[Next SMP Suggestion] Progression Tree

Catcocomics

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Just to get this out of the way, this suggestion is not intended for LoP (but if staff really wants to for what ever reason, feel free to add it).
The idea here is instead based around giving players a more customizable move set rather than sticking them into ever more specialized classes.

Yes, this will utilize a level-up and xp system, because we don't want people maxing every ability out on day one and essentially being a god at everything, and there have been many complaints before about how people with more free time get to rein supreme.
To remedy this, I propose the only freely-given ability: Equalizer.
To be more specific, this ability is more to be 6 different abilities, from which you may choose, well, leave that to the limit experts.
The different versions of Equalizer are to correspond with the main 6 progression branches, and the effectiveness of Equalizer is dependent on how much higher your adversary's level is than yours, which means using it on someone of a lower level will yield negatives towards your efforts.

I also believe that the usage of Equalizer should be removed after reaching a mid-game level, so that, now that you have a fine arsenal to work with, you can try to properly skill/grind your way to where ever you go (rather than leaning on a crutch the whole game).

Now onto the greatness; the actual progression:

Everyone has two overarching trunks: Attack and Defense
The Attack trunk has 3 main branches:
*Direct (consists of mostly melee weapons and damage focus)
*Tactical (consists of mostly range weapons, as well as a focus on debilitating effects and supporting effects)
*Magical (a mixture of the two above, but using mana instead of long cooldowns and sometimes bypassing armor)
The Defense trunk also has 3 main branches:
*Bulk (Focuses on reducing all damage possible by means of armor and shielding)
*Dense (Focuses on absorbing damage by means of a strong health pool)
*Swift (Focuses on avoiding damage altogether)

there is also a 7th branch of sorts, the healing branch, but you'll find its abilities scattered among all the other branches.

To prevent people from again maxing every single ability, or otherwise becoming the god of all trades, there will of course have to be a level cap, and also special resistances/weaknesses and limitations for certain choices made:

Magic limitations:
*your mana pool is based on how many progression points you've put into this branch, there by preventing you from being able to spam magic when the only spell you have is magic missile, when you already have great stuff is swords or bows.
*putting points into an element will raise your defense against that element and lower you defense against that element's opposite (choosing sky makes you less resistant to earth, etc...).
the defense/weakness ratio is to be 1:1.2 so that a person trying to be the Avatar can be more easily dealt with by other, more specialized magic users.
*Putting too much into the Bulk branch will inhibit or altogether nullify most abilities under the Magic branch.
More precisely, using heavy armor and heavy shields will interfere with most magics.

Defense limitations:
*heavy armor and heavy shields will greatly inhibit the Swift branch due to mobility issues.
*only the Dense branch increases HP and natural regeneration.
*the Bulk branch may have magical protection, to act as an alternative armor type for casters (potency dependent on magic specialization). Magical protection focuses more on defending against other magics than physical damage.

And obviously, people will want to be able to respec their abilities, whether to experiment, or to just try and find the balance that works for them.

If this thread is in the wrong section, please move it and let me know.
I realize that today is in fact the first of April. Please disregard this because I would have put a bunch of memes or something in here if I was actually trying to troll people.

I hope this is of great value in the near and far future.
 
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