AOE Rings

[Preypacer]

When talking balance, less is more. The more variables are added, the further from actual balance a game will land and the more the nerf/buff cycle will continue aggravating players. Considering that we're talking about something that is simply a gimmick that becomes absolutely irrelevant after casting the first spell, it's in no way worth keeping.

It doesn't have to be a gimmick, though.

Nor does it have to be imbalanced.

We're talking about an individual, in Naoki Yoshida, leading a team of 300+ designers and developers, who managed to not only take 1.0, turn the story in a new direction leading up to a conclusion that could have been the intended one all along (though we know it wasn't), it blended so well. Meanwhile, they were simultaneously re-creating an entirely new incarnation of the game practically from the ground up. And we're to believe that with all those minds, and all that creativity, experience and knowledge, not even a single person on that entire team could conceive of a way to implement the elemental wheel in a way that would be useful, even strategic, without imbalancing the game/classes/jobs?

Sorry. Not buying it. Not for a second.

Tell me it was an omission of choice - that Yoshi-P decided to do away with the Elemental Wheel simply because he didn't have any interest in it and I'll say "Yeah, I can believe that". But to say "we couldn't think of a way to do it without introducing imbalance", or "without it being a mere gimmick" seems more like a cop out to me. A half-hearted rationalization.

After reading this thread a few hours ago while on break at work and realizing that Yoshi-P's reasoning sounded off to me, I started thinking about it. I came up with a few ways that,even if not "perfect" on their face, could certainly be a solid base to build some feasible options from.

The first thing I thought was "Okay Yoshi-P's main concern was people being excluded from content for not having the right class/job with the right abilities/skills. So, whatever I think up, that consideration has to be at the root of it".

One solution I thought of... Choose skills from each Class/Job and assign each of them an attribute for one of the elements.

"But what about some attacks doing more damage than others?" Design them so that doesn't happen. Give each a ceiling of how much damage it can do.

Or, better yet, take the damage factor out of it completely. Make the use of Elements more about utility. Using skills/abilities/spells with certain elemental attributes, alone or in certain combinations, will have certain effects on an enemy, or the environment, or both.

It might weaken the enemy's defense. It might provoke a certain response or action out of the enemy which can be exploited for more damage. It might weaken the enemy's attacks, either certain ones, or all in general. It might stun, slow or otherwise enfeeble the enemy.

Perhaps the enemy would change elements throughout a battle, players would have to use the right skills to deal damage to it. Perhaps using skills, or combinations of skills (an enfeeble followed by a melee attack) at the right time will move the fight forward in some way. It might prevent the boss from performing certain actions. For example, using a combination of ice attacks on it at a certain point could temporarily "freeze" and prevent it from spawning minions, or shut down a more devastating attack.

Perhaps using certain elemental attacks or abilities affect something about the environment around the boss. Perhaps they play a part in solving puzzles or challenges required to progress through the dungeon, finding hidden pathways, accessing otherwise unattainable loot, etc.

The possibilities are countless.

To make sure no class/job is excluded, they'd design each encounter to ensure that every class/job has an ability for the required element(s) by the time they're of the level required to participate in the content. For example, if a level 35 dungeon requires alternating/timed use of Fire and Ice, make sure each class/job has at least one skill/ability attuned to each of those elements by the time they reach level 35, and make sure no one skill/ability is objectively "better" than any other.

Voila... You have a system that opens up myriad possibilities for how to implement elements into things, without any one class/job having to be excluded.

It's very possible. It needn't be merely a "gimmick", and it would add the possibility for a lot more variety and depth to encounters. More tools in the tool box means more options to work with, means more variety in encounter design.

Now, if I can sit here and think up a bunch of ways to make it work - and certainly there are other options I didn't consider - then there's no one who's going to convince me that Yoshi-P and his team couldn't come up with something. That is, unless they have no imagination... which is absurd. To say "There's no imagination at SE" would be like saying "water isn't wet".

So again. Want to tell me "he just didn't find the concept appealing for his vision of ARR and chose not to include it", then fine. I think it's a poor decision that only takes away from and homogenizes the experience, but I can accept it as such.

But to say "it couldn't be balanced" or "it would just be a "one-time gimmick" is a weak cop-out. This is SE we're talking about here, not some brand-new wet-behind-the-ears, first-time game developer.