Armor/Weapon Rebalancing Ideas

[fightingferret]

Hello, all!

I have been looking into several aspects of the current armor/weapon system. I have looked into spell crafting and runic crafting, as well as damage increase limits. I have asked for access to the armory here on the shard, or simply put, the locations where all the artifacts and several other "nifty" things are kept. I'm looking forward to investigating Tartarus and seeing what challenges await us there. I have been thinking about this for some time and would like to gather opinions and information here, so everyone can look at it and discuss it.

If you wouldn't mind I'd like everyone interested in helping enter the following information:

STATS
------------
Strength
Dexterity
Intelligence

SKILLS
-------------
Primary Offense Type: Archery, Fencing, Macing, Swordsmanship, Wrestling, or Magic (Magery, Necromancy, and Spell-weaving) and the level of that skill
If weapon user: Do you use Lumberjacking (Axes), Bushido, Chivalry, and/or Parrying
Weapon User: Do you make use of weapon special abilities?

If Magic User: Do you use Evaluate Intelligence, Spirit Speak, and/or Inscription

Items
-------------
Favorite Weapon Type - please include a brief reason why
Armor Type Primarily Used (None, Leather/Leaf, Studded/Hide, Bone, Dragon Scale, Ring, Chain, Plate/Woodland) AND (Looted, Crafted, Artifact, Runic or Spell-crafted) - again please add a short reason for your choice


Lastly, please enter something you are concerned with in the current armor/weapon system and/or something you would like to see changed or ask questions you would like answered (please limit them to armor/weapons, as I don't know the meaning of life, if there is other intelligent life in the universe, or where you left your car keys)


Disclaimer:
I can't promise anything will actually come from this, as I have no part in actively running or administrating this server. I just like that the staff is willing to work with us as the player base and seem interested in fixing some things or making our time here a bit more fun.

Thank Yous:
So I'd like to thank Amairgen for his time and effort in creating, maintaining, and improving this shard. Also, thanks to Illistyl, my partner in testing so far... He has actually tested a bit more than myself, and has been very friendly and open to my suggestions with both his time and resources. And a special thanks to everyone who has played here and everyone who helps us with ideas, data, or actual testing.

[fightingferret]

Stats:
------------
Strength - 133
Dexterity - 143
Intelligence - 65

Skills:
-------------
Primary Offense : Archery (110) / Necromancy (100)
Lumberjacking - No, Bushido - Yes, Chivilry - Yes, Parrying - No
Weapon Specials: I do make use of the double shot on my primary bow, but I don't select my weapon based on specials, nor do I change weapons often for different specials
Magery: Evaluate Intelligence - No, Spirit Speak - Yes, Inscription - No

Items:
-------------
Favorite Weapon - Taxus Longbow - Simply put, it out damages every other weapon currently in game and has a greater range than most other bows
Armor Used - Exceptional Daemon Leather Armor - Daemon hides are easy to collect, give 70's in all resists with a 5 to 6 piece suit and they allow me to use meditation. Further more I am in the process of adding specific
enhancement from spell crafting to further increase the usefulness of this suit. My biggest complaint is that leather has poor durability (~ 40).

My complaints: There is no difference in the material types other than higher is better, which equates to higher damage/resists. There is no reason to use anything other than leather, it is light weight, allows meditation,
70's resists, and is very easy to craft exceptionally. Same thing with weapons, I have them made exceptionally with runic hammers (platinum/mythril), as hammers are the easiest of the runic tools to find.
Most high end materials can give over 100% damage increase (I have a sword with 137%) also runics have the advantage of being able to achieve enchantments that spell-crafting isn't allowed to imbue (mainly leeches).
My next biggest gripe is the proliferation of archery... almost everyone is an archer or has one ... I tried to melee for a time... against normal mobs I was fine, but against special enemies or bosses,
I was usually one shot killed, so the answer was archery, which also brings with it the weapon with the highest damage output.

What I'd like to see: I'd like to see every material matter and some reasons for the use of heavy armors over leather. I'd also like to see melee warriors be viable with archers in terms of damage...
which is the result of one particular weapon at the time... as most other bows have no where near the damage potential.

