Observations And Improvments.

[Freelance 3]

What should be balanced.

 

        Archery - I used hunting arrows & willow bow on a pig, (both of above 20ql) and scored 2,5-3,4 DMG               changing to war arrows(>20ql)  made dmg 3,0-3,5.  Shouldynt it be more damaging ? Morover when i used longspear 18ql  i scored 6,2 dmg minimal. It seems that bows / arrows are cute addition but rather useless, especially that "shooting" time takes as long as 10s compared to 4s of atack timer of spear. 

       Fences - Crude fence takes same amount of planks shafts and nails, only differnce is visual apearance,  make it craftable with pegs instead of nails.

add new fence -

low palisade  use logs instead of felled trees, since palisade vary in height from 5-15feet. Craftable logs, shafts and pegs.  

Roundpole fence  both low and high roundpole uses same amount of materials...strange.

       

        Houses - it was mentioned before, a log cabin would be nice to see. It can be made like a palisade. 

                       & crude lock made of peg, and holes.(visual effect).

        Trash bin - make it fuctional not only to get rid of stuff. While filled with organic material it should yled fertilizer (yup mentioned before).

             Rare tools - should yeld a rare chance apart from increased QL Yet therefore QL raise should be equal to 1+ 1/10 of rare tool ql. (to make it more balanced - less skill gain while using rare tools)

        supreme 2+1/10(t ql)  legendary 3+1/10(t QL)

Other -

New trees

Walnut - nuts and good amount of decent wood.

Chestnut - nuts and yet therefore best wood for fishing rods and bows. (yes... willow is a fragile wood due to short wood fibres - i studied landscape architecture and actually never slept on dendrology classes.

Lindenwood - linden flower tea (harvestable) soft and easy to carve wood + it would require wood sculpting (totems and statues and other decorations attachable to walls /altars and so on.

Fir tree - good construction wood, and fir  cones - sprout replacment and fuel especially good for ovens.

Moss - Moss instead of marsh should expand quickly.  Marsh should apear onlny on tiles partially sumbergeged (unattended reed farrms) Moreover peat shoud also player made, dropping dirt on moss, it should turn to peat after some time.

Affinity - i must admit i got worst affinity ever - gardening.  It would be nice to have affinity allow f2p players extend their skill above 20. let say 10 points per one star(yet therefore only one star of affinity should be avaiable per skill).

[Jerrywalker 16]

+1 to some of that but skills capped at 20 for freebies on purpose - if affinity will raise skill and be like BC or Masonry they will got premium features for free.

P.S. you forgot baskets boxes and bast-shoes widely made from linden bark. And water infusion of chestnut shell was used for tanning of hides (now we can only use lye for that)

Edited July 28, 2013 by Jerrywalker

[Freelance 3]

Um well ok give it +5 instead of +10. cos in that there will be real use of affinity.  Actually, acorns and "tanin" made from it was widely used as a leather working component too especially british leather was made by keeping hides in tanin tanks for even few months.

Apart from that i would add wood shoes (dutch and japan style) 

BTW having a basket would be cool... container for non-liquids . 

Moreover a shelf would  be nice addition.

[Pottis 60]

Want to get higher skills then 20? support the game and go premium.

 

sigh, whats wrong with people these Days.

[Freelance 3]

Want to get higher skills then 20? support the game and go premium.

 

sigh, whats wrong with people these Days.

ugh... reading is one skill understanding it... it as i see  is more difficult.  now affinity system is pretty usless.. get 10% skill bonus.  If you are clever enough to make yourself a shed and a bed after some time you will get double skill gain. So this 10% is rather invisible. Apart from that i plan to pay soon. Its all about this nothing more nothing less just  give the affinity real value.

[Jerrywalker 16]

Um well ok give it +5 instead of +10. cos in that there will be real use of affinity.  Actually, acorns and "tanin" made from it was widely used as a leather working component too especially british leather was made by keeping hides in tanin tanks for even few months.

Apart from that i would add wood shoes (dutch and japan style) 

BTW having a basket would be cool... container for non-liquids . 

Moreover a shelf would  be nice addition.

 

 

The trouble is about 21 body control to ride horses ;  20.10 mind logic to command a large cart and sail boat ; 21 body strengh to destroy objects - this all is premium features so if affinity will raise skill cap for at least 1 level most players will just get them for totally free.

 

P.S. how would you like newby players who doesn't payed for premium even once but able to destroy half of your work in 1 day just because "it's funny to smash" and they don't fear of ban because they have nothing to lose ?

Edited July 28, 2013 by Jerrywalker

[Freelance 3]

The trouble is about 21 body control to ride horses ;  20.10 mind logic to command a large cart and sail boat ; 21 body strengh to destroy objects - this all is premium features so if affinity will raise skill cap for at least 1 level most players will just get them for totally free.

 

P.S. how would you like newby players who doesn't payed for premium even once but able to destroy half of your work in 1 day just because "it's funny to smash" and they don't fear of ban because they have nothing to lose ?

Ok, this seems to be an issue.  After brief re-thinking the problem. Afiinity could raise QL od items made with that skill, or increase rarity chance (or both my favourite)  In this version it will have real benefit and wont let noobs have premium features... 

