacon]

Why does MP pets get a rewamp but crat pets stay the same? Is their a significant difference between these pets?

Probably because it's no fun having your DD/heals/CC disabled w/1 button, if it hasn't gotten stuck on some object due to poor pathing. Plus endgame heals/CC are so subpar it makes baby Jesus cry.

[quieter456]

ALL pets are getting a revamp. We've said that on several occasions.

Are you ever going to tell us how they are being revamped? Or when?

[drakio]

Are you ever going to tell us how they are being revamped? Or when?

No!

[lainbr]

Are you ever going to tell us how they are being revamped? Or when?

In rebalance. Soon(tm)

[TheNilvarg]

The reasoning behind the changes is "PvP whiners cried that they got killed by this class, so let's nerf the class into oblivion in PvM".

[lizor]

in other words: please balance around the highest statistics you want us to have, set a proper curve to reach that level and everything will be fine

Fixed that last part for you =)

[Marketplace]

I'm curious too.

Whats the actual process that leads to different choices in balancing?

• Is it discussed at a table?
• Is it tested on a private server to some degree?
• Has it been put aside for other things?

[McKnuckleSamwich]

You'd think they would maintain some standard.

but, the last changes clear show there was a double standard.

Apparently the AS pistol and pistol perks were designed with EVERY CLASS EXCEPT advy wearing CC, and advies wearing DB armour. So, obviously, they had to make advies REALLY strong to compensate.

OFC, get that to live and advies it turns out don't wear DB armour, and umm, well you know the rest.

Hopefully means can afford a set of CC when he's testing his advy this round.

[Gunfytr]

Advys wear SS....or at least most do.

[seithan]

QFT.



this is true, however, I only did the basic calculation to indicate the approximate number of permutations based on breed/profession. Doing this whole calculation would be seriously annoying, as you might know, if you're sharp enough to pick up that the math is wrong.

The idea is generally, that there are a shytton of permutations, and theres no way to calc all of them easily, but, thats only the base char abilitys, not to mention the what 90 different skills, to boot, then ad in all the permutations of buffs, auras, and OSBable buffs, THEN add in team mates, and all possible encounters, your teammate's Debuffs, perk debuffs, your own debuffs, and the encounter's own buffs, then, add in armour, weapons, etc.. I'll tell you right now, that, the full number of permutations which COULD be possible, is close enough to infinity that for all intents and purposes, it IS infinite.



ahem. Fully apologize. I missed nanogimps.

Hence Man should never try and play God.. Try to fathom infinitum and you will find yourself bleeding from all holes.

[fortorn]

220 levels, 70 researches, 30 AI dings, 14 profs, 3 breeds.

220*0.2 (PVP limit up and down in level)*70*30*14*3)^2 = 1.5e13 different combinations of prof/research/AI level/breed/prof.

Thats not including ANYTHING to do with armour choices.

To the OP: Do you really think FC is going to balance according to:

"Well, a level 192 NT wearing a level 150 peregrine can get 1400 AR, and will probably need more AR vs level 154 agents using a QL 175 Ithaca with three pieces of AI armour and half his research done and RI running."

About the most detailed you'll ever get is BROAD approximations and possible methods of adjustment on overall survivability and offensive prowess.

This is why its important to have at least a few game designers and tinkers play the game... for fun. They change things without knowing why looking at numbers, not the tactics or the gameplay.

[Dreamcypher]

All I see on the forums from the devs is that we're changing this and this and this. Can we get your reasoning behind the changes and what you believe would happen by changing XXX and how it would impacts professions that rely on XXX and so on.

It's not enough to state a change and allow us to debate on it without letting us get an idea what's going on in your head.

It'd make sense actually... AO is the kind of game you get really invested in. Devs being old players, kind of beautiful.

Personally... I'd absolutely love "sitting in" on a dev talk. It would be *too* awesome. Perhaps a recorded meeting that they could post to youtube, where we can parttake in the reasoning behind the changes, etc. Hell, even a pre-patch live-stream. I remember the folks running City of Heroes did that. It's hard to argue or discuss stuff without a clear picture of why it was introduced in the first place.

[Psikie]

DISCLAIMER: im writting this with my droid phone so im not spell checking or using correct punctuation

rebalance reality, i think the course of the game from outset, has been well defined roles for all proffs with specialties. tank/heal/dd/support- all classes fell into those 4 categories. add in sl/ai/le and those roles all became more blurry. adv can be any of the 4 now, and most proffs "can" fit at least 2 roles now. rebalance i think will make all profs able to do all 4 on a sliding scale. AO has always to me been a game of total customization of toons. cookie cutters have no vision because of course there is the min-max factor. but ive always liked doing things like 1he/sneak attack agent or froob MA engi. each expansion allows more and more customization or uniqueness if you want to try it for fun/challenge and arent trying to min-max your toon. so that being said, imagine if you will a 4 pt system to rate each prof.
easy examples:
enfo 1.tank, 2.dd, 3.support, 4.heal.
doc 1.heal, 2.support, 3.tank, 4.dd.
mp 1.support, 2.heal, 3.dd, 4.tank.
sol 1.dd, 2.tank, 3. support, 4.heal

now obviously these are not hard rules but some profs like advy can focus on having priority in dd/tanking/heals/support switched around depending on setup rather easily. so my guess is that the rebalance will allow all profs to make those type of decisions.

example enfo will always have 1 rating in tank, so a team of 6 enfo could have a support/tanks and dd/tanks. some choices will make very generalized roles. however if you wanted a heal/tank enfo you better have a lot of support or dd in your team to compensate for the fact enfo is rated 4 in heal.

now i could be pretty spot on or totally off base with these assumptions but its my 2 cents or take on the "Why" of the rebalance. with lower player base it allows more content to be done without waiting on specific toons to log on. you can sub 2 mp for 1 doc or 2 keep for enfo etc. the more DD you have the less heals you need or the more support you have the less tank you need. you will be able to compensate for team difficiencies by over compensating in other areas. and it gives more value to each PLAYER because you can build a team blindly with 5 and plug in 1 extra support/dd to make up for what your team lacks. if you have 5 engineers you could plug in a advy/ma/keep/mp (secondary healers) instead of doc because bots will be dd/tank.

[Colawrenn]

Somewhat related questions: Didn't FC used to have big IRC Q&A sessions? Do they still happen?
If this could happen like once a month and be moderated nicely so important questions and opinions were heard, well that would be swell.
Seeing some of these changes does make me worry about how the game is gonna look when rebalance hits. (Though I am genuinely worried that there will be no population left at that point). Seems it's gonna be a completely new game.