May Preview: Stat Consolidation is coming

Roshen posted a thread yesterday, indicating that there will be some overhauling of how character and item statistics will be displayed after the next patch.  This stat consolodation apparently won't take anything away but will streamline how various statistics will appear in game:

(From the offical EQ forums page)

Greetings, people of Norrath!

On (or around) Wednesday, May 18, 2016, we’ll be rolling out our next update. In this update, we’ll be changing what is commonly referred to as “mod2s” on items. We know that changing how item stats display may seem like a big change. This won’t impact you in a negative way, and we wanted to start a conversation about this before it happens so you know what to expect.

In the May update, we’re changing some stats from being separate entries on your character window to being properties of heroic stats. In their current form, the following mods are ones that most characters have easily capped since The Buried Sea (our 2007 expansion):

  • Accuracy
  • Avoidance
  • Combat Effects
  • Damage Shield
  • Damage Shield Mitigation
  • DoT Shielding
  • Shielding
  • Spell Shielding
  • Strikethrough
  • Stun Resist

Having these stats visible on current items serves no real purpose, and ends up adding clutter and complexity to the game that doesn’t need to be there. Our goal with these changes is to reduce clutter on items and on your inspect window, in order to make it easier for you to better understand items at a glance.

(continued below)

For example:

[IMG]


Since these effects will become part of the heroic stats you already have on your armor, we're removing their individual displays from the item inspection window. You will still see how much of each modifier you have on the stats tab of your inventory window, with new tooltips that tell you when you reach the next point.

Here is the before and after of the stat page of an unbuffed warrior with a full set of (un-augmented) gear from The Broken Mirror, to give you a better idea of how these changes will display in game:

[IMG]


As you can see, with modern Heroic Stat levels, you will remain at or above the cap in all 10 categories.
 

… And That’s Not All In This Patch

The team is working on other improvements for the May update, as well as more updates for later this year. Here’s a preview of some of the things to come.

Spells

We're continuing work on consolidating DoT lines. Rangers are definitely scheduled to get updated, and some Shaman DoT lines might make it in as well. Enchanters are probably getting tweaked in terms of the amount of mana that returns to them from the Mind Shatter line. We liked increasing the amount of mana drained as a proportion of damage done, but we believe the efficiency of mana return at this point is too high.

Behind the Scenes

We're continuing our work on the game's underlying systems to improve server stability. The test server should be converting to this new system next week, and when we're completely happy with the results, we'll begin the process of rolling these improvements out to live servers.

All of this is in addition to our normal bug fixes and game tweaks. This patch is scheduled to go out to players on (or around) Wednesday, May 18, and you'll see most of the upcoming fixes when they go to the test server. We have this scheduled to go to test server on Monday, May 9.

Break It Down For Me

If you have 35 or more heroic Strength, you will now have 35 Damage Shield and 25 Damage Shield Mitigation.
If you have 35 or more heroic Stamina, you will now have 35 Shielding and Stun Resistance.
If you have 35 or more heroic Agility, you will now have 100 Avoidance and 35 Strikethrough.
If you have 37 or more heroic Dexterity, you will now have 150 Accuracy and 100 Combat Effects.
If the higher value of your heroic Intelligence or Wisdom is 35 or more, you will now have 35 DoT Shielding and 35 Spell Shielding.

Why Would You Do This?

Our goal is to remove unnecessary complexity from the game. Once players are in the Buried Sea items, almost everyone will have all of the mods we’ve mentioned above at their caps. This makes these modifiers largely ignorable, but they show up on every item in roughly irrelevant numbers. Removing those 10 line items from the item inspection window will clean that window up, hopefully allowing it to be easier to compare items more quickly.

Attaching these modifiers to the heroic stat system helps flesh that system out a little more, and extend the caps on the older mod2 system. For example, as your heroic stats pass thresholds (set every 400 points), your characters can continue to grow in power, instead of hitting caps. For example, at 401 hSTA, you now have 36 Shielding and Stun Shielding.

In addition, this is a small performance increase on the server side. We're using less memory to store those ten stats. While that's not a lot on an individual item, it adds up when you consider that small amount is saved across every item we currently have in the game. Will you notice an improvement from this one change? Probably not, but it's still movement in the right direction.

Opportunities For Even Further Progression

We're taking this opportunity to use large values of Heroic Stats to extend the caps on mod2s. If you have more than 400 of any Heroic Stats, that stat's modifiers will now go above the current caps as shown here:

[IMG]

The mod gains are spread out evenly between 400 and 4000, setting up a deeper progression for heroic stats beyond their current abilities. Everyone should be able to reach the current baseline, but still have some goals to work towards. We're planning for these new caps to be unreachable for quite some time, and this gives us opportunities to do more interesting things with itemization in the future.

