Balance Suggestions

[Etherdrifter]

As things stand we have a small percentage of the player population with humours over 200, and the rest below 100. While I appreciate that no lifers should be rewarded, in a game like salem this also punishes casuals (your main playerbase for this kind of game).

Several possible fixes :

A one time nerf : Every character loses 4/5 of their humours when the system is fully balanced.

Combat change for pvp only : Yb works on a percentile basis raising base weapon damage by (humour/5)%. All weapons do a certain amount of damage (again a % of blood of the target) and the increase is multiplicative rather than additive. For example, say a sword does a base damage of 10% per hit. With a 300 yb humour it would do 16% per hit. Quality of the weapon playing into the % would also not go amiss. Armour could reduce damage % done (to prevent mass zerging).

Limitation of damage : Currently a high humour character can completely wipe out a claim. Crime is very unbalanced in this respect and is a high reward activity with little (or no) risk if you are no lifing. Simply put every crime committed has a counter, these are linked to all characters on the account. Once the threshold reaches a certain value the criminal is "wanted" and anyone in boston can get their scents from an npc. C&D reduces the amount added to the counter. As an estimate : Theft of 50 items along with the destruction of 2 objects seems reasonable (gates do not count towards this counter) for a lowish (25 C&D) character to perform without becoming 'wanted'.

[iotuegli]

goo ideas... i mean, at least you use your brain

A one time nerf : Every character loses 4/5 of their humours when the system is fully balanced.

that don't seems reasonable... could be good but i think is more logical a cap for all the big humors, like make all the chars with more than 200 humors drop to 200, or 250.
however a bit over normal player 0% raising but at least lower than base wiping

Combat change for pvp only : Yb works on a percentile basis raising base weapon damage by (humour/5)%. All weapons do a certain amount of damage (again a % of blood of the target) and the increase is multiplicative rather than additive. For example, say a sword does a base damage of 10% per hit. With a 300 yb humour it would do 16% per hit. Quality of the weapon playing into the % would also not go amiss. Armour could reduce damage % done (to prevent mass zerging).

i don'tunderstand that well... seems very good for adding different types or PvPing in that messed game but if i'm not wrong... that sword is ay 70% dmg done no?
(300/5)%+10% = 60%+10%

Limitation of damage : Currently a high humour character can completely wipe out a claim. Crime is very unbalanced in this respect and is a high reward activity with little (or no) risk if you are no lifing. Simply put every crime committed has a counter, these are linked to all characters on the account. Once the threshold reaches a certain value the criminal is "wanted" and anyone in boston can get their scents from an npc. C&D reduces the amount added to the counter. As an estimate : Theft of 50 items along with the destruction of 2 objects seems reasonable (gates do not count towards this counter) for a lowish (25 C&D) character to perform without becoming 'wanted'.

that's is what i'm waiting for, if you attack or crime everywhere at least expect an hundred of noobies chasing you to death
every day
every month
every HOUR

[anfros]

Maybe they could just make a new server once the game is somewhat balanced...

[TeckXKnight]

Limitation of damage : Currently a high humour character can completely wipe out a claim. Crime is very unbalanced in this respect and is a high reward activity with little (or no) risk if you are no lifing. Simply put every crime committed has a counter, these are linked to all characters on the account. Once the threshold reaches a certain value the criminal is "wanted" and anyone in boston can get their scents from an npc. C&D reduces the amount added to the counter. As an estimate : Theft of 50 items along with the destruction of 2 objects seems reasonable (gates do not count towards this counter) for a lowish (25 C&D) character to perform without becoming 'wanted'.

I would like to dispute the initial claim that crime is without risk. If anything it is very dangerous and a base with a few braziers can trash your stats all too easily with a few crits. Criminal acts are brutal, relatively easy to punish, and can ruin you with so much as a single mistake or act of carelessness.

The suggested solution is also perplexing. You'd have access to all of their scents and as many of them as you want for the purposes of murdering and robbing a character just by talking to an npc in town?

[Dallane]

Do you even raid? If the answer is yes then you are lying. There is alot of risk to raiding.

The humor nurf is just a stupid idea. You want to cut players back because they worked harder then you.

Combat damage isn't that good of a idea. Weapon quality should play a roll in the damage tho.

