Would you like the ability to craft/customize your own abilities/spells?

Armatesz

Simplest thing is the ability to customize the ability to have aoe or singular attack. Secondary effect is something like elemental or poison or disease and the like and 3rd would be if it is mind altering on enemies or does it cause some kinda of stagger of some sort. Throw out ideas if you feel like it. Got other ideas but brainfarting.

Aliyavana

I don't see how spellcrafting can be balanced in an mmo

jr88

aliyavana wrote: »

I don't see how spellcrafting can be balanced in an mmo

Balancing is horrible, about the worst yet.

VaranisArano

No? Honestly, it was okay in Oblivion but a single player game doesn't have to worry about balance. or how multiple effects interact with CP and different gear sets and so on.

kypranb14_ESO

I feel like spellcrafting could be awesome. However, I also feel the amount of imbalance it would bring to the game would greatly outweigh the awesome.

If it were to be added, I'd like it to be a pick a primary attribute for it. Something like the following.

Damage or Healing?

Single target or AOE?

Direct Damage or DOT?

Instant, Channeled, or Cast Time?

Magic, Flame, Shock, or Frost?

Secondary effect? (Stun, Snare, Knockdown, Fear, etc)

Then have sliders that moved right to left.

Damage/Healing
Duration (For the DOT if it's a DOT, otherwise for the utility effect)
Area (For the size of effect if it's an AOE)

The overall magicka cost of the ability could be determined by how far the sliders are pushed, and there should be a maximum amount of slider usage. (For example, I have 5 dashes between each parentheses, maybe you could only use a total of 8 dashes)

It could just as easily be turned into ability crafting, because stamina wants love too. Just slap on Physical, Poison, and Disease damage, and we're good to go.

TheShadowScout

It would be difficult to manage, and it most likely would end up with -everyone- running the exact same combination of "super-effective" spells, or close enough to still look like a clone army.

Personally I would very much prefer to see them add new skills in other ways... and leave spellcrafting for a rework. Maybe make it "scrollcrafting" instead, and let people make consumable scrolls from ailities...

Stovahkiin

ESO without spellcrafting = Already pretty unbalanced.

ESO with spellcrafting = wtf is this balance you speak of?

WhitePawPrints

Spellcrafting was permanently shelved for a reason: it'd destroy balance.

There are abilities I wish my Templar tank had that only DK's have.

There are abilities I wish my every class would have that only Sorc has.

If I could just craft those abilities, then so would most people and there'd be no diversity anymore. You'd have to use the best abilities or never dream of participating in any end game content again.

Iluvrien

aliyavana wrote: »

I don't see how spellcrafting can be balanced in an mmo

Exclude all abilities creating with it from PvP.

logarifmik

IMO, instead of spellcrafting it would be no less interesting to have some quest-exclusive spells, like Fingers of the Mountain in TES IV or master spells in TES V. Much easier to balance, right? It can be some stamina abilities as well. Put a decent story behind it, set some requirements for characters (50 points in particular skill tree, special achievement get or/and finished main story, FG, MG, etc.), make such skills not superior, but at least competitive with existing ones, and it'll be a great addition to the game. The only problem here, which I see, is that some people will start to whine about some mystical walls, that devs puts on their way, and make some ugly threads here on the forums... but it's impossible to eliminate those anyway, so why it should stop anyone?

What isn't impossible, is to make a real spellcrafting in ESO. Severity of the balancing such feature depends strictly on freedom, which player will have. Spellcrafting from TES III or IV can't be properly embed into MMO obviously, but some cunningly made reduced system can be implemented instead. It shouldn't not allows to make Wunderwaffe, but player should be able to construct a vast (but finite, yes?) variety of potentially useful abilities nevertheless. Less freedom degree entails less variety, entails easier balancing. Simple as that.

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

the game is as buggy and laggy as it is..adding random stuff is just not for current E$O sadly...

Iluvrien

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO wrote: »

the game is as buggy and laggy as it is..adding random stuff is just not for current E$O sadly...

How can it be random when they previewed the system at QuakeCon over 3 years ago?

