For an upcoming publish, the Ultima Online Live Development team plans to make some substantial changes revolving around the game's Bard class. Our goals in making these changes are these:
- To fix skill balance issues. This includes the relatively extreme power of the Provocation skill and the relatively weak power of Enticement. Provocation allows characters with minimal skill points to single-handedly kill some of the most powerful monsters in the game, while Enticement has very few worthwhile uses.
- To improve the play experience of bards. As they currently stand, the bard skills generally do not require much interaction from the player. For example, once two creatures are provoked to fight each other, the bard need no longer interact with those creatures until one of them dies. As such, combat with a bard character isn't as engaging, exciting, or interesting as it could be.
- To increase the versatility of bards. Currently, bards have a very small number of simple abilities, many of which have very limited use in Ultima Online. We wish to ultimately give bards a collection of different abilities that are individually not overbalancingly powerful. As a corollary goal, some of the new bard abilities added will be unique to bards and new to Ultima Online.
With those goals in mind, we have in concept a basic play experience planned for the new bard class. In general, it will work like this:
Bard songs. Bard songs will be an amalgamation of magic and music, voice and instrument. A bard will initiate a song, which will take a short time during which the bard is very vulnerable to interruption by taking damage. After initiation, the duration of the song is open-ended, depending on numerous factors. For example, bards must pay a continuous upkeep cost in Stamina while the song continues, but bards with the Meditation skill will be able to pay part of the upkeep cost using Mana. Also, bards are still somewhat vulnerable to interruption by taking damage while a song continues. While initiating and continuing a song, equipping or unequipping any item or actively using most skills will also abort the song. However, the bard will be able to use many items that need not be equipped. Furthermore, the bard will need to stay near the song's target. After song initiation and during upkeep, the song's actual effect occurs.
Song effects. The bard songs will have a mixture of effects. Some will be geared toward solo adventure, while others will be more useful with the bard assisting and supporting an ally. Some will be geared toward actively affecting combat, while others will have passive effects that modify rewards gained from many different types of activities. Furthermore, each bard ability will be usable by a solo bard, or by a "troupe" of three or more bards combining efforts. The troupe version of each ability will be much more powerful than the solo version.
Targeting and Flagging. Most bard abilities will be considered "beneficial" or "negative" acts. This means that some of them will be unusable in Trammel outside of consensual PvP (like guild wars). Others may be used in non-consenting PvP in Felucca, but will give the bard an Aggressor and/or Criminal flags. For example, performing a beneficial song (like a health regeneration buff) on a monster in Trammel will be impossible, but simply flag the bard criminal in Felucca. Passive abilities that do not require explicit targets will have their effects limited as appropriate and not result in flagging.
Bard skills. The existing bard skills (Musicianship, Enticement, Peacemaking, and Provocation) will continue to exist, though their roles will change. All bard abilities will still require a Musicianship check. Furthermore, each ability will require skill checks in one or more of the other three skills. Generally, the more powerful the ability, the more skills will be required. Additionally, other skills besides the bard-specific ones will grant bonuses to some bard abilities.
Bard templates. There will be many possible bard templates available. Bards may choose not to raise all four of the bard skills (though at least Musicianship will be required to be effective). Doing that will limit the repertoire of songs available, but free up skill points to be used elsewhere. Bards will also be able to be effective without achieving Grandmaster status in all the bard skills, allowing still more flexibility. Since some bard abilities will receive bonuses from additional non-bard skills, bards will have many opportunities to specialize. And finally, since some skills will have additional effects on the bard (like Meditation offsetting Stamina costs with Mana, or Wrestling reducing the chance to be interrupted), the potential variety of bard templates becomes very large indeed.
And finally, here are our ideas for actual bard abilities. With this list below, it is particularly important to remember that this is just in concept and is very subject to change!