[gacekssj4]

Limitation of damage : Currently a high humour character can completely wipe out a claim. Crime is very unbalanced in this respect and is a high reward activity with little (or no) risk if you are no lifing. Simply put every crime committed has a counter, these are linked to all characters on the account. Once the threshold reaches a certain value the criminal is "wanted" and anyone in boston can get their scents from an npc. C&D reduces the amount added to the counter. As an estimate : Theft of 50 items along with the destruction of 2 objects seems reasonable (gates do not count towards this counter) for a lowish (25 C&D) character to perform without becoming 'wanted'.

As you probably realize, pepole are making alt characters to store items from being destroyed. And your solution will only make players to have 2 ore more accounts. One for farming, and other ones for raiding characters. This would make this kind of exploiting even more messy.

[Dallane]

While I appreciate that no lifers should be rewarded, in a game like salem this also punishes casuals (your main playerbase for this kind of game).

I would like to see your numbers to back this up.

[MagicManICT]

As you probably realize, pepole are making alt characters to store items from being destroyed. And your solution will only make players to have 2 ore more accounts. One for farming, and other ones for raiding characters. This would make this kind of exploiting even more messy.

Check the OPs other posts. He has suggestions about the alts, too.

Not bad ideas overall, but I just don't see how that would fix issues that a flat character reset (not a wipe) wouldn't fix.

[iotuegli]

The humor nurf is just a stupid idea. You want to cut players back because they worked harder then you.

you're true, they worked very hard to obtain that god status but now they aren't normal player anymore... they can wipe a claim in a matter of time without any regard of being chased to death by any1... at least giving them less change to wipe randomly but a better PvP could be an idea

but i really don't agree with you

[Etherdrifter]

Alrighty, lets get started :

I would like to dispute the initial claim that crime is without risk. If anything it is very dangerous and a base with a few braziers can trash your stats all too easily with a few crits. Criminal acts are brutal, relatively easy to punish, and can ruin you with so much as a single mistake or act of carelessness.

The suggested solution is also perplexing. You'd have access to all of their scents and as many of them as you want for the purposes of murdering and robbing a character just by talking to an npc in town?

This particular fix is suggested to "limit damage", that is make a raid on your claim something you can recover from without needing to turn to seed/bank alts. You can still raid, the only difference is you cannot wipe out a claim entirely without attracting some notice.

Perhaps I should have been clearer, a player in boston can collect a scent on that player AND track them via talking to an npc. Only summonable scents count towards the crime counter so creating a new kind of scent "wanted" and giving it the tracking power of the sum of all a player's surviving crimes seems to work. You, of course, can still raid people as much as you like (based on your C&D skill), however now if you start wiping people's places out entirely you are likely to be found by an angry mob of nubets/bountyhunters. I should also mention that this counter decreases by a certain amount ever 10 mins (I would say 5 points per 10 mins).

I would like to see your numbers to back this up.

All games are aimed at pulling casual players in, their income is low but there are a hell of a lot of them around. Far more than there are no lifers.

Remember, no lifers focus only on one game, whereas casuals can focus on several. Basic mathematical intuition should tell you that games aimed solely at no lifers are not going to be profitable. Salem being a commercial project... Well you get the gist I am certain.

Do you even raid? If the answer is yes then you are lying. There is alot of risk to raiding.

The humor nurf is just a stupid idea. You want to cut players back because they worked harder then you.

Combat damage isn't that good of a idea. Weapon quality should play a roll in the damage tho.

Saved the "best" for last.

I'll not address your point on raiding as the evidence of many eviscerated claims on plymouth gives lie to your statement.

Nope, the nerf was suggested as the most basic kind of fix. If humours of 200 are now almost impossible to reach why should a select few have them when they are no longer viable? Course they should be allowed because you have those kind of humours don't you?

As combat stands it is completely broken, unless you no life PvP is not a serious option. The suggested mechanic would make combat between players a dangerous option for both parties, of course a player in full hq armour with a hq sword and high yb is still going to be able to pwn armies of noobs, however a few sword wielding midgame players will give an uber lategamer pause for thought. This mechanic is to remove "godlike" pkers from the game (well those that rely on insane humours to win their fights rather than skill), and if implemented the humour nerf would not longer be needed.