TheTXLibra
Legacy Supporter 8
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2011
- Location
- Somewhere, TX
Since Chief mentioned he wanted to improve some of the Non-PVP elements of the game, I would like to put forth this as a possible future direction for Heroes RPG.
SUGGESTION: Conslidate the 9 current Professions into a smaller number of professions with a more robust skillset each.
(if you already agree, you can skip the justifications and head straight to what I suggest as consolidations below. If you aren't convinced, read the justifications first.)
RPG JUSTIFICATION: Hyper-specialization is a fairly recent invention that has come from industrialization and later, the computer age. Heroes takes place in a relatively low-tech setting, with its analogue more likely being in the Middle Ages or very early Renaissance. In that timeframe, most non-combatants had to have very diverse skillsets to live. You made your own clothes, you built and fixed your own house, barn, etc. You raised your own food, you mended your own fences, etc, unless you were of a merchant class, in which case, you had as broad a skillset as possible for your type of chosen profession because you were more often than not the only one of your type for miles and miles, and the vast majority of inhabitants lived their whole lives never travelling more than 10-20 miles from the place where they were born (unless they went to war, of course).
PLAYER JUSTIFICATION: As it stands, the current profession system feels too restrictive. People don't want less ability just for the sake of having less, they want more. To draw a real-world analogue, if you go to one of those large pizza arcades, like Dave & Busters, or Coney Island, or Chuck-E-Cheese, etc, you don't want someone to tell you "Okay, thanks for visiting our arcade. Now, you must choose only one thing, and play that one thing from now on till your next visit (or shell out tons of money and lose your place in line). You can ONLY play the Go-Karts, or ONLY the Skee-ball games, or ONLY play the pool tables, or ONLY play air-hockey, or ONLY play the video games, and that's it. That's not nearly as much fun as an open-venue where you can ride on the Go-Karts for awhile, then go play a game of air-hockey, then maybe House of the Dead for awhile, etc. Back to Heroes itself, some of the Professions have an ability that would be cool to have, but everything else about it is so meh, almost no one bothers choosing it (ex. Pistons for Engineers). Simply put, it would just be more fun to players to have more choice and ability within their chosen profession. And more fun = more members with higher satisfaction. More members with higher satisfaction = more donations. More donations + more players = higher incentive to continue this wonderful project called Heroes.
MECHANICS JUSTIFICATION: Currently, if even one non-PVP ability breaks, or gets nerfed, the entirety of the profession that had that ability is usually completely screwed, because currently, it's often the only real ability they have worth having. For instance, if falsebook ICs break, engineers are pretty much useless till it gets fixed. If a chestshop exploit causes chestshops to be shut down for a few days till it can be patched, Merchants are screwed. If cauldrons breaks due to a plugin code, Alchemists are almost worthless (unless they happen to have blaze stuff and netherwart). etc... etc... Having a fewer number of professions with more robust abilities would mean that, even if one or two abilities were broken/nerfed/etc, players non-PVP options would still be relatively open to doing other things. Additionally, as far as balance goes, it's a lot easier to balance out 3-4 professions than 9+ professions.
So... with those justifications in mind, here is what I recommend for the consolidation of professions (the names of which could be whatever, I just picked these from novels):
Mystic - The theurges, witch-doctors, hedge-mages, witches, voodoun, midwives, wise women, wise ones, etc. Regardless of culture, these were the fringe element who made the potions, the battle-fetishes, the enchanted swords, the magic charms, and were often the healers of the local village as well. If a skill deals with brewing, cauldrons, enchanting, or non-class healing abilities like bandage, this class would receive that ability (this class would absorb Alchemist (without chainmail), Enchanter, and Scribe). They would have a Moderate number of hit points (higher than Merchants, but lower than Laborers), and the worst limitations on tools. Experience would come from Crafting, Farming, and Skills, to represent the closest RPG sources of what their professional skill would really benefit from. Experience progression would be Slow, to represent the fact that it is always the older, wiser members of this profession that have unlocked the greatest secrets of the Mystic World. Since this class is also the closest thing to a real-world chemist, they would have the TNT ability later on.
