Shattered Kingdoms

First off:

Close down the Fist:Druids:Cruicible We don't have the players to support the number of cabals

Hammer: FIne
Harly: Make their stuff usuable in a group
MC: Make their stuff usuable alone and rework their weapon skill because it's useless and nobody uses it.

Barb:Fine
Merc: Lose skirmish
Swash: Get rid of it and spread the skills out

Rogue: Pointless class but fine
Scout: Pets are pretty useless, other than herbs class is useless to take anywhere
Bard: Rework songs, make them less stat heavy, make them desirable to play, they are a chore

Paladin: Useless against everything but evil
Hellion: Useless because of save(Saves need fixed) Should also have consecrate armor not enchant weapon.
Priest: Need something to hold people in a room
Shaman: Remove voodoo or change it to something useful

Sorc: Remove final strike give them something utility wise on that level
Warlock: Uh make Magma spray take longer to cast
Necro: Just a complicated class should have to buy with LT


You should look over how many characters make it to GM and then are played longer than a month. What classes are scoring the most kills. Bring the rest of the classes up to that level.

Fix your death traps, a lot of these high end areas are just tedious. Loot scored for higher end areas should be dropped for all classes involved.

You should do a lot more with LT tokens. People earn the damn things so let them make a character that is a little unblanced.

Maybe merge the swashbuckler and scout class to more like a duel wield ranger.

(This paragraph is mostly just a rant:)I find that the classes are just fine as they are. Sure, it would be nice with more fresh stuff added to the game mechanics wise... But I really don't think think -that- is the problem. I think a problem is that we have a small player base and most of the vets seem to lack creativity. Most of them seem to adhere to one branch of meta-gaming and theory crafting. This happens to most online games and once you get stuck in the perspective of one kind of meta-gaming every other option is shunned upon and argued against. People start believing that there is only one way of playing successfully and that way has very few options. I will claim that this perspective holds no bearing what so ever and I will draw arguments from other competitive online gaming environments where meta-gaming takes place. Here you will see that different kinds of meta-gaming exist on different servers and on different continents etc. An example on SK would be that suddenly faerie fire is viewed as a powerful spell even though it kind of always has been - no one used it though. I only know of few vets that have actually broken free of meta-gaming the past few years and made successful pk characters outside of this meta. Unfortunately people don't follow up and explore other ways to play the game somewhat different with all the options in the game that are still sort of unexplored - at least with success. Anyway a way to break a meta is to make a lot of new implementations and tweaks at once, so please add all my suggestions below

Regarding TheX's suggestions and my own additions:

I really think this is a bad idea. It is a fact that we currently have a low player count but all these cabals provide a lot of flexibility both RP and mechanics wise for players to explore. Instead I would rather see that imm's formulate an elaborate codex for players in the mentioned cabals to follow in case there is no active player leadership. It should contain oaths, goals, history of the cabals, principles, expectations etc, so that players have a more immersive experience when leaders are not there to guide and set expectations etc. When serious and active players want to lead the cabal it should of course be possible to deviate but when they are gone there is something to fall back to.


I simply just disagree with the Harly thing. Being good at doing stuff alone and not working so good in groups (unless it is with other harlies) is a core theme for harlequins rp wise. It's great and a very powerful skill set they are offered - keep it as it is. Regarding MC, just make the weapon a bit better. Their skillset overall is really good - some kinda bad stuff and some reaaaally good stuff.


Yes it is fine but I would really still like the class developed a bit more in the direction it has already taken through the years. This has already been suggested some years ago: Make it a medium armor class, make toughness count and give them an enhanced dodge ability. Enhanced dodge could be tweaked especially against massive weapons. Let them be the class that can run around in all that nice leather armor etc. with good innates that no one is using anyway.


Nah, this class if fine as it is. Versatile as it should be. Many build options kinda.


No, never remove classes! Add more if anything! This class has been developed a lot and all the additions have been great. I think this class needs only one skill or two and rogues should have them as well. Both rogues and swashies are the "street smart" classes and I think both classes could gain a lot from a limited persuade like skill such as threaten and/or bribe. The skill(s) could be limited to work on a limited amount of alignments and be level limited like hellions domination spell - lvl x + charisma score as far as I remember. Money offered, strength, size vs size etc could also be a part of the calculation depending on which skill is in use. I could be more thorough but I will leave it at what I have written for now.


