Double time! Lift those knees!

[Terrel]

First off, this is a great game. That caveat aside, there are certainly some simple ways to improve it and attact new players. Here is one idea.

Halve the round time. As we've seen in the high speed scenarios, it adds a level of excitement to the game. I won't play any crit other than my f/m outside of high speed scenarios, because the round timing is t o o s l o w. Tedious. Monotonous. Sleep inducing. When Drak came out, the round time was fine; typing was required, and the internet was slow! With point and click now, not to mention high speed connections, the game can certainly handle the speed!

(Triple time is probably too fast. Can get too twitchy.)

New players coming on board see the 2D graphics. Some are turned off and leave. Some that might overlook the graphics see the round timing and judge the game too slow paced, so they leave. (Forget gain rates, i'm talking round rates). I'm firmly convinced your retention would be better with quicker rounds.

Now....two items that would need attention as a result.

1. Gain rates: unless your intent is to halve the time to grow, that might need some tweaking.

2. Haste doesn't work properly in the sped up scenarios so far. As a f/m, I rely on haste so that I can do half the damage other sticks do (as opposed to a quarter ;> ). Hasting everybody would be a step back for f/m's (which I'm partial to, although it may be difficult to tell). So either fix haste, or enhance f/m's in another way.

My 2 cents!

[Migam]

As a f/m, I rely on haste so that I can do half the damage other sticks do (as opposed to a quarter ;> ).

Lmao You're not selling it well

(reconsiders dedicating now)

[Teh_Cheat]

The haste thing is a bit annoying because its really is useless in alt 2 and any scenario that is sped up.

I'm ok with the round timing though, I've never really had a problem with it. Patience is a virtue, haha. =)

[Tirith]

That's just silly to say you do half the damage a stick does. F/Ms with decent weapon skill do really nice damage, dare I say more than pallies can do with Maxstrike? Everybody who runs a certain class just loves to say that class is no good and needs improvements. Barbs riposte doesnt hit the same target and kill lairs that require a party in 10 minutes anymore. They suck, just ask guillotine!

[Terrel]

That's just silly to say you do half the damage a stick does. F/Ms with decent weapon skill do really nice damage, dare I say more than pallies can do with Maxstrike?

Not sure what's so daring about saying that, other than that it's incorrect. <G>

I do indulge in a bit of hyperbole now and then....the quarter and half are some examples of that. I shouldn't expect folks to read my tone there. That being said, a "whine" on f/m's isn't my point. (I've started other threads in the past on that topic! <G>)

My point is that the game overall would benefit by an increase in round timing! If that is ever changed, I mentioned two things that would need to be looked at.

The law of unintended consequences dictates that there are others as well; I'm sure others can and will point them out.

[Darge]

That's just silly to say you do half the damage a stick does. F/Ms with decent weapon skill do really nice damage, dare I say more than pallies can do with Maxstrike?

Not sure what's so daring about saying that, other than that it's incorrect. <G>

It's not incorrect.

Sorry to interrupt.

[Terrel]

Detail is important....

I'd initially read "F/Ms with decent weapon skill do really nice damage, dare I say more than pallies can do with Maxstrike" as "a hasting charging f/m does more weapon damage than a maxstriking pally". If that's the intent, I'll stand by "that's incorrect".

If however, the intent is "against a single target, a f/m charging and using all tiers does more damage than a pally max striking", I'd be more inclined to listen with a measure of credulity. It's been a long time since I've measured charge vs maxstrike (pre NL in fact), but the difference wasn't even close. That's a lot of damage to make up for, but perhaps between delirium and the elemental tiers over 8 rounds, it does in fact make up for it. Not to mention batttlemage retribution, but that, in turn, has to be considered against riposte. I'd be interested in the #'s on both, if anyone has tested; I've just begun to sink quirks into retribution.

Bah! Contributing to the hijacking of my own thread!

[Darge]

I took it to mean that for an f/m to out-damage a paladin maxstriking, they would need high weapon skill as well as their tiers. Even so, in BDC, the melee skill isn't necessary to outdo a maxstriking pally, in a solo vs solo situation.

In any case, Retribution is 14k direct damage when it triggers at 20/20 (700 damage per purchase) vs Parry being a to-hit subjective single swing #attack on trigger.

[Migam]

Bah! Contributing to the hijacking of my own thread!

Hope I didn't start the hijack with my own comment . I intend to make 2 f/m's, one from each path irregardless to see how specs vs ep does. Meantime, let's steer back.. All Aboard!

As to double time, Drak has the capacity of 3 "actions" per round. I know zero time tiers bypass this but as far as game commands, that is the case. Despite that they keep calling it Double-speed, it's triple. Even haste is triple, not double time. Haste is just the code allowing 3 full-round actions per round vs triple speed which affects every aspect of the game (tier timers, qps timers). Somehow, imo, I think he's stuck with normal or triple and no in-between. If you count attacks/actions, I normally get 8 then a pause or 5 then a pause (yes, I have no life) so it seems like it does 3's then a 2 followed by some routine (hence the pause) which might either be a die roll or other game calculation (ever notice some successes, failures, fates seem to come in streaks?). But's that's all theory.

Re: 2D, it is what it is. New players have screenshots to look at prior to d/l so it's their dime. Fast scenario might be too much for them to handle at first but maybe it will help though I would not dummy down gains to keep gains per hour the same. I would seriously set FE to the default of NO MUSIC so new players can get hooked playing before they ask about music. Once told how to swtich, they can see if reeks and turn it off. First impressions are everything... this music is <radio edit> .

"If" he made Haste just use a subroutine of the SpeedUp code to affect only actions of a target, he'd have to code Haste and SpeedUp as individual routines in order to have a Triple Speed haste of 9 full-round commands per round (well.. 8 ). I wonder if the server could handle multiple instances of this :D .

Again, all theory and guesses. It could be a rubberband and toothpicks controlling rounds.

[Omni]

Again, all theory and guesses. It could be a rubberband and toothpicks controlling rounds.

Hampsters. A room full of hampsters.