Given we have a lot of time to theorize about AO and its mechanics, we think about a lot of the gameplay decisions as well as how stats work. And to start it off with, I myself think that the game’s biggest problem is the stat priority.
(apologies if this is unorganized and very rambly. Im just trying to get thoughts on the table.)
tl:dr if you dont wanna hear my schizo rant
- AO needs more build diversity by reducing how important power, attack speed and Defense are, and encouragement to make diverse builds. Likely by restricting how much you can get of those stats, or by forcing restrictions on the player to force more management on them (mostly in regards to the new energy system)
Old intensity was the only good attempt at this, in regards for build diversity.
aka: AO needs gimmicks and niche builds. (that are viable)
The 3 new substats were an attempt at this, and old intensity did this pretty well. Please bring back old intensity. My plasma misses it.
But. There’s no incentive to invest in them. Power Defense Atk speed does it better.
Why get armor piercing when Power does it better, why get resilience when defense is just better?
I’ve had a few ideas on theoretical changes, from entirely redesigning the stat distro to just some ideas.
I don’t expect AO to completely overhaul its stats. But this game needs build diversity. All builds I see only use Attack speed, Power, defence, and rarely attack size if its a nuke build.
Hot take: original Intensity was good. It was niche, rocked well on some builds. But didnt work on others.
For plasma users, you could use a superheated charged Arcsphere and tha’d be juust enough to squeeze an extra second of scorching. Was it good? I dont know. But it was Niche.
I dont know much about old intensity nor old meta pvp loadouts. But especially with General Agros’ armor.
you could in theory sacrifice a lot of defense and build for a DoT Focus/Aura build.
So for a plasma Mage. the intensity would give them about 5+ seconds of scorching, with them relying on their Aura to make up for their lack of defense.
And this alone could allow said Plasma mage be more supportive, since Scorching has great damage synergies, but only 3 seconds to take advantage of it.
So, even if the plasma mage has low damage, their fire warlock can take full advantage of the extra time, and the enemy now has to deal with 5 seconds of Scorching.
(this is all hypothetical btw, I know it wont really end up like this in practice)
or a magma/Poison mage that focuses more on Crowd control with massive puddles, which would also increase their status time inadvertently (in theory)
The new Oracle stuff does seem to be acting like a niche playstyle. But assuming the new update doesn't fix the build issues. They can just use the same build as everyone else and the problem would continue to fester.
One of the theories/idealistic views of the upcoming update is how they’re reworking the energy system.
from my very small view on the game, the reason why max atk speed power builds can work is because there’s no downside. with infinite energy, as long as you don’t get hit. you can hit them forever without any punishment. (and also because substats that aren’t size/atk speed are useless)
I don’t know how the new energy system will work, but if it worked like most traditional magic systems. If you want to go max attack speed. you HAVE to make those hits land, or back off and hope to god you can regen your mana fast enough to jump back in and swing.
One smaller idea is making the stats have a pokemon like system that could in theory encourage group play (that aren’t all using the same builds)
Resilience weak to AP
Power strong to Resilience
Defense Weak to AP
AP strong to Defense
And with the Oracles coming in. You could have a tanky defense oracle, which means if you want to kill them. (faster) you’d have to invest into AP.
Don’t know how this would work, but in theory resilience could be better for mobility builds, while defense is better for sheer brick wall builds
This idea is one of my “rework the whole system/Nuclear options”
remove main stat enchants, maybe reduce how much substats are given from enchants, and only allow players to get their main stats from armors.
to put this into a smaller scope.
Boss armors, Arcaniums, and the Sophragos set (and things like it(assuming they were the only armors) would be good.
Soph set would be glass cannons, Arcaniums could play different roles. Such as the iron set being for tankier builds and so on.
My friend had also come up with an idea that I mine as well put on the table:
Making food buffs work similer to Deepwoken: Where the buff takes a portion of your energy, and drains as you use energy. Which again, would encourage players to not minmax on attack speed
With I myself coming up with food buffs working similer to Valhiem.
Assuming the “nuclear don’t allow main stats to be enchants” idea was a thing.
if you wanted more durability youd have to eat Fish based meals, with wheat based meals giving something else, mushroom based meals giving another thing and so on.
or making a mixed meal for an even distro.
I know this is a mess of a post, but I wanted to get my thoughts out and see what others think. I wanna see the best from AO. I know its a PvE game first with pvp kinda thrown in. But if PVP is going to be apart of the game, then it has to be held to a similar quality to the PvE.
I have a lot of complaints with some of the game’s designs, but thats mostly in regards to intensity, and the Darkseas. Ive already discussed my thoughts on intensity, and the Darkseas isnt relevent to this rant.