Dev Diary Feedback: SoM Skirmishes: Accessibility

[JesseA]

Originally Posted by Zombie_Columbus

From the Rewards Diary: "It’s important to point out that SM rewards are not divided among fellowship members. SM rewards are calculated on a player-by-player basis."

Playing under size max will not garner any benefits. We understand that this will make group sizes that do not line up with those we provide a bit sad. We believe that the knowledge that new players will not dilute the loot will encourage people to play together for mutual benefit.

Would a small bonus be out of the question, though? I'm not suggesting that the two players get the equivalent of what an imaginary third would get (divided in half, of course). It simply seems that a small bonus would be nice considering the additional challenge. Personally, I'm looking forward to tackling some of these three-man skirmishes with just two people, but from a rewards perspective (time played versus reward gained), it sounds like we're far better off to bring a third.

[CoranisDoJ]

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

Are marks and such innovatory items? if so, please reconsider.

I read somewhere that they are but the stack # is really high. Think one of the devs said millions but I am sure that's an exaggeration .

[Deusdictum]

Originally Posted by Zombie_Columbus

I've been doing overtime for months. jwbarry too.

But, come on, you work on a video game. Doesn't that magically make working overtime fun and rewarding? You should be totally PUMPED after doing overtime that long!

[jayspeed]

Originally Posted by Zombie_Columbus

I've been doing overtime for months. jwbarry too.

And we appreciate the hard work you all do.

[elosefast]

Will there be some sort of skirmish join UI thing like the group join thing in DDO? Like it would show someone not currently in a fellowship a list of all the open skirmishes and allow them to click something like "join open skirmish"? Then a tell would be sent to the creator of the skirmish that so and so of certain class and level would like to join they're skirmish?

Would make getting into skirmishes alot faster IMHO.

[Jadzi]

Originally Posted by Zero_Out

But what about advertising for others to join? Are you relying on kinships and /glff to fill that role? I refuse to use /glff because it's nothing more than kids spouting off pointless ramblings all night.

If 5 of us enter a skirmish, and want to find a 6th, are we going to have to have someone sitting in a major town spamming /lff, or can the 5 of us get on with it, and hope that someone asks to join our skirmish already in progress via some new system?

I'd imagine that advertising in such means would be counter-productive - after all, you might end up with one of those terrible kids spouting off pointless ramblings! Better to stick to a friends list of like-minded individuals.

That or... no, couldn't be. Who in their right mind would actually use the Open Fellowships panel?

[sMAk]

All sounds fantastic. I think the skirmish system has the potential to turn this game into something great. Thanks for your efforts and I hope this turns out well!!

A question on the defeat mechanics though. Both quotes from here

Instead, retreating or being revived in a Skirmish will apply a debuff that reduces Skirmish Mark acquisition.

Is this loss of marks spread across the group? I'd hate to be costing other players marks because of a targeting mistake or some such. Healing has its stresses for sure, but repair bills have never been that bad. Actually loosing other players reward opportunity brings in a whole new era of stress!

The notable exception to this is in-combat defeat removal

Does this mean if you get an in-combat rez? Again, could be angry time. "Why didn't you give ME the in-combat rez instead of that silly hunter!?!?

[Donnamira]

So you can set the level of the skirmish. Can you set it anywhere? I mean, can you as a level 10 player try the skirmish at level 50? Practically, you wouldn't because you'd be jelly, but can you try it?

Also, if we have a group of four, and three are at level 60, and one is at level 40, are we going to be able to do a skirmish together? Does the level 40 get a lot better rewards because the skirmish is so much higher to him? Or does he get less because the system knows perfectly well he'd just be dragged along by the 60s?

How many times would my buddy with a level 45 loremaster have to run a skirmish to get enough points for a putrid slime? Would it take longer than getting 4 60s together for a surgical strike on helch?

[skorpion352]

Originally Posted by Donnamira

So you can set the level of the skirmish. Can you set it anywhere? I mean, can you as a level 10 player try the skirmish at level 50? Practically, you wouldn't because you'd be jelly, but can you try it?

no, because the skirmish system doesnt open until lvl 30

[Def_Zep]

Great ideas here.

This system just keeps getting better and better, the more I learn about it.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Originally Posted by Donnamira

So you can set the level of the skirmish. Can you set it anywhere? I mean, can you as a level 10 player try the skirmish at level 50? Practically, you wouldn't because you'd be jelly, but can you try it?

You have level 30+ and complete the training missions.

[Glimlioin]

This all sounds awesome. I can't wait.
To me this will also fill in those spots when leveling a toon where you run out of quests in a particular area. You can rack up a day of skirmishes and be ready to roll in no time.
I also play alot in the quiet times (Being from the southern hemisphere) and having lots of solo challenges sounds great.

As i said... can't wait!

[Adalas]

Originally Posted by Donnamira

So you can set the level of the skirmish. Can you set it anywhere? I mean, can you as a level 10 player try the skirmish at level 50? Practically, you wouldn't because you'd be jelly, but can you try it?

I wonder if we see lots of groups with 2 30s and a 65 doing lvl 50 skirmishes with the 30s collecting thousands and thousands of SMs.

[Jadzi]

Originally Posted by sMAk

Is this loss of marks spread across the group? I'd hate to be costing other players marks because of a targeting mistake or some such. Healing has its stresses for sure, but repair bills have never been that bad. Actually loosing other players reward opportunity brings in a whole new era of stress!

Doubtful. Remember, the devs have consistently said that mark rewards are calculated on per-player basis, so I would assume that the demerits are as well. It was also stated that they opted not to have defeat dread inside skirmishes, and instead have this reward reduction.

Originally Posted by sMAk

Does this mean if you get an in-combat rez? Again, could be angry time. "Why didn't you give ME the in-combat rez instead of that silly hunter!?!?

Yup. They call it "defeat removal" because you don't technically die, you just run out of morale and get depressed.

Originally Posted by Adalas

I wonder if we see lots of groups with 2 30s and a 65 doing lvl 50 skirmishes with the 30s collecting thousands and thousands of SMs.

To start, I'd think they'd have some restriction to prevent that, like capping involvement to so many levels above the player, or limiting how high the mark acquisition scales.

Second, if you think about it, even if you could do that, that'd mean two 30's in an instance with mobs 20 levels above them. They can't even hit those, and would die very easily to them. Not to mention the instance would be a 3-man so the mobs would be made for three 50's. Given as how the devs have said that mobs won't drop loot because they don't believe players will have time to loot, I'd imagine that's going to leave a sole level 65 trying to solo mass swarms of level 50 mobs meant for three people to take down.

If that's the case, it'd be like trying to solo the entire population of one of the Eregion 3-mans in rapid successive waves, WHILE keeping aggro on all of them lest they attack the level 30's and cause them to take a mark penalty.

That's a pretty steep challenge, I'd say, but I'm sure someone will reply about how that it's all too easy and they could do it in five minutes.