Do you want a balance patch?

[yerkyerk]

As you can read in the bugfix thread, there's been some good and fast progress in creating an unofficial patch. Currently, a beta patch which contains numerous fixes is out. Check it out here.

I would like to know if there's enough interest to start a balancing patch and also if there's interest in working together to create one. I feel a balancing patch should be discussed by the whole community it's adressing. This way it can gain wide-spread acceptance and adresses issues that everyone is concerned about. Ofcourse, that also means making compromises where needed.
In order to gain the status of a wide-spread unofficial balancing patch, there's a lot of discussion and argumentation needed, in contrary to a fixpatch, which adresses issues everyone wants to have fixed. To do this, help is needed from a sizable part of the whole TQ:IT community. I have an idea of how this could be realized, but in order to make that work, your active help and input is required.

So.. do you want to help?

[claudius]

I think it is a good idea but it is a change and that is hard to negotiate. For example if you nerf skills then thats a reduction in someones char and if you boost skills thats a change too.

But I say change is good! (sometimes)

[Mihr]

I'm new here, but i think balancing it's always a good idea if it's done properly.

I don't know if it's possible, but it would be great if you can choose what fix or whatever do you want to install... like checkboxes or something like that.
This way, a complete balance patch can be done, and everyone can suits it to their needs and tastes. Just a thought :P

[Batman]

Originally Posted by Mihr

I don't know if it's possible, but it would be great if you can choose what fix or whatever do you want to install... like checkboxes or something like that.
This way, a complete balance patch can be done, and everyone can suits it to their needs and tastes. Just a thought :P

That would put an end to whatever multoplayer there is. Everyone would have a diferent version of the game.
If it's going to be done, it needs to be done once and once only. We need to be running the same version so that we can still help people with problems. If anyone releases a patch that can be tailored to each individual players wants and needs, I'm outta here.

[nemhauser]

some questions:

while testing the 'unofficial patch' - do you know if person with patch can connect to person without patch (and vice versa)?

would this balance patch be in form of installer or a mod?
i understand that all changes would be done in database, so making a mod is a possibility ( xmax is database mod and people without xmax can join it.. so it could be possible that people without balancing patch could join the server with that patch.. also if it would be mod - people could choose to run it or not at will.. if you install it you can't simply uninstall it)

--

we can also start defining what do you/we mean by balancing:

- is it nerfing overpowered skills (example: can't think of anything right now because what i like to use is powerful, but not overpowered in my mind)
- is it making unusable skills usable (example: briar ward, flame surge, takedown)
- is it changing item properties (example: sapros' reduced resistances, archmage clasps -recharge)
- is it making monsters more tough (example: epic monsters could have more health and/or resists and/or damage and/or use more skills)
- is it also something else?

my favourites are 2 && 4

[dawe1313]

i think a balancing patch would be a very nice long term project for later on down the road. especially if it could be a truly community wide project, getting other forums (german, fench, etc.) involved.

for short term, presenting it as a mod instead of a patch, seems to be the more logical choice.

@yerkyerk,
you've been doing an excellent job co-ordinating the bugfix patch. i would suggest getting that finished and in widespread use first. then start thinking about balancing

[yerkyerk]

Well yea, thanks to the people on this board, most of the work on the bugfix patch is done. Yes, there is still some work to be done, and it's not going to be started right away, but I do think the iron should be melted when it's hot - and it will be hottest when the unofficial patch is fully done and spreading. So I want to see what interest there is in such a thing. Don't worry that I'll start this project before the bugfix patch is out and running.
Long before any modding can be done, there should be a lot of discussion about the balancing.

About the patch; I assume playing multiplayer with somebody who doesn't have the patch is not going to work - but that's the reason why it should be a communitywide patch. Everybody should have the same patch, just like it would be with an official patch.

Ofcourse, if you don't want a balance patch, you can just not install it - the technical issues are adressed in the fixpatch.

Originally Posted by nemhauser

- is it nerfing overpowered skills (example: can't think of anything right now because what i like to use is powerful, but not overpowered in my mind)
- is it making unusable skills usable (example: briar ward, flame surge, takedown)
- is it changing item properties (example: sapros' reduced resistances, archmage clasps -recharge)
- is it making monsters more tough (example: epic monsters could have more health and/or resists and/or damage and/or use more skills)
- is it also something else?

my favourites are 2 && 4

I would assume it's all those things. Everything needs to be discussed though, we can't just put things through.

[BeaverusIV]

There needs to be clear timeline put out so people can have their say etc on different problems.

e.g.:

April 7: Start discussing aspects to be changed.
April 14: Discussion on monster hp/dmg & boss hp/dmg
April 21: Discussion on Hunting Mastery & Pierce dmg
... etc, etc.

I think that will let everyone have a say. So we would need people to post up what they want changed specifically (maybe not number-wise, but at least:' I want rally cooldown time extended, the skill is teh uber!') And then those points can be put up for discussion.

Lets do this properly people, so there doesn't have to be another for a while! xD

[yerkyerk]

Well, my actual idea was to ask if there could be a subforum in the modifications section. In this subforum, there would be the balancing patch. Still with me?
In the balancing patch subsection, all aspects would have another subsection, one for;
- skill balancing
- item balancing
- monster balancing
- game mechanics (for things like -100% recharge, energy cost, granted skills, etc)
- other stuff (additional stuff, things we left out, etc)
All subsections would contain a sticky in which all relevant threads of the subsection are linked and the current results thereof.

Ofcourse, this is just an idea.

[BeaverusIV]

Sounds good. I would put myself up for being a mod to these subforums. I'm keen to moderate seeing as I'll leave the actual work to the more experienced. But I would like a timeline setup; enough time to let everyone have their say, and little enough that the workers can get on with it! I am very okay with several small patches, i.e. one that changes monster hp's then one that changes some skills cooldown/durations ets, then one that changes %ages for skills, etc.

PS: I am VERY for a shake up of the whole forums (No more gameplay/spoiler seperate), we don't really get enough activity to have so many subforums. But then again, that would ruffle feathers...