Thanks for the huge amount of replies

PvP seems interesting too but from what ive seen most people who play PvP have been training for years and are all mostly maxed out, so being on par with their level will take ages.

Hello again,
I think you greatly overestimate the time it takes to get a character into PvP shape.  The most important part of PvP in PS is understanding the game mechanics.  Second most important is what skills to train and how high to train them so that your time and effort is having maximum effect.  The problem is they are not documented very well even though for a long time there have been groups of people who really like to engage in friendly and often downright deceptive/hostile PvP.  As you can imagine secrets are heavily guarded.  The way I see it is that this level of secrecy is about pointless when there is next to none pvping anymore.

From what I've seen in PS is that there tends to be two different kinds of PvPers as far as their methods go.  Those who prefer using a small subset of skills and claiming it takes more skill and is therefor superior to other methods and those who will use anything and everything so long as it works.  You tend to see this attitude reflected in some npc too.  But when you look at the strongest of characters, like those in Bronze Doors Fortress for example, they embrace more diverse skill sets.  The biggest and most noticeable skill is magic.  I'll not go into the amount of name calling that has come from niche fighters who will only use weapons to such an extreme degree that they don't even understand magic mechanics well enough to counter a mage and then complain about over powered magic and spells.  I've used magic primarily in pvp for as long as I have pvped in PS and I can tell you that I have (almost) never killed anyone who was actually on their toes enough to have a plan in case they were attacked ( Edit: there are a few exceptions that come to mind. Lets just say those spells were kinda new in the game and not expected so..... yeah).  Time permitting I plan on writing some guides as to what skills to focus on depending on a players particular focus and talking about some game mechanics as I think this would greatly help new players and answer a lot of questions.  Maybe even get new players to realize the complexity of the game so they realize there is more to it that what it looks like at first glance.

Quote from: Vaneal Serozen on October 17, 2016, 09:14:42 am

*I am still very concerned as to why there has been no news or confirmation on being able to change masteries.  It seems only logical that this would be done.*

We want people to have the opportunity to be specialist in their own field of choice, we don't want to impede them from training
whatever skill they want. But from a IC, and gameplay perspective there must be choices to be done.

Therefore the basic idea is players will be able to train whatever skill they want but only pick up a single specialization for a given category (i.e. choose to posses sword or axes special attacks, but they can train both skills up to 200).
We are also accounting for the possibility for players to forfeit their previous choice and pick up a different specialization. The price is to give up the previously obtained special attacks and pick up the new ones.

There will also be set of special attacks everyone can get no matter what specialization they pick up (i.e. shields and two-handed).

I hope this explain a bit more.

Thank you very much for this explanation.  Yes, it does explain.

Vaneal, I was not talking about you.
Read my post again. It is an answer to Illysia, who seemed a bit unpatient, "venturing" forward not even one day after your original post.

Ah, ok.  I miss some obvious stuff I guess.

Quote from: Vaneal Serozen on October 15, 2016, 07:31:26 pm

Answers from well informed players, devs and gms are welcome.

When people ask questions, Gonger, they like to have an answer as soon as possible. A day later is not considered a quick response when people are posting in other threads more frequently, so I ventured an answer since I knew that I more than likely had the answer. My answer may not have been as detailed, but if you read back you'll see it was accurate.

I didn't want Vaneal to feel like their post was being ignored, especially since the question was also open to players to answer.

You did bring up a good point that I had not thought of previously even though it seems rather obvious now. (obvious again  ).

Thanks for the responses.  Sorry for my delayed responses, just a bit busy.

Hello,

After speaking with my guild mates and sharing our mutual concerns and questions I decided to make this post.  My goal is to inquire about content that has seemingly been forgotten or perhaps silenced.  Answers from well informed players, devs and gms are welcome.  We have played ps for a long time and are well aware that it all takes time.  I believe that our concerns reflect those of a great deal of the player-base and even if not our guild alone can make up 25%-50% of the active player base assuming that none of the players are alts.  Regardless of the game being free to play I believe we deserve some honest answers.  We have invested a great deal of time into ps and hate to see so much inactivity in even the most faithful of players and guilds.  Here are some of our biggest gripes.

Content stuck in Limbo - This goes for many things that were promised over a year ago in some cases.  This includes but is probably not limited to:

Mastery changing/reseting - Currently this only effects magic but according to the dev team it will grow to involve combat skills and crafting as well.  We have worked hard to reach full potential in many different skills and to have all but 1 or 2 skills in each category limited by an end-game system that, in all honestly, looks like a slightly reworked class system is a real slap in the face.