I think they need more to play with and they may have been nerfed a bit too much with the enhanced damage damage reduction. As mentioned a threaten and/or bribe skill would be cool. Also it would be cool if it was possible for a rogue to attack everyone in one column and let the one that is targeted be hit with the most damage (1/4 + 1/4 + 1/2 dmg of circle stab). From what I understand it kinda sucks ending up not doing any damage to anyone in a group fight other than a pet that is behind your target.


Scouts now having another pet is a great addition and I really like the idea about giving them markmanship as discussed elsewhere. Regarding pets are useless though - yes they are. I think it was a few years back that some major change was made, I forgot which. The outcome of the change however as that suddenly a lot of NPCs, incl. high lvl, didn't got screwed over in their accuracy. When you wore decent armor they would simply keep missing you, when they before the change had a proper punch. This also affected pets. Only very few pets were usable afterwards and still they simply did not do any damage. I would like that looked into (it may already have been. It's been some time since I last played a scout).


Songs are fine. Yes, make them less stat heavy. They are not a chore though They are quite fun. It was discussed before that they have a major mana issue. I suggest making songs of healing also regen their own mana - to me it makes sense. Singing a soothing song does not only sooth the one listening but also the one singing as far as I know


Simply not true. They aren't the easiest class to solo with but the potential tribunal NPCs and cabal skillsets available to them they become a very versatile class. They can however do really well against evil priests, hellions and necromancers solo.


I agree that saves needs a fix. Currently it is super easy for hellions and other maledict-classes to PK against inexperienced classes and close to impossible against very experienced players with very high saves on their gear. I suggest that a new saves system is implemented. Give races individual but much higher innate saves than they have now, based on character level, so that spells land like 1/2 the time to 3/4 the time (or more or less, dunno) in a scenario with a gm vs gm, depending on what malediction. When you wear gear with saves it has to pass the races innate saves. Like if you have a race with innate 15 willpower then you have pass that 15 willpower with gear before it starts counting. Now, regarding those who have really really high saves on their gear I suggest a higher chance of getting a critical failure on saving against the spell. On NPCs I suggest rolling back the changes made and instead of relying on the races innate saves and put scripts on end game NPCs that the builder doesn't want to get maledicted.


Nah, they are fine.


Shamans should have voodoo. The current type of voodoo still has tactical value and can still be really annoying if a shaman has a doll or your character. But, really, this spell has been wimped soooo much through times that it just isn't what it should be anymore. Instead I suggest rethinking the spell. My suggestion would be that voodoo dolls summon the spirit of what the doll is made of and manifests that spirit at the target of the spell. Make it an undead ghost NPC with hp based off of the shamans mana. If the spirit fails to kill its target (or any other target maybe if it faces a group) it will remanifest and attack the shaman. I haven't thoroughly thought this through and I am being inspired by certain RL shamanic practices and beliefs.


Nah they are fine Still a lot of room for creative playing with this class that I don't think is being explored. Final strike rocks! I wish it was still scribeable (jk )


Agreed.


Nah, they are fine.

My 5 cents

That was 5 cents worth?!

I was bored, okay? Haha

It seems to me that improving the adventuring classes overall would be the most needed balance improvement. Scouts have gotten some love recently so probably need the least of the three, but still a little. Bards and rogues could use a bit more. Rogues probably need to improve their damage. I kind of like the the idea of a column attack but unfortunately it doesn't seem to fit what they do. Bards, there are already a few major options I would like to implement, including the idea of adding instruments.

While I'm super excited to hear about the instruments being implemented, the biggest problem with bards is the lack of an enhanced mental regeneration. Their abilities are really good but the drain just takes so long to recover without meditation/trance. In reality, what they do is not actually so mental-based as it is vocal-based so maybe, just for bards, you could implement a special kind of water/liquid that they can consume which would recover their vocal chords quicker (ie recover mana faster while under that influence or be like a one-time potion of heal but for mana instead). Because it's vocal based, this liquid would only work on bards, not other mana-using classes. Just a thought on helping the class be balanced with others.

How I imagine it would work would be that the rogue runs behind the formation and stabs everyone in the column as they run back to the group formation they are in. I thought it would fit them well. They already do attacks by going behind. Dunno

I can see that as an attack that hits everyone in the rear, but how do they reach into the middle? A long vertical reach attack like that seems like it ought to be a speciality of a long spear or stabbing polearm. Not exactly a rogue weapon.

I believe the thought is more like the rogue running through the ranks from back to front with the weapons held out to the side doing damage along the way as they run back to the front. I could see this being a possibility for a rogue as long as he had the possibility of colateral damage along the way due to being stabbed, tripped or even trampled by a horse in the fray of battle.