Rifleman Archive

As I understand the changes to HAM costs that are being proposed, we may actually benefit from it in an odd sort of way.

One of our biggest complaints is that, while we are the supposed masters of damaging the only unhealable HAM pool, we do unhealable damage to ourselves doing it. The same is true ofany special we fire regardless of the target pool(s) affected. We damage our own mind pool, which is unhealable. Other classes can fire specials and do damage to themselves as well, but their specials primarily hit their own healable HAM pools.

As I understand the change, the cost of specials will no longer be assessed as damage, but will temporarily reduce the pool maximum. So if I have a 900 mind pool and fire a 100 point special, my mind will not drop to 800/900, it will drop to 800/800 and recover over time (assuming no other damage is done) back to 900/900.

Now initially, this sounds bad.Even though it istemporary, they are reducing the maximumvalue of my pools for using specials! But think about it. What has our complaint been? We cannot heal the damage we do to ourselves using specials. But what do heals do? Heals bring the current value of the pool up to the maximum value of the pool, or at least try to. So right now, if a pistoleer doing specials does 100 points of damage to his own health and he hasa 900 point health pool, his stats will become 800/900. A quick stim that does a 100 point heal takeshis current back up to the maximum, leaving him with 900/900. But guess what? With this change, the stat will not go to 800/900, but to 800/800. Therefore, since his current is already at the maximum, there is no damage to heal. This means that specials, for everyone, willcause unhealable damage, and, just like us, they will have to wait for the pool to recover on its own.

So as far as I can see, aside from possible differences in recovery time, we are not that much worse off than we were before, but now everyone suffers from the same penalty. They can no longer spam specials,pop a stim to recover, and then keep on spamming. So I think this change may actually help balance things for us.

Sotaudi...

I'm tending to agree with you.It would seem to me thatwith the new method, after we fire a special and our mind MAX dips, it sounds like it will go back up faster than if it were damage (in today's terms).

I wonder how Muon Gold will affect the mind with the proposed changes?

Actually Sotaudi, I think you've hit the nail right on the head.

Sure, it's going to change the way we think in combat but I agree that the new system does address the imbalance between the professions when it comes to healing HAM (it simply won't be possible foranybody anymore.)

So despite the fact we're all going to have to make adjustments to our playstyles, this does actually benefit rifleman more than any other profession from a balance point of view.

Note, this isn't a comment about the HAM costs themselves (I understand that some professions feel that thier HAM costs are way too high - we can only hope these professions will have their concerns addressed) but personally, I like the new system - in theory, at least!

Nice insight Sotaudi - thanks!

Zebri Kharan

Master Ranger, Master Rifleman.

Oh, and you guys were right about the +20 bonus at master... it's awesome, thanks!

I think this is going to be a great change for our benifit. I mean we basically deal with the same system now already so this aint a big change really. But now pistoleers, carbineers, ect are going to feel as limited as we feel regaurding HAM usage and we already got a 5 month advantage on dealing with it.

This is going to be a great time in the first month before everybody learns how to adjust.

WayneInAustin,

Muon Gold buffs mind, focus, and willpower. Since focus gets boosted, the higher focus will mean that the mind cost is reduced; thus, the hit to the mind pool maximum is reduced. That will help. Also, the mind pool boost itself temporariliy raises the pool maximum. Thus, there is more maximum from which to draw to do specials. I do not believe willpower currently affects the proposedHAM-side recovery time, so unless they do change that, the HAM recovery will not benefit from the boosted willpower. That meansthat we probably will not benefitas much from the boosts, but it still should be amajorbenefit using it. On the other hand, as you mentioned, the HAM recovery is supposed to be faster than normal, so it may not be a significant difference.

The only question I would have is regardingwhat happens when your buff wears off? If you have lowered your boosted max 850 points, and your buff wears off, and your normal mind pool is only 800, will you automatically incap? Will it act like a bleed and take you down to 1 point? Does anyone know?

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Sotaudi wrote:

WayneInAustin,

Muon Gold buffs mind, focus, and willpower. Since focus gets boosted, the higher focus will mean that the mind cost is reduced; thus, the hit to the mind pool maximum is reduced. That will help. Also, the mind pool boost itself temporariliy raises the pool maximum. Thus, there is more maximum from which to draw to do specials. I do not believe willpower currently affects the proposedHAM-side recovery time, so unless they do change that, the HAM recovery will not benefit from the boosted willpower. That meansthat we probably will not benefitas much from the boosts, but it still should be amajorbenefit using it. On the other hand, as you mentioned, the HAM recovery is supposed to be faster than normal, so it may not be a significant difference.

The only question I would have is regardingwhat happens when your buff wears off? If you have lowered your boosted max 850 points, and your buff wears off, and your normal mind pool is only 800, will you automatically incap? Will it act like a bleed and take you down to 1 point? Does anyone know?

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I imagine it'll be just like incapping yourself on muon now. Curently, you buff your mind w/muon, youspam specials fora few minutes too long, muon fades, yourmax mind drops to 400 making you - (some amount) and you incap. In the new system, max is raised to1700 w/drink, shoot a few HS's and max is lowered to 500, then drink wears off and lose 600 mind; instant incap. Haven't heard anything official though either, just guessing.

So, is it just me or does this seem like minddraining/attacking profs are going to benefitincomparison to other combat profswith these changes? Instead of just mind being "unhealable" all stats are going to become unhealable from self-inflicted (using specials)damage in effect? Benefit to all will be that regen rates are faster? The purpose of stims will go from healing enemy and self-inflicted damage tohealth and actionbars to only healing enemy-inflicted damage.

Sounds like there will be more folks switching to less-encumbering armor and the necessity of getting buffed before entering battle will increase.

- Odite Fosore

this change was on TC about 3 months ago but was yanked from actually going live because it was too restrictive in some aspects and the way they did it made certain attack styles godly. whatever we see for ham chamges will be a pale reflection of this method. if any of that idea actually surfaces again i will be surprised

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Xian-Thariuz wrote:
I don't like it. If I'm understanding correctly, every battle will now be fight to the death, no strategy, i.e. take 2 shots and heal. And Combat Medics and other Doctors and Medics in the field effectively become useless. Unless I'm not understanding correctly, I think that's a bad idea.

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Message Edited by Rolassk on 02-17-2004 08:34 PM

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Barb-Wire wrote:
this change was on TC about 3 months ago but was yanked from actually going live because it was too restrictive in some aspects and the way they did it made certain attack styles godly. whatever we see for ham chamges will be a pale reflection of this method. if any of that idea actually surfaces again i will be surprised

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I remember seeing that too, it'll be interesting to see what happens.. I only hope it all works well.

Personally I can't see why a "Specials" bar can't be implemented, like the Force Bar for Jedi.. Would that be so hard?

You can't heal it

It can still depend on your Secondary stats as to how much specials cost and its regen rates, or you could have a set amount of time for each special cost to regenerate ( i.e. 25 seconds ) to stop infinite spamming of specials.

It can't be damaged from attacks

It's really only the amount of Points the "Specials" bar would contain that I can see as being a problem, would everyones be the same ( 1000 ) or would it be the average of your Primary Stat bar's etc... Sorry to go a little off topic there

But yes, if the T.C Changes come through to Live i think it will help us a bit rather than hinder us.

Well the HAM Publish comes next Patch so we will see what happens.

I don't like it. If I'm understanding correctly, every battle will now be fight to the death, no strategy, i.e. take 2 shots and heal. And Combat Medics and other Doctors and Medics in the field effectively become useless. Unless I'm not understanding correctly, I think that's a bad idea.