arcanegrove
Obsidian
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2011
Hello all. I write this as a small thought experiment and hopefully engaging discussion. There are always issues with any game that ever comes out, as bugs and balance and communities find new ways to break it. What I wish to discuss here is a plethora of ideas and wishes I have for HeroCraft. Many of these suggestions are not based on number and empirical evidence, as that simply takes time and energy to look over and correctly implement. And with the new map being released in two months, now is the time to argue and debate for what you want in herocraft. As well as helping out the staff as much as possible by being respectful and knowledgeable of what's going down.
I want to address the mentality in HeroCraft first. Grind to late game, PvP for a while, change classes depending on what our town needs maybe, master it, get bored, change again, repeat. I find this unfortunate, and I believe this stems from two issues. The first being that there is no separation between Crafters and Combateers. Second, that it is simply too easy to achieve mastery. So much so 6-7 classes in a couple days is actually easy. 3-4 classes in a day is entirely doing. Not only that, but the grind is boring. It's so easy that there is no accomplishment for mastering anything. In fact, your looked down on if you're not always mastered in some class, since it takes so little time to do so.
I haven't gone into the separation between Crafting and Combat yet, as it ties into my overall argument.
One of the largest things HC is missing compared to what I remember back in the day, is team play and dedication. People want instant gratification, which if fine. But if you completely give in to what people think they want, then the experience becomes watered down and lose the initial spark it had.
This where having Crafters and Combat people have to decide which they want to be comes in. What happens when you're entire server is capable of living on it's own? You get small skirmishes, no drama, the experience is lonely and you don't get to connect to people. Once you have to have this separation, it causes conflicts and relations you otherwise would not have. You have to have certain classes and professions to be a successful town, unless every position can be filled by a couple people. Well, not "unless" but you get the point.
Town wars become much more intense, as you have to protect your Crafters so they don't lose levels and can do what they need to do. While your Warriors can not function without their Crafters.
Which seg-ways nicely into my next point: mastering is just too fuckin' easy. What the hell even is endgame if there is no early or mid game? It's just linear and bland. Not only that, but it supports my previous point on having roles. Master every profession, and every class, and you can do everything yourself. No need for interaction with others.
Bring back where it takes an honest good couple days to master. At least. A week if would be ideal probably, but that's getting into numbers I don't want to discuss. I may know some articles others don't in terms of the future of HC, but I know that not having the need for roles in HeroCraft really hurts it.
If these large strokes can make the overall idea of HeroCraft interesting and awesome to play, then the small details and balancing can be worked out over time. The fundamentals of HC are absolutely amazing. A great Hero's plugin, a great Staff, a great deal of Drama that will never be too far away, now all we need to get back is the great community. Commitment and interaction between people is part of the reason why I loved HeroCraft so much in my earlier years.
The one thing I would disapprove of is really forcing people to have to work together artificially, and without commitment. I can't really explain it, but it's like the instance system in WoW. Or at least, what it used to be if it's changed. Forcing people together in instances because it's the fastest way of leveling. What is natural is when people are forced to work together because it's to hard to handle on their own. Or because one of them needs a piece that someone else had. I'm having somewhat of a mental block trying to describe the difference between the two, but I think it's the needy-ness of the community to work together. Difficulty inspires the need to work with other people, while ease forces people to have to want to work together? I'm not sure, it's a strange dynamic I would probably need to think on more.
Since this is turning out to be more like a ramble of thoughts, I guess I'll continue with my next though.
Economics. Money is far to easy to come by as it stands. You can get around 300 coins simply by mastering a class, which is 200c profit. Port was done away in place of warp I guess? Which made spawn travel null. HeroGates don't cost money, so it's free travel to basically anywhere always. As far as I know, Alchemist is entirely pointless now. Gunpowder, slime balls and reds-stone are amazingly easy to get with medals of Vengence. Smelt Gold and Iron is pointless now cause gold is worth nothing (Which was something I found really cool in the old times. Gold as a currency was really fun. But souls are fine too if they were balanced a little differently)
There is simply infinite amounts of money everywhere, which is silly. Even with the ores regening as they are now, the /money top players have a quarter of what previous players had, with an finite amount of resources to work with. This is entirely how economics works: supply and demand. People actually bought and traded because of limited resources. There needs to be a sink, and towns are not enough with regenerating ores. I can make enough money myself for 4-5 towns in a week by simply grinding bosses at Dark Palace.
