Certain game mechanics, designed for immersion, should be changed

[KVETrain]

I also read allat. I believe these changes are 110% necessary, or at least need to be considered.

[BiologLOL]

With how true our concerns were about Armour Breaking, yeah

[KVETrain]

Repair kits are gonna be the new soap as well. The ONLY good thing about that is that you can remove grease with it, which will help people who used a grease on the rusty Zweihander save themselves if they don’t like it. Other than that, absolutely horrible.

[BiologLOL]

Yep. I suggested us washing weapons in the potion cauldrons to remove greases, and remove the repair kits with their armour damage mechanic altogether

[Scandin]

@KVETrain

Repair kits are gonna be the new soap as well.

It’s going to become a new soap, as you still require soap to efficiently survive water poisoning, now you require armor repairing if you want to fight dragons on an extended duration.

In my personal opinion, armor damaging is not a bad idea, but it is executed horribly within Arcane Odyssey. A debuff affecting the armor negatively like how armor damaging works at the moment would work better, a neat solution to not have “permanent”^[1] damage without outright removing it.

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1. You can re-join to remove it, I’m referring to damage for your current lifetime. ↩︎

[Scandin]

@BiologLOL

your perfectly-made drip gets covered in dirt, ruining it.

I have black hair and green clothes.
I have been playing for twenty minutes with no combat.

@BiologLOL

Dirt does not accumulate on your character out of combat anymore. When in combat, it does appear after some time, but fully disappears in about 5 seconds after exiting combat. Soap will get addressed later on, don’t worry.

Visuals that show the effort the characters have to go through would be good, cuts on the body isn’t enough, I agree with this suggestion without fault.

@BiologLOL

Tanning now slowly accumulates while being in Sameria or other hot places like Sandfall Isle, and quickly dissipates after exiting those areas. Similar to how it works already? Well, “quickly” means quickly, in about 5 seconds. As I said, this isn’t that offensive of a game mechanic, therefore the change isn’t harsh. Samerian Ice still retains its anti-tanning properties, it can have this one.

I too have nothing to say other than I agree.

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@BiologLOL

LoS requirement is removed entirely. You know why it was nerfed before? Because players hated hits not registrating on an enemy right in front of them, due to a 1 stud piece of terrain between them, while the enemy could freely land their hits! This mechanic was added to prevent cheesing fights with harder enemies, but now the only ones that have it are Tower Faction enemies, and those aren’t that difficult. Besides, the tower itself is quite vertical, standing outside and clearing floors may work on the lower ones, but the top floors are too high anyway, what is the point?

LoS^[1] is the worst possible fix to prevent damaging in cases where it could be counted as “cheesing”, I will not think of possible other solutions, but it’s a band-aid fix like any other in the game, leading to more hate despite its changes.

In my personal opinion, LoS should get removed completely, it hinders the player’s experience by artificially reducing the effectiveness of their attacks due to the surrounding terrain blocking view, therefore I agree whole heartedly with your suggestion.

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@BiologLOL

Large Waves cannot grab players nor NPCs anymore, simple as. Either the wave steals an Atlantean from you and throws it far away into the sea, or it does the same to you. Why do we have this? It doesn’t even work on non-humanoid enemies! The idea was cool in theory, but then you remember that it is implemented in a videogame, designed to let its players have fun.

Not much to say, I support removing it entirely as I have only had cases where I am on my boat and I get swept one hundred meters away as there is no in-built escape mechanic like whirlpools.

In case wave grabbing needs to stay, then carry over the functionality from the whirlpools; click the escape button repeatedly to escape.

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@BiologLOL

This mechanic will not be added. The community is not gonna sugarcoat it. Armour Damage is made to… punish a player for fighting for long? And added in… the update that adds powerful enemies you’re gonna fight for long? Are we for real with this one? You want immersion? We already have it! Armour shows cracks on it from fighting - a purely visual change, that doesn’t even look that bad like Dirt was! It even looks cool! So why worsening this to make it affect our actual stats?!

