Balancing Issue Again in Albion Online

Soo gonna try not to be rude when I point this one out which should have been very obvious on creation.

Great Hammer 6.3 brand new tackle skill
description: travels in straight line dealing 48 dmg and stunning for 5.7s energy cost 65 cooldown 15s

Polehammer 7.2 (same rough tier) Groundbreaker
description: travels in straight line dealing 297 dmg and stunning for 9.14s energy cost 67 cooldown 15s

even the 4.2 polehammer skill is better than the great hammer

I say this in the nicest possible way I can. Please stop wasting time on development of "new skills".

Please start posting full descriptions of potential new skills FAR prior to placing them in game. Something this obvious should have been common sense.

If you need help with balancing speak up because as far as balancing goes this is one of those times that makes us wonder if you deserve your job.

and to put it bluntly this isn't the first time
-movement ability on armor (why make it so medium is better than light and heavy when prior to this it was balanced passives are fine it is the active skills that unbalanced game)

-movement ability on weapons (they should all be roughly the same...if you need help calculating there are a number of us capable on forums ask...please)

-aoe dmg on bow (like really you nerf the 1 skill that was sort of "Albion Online Gold" and totally ignore the 3 second spammable that can hit everyone in a cone?)

-Meteor being useless (i.e. remove the knockback no other aoe makes it so that it ruins everyone else's aoe in game)

If your skill is delayed it should do massive dmg i.e. meteor, slow moving blizzard, rain of arrows etc... it seems to me you are moving away from what you should be.

Albion Online: spell animations, indicators and hitboxes

Let me start off by saying the new spell indicators are well done. They are responsive and accurate. That said, do we really want or need them? What is their purpose?

To me indicators feel like a separate add on to help me see the spellranges and area's. That's all good. It's important for players to correctly and quickly define the things they have to dodge and know the limits that they can play around. The new indicators actually appear to be a partial solution to a problem that was present before. Spells that did have indicators were often inaccurate and spell animations were (and still are) very often inaccurate. There's three main issues I have with spell indicators.

It takes away skill and possible knowledge advantages for players. Say an enemy is using Heavy Smash. A skilled player will know the area that it hits and make sure to be right outside it ready to strike again with some Albion Online Silver. A lower skilled player might get caught in the area or panic and move a lot further back than necessary. That skill-based advantage is now barely possible.

It feels like I'm dodging a circle line on the ground and not a huge flaming fireball. It feels like I'm dodging a cone shape on the ground and not an enemy player raising up his giant axe. Do we really want to dodge lines and fire lines at our enemies, instead of blizzards and magical arrows?

A lot of spells for which the indicators offer nothing still have one. Multi-shot on bows for example. It's not like you can dodge the area the moment the indicator appears because the arrows hit at the same time.

Honestly, the right fix for the situation would be accurate spell animations. These indicators made me understand that the game is not coded optimally. For example, Multi-shot seems to be defined as an area of effect skill and not 7 projectiles. The animation is just played on top but it's actually just an instant cast cone spell.

Wouldn't it be so much more awesome if you take damage the moment you get hit by an arrow and not take damage when you dodge it with Albion Online Items. Take the Magical arrow on the warbow. The arrow animation should be accurate, if it doesn't hit my character, I shouldn't get hit. The animation should fit the hitbox. Want it to explode in a small AoE to stun at the end? Animate it! There's got the be a lot of ways the current system can be improved. Spell indicators just feel like a bandaid fix.

I seriously would like reworked in Albion Online

This is something I seriously would like reworked in the game as I see myself primarily being a merchant. I would like my Ox to be as important to my character development as the combat weapons and equipment has been made.

Think about it. Huge focus is put upon weapon and equipment tiers - Why not push that further into other aspects of the game?

I do enjoy running dungeons, and I do enjoy pvp.

Above that, I love farming. I was that loser that enjoyed mining asteroids for 5 hours straight in EVE just to go sell it on the market.

I know I am not the only one.