On Details and Devils

As some of you are probably thinking, there were a lot of items that either came out after mod2 effects were added or before heroic stats were consistently high enough to replicate those values. You're correct, and we're converting those mod values to heroic stats. This means that many items that existed before heroic stats were introduced are going to get them retroactively.

This became a little bit of a balance problem due to the fact that each heroic stat is now responsible for two mod values, so a pure 1:1 conversion would essentially be doubling all mods. On the other hand, if we simply cut everything in half, it would become impossible to hit the mod caps in some gear eras.

We've decided on the following formula: the first three points of any mod2 with a 35% cap are counted 1:1. Any values higher than that are counted as half a point of heroics, rounding up. While this will collapse the advantage of some outlier pieces of gear, it should ensure that good items remain good and low-stat items won't lose their value.

For Accuracy, Avoidance, and Combat Effects, the math is similar. Accuracy translates to 4 points per heroic Dexterity, so the first 12 points of Accuracy will translate into three points of heroic Dexterity. After that, every 8 points (rounded up) will count as one point of heroic Dexterity on the item.

Avoidance and Combat Effects translate to 3 points per heroic Agility or heroic Dexterity, respectively, so the first 9 points of either stat will translate to 3 points of their associated heroic stat. After that, every 6 points (rounded up) will count as one more point of the heroic stat on that item.

Our goal here is to make sure everyone gets roughly the same amount of mods, with the additional benefits of heroic stats. While this will shake up item values a bit in the mid-game era, overall everyone should come out a little bit stronger. Here is an example using a level 65 warrior:

[IMG]


You can see there are gains in HP, Endurance, AC, and HP regen. As for mods, everything increases except for Damage Shielding (1 point less) and Strike Through (4 points less).

We've also set up tooltips to show you the new formulas before the caps:

[IMG]

 

[IMG]


And after you reach the caps:

[IMG]

 

[IMG]


While we’re excited for these changes, what do YOU think?

Comments

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EQ was never meant to be soloed
# May 13 2016 at 12:41 PM Rating: Decent
34 posts
Everquest was never meant to be a solo game. Yes there are classes that are solo type classes, however part of the game that makes it Everquest is the fact that you are supposed to play as a group with teamwork in order to accomplish things. If you want to play a game that is largely soloable, I suggest finding a different game, EQ was never meant for that type of play.
EQ was never meant to be soloed. My ***.
# Dec 30 2016 at 11:26 AM Rating: Decent
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kakino wrote:
Everquest was never meant to be a solo game. Yes there are classes that are solo type classes, however part of the game that makes it Everquest is the fact that you are supposed to play as a group with teamwork in order to accomplish things. If you want to play a game that is largely soloable, I suggest finding a different game, EQ was never meant for that type of play.


LOL! says who!?!. Just because its "on-line"? you Must Group? NO.

Verdant or anyone since has Never said anything remotely like "EQ was never meant to be a solo game". I was probably Soloing in EQ B4 you were even born! LOL!. I played EQ every year for 14+ years? the vast majority of that time I Preferred to Solo & I did just fine Smiley: smile

That dose not mean I never Duo'ed, Grouped & Raided!?! I was in-fact an officer in a raid guild during the POP era! LOL! Smiley: eek I did all those things countless times... Not even to mention always being active in world chat & chatting with friends?...

I've also played WOW, SWTOR, AOC, ESO, LOTRO, Destiny, FFO etc. etc.? all games people like you would say the very same thing about, just because its "on-line" you Must Group, I say BS. Because just like EQ you can Solo to your hearts content in all those games... If what you said was true? you wouldn't be able to Solo in everything from EQ to WOW...

Bottom line is I'm so beyond sick & tiered of hearing that seemingly endless BS line about games like EQ from people like you who never Solo so have no clue what they are talking about. I've done it all including Solo & I'm telling you dead Wrong.

Just as a side note? the friend who got me to buy my first PC back in '99 to play EQ? Plays EQ to this day! exactly as I did, we logged in & went to work! didn't sit around on our *** begging for a group. if a group came along then sure whatever! I met & knew COUNTLESS! people like us over those years LOL! many only Soloed & many did it all Smiley: wink

So Please? enough with the its "on-line" so you Must Group BS TYVM Smiley: rolleyes
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EQ was never meant to be soloed
# May 13 2016 at 10:09 PM Rating: Good
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I've loved playing EQ since I joined, shortly after launch. But over the years, it's model has devolved into something less than what it was. I'm holding out for Pantheon (www.pantheonmmo.com), it's looking good and so reminiscent of the old school EQ of yesterday.
MGB
# May 13 2016 at 7:24 AM Rating: Decent
8 posts
My MGB still does not work with TBM spells, will they ever fix it?

