Buff npcs. - Phoenix Freeshard

My suggestion is low level buffs be put on npcs.

1. Buff barrels are going to be readily available to hardcore players.
2. Casuals won't have access to all buff barrels.

True, you can get buffs without barrels. However, hard core players will always be buffed.

Casuals who don't have time to make a crafter a farm alt or to buy pots will often run without.

Now I'm not talking about good buffs, I'm talking green at best and maybe even a little lower.

No buffs vs barrels of all buffs is a huge advantage. But low buffs vs all buff barrels is still a huge advantage but it isn't completely one sided.

Also crappy buff npcs will help casual, low level, and solo players. It could be really crappy.

My suggestion is something like :

Npc buffs you and you get:

1. End 1
2. Pom 1
3. Base Dex/str/con/af 15
4. Spec dex/str/con/af/acuity 20

These buffs are terrible. But VS the hardcore always buffed players they are better than no buffs.

Suggest they last 20 minutes.

This is beta this is a real suggestion. Plz don't dismiss it out of hand.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 3:48 PM by heardstheword

You could just go to the housing market and buy buff pots.

Plus crafted pots only last 10 minutes.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 3:54 PM by relvinian

All buff barrels last hours straight. Buff pots are much more powerful than this. Actual hardcore won't use this.

Actual casuals won't be buffed. So they will be completely destroyed by those who farm/craft/ and live eat breath daoc.

They will continue to be destroyed by hardcore but the imbalance won't be so extreme.

also these buffs cannot stack with any other buffs/pots. of course.

I think this will balance many issues with various solo/casual/non desired classes for the server.

Crafted pots last 10 minutes but u can use them out in frontier/ wherever.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 7:24 PM by Quik

Basic pots have 10 charges that last 10 min each. Can get blue versions of these by around 550 Alchemy. Takes about 500-700 gold to hit 600 Alchemy. Right now 1p is easily obtainable and we have no idea what changes they will make to that.

My point is, anyone with a few hours can have an Alch that can make the blue buff pots that have 100 minutes per bottle AND it costs around 5g to make each one and I see most selling for 10g-15g.

If people are so lazy they won't do this they deserve to have no buffs.

Barrels are not a game changer, blue buff pots that have 10 charges ARE. You can carry 2 of each pot on you that gives 200 minutes of buffs. That is less then 2 pages of inventory.

Barrels are a LUXURY that grinders will get and people with left over feathers will use on.

Casuals will have ZERO...ZERO...ZERO...penalty in this regard. Barrels have again, ZERO impact on casuals. Unless of course the casual can't seem to go back to account vault every TWO HUNDRED minutes which is a little over THREE HOURS. Most casuals don't even play that long in one gaming session again making it a zero issue.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 7:42 PM by relvinian

Just going to quote you here:

"It's a game and a game is meant to be enjoyed by everyone, not just a select few who want everyone to play their way!"

My suggestion would help casuals.

"Casuals will have ZERO...ZERO...ZERO...penalty in this regard. Barrels have again, ZERO impact on casuals. Unless of course the casual can't seem to go back to account vault every TWO HUNDRED minutes which is a little over THREE HOURS. Most casuals don't even play that long in one gaming session again making it a zero issue."

All your pro and hardcore players will be fully buffed, all the time. They will have other advantages as well, usually pking lower levels while they are xp, better gear, voice chat, better team work, etc etc.

Your average solo casual/pug casual will not have pots. But they will be willing to hit an npc buff and go out for 20 minutes. I think hasteners should be 20 minutes and pots too. Then people can get out to the big boy rvr and donate their rps to the hardcores or go out and solo more and be farmed by the hardcore. this game is all about eating its young and vets farming. think of it like stocking a pond or feeding grain to deer.

This change would have only minimal impact on vets and hardcore. Group will still be best xp. Good gear will still trump this stuff.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 8:24 PM by Quik

I agree on Hasteners being 20 min BTW.

I just don't see an issue with buff pots. So a Buff Merchant might be 20 min but then it is done and you will need to go back for more buffs.

Buy just one buff pot of each type and you got 100 minutes of buffs.

Please don't say it would be to expensive as money is not an issue here at all. That might be changed but all we can do is go off what is happening now, which is easy to have 20g by lvl 10 and by 40 you have over a plat already from straight leveling.