@BiologLOL

Repair Kits won’t be added as well. No Damaged and Ruined Armour? No need for these too! As for removing Greases, weapons can now be added into the cauldron without any other reagents/catalysts and processed, removing their Grease. Nothing complex here, you put your sword into a cauldron, press a button and receive your sword back! The grease isn’t refunded, though.

Agreed, nothing more to input.

@BiologLOL

Putting an armour piece into the cooking pot and processing it will add permanent visual cracks to it.

I really enjoy having vanity possibilities within games, as it can make every player feel uniquely themselves rather than use the same shade of the same armor, as seen by my own character:
This time without dirt and tan.

I wanted a red armor, and/or possibly a cracked as you yourself suggest.

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@BiologLOL

Animals no longer deal percentage-based damage, and no longer stun players on every attack. Damage for War Seas animals should be changed to fit their 200-400+ hp pools (800 for the Monos Alpha Bear), Dark Sea animals should be comparable to a Lesser-Mutated Atlantean in power, and Far Reaches animals - to a Monstrous. HP values don’t change. I am not suggesting exact damage numbers - the devs can figure those out themselves, but they should be made fair, even for glass cannons - every build should be able to have fun, after all.

PD^[2] is the absolutely worst damage mechanic in any progression orientated game, as it directly goes against the game design of allowing the player to become stronger over time, effectively making them at the same defense as a low level barely any time invested player.

The current implementation of stun is abhorrent to call it nicely, it looks majorly unfinished and doesn’t allow the player to prematurely get up by doing some ability or pressing a button, basically disabling them for the duration.

@BiologLOL

As for stuns, only certain attacks of Dark Sea and Far Reaches animals can stun now, and the stun duration is halved from what it currently is. Stuns are annoying, and I would like to get rid of them entirely, but the animals of the Dark Sea should have at least some leg-up over their War Seas variants aside from just a larger HP pool and more damage. As for which attacks? The charge of a boar/bear/crocodile, the pounce of a tiger (this one’s stun is extended a bit to account for the grab), and a wolf is too weak to stun us anyway. Give those attacks longer cooldowns too, I don’t want a boar spamming me with charges.

On top of this, stun should be a status effect which has a proper animation of the player on the ground alongside an icon with information in the status effect list, there isn’t much reason not to do this, it only heightens consistency.

@BiologLOL

Environmental hazards still retain their percentage-based damage, but it is reduced. Yeah, they can have this one. Just half the damage dealt by sea urchins, jade pearl clams, jellyfish, fire, lightning, ancient lightning and imbued Dark Sea rain. Infected water found in the Zweihander cave and Abyss of Charon, meanwhile, loses 3/4 of its damage. Why should we instantly die if a toe on our foot touches the water for one moment when we parkour to the Zweihander? Too much unnecessary difficulty. Heat damage in the Scorching Dunes/Vents of Aeolus doesn’t change - it doesn’t need to anyway, it is fine as is.

Seems fair enough, though possibly some could be changed into being status effects?
I currently don’t have other ideas for possible status effects, but I will attempt to update it if I have more.
Cactus | “Pricked”
Shows possible effects of “Pricked”

1. You would be slower and have less jump height by X%
   “Reduces movement capabilities^[3] by X%”
2. All sources of stamina usage would increase by X% when Pricked.
   “Increases Stamina Usage by X%”

Overall, this seems like a consistent solution alongside the Stun effect from the last section above, the game already builds a lot on status effects, so why not introduce more to possibly have further interactions and consistency?

@BiologLOL

Dragons aren’t discussed here, since they’re way too complicated, and we don’t know much about combat against them as of now. Just, try making their kits not-percentage-based-damage-dependant, the players will thank you, devs!

Players are already killing Dragonlords.
I do not know what you will do with that information.

