The Butcher of Gadobhra
Chapter 17: Bludgeon Brew presents "We had it all wrong."

Transcript of upcoming Vidcast:

KN745: Welcome back folks to another great Vidcast about our favorite topic: Genesis Engine, brought to you by your favorite recreational beverage: Bludgeon Brew! Grab a couple of cold Bluds and kick back while we talk some numbers. I'm here with my favorite punching bag, Darkdeath54...

DD54: Hi folks.

KN745: ...and a first timer on the show, TIMMYthewonderboy34. Nice to have you on Timmy. I hear you and DD go way back.

DD54: Well, not TOO far back, 'cuz little Timmy here ain't been around too long. You wearing long pants yet?

TTWB34: Hello Mr. Darkdeath54sir, and yup, my pants go all the way to my ankles now. Thanks for asking! I'm wearing a pair of custom crafted leggings made from Blazebear hide. They give 10 points to my fire resistance and provide 3 points of physical mitigation while having no stealth penalty. That's 3 out of 5 points of mitigation in the leg slot, and yet I haven't had to move to metal armors. I won't claim they are 'Best in Slot for Tier 1' but they are certainly a contender.

KN745: Very nice Timmy, and you're right, that's a 1 point advantage on some of the better leather armored leggings. Pay attention folks! This is Gaming Gold Information. We brought TIMMYThe...Can I just call you Timmy? No offense intended.

TTWB34: And none taken Knuckles. Everyone calls me Timmy now. Even grandmother. On Top Tier raids, you don't have time for silly gamer handles. Right? Mr. DarkDeath54sir?

KN745: I'm sensing some old hostility between you two. Excellent, makes for some good conversation. Let's get some comparisons on gear between you two. What are you covering your legs with DD?

DD54: ..mumbles...

KN745: I didn't quite catch that DD?

DD54: I said "a Goathide Kilt." It's awesome. No mitigation and doesn't even keep my balls warm.

There, happy?

TTWB34: My, that seems like it's below your usual standard Mr. Darkdeath54sir....'sniff'...Sorry folks, getting a little teary here. It's just so sad to see the gaming legends you used to worship go to seed. I remember how proud you were of your 'Gilded Silversteel Pantalooms +7' back in EQO3. You used to make me polish them every day. Sometimes several times a day.

DD54: Keep it up kid, and you'll get a boot up your ass.

TTWB34: And what kind of boot would that be Mr. Darkdeath54sir? More goathide?

DD54: Naw, too expensive for me. Still wearing sandals.

KN745: Wait, you're fething serious aren't you? Why the hell are you in shit gear only fit for a level 0?

DD54: Because we got it all wrong! I deleted my character so I could start over. I'm wearing crap armor and killing squirrels to level up. And I'll do it as many times as I need to until I get it right.

TTWB34: Yeah, me too.

KN745: You too?!!! WHY?

TTWB34: Like DD said. Things we thought were good, aren't. We thought this was just going to be EQO4, and it isn't. Things don't work the same. There are a lot more calculations going on underneath. I'd rather start over now than wait until it's even more obvious. I gave the Blazebear leggings to a guildy and rerolled at level zero. My build sucked and I'm not quite sure why. Pretty much everyone who wants to raid with a Top Tier guild is starting over and trying to figure out the system.

DD54: Damn, and I thought that Shining Paladin build of yours was pretty cool. You know what? I think this calls for a round of Bluds and then we need to talk builds Timmy. Sorry for that crap about short pants.

TTWB34: I apologize too. Would you like to discuss new characters with an ex-squire?

DD54: No...but I'd do it with a drinking buddy.

KN745: Ok, we've got a couple more Bluds under our belts. Lets start with what was wrong with your first characters.

DD54: Bad testing for one, and we made bad assumptions. Lets start by explaining that the system doesn't just let you level straight up to 50. Every 5 tiers is a separate sub-system of skills, stats, and leveling. What holds true for levels 1-5 might not for 6-10.

Just getting past the Apprentice Tier and into Journeyman can take a lot of time. Requirements may be quests, special mobs to slay, rare items to replace, or crafting a perfect piece of gear. A lot of people will be at level 5 for a long time.

KN745: But that's ok, because don't they want to grind out all those stat points?

DD54: Another thing the early testers got wrong. Someone took a character from Level 0 Mace to Level 5 Mace. They also got 5 points in STR. That was all the time they had in the tutorial. Someone guessed you could then Level Sword from 1 to 5 and get another 5 points of STR. Just not how it works.

TTWB34: Yes, we found out that the stat points aren't awards for leveling skills. As you earn EP in a weapon skill, you also get EP in the stat that governs it.

KN745: So STR for Mace or Sword, DEX for Archery or Rapier, AGI for Quick Retreat etc.

TTWB34: Yes. But STR is actually a skill with it's own EP table. And like anything else, it takes more EP to gain a higher level as you progress. So instead of being awarded lots of stat points....

DD54: We were just adding more EP to the STR Skill. HA! That silly build I started with? And I thought I'd get 45 STR from 9 skills? So wrong.

TTWB34: It takes 1000 EP to get STR to level 5. But we think that if you leveled all 9 weapons to level 5 earning 9000 EP, your STR would be at level 13. And that much EP only gets you to level 3 as a character. To make matters worse, some of those weapon skills were Secondary, taking 3x as much EP to level, and the Tertiary ones take 10x the EP needed. Just a huge amount of time to gain those 13 points in STR.

DD54: And you don't even get to use them.....

KN745: WTH? Why not?

TTWB34: There's a soft cap of 5 for Tier one. So you can only get 5 points of STR from the STR skill. Any extra EP gets banked until you can raise the cap.

KN745: And how do you raise the cap? Shit, I'm at 5 Dex and 5 AGI now, and I have a ton of skills that use those stats.