Provocation. Requiring just the Provocation skill, the core of this ability remains unchanged. The bard provokes one creature to attack another creature or a player (but cannot provoke a player to attack anything). However, in addition to the basic bard spell restrictions listed above under Bard Songs, there are a few differences. First, Provocation becomes difficulty-based, meaning that the more powerful a creature is,
the harder it is to provoke. Furthermore, the target that the creature is provoked onto affects the difficulty. In general, provoking one creature to attack another of the same type will be more difficult. However, provoking one creature to attack one of its natural enemies (like provoking an Ophidian on a Terathan) will be much easier. Also, the tougher the target, the less willing the creature is to fight it, making the provoke attempt more difficult. A solo bard will be simply unable to provoke very powerful creatures - however, a troupe of skilled bards working in concert will most likely be able to provoke almost all of the most powerful monsters in the game. This is an actively targeted ability and is considered a negative act.
Enticement. The only skill this ability takes is Enticement. This ability changes slightly. Rather than a one-time effect that draws a single target to the bard, it will become continuous, causing the target to continue to follow the bard so long as the song is being played. It, too, will become difficulty based. If the bard is very skillful, his or her Enticement effect may even be able to draw in multiple creatures of the same type, if the creatures are individually very weak. Bards working in groups will be able to Entice extremely powerful creatures individually, or groups of medium-level creatures. This is an actively targeted ability and is considered a negative act.
Peacemaking. This requires only the Peacemaking skill. In a radius of effect around the bard, monsters and players may occasionally stop fighting. (Players will leave War Mode and lose their target; monsters will stop fighting and after a moment might look for a new target.) The radius of effect and chance to stop fighting depend on the solo bard's skill level, or the combined power of the troupe. A troupe of very skilled bards would be able to stop very powerful creatures and players from fighting in a fairly large radius. This is a passive, non-targeted ability and is considered neither negative nor beneficial. In Trammel, it will have no effect on players and in Felucca it will affect all players (even the bard's party members) in the area of effect.
Stamina Regen Rate Buff. The solo bard selects a single target, and that target's stamina recovery rate is increased based on the bard's Provocation skill. When performed by a troupe, all party members receive a stamina recovery rate increase. The greater the combined skill of the bards, the greater the increase. The further the effect spreads (the larger the party), the lesser the gain. Party members will actually have to be within a certain distance of the bards or they lose the benefit, until they return to the area of effect. In solo mode, this is an actively targeted ability and is considered a beneficial act, making it impossible to use on a monster in Trammel and criminal in Felucca. In troupe mode, the bard's party are the only beneficiaries, making flagging irrelevant.
Health Regen Rate Buff. This ability works almost identically to the Stamina buff, except that the skill required is Enticement and the target’s natural healing rate is increased while the song is in effect. Furthermore, the bard’s Healing skill will provide slight bonuses to this effect.
Mana Regen Rate Buff. This ability works almost identically to the Stamina buff, except that the skill required is Peacemaking and the target’s natural mana regeneration rate is increased while the song is in effect. Furthermore, the bard’s Meditation skill will provide slight bonuses to this effect.
Increase Spawn. Skills used are Provocation and Enticement. This ability allows the solo bard or troupe of bards to have slight effects on the spawn rates nearby. The effects will be slight but noticeable, and will be geared toward assisting players in "Evil in a Can" type quests, which are themselves heavily based on variable spawn regions. The cumulative effects of multiple bards/bard troupes will not be enough to severely impact the gameplay of others. However, due to the potential for abuse, this ability actually making it into the game is very much in question. The Increase Spawn ability is considered neither negative nor beneficial.
Decrease Spawn. Works like Increase Spawn, but in the other direction. Skills required are Provocation and Peacemaking.
Karma Decrease. Requires Provocation and Enticement skills. The solo bard or the troupe member initiating the song picks a target. The actual effect of this ability is to decrease the magnitude of the target's Karma temporarily. This means a target with negative Karma has less negative Karma while under the effect of this ability, and one with positive Karma has less positive Karma. This ability cannot cause a negative Karma target's Karma to become positive, or vice-versa. In troupe mode, this ability will be able to affect multiple nearby targets based on party, guild, order/chaos, faction, or red/blue affiliations under conditions yet to be determined. This effect is considered beneficial.