@BiologLOL

Beast Defense is not granted by vanity items anymore. Whose idea was this to make visual-only items matter in any way in game? Players need freedom in how they dress, not be forced into metal armour all the time! Instead, Beast Defense becomes a jewel substat, added by using Slowness reagents (Blue Urchin Spine and Belladonna Flower). Why Slowness? Idk, the animal tries swinging at you, and the jewels slow its claw down or something. Sharkrepel fits more thematically, but it lacks a quality version of its reagents, so it isn’t used. It doesn’t really need to have effect tiers anyway.

Vanity in RPGs^[4] should by definition never affect gameplay, I fully endorse this suggestion too, I have no more to say to it.

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@BiologLOL

Carrying an item disables fall damage. Main concern of the people was about Dark Sealed chests on the top of Dark Sea islands, with how impossible it would be to get those to your ship. If only we knew how worthless those will become in Full Release… Fleets… You already don’t take any damage 90% of the time due to fall damage being bugged, let’s make that 100%!

Eh… first one I’m in partial disagreement with.
Disabling a feature the player experiences constantly because they are carrying an object seems… odd and kind of breaks the expectation of players, I’d nearly say to just remove fall damage entirely, or reduce the damage by 1/2 or 1/4, but then comes the question again;

@BiologLOL

Does AO really need this mechanic?

For if it is reduced, then it’s going to be WAY less frequently hated, but also given WAY less attention, becoming a nusience here and there especially in the Dark Sea.

@BiologLOL

Gliding speed is doubled. It feels kinda slow to use, why not speed it up? You no longer require both air movement charges to activate it, can do that even at 0 now. Do not hate fun, devs. There wasn’t enough of a reason to implement this. Taking fall damage after gliding deals that damage in an AoE around you when you land. A combat use for the glider with a risk-reward mechanic because of the damage scaling with how much damage you take from falling? Sounds cool to me! Radius of the attack may be half of Devastate weapon skill, and scale with Size.

Agreed, gliding speed should be increased.

Based on the new drops from the dragons, mainly the Dragonwing glider, I haven’t experimented with it yet, but possibly buff it in the future to have this 2x speed, whilst still having the base one be 1, or possible 1.25-1.5x?

@BiologLOL

Tower’s floors become unbreakable. Not the walls, though. LoS requirement was one problem, this is the other. As for the walls - breaking those is cool and doesn’t detriment you unless you double tap D and fly out of the window.

Unfortunately the floors will always be breakable, recently there was a change which increased the durability, but the issue persists.

Walls are not of a as much concern, therefore they have not gotten traction within the sphere Vetex observes.

@BiologLOL

Boss Arenas and Raidable Forts become unbreakable. Allanon’s arena has that deep crack near the edge of the island that goes so deep, and I constantly fall down there, so annoying.

@BiologLOL

You can no longer climb broken terrain. The main issue players have with breakable floors is that often, their character begins climbing some studs on the ground for no reason instead of doing anything else, and that gets them killed. So, you can’t do that anymore, not like you needed to.

Agree with both suggestions, I have nothing to input.

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@BiologLOL

Limb Loss is removed completely. No, thank you. We want to play the game. Magic/fighting style users may change animations to use their legs for attacking (unless you use Fighting Styles that only utilize arms), but weapons/relics users are just screwed, and that isn’t fun. Vanity items also lose the stat of preventing Limb Loss. An another stat mechanic tied to vanity. I already said what I think of vanity armour having something like this in the Beast Defense section.

Partial disagreement; Limb loss should be removed semi-completely, we should still be allowed in the future to remove one of our limbs in exchange for a spirit/magic limb, or possibly no arm at all so you can aura farm!

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@BiologLOL

Jarl Ivar’ story injury is pushed back to the moment you defeat him for good. Just a small misstep on the devs’ part, nothing too outrageous.

Yep, improves consistency, nothing more to input.