DD54: A ton of skills that you need to level, but won't pay off in stats. Bet you wish you had more that gave you INT, WIS, STR etc don't you? Guess why I'm back at level 0? Toss me a blud!

TTWB34: We've found two ways to raise the cap. The first is by getting to Tier 2. The couple of people who have done that instantly saw a surge in the stats with banked EP. But....only to 10.

KN745: Another softcap?

TTWB34: Yep, the softcap for Tier 2 is 10.

KN745: And the other way to raise the cap? Please tell me it's drinking large amounts of Bludgen Brew!

DD54: If only! Nope, we have to go kill Bosses. Lots and lots of Bosses. The type of Bosses who eat adventuring parties for breakfast. Bosses are nasty. They aren't stuck in dungeons...hell, there are no good dungeons to raid yet. You have to replace a boss then play tag with them on their home ground. They might have magic, minions, or even be hiding right in a town.

TTWB34: We sent 4 squads out to a little village called Tumbad to investigate some disappearances. The first three were totally wiped and didn't even remember how. There are sometimes odd mechanics on bosses. Hidden bosses stay hidden. Players forget what killed them until the monster is discovered. Luckily the fourth team got someone out alive and we could take the monster out.

KN745: Geez, what was it?

TTWB34: Just a quaint old grandmother passing out bespelled cookies. Then she visited you in your sleep as a nighthag and cut out your heart. Stuff of nightmares. She turned out to be level 5. The team we sent in that finally killed her had people level 3 to 5. When she was dead, we all got this message.

Congratulations! Granny Gorpunkle is dead! No matter how many times you explain it, the village children will still think you murdered her to get her cookies.

-Paladins and Clerics count as having completed one of their class quests to move to Tier 2.

-Everyone in the group is awarded Core Skill Points based on your level.

-Level 5: one point

-Leve 4: two points

-Level 3: three points

Core skill points may be saved, or used to buy abilities from Tier One Core Skills. Check with your guildmaster for details.

KN745: So, if I'm following, that lucky level 3 can now spend his 3 points to increase his softcap on a skill to 8. Screw the gold! That's the real treasure.

DD54: Tru Dat! Grinding bosses for treasure is nice, but getting those points is better. And crucial for raiding guilds. This really sets apart the committed players from the weekend warriors and casuals. No more grinding out levels killing low level trash mobs. If you want to play with the big boys, you need to kill the Bosses. Or make the things that people need to kill the bosses. Can't leave out the crafting classes.

DD54: Ok, lets stay on track. We know how to raise those caps, but it's going to have to be selective. What are your thoughts Timmy?

TTWB34: I'm making sure I have a good spread of skills for Primaries that increase my stats across the board. Rather than going for a min-max, I think I want to build a nice base for my character. Then Tier 2 when we get some more options, we specialize - or we don't and wait for Tier 3. This might not be my only do over.

DD54: You got that right. May take a few tries, but we're grinding out tomorrow's heroes.

TTWB34: So I still like the idea of the Shining Paladin. A goody two shoes with combat, healing, and some very specific utility. There's a bit of a drawback to taking a custom class set up, but some big benefits. The drawback is I only get 2 bonus points. I put those in STR and WIS. Here's my skill line up

Primary Stat Secondary Stat Tertiary Stat Mace STR Powerful Cleave STR Shield STR Healing Aura WIS Minor Healing Touch WIS Undead Slayer WIS Poison Resistance CON Mental Resistance INT Demon Slayer RAD Sidestep AGI Furious Charge AGI Ancient Lore: Demons INT Rapier DEX Heavy Armor CON Armor Repair DEX Ancient Lore: Religion INT Shining Aura CHR Detail Oriented PER

KN745: Nice spread on the abilities. You've got a bit of everything and kept with the theme you wanted.

DD54: Even a couple of of 'hidden stats'. Not much was known about Perception and Radiance at first, since we had to unlock those skills. But once unlocked, you can take those skills when you reroll. Ok, lets pull out all the stops. Show the folks at home how to bring up your Core Stats.

TTWB34: Ok, we didn't even know about Core Stats when we started. They were mentioned, but not that we'd eventually be able to manipulate or add to them. The command is: /Showcharactercorestats

ATTACK DEFENSE Melee 30 Mitigate 30 Ranged 5 Evasion 15 Magic 5 Resistance 20 CRAFT HARVEST Armorcrafting 15 Animal products 0 Skill 2: 0 Herbs, flowers, bark,fungus, fruit. timber 0 Skill 3: 0 minerals, gems, stone 0

TTWB34: I'm still thinking on these. It's tough, you only get 120 points to toss around. A low score means you aren't really going to be getting the most out of your skills in that area. 25 seems to let you get your skills up to max in Tier 1. But we need to be much higher for Tier 2. Going over 25 might not help in Tier 1, but will be a big bonus in Tier 2.

We are having to make some tough choices, and we might be wrong again this time. But no one said replaceing the perfect build was easy!

DD54: I found out my last character had a low Mitigation score, which meant Shield or HeavyArmor could never really get to their max. Not a good set up. Likewise, I had points in skills I'd never use, like anything with crafting.

TTWB34: This character is more balanced. Plus the Core Stats work with his skills. I'm going to grind the hell out of Tier1 Bosses with my crew so that when he hits Tier 2, it will be with a balanced set of stats.

DD54: You know what? Screw it. You taught me some new tricks Timmy. I'm rerolling again and adjusting my Core Stats some and tweaking things a bit. What say we meet up in an hour and make war on a legion of squirrels and warthogs? That is if you don't mind an old guy tagging along.

TTWB34: I think I'd like that. Maybe you can be my squire this time around?

DD54: Keep dreaming kid, keep dreaming.