Feedback:User/Tennessee Ernie Ford/Standardize foci and shields
Standardize foci and shields
| |
|---|---|
| User | Tennessee Ernie Ford |
| Categories | Items → Weapons |
Standardize foci and shield[edit]
Fix the mechanics so that all foci and all shields behave the same way whenever the wielder does not meet the requirements.
Example 1
- AR 8 (for AR 16 shields) and AR 4 otherwise.
- E+6 (for E+12 foci) and E+3 otherwise.
Example 2
- Reduce benefit by 50% (rounding down).
Background[edit]
Current  bonus (if foci req are not met) |
Drops (ordinary) |
Crafted or Collected |
Quest rewards |
Dropped Greens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | All | Nightfall EotN |
Quest greens Bonus Mission Pack |
Nightfall (max items) EotN |
| 3 | 
|
Proph Factions PvP |
Quest non-greens End-game greens |
Proph Factions Nightfall (non-max) |
Foci: Currently, foci offer a completely inconsistent method for determining energy: if the requirements are not met, an off-hand might offer +3 or +6 energy, but there is no simple rule of thumb to determine this. For example:
- A dropped Green from Nightfall might provide +6 (max items) or +3 (non-max), while an otherwise identical Prophecies off hand would provide only +3.
- An off-hand crafted in House zu Helzer would provide +3, but the equivalent from the Asurans would offer +6.
This forces the player memorize the table above and remember the source of the item ...or try out each item to see what happens. (But wait: it's worse than that, because many items use identical names, despite their different mechanics.)
Shields: The situation is even worse for shields, in part because there is no easy way to test the AR benefit of them.
Teaching gramma to suck eggs[edit]
If this is coded into the mechanics, I can imagine that it would take hours just to figure out why the numbers are inconsistent. However, since foci found in Tyria offer the same energy benefit when used in Elona, I suspect that it's a data problem.
Normalizing data in databases is tricky (and regression testing those changes is worse). But surely the situation can be improved. For example, just fix dropped greens, so that they, too, always offer +6 energy (if the requirements are unmet). By establishing a single rule for greens, we remove several complications from the status quo...and only need to change stats for a small subset of easily-filtered items.