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Hope this was better than my previous comment;

@Scandin

Immersion, by definition;
“The ability to immerse oneself in a particular environment, universe or atmosphere”
Arcane Odyssey is nothing like that it adds features that attempt to provide immersion, except it provides the exact opposite, the players not being immersed.

This is a must.

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1. Line of Sight ↩︎

2. Percentage Damage ↩︎

3. Speed/Jump Height ↩︎

4. Roleplaying Games ↩︎

[BiologLOL]

@Scandin

In my personal opinion, LoS should get removed completely

When I wrote that part, I kinda forgot that bosses like Merlot and Maria also have LoS requirement. Those can keep it, its fine. Same goes for dragons, if their arenas will be made indestructible, ofc.

@Scandin

there is no in-built escape mechanic like whirlpools

There isn’t a built-in mechanic, but you can stock up on harming vials in one of your pouch slots and drink one when caught in a wave. Taking any form of damage gets you out.

@Scandin

I wanted a red armor, and/or possibly a cracked as you yourself suggest

Have to mention, that only metallic armours will get cracks, because that is how they currently work. You can’t exactly put those on leather.

@Scandin

stun should be a status effect which has a proper animation of the player on the ground alongside an icon with information in the status effect list

A status effect - sure, but its current animation is fine as is. Making a new one may lead to animation bugs, best we avoid that.

@Scandin

Cactus | “Pricked”
Shows possible effects of “Pricked”

1. You would be slower and have less jump height by X%
   2.“Reduces movement capabilities by X%”*
2. All sources of stamina usage would increase by X% when Pricked.
   4.“Increases Stamina Usage by X%”*

Uhh, no, this is too harsh for brushing a common object around the spawn place of everybody in Nimbus Sea (unless you got a camp at Monos)

@Scandin

Players are already killing Dragonlords.
I do not know what you will do with that information.

Since I haven’t faced even an Ancient dragon myself yet, I am not gonna discuss the Dragonlords

@Scandin

Disabling a feature the player experiences constantly because they are carrying an object seems… odd and kind of breaks the expectation of players, I’d nearly say to just remove fall damage entirely, or reduce the damage by 1/2 or 1/4

Fair enough too, including the fact that a change of reducing the max island height got added after this suggestion was made. Total removal of fall damage while carrying might not be needed anymore (mostly because the tallest points of islands are dragon arenas now, those got a convenient pillar to descent from)

@Scandin

but then comes the question again

I think Fall Damage existing is not offensive. Sure, we went through AA and WoM without it, and even the major part of AO, but it isn’t inherently flawed. Besides, I can’t hide my bias for gliders

@Scandin

Based on the new drops from the dragons, mainly the Dragonwing glider, I haven’t experimented with it yet, but possibly buff it in the future to have this 2x speed, whilst still having the base one be 1, or possible 1.25-1.5x?

After all the actually important stuff that harms AO will be fixed, I will move on onto making suggestions that I actually like. And you bet I will expand the gliders system in the very first one.

@Scandin

recently there was a change which increased the durability, but the issue persists

Hey, that is at least something, they’re going in the right direction

@Scandin

Walls are not of a as much concern

True, I left those as is too

@Scandin

we should still be allowed in the future to remove one of our limbs in exchange for a spirit/magic limb

Well, yeah, but that is a feature of magic/spirit limb specifically.

@Scandin

or possibly no arm at all so you can aura farm!

Hm… Self-amputating may harm the age rating of AO

[Scandin]

@BiologLOL

When I wrote that part, I kinda forgot that bosses like Merlot and Maria also have LoS requirement. Those can keep it, its fine. Same goes for dragons, if their arenas will be made indestructible, ofc.

I’ve only fought three young dragons so far, but their arenas are fine to the point they don’t require the LoS check.

@BiologLOL

There isn’t a built-in mechanic, but you can stock up on harming vials in one of your pouch slots and drink one when caught in a wave. Taking any form of damage gets you out.