[Amairgen]

I support this effort fully and hope others will respond. When I turn my eyes to the balancing project I would like to do it well informed and to the benefit of all.

Thx for this
*bows*

[fightingferret]

OK... I THINK I understand who this is supposed to work...I'll use tradium as my example:

hci = hit chance increase
ssi swing speed increase


Tradium General -- Gives the idea of what the ore type is for... macing seems to get a hci with a lesser ssi, swords are an even combo of hci and ssi, and fencing gives faster ssi and a lesser hci
ArmorLuck = 10 -- Is this per piece? So a full 6 piece tradium suit would give 60 luck + what ever other luck increases you had.
ArmorLowerRequirements = 100 -- Tradium doesn't require any minimum stat requirements but the others (except iron) all DECREASE the standard requirements
ArmorMage = 0 -- I'm taking the 0 to mean there is no mage armor property initially thus no meditation
ArmorDurability = 100 -- durability is 2x that of iron (others are between 100( iron) and 200 (tradium) percent)
ArmorPhysicalResist = 11
ArmorFireResist = 8
ArmorColdResist = 8 -- the resists for ore go up with the higher level materials [iron (13) , dull copper-copper (18), bronze-agapite(23), verite-silver(28), platinum-mythril(33), tradium(43) ] *
ArmorPoisonResist = 8
ArmorEnergyResist = 8

WeaponSwingSpeed = 12 -- gets a 12% bonus
WeaponHitChance = 12 -- gets a 12% bonus
WeaponDamage = 64; // = 100% -- looks like damage was raised and the varying levels only give a partial of the max (where is damage increase that we currently have in place?)
WeaponDurability = 100 -- against 2x the durability of normal iron

RunicMinAttributes = 8; -- min # of additional attributes able to be added to material (is this going to change spell crafting?)
RunicMaxAttributes = 8; -- max # of additional attributes able to be added to material (are these for the runic crafting items or the material itself?)
RunicMinIntensity = 90; -- percentage base of the max (lower)
RunicMaxIntensity = 100; -- percentage base of the max (higher) - so if the max for an attribute (per piece) was 20 the least tradium could be created with is 18 and it could get the max of 20

There are a few questions in the notes on these... basically I am just wanting to understand the system so I can possibly help test it and give appropriate feedback.

[Amairgen]

Okay . . .

I have spent the last day or so working on the resource properties for crafting Armor and Weapons. Several changes have been made in an attempt to balance these items with each other and also with our world/monsters.

I have tested these and like what I see. However it takes actual playing to tell the whole story. Please try these out and let me know what you think. I am open to doing some fine tuning where required.

Also changed are:
1) Runic Tools - no more Leech properties (that could come back if need be but at lower levels)
2) Plate Armor carries a Dexterity penalty
3) Leather Armor has reduced resistances
4) Taxus Long Bow has been 'tamed'

Note: The changes should not affect existing items - but would be nice if it did.

[fightingferret]

It changed existing armor... I'm not sure about weapons... but my taxus longbow bow now has 10 range and it had 12. We're going to look at it a bit more tomorrow when we get access to a legendary smith.

[illistyl]

So lets get this right....

We'll be getting a dex penalty of -7 (0.35 sec bandage speed) for wearing plate armor and also lose life leech on new runic made weapons.

A mage can now wear gold plate and get no penalty that hinders them in any way.

Does this not put the balance in favor of archers, mages and tamers?
Would it not be better to add class benefits to the armors instead of penalties, to encourage the different classes to use different armor types?

Also, we need more information on AR.

[fightingferret]

All has been restored to normal... and round 2 with player testing will be coming soon...

[Amairgen]

Sept 23, 2013 2:10:30 GMT -8 illistyl said:

So lets get this right....

We'll be getting a dex penalty of -7 (0.35 sec bandage speed) for wearing plate armor and also lose life leech on new runic made weapons.

A mage can now wear gold plate and get no penalty that hinders them in any way.

Does this not put the balance in favor of archers, mages and tamers?
Would it not be better to add class benefits to the armors instead of penalties, to encourage the different classes to use different armor types?

Also, we need more information on AR.

As was stated - everything was returned to normal while some things were being considered. I was hoping to create a few custom samples of how the new weapons might work so those could be tested by players in a special area. That is still a possibility but I have found there are some other issues that need to be dealt with on a broader basis first. It is those I am focused on now before I change the properties inherent in Resources.

