May have been said, what if you could change the shape of aoe at higher intelligence- think Tetris pieces. That would make the aoe far more tactical and you could decrease the over all spell abilities- fireball also gets to be a fire wall, etc.

the post idea is awesome though so is the adjustable aoe idea.

I'm all for shaping AOE size, but I don't think tying it to duration is good.

I'm all for shaping AOE size, but I don't think tying it to duration is good.

 

Yeah, this was an idea I had a while back, but ultimately I was convinced that it would be too hard to balance to make it viable.

Very cool idea!

Yeah, this was an idea I had a while back, but ultimately I was convinced that it would be too hard to balance to make it viable.

 

I realize the original thread is old, but this ties in with you and Sensuki's other thread about attributes where the discussion is also focused on adjustable AoE radii. I was thinking about this and instead of a zone of non-friendly fire, I kind of like the idea of adjusting to a larger size having a reduced effect in some other aspect. What struck me was perhaps as you adjust the AoE for something like a damage-dealer like Fireball, have the damage decrease with the increase radius and vice versa. Not sure how the numbers would work out there (I'm sure you can do the math though, Matt!), since damage is tied to Might, so adding a damage enhancer for INT as well may not be optimal.

If the goal is to get INT to be valuable for area buffs/debuffs and ranged spells, then I think the most simple thing would be to allow AOE size to range based on intelligence.  So have a set size on an AOE (large for fireball, small for buff/debuffs)  and allow int based characters to resize it up and down based on intellect.   While decreasing radii might be meaningless to buff that only target allies, it still allows int to be more effective for casters etc who can now surgically cast mini-fireballs.  Thus, both use cases get use out of int stats.  

 

Yeah, this was an idea I had a while back, but ultimately I was convinced that it would be too hard to balance to make it viable.

I realize the original thread is old, but this ties in with you and Sensuki's other thread about attributes where the discussion is also focused on adjustable AoE radii. I was thinking about this and instead of a zone of non-friendly fire, I kind of like the idea of adjusting to a larger size having a reduced effect in some other aspect. What struck me was perhaps as you adjust the AoE for something like a damage-dealer like Fireball, have the damage decrease with the increase radius and vice versa. Not sure how the numbers would work out there (I'm sure you can do the math though, Matt!), since damage is tied to Might, so adding a damage enhancer for INT as well may not be optimal.

 

Letting you adjust AoE but give another penalty just makes raising Int for AoE bad like Josh said in other topic

 

But I 99% sure that OE already decided on parts of AoE being FF safe as they were already in the middle of implementing this.

Edited September 17, 201411 yr by archangel979

How would that even work?

You make it sound like just a slider, where 1 intelligence gives you the middle point and every two additional points give you the possibility to deviate by one step in each direction? Sounds tedious to control without pausing the game every time.

 

I don't particular like this idea. It's like removing the tactical decisions in positioning - certain spells are balanced around a risk/reward mechanism by placing them on the battlefield, as has already been argued in another thread. Also makes stuff hard to predict in the long run and seems abusable by the AI.

 

Keeping the product of modifiers at 1 while allowing for greater deviance as your abilities grow is nice from a mathematical point of view in that it can balance stuff in terms of damage total somehow, but IMO it should be possible to increase both duration and area. Therefore I still prefer josh suggestion where you can raise both independently by sacrificing other attributes.

How would that even work?

You make it sound like just a slider, where 1 intelligence gives you the middle point and every two additional points give you the possibility to deviate by one step in each direction? Sounds tedious to control without pausing the game every time.

 

I don't particular like this idea. It's like removing the tactical decisions in positioning - certain spells are balanced around a risk/reward mechanism by placing them on the battlefield, as has already been argued in another thread. Also makes stuff hard to predict in the long run and seems abusable by the AI.

 

Keeping the product of modifiers at 1 while allowing for greater deviance as your abilities grow is nice from a mathematical point of view in that it can balance stuff in terms of damage total somehow, but IMO it should be possible to increase both duration and area. Therefore I still prefer josh suggestion where you can raise both independently by sacrificing other attributes.

 

Making it work would just be a question of UI.  Some people have suggested mouse wheel.  Another way would be to down-click to place the center and drag left to shrink, right to grow.   

 

I'm generally spam pause when I play IE games,  combat doesn't seem fun to me unless it's scary enough to require frequent pausing   

So with this added feature, do you see making single target abilities AoE-able?

 

If we decrease the AoE of a NON-DOT spell, what is the bonus then?

 

I'm liking the idea here but wondering how this all works out in your head.

So with this added feature, do you see making single target abilities AoE-able?

 

If we decrease the AoE of a NON-DOT spell, what is the bonus then?

 

I'm liking the idea here but wondering how this all works out in your head.

 

Well, I should preface this by restating that I no longer thing it's a good idea due to the difficulties it would present for balance, but...

 

No, I wasn't imagining single target abilities being AoE - any that had a Duration though would just have the Duration increased to the max.

 

And as for AoE of Non-DoT spells, i was just thinking the AoE would still be customizable but there wouldn't be any other tradeoffs at play.