By meters, I mean things that build over time, like Deconstructed Defense, Fury, and Combat Analysis. Things that raise based on hitting and being hit.
You cannot really guarantee getting hit in groups. Not hitting is one thing, and that is up to rolls. But without guarding someone, I have found it pretty difficult to build appreciable stacks of these abilities on creatures. For example, when we faught the very large mob in the recent event, I figured that I might be able to get CALLed WEAKNESS off to help out a little. But even in that five minute fight I failed to get it off.
Fury even on your own is difficult. It requires you to get hit to really build it, from what I have determined. Maybe I just have had bad luck, but I struggle to hit hit for small enough amounts that I can build the resource without taking too much damage to be sustainable.
Possible solutions:
- Increase what you get in general. Fine, but might upset the balance when working solo.
- Allow the resources to build on group members' actions, as well, too a smaller degree. I.E. Berserkers get to increase fury when they see a group membergetting hit. Guardians get to increase deconstructed defense when they see someone get attacked by a member of their group. Could even be subabilities, allowing us to build for either solo or group builds.
It's just really hard to play both of my characters in groups, because their special things don't do anything.
Meters and Groups
Re: Meters and Groups
I've noticed this, but I thought it would be a problem inherent to Combat Analysis as a duelist issue. Good to know that it's happening to other archetypes as well.
I'm not sure how I feel about it, personally. On the one hand, these abilities are so strong because they activate as a matter of need effectively-you've either proven that you are being hit a TON or are swinging a ton and still can't take something down.
That group combat naturally means you aren't doing both of these things enough to stack up abilities could just be a natural balancing factor to quite strong abilities overall, but it does feel painful to see-for instance, if I'm grouped up with a couple of allies for training, I can't really get off combat analysis and so I have a much worse hit rate than I would alone, reducing my training speed overall without a really dedicated (smash the kneecaps!) support group.
I'm not sure how I feel about it, personally. On the one hand, these abilities are so strong because they activate as a matter of need effectively-you've either proven that you are being hit a TON or are swinging a ton and still can't take something down.
That group combat naturally means you aren't doing both of these things enough to stack up abilities could just be a natural balancing factor to quite strong abilities overall, but it does feel painful to see-for instance, if I'm grouped up with a couple of allies for training, I can't really get off combat analysis and so I have a much worse hit rate than I would alone, reducing my training speed overall without a really dedicated (smash the kneecaps!) support group.
Life is like a box of chocolates. The caramel filled ones are the best.
Re: Meters and Groups
This seems fine for Guardian abilities, given Guardian's intended role as someone who, uh. Uses 'guard' to protect someone else, and thus takes twice as many beats from a given mob as anyone else in the room, since mobs (as far as I know) tend to attack at random unless controlled by a GM (in which case, they're dividing up the damage as they see fit, which is sort of a niche corner-case to worry about). If it's a fight with 15+ people in it, I wouldn't expect most abilities to function to begin with, Deconstructed Defense or otherwise, for sake of allowing a singular mob to withstand punishment for enough time to be fun and interesting for the players involved, so this may be an intentional design choice from that respect.
That said, there are abilities in the code/descriptions of other abilities that seem to do something in this vein, like Side By Side or that one similar ability Bards get, to allow for more direct automatic teamwork. Some mobs have it, like certain Canim and some mid-level bandit mobs, so the abilities are functional if perhaps not quite ready for player use (which could be something wrong with the abilities, or the abilities could work just fine, but be too powerful prior to a game-wide mob rebalancing effort; something that is fairly direly needed after other tangential factors like Meditation, Perception, Stealth, and Artifice are considered).
This is all just conjecture from what makes sense intuitively, to me, just based on experience with other MUDs and with TTRPGs (as encounter design principles overlap heavily in such a similar environment, dice-driven drama engine, etc.) based on notions of designing player-accessible tools to be applicable in a broad-but-fair range of scenarios within certain expectations. Expectations that, in my mind, don't seem to be groups of more than 3 or 4 people for most content throughout the game, with end-of-grind Fjelbeasts, Dracolins, event boss NPCs, and other GM-instantiated mobs being outside the expected, average use-case.
Just my two cents.
That said, there are abilities in the code/descriptions of other abilities that seem to do something in this vein, like Side By Side or that one similar ability Bards get, to allow for more direct automatic teamwork. Some mobs have it, like certain Canim and some mid-level bandit mobs, so the abilities are functional if perhaps not quite ready for player use (which could be something wrong with the abilities, or the abilities could work just fine, but be too powerful prior to a game-wide mob rebalancing effort; something that is fairly direly needed after other tangential factors like Meditation, Perception, Stealth, and Artifice are considered).
This is all just conjecture from what makes sense intuitively, to me, just based on experience with other MUDs and with TTRPGs (as encounter design principles overlap heavily in such a similar environment, dice-driven drama engine, etc.) based on notions of designing player-accessible tools to be applicable in a broad-but-fair range of scenarios within certain expectations. Expectations that, in my mind, don't seem to be groups of more than 3 or 4 people for most content throughout the game, with end-of-grind Fjelbeasts, Dracolins, event boss NPCs, and other GM-instantiated mobs being outside the expected, average use-case.
Just my two cents.
Re: Meters and Groups
Addendum: Maybe don't increase the gain-rate for these abilities, but consider lowering the decay-rate over time instead. That shouldn't impact solo play whatsoever, but should make larger-group scenarios less punishing on these abilities.
Re: Meters and Groups
I forgot that I did have another idea. That of making the decay rate lower, and or allowing them to carry over to mobs of the same type / similar type. At the very least, at a lowered number. That way you might not be able to get them off, or stacked very high on one or two mobs, even, but if you are getting absolutely hammered by a big group, it might help you get tempo back in the fight.