Let me say this:

1) Leech Life 'may' remain on Runics but at lower amounts and not to be used against other Players (only against monsters) as I feel it messes with PvP.
2) There has always been a Dex penalty associated with Plate armor. The scripts originally called for -8 Dex on a plate chest. That will become -2 instead.
3) I was proposing the Mage Armor property be added to the Gold Ore resource (that does not have to happen). If it did happen - Please bear a few things in mind:
- Mages wearing Gold Plate would also have a Dex penalty and would not be getting the Mana Bonus that will be added to Leather Armor.
- Spellcrafting lets crafters add the Mage Armor property to any armor
- Spellcrafting lets Mana bonus and Dex bonus be added far higher than any penalties being proposed.


Regardless of any changes coming to Resource properties I can say this:
- Melee weapons (other than bows) will notice a Damage bonus against harder Monsters (not players).
- The Taxus Long Bow will be tamed. It will be replaced by a new version of the Taxus Long Bow and the old ones will no longer be repairable.
- Generally, without nerfing Archers we need to have Archers and Melee players on more equal ground. I do not want to fore Melee players to become Archers.

We still have a long way to go but my time is now focused on this aspect of our development. Completion of Tartarus and the releasing of final map files will wait until we are relatively happy with weapons and armor.

[Ravenclaw]

Sept 23, 2013 16:01:27 GMT -8 Amairgen said:

Let me say this:

...
Regardless of any changes coming to Resource properties I can say this:
- Melee weapons (other than bows) will notice a Damage bonus against harder Monsters (not players).
- The Taxus Long Bow will be tamed. It will be replaced by a new version of the Taxus Long Bow and the old ones will no longer be repairable.
- Generally, without nerfing Archers we need to have Archers and Melee players on more equal ground. I do not want to fore Melee players to become Archers.

We still have a long way to go but my time is now focused on this aspect of our development. Completion of Tartarus and the releasing of final map files will wait until we are relatively happy with weapons and armor.

I know we are beating on the archers because of the taxus bow so I just wanted to add a point to keep in mind for the archer..

"... (uo2.stratics.com/skill-guides/skills-and-professions/bushido/the-samurai)
Archery –
Archery and Bushido can be good together, in fact a lot of archers make great use of Bushido. However, archery has one major drawback; parry does not work with it. This means that any parry based moves will never work for your archer, ever.
..."

I wonder is there are already other inherent defensive drawbacks to being an archer?

[Ravenclaw]

Ok .. So I was wondering what all the caps were so I went and looked it up on UOGuide.com. I'm not sure if these are all accurate for UOML and or applicable here but I figured it would be a good place to start.

Here are the CAPS I found. Feel free to suggest any changes to this list.

Defense Chance Increase (DCI) - 45%
Hit Chance Increase (HCI) - 45%
Swing Speed Increase (SSI) - 1.25 seconds
Hit Lower Defense (HLD) - No Cap (chance to hit)
Hit Lower Attack (HLA) - No Cap (chance to hit)
Damage Increase (DI) - 300% Total; 100% from items; 200% from buffs (See UOGuide >here<)
Faster Cast Rcovery (FCR) - 6
Faster Casting (FC) - 2 (for Mage & Necro); possible 4 with buff from secondary skill (see UOGuide >here< )
Lower Mana Cost (LMC) - 40%
Lower Reagent Cost (LRC) - 100%
Luck () - No Cap (3982 = 100% chance to find better items)
Hit Point Regeneration (HPR) - 18 (but Horrific Beast gives 20(?) see UOGuide >here<)
Mana Regeneration (MR) - 18
Stamina Regeneration (SR) - 24
Reflect Physical Damage (RPD) - 250%
Spell Damamge Increase (SDI)
- PvM: No Cap
- PvP: 15% up to 30% with buff by secondary skill

Also thought that this might be a good resource as well as it lists all the items properties and where they are found and they range they have.

ITEM PROPERTIES
>www.uoguide.com/Item_Properties<
Hopefully this helps.

[Amairgen]

This is a complicated thing because properties are added/adjusted/managed by the system in several ways.

