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Radical idea - change attributes to more D&D like


Ondb

New attribute system  

179 members have voted

  1. 1. New attribute system

    • I like current system
      116
    • I prefer suggested system
      39
    • I would like something else to be implemented
      37


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I don't like current attributes (Might in particular). So instead of just saying i don't like it and would like suggest following system. 

 

Strength

  • +2% melee damage bonus
  • +1% ranged damage bonus
  • +1 Fortitude defense
  • +2% weight limit for character

Dexterity

  • +1% melee damage bonus
  • +2% ranged damage bonus
  • +1 Reflex defense
  • +4% spell duration (only spellcasters)

Constitution

  • + x % health/stamina bonus 
  • +1 Fortitude defense

Perception

  • +1 Accuracy
  • +4% Area of effect of all abilities

Intelligence

  • +2% spell damage/power
  • +1% spell duration (spells only, this is to enable small increase of duration based on this attribute)
  • +4% abilities duration (non-spells only)
  • +1 Will defense

Resolve

  • +1 concentration
  • +1 Will defense
  • +4% healing received

 

The main idea is to:

1/ Do not have Might attribute that does the same thing for every class. I want to have traditional STR - for melee, DEX for ranged and INT for spellcasters.

2/ The other attributes are useful for classes and enables different build strategy

3/ Standard party will have good distribution across all attributes.  

4/ Resolve issue with weak Perception and Resolve bonuses. (Melee characters will now benefit from perception, resolve more).

5/ Wizard class have only 1 really weak attribute: STR which i think is perfectly ok.

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

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I think actually voted wrong and said I liked the current system.

 

I don't,

 

I prefer the IE stat system, and the one suggested doesn't seem bad at all.

As it is, Might >>>> everything else, which is pretty weak IMO.

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Well, we already know that Obsidian agree that Per and Res are weaker than the other stats, so we can expect some tweaks there.

 

It does seem like might is a bit too good, being the stat that almost everyone will want to stack (given that it's a high-combat game), but I don't think that such large changes are necessary. Perhaps, for example, it could work if might only had half of its effect on spell damage, and the other half moved to Res? Probably not I guess, but there must be some way to tweak it without a radical redesign.

 

The thing you want to to avoid is 1) having might (or any other stat) useless for some characters, and 2) having the 'optimal' stat distribution being the same for everyone. Currently the system suffers from 2, but the suggestions I've seen for how to fix it suffer from 1.

 

It's a tough problem, and I think it will need several iterations of tweaking and testing to get right.

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I think actually voted wrong and said I liked the current system.

 

I don't,

 

I prefer the IE stat system, and the one suggested doesn't seem bad at all.

As it is, Might >>>> everything else, which is pretty weak IMO.

 

Just press 'delete my vote'

No to experimentation!

No to fixing that is not broken!

No to changes for the sake of change!

Do not forget basis of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment. Just put all your effort to story, fine-tuning and quality control.

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No amount of poll votes is going to change one of the most essential aspects of the system at this point.

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There are no doors in Jefferson that are "special game locked" doors. There are no characters in that game that you can kill that will result in the game ending prematurely.

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No amount of poll votes is going to change one of the most essential aspects of the system at this point.

 

Actually, attributes are among the least essential aspects of the system and one that's the easiest to change. It's basically a map of attribute values to combat bonuses. Not even programming, just adjusting values in a hashmap.

 

There are plenty of topics not worth discussing ("Make it more like BG2!") but changes to the attribute system are not among them. As long as there are six, pretty much anything can be changed right up to the last minute.

 

(FWIW I voted "something else." Per and Res are too dumpable, and I don't like the "might affects all damage" thing, which is counterintuitive. Find some other way to make muscle wizards attractive.)

Edited by PrimeJunta
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No amount of poll votes is going to change one of the most essential aspects of the system at this point.

 

Actually, attributes are among the least essential aspects of the system and one that's the easiest to change. It's basically a map of attribute values to combat bonuses. Not even programming, just adjusting values in a hashmap.

 

No, they're not. Because changing the meaning of attributes would require the entire system to be rebalanced and that's not something that can be accomplished easily. That has nothing to do with programming, and everything to do with a whole crapload of math that Josh & co had to do when designing the system.