Weapon Balancing - This applies to all weapons.  Looted weapons were balanced so you can potential get one that is better than the current best crafted weapon.  Not a bad idea in my honest opinion but the changes to the chance to loot good names in general have been reduced to an abysmal low.  I don't want to know how many hours it would take to loot something that is even comparable to crafted gear.  Looting aside, what about two handed weapons?  Their damage per delay ratio is always worse than duel wielding two one handed weapons and they have no noticable damage reduction or block advantage or rating on them.  On the opposite side of the spectrum daggers have a fixed delay that cannot be modified by either enchanting or looted names.

Shindrocks Crater - This project has some serious excitement building but it seems to have fallen off the face of Yliakum.

Laanx Mind/Wrath Weapons - This fix was expected at least 4 months ago in a mini update but seems to be being delayed and coming in a different mini update with other stuff?

Quivers - Not essential but given the insane amount of arrows it takes to kill stuff we are really missing it.  I almost think a weight and size reduction is also in order for arrows or a accuracy buff for bows.  Seems at the moment ps is bent on making ranged weaponry very inferior to that of close quarters.

Mastery Wands and Gear - These were worked on probably over a year ago now and I've not heard anything of them.  I have wondered if this is due to the magic system being delayed until weapons catch up for I don't see the point in this when close quarter melee weapons when combined with magic buffs/debuffs have always been top dog when it comes to spike and sustained damage regardless of pvp or pve.

I believe that the majority of our problems comes from the large amounts of loose ends that are left dangling.  Has this content been aborted?  Is it being developed for the Unreal Engine 4 client?  Is there even an Unreal client or what is exactly meant by "A working demo"?  There are so many questions and concerns for the furture of ps but there is so little information to be found.

If I had to stress the major problems that I personally have with the game at this time, I would have to say the mastery system, weapon balances and loot chances.  Now, I'm not saying that I hate the idea of having a few skills picked out at a time that you can reach maximum potential in and not the others.  I think it could be a good opportunity to create more defined play-styles but to make it so that a player can NEVER change his masteries or make it so it will potential take hours of questing to change just one of them is not acceptable.  Had I known this was to happen I would have invested in 2 or 3 characters instead of just one.

Please forgive any glaring errors in my post.  I broke my glasses and have yet to get a new pair.

Thanks for reading.








                                           

You Guys are overpowered, in your guild most of your members maxed everything,
Just join and show us you skills and get a chance to win those Brute weapon,

But no, I'm sure you won't you guys prefers posting on forum... "Kingdom of valour" where did you put your valour ?

Work at it as long as I have and you will be just as strong, there is no secret or elusive offer with that.  You will not though,  you just call things that you do not understand op.

Ok, let me make it clear that I am trying to remain calm and civil in this post but I assure you I am feeling anything but that.

This post is in regards to the DarkStars Duelist Championship rewards.  The rewards consist of several 300q weapons with various names that have previously only been available on looted weapons.  These names include stats bonuses, defense multipliers and attack multipliers.  They can be seen at the Hydlaa arena entrance by a tent and bulletin board. The damage of these weapons ranges from a bit high to absurdly high.

What in the name of sanity are you thinking?! 

If there are no plans to make these items craft-able for everyone else in relatively short order then you have absolutely no right to be doing this.   
Need I remind you that you just nerfed the relative power of ALL the looted names less than a month ago because they were to powerful!?  And now you want to give a few players exclusive ownership of weapons that make even the old looted items pale in comparison?!    

How do you expect the player base that is not into pvp dueling to feel about these insane weapons being given to whomever can win the competition.  Having a competition will only ensure that he player with the best hardware and internet connection has a much larger chance of getting items.  Not to mention that the players who are most likely to win the competition are the ooc pkers. 

The whole event reeks of deception and a biased distribution of power.
You might be thinking, "Really man, you are over reacting".  I think not.
Look at the forum post announcing it, you will only see rewards listed as  "tria and special items". 
There is no indication as to the nature of or the identity of the "special items" in that post.  It is conveniently left out so the only way you will see what those items are is to see them in game.  To me it sounds like there is a gm who is purposely pandering to one particular player type that do NOT need more powerful weapons.  Currently, regardless of the recent changes, weapons still greatly outperform magic so any excuse of being under powered is absurd.

To let this happen is absolute madness.  I demand action be taken.  I've played this game over a 6 soon to be 7 year period and I have never seen anything that can compare to this.  It is inexcusable.

