集团动态

Group dynamics aim to bring players together.

One of the main philosophical pillars behind our design was that PvE must be impactful and inclusive. We want solo players, small groups and large groups to all have a home within our system.

创造的灰烬 is in development. These systems could change through playtesting and player feedback.

Group sizes

The minimum goal is 500 players on a single battlefield. I think we will be able to hit 500vs500 but we shall see. – Steven Sharif

创造的灰烬 is designed for solo players as well as large and small groups.

• Parties have up to eight (8) players in a single group.
• 袭击 will have 40 man groups.
• Content will be tailored for 40, 16 and 8 person group sizes.
• 竞技场 will have 1 man, 3 man, 5 man and possibly 20 man Free-For-All (Deathmatch) group sizes.
  • There won't specifically be guild vs guild arenas but team-based matchmaking allows teams to face other teams.
• 城堡围攻 are expected to have at minimum 250x250 players to be on a single battlefield, with the possibility of increasing this to 500x500 over time.

The idea behind an 8-person group is to allow us to really amplify party roles, and to create a need for each of the archetypes in every party.

Content isn't locked behind guilds.

• Mechanics exist within larger conflicts for small groups and even solo players to impact the battle.
• This includes systems that will likely focus on single group sized participants while the larger battle is occurring.

Experience

• Experience gained from killing mobs and bosses when in a group is divided by the number of party members based on damage done by the group (compared to any other parties attacking that mob or boss).
  • A multiplier is then applied that increases with the number of party members. The multiplier is between 1.3 and 1.4 (approximately).
  • Experience gained is not affected by looting rights.
• Experience gained from quest rewards is not shared with other party members.

Balancing

The sixty four (64) classes are partitioned into eight primary archetypes. Balancing of active skills only relates to these eight primary archetypes.

• There are four primary groups of augments assigned to each base archetype. Balancing of augments relates to the four augment groups for each of the eight archetypes.

Even though augments do radically change the way your active skills provide you abilities, there's still a primary focus on the base archetype itself and not the 64 whole classes. – Steven Sharif

We're not really talking about 64 true classes, we're talking about eight classes with 64 variants... There isn't as much variance between the 64 classes as you might expect. It's not like there are you know 64 different versions of... radically different classes. – Jeffrey Bard

Balancing in 创造的灰烬 is group focused not based on 1v1 combat.

• 1v1 matchups will have a rock-paper-scissors dynamic, where one class will be superior to another.

There will be match ups in 1v1s where one class will be superior to another; and that application should be a rock-paper-scissors dynamic. We want there to be counter-play between the different classes... Instead it's going to be a group focused balance, where as long as you have the diversity of classes present, that's going to be an equal level playing field. It's going to be very dependent on skill and strategy. – Steven Sharif

Certain secondary archetypes are capable of "bridging the gap" between their counterpart.

Certain archetypes are capable of moving the gap between their counterpart per-se. If I am a Tank archetype and a Mage is my counter, I can take a Mage secondary and kind of bridge the divide slightly; and then move my identity that direction ever so slightly. – Steven Sharif

Group finder

There will not be a generalized group finder in 创造的灰烬, instead Bulletin boards are used to encourage localized grouping.

Bulletin boards

Bulletin board concept art by Michael Bacon..

Bulletin boards are available within nodes and player taverns.

• A market UI lists the current items available for sale in the node and in the same economic region.
  • This includes items for sale in player stalls and auction houses.
  • Players can't purchase directly from the market UI. Instead it gives the location of player stalls where the items may be purchased.
• Encourage localized grouping.
• Enable posting of jobs.
• Quest sponsorship.

Bulletin board jobs

Job types include.

• Dungeon delving.
• Quest related.
• 收集.
• Task oriented.
• Unlocked story arcs.

Looting rules

Alpha-1 preview need before greed looting UI.

创造的灰烬 intends to use traditional loot rules, selected by the party or raid leader.

Free-for-all

Whoever is first to loot gets the loot.

Lootmaster

A master looter (or lootmaster) is a player designated by the party leader to decide how loot is distributed in a dungeon or raid party.

Round-robin

With round-robin looting, party members take turns looting.

Need before greed

This is a traditional need before greed system based on dice rolls.

Since there is very little gear binding in 创造的灰烬, it's left to the party to deal with players who excessively roll Need on loot.

Bidding system

Intrepid are investigating a potential bidding system, which allows players to bid on items instead of rolling for them.

• The highest bidder wins the item.
• The gold then goes into a pool that is split among the rest of the party members.

Party roles

创造的灰烬 has the traditional trinity of Tank, DPS (damage dealers) and Support (healer or non-healer) roles.

• Although traditional roles are present, players should not feel branded by their primary archetype.
• Skill augments available through the class system allow characters to be personalized outside of their primary role.
• Players can also double down on their archetype choice to strengthen their primary role.

We have our eight base archetypes; and the trinity is a pretty strong influence with regards to the eight base classes. However the area in which we actually begin to play with that line between the trinity is in the secondary classes that you can pick. That's where we begin to blend those spaces and allow people a little bit of influence over their role and whether or not they fit perfectly within a particular category within the trinity. – Steven Sharif

Intuitive grouping

There are systems such as quests, events and monster coins that lend themselves toward intuitive grouping, but no specific decision has been made to include this functionality.

背景

An affiliation tree determines which entities can participate in attacks against other entities within its hierarchy.

• Node citizenship.
• Alliances.
• 行会.
• Parties.
• 袭击.
• Family.
• Religion.
• Society.

There's node citizenship. There's guild. There's alliance. There's party. There's raid. There's family. All of these types of affiliations have a hierarchy. The highest of which is your node affiliation: So your citizenship is your greatest superceding relationship, which means if you were a part of a guild and the guild has multiple nodes in which its members are citizens of, if there was a war between two of those nodes, the members of those nodes would be first and foremost citizens who defend that node, even against their own guild members. – Steven Sharif

All of these things have some hierarchy; and within that hierarchy there's the ability to participate within certain systems. So for example, if you have a node that has fallen under your vassal state and you're a citizen of the parent node, then you could participate in a siege against the vassal node but if you're a citizen of the vassal node you could not participate as an attacker against the parent node; so there's a hierarchy, unless you were to renounce your citizenship. – Steven Sharif

See also

• 原型
• 类
• Adaptive content
• Bulletin boards