New Sauce on Cleric, Shaman & Disciple

[froma]

Originally Posted by Greymain

Vanguards decision to use Unreal was brilliant.

I agree fully. I've never really understood why we don't see this more often. Is it an issue of pride, money or a combination of both?

...that is a bit of an open ended question, but I'd love to hear some opinions.

[Greymain]

Originally Posted by froma

I agree fully. I've never really understood why we don't see this more often. Is it an issue of pride, money or a combination of both?

...that is a bit of an open ended question, but I'd love to hear some opinions.

I suspect its the need to innovate rather than evolve plus ignorance.

I have done a lot of big software projects in my time but nothing as deep and complex as a game engine. In my experience even systems that look simple are full of unexpected problems, even with detailed system analysis and proper specifications. However I cant see how you can undertake detailed system analysis of a game which has no existing system to model. Therefore the specification is purely conceptual. Designers and programmers are flying by the seat of their pants. The product changes month by month and problems are worked around. The more you mess around with code the more unstable it becomes.

The big mystery is how the smaller companies manage to produce a working product at all.

Big organisations like Sony and Microsoft have within them the discipline to ensure that companies like Sigil have done their homework and that the business plan makes good financial sense, although they do give a lot of freedom to the developer you can bet there is oversight and a cattle prod approach to project creep.

[Coinspinner]

Disciple is not what I expected. It's better.

I'm pretty much decided on class now.

[Pirotess]

I need to tweak it a little bit. I noticed a few posts today had all their line feeds stripped out.

[Jaeth]

Originally Posted by Pirotess

I need to tweak it a little bit. I noticed a few posts today had all their line feeds stripped out.

Yeah, that was kinda hard to read... I ended up just reading the whole thread on OVF instead, haha.

[Foxeye]

Ok, more questions from the easily-befuddled. I'm trying to sort out Talisker's wording on the Disciple:

I have 4 attacks that can be chained together in a variety of ways. 1 attack is a small HoT on my defensive target. When I use this attack at the end of a chain it becomes a large instant heal. This is of course supplimental to my standard heals - but the point is that I can do some 'ok' healing while kicking NPC buttocks.

He calls a small HoT an "attack". So does that mean that Disciples chain together heal abilities (and he calls these healing abilities attacks because of Vanguard vernacular), or does it mean that Disciples can trigger heals by engaging in combat and doing combat chains? A sort of..."build up chi through combat" method.

[Greymain]

My reading is that you have two targets in a fight, the mob and a member of the group. you have a chain of actions that hits the mob and the final link in the chain heals his group member.

[Foxeye]

*ponders that* That makes me wonder...Talisker calls it a martial healer. As if that is a unique facet. Yet...clerics or shamans have in the past been pointed out as being battle-worthy. If so, seems likely that they would also have special melee attacks, since doing any decent melee damage relies on more than basic auto-attack, yes? Not to mention their better armor. So if Disciples are a "martial healer", there's definitely some key aspect to the disciple we still don't know yet. Unless clerics/shamans *don't* have any chain-able melee abilities. Doesn't strike me as likely, though.

I know, I know, big "duh" on the not-knowing part.

Man...with the robe-wearing and the "abilities reliant on being attacked", I sure hope they have a little of a monk's avoidance abilities. *laugh* Could be scary otherwise.

[froma]

Originally Posted by Foxeye

*ponders that* That makes me wonder...Talisker calls it a martial healer. As if that is a unique facet. Yet...clerics or shamans have in the past been pointed out as being battle-worthy. If so, seems likely that they would also have special melee attacks, since doing any decent melee damage relies on more than basic auto-attack, yes? Not to mention their better armor. So if Disciples are a "martial healer", there's definitely some key aspect to the disciple we still don't know yet. Unless clerics/shamans *don't* have any chain-able melee abilities. Doesn't strike me as likely, though.

My take on the "martial healer" notion is that disciples specifically use martial arts (like a traditional monk) to pull off their heals. It almost sounds like they use an extreme form of Judo to use the energy of attackers to their advantage. Because of this, disciples differ from clerics and shamans in the sense that for them, attacks and heals are one and the same while the other two classes can do both, but in separate moves.

[Jaeth]

And some people whined that there wouldn't be any difference between the different jobs... Guess they were wrong.