Also, with the new update and biomes it only makes sense to further push the progression of merchant style game play as players will have to physically (wow just realized how ridiculous the word "physically" is when written out) move resources because they will no longer be available in abundance within the surrounding regions.

Think about this ( I hope the devs read this, I bet they have already thought of it though). Merchants that are forces to move goods through red and black zones, will have to hire body guards. You could recruit players (guilds mates, friends, or random players) to be to body guards as you load up your ox with goods and they escort you with your albion online gold. You would agree upon a set fee and pay them off.

They could push this even further and allow players to "rank" others in their deeds. So any interaction you have with a player you could simply (like League of Legends does it) rate the players on their interaction. (Teamplayer, good communication, skilled fighter, etc).

Is Albion Online Pay to Win

Again, this depends on your definition of P2W. I'm considering the ability to gain an advantage over another player to be P2W. In your example, what happens if you are skilled enough to use the gear and albion online gold you buy?

If a player who dies in PvP can just continue to spend real money to buy back the gear they lost, then that essentially takes out the risk involved in PvP for that player. In a game with a reasonably significant PvP component, that doesn't really strike me as fair.

I agree this is different than allowing real world money to buy items or skills unavailable to regular players. In this scenario, the players are bound by the same rules and are able to use the same gear. But I just don't believe it's right to devalue the effort and time of other players by using real money to acquire items.

That's why this sounds like P2W to me, or "Pay for Advantage" if you prefer.

If a player with a lot more time on his hands than me, because he's a student, unemployed, retired, whatever, dies in PvP, he can just spend more of his precious time to grind back the gear they lost. As he has much more time available than me, it doesn't hurt him and takes out the risk involved in PvP for that player. In a game with a reasonably significant PvP component, that doesn't really strike me as fair.

Pay2Win, in my, and I assume most people's, book means "getting an advantage only available to those who invest money". In Albion you have the choice - invest time or $. I can't open my wallet and get myself a faceroll uber-char. Everything is available to those who decide not to invest a single dime as well. So, no, not pay 2 win.

Will the Graphics Overall Quality will be improved in Albion Online

Since the last 12 Month or so, nothing has happend in the department of graphics besinde some minor spell animation, hints, or UI Scaling effects.... woooha.

But for my taste he game graphics are more placeholder sprites than actually medium good graphics.
Beginning from the Buttons that are reminding me more of GIF web-buttons in the 90s
to the very low character and Armor details that could possible be rendert by a Texas instruments math-calculator.

I think im not too ambitious here, and im questioning the quality standards comparted to similar "semi low budget titles"

Will something change in the release, or is the current state "what it will be".

we are currently working on a full revamp of the UI design, optmized for PCs. On that front, you will see significant improvements.

When it comes to the static graphics assets and character models, those will see slight ongoing improvements but will overall remain on the current level.

When it comes to spell effects and animations, you will see ongoing improvements, alongside what you can already see in some of the new and reworked spells and abilities.

In general, I also do not think that it would make sense for us to try and compete graphics-wise with games that have a 50 million or more budget, as it would simply mean that a large part of our budget would be spent on graphics, and - at least that is how I see it - great graphics do not make a great game, in particular given that one gets used to the graphics of a game within a few weeks of playing it.

Graphics of course should be nice looking, but most importantly need to support the overall gameplay, i.e. they need to be readable and functional. Also, they need to be set up in such a way that they do not hold back the game's development and allow us to add new content and features quickly.

Albion Online: Transport ox, follow mode

Hello, I am new to Albion, bought this today.
So maybe there is a way to do what I am suggesting but I didn't know.

I bought this transport ox a couple hours ago and used it to gather some resources.
I wanted to get better tier(so far T3 is highest for me) resources so I traveled further distance then I found there was a higher chance of encountering aggresive animal/thief.
The reason I bought this ox was, so I don't have to go back to a town so often. Go out there and gather a lot and come back when I have enough amount.