Band-aid solution, technically could be an oversight.

@BiologLOL

Have to mention, that only metallic armours will get cracks, because that is how they currently work. You can’t exactly put those on leather.

Ah, right yeah fair enough, possibly some other methods for non-metallic.
Like drying leather armor to achieve the same result?

@BiologLOL

A status effect - sure, but its current animation is fine as is. Making a new one may lead to animation bugs, best we avoid that.

An animation would at least convey it isn’t half-baked, as of current the animation you are saying isn’t an animation, it’s the lack thereof.

@BiologLOL

Uhh, no, this is too harsh for brushing a common object around the spawn place of everybody in Nimbus Sea (unless you got a camp at Monos)

It was a concept of what could be, I thought it up within 5 minutes so it makes sense to why it isn’t balanced, but environmental effects should generally have more status effects, like how campfires apply Burning on you.

@BiologLOL

After all the actually important stuff that harms AO will be fixed, I will move on onto making suggestions that I actually like. And you bet I will expand the gliders system in the very first one.

I’ll give it a read once it comes.

@BiologLOL

Hey, that is at least something, they’re going in the right direction

True… true.

@BiologLOL

Well, yeah, but that is a feature of magic/spirit limb specifically.

@BiologLOL

Hm… Self-amputating may harm the age rating of AO

Fuck.
Possibly allow a non-magic/spirit variant, a metal or another material of arm?

[Trapstar]

Immersion should be supplemental and interesting, not like playing a xylophone solo on my sack with a pair of mallets.
Please god remove a bunch of this stuff.

[BiologLOL]

@Scandin

their arenas are fine to the point they don’t require the LoS check

The mechanic here actually accomplishes its goal - preventing cheese

@Scandin

Like drying leather armor to achieve the same result?

Are we following the logic of Minecraft furnaces, which melt metal and dry kelp at the same temperature? Well, I’m all for it

@Scandin

I’ll give it a read once it comes.

Its not soon, there are far too many crippling flaws

@Scandin

Possibly allow a non-magic/spirit variant, a metal or another material of arm?

Only when we reach Thorne Empire, the year isn’t suited for prosthetics (excluding the peg-leg)

[Scandin]

@BiologLOL

The mechanic here actually accomplishes its goal - preventing cheese

Fair enough.

@BiologLOL

Are we following the logic of Minecraft furnaces, which melt metal and dry kelp at the same temperature? Well, I’m all for it

Yes, I don’t care about realism in my World of Magic, I want an Adventure, possibly even an Arcane Odyssey!

On an elaobrate note; I seriously can’t care less if it’s not realistic, Arcane Odyssey should go towards the path of least realism for the experience to be cooler.

@BiologLOL

Its not soon, there are far too many crippling flaws

But it is soonᵀᴹ, the best kind of soon.

@BiologLOL

Only when we reach Thorne Empire, the year isn’t suited for prosthetics (excluding the peg-leg)

Fair enough, granted, we might get said magic arm when we do reach Thorne Empire as we’re still relatively bad compared to higher levels.

[BiologLOL]

@Scandin

Arcane Odyssey should go towards the path of least realism for the experience to be cooler

This is a war without any logical reason behind it

[lucky_303]

banned from AO -vetex

[AlarGuardian]

you forgot to say ‘ez ban’

ez ban

[AlarGuardian]

something nobody has mentioned about armour break is that beasts (specifically dragons) should just have natural armour pierce instead of damaging your armour and adding artifical difficulty of fixing mid-fight. idk why this isn’t what it is

[BlueFighter15]

A billion times better solution, just a weak but stacking pierce debuff

[AlarGuardian]

and it also stops your armour breaking even when you dodge-parry their breath (yes you can do both)

[BiologLOL]

Oh hey, good idea

[DeltaHelios]

I read allat, and they’re good changes

[Selcrete]

Vetex PLEASE add this