Dev Blog: Leaks for B5

[Saint_Jimmy]

This thread is (as you can probably guess from the title) going to have some leaks for what's coming up in B5. This thread will be locked so we can keep the leaks easy for everyone to find, but there'll be a discussion thread where you can discuss/ask questions or feel free to ask stuff on the discord.


Some disclaimers:

1) Stuff can and will change. None of this is final, and any feedback you give will be considered. This doesn't mean that it will necessarily change in the way you expect, of course.

2) Not everything is going to be in the leaks for a given class/set of skills. We'll try to note that where we leave stuff out to explain why the leaks might seem like it is missing something.

[Saint_Jimmy]

And here's the first set of leaks!

A significant part of our changes involves front loading power into T1 and T2 skills - you need several skills in your combat tree before you can feel comfortable actually trying to hit someone and T2 (particularly combat classes) often don't feel like they're significantly better than the mortal they previously were.


Setting T2 aside for a future post, here's a list of some mortal combat changes coming next breath - while the end result is lower in some cases, T2 more than makes up for it and there's a significant boost at the first couple of levels, reducing the amount of levels you need before you can actually hit people semi-reliably.

[Saint_Jimmy]

Ok everyone, time for another round of leaks.

This one is also going to focus on mortal combat, merely from a different angle.

At the moment weapons themselves tend to have very few actual choices with most of the potential options being overshadowed by one or two outliers. In addition, most of the differences are just points of damage or accuracy.

As for armour their stats have been shifted around pretty heavily to enable more impact soak and create more diversity in armour pairings.

So here have a spreadsheet.


A few things - h2h weapons. These are intended to be lower maintenance (no decay) with a lower enchantment cap. The ones that do require maintenance such as the katar get the full six slots.

Heavy weapons are no longer restricted to just melee weapons.

Light/medium/heavy armour: Nobody likes not being able to wear your outfit because of what armour you choose. At the same time, slots means that you have more options as to what your setup is like. Heavy armour takes up both slots and gets a few more enchantment slots to compensate for the overall loss.

Magical weapons aren't on the list. They'll return at some point in some form in the breath, but won't be as common and won't return right away.


This doesn't exclude other mundane weapons from appearing - particularly improvised/flavour weapons although there's a high chance of more h2h weapons of some sort or another.

[BobGeneric]

In case you were wondering what the weapons tab was going to look like, here's a sample. This more a QoL thing, but a welcome one, I think.

[Saint_Jimmy]

Problem: Combat spells suck for a variety of reasons.

1) They cost ridiculous amounts of mana and don't give much in return. The only class that can realistically use spells (and not some innate that keys off of spells) is Corruptor and they're able to gain a few hundred mana for 1 ap with enough prep.

2) Their "bonus effects" are also weak. Death's affinity bonus is pathetically bad (2 damage instead of 1 is acceptable for pets because you've got a significant amount of them. 25 ap to kill a mortal is not), Cold's "upside" is that it deals 1 less damage and ignores one point of soak and fire/impact don't have any bonuses at all.

3) Any T1 combat skills go to waste once you hit T2. It's fine for some classes to find combat skills less useful than others (see: petmasters and supports) but there should be the option to invest in them and not have it be totally wasted.

So here's what we're doing.


First off, mana costs are being dropped drastically - instead of costing between 3 and 8 MP for offensive spells their costs will scale between 1 and 4 MP - a list has been provided below.

• T2 ranged spell = 10 CP to learn, 1 MP to cast, 7 damage
• T2 touch spell = 10 CP to learn, 1 MP to cast, 8 damage
• T2 auto-hit spell = 10 CP to learn, 2 MP to cast, 4 damage
• T3-restricted ranged spell = 15 CP to learn, 3 MP to cast, 13 damage
• T3-restricted auto-hit spell = 15 CP to learn, 4 MP to cast, 8 damage
• (T3-restricted) aura spell = 15 CP to learn, 12 MP to cast, duration 5 ticks (duration increases with affinity bonus) 6 damage


Each damage type will have the same damage/costs (more or less - more on that later) because we'd like to shift the differences over to their bonus effects, with you deciding what spells you want to pick up based off of your class (for example liches and death spells) or the bonus effect you want.

You'll also notice that a) touch spells are around and b) aura spells have been restricted to T3. Touch spells function somewhat like how Dark Heart and Agony Curse do - they have a flat accuracy rate that is decreased by close range defences and trigger auras but if your hth accuracy is higher you will use that instead. They also get a new feature - if you're using them alongside an aura spell of the same damage type then instead of dealing supplemental damage like you normally would, you get +6 damage instead - preventing you from suffering the soak soak twice like regular supplemental damage would. Aura spells, on the other hand, have been increased to T3 due to worries about them being too efficient at T2 as well as largely being a T3 defensive mechanism.


