Feldon As we reported last night, Dungeon Maker Avatars (the limited NPCs we’re supposed to ‘drive’ through player-made dungeons) will be getting a new mechanic where combat builds power, which unlocks more powerful abilities, akin to the Savagery and Primal abilities introduced with Beastlords.
From Bunji on the EQ2 Forums:
Hello Testers!
Changes to the Dungeon Maker Avatars are headed to test and we definitely want your feedback!
Please feel free to post bug reports and feedback in this thread, though remember that you can also /feedback and /bug.
As for the changes, our goal has been to improve the pace of play, remove reliance on auto-attack, add some strategic decision making, and, overall, make the avatar play experience a lot more fun. To that end, we’ve introduced a power-management mechanic to the avatars. In short, power will rapidly drain while out of combat. While in combat, each avatar has a quick-use, low-damage attack that also builds power. This will allow the use of various high-power, high-affect abilities once power has been built up. It’s a pretty significant change and will almost certainly require some tweaks before going live so please be as detailed as possible in your feedback.
We’ll try to keep this thread up to date with a list of known issues as they come to our attention.
Thanks for your help!
So far there hasn’t been any further word on playing your own characters in Dungeon Maker dungeons, which has been possible on Test for over a week now.
I think you mean “month” not “week” in that last paragraph? I’m pretty sure it was several weeks ago that I logged onto Test and ran one of my own characters through a player-made dungeon.
It was nowhere near as enjoyable as using the avatars, either, although it seemed to work perfectly adequately.
This change is aweful. It takes your attention from the game and forces you to focus on a hotbar the whole time spamming abilites just to stay alive, I mean you litterally have to stare at the bar for FCFS popups. This is worse then WoW’s hotbar stare down. There has to be a better way to do this then what they have up there now. If this is the way its going to be I suppose i just wont use DM any longer.
“In short, power will rapidly drain while out of combat. While in combat, each avatar has a quick-use, low-damage attack that also builds power. This will allow the use of various high-power, high-affect abilities once power has been built up.”
So they’re taking the Champions Online mechanic. I have to question why Dungeon Maker is so inconsistent with the rest of the game–it’s as though the devs are tired of EQ2 and really want to make something else, but they’re doing it without actually going to a new game first.
soe is at its best in failing,bringing in new content that will fail majorly
So they are making all of these avatars beastlords. Cool.
it’s as though the devs are tired of EQ2 and really want to make something else, but they’re doing it without actually going to a new game first.
Anyone else get the feeling they’re trying out things they have in mind for EQNext?
I personally never understood having only three or four powers with only one on a quick timer. While, I like choosing 1, 2, 3, 4 like the next guy. I don’t mind the build and and siphon mechanic. I do mind it like Aethn said staring at your hot bar waiting for your refresh. I much rather several quick recast that are off the mechanic in concert with some that are build up and and store waiting for the right time to execute. Also, having various abilities to be a little more versatile on the fly depending on group make up would be nice.
@kal
No, not beastlords. Beastlords actually work. This update is so bad it makes Dungeon maker pretty much unplayable. It takes the worst idea that WoW had and brings it here. No, we don’t want to have to build up power to use basic abilities. It is a horrible idea that needs to be scrapped and go with something useful. The beastlord power bar that opens up extra attacks is a great idea. The DM version is a stupid idea.
The last I understood the plan was to move away from Avatars and go with player’s toon in the dungeon maker, is this not the case anymore?
I’m not trying to be negative here, really I’m not. But do the people in charge have any clue at all as to what to do? About anything? With every announcement, I get this impression of them flailing about, either in utter confusion or utter apathy. I’m not sure which it is.
@ Cristamir: Have you seen that recent picture of Dave? How can I describe it and be nice…
…
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Hmm, I can’t. Anyway, that’s the guy who has the reins. THAT is why EQ2 is such a cluster right now.
(its too early to blame Holly and its just sooo easy to blame SJ)
@Claviarm what’s so wrong with that? It at least gives them a chance to try out new mechanics without messing too much with the main game. I’d rather them screw around with the dungeon maker and at least flesh it out…better that than us alpha test it on live with real characters, which let’s face it would be the alternative. Just think of Dungeon Maker as the new beta server. This is probably a prelude to complete class overhauls. God have mercy on us all.