I like the idea of diverging armor types, but I'm kind of concerned about differentiating between the Accelerator and Manipulator sets. If they're both just "low defense but high energy" then one of them is going to be better for both the staff and any guns. For example, if gun armor is the "middle of the road" suit, I don't see why you would ever wear it. Wouldn't you go for either the melee armor if you expect to get hit, or the staff armor if you don't? If the only differentiating point of the both the staff and the guns is that they drain your energy, then any suit of armor that's the best for one will also be the best for the other, wouldn't it? I also kind of hope we're not just dumping all the current armor designs into this without checking if they look right. Hylotl Rubuim armor looks like samurai armor, while their Violium armor is this weird purple thing that looks more wizardy to me. IMO it would work better if their Rubium suit was a melee suit, while their Violium suit for staves. Looks good overall, though, looking forward to seeing this in action!
However, I realized this today... Mind if we really make usable (not vanity) armor clothing out of fabrics?
Because I'm a slight suicidal-retarded-Lerooy-Jenkins-style player I'm gonna go, probably, Separator > Manipulator > Acceletor. Maybe some mix of the first two, just for the sake of it. Not only this adds a lot more diversity to the gameplay, but I believe this will be a good base for the devs to make easier and faster upgrades, fixes and balances to armors and playstyle in general.
Point one, I think they'll reuse them somehow. I mean, we're getting the horse for Novakid A.I., sans boobs. Point two is somewhat poignant, but I assume crafted gear isn't the stronger stuff you're able to get? I mean what's the point of looting those cool dungeons if you can get better stuff just mining ores? So I'm chalking up progression to "beyond crafting" for now until proven otherwise. Point three I condede entirely, can't imagine something called impervium is somehow brittler than ferozium. Then again, it's all in the forging actually. Iron can be quite resilient with the right technique. Edit: actually impervium also sounds like a hard material to forge. It could pose limitations to what you could do to it, beyond yielding the largest amount of energy. So the other materials.could be easier to forge into tougher armours. Now point four I'll have to raise a question, as I haven't played.the nightlies yet: how long is the range of psistaffs? And does it do something else besides shooting? Because the way I see it, not only should a manipulator be a glass cannon, it should be a glass FLAK-Cannon. The staves should be a mid-range weapon, leaving sniping to the accelerator guys.
Mm'kay... sounds interesting... As long as we will keep a relative freedom of character building (as Armagon said) it couldn't be bad. Flexibility will be the key for me when the system will be implemented, cause I don't wanna stick to a redundant gameplay driven by hesitant path choices. To be short I'm just afraid to be confined in a specific "progression path" without being able to adapt my character according to my gameplay needs. But anyway, good job Armagon!
However, we'll still be needing ore, some animal blood extracted from alien meat, then we crush and mix them to be Life Fiber powered clothings!
I agree. Why would I use the middle tier armor when I can pump out even more shots with the mage armor? I think energy regen and energy pool size should be separated stats, instead of one combined. Then, ranged armor would have a slightly deeper pool and fast regen, while the mage would have a very deep pool but slow regen.
Mostly defense Well, and accelerator also sounds like it'll run'n'gun more safely, without having his face eaten in a heartbeat.
Will this progression maintain the planet-level ore association? Because then splitting the armors up into these groups will still be linear but now even more restrictive, you will essentially have to start as one class and unlock the other two later. If you can make six armors for each specialization though, so that each specialization continues the progression (maybe diverging more to the specialty with each tier and ending with obnoxiously over-specialized) I would be both very impressed and grateful.
This is all good and swell, but there are two things that rub me the wrong way: People will always rely on the easiest method that grants them the results they want more quickly. Despite the hybridization of gears resulting in mixed classes, a heavy focus on the Accelerator path with light usage of gear from the Manipulator track may result in creating a superior hybrid class-set above the other classes that is the most well-rounded and efficient, even with the future nerfing of guns in the future. It has the capacity of trumping both Separator and Manipulator paths. An alternative worry is just cherry picking all the best gear from each class and combining it to some sort of optimum setup, which in turn encourages others to follow suit and defeat the purpose of even putting in classes in the first place since every weakness that was meant to be covered will immediately rectified by the right gear. Playthroughs are subjective in the course of what you get or what you want to be; stats are not. Since the Separator gear is more inclined to receive the most punishment over the other two tracks, you're probably better off having that be made of Impervium and Rubium instead. This is assuming that all of these metals will not be found in a linear way such as how the game is right now (i.e. getting iron then steel and so on and so forth), and instead would be found in different ways with their own separate challenges. Plus, blue and purple is a pretty cool look for "magic" folk.
I think mage armor should still have the highest regen, because regen and energy capacity would follow your usage needs. I would prefer ability to tailor my energy usage and armor needs to the situation, sacrificing one to gain the other. In this model, 1. Warrior needs the most armor and only enough regen to use active abilities once in a while. 2. Rangers need medium energy capacity and regen, to use energy for ammo and still have enough for mobility abilities. Armor is not necessary due to the nature of ranged combat, but will help if something goes wrong. 3. Mages need the most energy and regen to use high cost magic and mobility abilities effectively. However, they have to sacrifice passive defense to gain ability to dish out very high damage (this is the nature of glass cannons). That said, nothing stops a glass cannon mage to switch to sword-and-board when an enemy gets too close for comfort (weapons switch is one hotkey away). If you master blocking and countering, you should still be able to get away with mage armor on a melee warrior. Thus, the ironically titled Imperium armor would be the mark of ultimate skill in avoiding damage (I am impervious BACAUSE you can't even touch me)
I stumbled across this picture a while ago and now I'm sitting here picturing myself as same kind of sniper... So Accelerator class gear for me, please! (It's huge image so I put it into spoiler)
Alright alright. I 'm seeing a lot of concerns over tier progression and which ore is best suited for each specialization. They're reworking the entire thing. For all we know impervium may no longer be the toughest, meanest, badassest ore in the universe. It'll be no longer tied to the "best" gear available. And mixing and matching for maximum result? What's the problem with that? If people want to cheese their game let them. If concerns are over the mp servers and pvp, well... I'd be disappointed in chucklefish if they keep looted gear as the garbage they currently are. In fact I say the best gear should come from loot and quests. Crafted gear should only give you a leg up when exploring new grounds, until you get better stuff OR, if it has to be crafting, at least make the best blueprints available as loot/quest/exploration rewards.
Or.. A PISTOL THAT SHOOTS KNIVES. How awesome would that be? Imagine that, guys. Being able to launch knives at an enemy from afar.
That makes sense, though it would be easily fixed by just switching the roles of cerulium/violium with Rubium/Impervium. Violium already strikes me as the most magic themed of the ores what with the many crystals in the objects it is used in
Part of their plans involving the removal of tiers is to replace that with 3 galaxies instead of the Alpha, Beta, etc. starmaps we have: The normal game, a creative mode area, and a PVP area which is geared more for multiplayer (ala the X system). An optimum gear set-up for PVP in a multiplayer setting pretty much destroy the point of classes if everyone is gonna cheese their way through it; eventually it'd devolve into everyone fighting everyone with the same types of gears, and anyone not following this layout would probably just get killed. An entire 1/3rd of what is coming for this game would be denied it's full potential as a result. As for single-player, I honestly don't care, since in the end I can see the focus of the full enjoyment of this game lending more towards multiplayer in the long run than single-player, much like how it is now. Simply put, it's just more fun to play with other people than alone. Hey, that's my line! *shakes fist*
