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I just want to start by saying that this document has had much thought put into it. All of the proposed changes here are from watching the forums/reddit and personal observation, with the experience of over 800 hours in DOS:EE and having played many other RPGS (Icewind Dale, NWN2, Fire Emblem games, etc).
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Special thanks to GreatGuardsman, even if he doesn't know it. His document (Found below) is really what kickstarted this project.
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http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=629044
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There is no released mod yet, but many of the technical behind-the-scenes things have already been tested and working in game.
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Most of my modding experience comes from Skyrim/Starcraft 2.
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Tabs are navigatable at the bottom of the document.
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All classes have their own tab.
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The "Attributes/Ability Changes" tab is where you can find changes to Ability Skills/Civil Skills/Attributes as well as any Miscellaneous changes.
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The "Armor/Damage/Status Changes" tab is where you can find details on the Armor/Damage overhaul, the Status overhaul, and surface changes.
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The "Skills" tab is where all the multiclass skills are placed for my own ease of use; All skills in that tab will show up in both relevant class tabs. Will not be ever filled out entirely.
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There is a lot of information in this document but I've tried to compress it to the important information below.
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Status Overhaul:
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All statuses will be changed to a tiered system. Every status will have a strength associated with it on application, which is dependent on the caster's stats and reduced by the target's Grit and Willpower.
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If applying a status to a character who already has said status, the two strengths are added together.
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The effect of a status is dependent on the strength of it, being divided into 4 tiers per status, each one requiring double the strength of the last.
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EG, Tier 1 = Strength 1, Tier 2 = Strength 2-3, Tier 3 = Strength 4-7, and finally Tier 4 = Strength 8.
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Basically an RNG-less form of statuses where beefy characters can get high resistance to statuses without the complete immunity the Armor system currently poses.
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Also means you don't have to constantly check your damages to see if you can destroy their armor and stun them; Disables will always be placed at the fourth tier and will therefore be difficult to apply in the first place.
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Damage numbers of enemies will be toned down with this change as the reliability of stunning everything will no longer exist.
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Damage/Armor Overhaul
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Magic armor is getting removed.
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Physical armor is reworked as a static damage reduction.
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Armor as a whole just sucked. There may be something redeemable here but in general I've opted to largely remove it.
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Skill Overhaul
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Every skill tree in the game is getting an overhaul to fit in with the new mechanics, and new trees are being introduced to fill in gaps.
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The trees should feel similar on a surface level, but every ability in the game has been looked at with the new mechanics in mind.
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All of the current skills are listed in each of the skill tabs, but take each with a grain of salt if you actually feel like reading through them. Each tree needs to feel unique from eachother and serve different functions, which can only be gauged with massive amounts of playtime with the changes in place.
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One of the most important aspects is that each class should feel different from eachother; Comparing one to the other should be like comparing apples to oranges. I don't feel the differences could be as meaningful in the base game as the only real statistic that mattered was damage.
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That aside, party compositions should be unique, and you should never feel forced to have a Warfare/Ranger because it's the meta thing to do. Classes should be able to solve problems in their own way.
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Attribute/Ability Overhaul
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Civil Abilities as a concept are being.. removed. They have no practical reason to exist, as if you are expected to take everything in Civil Abilities, then why not just give the players the abilities automatically as you level up? Persuasion meant that only one character was ever allowed to talk to anyone, lucky charm meant that only one character was ever allowed to open containers, and bartering meant only one character was ever allowed to trade.. The list goes on. Many of these things are being addressed in the form of "Civil Auras", but that merely raises the question; Why exist in the first place, and not make it automatic on level up? I will concede there is some choice in that you can't take all of the Civil Abilities, but you can change which you have at the respec mirror for what you need.. Which leads to mods like Portable Respec Mirror being created. /endrant
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Civil Abilities will level automatically with the player, attributes, or not at all. Civil points are no longer a thing.
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Attributes are also receiving huge changes; First and foremost, the attributes are being made "class-less". In that, attributes will boost everything instead of a specific set of classes/abilities, and they are being made more unique than "here's more damage".
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Essentially, skill as a Ranger should be based on your skill in Ranger instead of Warfare, and being a Ranger should never lock you out of doing damage with other classes.
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Miscellaneous
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Damage things:
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Dual wield damage penalty to be removed.
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Attacking with a single weapon will take 3 AP.
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Attacking while dual wielding will take 4 AP.
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Misc things:
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Make uniques more unique/powerful, add more uniques, give more stats to randomized loot, reduce scaling so loot/uniques can stay relevant through more of the game, and reduce the amount of items in shops.
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Scaling reduced. (Obviously.) Most likely to ~10-14%.
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Complete overhaul in AP; Increased max AP to 10 and turn AP to 6, and allow players to increase these via attributes, abilities, etc. All abilities are being reworked/removed and new ones are being introduced with this in mind.
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Some surfaces are being changed in functionality. Damage will be increased.
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Majority of teleports are being removed from both allies and enemies - They trivialize positioning and make surfaces nigh meaningless.
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Enemy cursing and general terrain control will be tuned back, and player ability to bless/curse will be increased, placing battlefield control more into the player's hands instead of any work getting turned into fields of Necrofire every fight.
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