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2 years ago ::
May 20, 2008 - 12:46AM
#31
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Hey Rich, thanks for dialoguing with us!
I wanted to put a bug in your ear (in addition to Set III :) ) - maybe some time in the future, if you have any thoughts on the subject, you can share them with us
War at Sea itself is tons of fun. But the basic games do often reduce to all the ships converging on the objectives and virtually annhiliating each other. Which is fun, but (arguably?) misses some of the subtleties that made real battles in WWII interesting - i.e. mission-oriented goals, need to preserve forces to fight another day, fog of war, etc.
To help address this, the game itself of course has the Convoy scenario, and WotC has offered up scenarios and also the big A&A campaign last year, which have both been fun.
Various people in the community have contributed additional scenarios, sealed mission cards, event cards, admiral cards, campaign rules, etc. This is all good, but let's face it, when it comes to game design we in the community are amateurs (or at least I am ;) ).
As the game designer, have you ever had any thoughts (or possibly ideas for "add-ons" to the game) towards enhancing individual War at Sea battles with some of kind of strategic context / mission / etc.? In ways that would perhaps be more "official" or professional in nature than our community efforts, and without seriously detracting from the basic simplicity and playability of the game?
Very possibly these kinds of things may simply be beyond what the game aspires to and aren't at all on your radar. Maybe scenarios is THE answer, but I love the fleet building part of War at Sea and I'd like it if generic games could have some of that mission flavor as well. Anyway if you've had any thoughts I'd love to hear them ...
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2 years ago ::
May 20, 2008 - 1:31AM
#32
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Thank you for your reply Rich. It is greatly appreciated.
Axis & Allies foruminiThe most popular forum specialised in the Axis & Allies Miniatures and War At Sea games. - Download custom cards for all nations - Play A&A online - Compute die roll probabilities for AAM and WAS
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2 years ago ::
May 20, 2008 - 4:40PM
#33
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(And I'm sorry for the upcoming Hellcat, it's... very aggressively statted. You *can* shoot down a Hellcat with a Zero, but it's hard to do. I blame the developers, and hereby resolve to get a better Japanese fighter in the game mix pronto.)
Ouch! Well, the discussion boards would be boring without something to flame about. ;)
I prefer to look on the bright side and take this as a hint there will be a Set III. And with a very nice IJN fighter in it. :)
Many thanks for a wonderful game.
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2 years ago ::
May 20, 2008 - 7:20PM
#34
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Hey, since you seem to be one of the few WOTC staff members who respond to our nonsense, is there any way you can light a firecracker underneath whoever is responsible for posting the AAM North Africa gallery?
Thanks!
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2 years ago ::
May 21, 2008 - 6:34AM
#35
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Actually, I've signed up to DM on D&D day at the Source. So if your there earlier in the day say from 10am to 2pm or so, you should see me there Rich. Looking forward to then.
Only 17 days till 4E releases! W00t!
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2 years ago ::
May 21, 2008 - 11:12AM
#36
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If you want to look next-door at MTG, I suggest you look at Red's attitude to spells; playing with them. Now it seems to me that the sorcerer and the wilder are likely to get into a fight, because they both deal with magical force coming from within. The solution I have to this is for the wilder to really focus on emotion and perhaps being walking static for abilities, and have the sorcerer delve into his ancestry. I'm thinking have the sorc absorb the dragonfire adept and take his stuff! If there is any left after the warlock has finished with him. I'm thinking finding creature abilities that seem interesting on a PC and letting him sample them, to make those who feel upset that creatures can do what they can't more happy.
Now the obvious reservation here is that a creatures abilities might be much to limited for a sorcerer to make a whole class out of, but I think the races of the dragon sorts out the obvious ancestor, you just need to find some more.
You are charting a route between the wilder the warlock and the wizard, which makes me glad sorcerer doesn't start with "w". The new uniformity of ability progression limits your room to manoeuvre, but you can still presumably create a different form of power, perhaps spells that power up as they are crafted, shifting spells to different energies and desperately trying to avoid friendly fire. I like the idea of an anti-striker, in that he adds an environmental hazard to the world, that his friends are slightly more able to deal with. Naturally this has potential to be so annoying, but anything that can backfire has that same issue. Perhaps that is why sorcerers are recorded as being not that well liked! The trick then is that they learn to shape their own spells and others in the same way, so they can blow up a fireball on themselves at first, and then they can learn to redirect them; there's and other's. I'm thinking per-encounter manipulation coupled with at will havoc. This means that over time it will appear that a sorc goes out of control and just starts blowing everything up. It's not that, he just ran out of manipulations!
