WAR adds DAOC stealth classes

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Tingtong
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WAR adds DAOC stealth classes

Postby Tingtong » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:57 pm

Greetings!

We'd like to introduce a new ability players will find when playing the Witch Elf class, many of you will probably recognize it as a form of stealth so we'd like to take a moment and explain how it works and how we feel it removes the negative aspects of traditional stealth while still adding very positive ones and creating even more unique careers within Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Ambush abilities in WAR will have a number of similarities to abilities found in other games; however we’ve adjusted the Ambush mechanic so it is used strategically over short periods of time to allow you to close the distance on an opponent. It is not an “I sit around invisible and gank you down to ½ you’re health in 1 shot” type of mechanic.


Why did we add in Ambush?

This was a very difficult decision for us, we’ve been play testing many different careers for quite some time now. In the end some melee DPS careers were just missing something. Especially careers that had a very traditional Rogue play style. After reviewing our Beta feedback and a number of recent internal game reviews. We’ve decided to re-introduce the “Ambush” style stealth play into the game. We’ve already been supporting large chunks of this play style with things like positional attacks, escape from combat, etc but we never specifically allowed a player to “Hide” then launch an attack from a hidden state.

This has the added benefit of adding further differentiation between the Melee DPS careers, giving us more options to allow a Melee career to deliver a hurting to the fight without getting super shot up in the process. Not all Careers will get Ambush; many will get other ways to reach the fight faster then normal.


What are the major goals of Ambush?

We went into the design process with a very set idea of our goals. We wanted to give melee players in paper thin armor a chance to close the distance on ranged attackers, but not be able to lie in wait for hours and hours. It was also our goal that these classes did not rely on ambush to be effective (that big ½ you’re HP hit from stealth or else you don’t win the fight)

1. Help light armor Melee Characters close across open terrain with strong ranged careers, as well as PvE content.
2. Keep Ambush as a strategic choice not as a mandatory mechanic used in every fight
3. Limit both the time and effectiveness of being hidden, so that players need not worry about invisible attackers lying in wait for hours.
4. Keep the advantage to starting a fight from hidden limited to choosing time & place, not making it all about the High damage attacks from hidden


How does Ambush Work?

o Players with an ambush secondary mechanic will be able to “Hide” from view and will have the following advantages for doing so
o Monster detection range will be greatly reduced
o Players will disappear from opponent’s screens
o When hidden special Ambush attacks will be unlocked instead of normal abilities
o Players will move at normal speeds while Hidden
o Ambush is a timed mechanic, players will not be able to stay ambushed long and will take penalties if they let their time run out
o Ambush is currently limited to (~1min 30sec)
o While Hidden AP drains at a constant rate, when a player reaches 0 AP they will un-hide and become visible again
o If a player launches an attack from hidden they will un-hide and become visible again
o Players can hide at any time, but require a very short time to prepare to hide (2s) if they are hit during this time the Hide is canceled and the cool down on the ability resets.
o If a player becomes un-hidden for any reason the cool down will begin and they cannot hide again for a set period of time (currently 60s)
o Players & Monsters will be able to detect a hidden player
o Chance of detection increases when a player is higher level then the hidden player
o Chance of detection increases the closer the hidden player is to the detecting player
o Chance of detection increases when the hidden player is in front of the detecting player
o Certain Careers will have abilities to further increase detection radius for short periods of time
o Certain monster types & RvR guards will always be able to detect hidden players
o Hidden players hit by ranged damage AoE’s will have a chance of being detected
o Hidden players hit by melee damage will always be detected
o Launching an Ambush from a hidden state
o Hidden players will only have access to ambush specific abilities
o Ambush abilities tend to require a positional setup (Front / Back / Side)
o Ambush abilities do NOT focus on big hit damage, sorry don’t expect backstabs that do ½ of a players HP on hit
o Ambush abilities are designed to give the ambushing character an advantage to make up for their weak armor, and commonly include debuffs & DoT’s instead of straight damage.

What Careers will be able to Ambush?

At this time we are considering the Witch Hunter & Witch Elf for an ambush secondary mechanic


When will we see Ambush in Beta?

You will see a very basic form of Ambush in Beta soon (so we can start testing) full featured ambush will follow sometime in the next few months


When will you remove Stealth from Beta b/c it’s overpowered?

We’re not afraid to pull or change a mechanic if it doesn’t work. However we will spend a good amount of time working with the mechanic to ensure its both balanced and fun to use. This will probably be a multiple month process as we consistently tweak it. At the end if it doesn’t work we’ll take a look at it again and pull it if necessary.


Conclusion

As you can see by some of the baseline features of the Ambush design, we have taken into consideration many of the standard complaints many players have with Hidden while attempting to return some of the flavor to the careers that just did not feel right without it. Overall our goal with Ambush is to allow an opponent to see their target fade from view and know if they pull evasive maneuvers eventually that player will reveal again. In addition it adds a good amount of group flavor since it will be easier to duck out and hide in a busy fight group situation when compared to a 1 v 1 fight. Successful ambush players will still have to rely heavily on moving around terrain and using group distractions, however they will gain a bit of an advantage when they choose to come out of the terrain or over the hill and cross the open ground. Also keep in mind if you time you’re ambush wrong, or attempt to go too far while hidden you will Pop out of hiding with no Action Points and will be extremely vulnerable. Even if you push the limit you may find that you start the fight at less of an advantage then you thought since you used a lot of your AP just getting to the target!

As always we look forward to continued feedback on this and other features. Please consider the design carefully before you just break out the torches =)

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Elfdroper Gravelender
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Postby Elfdroper Gravelender » Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:06 am

:toothy10: I was wondering when they were going to put this in. It seems like they are doing alot of things right with "Ambush" i.e. not allowing for huge damage out or it and the fact that it only works for 1.5 minutes.

That being said I honestly don't feel either of the classes need it. I'm not sure how freely we can talk about beta but to me the witch hunter/elf are fine without it, but that's just my opinion. :toothy10:
Gravelender AKA Elfdropper

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Postby Mourningblade » Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:36 pm

I've only killed dwarves in pvp, but i hear the witch hunter crits like a freight train (so I'll reserve judgement until I fight someone with these abilities.

I don't know about higher level abilities, but the Black Orc tank needs a charge ability like tanks in WoW.
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