What troubled me was that I had to mount on my ox to get the weight benefit. I was half full on my ox and encountered a couple of ranged thieves but I couln't fight back

I saw two options for me.
1. Retreat back to town and empty the backpack. But this beats the reason I bought a transpor ox.
2. Get closer to the enemy(I am melee fighter..), dismount and fight.

I picked 2 and fought those thieves then I found none of skills/spells were active... I got hit by knock back arrow... tried to get closer but I was overweighted and moving like a snail..then another knock back arrow...
I tried to unload some logs and stones on the ground so I can move but only way to do that was to destroy them.

It sounds more like a complaint than a suggestion now :whistling:
Anyway, I think it will be nice to have this ox to follow me so I can dump all the heavy item to him and I can fight normally.

Warhorses are for battle (Can take extra damage)
Horses are for gathering (High speed and decent weight limit)
Oxes are for goods transport (High weight limit, but very clumsy)

This is by no means ONLY right way to do it. and It changes depending on your playstile, populataon of server, green,yellow,red,black zones ...

My point is, when you complain that something is not working very well. First consider if you are even using it way its intended to be used.

Oxes work very well for gathering, same as horses work well for PvP. BUT if you use it for gathering you have to put up with clumsiness that come with it.

Albion Online: if legacy had been "my game" Trammel wouldn't have happened

I would have PvP gear that could be "earned" the ability to buy by some sort of honor / pvp system. Gear that gave an edge in PvP and could only be earned through it. I'd have placed PvP events in the game ranging from individual to guild wide. For example, a PvP guild that takes control over Britania, maybe not the whole thing but a part that has "influence" in it like an assassin's guild. Then those players didn't have to fear guards, could buy region specific albion online items from the guild, could collect an "extortion tax" from the town or something of that nature.

Then I'd have implemented a player value system. Since there wasn't "levels" rather a system that determined your strength based on your total allocated stat points and skill points in "combat" related skills. Significantly weaker players would have a colored name plate to dictate they were not a challenge to you and you'd have to do something like hold "ctrl" to attack them with the help of your Albion Online Silver. If you attacked a player first that was in this category you'd be flagged making you a) not protected by any guards or pve zones and b) worth significantly more honor for other players that kill you. If you killed that player you'd lose honor of your own and get something resembling a murder count or dk which would penalize your ranking against other PvPers.

I also would have put a lock out if you gank a lowbie that prevented you from killing them again for a certain period of time unless they attacked you first or flagged for PvP attacking someone else. This way high level players that ganked lowbies couldn't even loot their corpse before they come recover their stuff. I would have put "free for all zones" for PvP where any level can kill any level without penalty and such but those areas would have been designated for PvP only related purposes and would not be a zone a leveling character would have any need to enter. Things like "daily PvP spawns" would be in these areas.

PvP rewards would have been along the lines of a rank based system. Players could go to for an example the "Assassins Guild" and buy cheap poisoned weapons, cheap PvP armor, disposable PvP albion online items like traps, potions, etc. and maybe even highest rewards being an albion online item that you can enchant a piece of gear to have a "chance" not to be dropped when you die (not 100%, maybe a cap of around 25-50%). What was available to buy would be based on your rank. The higher your rank the higher the effect of a dk would be so a max character with the highest rank would have the most to lose by ganking someone a quarter their level.

Anyway I hope people realize I'm not criticizing a game I don't know, I have no clue what this game's guidelines are or what they plan to be at launch, that's why I came here to ask. Rather than buy a founders pack and complain afterwards I'd rather make an informed purchase or an informed decision not to make the purchase. I'll still end up checking this game out and watching it's progress no matter what, it's just a matter of whether I want to be a founder and pay/play early or watch quietly on the sideline for it's development. I loved U.O. for the most part, I just think Origin stunk and didn't listen to LB enough. I think the idea of a similar game developing cross platform is great and hope to see the game progress whether or not I decide it's for me. We need more MMO's on Linux no matter what audience they are after.

I'm still undecided on the whole founder thing but I will definitely watch to see how this reputation system turns out no matter what.