I really do propose the bodyguards get a bit beefed up. Some people have little to NO combat anything, and sometimes that is the only chance of survival, or protection they have. Plus, what good is a bodyguard if he gets dropped in two hits?
Or, maybe create a new batch of ones. Lets face it, TI is alot like the real world. You get what you pay for. Keep the current ones if people want, but maybe offer some others at a higher price that are a little tougher.
Just a thought!
Bodyguards!!
We're currently considering whether or not mob bodyguards will be tenable in the new combat system. Given that multiple opponent combat becomes so important, bodyguards may quickly become an insta-kill item or skew battles in ways that are intended to be PC-only. However, we're not sure. It may well depend on how much energy and time would be required to be devoted to balancing them to realistic and useful in-game.
A great archetype of characters will be efficiently and swiftly eliminated with the downgrading or removal of bodyguards, forcing every person who needs protection to put a lot of effort into combat. It is not realistic to have only those with combat skills survive because many people have the means and office to provide considerable protection. The Queen should not be worried about being offed in public just because her PC protectors aren't on. She shouldn't -necessarily- be required to be able to take down the strongest fighters in the game in order to survive.
I can see ensuring the bodyguards are not an instant kill to the system, I truly can. However, I do not agree that characters should be without them. A banker is not going to be an expert archer. An Archbishop may completely abstain from violence for theosophical reasons. Is it fair to have them so stunted when they have the IC means of providing themselves with bodyguards to ensure their safety? Is it feasible for a criminal to take on a character in combat when they have an entourage of protection, or are they going to get their asses kicked?
Here is a list of safeguards.
1) Limit 2 combat pets per character unless approved by imm. (For Queen, Heir, Duke, etc.)
2) Disable bodyguard initiating combat
3) Enable bodyguard jumping to owner's rescue
4) Lower the cap of the bodyguard's skill levels to give the opponent a feasible chance
5) Ensure that the opponent can escape when they realize they are up against an army (Viable flee command).
6) Lower Bodyguard's max stats to decrease damage potential.
These are all suggestions and based on my opinion of the value of the bodyguard. I do not believe that every character needs to have combat in order to survive. If it happens, it brings us ever closer to a hack and slash. I am not trying to say that it is a stupid idea or to hurt anyone's feelings, but my style of RP (hiding behind guards) would be significantly hindered.
I can see ensuring the bodyguards are not an instant kill to the system, I truly can. However, I do not agree that characters should be without them. A banker is not going to be an expert archer. An Archbishop may completely abstain from violence for theosophical reasons. Is it fair to have them so stunted when they have the IC means of providing themselves with bodyguards to ensure their safety? Is it feasible for a criminal to take on a character in combat when they have an entourage of protection, or are they going to get their asses kicked?
Here is a list of safeguards.
1) Limit 2 combat pets per character unless approved by imm. (For Queen, Heir, Duke, etc.)
2) Disable bodyguard initiating combat
3) Enable bodyguard jumping to owner's rescue
4) Lower the cap of the bodyguard's skill levels to give the opponent a feasible chance
5) Ensure that the opponent can escape when they realize they are up against an army (Viable flee command).
6) Lower Bodyguard's max stats to decrease damage potential.
These are all suggestions and based on my opinion of the value of the bodyguard. I do not believe that every character needs to have combat in order to survive. If it happens, it brings us ever closer to a hack and slash. I am not trying to say that it is a stupid idea or to hurt anyone's feelings, but my style of RP (hiding behind guards) would be significantly hindered.
I do not deny that a lack of NPC bodyguards makes characters more vulnerable, but I also flat out believe that the response I'm seeing is blowing the issue out of proportion. Most PKs we've had where the player had bodyguards, the guards were sent away because someone tricked them into it. The bodyguards in game are not uber-fighters (which kicked off this line of discussion) and I watched a knight take on ten of them last night and still PK the person behind them. If anything, I think they provide a false sense of security, but that doesn't bug me. If I didn't like bodyguards, they wouldn't be in game right now. That is not what this is about, and it kind of seems to me that the response thinks that it's because we imms aren't aware of the benefits of having NPC guards. We are aware.
It's not that we're misguided or trying to piss all over everyone's parade, but combat is broken badly. It's intrinsic to the game. It needs fixed. Balancing bodyguards specifically is a lot of work on top of the lot of work that we're already doing. I'm loathe to delay combat coming in for it - heck, we're not intending to delay it for NPC combat in general. People who need protection have options such as hiring PC bodyguards, which has a nice added kick-back of putting PC guards in demand and stimulating RP. PC bodyguards may not be the best because of lesser accessibility, but to assume that every time a character attempts to RP with anyone without guards, they're gonna die just because they're not uber-combat wombats is simply misguided.
Rather, I can see that a lot of people may want to go combat wombat rather than feel vulnerable. That's a shame, but doesn't reflect the system as much as it reflects the mentality of the player who would do that. And it's a bit sad given that, as mentioned previously, being a combat wombat won't save your hiney if you get hit by too many opponents to handle.
At its overarching level, security on TI is disappearing, bodyguards or no. That's the point. No one is above the law or untouchable.
As to the rest, I think they're good ideas, but I also think that some realistic sense for the fact that your local staff is small, 100% volunteer needs to be taken into account. It's not that we don't want to have the perfect game right now, in an instant, it's that we cannot. Even if we did have more resources, there'd be delays and so forth.
It's not that we're misguided or trying to piss all over everyone's parade, but combat is broken badly. It's intrinsic to the game. It needs fixed. Balancing bodyguards specifically is a lot of work on top of the lot of work that we're already doing. I'm loathe to delay combat coming in for it - heck, we're not intending to delay it for NPC combat in general. People who need protection have options such as hiring PC bodyguards, which has a nice added kick-back of putting PC guards in demand and stimulating RP. PC bodyguards may not be the best because of lesser accessibility, but to assume that every time a character attempts to RP with anyone without guards, they're gonna die just because they're not uber-combat wombats is simply misguided.
Rather, I can see that a lot of people may want to go combat wombat rather than feel vulnerable. That's a shame, but doesn't reflect the system as much as it reflects the mentality of the player who would do that. And it's a bit sad given that, as mentioned previously, being a combat wombat won't save your hiney if you get hit by too many opponents to handle.
At its overarching level, security on TI is disappearing, bodyguards or no. That's the point. No one is above the law or untouchable.
As to the rest, I think they're good ideas, but I also think that some realistic sense for the fact that your local staff is small, 100% volunteer needs to be taken into account. It's not that we don't want to have the perfect game right now, in an instant, it's that we cannot. Even if we did have more resources, there'd be delays and so forth.
Would bodyguards still need to be rebalanced massively for the new combat system if we limited it to 1 per person? If you just gave them, say, 41 level combat skills?
I completely understand the volunteer issue, and if it's going to be a lot of work, then eh, I can live without. I already have chars out there with 0 combat skills and no bodyguards anyway.
I completely understand the volunteer issue, and if it's going to be a lot of work, then eh, I can live without. I already have chars out there with 0 combat skills and no bodyguards anyway.
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