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2 years ago ::
May 21, 2008 - 3:43PM
#37
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Hi Rich, good to hear some tidbits on my old friend, the sorcerer. If it's going to be an arcane controller, I guess that puts to bed any rumors of the sorcerer being a primal controller (Or does it?)
The wild-mage angle sounds much like I expected. Of course, the design team won't want to replicate the sins of the old 2e wild mage, which was as good as blowing itself and its friends up as it was at dispatching the enemy. Then again, it was great fun to play. I hope that the 4e sorcerer has a similar thrilling spontanaeity and air of recklessness. In play, a sorcerer shouldn't feel like he learnt his magic from a book.
Undoubtedly you and the PHB2 design team have some great ideas kicking around, but I'll share one or two of my own. Way back during the buildup to 3rd Edition, one of the rumors about the sorcerer was that it could learn spells on the fly when it saw enemies casting them. You might do something similar for the 4e sorcerer. When it sees a foe perform an arcane power, it can try to emulate the effect later on that day - but it might go awry if the Arcana check fails.
Also, you might have something similar to 'Channel Divinity', but chosen from randomly. I've had the idea of the sorcerer absorbing magic from arcane powers expended in the vicinity, building up 'charge' like a battery that can be used on secondary effects, but with unexpected results if the sorcerer 'overcharges'.
That'll be all. However you do the sorcerer, I'm sure it will rock. :thumbsup:
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1 year ago ::
May 23, 2008 - 2:58PM
#38
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No, we wouldn't design in too much opportunity for you to blow yourself up. It's in the line of setting up powers that run about 80% of the wizard's effectiveness and creating a random power-up that might offer your sorcerer nothing of what he needs at the moment, or maybe something that might crank him up to 120% of wizard effectiveness. If it works out right the trick to playing the sorcerer will be going where the wild magic takes you--changing your plans from round to round to account for the unpredictable surges you're getting. Anyway, that's all some pretty early noodling on the topic, and we'll see just how it works out after we playtest it and develop it for a few months. I mean, once upon a time I thought Golden Wyvern was going to be a wizard tradition. Things can change in process!
The wild-mage angle sounds much like I expected. Of course, the design team won't want to replicate the sins of the old 2e wild mage, which was as good as blowing itself and its friends up as it was at dispatching the enemy. Then again, it was great fun to play. I hope that the 4e sorcerer has a similar thrilling spontanaeity and air of recklessness. In play, a sorcerer shouldn't feel like he learnt his magic from a book.
That'll be all. However you do the sorcerer, I'm sure it will rock. :thumbsup:
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1 year ago ::
May 23, 2008 - 6:39PM
#39
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No, we wouldn't design in too much opportunity for you to blow yourself up. It's in the line of setting up powers that run about 80% of the wizard's effectiveness and creating a random power-up that might offer your sorcerer nothing of what he needs at the moment, or maybe something that might crank him up to 120% of wizard effectiveness. If it works out right the trick to playing the sorcerer will be going where the wild magic takes you--changing your plans from round to round to account for the unpredictable surges you're getting. Anyway, that's all some pretty early noodling on the topic, and we'll see just how it works out after we playtest it and develop it for a few months. I mean, once upon a time I thought Golden Wyvern was going to be a wizard tradition. Things can change in process!
That makes me think of a sorcerer getting the right power-up to cast a huge fireball and having to quickly dash to where it can be unleashed. I like the thought of that. What I'll truly be interested in finding out, when the time comes, is how the sorcerer's power set will thematically differ from the wizard's. It'd be a tad anticlimactic if their powers were basically the same as wizard powers, but with more unpredictability.
Wizards look to be good at blowing up groups of monsters a la evocation, while psions are predicted to have the enchantent/mind control territory staked out. What will sorcerer powers focus on? Best of luck with the development. :)
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1 year ago ::
May 24, 2008 - 12:55PM
#40
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The wild-mage angle sounds much like I expected. Of course, the design team won't want to replicate the sins of the old 2e wild mage, which was as good as blowing itself and its friends up as it was at dispatching the enemy.
Let's just hope it also does not repeat the sins of the 3e Wild Mage. (i.e. The variable caster level which bogged down the game in figuring out all the effects based on it each time you cast a spell.) I doubt that will be as much of a problem in 4e since the mechanics are very different, but Wild Mages have always had something about them that penalizes other players for being in the same game with them.
I hope that avoiding that is a major consideration of any "wild mage" like effects in the Sorcerer's design.
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