In an effort to consolidate some of the suggestion threads I'm opening a thread for suggestions and/or bugfixes that are deemed "easily fixable/changeable" by the public.Obviously we are not the staff and do not have access to the code or tools available to them so our idea of what would be "easily fixable/changeable" would be guesses but for the most part suggestions in this thread would be for minor changes.
Do not post suggestions in this thread that would have far reaching consequences, things that would require an inordinate amount of parsing to justify, this thread is primarily for things that would improve the game personally for you with a minimum of coding effort from the staff and would not effect balance within the game, for the most part "convenience" suggestions.
I'll start this off with my own suggestions:
1.A review of spell memorization and casting times, by this I mean the time it takes for a spell to load and be useable and the time it takes to start casting it, some examples would be, these are primarily examples from classes that I have some experience with:
Sha's Ferocity takes 30 seconds from the time the spell is memorized to the time you are able to start casting the spell, there is already a 2 minute time limit between the casting of pets, this limitation is redundant.
Availability of pet summoning spells for Beastlords takes 10 seconds from the time it is memorized to the time you are able to start casting, see above, this is a redundant limitation and there is no reason for it.
Other spell recast/cast times:
Summon:Bauble of Battle has a 6+ second recast time from the time it is previously cast, what is the reason for this recast time? This spell along with others like it is perhaps my favorite "poster boy" for unnecessarily long cast times/recast times in that the spell itself is not overpowering, you summon a 25% haste item to your target, how would lowering the recast and cast time on this along with other summoning spells affect the balance of the game? This change would only be a convenience change.
Spiritual Strength and other spells in the HP/ATK line for Beastlords:
These are all single target buffs that take 10 seconds to cast on each target this is a completely unnecessary limitation, either change the cast time on these buffs (the ones that come before Spiritual Vigor) or (my favored solution) make them a group buff.Again this is another example of a convenience change that does not affect the balance of the game.
Other misc suggestions:
Add "Spell Cantrips" for each spell category (Abjuration,Conjuration etc) for all casting classes, these are 0.5/1.0 second cast time, low mana, 0 sec recast spells (barring the universal recast time) spells that have no effect other than to be used to up skill levels in those categories.It makes sense for guilds to furnish their members with very easy to use spells to help their members to increase their spell casting skills in all categories and there are huge gaps for some classes, two easy examples being Ranger/Wizard for Conjuration and Necromancer for Evocation.
Training dummies:
These would be level 65 NPC's (scarecrow model fits the picture and is available in the global model files) that are average across the board (resists,AC, etc) that have a huge HP amount and the maximum amount of regen available so that they are unkillable and would not strike back. These would simply be used to increase peoples skill level in different categories (1hb,2hs, Archery etc), the addition of dummies to increase your defensive rating would also be nice, simply make them strike very fast for 1 damage each time, be permarooted and have no summoning.
These dummies would not only be extremely useful for their intended purpose but also for the purpose of parsing DPS for the general public when this sort of information is needed by the staff,as the staff has called for in a few threads, namely the Rogue/Ranger dps discrepancy threads.When you want this sort of information isn't it better to give your public the tools to investigate these claims in the most efficient and least time consuming way possible?
These suggestions are also easily mutable, if you want to provide a training dummy to the public to facilitate easy logging of defensive abilities simply make a scarecrow training dummy mob that hits with average accuracy/damage and also heals the player for the same amount of damage that it does.
For the training dummy suggestions I recommend placing them in a zone such as Plane of Valor, this fits in very well with the overall theme of the zone and Enthann's wish for his followers to improve their combat skills, it is also fairly hard to get to for the average newbie, they would have to earn the right to improve the skills they want by traveling to the zone without dying and the zone already has things of this nature such as the archery targets you can see being shot at by Enthann's followers.
These are simply suggestions that I believe are for the most part easy to implement by the staff and that would have an overall beneficial effect on SoD as a whole, eliminating unwanted annoyance and adding convenient things to the game, please add your own suggestions to this thread in the spirit of the examples that I posted.
Do not post suggestions in this thread that would have far reaching consequences, things that would require an inordinate amount of parsing to justify, this thread is primarily for things that would improve the game personally for you with a minimum of coding effort from the staff and would not effect balance within the game, for the most part "convenience" suggestions.
I'll start this off with my own suggestions:
1.A review of spell memorization and casting times, by this I mean the time it takes for a spell to load and be useable and the time it takes to start casting it, some examples would be, these are primarily examples from classes that I have some experience with:
Sha's Ferocity takes 30 seconds from the time the spell is memorized to the time you are able to start casting the spell, there is already a 2 minute time limit between the casting of pets, this limitation is redundant.
Availability of pet summoning spells for Beastlords takes 10 seconds from the time it is memorized to the time you are able to start casting, see above, this is a redundant limitation and there is no reason for it.
Other spell recast/cast times:
Summon:Bauble of Battle has a 6+ second recast time from the time it is previously cast, what is the reason for this recast time? This spell along with others like it is perhaps my favorite "poster boy" for unnecessarily long cast times/recast times in that the spell itself is not overpowering, you summon a 25% haste item to your target, how would lowering the recast and cast time on this along with other summoning spells affect the balance of the game? This change would only be a convenience change.
Spiritual Strength and other spells in the HP/ATK line for Beastlords:
These are all single target buffs that take 10 seconds to cast on each target this is a completely unnecessary limitation, either change the cast time on these buffs (the ones that come before Spiritual Vigor) or (my favored solution) make them a group buff.Again this is another example of a convenience change that does not affect the balance of the game.
Other misc suggestions:
Add "Spell Cantrips" for each spell category (Abjuration,Conjuration etc) for all casting classes, these are 0.5/1.0 second cast time, low mana, 0 sec recast spells (barring the universal recast time) spells that have no effect other than to be used to up skill levels in those categories.It makes sense for guilds to furnish their members with very easy to use spells to help their members to increase their spell casting skills in all categories and there are huge gaps for some classes, two easy examples being Ranger/Wizard for Conjuration and Necromancer for Evocation.
Training dummies:
These would be level 65 NPC's (scarecrow model fits the picture and is available in the global model files) that are average across the board (resists,AC, etc) that have a huge HP amount and the maximum amount of regen available so that they are unkillable and would not strike back. These would simply be used to increase peoples skill level in different categories (1hb,2hs, Archery etc), the addition of dummies to increase your defensive rating would also be nice, simply make them strike very fast for 1 damage each time, be permarooted and have no summoning.
These dummies would not only be extremely useful for their intended purpose but also for the purpose of parsing DPS for the general public when this sort of information is needed by the staff,as the staff has called for in a few threads, namely the Rogue/Ranger dps discrepancy threads.When you want this sort of information isn't it better to give your public the tools to investigate these claims in the most efficient and least time consuming way possible?
These suggestions are also easily mutable, if you want to provide a training dummy to the public to facilitate easy logging of defensive abilities simply make a scarecrow training dummy mob that hits with average accuracy/damage and also heals the player for the same amount of damage that it does.
For the training dummy suggestions I recommend placing them in a zone such as Plane of Valor, this fits in very well with the overall theme of the zone and Enthann's wish for his followers to improve their combat skills, it is also fairly hard to get to for the average newbie, they would have to earn the right to improve the skills they want by traveling to the zone without dying and the zone already has things of this nature such as the archery targets you can see being shot at by Enthann's followers.
These are simply suggestions that I believe are for the most part easy to implement by the staff and that would have an overall beneficial effect on SoD as a whole, eliminating unwanted annoyance and adding convenient things to the game, please add your own suggestions to this thread in the spirit of the examples that I posted.