Gameplay Design Stuff

[Zafar]

I have a Druid, Wizard, Cleric, Warrior, Magician, Necromancer, Monk, and a Bard and I have to say, even on the pay servers, they are balanced quite nicely -- though they can be done much better.

Taking away a lot of the spells that Druids already have, would kill their meaning and purpose. Likewise with Wizards, and others. If you took away the dots that druids have such as:

Stinging Swarm
Creeping Crud
Drifing Death
and others...

It would make them senseless to play, since they can control the way nature is. Look at it this way, as said previously:

Now the reason to take away Druid's DOTs, is becuase in history, druids were the worshippers, the followers, the believers. They didn't spread curses, they prayed to their gods in hope of a better rain season. A shaman and a necro however...

Now taking away druid's DOTs, I think druids would get more "nature bound" spells. Think about it, druids, wizards of nature right, why are they spreading disease to kill life? That makes no sense, however much you may hate it.

If you were to take away the Druids ability to DOT, then you focus on a much more druidic way of gameplay. Make every spell they have, in some way, make them commune with nature. Which is pretty much what SOE did for druids, but bottom line is, they can still kite without DOTs, they can still teleport without DOTs, and by god they arent shamans or necros.

They won't be able to kite at all, since kiting from the way I have learned is snare, doot, root and relax -- OK, I see : snare, sit, snare, sit, you're in a loop for nothing. On the other hand, you can SNARE then NUKE and maybe get killed for breaking your own root off. Shrug, and yes they can port with and without dots. Also, let's take this towards religion a bit -- They do worship peace, harmony, life and love -- granted, so does GOD himself; but also, god has also caused plagues and other things of such, but still does love and worship, etc.. So do we as real life human beings. What really cracks me up though, is how a WOLF (which is nature based), can and will go after a Druid at any given time whether the Druid is good, bad, neutral, holy or evil. (Example of this, take a 1-65 Druid in to Dawnshroud Peaks, and you'll see. (You'd be crazy going to DS at level 1 anyway, but my point is there.)

This is what I've been brought up to believe, but I have my own opinions elsewhere (any can be good, bad, neutral or evil):


1. Cleric: A follower of either a good god, or a bad god and they worship their god and religion. Most commonly, clerics are good but you'll run in to some bad ones from time to time.

2. Paladin: The same as a cleric, except that he/she is more a warrior of their god, where a Cleric often does not enjoy blood shed, and wishes for peace, the Paladin can be of either world.

3. Druid: They worship and respect nature -- they can use, or abuse it. Hence, good or bad based. They are quite often very good, and helpful -- but you will run in to some nasty ones too!

4. Necromancer: One of their own kind that practices black magic, or dark magic if you wish -- To cripple, make sick, hurt, harm or tortue, among others to their foes.

5. Rogue: The name from my understanding, came from Thief, hence robberying, theft, sneaking, hiding and such to avoid being caught from their victoms and enemies. Not all the time are they able to be trusted -- and most often, the trusted ones should not be trusted.

6. Bard: Quite often found drinking, singing and having a merry time with themselves and friends around -- helpful and considering, but can be pushed to the point of pure havoc with tunes of bad music?

7. Magician: They are ones that should be able to summon (make things vanish and appear.) as a real magician should regardless of modern or ancient techniques. They can summon water, food, weapons, armor, items and a lot of other things that benefit themselves, and others.

8. Wizard: A Wizard (Warlock in other terms) can be good, able to help others in forms that most could not learn, or begin to comprehend. You can find these both as good, or as bad as they come.

NOTE: Warlock is supposed to be more of a "WARRIOR" type of the Mage, and Sorceror, and Wizard? (One some or all, right?) I think the Warlock is based off the Mage and Sorceror. I forget, it is early in the morning and been up since god knows when the other day. Very tired.

9. Warrior: A Warrior is as powerful as the Paladin, but lacks the abilities that a Paladin has -- such as the ability to casting spells. They both are almost identical in the sense of combat, except the warrior gives up the rights to casting spells, for more melee combat abilities and styles of fighting.

10. Monk (Martial Artist Per-se): These guys study a form of martial sience personally, that is basically martial arts. They are one with their own mind, body and soul -- hence the powers and skills that they get. If you think about it, Look at how many offensive skills and defensive skills they get -- none other get those.

11. Shadow Knight: Shadow Knights, I have never really heard of before (on occassion), but till EverQuest came out, I have basically concluded that they are the WARRIOR part of a NECROMANCER. Enough said on that statement there.

As I have said, I am quite tired and was only going to post a small thing with my own opinion on it -- but it turned out to this entire thing. Sorry about that, but seriously though -- if you remove what already exists, rather than build off of it, you're going to put more penalties in to the game than remove them. Plus, I some times find it quite fun to land a swarm of insects on something that did it to me first, or to give them something better than their own juice. Specially with other classes, it makes the game play a lot more flexible and versitile(sp?), and uhm... I can't think of the word, innotive(sp?) Plus other meanings as well.

The one thing that I found to be quite annoying as all hell is this: Nexus, Planes of Knowledge (POK books), what the hell were they thinking THERE?!?!?!?! Christ, Druids used to make madarse cash and now, we hardly make jack crap unless you are in a very large area that don't have them around, or you find someone completely lazy and don't want to take them. I want to see "Planes of Enchantment" module to come out, where you can get KEI and Gift of Magic at every major city or nearby city. Screw the Enchanters out of money too! Hehehe, seriously, think about it, am I right? And before anyone says anything about this, I have played one before, an Enchanter and got fed up with it so I made something else. (8 and 55)

Sorry for my rant and any possible off-topic-ness. Overall, in my opinion: An emulator should mimic excactly every thing that the original game has, can do, etc.. Look at the SNES emulators, PS1 and PS2, ATARI, NeoGEO and all others. From my experience, the ROMS are designed EXACTLY like the games. Though some of the authors of those ROMS were either silly, stupid, dumb or otherwise, or felt like the game needed a complete overhaul, and ruined it completely. But that is my opinion. And therefore, with that said, "EQEmu" being EverQuest Emulator should not be something to overkill -- The project is great, two thumbs up, I don't want to see it go down hill. <shrug> I am going to bed before I start a flame-war, if I haven't already. :(