"It's a game and a game is meant to be enjoyed by everyone, not just a select few who want everyone to play their way!" And I stand by this 100%. I just don't see why buff merchants are even remotely needed with our current buff pot system?

Now if you want to say blue pots are to powerful that I would completely agree with but there is no chance of it changing. It is sad also since I see no Pally's used for anything at high level. I see fewer and fewer shamans needed since it is easy to get permasprint now, and more and more groups are fine with blue buffs if it means they can add another high dps class. Druids are still popular but haven't played one much yet to see personally.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 8:28 PM by heardstheword

My thing here is that is it really worth it?

Is all of the development time/effort spent on this worth losing out on some other feature that otherwise would have been implemented?

I'd rather than the Dev team working on something else rather than re-hashing buff pots that are already in the game and relatively easy to obtain.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 9:17 PM by relvinian

heardstheword wrote: ↑
Tue 14 Aug 2018 8:28 PM
My thing here is that is it really worth it?

Is all of the development time/effort spent on this worth losing out on some other feature that otherwise would have been implemented?

I'd rather than the Dev team working on something else rather than re-hashing buff pots that are already in the game and relatively easy to obtain.

Every single aspect of a server matters. Because every single aspect of a server which can influence people to play rather than not to play, to try other things, other classes, other styles of play-- solo, casual, whatever. Everything matters because everything is population.

I do think instant 50 and or npc buff bots as good as pots would discourage people from playing. These I think, even if some did not like it at first, they would see the value of it at some point.

Tue 14 Aug 2018 10:18 PM by Armsmancer

A QOL change that evens the playing field a bit without negating some spec or craft or class has got my vote.

The arguments of having tons of dev time spent on this is a hilarious argument against. Waiting for the patch note to say "added buff merchants, pushed back ETA of release 4 months after dev time spent on adding something there is already code existing for to the same locs hasteners are, huge endeavor ya'll."

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, especially with the comparisons to i50, just really

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

Wed 15 Aug 2018 10:21 AM by relvinian

Actually I brought up i50 and full npc buffs to show they are a turn off.

This is not the same thing and I was trying to show the difference between my suggestion and candy land daoc.

Wed 15 Aug 2018 12:45 PM by heardstheword

They're literally bringing back crafting timers because they want the economy to not be oversaturated with crafters. Higher timers means less people crafting. Less people crafting means the price for pots is higher.

I just don't see them lessening their crafter economy more with a buff NCP that provides the same (or better) buffs than the pots that alchemists can make.

Wed 15 Aug 2018 8:14 PM by relvinian

heardstheword wrote: ↑
Wed 15 Aug 2018 12:45 PM
They're literally bringing back crafting timers because they want the economy to not be oversaturated with crafters. Higher timers means less people crafting. Less people crafting means the price for pots is higher.

I just don't see them lessening their crafter economy more with a buff NCP that provides the same (or better) buffs than the pots that alchemists can make.

My suggested buffs are weaker than what can be available with buff pots.

Min maxers will have the best pots available at all times.

Casuals, often wont have any.

Thus my suggestion for balance and for the casuals.

Wed 15 Aug 2018 8:18 PM by phixion

I don't see the point really, either add realm buffers with proper buffs or don't.

I would personally rather see real realm buffers and not have to mess around with pots, it's one of the most frustrating parts of end game, especially as a soloer.

Wed 15 Aug 2018 8:21 PM by Geek

phixion wrote: ↑
Wed 15 Aug 2018 8:18 PM
I would personally rather see real realm buffers and not have to mess around with pots, it's one of the most frustrating parts of end game, especially as a soloer.

That's something I can totally agree with.

Wed 15 Aug 2018 8:28 PM by relvinian

I think real realm buffers with very good buffs might turn off some die hards.

I think buffs lower than pots would be used by many.

I think nobody would quit because of lower buffs. Some might with buff npcs.

If you ever want to figure out what my motivation is, I want a fun server with as many people on it as possible.

That is my entire motivation for posting on these forums.

Wed 15 Aug 2018 9:22 PM by phixion

relvinian wrote: ↑
Wed 15 Aug 2018 8:28 PM
I think nobody would quit because of lower buffs. Some might with buff npcs.

Not sure about that, I think a lot of people would like to take it a step further and be allowed buffbots. At least Buff NPC's provide a way to satisfy people without allowing buffbots.