Delsa
MGB
# May 13 2016 at 9:26 AM Rating: Good
Are you talking about a normal TBM spell or the TBM Progression spell?
MGB
# Jul 09 2016 at 6:18 AM Rating: Decent
8 posts
MTB group spells like Corpsestalker's Enrichment, I cant MGB it
Unwanted fix
# May 09 2016 at 3:18 PM Rating: Good
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20 posts
This was not broken, we did not ask for it, why is it being "fixed'

My real question is this, "How may other things will be broken with this fix?" The next follow on question is, "What will be stealth nurfed in the process?
sounds good - other suggestions not so much
# May 09 2016 at 12:41 PM Rating: Good
9 posts
What we need less of is "easy button" - EQ is great based on complexity - considering where and what you're going to solo IS part of the game - traveling is also part of EQ or any game worth 2 cents, complaints about people in the same zone as you 'sigh'
consolodation
# May 09 2016 at 7:38 AM Rating: Decent
13 posts
You mean consolidation? ;)
consolodation
# May 11 2016 at 10:50 PM Rating: Good
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Oops!... Smiley: eek

Edited, May 11th 2016 9:53pm by Aaikan
this REDUCES complexity??
# May 08 2016 at 12:59 PM Rating: Excellent
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3,008 posts
I'm ALL for reduction in complexity but does this really accomplish that when it takes reams of mind-numbingly complicated text just to EXPLAIN these changes?? I like the idea that some stats are so implicit in higher-level players and their gear that they don't even merit mentioning anymore. But then don't mention them!
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stat consolidation
# May 08 2016 at 11:52 AM Rating: Decent
10 posts
I am all up for freeing up more memory to maybe improve graphics (hint hint) But I really like when a piece of armor or accessory says designed for warrior or ench. can we see more of that on the stats
This is actually a big deal
# May 08 2016 at 5:19 AM Rating: Excellent
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I'm highly in favor of this.

One of the biggest barriers to people returning the the live game is the complexity of the game, one aspect of which is the incomprehensible item/character sheet. People that have played the game all along may lose sight of just how much has been added to the overall game since PoP.

The fact that they have incorporated this as a passive increase into the heroic stat system with room to grow over the next few expansions is good news on several fronts. It's nice to see them trying to plan ahead.


Next steps:

-more AA consolidation

-spell/ability bloat dealt with including retuning some classes back to a purer form (i.e., less classes able to crowd control comes to mind) and in some cases refined retroactively (i.e., if necro aren't going to be able to mez 60+ content why leave "screaming terror" in the game). Less spells and abilities overall... if this means giving the level 30 nuke at level 20 and not giving a new nuke until level 40... so be it.

-clean up focus effects and tribute effects (either remove entirely, make into AA or a combo of the two).


Overall goal: Less stats and hotkeys to worry about.
This is actually a big deal
# May 09 2016 at 8:39 AM Rating: Excellent
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I think an even bigger barrier is that people like the ability to solo as ANY class late game. I feel as a Paladin main that I have to be very precise on what I'm going to go and try and solo and what zone (lots of Undead, Dark Blue areas) while in other games this isn't an issue anymore.
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This is actually a big deal
# May 08 2016 at 12:56 PM Rating: Excellent
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Usually I'm not in favor of simplification as the connotation is "dumbing down" rather than "distilling the essence." However, in this case, I think it could be useful. I was a latecomer to EverQuest. I started after Seeds of Destruction, by which time EverQuest was already very complex. I still haven't wrapped my head around all the systems they added with each expansion (then often forgot about in successive expansions).On the face of it, it doesn't feel like this change will cheapen the experience.
meh
# May 07 2016 at 5:17 PM Rating: Decent
15 posts
Kinda seems like an unnecessary use of resources to fix something that not broken. Could have directed time and work into something more productive. More enjoyable hot zones or new anniversary content for example.
clutter changes and hot zones
# May 07 2016 at 2:33 PM Rating: Decent
I like what I see and it does seem to reduce the clutter. Just as a mention since this is an update I wish to post about the hot zones, there terrible!! Long journeys burning LOD, few mobs available if others are doing that zone so wasting time waiting for respawns. I hope the next set of hot zones are thought out. Most people I have talked to agree. Sorry to post this when its suppose to be addressing other issues.
clutter changes and hot zones
# May 07 2016 at 3:56 PM Rating: Good
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Keep in mind that this was not a dev post here, it was a copy of a dev post on the EQ forums. If you want it read, post over there and you have a better chance of them actually seeing it.
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