As for the affinity boosts? Well those are changing a bit as well.

• The current affinity effects (eg +5% accuracy on electric, 2 damage floor on death) have been removed... sort of.
• The damage portion will remain the same. You get +1 damage to your spell for every other spell of the same type that you know.
• You get +1 soak of that type for your third, fourth and fifth spells known of a damage type for a total of +3.
• If you know all 6 spells for your damage type you get the affinity effects back. The effects on these have been ramped up significantly, but you no longer trigger them if the target has any resistance (not soak) to your damage type.

• Acid: 4x normal armor degrade chance
• Cold: debuff of -1 soak for 5 ticks (can have multiple copies of this status active)
• Death: debuff of death curse for 5 ticks (duration stacks, instakills if target drops below 20% hp) OR “Kills target if the hit brings the target to <15% of full HP” This one is still up in the air - feedback on this would be appreciated!
• Electric: debuff of -5% defense for 5 ticks (can have multiple copies of this status active)
• Fire: 2x damage vs. structures (doors, fortifications, but NOT wards and glyphs)
• Impact: +2 damage
• Piercing: 20% chance for critical hit (1.5x damage)
• Slashing: +4 damage vs “unarmored” targets (includes most pets)
• Arcane (converted by Deep Spellcraft): Up to 5 of target's MP destroyed (limited by target's current MP), attack deals that many unsoakable damage to target in addition to normal damage.
• Holy (converted by Sanctify Spell): Deals -1 damage to non-demons or +3 damage to demons. Also deals +1 damage for every -10 of target’s morality score.
• Unholy (converted by Taint Spell): deals +2 damage to angels, deals +1 damage for every 10 of target’s morality score.

(List subject to change, of course)

Going to wrap this up here - this isn't all the changes to spells and we'll go into detail on the utility spells and T2 caster skills at a later date!

[BobGeneric]

It's been a long while since we've had some quality leaks. Let's change that.

So in this thread here: https://www.nexusclash.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=91589 halifax brought up the concept of "moving ley lines." Ley lines are going to be significantly different in Breath 5 from what we've done in the Nexus before (most of the code for this is already done). A lot of this is because we've thought about ways to make the "territorial" aspect of NexusClash a little more visible - there should be "desirable" locations and you should be able to see some real results of fighting over territory. While this thread will mostly be about ley lines, some context that touches other stuff is going to be necessary. So let's dive in!

1. "Leylines" and "infusion" are being decoupled

While the "infuse" skills exist, "infusion" is no longer about "magical power deposited in a location" - instead, think of it as the "moral alignment" of a location. This means that Psychometry and Psychic Bloodhound are child skills of Sense Morality rather than Sense Magic. The "Infuse" skill is about converting your MP into claiming the area for your morality (good, evil, neutral) rather than directly storing MP in an area.

2. Infusion is going to be a little more natural

The infuse skills are a way to directly choose where you want to dump MP to influence the morality of an area. However, we don't want this to be a treadmill like it was in NW - there will be no "decay" but be aware that the "Infuse" skill going to be "secondary" way to influence an area rather than a "primary" way - more on this in another leaks set.

3. What you now think of as "Ley Lines" are becoming "Fonts"

So it's time to start introducing some new terminology as the mechanics change a bit. Physical locations that have an innate upwelling of magical power that can be harnessed by characters are now called "Fonts" instead of "Ley Lines." The skill that allows access to this magical power is called, "Tap Font" instead of "Tap Ley Line." Here are some things you should know about Fonts (if you have questions, note that some details are intentionally being left out):

• There will be a number of "naturally occurring" Fonts.
  
• Fonts have their own Magic Point pool, including a "Max Capacity"
  
• Fonts naturally "recharge" on their own.
  
• If completely drained of MP, a font becomes weaker ("max capacity goes down").
  
• A Font can be strengthened (its "max capacity" increased).
  
• Fonts are no longer just "holy, unholy, arcane" but can also be aligned to acid, cold, death, fire, or electricity.
  
• There will be mechanisms for "naturally occurring" Fonts to move.
  
• There will be mechanisms for creation of Fonts (i.e., non-naturally-occurring).
  

