I think a threat system is most necessary. Along with a way to increase as a "tank", dump as others.

Could make it where you have access to 1 battle mind at a time and can only change every so many hours in real time. Battle minds could be trained like other skills.

Most logical seems like it would be energy from the crystal, almost like photosynthesis, but more complicated.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't a certain metal learned at level 5 keep gaining all the way to 50+?  I didn't want a spoiler, if it's fine to post what the metal is, I will edit and change it.

Hope I'm not resurrecting something that is too dead, but I'm curious if developers have a timeframe in mind, based on the "average player" to max out a skill.  Or even gain 10 levels, 20 levels, so on.  What amount of time would you say would be an "average player" would commit in a week to leveling a skill, and how many weeks should it take for the "average player" to hit certain levels?  How long should need to be spent training vs. how much time needed to gather PPs and trias to train?  Bear in mind, that a player should not be maxed in all skills, unless you have huge amounts of time to dedicate to the game.  Another thing, getting stats, magic, crafting, and other skills would each have their timeframe, and would not be standard across the entire game.

Specular lighting?  Changes the way objects reflect light, looks a little more realistic as it reacts as you move around the object.

I'm loling at these...

- The last 10 chat messages before logging off will now be shown when logging in again.
- Now you'll only be notified of buddies logging in if they are fully done loading, so you're not /tell'ing them before they can receive messages.

Handy feature that doesn't show in commercial games.  You guys are really thinking here, good job.

I posted a topic in general awhile ago, about balancing classes.  I started plotting some ideas on how to balance groups, and they just kept flowing.  Keep in mind, this is all "napkin" math or no math at all and could/should be tweaked.

All gear has potential to affect stats dramatically, for the better if they are matched up correctly.  Should be percentage based, so that you are not empowered almost completely through your gear, at first.  All percentages will be added together before being applied.  Gear will offer higher highs and lower lows when it is more rare.  Weapons will complement certain types of gear.  Gear that you buy from vendors would provide up to 10% overall and earlier quests would provide access to be a little above that through crafting, rewards, etc.  As quests become harder, better rewards, just like things are like, now.  This would allow us to create our own "classes" of a traditional RPG, but allow the infinite possiblities of Planeshift.


light--intent--massive spell damage at the cost of defense, not as affective at physical combat

+ways of magic
+ mental stats
+gear can increase skills in any of the 6 ways of magic with spillover into the related ways at 1/4 ratio and taking away from the opposite way at 1/4 (ie raising crystal by 10% would raise blue and azure by 2.5% and lower dark by 2.5%)
-takes the most damage and lowers physical weapon skills by 1/2 (raising crystal by 10% would lower all physical weapon skills by 5%)
-cannot use a shield
-ranged physical combat accuracy drops

Medium armor would be for spellcasters and melee and would offer different rewards to each.

medium-caster--intent--deals good spell power, quick melee damage, better survivability, decreases offensive spell range for more power

+increases magic and mental stats same as cloth but generally at 90-95% the rate for similar rewards
+takes 1/2 as much damage as cloth
+offers better buffs and removal of debuffs
+decrease weapon skills by 1/4 instead of 1/2
-does not offer major upgrades in most areas of magic
-may decrease the opposite color than the color it increases(1:2 ratio)
-spillover rate is much lower 1/8

medium-physical--intent--massive physical damage, better survivability

+speed on some weapon classes(light and ranged) increases
+increase physical stats
+takes 1/2 as much damage as cloth
+increase range accuracy at max range
-some weapon classes(heavy weapons) skill level reduced by half

heavy--take as little damage as possible

+takes 1/4 damage as cloth from similar sources
+increased shield skill
+increase damage from some weapon classes(heavy)
-decreases effectiveness of all spells cast
-higher defense gear will further slow a weapon and increase damage slightly, this produces less damage overall

Gear changes cannot be made in combat, this way you can't change to healing gear and heal yourself to continue fighting, the switch back to take the hard hits.

Threat is determined by average damage per last 5 hits.  Fast weapons hit more often for less and produce less threat and heavier weapons hit harder and
produce 25% more threat at similar levels.  Ranged and magic produce 25% less threat than similarly geared melee.

Full plate sets should deal about 85-90% the damage of a leather wearer, when used for melee.
Tanking should deal 60-70% of that damage.

Let me know what you think...