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There are no doors in Jefferson that are "special game locked" doors. There are no characters in that game that you can kill that will result in the game ending prematurely.

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"I still prefer it far over D&D which just promotes min maxing."

 

So does this.

 

Anyways, I think the attribute system itself is fine. Just needs some  tweeks.

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A tweaked version of the current system would be optimal for me. I suspect that Obsidian are going to tweak Resolve and Perception first, seeing as those are the two stats they admitted were not very good.

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No, they're not. Because changing the meaning of attributes would require the entire system to be rebalanced and that's not something that can be accomplished easily. That has nothing to do with programming, and everything to do with a whole crapload of math that Josh & co had to do when designing the system.

 

Nah. Balancing is done near the end of the process. It hasn't been done yet. Revising the attribute system before final rebalancing barely registers.

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I disagree. Balance tweaks can be done at any time, but a change in attribute concept would have such a profound effect on the system that it would have to be redesigned from the ground up. 

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There are no doors in Jefferson that are "special game locked" doors. There are no characters in that game that you can kill that will result in the game ending prematurely.

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I disagree. Balance tweaks can be done at any time, but a change in attribute concept would have such a profound effect on the system that it would have to be redesigned from the ground up. 

This system is designed in such a way that you completely drop the attributes with zero problems. Sawyer even said that if he wasn't for IE tradition, the game wouldn't have attributes at all.

Imagine PoE, but with attributes completely removed. Now tell me, what problems are there?

Edited by Malekith
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I disagree. Balance tweaks can be done at any time, but a change in attribute concept would have such a profound effect on the system that it would have to be redesigned from the ground up. 

This system is designed in such a way that you completely drop the attributes with zero problems. Sawyer even said that if he wasn't for IE tradition, the game wouldn't have attributes at all.

Imagine PoE, but with attributes completely removed. Now tell me, what problems are there?

 

Removing the attributes completely is absolutely not the same as changing the way they work. The way stats currently work is tied to the current design of classes (all stats have a similar effect on all classes); if stats were to have a different effect on different classes (as proposed above), then all the classes would have to be redesigned to take that into account. 

 

We could drop all stats, and the game would still work. I'd love to read that quote, BTW, considering that I have yet to play a RPG (computer or tabletop) that does not have some form of attributes. I'm sure there are some Indie systems played by a dozen people that don't have stats, but that's hardly something that should be used in a project like PoE.

There are no doors in Jefferson that are "special game locked" doors. There are no characters in that game that you can kill that will result in the game ending prematurely.

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"I still prefer it far over D&D which just promotes min maxing."

 

So does this.

 

Anyways, I think the attribute system itself is fine. Just needs some  tweeks.

But isn't minmaxing a conscious choice by the player? Only a barbarian I made had max Might, Constitution and Dexterity. all the otehr "fighters" that I have created have been quite varied in stats and still work fine. They are not as efficient in combat maybe, but they do the job.

 

While I do agree that the system needs tweaks, I do also think that any stat system will fall to minmaxing of some kind. Specialists are considered more efficient than generalists after all.

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This system is designed in such a way that you completely drop the attributes with zero problems. Sawyer even said that if he wasn't for IE tradition, the game wouldn't have attributes at all.

Imagine PoE, but with attributes completely removed. Now tell me, what problems are there?

 

Usage of these attributes doesn't honor IE tradition at all (cause it's so badly implemented, that Dragon Age 2 stats look like ideal standard of rpg system compared to this), so that guy should have dropped them entirely.

Edited by Mrakvampire

No to experimentation!

No to fixing that is not broken!

No to changes for the sake of change!

Do not forget basis of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment. Just put all your effort to story, fine-tuning and quality control.

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"I still prefer it far over D&D which just promotes min maxing."

 

So does this.

 

Anyways, I think the attribute system itself is fine. Just needs some  tweeks.

 

Certainly, but to a lesser extent than 2nd edition.

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To be clear, I personally don't like the current attribute system, but I don't think it's feasible to change it at this point. The reason why I don't like it is because it was designed from a gamist point of view, whereas I personally prefer systems that are oriented towards simulationist style of play. However, I understand that it makes a lot of sense to adopt the gamist approach to system design in CRPGs (personal preferences aside).

There are no doors in Jefferson that are "special game locked" doors. There are no characters in that game that you can kill that will result in the game ending prematurely.

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