Karma Increase. This is the reverse of Karma Decrease. The skills required are Peacemaking and Enticement. Targets with negative Karma lose Karma temporarily under this effect, and targets with positive Karma gain karma. This is considered a negative act.
Fame Decrease. This effect requires Peacemaking and Enticement. The target temporarily loses an amount of fame. This is considered a beneficial act, but cannot be used in a guard zone on any facet.
Fame Increase. Requires Provocation and Peacemaking. Target temporarily gains fame. This is a negative act.
Attack Ability. This ability requires Provocation, Peacemaking, and Enticement . This ability is the only direct-damage bard song. It works by delivering damage over time based on the bard's skills. The troupe mode can have multiple targets based on to-be-determined rules involving party, guild, order/chaos, faction, and/or red/blue affiliation. This is a negative act.
Teaching Song. This ability requires Provocation, Peacemaking, and Enticement, plus an additional skill. The bard can use this ability to temporarily increase a target's skill level in any skill the bard possesses. For example, a bard with Mining skill can temporarily increase the Mining skill of a target. The maximum skill bonus will be 10 points of skill, but this amount of bonus will be extremely difficult to achieve by requiring the bard be close to Grandmaster in the bard skills and the skill being taught. A troupe of bards will be able to enhance the skill level of their entire party. This ability cannot be used on non-humans.
Notes and FAQs
1. Why would decreasing someone's fame be a beneficial act, and vice versa?
The implications of this ability are complex. When you decrease someone's fame, many beneficial effects happen. For example, since fame rewards are scaled based on current fame, you will effectively receive increased fame rewards while your fame is reduced by the bard. In PvP, if your fame is lowered and you die to another player, you lose less fame and your killer gains less fame. However, decreasing the fame of a monster would effectively reduce the rewards gained from killing that monster. That is beneficial to the monster by making it less of a target to those seeking fame.
Now, consider the reverse. If you increase a player's fame, the immediate effect is minimal - it might result in a temporary title change. However, while the player's fame is increased, his own fame gains are reduced and his value as a kill to another player is increased. It's the same for a monster - if you increase its fame, it is a higher priority target for fame seekers. The majority of effect for a fame increase is indeed negative, because the effect is temporary but can adversely affect the target's permanent fame.
The same holds true for the Karma modifications.
2. Why do the Karma modifiers only increase or decrease the magnitude of the target's Karma?
Doing it this way, it's possible to set it up with beneficial/negative flagging much like the fame adjusting abilities. If it were possible to temporarily change a target from positive to negative Karma or vice-versa, the potential effects are much more complicated and the rules would be much more difficult to understand.
3. Why are there separate abilities for adjusting things up and down? Couldn't you combine them into different effects that are all beneficial to the bard/bard's party and eliminate all this flagging and negative/beneficial complicatedness?
Yes. However, doing these as separate abilities helps us better accomplish our goals. By having separate abilities, and separate skill requirements, the bard has more decision-making to do. For example, rather than simply turning on the Fame Gain Buff and then not getting interrupted while the bard's party kills things, the bard will instead have to coordinate his actions with his allies and apply the correct adjuster ability to the correct target. The bard becomes much more involved in gameplay at that point, hopefully making it much more fun and interesting to be a bard.
4. Those regen buffs sound uber! Sounds like mages ability to mana dump could really be increased
True. However, the bard who is boosting the other character's ability is himself basically unable to fight. The mage/fighter/whatever gets a nice boost to his abilities at the cost of the bard's effectiveness in any other capacity. The effects of these buffs will be reasonably balanced --a mage and a bard who is buffing the mage's mana regen would be about as powerful as a mage and a half. We wouldn't want to make the buff stronger than that, because that combined with the bard's flexibility would effectively make bards overbalancingly powerful in a way different from how they are now.
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