Forum Poll (9/04/08): Magic Grade Items

I want everyone to know that I'm extremely pleased with testing and the balance threads going on with the new item tier system currently. As pyth can tell you with ease I severely think about MM&M way to much, its in my head before i go to bed, when i wake up, while I'm at work, and the moment i get home i usually start working on it. That being said I had a epiphany today that I would like everyones opinion on.

Basically Pyth and I decided earlier this week that Unique Grade items will be introduced slowly into the game and it was not a good idea balance wise to introduce them all at once.

I'm starting to feel the same way about the magic grade items as well. While I can easily change any balance issues brought to my attention by the community I cannot possibly balance everything by the release of 8.0, that being said this poll is going to determine if we will do the same thing with the magic grade items as we will with the Unique grade items.

Now two things happen here. First if we decide to slowly introduce the magic items we will keep MM&M balanced from the start of 8.0 all the way through 9.0. Also if we decide to go this route I have much more time to make spells for the magic grade items instead of using 75% default spells and 25% home made spells we can have all homemade spells for the items going this route.

Second, if we decide to throw all of the magic grade items in at the launch of 8.0 it obviously will be alot funner to play and technically speaking we may get more players on board because of the vast customization allowed by an additional 32 Gear pieces (which is roughly the amount of gear pieces in 7.00 through 7.14a btw)


Consider before you place your vote that if we do put them all in balance is going to be done from version to version, we will have rapid releases to fix game breaking balance issues, I have no problem with releasing a map version every day until the balance issues are fixed but keep in mind some players do not like having to download a new map everyday before they play, and especially if that new map is nothing but a balance fix and no new content or bug fixes. Also with balance fixes on a day to day basis many items that players buy will change rapidly over the course of 8.0 through 9.0 which will significantly change players strategies on a day to day basis, which would get me mad personally so i could only imagine the general reaction to this. Now the latest deadline for the release of 8.0 is Saturday night with a possibility that we release tomorrow night, being Friday night. So this poll is very important and time sensitive, so if you read this you must vote, it is vital i get a general answer by tomorrow.


Now as we stand so far 8.0 will not have any Unique Grade items, 8.1 is the first Unique Grade item version and every whole decimal version (8.10 or 8.20 > not 8.11 or 8.11a) will see a new unique.


On a side note I laid out a general plan for the future releases for pyth and we both agree on this, Ill put it here for you guys now as well :

Whole Numbers 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 ect ect will be code reset versions

Whole Decimals 8.10 8.20 8.30 8.40 ect ect will be content additions

Sub Decimals and Letters 8.11a 8.12b 8.13c ect ect will be balance and bug fixes

I would hate to change my stat every day. Also...if something is obscenely OP, then they can use that to level and such which is no good in a save game. One at a time.

I think you should release all of the Magic grade items built into a proper tier system. I don't see an issue with balancing them over a few versions. Also, I'm not so sure about releasing 8.0 already. It isn't nearly ready IMO, and I personally think you should wait another weak to make sure it doesn't have a huge amount of game-breaking bugs.

Just make sure all the item spells start weak, and we will buff them all slowly until we find balance. Buffs generally don't mess up anyone's plans, so it shouldn't bother people either.


And about the versions, you have it pretty good, but I have one little suggestion.
Whole numbers are resets.
Whole decimals are content.
Sub-decimals are balance.
Letters are bug fixing.

Just clarifying the sub-decimals and letters to make it a tad more clear.


Edit: Jay, if he makes sure all item spells start underpowered, then it lets people see their options and doesn't annoy anyone as they get slowly buffed until balanced. It is the best of both worlds IMO.

That means I just save my cash till I see what item becomes good. I don't want to spend my money on an item that I expect to be buffed, it's not than I'm dissapointed. That's fine though. More than likely, I'll just be making an Arcane Mage base so it doesn't matter.

so we only get one unique per reset? we will have two by the end of 8.0 one more for 9.0 and so on.. that will take forever to stack up.

i think one per version will make it balanced and give us something to look forward to EVERY version release...

Not per reset, per version. So 8.1 will have a new item as well.

so were going to only have 9 content releases until code reset? think the numbers should be done a little different...

whole for reset (1)
tenth for massive content addition (.1)
hundredth for minor content addition (.01)
letter for bug or balancing (a)

diaster wrote:

so were going to only have 9 content releases until code reset? think the numbers should be done a little different...

whole for reset (1)
tenth for massive content addition (.1)
hundredth for minor content addition (.01)
letter for bug or balancing (a)

agreed about the number thing..