I'm fairly certain my point was made. Discussing this couple probably span several more pages, but I tried to keep it semi-concise. Please argue and disagree with me. It leads to new ideas and interesting discussion. Thank you for reading.
I want to address the mentality in HeroCraft first. Grind to late game, PvP for a while, change classes depending on what our town needs maybe, master it, get bored, change again, repeat. I find this unfortunate, and I believe this stems from two issues. The first being that there is no separation between Crafters and Combateers. Second, that it is simply too easy to achieve mastery. So much so 6-7 classes in a couple days is actually easy. 3-4 classes in a day is entirely doing. Not only that, but the grind is boring. It's so easy that there is no accomplishment for mastering anything. In fact, your looked down on if you're not always mastered in some class, since it takes so little time to do so.
I haven't gone into the separation between Crafting and Combat yet, as it ties into my overall argument.
One of the largest things HC is missing compared to what I remember back in the day, is team play and dedication. People want instant gratification, which if fine. But if you completely give in to what people think they want, then the experience becomes watered down and lose the initial spark it had.
This where having Crafters and Combat people have to decide which they want to be comes in. What happens when you're entire server is capable of living on it's own? You get small skirmishes, no drama, the experience is lonely and you don't get to connect to people. Once you have to have this separation, it causes conflicts and relations you otherwise would not have. You have to have certain classes and professions to be a successful town, unless every position can be filled by a couple people. Well, not "unless" but you get the point.
Town wars become much more intense, as you have to protect your Crafters so they don't lose levels and can do what they need to do. While your Warriors can not function without their Crafters.
Which seg-ways nicely into my next point: mastering is just too fuckin' easy. What the hell even is endgame if there is no early or mid game? It's just linear and bland. Not only that, but it supports my previous point on having roles. Master every profession, and every class, and you can do everything yourself. No need for interaction with others.
Bring back where it takes an honest good couple days to master. At least. A week if would be ideal probably, but that's getting into numbers I don't want to discuss. I may know some articles others don't in terms of the future of HC, but I know that not having the need for roles in HeroCraft really hurts it.
If these large strokes can make the overall idea of HeroCraft interesting and awesome to play, then the small details and balancing can be worked out over time. The fundamentals of HC are absolutely amazing. A great Hero's plugin, a great Staff, a great deal of Drama that will never be too far away, now all we need to get back is the great community. Commitment and interaction between people is part of the reason why I loved HeroCraft so much in my earlier years.
The one thing I would disapprove of is really forcing people to have to work together artificially, and without commitment. I can't really explain it, but it's like the instance system in WoW. Or at least, what it used to be if it's changed. Forcing people together in instances because it's the fastest way of leveling. What is natural is when people are forced to work together because it's to hard to handle on their own. Or because one of them needs a piece that someone else had. I'm having somewhat of a mental block trying to describe the difference between the two, but I think it's the needy-ness of the community to work together. Difficulty inspires the need to work with other people, while ease forces people to have to want to work together? I'm not sure, it's a strange dynamic I would probably need to think on more.
Since this is turning out to be more like a ramble of thoughts, I guess I'll continue with my next though.
Economics. Money is far to easy to come by as it stands. You can get around 300 coins simply by mastering a class, which is 200c profit. Port was done away in place of warp I guess? Which made spawn travel null. HeroGates don't cost money, so it's free travel to basically anywhere always. As far as I know, Alchemist is entirely pointless now. Gunpowder, slime balls and reds-stone are amazingly easy to get with medals of Vengence. Smelt Gold and Iron is pointless now cause gold is worth nothing (Which was something I found really cool in the old times. Gold as a currency was really fun. But souls are fine too if they were balanced a little differently)
There is simply infinite amounts of money everywhere, which is silly. Even with the ores regening as they are now, the /money top players have a quarter of what previous players had, with an finite amount of resources to work with. This is entirely how economics works: supply and demand. People actually bought and traded because of limited resources. There needs to be a sink, and towns are not enough with regenerating ores. I can make enough money myself for 4-5 towns in a week by simply grinding bosses at Dark Palace.
I'm fairly certain my point was made. Discussing this couple probably span several more pages, but I tried to keep it semi-concise. Please argue and disagree with me. It leads to new ideas and interesting discussion. Thank you for reading.