Laborer - These are the backbone of any community. For the most part, uneducated peasants with a necessarily broad range of easily-learned skills in order to provide resources for the community. These are the worker-ants, the drone bees, the working class. If a skill requires only physical laborers that you could hire outside of a Home Depot at 5am to do on the cheap, these guys have it. They would absorb the profession of Miner (but without TNT), Farmer, and Smith (without chainmail). Their HP would be the highest of the Core Professions, and their experience would come from Building, Farming, Fishing, Logging, and Mining. They would have the greatest tool use abilities. Experience would be fairly swift, because laborers weren't exactly known for their higher mental pursuits. Your success in this field during this timeframe was mainly due to how much you sweated. (it wasn't until much later that advanced agricultural methods made farming a thinking-person's profession). As a profession, they get the broadest array of the most useful abilities, yet this is also tempered by the fact that MOST players will probably choose this profession, and there are no jaw-droppingly awesome abilities (except the ability to breed animals).
Merchant - Strictly speaking, this would not only be merchants, but more accurately, the Merchant Class, the step just below that of nobilitiy. They are the ones who had upward mobility within society, shop-owners, inventors, freemasons, engineers, estate managers, city planners, government officials, etc. Current-day analogue would be your white-collar workers. If a skill requires math, science, mercantile, or managerial abilities, this class gets to use it. They would absorb the current professions of Engineer, Mason, Merchant, and maybe a couple of Scribe abilities. They would be the ones who are able to make chainmail (due to its extremely complicated nature to make). Their profession HP would be the lowest. Their tools would be Moderate (better than Mystics, but less than Laborers). Their experience would come from Building, Crafting, Mining, and Skills. Their experience gain rate would be higher than Mystics, but lower than Laborers. Their biggest drawback would be that their skills are about as specialized as the Middle-Ages and Rennaisance got, but they also tended to be the richest as well, because so few people had the skills or resources that these people did.
SUMMARY:
SUGGESTION: Conslidate the 9 current Professions into a smaller number of professions with a more robust skillset each.
(if you already agree, you can skip the justifications and head straight to what I suggest as consolidations below. If you aren't convinced, read the justifications first.)
RPG JUSTIFICATION: Hyper-specialization is a fairly recent invention that has come from industrialization and later, the computer age. Heroes takes place in a relatively low-tech setting, with its analogue more likely being in the Middle Ages or very early Renaissance. In that timeframe, most non-combatants had to have very diverse skillsets to live. You made your own clothes, you built and fixed your own house, barn, etc. You raised your own food, you mended your own fences, etc, unless you were of a merchant class, in which case, you had as broad a skillset as possible for your type of chosen profession because you were more often than not the only one of your type for miles and miles, and the vast majority of inhabitants lived their whole lives never travelling more than 10-20 miles from the place where they were born (unless they went to war, of course).
PLAYER JUSTIFICATION: As it stands, the current profession system feels too restrictive. People don't want less ability just for the sake of having less, they want more. To draw a real-world analogue, if you go to one of those large pizza arcades, like Dave & Busters, or Coney Island, or Chuck-E-Cheese, etc, you don't want someone to tell you "Okay, thanks for visiting our arcade. Now, you must choose only one thing, and play that one thing from now on till your next visit (or shell out tons of money and lose your place in line). You can ONLY play the Go-Karts, or ONLY the Skee-ball games, or ONLY play the pool tables, or ONLY play air-hockey, or ONLY play the video games, and that's it. That's not nearly as much fun as an open-venue where you can ride on the Go-Karts for awhile, then go play a game of air-hockey, then maybe House of the Dead for awhile, etc. Back to Heroes itself, some of the Professions have an ability that would be cool to have, but everything else about it is so meh, almost no one bothers choosing it (ex. Pistons for Engineers). Simply put, it would just be more fun to players to have more choice and ability within their chosen profession. And more fun = more members with higher satisfaction. More members with higher satisfaction = more donations. More donations + more players = higher incentive to continue this wonderful project called Heroes.
