Hello Co-Devs, Lets put coding to the side for a bit, and discus a bit about design, classic servers (5017 and lower), game issues, and many more. Below are a few topics that constantly come to my mind whenever I come back to CO, or even when I'm at work integrating yet another SAP system to some god-knows what main-frame system. So hopefully you are opinionated and we can foster a discussion that will touch as many areas of the game as possible. The aim is not necessary to find "the solution" but to see how minor (or major?) systems could be tweaked/iterated on to provide a better gameplay experience. The only important thing to keep in mind, the below topics are from the point of view of a server running 5017 or lower, but also any numbers I suggest are just numbers. For example if I say "Something needs a nerf of 50%" is just that, I didn't math out what the value should actually be, it's just a guideline to move the discussion further. This of that Old School Runescape is. It is a classic Runescape version, with many changes/improvements to the original game. Consumables (Potions, Ammo): I can safely say that I never liked how CO handles consumables. It feels like the "weak" classes have to use a disproportionately higher amount of consumables. So lets split this into 2 main areas of discussion: - HP: Not sure about you guys, but I really hate the "spammy" nature of HP potions. I always tried to imagine how would the game play if, lets say, HP potions would have a 2 to 5 seconds cooldown. Problematic, of course. I can see that for PvP Fire Tao might need some adjustments... maybe even Archers, while for PvE mobs might need to hit 3-5 times less so you can still survive a big stack of mobs. How could we fix this "Pot until there's smoke coming out of your keyboard" system of the game? - Mana / Ammo: So we have (arguably) the 2 lowest damage dealing classes requiring an extra "thing" to function. Mainly Archer need Arrows and Taos being Mana hungry. In this section, I think that Water Tao have it the worst, while Archer gets Hundreds or Thousands of arrows per inventory slot, Taos get several casts per inventory slot. It feels like the NetDragon devs didn't "finish" implementing their vision for how this system should work. Water Tao - Classic If a totally CO new player starts as Tao and then goes to Water Tao, I don't see him sticking with the game for too long. It has no damage, it's hard to solo level it, 80% of their skills are very niche/conditional and you get to spam "zap" all day long. Water taos are really bad for PvE... and somewhat decent in PvP? For a modern look at this class, should it be "adjusted"? For PvE more damage, for PvP... maybe a cooldown on Revive? Damage / One-shot mechanics Oh how much I love FB and SS, but do they have a place? Assume 2 Trojans, exact gear, level, etc. are fighting. Should they 1-shot themselves? In my mind, a big no. Maybe 3 to 4 hits? Maybe the one-shot should be a mini game, some sort of event? Same applies to monsters that attack you. It feels like the game is trying toooo hard to make you get to grinding and get the Quality / Composition of your gear higher. But should it be that punishing when leveling? Shouldn't gear upgrades be more of a end-game activity? Water Devil / Second 2nd Reborn Quest / Generic Bottlenecks Some of the most "notorious" bottlenecks of the game, where they pushed you into micro-transactions. Assume a fully Non-P2W server, where there is no need to be pushed to spend money, how would you change the Water Devil to not be camped by Trojans+Water combos - but still keep it rewarding for the player doing it? What about the gruesome 2nd reborn quest? Should not this be "an adventure", with a big climax when you fight Satan? And less of a chore + frustration (kill stealing the spawn-able bosses)? Sure those two examples could be considered "low hanging fruits", but those are some very clearly designed systems/steps to push you to spend some money. Item Composition How many thousand of +1 items do you need to find/buy to get to +9? To.damn.many! Other than simply making mobs drop +2/+3....+7/+8 items, what could be done here? I had this idea where some sort of "prestige" system could be implemented, and as you use an item it has a chance to upgrade to the next plus. Think about this as a "Leveling System" for the + on the items. Class Promotion(s) Simply put, underwhelming. this should be something amazing, something you want to strive for! For in reality, you get one DB and some other junk which is not enough. Classic doesn't have that many skills either. Its just a chore. How can we get this system better?! Catchup mechanics - How late players can play So, you have a server, it has success (relative term!) and now you have new players joining the fun. But is it fun? Everyone around them is fully geared, everyone is smashing everything, but they aren't. How would you approach this "challenge"? When is implementing/changing already established systems too much, and makes the old players feel like they "worked for nothing, and new people get everything free"? Thriving World By design, PvP orientated games are made to make people quit the game. But, imaging this is not happening! From your experience, how many people do you feel like the world could theoretically hold, before every map gets too crowded? Thanks for reading this laid-back thread, hopefully I peaked your interest, now it is your to bring your own discussion topics/views to this thread!
