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Skill System Discussion
Bain
Member Posts: 3
This post is in response to the World Preview Diary posted on this site. In the world preview diary Koltrane said...
"Now it's time to climb upon my soapbox again. Back during the E3 event I griped about the limited ability to change your button bar. You only have 8 buttons and you can only customize them in a city, so if you are in the middle of a mission and decide that ice spell would have been a better fit than the flame spell, tough. You're stuck with your decision until the mission ends or you leave it. This makes no sense to me. Why place an artificial limiting factor in the game like this? There are so many reasons to change this and I can't think of one good reason to keep it as is. I think Arena should be leaning toward MORE flexibility for the player, not less. Mark my words, this will eventually be changed. It may be after release, but eventually players will be given more options to alter their toolbar."
And I totally disagree with this opinion. The fixed number of skills is a very important part of Guild Wars. The general idea is to force strategy through limitation, you must form a set of skills which complement each other and your teammates' and stick with them. If anyone had access to all of their skill all of the time, then every player would be able to handle all situations and strategy would be diminished. Although I don't work for or know the developers, I am fairly sure they will not change this, as it is something they have talked about before anyone outside of their offices ever tried the game.
I'd like to draw a quick parallel to Magic the gathering, a game Guild War's skill system has been compared to. In MtG there are hundreds of very powerful cards (skills) but a deck is generally only 60 cards. The strategy is to take those cards and form the most powerful deck by finding the cards that work best together. If in MtG you were able to alter your deck to counter your opponent, then it would ruin the game. I find the system here is much similar and the limitation of skills adds to, not takes away from the game.
Please feel free to add your comments, because I am only one person, and this is just my opinion.
;){kind=link}
Comments
ROFL - if the original writer of that "review" had played more than 10m of Guild Wars, he'd knew why this limit is there.
It's what makes Guild Wars Guild Wars! It's what makes the Power Gamers closer to the Casual Gamers in this game. It's what brings the STRATEGY (oh, fear it!) into the game, and not just who-presses-buttons-faster!
And he's wrong. Considering that you choose 8 out of your skills, instead of having all, and no choice, this is the more flexible system, allowing horizontal leveling instead of vertical, and (most important of all), making sure that playtime doesn't necessarly translate into "I WIN"...
And that's one of THE points about Guild Wars, after all!
If they drop the skill-system, I sure as hell won't buy that game!
K.Rool,
Master of unnecessary knowledge...
Blame your fate!
I don't know if it was the quotes or the first sentence of the the post you missed. That wasn't my opinion, it was the opinion of Koltrane, the person who wrote the diary for mmorpg.com, the rest of the post was my opinion.
Edit: Since I am the original poster of this topic, I read this as an insult to me, but I believe he was referring to the person who I am quoting.
ROFL - if the original poster of that had played more than 10m of Guild Wars, he'd knew why this limit is there.
It's what makes Guild Wars Guild Wars! It's what makes the Power Gamers closer to the Casual Gamers in this game. It's what brings the STRATEGY (oh, fear it!) into the game, and not just who-presses-buttons-faster!
And he's wrong. Considering that you choose 8 out of your skills, instead of having all, and no choice, this is the more flexible system, allowing horizontal leveling instead of vertical, and (most important of all), making sure that playtime doesn't necessarly translate into "I WIN"...
And that's one of THE points about Guild Wars, after all!
If they drop the skill-system, I sure as hell won't buy that game!
K.Rool,
Master of unnecessary knowledge...
I completely agree.
And futher this allows for differance between players of the same class. Your skills are based on your preferance. You must invest a little thought, it also allows for team work, if you have two monks maybe you want to divide up the buffs, or one might want to go heavy on the secondary skills.
If you where allowed access to all skills all the time, it remove a great deal of the thought process that makes GW so entertaning.
-=-=-=-=-
Evolution of MMORPG: EQ -> DAoC -> WoW/EQ2 -> Guild Wars
Down time and camping are ideas that will be forgotten all too soon. If your not playing Guild Wars your playing with something dead.
What did you mother say about playing with dead things?
Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.
-=-=-=-=-
Achievers realise that killers as a concept are necessary in order to make achievement meaningful and worthwhile (there being no way to "lose" the game if any fool can "win" just by plodding slowly unchallenged). -bartle
Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.
I can tell you here and now....
The current system of a set # of skills when going into either PvM or PvP will stand.
This is an aspect that the balancing of the game revolves around entirly. Even to throw in one more skill to the set would throw the balance and purpose of every other skill. We've had plenty of discussion about this in the ALPHA forums and despite opossition here and there - the system has proven to be the most effective way to support player skill than any other game.
Great comments - I see that many of you see through the WoW/EQ hype and understand what this game is all about.
GuildWars Alpha Tester since May 2004.
INGAME: The Lord Vivec
GUILD: House of Valor
GuildWars Alpha Tester since May 2004.
INGAME: The Lord Vivec
GUILD: House of Valor
StyxParadox
StyxParadox
No, it wasn't aimed at you, it was aimed at the person who wrote that. Should have made it more clear, sorry...
K.Rool,
Master of unnecessary knowledge...
Blame your fate!
yep, sign me up for the "I like it the way it is" group. But here's my question, do you start off with 8 or do you get that at some level greater than or equal to 15? Better yet, can someone tell me how the game starts off at the beginning? In other words, how many skills do you get? how hard is it? I'm just throwing these out here, opinions are welcome (if you've played it pre-level 15 in testing). Please consider answering if you have played it early on... also, do you think the game has staying power?
Screenshots and videos are necessary for first impressions, but what you can't see in them are the things that matter the most.
so...
Mmm I for one like to have choices... maybe, for the people that want it, guild wars could have an arena where you select your 8 skills and then select 2 other skills which in that arena the game will allow you to switch for any of the ones you have equipped. This way you design your strategy and then throw in something else in case your strategy doesnt work.. like a back up plan.
I like the current system, but I also understand the people that feel limited. My idea pleases both