Guns

[Daax]

censor what? Only thing up there that is apparently considered "bad" to you people (which I still can't understand why society thinks it can tell me what words are "bad" or not) is ass. I didn't any four letter words which frosty would surely kick me out of the forums for.

 

[Evran]

It was in my post Daax... it edited spi-ke to ****e. I fixed it so it was legible.

 

[Daax]

oh...well...*gives Evran a wet willy and runs off*

 

[Evran]

eeewwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!

 

[milamber]

Anyone ever play "Arcanum: of Might and Magic Obscura"? That was a cool game that mixed magic and technology. It would be pretty neat to do that in a full fledged RPG. But it was complicated to implemented because magicians just "got" new spells as they went up levels and technologists had to find plans and parts for everything. Kind of an unlevel playing field for an MMO.

 

[Evran]

FFXI (as do most FF titles) mixes technology and magic too I would definitely call that a fantasy RPG. Their solution to evening the playing field was to make it hard for everyone to gain their good abilities, through either high price spells and equipment or constant shelling out for items needed to use those abilities. This did balance it to a degree, but only by making it hard for everyone. And as the ecomony gets more and more out of whack, it just gets worse.

 

[Furtivus]

Na guns just would not fit the story line besides if guns are input to the game I believe that the game will become unbalanced between the classes and then the nerf thing will start.... One class after another etc..

 

[QuantumWire]

As far as I remember in one of the sneak-peaks, the one with the ships, they said something about no black-powder-powered guns being present in the game-world. There was something about... wait...

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/656/656190p1.html

Being that there is no gunpowder, I've used more primitive firing power like the ballista and crossbow. The cannons in the lower deck are armed with magical crystals, and are a force to be reckoned with when faced with battles on the high seas.

So, Daax, maybe the local equivalent of Santa Claus will bring you a hand-gun shooting "magical crystals" if you are a good boy.

 

[Jaraeth]

Na guns just would not fit the story line besides if guns are input to the game I believe that the game will become unbalanced between the classes and then the nerf thing will start.... One class after another etc..

Don't forget, Simu has stated they are not after "class balance"... so expect unbalance right from the start. They're after "fun" and realize unbalance is going to happen due to it

~ Jaraeth

 

[Daax]

I guess I'll have to suck it up and learn to use a blade.

 

[QuantumWire]

Don't forget, Simu has stated they are not after "class balance"... so expect unbalance right from the start. They're after "fun" and realize unbalance is going to happen due to it

~ Jaraeth

A short comment on that (that subject probably deserves a seperate thread (or maybe it already has one, too lazy to check right now)):
I think that it is a good idea to rate "fun" higher than "balance", since then the game-master can tailor the abilities of the character classes after what their concept of the class is, not after what is possible without upsetting the balance.

Of course, some degree of balance is always needed:
1) No class should be heads and shoulder above (or way below) the others.
2) Every class should be useful in a group
3) With "unbalanced classes" effective countermeasures against griefing need to be implemented (such as an option for players to stay out of PvP)

Of course, there are going to be complaints in the forums. But then again there always are in any case.

 

[HJ-Navarre]

It is not a deal breaker for me, but I dislike Guns in my Medeival Fantasy games. I tolerated it in WoW but I am very happy they won't be introducing Guns to Elanthia.

Guns cheapen the use of melee weapons. Unlike bows and slings, guns are also effective at close range. Why even bother with your blade when you can just shoot your opponent? I am reminded of the scene in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' where Indiana Jones is confronted by the sword-weilding assassin. After an impressive display with the sword, Jones merely rolls his eyes, pulls out his pistol, and shoots him dead.

 

[Shadow001]

I've got a lot to say in the "fun vs balance" issue also.

I don't know how it is in Dragonrealms, but in Gemstone there really is no PvP aspect. Hell, I'm not sure Simu has ever dealt with PvP in any of their games aside from Cyberstrike..If they're going to downplay PvP in HJ then they really don't have to 'balance' the classes in the sense we're probably all thinking about. If there's a high element of PvP (and there probably has to be to make the game competitive) then balance is necessary..otherwise 80% of everyone is going to play the imbalanced class.

 

[Evran]

I don't know how it is in Dragonrealms, but in Gemstone there really is no PvP aspect.

DR has PvP, but its not the focus of the game. The mechanics were simply put in place to allow players to combat eachother. Simu has flat out said that PvP is not their motivation when adding new developments to the game. They may tweak something here and there to fix a grossly overpowering ability. But PvW is definietly the focus.

What this means in terms of balance in DR is that there's no need to make sure two characters are evenly matched regardless of their class. And since every character has its own way of succeeding in the game, PvW balance, with respect to differences between the classes, is also not really a valid aspect either.

Its hard for me to imagine a mesh of the traditional MMO "everything must be balance" approach with the DR "as long as each character has the abilities to succeed everything is ok" approach. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.