4. Tapping into a Font means for most actions you use the Font's MP in lieu of your own

This is a bit of a change from the current "Tap Ley Line" rules where you go to a Ley Line, spend 1 AP to tap, and get 5 MP in exchange. Instead, you "Anchor" yourself to a Font and all MP costs for actions you take are paid by the Font instead of by your character (there are some exceptions). This includes "ongoing" costs. If you leave the Font, the "Anchor" is lost and the Font no longer pays your MP costs.

5. Ley Lines are now actual "lines" that cross the map and allow you to tap into the Font they originate from

So "Ley Lines" are nice because if you take the "Tap Ley Line" skill (child of "Tap Font") you don't have to go to the Font - you can just tap into it from any Ley Line that leads back to it. The cyan line snaking from lower left to upper right in the screenshot above is a ley line (as many guessed). In addition, with Tap Ley Line, you can move along a Ley Line without losing your connection to the Font (though step off the Ley Line and you'll have to "Tap In" again).

6. When there are multiple ley lines in a location, you can choose which Font to connect back to

Ley Line Nexuses are now definitely a thing... and a desirable thing at that.

7. Ley Lines can be re-directed

Just as there are skills that allow you to create Fonts, there are skills available that will allow the redirection of Ley Lines. This way you can try to bend that Ley Line that runs by your enemy's stronghold to run by yours instead.

8. Fonts tattle on you

Anyone who taps into a Font can see all interactions that drained MP from the font over the last 24 hours (kind of a Free Psychic Bloodhound) - it doesn't tell you whether the interaction was at the font or on a ley line, but your use of Fonts is out there for everyone to see.

9. Fonts can be dangerous

If you've recently (within 24 hours) tapped into a Font, you open yourself up to "traps" set by other Font users. Spells or Charged Attacks can be laid into the Font by a character (or group) that disapproves of your use of the Font. The next time you tap into the font, you'll take full damage from the traps set (you're voluntarily opening yourself to the magic of the Font, soak and resistance do not apply, though immunity will still work).

10. Sense Magic

So, in the spirit of "Sense Magic doesn't give you all the details, it only gives you a vague sense - the specialized spells give you the details" (see Spellcraft, Enchant Item), the Sense Magic skill will provide clues about Fonts and Ley Lines, but you'll need to purchase "Tap Font" and/or "Tap Ley Line" to see everything (ley lines, for instance, are not visible with just Sense Magic, though some clues about ley lines' existence will be available to those with Sense Magic).

CONCLUSION

We understand that the new Font/Ley Line mechanics will be a bit different for those of you used to the current Tap Ley Line mechanic - some tactics that have been used in the past will no longer work, but we think this enables some new ones as well. There is also a strong possibility that Fonts will be important for some high-powered magic use as well; we're still hammering out details on that so that portion may be revealed at a later date. But expect that Fonts will be important tactical locations, and the fact that Ley Lines can be moved and that in certain circumstances, Fonts themselves can move means you'll want to pay attention to Font locations, and especially in the late game they are likely to be important resource points to be fought over.

[Kandarin]

At this time, Breath 5's solution for the issues with badge grinds has been coded in, with an aim to addressing the issues discussed here.

In Breath 5, badge grinds no longer grant CP directly. Instead, they unlock additional post-maxout progression in the form of Ranks, additional steps of power attained after Level 30. Ranks work the same for all classes, but take the form of Circles of Demonic power, Spheres of Angelic exaltation and Degrees of Transcended enlightenment.

There are ten possible Ranks with alphabetical names, each of which grants 30 CP and requires experience after Level 30 to earn. The higher the Rank, the more Badges (and XP) is required to earn it - a requirement that ramps up with subsequent Ranks. For instance:
- Rank A is unlocked by earning 2 badges
- Rank B is unlocked by earning 2 more (total 4)
- Rank C is unlocked by earning 3 more (total 7)
Subsequent ranks are unlocked by 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6 to a maximum of rank J. XP required likewise is higher for each Rank than the one before it.

The Rank system is derived from dev brainstorming on this Suggestion and is designed to address several needs and concerns:
- It addresses the question of what to do with post-maxout XP gain: spend it earning Ranks.
- It spaces out CP gain from grinds instead of delivering it as a huge power spike that gives a character an advantage all at once.
- It lets you see the general power level of a character by eyeballing them. Seeing that a character is Level 29 tells you they're more powerful than a Level 22 character, and seeing that a character is 30I tells you how much more powerful they are than 30A.
- As discussed in the above-linked thread, it delivers on the goals of reducing the power of grinds and making their returns diminish, while still delivering tangible (and potentially quite substantial) character rewards.