[Vroomfondel 1,128]

ugh... reading is one skill understanding it... it as i see  is more difficult.  now affinity system is pretty usless.. get 10% skill bonus.  If you are clever enough to make yourself a shed and a bed after some time you will get double skill gain. So this 10% is rather invisible. Apart from that i plan to pay soon. Its all about this nothing more nothing less just  give the affinity real value.

 

10% skill bonus is a benefit, albeit a small one.  But affinities were created for pvp, as you can collect affinities from players you defeat, and collect up to 5 affinities on a single skill, resulting in a 50% skill bonus.

 

You will never get anyone to agree with anything to give f2p a bonus of any kind, so let that idea go.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Vroomfondel

[Hussars 511]

Ok, this seems to be an issue.  After brief re-thinking the problem. Afiinity could raise QL od items made with that skill, or increase rarity chance (or both my favourite)  In this version it will have real benefit and wont let noobs have premium features... 

I'd still say no to this idea as well.  Maybe allows for +1% [or some other small increase] (up to the max 99%) base chance to create, but not an increased chance to make it rare or better, or create at a higher QL.

 

General Feedback:

I've not replied previously because I'm trying to word this to not come off as rude/flaming/etc... so I will likely need to reword this a few times...

 

While your view/opinion as a new player is just as valid as anyone else and can provide the longer term players and the staff a view into the new player perspective, in this case, it may actually be a negative for you in at least two points:

1. Archery - your access to high ql weapons and ammo, added to current skill level, impact the damage and ability to hit your target.  At the level of skill and gear you have access to at the time of the post, you wouldn't be expected to do a lot of damage.  Add to this, the creatures you are fighting impact the hit and damage rates as well, not just in their natural defense, but some weapons work better than others in specific situations.  The lack of practical experience with the tools and general understanding of the systems shows in the comments.  A couple of points to consider if you would like to see changes to Archery specifically (Link to previous discussion)
   • How would you change the system to balance low level tools/skills and still maintain balance at higher levels in range vs. range or range vs. melee combat?
   • How would stats impact this balance?
   • What impact would this cause to armor/defense tools and skills?
2. Overall, your original post contains some items (like the uses for the new trees) which have been discussed/asked for before, and while not bad ideas, not ground breaking ideas either.  This does not mean to say don't post your thoughts or ideas, just that a quick use of the search feature or the wiki might have been better
   • For example, forum search results for "Chestnut Trees" specifically:
     • http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/83187-new-wood-grain-models/?hl=%2Bchestnut+%2Btrees#entry829799
     • http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/74885-a-number-of-new-trees/page-8?hl=%2Bchestnut+%2Btrees#entry826979

• Wiki Entry - Walnut:
  • http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Walnut

Generally, helping promote the existing threads helps to better show the ongoing interest in the topic, while also keeping the major points in a single location, even if it is 5, 10 or 100 pages long.  Even when an idea or suggestion is supported by a large number of people, seeing new threads on the same topic tends to get less and less support around here.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Hussars

[Freelance 3]

About weapon balance. sheesh. Bows are slow and have minimal damage and cant use shield  (triple drawback). Two handed weapons are quite slow but have  higher damage. ( + and -) similar situation is with one handed weapons fast but low damage. 

I noticed that average damage of a spear is 1/3 of its ql. I manage to do 6 points of damage while having 18ql spear. And having 22ql spear i managed to get 7 points of damage.(same animal - pig)  As it was mentioned in wiki  high ql two handed weapons can kill in 3 succesful swings, of course depends on an animal / armour of the target.  Since bows are dreadfully slow, 10-13s between shoots and its damage is average 1/10 of the quality - it this case 22ql i managed to score  average 2,6 dmg.  To make it fair,  bows should have 50% of weapon ql damage on hunting arows and 100% on war arrows, asuming that firing will still take 10 to 13s. Of course this is base damage on unarmoured target, from it  should we reduce final damage by armour factor. (up to 65% of dmg considering that bow and armour have same ql, since a shabby shortbow would glance off decent plate, on contrary, decent bow would pass shabby armour without much reduction). We should remember that hitting a target with a bow its bit more difficult than with a spear. (in one minute combat - 15 swings i get 10 hits.) while i shot bow i get 1/3 succesful hits. while having archery skill visible higher level than a spear. 

Example of DMG retuction (assuming that armor and bow are the same ql).

Cloth  Leather  Studded Leather Chain  Iron Plate  Steel Plate + Drake Scale Armor

  5%       20%             30%              50%      55%                      65%        

 

How to calculate while ql differs.  Its easy as it gets. 

If weapon QL is higher than armour QL  difference should be  substracted from values above.

Example

Iron plate of 40QL against 60QL bow.

Base reduction value 65%  

Calculation -

 Base value -(Bow QL - Armour QL)

      65% -          (60-40) = 45% of dmg reduction.

Armour better than weapon 

       65% - (40-60) = 65 - (-20) = 85% (cut down to 75% max dmg reduction)*

* on extreme situations like 1ql weapon and 90ql armour there should be only minimal damage of 1 point or just glancing off. 

At this moment Spear is three times faster (4s atack timer) and do 3 times more dmg ( above 7 points)  overall  differnce is 9times. 

Bow (medium one) have atack timer average 12s and dmg max 3points (average 2,2-2,5)

Historical note it was far more easier to kill armoured knight with decent (not to mention high end) longbow than in meele combat.  Point is that average iron tipped arrow shot from english longbow was able to penetrate full armour plate from a distance of 200 or even 300m.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Freelance