Regarding armor, I like choice but I also like cause and effect. Any class (profession, discipline, whatever) should be able to wear any armor-type – a caster should be able to wear plate, a warrior should be able to don healing robes and receive the arcane benefit, and all classes in between should be able to wear whatever – but there should be consequences to those armor choices.
Ask yourself, really what is the difference between a ninja and a full plate knight? They’re both melee warriors, the difference is their equipment which have different pros and cons. A ninja is essentially a ‘glass cannon’ of the melee world, they wear cloth which makes them agile and able to get in close very quickly to reach vital areas on the body and then retreat just as fast, but one solid hit from a claymore and they’re split in two. On the other hand, a plate warrior like a knight is much slower moving and gets tired much easier, but those vital areas are very difficult to exact critical blows through all of their shielding.
So, I’d like to see cause and effect with armor systems. If my character is wearing plate gloves then it should lower dexterity; plate boots or leggings should lower agility or movement speed. If my character casts magic, they should not be able to wear any type of metal alloy on their hands or face because doing so will cause reverb in the spoken words of the spell from their helm or the effects of the spell could have an unpredictable outcome due to the metal gloves when thrown from their hand. This is also why most casters opt to using staves and wands as weapons, because they’re made from wood which doesn’t negatively affect the spell. This doesn’t mean a casters couldn’t use a shield or a metal sword, it just means that one hand would need to be left open to release spells from. Essentially, if you want to cast spells in a traditional sense then no metal on the hands or covering the face (maybe a talent would change that later on).
I imagine a paladin-like class that would use an open-faced chainmail helm, as to not affect casting, a plate chest piece, leggings, and boots, leather gloves and then a shield in one hand and a mace in the other, but, because the mace is a long piece of wood with a stone head, it doesn’t affect casting negatively.
Likewise, maybe plate and chain take extra damage from lightning effects. I like the idea of all of my teammates needing to change out their armor set because I know we’re about to go face a bunch of lightning -spewing beach drakes or something. Or perhaps we’re about to go face a bunch of necromancers so no one can wear hide or leather armor because the necromancers can influence the dead flesh of the armor in some devastating fashion.
I want armor to rise above just stats, I want the armor type itself to have situational effects to my character’s abilities; like chain boots making stealth impossible due to its noise, tower shields being too heavy and dig into skin so they require metal gloves to wield, necromancers can manipulate hide and leather, and any class that wishes to cast spells must do so without plate covering their face or metal on their hands.
I want armor to become situational to battle mechanics and combat circumstances should change what armor I want to wear depending on who or what I’m fighting.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that I don't want to see any gear get replaced or left behind like it's tiered. All gear should have it's place and time, maybe that starting piece has lower defense bonuses but it gives me the stamina regen I want because it weights less and that's what I'm looking for in regards to the fight that's right around the bend.
Oh yeah, it also has to look cool as hell. I’m not big on the full-blown super fantasy stuff like World of Warcraft’s glowing and pieces floating armor, I like the more grounded in realism armor of Dark Souls.
Seriously, you should just take a look at Dark Souls' gear/stat system. It's one of the most open-ended and diverse systems I've ever come across.
Regarding armor, I like choice but I also like cause and effect. Any class (profession, discipline, whatever) should be able to wear any armor-type – a caster should be able to wear plate, a warrior should be able to don healing robes and receive the arcane benefit, and all classes in between should be able to wear whatever – but there should be consequences to those armor choices. Ask yourself, really what is the difference between a ninja and a full plate knight? They’re both melee warriors, the difference is their equipment which have different pros and cons. A ninja is essentially a ‘glass cannon’ of the melee world, they wear cloth which makes them agile and able to get in close very quickly to reach vital areas on the body and then retreat just as fast, but one solid hit from a claymore and they’re split in two. On the other hand, a plate warrior like a knight is much slower moving and gets tired much easier, but those vital areas are very difficult to exact critical blows through all of their shielding. So, I’d like to see cause and effect with armor systems. If my character is wearing plate gloves then it should lower dexterity; plate boots or leggings should lower agility or movement speed. If my character casts magic, they should not be able to wear any type of metal alloy on their hands or face because doing so will cause reverb in the spoken words of the spell from their helm or the effects of the spell could have an unpredictable outcome due to the metal gloves when thrown from their hand. This is also why most casters opt to using staves and wands as weapons, because they’re made from wood which doesn’t negatively affect the spell. This doesn’t mean a casters couldn’t use a shield or a metal sword, it just means that one hand would need to be left open to release spells from. Essentially, if you want to cast spells in a traditional sense then no metal on the hands or covering the face (maybe a talent would change that later on). I imagine a paladin-like class that would use an open-faced chainmail helm, as to not affect casting, a plate chest piece, leggings, and boots, leather gloves and then a shield in one hand and a mace in the other, but, because the mace is a long piece of wood with a stone head, it doesn’t affect casting negatively. Likewise, maybe plate and chain take extra damage from lightning effects. I like the idea of all of my teammates needing to change out their armor set because I know we’re about to go face a bunch of lightning -spewing beach drakes or something. Or perhaps we’re about to go face a bunch of necromancers so no one can wear hide or leather armor because the necromancers can influence the dead flesh of the armor in some devastating fashion. I want armor to rise above just stats, I want the armor type itself to have situational effects to my character’s abilities; like chain boots making stealth impossible due to its noise, tower shields being too heavy and dig into skin so they require metal gloves to wield, necromancers can manipulate hide and leather, and any class that wishes to cast spells must do so without plate covering their face or metal on their hands. I want armor to become situational to battle mechanics and combat circumstances should change what armor I want to wear depending on who or what I’m fighting. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I don't want to see any gear get replaced or left behind like it's tiered. All gear should have it's place and time, maybe that starting piece has lower defense bonuses but it gives me the stamina regen I want because it weights less and that's what I'm looking for in regards to the fight that's right around the bend. Oh yeah, it also has to look cool as hell. I’m not big on the full-blown super fantasy stuff like World of Warcraft’s glowing and pieces floating armor, I like the more grounded in realism armor of Dark Souls. Seriously, you should just take a look at Dark Souls' gear/stat system. It's one of the most open-ended and diverse systems I've ever come across.
