Kavadas
Mon 16 Jun 2008, 1605, Mon 16 Jun 2008
Hi everybody!
There has been a lot of speculation lately on Skills, Abilities and Tactics in Earthrise, which we have been interested to see. It turns out the latest House of Commons raised even more questions than we had time to answer in as much detail as we liked, so we'll taking the opportunity today to clear up a little mystery about this topic.
What can you tell me about Skills?
Skills in Earthrise will not provide passive effects (in other words, things you get with little to no effort involved) that permanently affect the character and make it stronger. We believe using passive effects can unfairly favor game veterans because this creates an unbalanced situation between time invested playing and actual player knowledge.
Skill use will unlock what we are calling Abilities and Tactics. Players will have to learn how to use their Abilities and how to pair Tactics with Abilities to enhance their effects and make them more powerful in specific situations.
Basically, there's no technical difference between a player who just starts learning a new skill and a player who has mastered all the skill can offer, as long as both players do not use any of the Abilities offered by that skill. Once Abilities come into play, the more proficient player will have a sizable advantage because they will have unlocked more abilities to choose from.
In additional to unlockable Active Abilities, there will be Passive Abilities, or Abilities that once unlocked, will affect the character in a permanent way. They are very similar to passive bonuses from Skills but the amount of the bonus is flat and is not calculated based on skill value. Choosing what Passive Abilities to unlock will decide how your character's base statistics in combat (and crafting) advance.
Here's an example. As you advance in Melee combat skills, you might unlock the Physical Training Ability. This Ability might give you increased potential to advance your Physique. Passive Abilities can also stack up, so if you unlock several abilities called "Physical Training Ability", the effect could be rather important!
Just as we have mentioned that a player can learn every single skill in Earthrise, they can also unlock all the abilities and tactics. However, keep in mind your equipment will limit what Abilities are active or not at any given time. Many Abilities will be based on using specific equipment, such as your protective armor or devices installed in it. But since you can change your armor, you can also change the pool of available Abilities to you and rearrange your Action Bar accordingly.
I know, this sounds fantastic! But here's the big question "how does it work compared to other MMOs?"
We've been reading our community's thoughts very closely since we mentioned the topic in our recent Developer Chat and noticed that some people have compared Earthrise with classic MMOs where activiating an Ability is sufficient enough to receive the effect over the target.
In Earthrise only some Active and Passive Abilities will have immediate effect upon use, or will require a "mark" placed on a target (for limited auto-targeting). Instead, many Abilities will actually get only powered up when Activated, and will require to be "shot at" their targets. If the player misses the shot, then the Ability has no effect on the target. This will make even Ability-based play dynamic and not too much different from standard combat.
It may sound a little complicated, but we welcome your questions in the thread below! Please keep in mind that like all systems, things may be subject to change as the game develops.
Have a fantastic week! We look forward to your feedback and speculation.
~ m.
Original Link (http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=1362.0)
There has been a lot of speculation lately on Skills, Abilities and Tactics in Earthrise, which we have been interested to see. It turns out the latest House of Commons raised even more questions than we had time to answer in as much detail as we liked, so we'll taking the opportunity today to clear up a little mystery about this topic.
What can you tell me about Skills?
Skills in Earthrise will not provide passive effects (in other words, things you get with little to no effort involved) that permanently affect the character and make it stronger. We believe using passive effects can unfairly favor game veterans because this creates an unbalanced situation between time invested playing and actual player knowledge.
Skill use will unlock what we are calling Abilities and Tactics. Players will have to learn how to use their Abilities and how to pair Tactics with Abilities to enhance their effects and make them more powerful in specific situations.
Basically, there's no technical difference between a player who just starts learning a new skill and a player who has mastered all the skill can offer, as long as both players do not use any of the Abilities offered by that skill. Once Abilities come into play, the more proficient player will have a sizable advantage because they will have unlocked more abilities to choose from.
In additional to unlockable Active Abilities, there will be Passive Abilities, or Abilities that once unlocked, will affect the character in a permanent way. They are very similar to passive bonuses from Skills but the amount of the bonus is flat and is not calculated based on skill value. Choosing what Passive Abilities to unlock will decide how your character's base statistics in combat (and crafting) advance.
Here's an example. As you advance in Melee combat skills, you might unlock the Physical Training Ability. This Ability might give you increased potential to advance your Physique. Passive Abilities can also stack up, so if you unlock several abilities called "Physical Training Ability", the effect could be rather important!
Just as we have mentioned that a player can learn every single skill in Earthrise, they can also unlock all the abilities and tactics. However, keep in mind your equipment will limit what Abilities are active or not at any given time. Many Abilities will be based on using specific equipment, such as your protective armor or devices installed in it. But since you can change your armor, you can also change the pool of available Abilities to you and rearrange your Action Bar accordingly.
I know, this sounds fantastic! But here's the big question "how does it work compared to other MMOs?"
We've been reading our community's thoughts very closely since we mentioned the topic in our recent Developer Chat and noticed that some people have compared Earthrise with classic MMOs where activiating an Ability is sufficient enough to receive the effect over the target.
In Earthrise only some Active and Passive Abilities will have immediate effect upon use, or will require a "mark" placed on a target (for limited auto-targeting). Instead, many Abilities will actually get only powered up when Activated, and will require to be "shot at" their targets. If the player misses the shot, then the Ability has no effect on the target. This will make even Ability-based play dynamic and not too much different from standard combat.
It may sound a little complicated, but we welcome your questions in the thread below! Please keep in mind that like all systems, things may be subject to change as the game develops.
Have a fantastic week! We look forward to your feedback and speculation.
~ m.
Original Link (http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=1362.0)