Post by Kitsunenotsume on Oct 24, 2018 22:04:56 GMT -5
Context:
Light armor is squishy. We've known this for a while, we have seen the complaints, but ultimately we really don't know what changes to make to correct the issue.
After some deliberation, and with a few of the complaints kept in mind, I'd like to offer a potential concept that might help improve survival without changing strengths of various weights of armor. That said, my view is as follows:
The strength of Heavy Armor is one of attrition: you take hits every round, but for a given number of incoming attacks you can generally expect a relatively consistent chunk of your HP to disappear every so often, and plan your potions and healing around that for the long-haul.
The strength of Medium Armor is one of aggression: you take hits less than Heavy and take less damage per hit than Light, and generally focus on throwing out enough damage or abilities that the number of incoming attacks decreases faster than your HP.
The strength of Light Armor is one of evasion: you take hits only occasionally, but when they do they count for a lot, being most effective against area-of-effect, elemental abilities, and slower attacks that ignore armor or deal damage to make the distinction negligible.
However, as with all games of this nature, Engines is about numbers, and the option to fight 1v1 rarely occurs in a practical situation. As a result, the likelihood that one will be receiving more incoming attacks than one can dish out becomes increasingly probable given that most areas assume a minimum party size of 2, particularly in areas with either Swarm-spawns or large parties. As number of attacks increases, the chance that a character takes a damage spike in a given round before they can react increases, but the potential lethality that said damage-spike represents is greater for low-armor characters.
To combat this, previous discussions on the topic have mentioned a buffer of sorts to prevent "Hero-to-zero" syndrome of taking your full health-bar worth of damage in an interval small enough that the PC cannot react. While implementing some variation across the board might be worth considering to (marginally) improve player-agency when in mortal-peril, my suggestion here is focused on Light Armor specifically.
Suggestion:
I would like to suggest that a Light-Armor ability could be adjusted to provide a stacking defensive buff, either Evasion or Damage-Immunity. Each stack would provide a set value, up to a defined maximum defined by the Ability's tier, and can only be accrued at a set rate out of combat. Upon entering combat, the stacks stop increasing, and decrease once per round that the character takes damage.
My intention behind this mechanic is to permit lightly-armored characters the ability to avoid a few rounds of unfavorable odds, but should not have the staying-power of Heavy or Medium armor to simply bunker down and either weather the storm or press through. Instead, it favors a more "Hit and Run" method, while allowing a support or flanking character to survive a brief moment out in the open or an ambush before the battle-tempo falls into a more predictable rhythm.
The buff could be implemented directly with either Light Armor Agility or Light Armor Defence, or with alteration as an active-stance to Dash.
1) Light Armor Agility is likely the most reasonable choice, as it currently only affects Explosions - which are not universal, unlike Stamina Regen and Crits.
2) Light Armor Defense I am still a proponent for merging the native Dodge bonuses into the armor and providing a different defensive boon for, given that light-armor hit probability remains constant at all levels even with investment, but rate of attacks increases.
3) Dash could be adjusted to a stamina-draining toggle stance (akin to medium's Rage) that provides a similar benefit - this would make the buff-passive require stamina to maintain, allowing a more powerful effect such as an increasing minimum buff bonus for Evasive Dash, and the ability to refresh buff-stacks by movement if Skirmish is chosen. This has the secondary benefit of reducing the current requirement on Light Armor characters to spend every other round when under heavy fire making sure their survival stance hasn't fallen off, which can be heavily dissatisfying when crit in the window between one activation and the next.
Light armor is squishy. We've known this for a while, we have seen the complaints, but ultimately we really don't know what changes to make to correct the issue.
After some deliberation, and with a few of the complaints kept in mind, I'd like to offer a potential concept that might help improve survival without changing strengths of various weights of armor. That said, my view is as follows:
The strength of Heavy Armor is one of attrition: you take hits every round, but for a given number of incoming attacks you can generally expect a relatively consistent chunk of your HP to disappear every so often, and plan your potions and healing around that for the long-haul.
The strength of Medium Armor is one of aggression: you take hits less than Heavy and take less damage per hit than Light, and generally focus on throwing out enough damage or abilities that the number of incoming attacks decreases faster than your HP.
The strength of Light Armor is one of evasion: you take hits only occasionally, but when they do they count for a lot, being most effective against area-of-effect, elemental abilities, and slower attacks that ignore armor or deal damage to make the distinction negligible.
However, as with all games of this nature, Engines is about numbers, and the option to fight 1v1 rarely occurs in a practical situation. As a result, the likelihood that one will be receiving more incoming attacks than one can dish out becomes increasingly probable given that most areas assume a minimum party size of 2, particularly in areas with either Swarm-spawns or large parties. As number of attacks increases, the chance that a character takes a damage spike in a given round before they can react increases, but the potential lethality that said damage-spike represents is greater for low-armor characters.
To combat this, previous discussions on the topic have mentioned a buffer of sorts to prevent "Hero-to-zero" syndrome of taking your full health-bar worth of damage in an interval small enough that the PC cannot react. While implementing some variation across the board might be worth considering to (marginally) improve player-agency when in mortal-peril, my suggestion here is focused on Light Armor specifically.
Suggestion:
I would like to suggest that a Light-Armor ability could be adjusted to provide a stacking defensive buff, either Evasion or Damage-Immunity. Each stack would provide a set value, up to a defined maximum defined by the Ability's tier, and can only be accrued at a set rate out of combat. Upon entering combat, the stacks stop increasing, and decrease once per round that the character takes damage.
My intention behind this mechanic is to permit lightly-armored characters the ability to avoid a few rounds of unfavorable odds, but should not have the staying-power of Heavy or Medium armor to simply bunker down and either weather the storm or press through. Instead, it favors a more "Hit and Run" method, while allowing a support or flanking character to survive a brief moment out in the open or an ambush before the battle-tempo falls into a more predictable rhythm.
The buff could be implemented directly with either Light Armor Agility or Light Armor Defence, or with alteration as an active-stance to Dash.
1) Light Armor Agility is likely the most reasonable choice, as it currently only affects Explosions - which are not universal, unlike Stamina Regen and Crits.
2) Light Armor Defense I am still a proponent for merging the native Dodge bonuses into the armor and providing a different defensive boon for, given that light-armor hit probability remains constant at all levels even with investment, but rate of attacks increases.
3) Dash could be adjusted to a stamina-draining toggle stance (akin to medium's Rage) that provides a similar benefit - this would make the buff-passive require stamina to maintain, allowing a more powerful effect such as an increasing minimum buff bonus for Evasive Dash, and the ability to refresh buff-stacks by movement if Skirmish is chosen. This has the secondary benefit of reducing the current requirement on Light Armor characters to spend every other round when under heavy fire making sure their survival stance hasn't fallen off, which can be heavily dissatisfying when crit in the window between one activation and the next.
