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I was banned from the forums for about three weeks due to making a (comical) racial epithet. The ban was supposed to last for a week, but regardless, I am back now and able to weigh in on the most recent update and what it means for players.
12/26/2008 Code Update and its implications
What changed that will affect mechanics in Shattered Kingdoms?
1. Inns are slightly more difficult to attack, through the introduction of 100% spawning bounty NPCs. This change is relatively minor, but adds to the "realistic" portions of the game. It disproportionately benefits kingdoms with strong bounty NPCs (Taslamar/Zhenshi) and disproportionately hurts kingdoms with crappy bounty NPCs (Empire/Northern Wastes/Ayamao). This change boosts the power of tribunals overall. Cabals don't have need to worry, the balance of power is still quite fair.
2. Group members automatically moving at the speed of the group leader has severely boosted the usefulness of having access to the refresh spell. To engage in any pk that goes on for more than a few minutes, one must now have access to the refresh spell - or else be forced to be relatively immobile. Paladins, Priests, and Shaman have received a significant boost in their usefulness in pk.
3. Regens rates being affected by training hp/me/pe will result in players, on average, having fewer resistances than they did before. Instead of training stats, players will now be more likely to spend their attribute points on things that do not significantly affect PVP. To make up for missing stats, players will be wearing more +statted eq. From this, casters (and more noticeably scrolls/staves/wands) receive a mediocre buff.
4. Barbarians being able to train magic resistance will result in less-experienced players being able to play a character that requires some finesse to kill, but training MR is not a viable option for any mudder who plans to competitively pkill. Wearing a set of eq with will/fort/mp is still quite clearly is advantageous over using MR. Even though some barbarians will opt to go the MR route due to it now offering healing, these barbarians will be sacrificing massive damage output and defensive capabilities in order to protect against...what? People reciting charm on them? An experienced player can avoid charm without sacrificing so much, but this will be useful to beginners who want a taste of pvp. This change has very little overall change, besides wimping warlocks/rogues/bards somewhat in my mind, the three classes which rely upon non-melee damage to be of any use against a barbarian.
5. Even more inexperienced players will be between level 40-50, halting their leveling and wandering around with crappier equipment than they did before. This change means very little for experienced players other than slightly weaker enemies who can't hold onto some of the elite eq we seek out.
6. Deep-elves were buffed slightly, and this change will result in both more darkies as well as the legitimate playability of deep-elf sorcerers, necromancers, and hellions. Deep-elves still are crappy for the other classes imo. (Unless you have access to cheater items such as high level ironguard scripts).
7. Mood aggressive received a noticeable buff, and mood defensive received an even more noticeable buff. This change will quicken combat, because warriors will now do more damage. More often than not, warriors are fighting targets that either are NPCs or do not stand a chance in halting their damage. Giant hammer barbarians will be doing near "golden-era" damage with a 2h weapon.
8. Charm receives a buff. Dulrik continues to surprise the player base with his strengthening of a spell that players have repeatedly claimed is overpowered. Casting or reciting level 50 charm on an enemy group leader will _still_ force him to disband his group, leaving all casters in the front row. Charm still is an instant kill spell when performed by an experienced player who knows what to do next and to provide some minimal amount of roleplay in ordering his slave to die. Charm can no longer be escaped...classy.
Overall, I think the mood changes were misguided. Mood aggressive did not need any boost at all, damage is high enough as is. Take a look at non-parryable reach weapons if you still are confused on that. I think the changes to deep-elves were thoughtful and have finally made it a useful race, leaving sprites, elves, and dwarves as the 'garbage' races of the mud. There was barely any significant change made to law code that will have a lasting impact, and the changes to 'looting' code were downright stupid and a waste of time. MR healing and barbarian training were 'cute' changes that are good for newbies and will be ignored by more experienced players who have an interest in pvp. Charm was buffed, inexplicably, but perhaps sometime soon Dulrik will remove scrolls that are above level 20 and lengthen the cast time to 2 rounds to solve all issues involved with the spell.
That's Algon's code update report - contact me on AIM/YM/the other forum if you wish to debate/discuss anything I wrote above.
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