The script controlling Resources:
1) Adds certain properties that will be seen when items are crafted
2) Adds Min/Max Intensities that impact properties added by Runic Tools

In addition to Harvested Resources having inherent properties/controls, we also have Spellcrafting and the Runics mentioned above.
(UOT also has Disenchantment allowing more flexibility to crafters using Spellcrafting)

In response to Ravenclaw and to clarify the state of things on UOT, I am posting the following table.

Note: These things are open to discussion but nothing that moves us toward 'Uber' will occur.

Property Name	OSI Intensity Range	UOT Spellcraft Range	UOT Runic Tool Range
Cold Resist	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	1 - 15%
Damage Increase	1 - 50%	1 - 20%	1 - 20%
Defense Chance Increase	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	1 - 15%
Dexterity Bonus	1 - 8%	1 - 3%	N/A
Durability	1 - 255	N/A	N/A
Energy Resist	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	1 - 15%
Enhance Potions	5 - 25%	5 - 10%	N/A
Faster Cast Recovery	1 - 3	1 - 2	N/A
Faster Casting	1	1	1
Fire Resist	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	1 - 15%
Hit Chance Increase	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	1 - 15%
Hit Cold Area	2 - 50%	N/A	N/A
Hit Dispel	2 - 50%	N/A	2 - 20%
Hit Energy Area	2 - 50%	N/A	N/A
Hit Fire Area	2 - 50%	N/A	N/A
Hit Fireball	2 - 50%	2 - 15%	N/A
Hit Harm	2 - 50%	N/A	N/A
Hit Life Leech	2 - 100%	N/A	2 - 15%
Hit Lightning	2 - 50%	2 - 15%	N/A
Hit Lower Attack	2 - 50%	2 - 20%	2 - 20%
Hit Lower Defense	2 - 50%	2 - 20%	2 - 20%
Hit Magic Arrow	N/A	2 - 15%	N/A
Hit Mana Leech	2 - 100%	N/A	2 - 15%
Hit Physical Area	2 - 50%	N/A	N/A
Hit Point Increase	1 - 5	1 - 6	N/A
Hit Point Regeneration	1 - 2	1 - 2	N/A
Hit Poison Area	2 - 50%	N/A	N/A
Hit Stamina Leech	2 - 50%	N/A	2 - 15%
Intelligence Bonu	1 - 8	1 - 6	N/A
Lower Mana Cost	1 - 15%	1 - 6%	N/A
Lower Reagent Cost	1 - 20%	5 - 15%	N/A
Lower Requirements	10 - 100%	N/A	10 - 80%
Luck	1 - 100	5 - 25	1 - 100
Mage Armor	Y/N	Y/N	N/A
Mage Weapon	(-20) - (-29)	1	N/A
Mana Increase	1 - 8	1 - 6	N/A
Mana Regeneration	1 - 2	1 - 2	N/A
Night Sight	Y/N	Y/N	N/A
Physical Resist	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	1 - 15%
Poison Resist	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	1 - 15%
Reflect Physical Damage	1 - 15%	1 - 10%	N/A
Self Repair	1 - 5	N/A	N/A
Slayer	Y/N	Y/N	N/A
Spell Channeling	Y/N	N/A	N/A
Spell Damage Increase	1 - 12%	1 - 10%	N/A
Stamina Increase	1 - 8	1 - 6	N/A
Stamina Regeneration	1 - 3	1 - 2	N/A
Strength Bonus	1 - 8	1 - 6	N/A
Swing Speed Increase	5 - 30%	5 - 15%	5 - 25%
Use Best Weapon Skill	Y/N	N/A	N/A
Add Elemental Damages	N/A	N/A	Y/N

[Ravenclaw]

Sounds like fun (not) ... Seriously you need to stop working so hard and play a bit.. *grins*

I just posted some of the default 'caps' from UOGuide as reference. Sounds like you have your hands full with the customizations though.

[illistyl]

Are these the values we've been using or planned values?

[Amairgen]

Sept 24, 2013 14:04:45 GMT -8 illistyl said:

Are these the values we've been using or planned values?

These are the values currently on the Server. The changes to the ResourceInfo file have not been made (they were pulled out for review)