Introducing spellcrafting isn't random. It's delivering on a very, very old announcement.

SirCritical

Yes. I'd create block cost decrease spells.

Milvan

We already have the poison system. They are preety much similar.

Faulgor

TheShadowScout wrote: »

It would be difficult to manage, and it most likely would end up with -everyone- running the exact same combination of "super-effective" spells, or close enough to still look like a clone army.

So, like now, then?

Armatesz

Faulgor wrote: »

TheShadowScout wrote: »

It would be difficult to manage, and it most likely would end up with -everyone- running the exact same combination of "super-effective" spells, or close enough to still look like a clone army.

So, like now, then?

Kinda like those bot farmers that are all sorcs with pets out?

MLGProPlayer

No because everyone will be forced to use the exact same build to be competitive. There is already a lack of build diversity as is.

gepe87

The only spellcraft i need is to change damage type. I want a flame damage Streak and Overload!

Turelus

aliyavana wrote: »

I don't see how spellcrafting can be balanced in an mmo

The only way it would be "balanced" is to other everyone the same set of tools and materials. However then someone will just find the "best" option and everyone will use that.

Once the most optimal spell has been discovered everyone will just make and use that until it's balanced and something else is better. It would be the same as now but we just have to go make the skills which are best.

logarifmik

Turelus wrote: »

The only way it would be "balanced" is to other everyone the same set of tools and materials. However then someone will just find the "best" option and everyone will use that.

I think, it matters not if 1) difference is negligible, 2) other options provide not only raw damage, but also some useful things like crowd control, DoT and similar, 3) considering how important is sustain now, cost of the ability also can influence the choice. Lots of variables to consider here, and mathematically it's not impossible to end up with a system, where not only one best solution exists.

gepe87 wrote: »

The only spellcraft i need is to change damage type. I want a flame damage Streak and Overload!

A possible and quite interesting solution, but IMHO only if resists will start to play much more important role, than now, it'll have a real value. And, yeah, offensive ice magic, pretty please, devs?

KingYogi415

No, single player game nonsense.

Thannazzar

The only kind of spell crafting I think is viable is cosmetic visual effects(ie)
- colour/animation changes for bolts/rays & aoe's
- reskin for pets and visual creature effects

Ideally researched and locked in place like costume crafting eg:

Necromancer Spellcrafting Theme:
- Pets become undead themed (both summoned and pet visuals for instant abilities)
- Crowd Controls become grasping hands
- rays/bolts/shields become sickly pale white/green.

Chrysa1is

Instead, ZOS should create a load more class skills for each class instead of spellcrafting.

VaranisArano

Thannazzar wrote: »

The only kind of spell crafting I think is viable is cosmetic visual effects(ie)
- colour/animation changes for bolts/rays & aoe's
- reskin for pets and visual creature effects

Ideally researched and locked in place like costume crafting eg:

Necromancer Spellcrafting Theme:
- Pets become undead themed (both summoned and pet visuals for instant abilities)
- Crowd Controls become grasping hands
- rays/bolts/shields become sickly pale white/green.

That's be awesome but only if it only applied to PVE. New players have a hard enough time recognizing abilities and counters in PVP without adding to the learning curve by letting players change what their abilities look like.

Lake

No.

logarifmik

VaranisArano wrote: »

That's be awesome but only if it only applied to PVE. New players have a hard enough time recognizing abilities and counters in PVP without adding to the learning curve by letting players change what their abilities look like.

Isn't basic rule stay-away-from-the-red-circles enough in the majority of situations? People here think too much about newcomers, and sometimes consider them complete ignoramus. IMO, devs shouldn't discard interesting mechanics only because it'll be difficult to sort out for an average non-experienced person. They certainly will discard, but they shouldn't... Regarding spellcrafting again, it can be implemented by various ways in game, without breaking anything or even make the game much better. Singleplayer approach, as I and others said before in this thread, is not viable in MMO, but one can came up with a solution, that will fit ESO just right and still can be called as spellcrafting.

altemriel

kypranb14_ESO wrote: »

I feel like spellcrafting could be awesome. However, I also feel the amount of imbalance it would bring to the game would greatly outweigh the awesome.

If it were to be added, I'd like it to be a pick a primary attribute for it. Something like the following.

Damage or Healing?

Single target or AOE?

Direct Damage or DOT?

Instant, Channeled, or Cast Time?

Magic, Flame, Shock, or Frost?

Secondary effect? (Stun, Snare, Knockdown, Fear, etc)

Then have sliders that moved right to left.

Damage/Healing
Duration (For the DOT if it's a DOT, otherwise for the utility effect)
Area (For the size of effect if it's an AOE)

The overall magicka cost of the ability could be determined by how far the sliders are pushed, and there should be a maximum amount of slider usage. (For example, I have 5 dashes between each parentheses, maybe you could only use a total of 8 dashes)

It could just as easily be turned into ability crafting, because stamina wants love too. Just slap on Physical, Poison, and Disease damage, and we're good to go.

well yes, even if spellcrafting could be an awesome thing to add to the game. ZOS has troubles with balancing the already existing skills, not even 20 x more skills.....that would be dissaster

VaranisArano

logarifmik wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

That's be awesome but only if it only applied to PVE. New players have a hard enough time recognizing abilities and counters in PVP without adding to the learning curve by letting players change what their abilities look like.

Isn't basic rule stay-away-from-the-red-circles enough in the majority of situations? People here think too much about newcomers, and sometimes consider them complete ignoramus. IMO, devs shouldn't discard interesting mechanics only because it'll be difficult to sort out for an average non-experienced person. They certainly will discard, but they shouldn't... Regarding spellcrafting again, it can be implemented by various ways in game, without breaking anything or even make the game much better. Singleplayer approach, as I and others said before in this thread, is not viable in MMO, but one can came up with a solution, that will fit ESO just right and still can be called as spellcrafting.

No. "Stay-out-of-stupid" might be sufficient for most PVE dungeons, but that's not how the majority of PVP works. And ability your enemy can just walk out of is a nigh-useless ability in PVP.

I'll be more specific. I'm fairly experience at PVP, so I'd be able to watch and enemy player and recognize the animations. I can tell what Biting Jabs looks like from the animations and react accordingly, whether its a red or green or the normal bright yellow/white. A new player might not be able to do so. I'd probably be able to do so for most abilities, though figuring out a stamDK and a MagDK at a glance might get interesting. I still appreciate the current visual cues for abilities for their clarity.

PVP is about recognizing and reacting to player abilities. That's a huge part of the learning curve - to recognize a player's abilities, figure out their class, and start using the appropriate counters you have to the skills that the enemy is using and probably will use.

When you start changing the colors and appearance of those abilities, you significantly increase the learning curve for anyone who doesn't already know how to recognize the animations, plus animations are much harder to recognize than the obvious color visuals that already identify class and elemental abilities.

So I think its a cool idea for PVE but if implemented in PVP would dramatically increase the learning curve for new players.

EvilAutoTech

I just don't see it being done well. It will be either massively OP or completely underwhelming. If it's the latter, then it was a waste of time and resources. If the former, they will have to waste more time and resources to try to nerf it into balance. We all know how that goes.

logarifmik

VaranisArano wrote: »

No. "Stay-out-of-stupid" might be sufficient for most PVE dungeons, but that's not how the majority of PVP works. And ability your enemy can just walk out of is a nigh-useless ability in PVP.

Absolutely true, my bad, and I do apologize. Well, speaking personally, only places where I do care about recognizing next enemies move is IC and battlegrounds. In wide areas of Cyrodiil I usually have lags... In sum, I agree, that changing animation/visual for abilities in PvP is not a good idea after all.

CapnPhoton

I tested another MMO many years ago that tried to do this. The process of crafting and customizing was rather tedious, and everyone was running around with the same build. They tried to balance it out, but by the time the game went live, it was scrapped. Their explanation was that balance under this type of system was not possible and wanted to avoid players all being carbon copies of each other.