Artisan Archive

I’ve put a lot of thought into the topic of revising the powerup crafting process, and this is the result of those thoughts. Please read the entire document (it’s LONG) and make any comments or suggestions for improvement. If I like an idea, I will add it to the document.

Preliminary Considerations

While I think we can all agree that powerups are very useful for combat professionals and that they provide a steady, albeit low-volume, stream of income for artisans, we have to admit the way in which they are crafted, and the variety of powerups available, leaves something to be desired.

Accordingly, I’ve set for myself the goal of creating this proposed design document that can perhaps be used by the developers to create a new system for crafting powerups. In drafting this document, I have the following guidelines in mind:

1. Balance. First and foremost, the new and revised powerups should not create any unbalancing affects in the combat system. With the upcoming combat revamp taking place, this is a perfect time for the developers to consider a revamped powerup crafting scheme.


2. Variety. While there are five varieties of ranged powerups, with a number of different combinations, there are a limited number of melee powerups (the only desirable combinations have 33% HAM modifiers) and there are currently no “special purpose” powerups, which are described in more detail below. I propose creating a wider variety of powerups that do more.


3. Control. Another goal of this proposed design revamp is to give the artisan more control over the powerup crafting process as he or she advances up the engineering tree. The random factor thrown into powerup crafting diminishes the enjoyment involved in creating them. In fact, the randomness makes powerup crafting tedious and frustrating.


4. Implementation. While I don’t pretend to understand all the mechanics that go into programming something like this, I am using my knowledge of the crafting system to makes suggestions that seem, at least to me, easier to implement than other suggestions I could make.

With these design goals in mind, my suggestions to revamp powerup crafting follow.

Analysis of Desirability of Traditional Powerup Modifications

To begin, I suggest we take a look at all the desirability of the various primary and secondary stat modifiers currently available on all types of powerups. I will call these the “traditional” modifiers. The reason we need to engage in this exercise is because there are a number of stat modifiers that are NEVER used by artisans and any powerups created with those modifiers are rejected before the crafting process is completed.

• Very Desirable:

Min Damage Increase
Max Damage Increase

Quite frankly, the amount of damage a weapon does is generally the only thing most people understand or look at. Thus, minimum and maximum damage increases are the most commonly requested and purchased powerups.

• Somewhat Desirable:

Attack Speed Reduction
Health Cost Reduction
Action Cost Reduction
Mind Cost Reduction

For many people grinding up combat professions, an attack speed reduction is highly desired. Once the combatant reaches the speed cap for his or her profession, the focus switches toward the min/max damage modifiers.

There is currently not much demand for the HAM cost reduction powerups. Melee professionals are forced to buy them, as they are one of the only desirable primary stat modifiers on melee powerups. I predict, however, that the introduction of the HAM modifications with the combat revamp will cause an increase in the popularity of HAM-focused powerups.

• Not Desirable:

Wound Chance Increase
IdealRange Increase
Point Blank Attack Mod
Ideal Range Attack Mod
Max Range Attack Mod

The most useless of these modifiers is wound chance increase. Most weapons do very little, if any, wound damage and increasing the amount of wounds inflicted is not often a primary combat goal. Fire and diseases are the only things that reliable inflict wounds.

Similarly, the attack range modifiers are not very desirable. Theoretically, they increase the “to hit” bonus of your weapon at the stated range. This bonus does have a chance to increase the amount of damage done if you attack from the range being modified, but the fact that most combat takes place in close quarters virtually guarantees no one will use these types of powerups.

The same goes for the increased ideal range modifier. While a 33% increase to your weapon’s ideal range may sound interesting, most combatants - especially melee types who experience absolutely no benefit from using ANY of the range modifiers - will never use this modifier.

The fact is that range modifiers are never more than an afterthought when crafting powerups. If one pops up on the occasional powerup, the artisan will keep it so long as the other, more desirable, modifications are also present.

Accordingly, I propose that one set of primary and secondary stat modifiers be adopted for all ranged and melee powerups and that the class of traditional modifiers be reduced to eliminate a couple of the least desirable modifications.

The new modifiers that would be available for all powerups would be as follows:

Min Damage Increase
Max Damage Increase
Attack Speed Reduction
Health Cost Reduction
Action Cost Reduction
Mind Cost Reduction
Point Blank Attack Mod
Ideal Range Attack Mod
Max Range Attack Mod

New Traditional Ranged and Melee Powerups

Now that we have narrowed the universe of what stat modifiers should be available, it’s time to discuss the specific types of powerups that will be available to melee and ranged professions.