Dev oh dev, where art thy brain?
Drunk and washed down the drain?
Dev oh dev, what's your name?
Hunt them down, end the insane.
Dev oh dev, Lie in pieces so plain.
Rot in thy grave, you tortured slain.
Dev oh dev, rise strong again.
Rinse thy mind and wash all stains.
Dev oh dev, prove worthy thy rain.
Save player and plane from hideous bane.

Quote from: Mouli on March 06, 2016, 12:52:00 pm

Players were Rping and RPer were Playing

This is the best.  My favorite grinders could RP with the best of them, and conversely my favorite RPers both ground out what their characters needed and roleplayed the rest (e.g. would rp an aggro warrior if they had stats/skills for it, or a healer if their crystal way was high enough (didn't need to be maxed at all) and if not, would rp that they were semi-pacifist or not able to heal - hope that makes sense).

Anyway, it's certainly my goal.

Eonwind, is this going to happen?  Or have we dissipated the energy by YAPPING about it for ages?

Vaneal, if we can't have it in the dlayo pit, do you want to advocate for a PVP area filled with dlayos who drop unique loot in another area?  Or did you lose interest?

It is still something I would like to see be brought back to ps.  Eonwind already mentioned making some changes to the platinum mine but I'm not a big fan of the area due to the crazy geography.  I have not said much do to nothing new being brought up and I still think that being rewarded per kill is a flawed reward system for pvp.  I have played enough pvp oriented games to realize that this is not what ps needs and perhaps not ideal for any game but it is easy to implement so it is the preferred system.  I thought I was really clear about what would be an easy reward that people have always liked,  good loot.  Maybe not unique loot pools but good loot in the form of named gear drops. Npc type could be changed but I personally would prefer humanoids.  Some of the other ideas are good ones but as of right now I think the devs have more than enough to focus on.  I don't know for certain but I think the loot is the most simple solution for rewards atm. As to would I like a new pvp zone with dlayo like mobs in a relatively flat area?  Yes, I would love to see this.  BD is freaking huge and has a ton of potential for areas like this.

I've not lost interest.  I just have not said much for a while as I am having a hellish time with classes.

Just have certain areas in the wilderness set as PVP zones. Set them far enough away from the roads and cities so that someone can't just accidentally walk into them, but so that they are potentially in the path of the quickest route between cities. So, if you were to run in a straight(ish) line from, say, Ojaveda to Hydlaa, completely ignoring the roads, you run a risk of being killed along the way. This would have the added benefit of more player interaction on the roads.

Another good but questionable idea is to add small PVP zones into cities, for example the hidden alleyways and sewers, but tucked far enough away from places where beginners might go to train or quest. I swear that these at one point existed, but were rare.

As for making PVP worthwhile, we know for certain that we will never allow players to loot other players, so I propose this: allow stealing from other players, but only conditionally, and if the victim chooses. Assume that a player has been beaten or has yielded. The attacker can either kill the victim, let them go, or steal. The victim has a choice to offer something for their life. You'd need a longer wait period between losing and release, but I think this should only apply to PVP zones and be five minutes maximum.

Final idea (I swear), which I think would really help roleplay and tie into mechanics, is to make faction-based PVP. This is drawing from Dark Souls, but I could see it working really well here. Once you've joined a specific faction, a Dakkruist one for example, killing people could reward you with more faction rank but additionally give you points that you could exchange for money or items with an NPC in the Death Realm. Another (legal) example would be a gladiator faction, which gives you a point upon defeating another player in the Arena, and those points can be redeemed for money at an NPC in the Arena.

Tell me how all this sounds, because I'm pretty sure these ideas would save PVP. We need to make PVP great again!

As far as pvp zone placement goes, I have never been a fan of smaller more plentiful zones as players just run in and out of them freely to avoid any kind of conflict and may even abuse the boundary.  As far as pvp zones in towns go, I had high hopes that shindrok's crater would be a pvp zone seeing as though it is run by outlaws and cutthroats but i doubt this has been considered.

As to yielding in pvp zones, I am skeptical but if properly done it could be a nice feature. I believe it should be an option for the player to do if they want to avoid death and not forced on them like it is in a duel.  If it is forced on the player, it opens up the possibility of them being practically stun-locked by anyone who has nothing better to do than be a jerk for an indefinite period of time until they use the /die command to "escape" to the DR. 

Faction based pvp sounds like a nice idea but I am not certain it could be implemented with the factions in ps because a lot of them are not war-like and even dakkru only values the lives of the strong if I remember right.  I know, I mentioned it previously but I think it would be a headache to develop into game mechanics.