Newsfiend
08-01-2009, 01:10 PM
Yes, the link does go to a thread on the SoD Beta forums. I'm trying to have that whole thread moved to the live forum soon, but in the meantime I'll repost the questions I had below.
Basically, when it comes to class balance, I am aiming in the direction of taking a wider view of classes and what makes them tick, particularly some of the intangible stuff that goes beyond the explicit mechanics.
>>As I'm tuning basepop and raids, I thought I'd toss out a few questions to help guide my decision-making:
>>1. From what you've seen of the expansion thus far, do you think that all classes have enough to do in the static zones and in raids? Which classes do you feel need a little more to do, or have more than enough to do? Update: Expand the scope of the question to include the totality of the live game as a whole, particularly the high-end game.
>>2. Which classes do you feel have a high observational burden compared to other classes, in terms of total stimuli coming in from the game environment and UI? Update: Also includes difficulty of finding and parsing critical information which may be hidden or dependent upon other players to be revealed.
>>3. Which classes do you feel have a high orientation burden compared to other classes, in terms of the amount of information you feel you must process in order to understand what's going on? Which classes do you feel experience information overload more often than others? Update: An orientation limitation may also include a cultural approach to a problem, which in EQ terms may mean a player of a certain class may tend to respond to an emerging problem the way they were trained to, via their experience with the game community, when in reality a faster or more effective approach may also exist.
>>4. Which classes do you feel have a high decision burden compared to other classes, in terms of choices being too difficult, too numerous, or having a high potential impact on the player or other players? In addition, which classes would you be less likely to choose to be in a group for the purposes of dealing with basepop in the expansion? Which classes experience the most hesitation over the number of choices they can make in a raid? Which classes are more likely to suffer the objection of other players when making certain decisions? Update: No one likes to admit to 'hesitation', but when a character has a number of ways to respond to a problem, the time spent thinking about what to do next can vary from class to class
>>5. Which classes do you feel have a high action burden compared to other classes, as in, actions take dramatically longer to perform, have expensive cooldown waits, or other costs and delays that lead to slower response than other classes? Which classes do you feel work harder in raids?
>>When describing the difficulty of burdens in answering questions 2 - 5, use "low", "medium", or "high", the more feedback I get, the better I hope to achieve good tuning results.
More... (http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=151772&post_id=2253347#2253347)
Basically, when it comes to class balance, I am aiming in the direction of taking a wider view of classes and what makes them tick, particularly some of the intangible stuff that goes beyond the explicit mechanics.
>>As I'm tuning basepop and raids, I thought I'd toss out a few questions to help guide my decision-making:
>>1. From what you've seen of the expansion thus far, do you think that all classes have enough to do in the static zones and in raids? Which classes do you feel need a little more to do, or have more than enough to do? Update: Expand the scope of the question to include the totality of the live game as a whole, particularly the high-end game.
>>2. Which classes do you feel have a high observational burden compared to other classes, in terms of total stimuli coming in from the game environment and UI? Update: Also includes difficulty of finding and parsing critical information which may be hidden or dependent upon other players to be revealed.
>>3. Which classes do you feel have a high orientation burden compared to other classes, in terms of the amount of information you feel you must process in order to understand what's going on? Which classes do you feel experience information overload more often than others? Update: An orientation limitation may also include a cultural approach to a problem, which in EQ terms may mean a player of a certain class may tend to respond to an emerging problem the way they were trained to, via their experience with the game community, when in reality a faster or more effective approach may also exist.
>>4. Which classes do you feel have a high decision burden compared to other classes, in terms of choices being too difficult, too numerous, or having a high potential impact on the player or other players? In addition, which classes would you be less likely to choose to be in a group for the purposes of dealing with basepop in the expansion? Which classes experience the most hesitation over the number of choices they can make in a raid? Which classes are more likely to suffer the objection of other players when making certain decisions? Update: No one likes to admit to 'hesitation', but when a character has a number of ways to respond to a problem, the time spent thinking about what to do next can vary from class to class
>>5. Which classes do you feel have a high action burden compared to other classes, as in, actions take dramatically longer to perform, have expensive cooldown waits, or other costs and delays that lead to slower response than other classes? Which classes do you feel work harder in raids?
>>When describing the difficulty of burdens in answering questions 2 - 5, use "low", "medium", or "high", the more feedback I get, the better I hope to achieve good tuning results.
More... (http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=151772&post_id=2253347#2253347)