To begin, the number of traditional ranged powerups will be reduced from 5 to 4 with the following combinations available:

Barrel
Primary:
Ported (Health Cost Reduction)
Smoothed (Min Damage Increase)
Taper-Bored (Point Blank Attack Mod)

Secondary:
Alignment (Ideal Range Attack Mod)
Concentration (Max Damage Increase)
Dampening (Action Cost Reduction)

Coupler
Primary:
Short-Circuited (Max Damage Increase)
Quick-Charged (Action Cost Reduction)
Hot-Wired (Ideal Range Attack Mod)

Secondary:
Overpowering (Attack Speed Reduction)
Compensation (Mind Cost Reduction)
Searing (Max Range Attack Mod)

Grip
Primary:
Hair-Trigger (Attack Speed Reduction)
Ergonomic (Max Range Attack Mod)
Lightened (Mind Cost Reduction)

Secondary:
Aiming (Max Damage Increase)
Steadying (Point Blank Attack Mod)
Recoil-Deadening (Health Cost Reduction)

Muzzle
Primary:
Scattered (Point Blank Attack Mod)
Muffled (Mind Cost Reduction)
Tuned (Max Damage)

Secondary:
Acceleration (Attack Speed Reduction)
Focusing (Ideal Range Attack Mod)
Sighting (Min Damage Increase)

The number of traditional melee powerups will be increased from 1 to 4 with the following types available (to make the coding simpler, the only thing different between the melee powerups and the ranged powerups is the type and the names):

Sharpener
Primary:
Lightening (Health Cost Reduction)
Tuning (Min Damage Increase)
Maintaining (Point Blank Attack Mod)

Secondary:
Control Enhancement (Ideal Range Attack Mod)
Concentration (Max Damage Increase)
Dampening (Action Cost Reduction)

Balancer
Primary:
Maximizing (Max Damage Increase)
Dampening (Action Cost Reduction)
Controlling (Ideal Range Attack Mod)

Secondary:
Acceleration (Attack Speed Reduction)
Compensation (Mind Cost Reduction)
Searing (Max Range Attack Mod)

Grip
Primary:
Quickening (Attack Speed Reduction)
Ergonomic (Max Range Attack Mod)
Lightened (Mind Cost Reduction)

Secondary:
Concentration (Max Damage Increase)
Accuracy (Point Blank Attack Mod)
Balancing (Health Cost Reduction)

Enhancer
Primary:
Maintaining (Point Blank Attack Mod)
Lightened (Mind Cost Reduction)
Maximizing (Max Damage)

Secondary:
Acceleration (Attack Speed Reduction)
Control Enhancement (Ideal Range Attack Mod)
Focus (Min Damage Increase)

Altering the traditional melee and ranged powerups in this way meets all the design goals stated above. Balance is maintained and variety is increased by ensuring that melee and ranged professions have access to the same set of powerups. It keeps the implementation simple, in that the same code can be used for both melee and ranged powerups with only slight changes to the naming conventions.

I am not proposing any changes to mine and grenade powerups because there is not enough demand for those powerups to justify making any changes. Furthermore, the available powerups are sufficient.

(continued)

Message Edited by Animi on 09-13-2004 03:21 PM

I think percentages are dangerous to play with... The higher powered the weapon, the more out of balance the powerups will make it. I think if they just stuck to solid numbers (ie 10-35) it would still be a good improvement for the weapon, percentage wise a better improvement for weaker weapons, and would actually make the range mod bonuses worth a darn.

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Ipseck wrote:
I think percentages are dangerous to play with... The higher powered the weapon, the more out of balance the powerups will make it. I think if they just stuck to solid numbers (ie 10-35) it would still be a good improvement for the weapon, percentage wise a better improvement for weaker weapons, and would actually make the range mod bonuses worth a darn.

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So, you're saying that instead of having powerups give a bonus of 33% to a weapon, they should just give a hard number bumpof 35 points to the primary and 15 to the secondary stat modifier?

That might work, but it would make our products even less valuable. No one is going to buy a powerup if it only increases their damage output by 35 points for 100 shots. It's not even worth it, really.

Plus, if you think about the HAM costs of most weapons, it would drop the cost of doing a special down to nothing. Because each of the stat modifiers on a weapon are of varying scales, I think percentages are the only way to do it.

Finally, I think it would be pretty tough to change the coding from percentages to true additions.

I like this system very much.

Gawd knows how much coding would be needed (And I program!!!)

Animi,

Great job with this. I really like the options and control it brings. I'm especially fond of the DoT powerups.

I'll highlight this with the devs.

Take care,
Guru

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Guruweaver wrote:
Animi,

Great job with this. I really like the options and control it brings. I'm especially fond of the DoT powerups.

I'll highlight this with the devs.

Take care,
Guru

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I was just giving the number 35 as an example.. Obviously it'd have to be adjusted for usefullness and balance

And my point remains - percentages make insane weapons insanely inbalanced weapons when you factor in both slicing and powerups.