Possible Effects of Reducing Parrysplit
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:47 am
A recent thread by Elmir inspired me to ponder what would happen if the parrysplitting effects of fighting multiple opponents was reduced.
For instance, if slashed by an arbitrary value of three quarters (a linear modifier to a non-linear system, probably not a very good actual implementation), the effective defence of someone with 60 db + 100 pb would be 160 against 1 opponent (i.e. no change here), 147 against 2 opponents (effective pb reduced by 50/4), 143 against 3 opponents (67/4) and 141 against 4 opponents (75/4).
These are some positive effects I have thought of myself:
* Some very strong characters might prefer using tower shields rather than bejewelled shields. This is not very profitable today, since the pb gain will often be eaten by parrysplit and loss of db.
* Some weaker characters might opt to wear lighter armour in order to increase their db. This is not very profitable today, since parrysplit will lead to being hit frequently anyway when fighting multiple opponents.
And some negative effects:
* XP group dynamics will be affected, since low-ob groupmembers will be less able to hit high-defence mobiles thanks to parrysplit.
* The relative value of mercenaries and pets for lowbies will be decreased for the same reason.
Unaligned:
* Any solo character will last longer against multiple hitting opponents (although it will have no effect on 1 vs 1 fights nor against a group of casters); this can be seen as both good or bad, depending on the situation.
* There could be a polarisation increase between damage-dealing high-ob warriors and buffing high-defence warriors. Good or bad, this could just aswell be negated by the fact that the high ob automatically gives high pb (which now would be split less and thus give better defence) and most ob-aligned warriors have a large amount of hps.
What other effects would be likely?
For instance, if slashed by an arbitrary value of three quarters (a linear modifier to a non-linear system, probably not a very good actual implementation), the effective defence of someone with 60 db + 100 pb would be 160 against 1 opponent (i.e. no change here), 147 against 2 opponents (effective pb reduced by 50/4), 143 against 3 opponents (67/4) and 141 against 4 opponents (75/4).
These are some positive effects I have thought of myself:
* Some very strong characters might prefer using tower shields rather than bejewelled shields. This is not very profitable today, since the pb gain will often be eaten by parrysplit and loss of db.
* Some weaker characters might opt to wear lighter armour in order to increase their db. This is not very profitable today, since parrysplit will lead to being hit frequently anyway when fighting multiple opponents.
And some negative effects:
* XP group dynamics will be affected, since low-ob groupmembers will be less able to hit high-defence mobiles thanks to parrysplit.
* The relative value of mercenaries and pets for lowbies will be decreased for the same reason.
Unaligned:
* Any solo character will last longer against multiple hitting opponents (although it will have no effect on 1 vs 1 fights nor against a group of casters); this can be seen as both good or bad, depending on the situation.
* There could be a polarisation increase between damage-dealing high-ob warriors and buffing high-defence warriors. Good or bad, this could just aswell be negated by the fact that the high ob automatically gives high pb (which now would be split less and thus give better defence) and most ob-aligned warriors have a large amount of hps.
What other effects would be likely?