MECHANICS JUSTIFICATION: Currently, if even one non-PVP ability breaks, or gets nerfed, the entirety of the profession that had that ability is usually completely screwed, because currently, it's often the only real ability they have worth having. For instance, if falsebook ICs break, engineers are pretty much useless till it gets fixed. If a chestshop exploit causes chestshops to be shut down for a few days till it can be patched, Merchants are screwed. If cauldrons breaks due to a plugin code, Alchemists are almost worthless (unless they happen to have blaze stuff and netherwart). etc... etc... Having a fewer number of professions with more robust abilities would mean that, even if one or two abilities were broken/nerfed/etc, players non-PVP options would still be relatively open to doing other things. Additionally, as far as balance goes, it's a lot easier to balance out 3-4 professions than 9+ professions.
So... with those justifications in mind, here is what I recommend for the consolidation of professions (the names of which could be whatever, I just picked these from novels):
Mystic - The theurges, witch-doctors, hedge-mages, witches, voodoun, midwives, wise women, wise ones, etc. Regardless of culture, these were the fringe element who made the potions, the battle-fetishes, the enchanted swords, the magic charms, and were often the healers of the local village as well. If a skill deals with brewing, cauldrons, enchanting, or non-class healing abilities like bandage, this class would receive that ability (this class would absorb Alchemist (without chainmail), Enchanter, and Scribe). They would have a Moderate number of hit points (higher than Merchants, but lower than Laborers), and the worst limitations on tools. Experience would come from Crafting, Farming, and Skills, to represent the closest RPG sources of what their professional skill would really benefit from. Experience progression would be Slow, to represent the fact that it is always the older, wiser members of this profession that have unlocked the greatest secrets of the Mystic World. Since this class is also the closest thing to a real-world chemist, they would have the TNT ability later on.
Laborer - These are the backbone of any community. For the most part, uneducated peasants with a necessarily broad range of easily-learned skills in order to provide resources for the community. These are the worker-ants, the drone bees, the working class. If a skill requires only physical laborers that you could hire outside of a Home Depot at 5am to do on the cheap, these guys have it. They would absorb the profession of Miner (but without TNT), Farmer, and Smith (without chainmail). Their HP would be the highest of the Core Professions, and their experience would come from Building, Farming, Fishing, Logging, and Mining. They would have the greatest tool use abilities. Experience would be fairly swift, because laborers weren't exactly known for their higher mental pursuits. Your success in this field during this timeframe was mainly due to how much you sweated. (it wasn't until much later that advanced agricultural methods made farming a thinking-person's profession). As a profession, they get the broadest array of the most useful abilities, yet this is also tempered by the fact that MOST players will probably choose this profession, and there are no jaw-droppingly awesome abilities (except the ability to breed animals).
Merchant - Strictly speaking, this would not only be merchants, but more accurately, the Merchant Class, the step just below that of nobilitiy. They are the ones who had upward mobility within society, shop-owners, inventors, freemasons, engineers, estate managers, city planners, government officials, etc. Current-day analogue would be your white-collar workers. If a skill requires math, science, mercantile, or managerial abilities, this class gets to use it. They would absorb the current professions of Engineer, Mason, Merchant, and maybe a couple of Scribe abilities. They would be the ones who are able to make chainmail (due to its extremely complicated nature to make). Their profession HP would be the lowest. Their tools would be Moderate (better than Mystics, but less than Laborers). Their experience would come from Building, Crafting, Mining, and Skills. Their experience gain rate would be higher than Mystics, but lower than Laborers. Their biggest drawback would be that their skills are about as specialized as the Middle-Ages and Rennaisance got, but they also tended to be the richest as well, because so few people had the skills or resources that these people did.
SUMMARY:
