Do the Vampire Stages need to be altered?

MornaBaine · January 2015

Nexxa wrote: »

Calli_B wrote: »

I voted to keep the initial 3 stages at 1 hour, but would really prefer a different type of change. My main complaint with the vampire stages is the fact that some areas have no available food npcs...at least not that I've been able to find. These areas include Cold Harbor and Cyrodil. I prefer to keep my vampire at stage 1, but this makes it impossible. Ideally, I'd just like to see more food sources available.

I strongly beg to differ on the stage timers being anywhere near proper. A day/night cycle is roughly, what? Three hours? Something like that. Vampires in skyrim, and oblivion had to eat once a day. In ESO they inexplicably have to eat six times a day.

A full game day is 6 hours, 4 of daylight and only 2 of night. So much for any meaningful advantage to being "stronger" at night. so IF this game were to actually follow the previous TES games each Stage would last 6 hours.

miahq · January 2015

Honestly they should've 1) switched it around so the best bonuses came from being well fed, and 2) used a separate in combat/out of combat timer, so you can maintain each stage longer, but going into combat will drain you down quicker. Thst way the 50% reduction probably would've been a lot more balanced! and to me it's a better solution than just hitting everything with the nerf bat.

I realize that the whole stronger the longer you've gone without feeding thing is "es lore," or something. But let's be honest, it evolved that way over the different games for pure laziness. No effort, no negatives. Sunlight doesn't even hurt you, and you've really absolutely no reason to feed. In fact you're seemingly punished for it. Entirely conceived so you could enjoy being a vampire without having to do anything, but from a lore perspective it's absolutely stupid and makes no sense.

Nexxa · January 2015

Actually Miahq your health regen floors at later stages. A hell of a lot nastier than it sounds.

MornaBaine · January 2015

Nexxa wrote: »

Actually Miahq your health regen floors at later stages. A hell of a lot nastier than it sounds.

This is true but you hit like a Mack truck and your fire vulnerability remains the same across the stages. Fire should do about HALF of what it does at Stage 1 and then increase to its full damage at Stage 4, essentially making you a glass cannon.

Nexxa · January 2015

Err... unless I'm missing something what makes us hit harder?

MornaBaine · January 2015

Nexxa wrote: »

Err... unless I'm missing something what makes us hit harder?

PvPers swear that vampires are strongest at Stage 4. Since there are so many Stage 4 vampires in Cyrodil I'm going to assume there's something to that. But what I would REALLY like is something OFFICIAL that explains, in detail, EXACTLY how the Stages differ. So far I've had no luck with that search.

miahq · January 2015

Nexxa wrote: »

Actually Miahq your health regen floors at later stages. A hell of a lot nastier than it sounds.

I just meant the bonuses to your skill costs, etc. if they swapped that around and left the damage regen where it is, that would be better. But, it would also not be easy to maintain without any occasional feeding.

People played vamps to begin with because even with the regen hit the bonuses were worth it. Now it's not, so people are abandoning vamps. Like all things eso, zos solution was to just hit it with the nerf bat and call it a day.

But if they'd instead swapped around the skill bonuses, and made you slip in stages quicker while in combat (but able to hold each stage longer out of combat), that would've been interesting.

Especially if they'd brought back sun damage like in oblivion. Just give people a special hooded cape to wear if they want to walk around in the daylight, to shield themselves. Make the shoulders the cape and then it's just 2 armor slots needed, but it would all limit vamps. You'd still see them, but they'd be far more rare. And potentially deadly. Especially if they grew stronger the longer they stayed in stage 1 form.

Ultimately I just think a little imagination is always a better solution to solving problems than just hitting things with the nerf bat...

Aceit · January 2015

Anything longer than every 30 minutes FFS. If you are not a stealth character it is hard to feed, so having to do it every 30 minutes is a little excessive.

miahq · January 2015

Aceit wrote: »

Anything longer than every 30 minutes FFS. If you are not a stealth character it is hard to feed, so having to do it every 30 minutes is a little excessive.

That's part of why I think the timer should move at a different rate for when you're in or out of combat. Having to feed ever 4-5 hours outside of combat wouldn't be as big a deal. But in combat you'd run through the different stages a lot quicker, say 15-20 minutes to start. Then give people Passives that they can extend that, that way someone who has been a vampire for a very long time might be able to go longer in combat without feeding.

Regardless, if you make it challenging to hold it, then giving them crazy bonuses isn't that much of a bother to me. I don't mind bat swarming vamps, but at least make it so you can't do it without having to put forth any effort at all.

MornaBaine · January 2015

miahq wrote: »

Aceit wrote: »

Anything longer than every 30 minutes FFS. If you are not a stealth character it is hard to feed, so having to do it every 30 minutes is a little excessive.

That's part of why I think the timer should move at a different rate for when you're in or out of combat. Having to feed ever 4-5 hours outside of combat wouldn't be as big a deal. But in combat you'd run through the different stages a lot quicker, say 15-20 minutes to start. Then give people Passives that they can extend that, that way someone who has been a vampire for a very long time might be able to go longer in combat without feeding.

Regardless, if you make it challenging to hold it, then giving them crazy bonuses isn't that much of a bother to me. I don't mind bat swarming vamps, but at least make it so you can't do it without having to put forth any effort at all.

I think this would make sense if vampires were strongest at Stage 1 but they are still strongest at Stage 4, for which you have to put forth absolutely zero effort.