Green Monster Games (Curt Schilling)

[Digo]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

Mana is a resource right? I look at mana management as part of the 'skill' involved in playing the class. Given that Latency has to be a factor, no matter how small it is a factor, isn't 'resource management' something that could/should/needs to be part of the 'skill' in playing an MMO?

Getting even the slightest bit into twitchy is a scary proposition if you need to assume that everyone is hooked up and connected and the playing field is even, cool, but that's a HUGE assumption that I don't think you can make right now.
A few years from now who knows.

How challenging is an endless mana pool or endless rage? Fun, maybe early on, but how friggin' sleepy does that become and how fast?

There are certainly some potentially cooler ways to implement 'mana' or magic power and whether it's an inherent or gathered resource pool, but if you are staying in the non-twitchy area it sort of makes it have to be a certain way no?

Mana isn't a good resource; it's a time limit.

[FoghornDeadhorn]

Used right, it's also a pacing mechanism. Unlike rage and energy, as pointed out, it allows the user to decide how they want to pace their ability use from the get go, knowing they have so much to start and will regain so much over time. Unfortunately, that's not really how it works most of the time right now, not in the raid environment. And if it were important to Blizzard to balance classes around that concept they wouldn't have made SPs the powerful mana battery that they are.

Something is wrong with your balance when a core mechanic of your class is thrown out the window when you add one player to your group.

[KharzaWHA?]

I think there's a concept that needs to be added into this discussion on mana as a resource. Average combat time. For mana (as in WoW) to be a relevant resource to manage, then you have to actually run out of mana before the fight is over. Unfortunately, running out of mana in WoW effectively means the caster cannot play any more.

Look at cooldowns. Some are around 2 minutes, maybe 3. Some are much longer. The longer cooldowns create spikes in gameplay, because they can't be used every fight and to be "worth it" they need to be extremely powerful. Mana can be spiky in the same way, oscillating between "effectively unlimited" for the short fight, or stopping hard and being severely limited in a long fight.


As a side node, rogues are an extreme example of a high regen low storage system. Rogues can bottom out and regen back to full several times in a short fight. There's plenty of design room left in a system like that, without copying the feel of that exactly.

[Daezuel]

Figured I'd give this thread a bump, are you guys going to this Comic-Con this year?

[Ngruk]

Ya we have a group there. Not 100% sure what will be done at this moment due to some outside circumstances but our new AD is there doing portfolio reviews in search of new artists as well as some of our design team and our VP of Creative Development.
We will be announcing a contest that will be taking place over the next few weeks/month that I think every WoW player in the world might get fired up over though.....

[Grave]

Does that mean the contest will be WoW related? Seems odd.

[kcxiv]

This is almost Brad type of hype! lol

[Cadrid]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

This is almost Brad type of hype! lol

Except Curt has delivered on his past pieces of "hype" for the most part.

I still don't have that early-Alpha invite he said he'd give me, though.

[Kuro]

You must assemble the Shrine of the Silver Monkey.

[Daezuel]

How about those of us who are bored to death of WoW and are looking for something new and different? /wink wink

[Tyen]

Originally Posted by Kuro

You must assemble the Shrine of the Silver Monkey.

I can't believe you said that.

[Gnome Eater]

Originally Posted by Digo

He's resto running with UA lock and a shadow priest. There were a few enhancement/rogue/druid teams running though.

As for shaman in arenas, they are generally one of the less represented classes because they only work in a few specific comps and are very easy to counter/lockout.

If you're really hoping to PvP as a shaman, these are some of the more popular teams:

2v2:
Resto Shaman / Warrior

3v3:
Resto / Warrior / Ret
Resto Druid / Warrior / Enhancement

In 5s, you could run any spec. Resto in a 2345(6) which is sham/priest/pal/war/mage(lock). The shaman can also be elemental in the 2345(6). You could also run elemental with a 4 DPS team. You can also run enhancement with a cleave team, which is pal/druid/enh/rog/war.

You missed:

Enh/war/druid or Enh/Rogue/Druid for 3s - very strong combos.

For 5's, you can play 3 healer war/hunter, and the melee cleave combo is pal/priest - you cannot afford a resto druid healing, you need the extra dispells to keep your melee mobile.

[Quince]

For those of use are used to C++ being a grading system rather then a programing language what does NaturalMotion's Morpheme do, and why is it a good step?

Does it make them easier to do animations or something?

[tad10]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

This is almost Brad type of hype! lol

Please. Let those who want to drink the koolaid, drink it in peace :-/

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by tad10

Please. Let those who want to drink the koolaid, drink it in peace :-/

I will be giving a good look at this game as much as the next person. I think he's trying to hype it up alot, but he's not up to Brad level yet, but wait until stuff gets further out more and its time to really hype the game. We will see. I hope they can do it, we dont need anymore horrible to sup par launches in MMO's right now.