Affix Skillz

[medierra]

Experimenting with affixes that can add skills to items.



This would basically be a class of equipment above rare but probably below legendary... unless of course you had a legendary item WITH a skill affix?!

btw - please excuse the formatting error in the item bonus text, we're still tinkering around with some of those and there are a couple known errors.

[gdansk]

What are the blades behind the text? They look purty, do want...

[ASYLUM101]

Yes! I always wondered why there were none in TQ...

Pretty bad ass, what is it though? Like a wave or just an AoE blast?

[Naven]

Yep great to have shoulders.....more gear to plunder

background looks like a rifle, shield, 2 swords, 2 pistols pots and a ring

p.s. we getting this level of gear early on?...just wondered with the armour level compared with TQ

[Josho]

Legendary items with a chance to include a skill affix would be interesting to see. Considering this is pre-pre-pre alpha, why not throw them in, and see how it goes and balances out? It could make some fairly interesting and unique gear.

When it says "activate when hit" is it possible for the game to break down and indicate precisely how often it will activate. Is it percentage based? - say 15% chance to activate when hit to fire off Coldnsap? Cooldown? - 2 minute cooldown before being hit will trigger coldsnap again. Or some sort of funky split second reaction window of being hit, pressing the middle mouse button will trigger Coldsnap making it some sort of reaction counter attack used by the player?

[medierra]

Originally Posted by Naven

p.s. we getting this level of gear early on?...just wondered with the armour level compared with TQ

I haven't really made much attempt to balance the level requirements or much of anything yet, so I'd ignore the numbers. I think you can expect to see interesting uniques / powerful affixes earlier than you did in TQ, although maybe not something like these shoulders this early. Maybe in the 20s or 30s though? Who knows, maybe you can get it at 18. Since the base stats are those of a level 18 item, the armor value will be so low in 10-15 levels that you'd probably need to upgrade even despite the fantastic magical attributes. So, it sort of balances out.

Of course, one problem I often noticed in play-testing during TQ is that inexperienced players often hang on to items like this much longer than they should and end up wondering why they're getting beaten down by enemies.

[medierra]

Originally Posted by Josho

When it says "activate when hit" is it possible for the game to break down and indicate precisely how often it will activate. Is it percentage based? - say 15% chance to activate when hit to fire off Coldnsap? Cooldown? - 2 minute cooldown before being hit will trigger coldsnap again. Or some sort of funky split second reaction window of being hit, pressing the middle mouse button will trigger Coldsnap making it some sort of reaction counter attack used by the player?

We could do something like that. I'll have to consider it. I do like to maintain a certain level of mystery with less essential stats. I think sometimes when you provide too much detail in terms of numbers, you lose a little of the "magic" and intuition that can be fun in these games. Actually trying something out and making a judgement call vs. analyzing stats. For those who truly have to know, there is alway the database.

This sort of hearkens back to my days of playing Age of Empires where we didn't have all the numbers and a lot of the top players were good because they were intuitive and gained a sense for how things worked by just playing the game. I found it unappealing that in later games more of the numbers and mechanics were exposed and learning a game turned into more number crunching and statistical analysis than intuitions based on experience playing. I think there is a place for both and I feel like there is value in maintaining some sort of balance. Showing people what they need and providing some fodder for number crunching but leaving a enough beneath the covers that understanding the game is still a little bit of an art and not all math.

[Scryer]

I love it!

I just don't like that 2x4 (Width x height) item! please oh please shrink it to 2x3!

It's too big for my liking.

Beyond that, I like these new affix ideas... but I think you should try to attach damage done to the current level of the equipment and make it a sort of percentage modifier. For example the skill doesn't need to be a certain level of Coldsnap, simply modify the base attributes for the ability using the required level as a sort of percent.

What do you think, modify damage based on item level? Am I making any sense?

[evil medierra]

Originally Posted by Scryer

I love it!

I just don't like that 2x4 (Width x height) item! please oh please shrink it to 2x3!

It's too big for my liking.

I'll shrink your face to 2x3!

Originally Posted by Scryer

What do you think, modify damage based on item level? Am I making any sense?

My plan is to the skill level be determined by item level, so that way it will have roughly the same effect but I'll have more control over how it scales.

[Scryer]

Originally Posted by evil medierra

I'll shrink your face to 2x3!

Hahaha, so long as you include every item above 2x4!

Originally Posted by evil medierra

My plan is to the skill level be determined by item level, so that way it will have roughly the same effect but I'll have more control over how it scales.

Sounds good, no reason to make things overly complex.

Also, I really like how clear the wording is presented in the text.