NordInvasion Forum

So, with the recent discussion of stats of Hero classes, I've gone back to thinking about something I see as an issue in the stat scheme of NI, which is the Peasant class. It has been noted before it could use a change, but never in depth.
Currently, peasants are completely reliant on higher level characters to help them through the first few levels, encouraging leeching behavior.
This is probably because the peasant is slower than the bulkiest classes out there, weaker than the most fragile of class cannons, and have the damage output of a snail with a sword made of butter. It combines all the weak points of all the classes and hero classes into one, which makes for a bad new player experience.
For people without much experience in NI, especially those without much Warband experience, the first few levels are brutal. They see heavily geared players taking on wave after wave of bots, they feel they could do the same, spawn, run put, and get killed instantly, after which they have to wait 4 waves again. I think it is safe to say this has driven a lot of new players away from NI.
Taking a look at the peasant stats, here's (roughly) what I'd suggest.

[table][tr][td]Current beginner stats:

Strength 4

Agility 4

One handed 80

Two handed 80

Polearm 20

Archery 20

Crossbow 20

Throwing 20

Power draw 1

Power throw 1

Power strike 2

Ironflesh 2

Athletics 1

Shield 1

[/td]  [td]Suggested beginner stats:

Strength 10

Agility 10

One handed 80

Two handed 80

Polearm 40

Archery 60

Crossbow 60

Throwing 50

Power draw 1

Power throw 1

Power strike 3

Ironflesh 3

Athletics 2

Shield 1

[/td][/tr][/table]

The main difference is in the amount of Strength and Agility a new player starts with. These stats are determined by the amount of melee and ranged exp a character has, regardless of their class. I suggest new players start quite a lot higher up, so they're stronger with their weapons, can run faster, take a few more hits, and are able to pick up most of the high-end weapons higher level players drop.
The increase in weapon proficiencies allows peasants to use ranged items a bit more effectively, and get rid of the abysmal 20 wpf it has on 4 occasions. The proficiencies end up being a bit lower than the first tier of the class that wpf represents, so that there's still progression from t0 to t1, but not as drastic as it is now.
Lastly, an increase in Power strike, Ironflesh and Athletics to reinforce the Strength and Agility boost, though these are not as much needed as the other changes are (imo).

A last thing that could be looked at are the stats of peasant items, but in order to do that properly, the stats of a lot more items need to be looked at as well, so I'll leave that out of it.

Those are my thoughts on making the peasant class a bit less useless.

You meant agility not athletics right?

I can't even remember how many times I've told friends and such that I've gotten into the game:
"You are completely useless until about tier 2. Just try to juggle or heal."

I like this idea.

(16-09-2014, 12:20 PM)Greg link Wrote: [ -> ]You meant agility not athletics right?

Haha, yes, good point.
Fixed.

Interesting... Something to think about.

I have actually known people to give this and mods like CRaPG because of the slow start. It is a pain to play when your only choices to level in the start is leech or juggle or heal. So I fully support this idea if that helps.

Being a redshirt sucks.  When I was fairly new to the game, I remember having my second character made (My T3/T2 wasn't going so well and the next tier of pike seemed like a forever away....) and trying to level it up and being harassed for not being helpful.  One experienced player, however, took the time to explain medic boxes to me.  I spent the next few games finding and using medic boxes whenever I could and quickly figured out the concept of "spam healing."  From there, leveling was a bit easier because people weren't constantly harassing me for not helping the team, instead they'd all greet me and be glad they had a healer.  This was around two and a half years ago - so this condescending attitude towards new players isn't really new and the terrible starting stats have always been a problem.  Even before that, when leveling my first character, I only played with my two friends.  We *never* went on a public server because it was an archer clutch fest that took forever to sort out.  I had to stand there and let my friend (usually it was just one of them online at a time) kill waves of Nords for me so I could finally get enough experience to get to T2 and kill things on my own.  This was my introduction to the game, and honestly I only put up with it because my friends wanted to play it with me.

Since then I've leveled many more characters and every time it is a terrible experience.  As a T0, you truly are useless, unless you somehow manage to pick up a Penetrator with Onyx Bolts (or force a friend to spawn it in for you )...  at least until Assassins spawn on you and you can't do anything but try to shield them because your sword is slower than molasses due to your terrible stats, and most likely an Assassin will sneak behind your shield to stab you and you have to wait 4 more waves to try to play again.

So yeah, having better peasants would be great.  The two most important stats to increase, as Maroon noted, are Strength and Agility.  I very much support his idea.

I just started two weeks ago and these points ring quite true. It's hard enough figuring out what everyone else is doing and bot behavior when you first start, you haev to have a "death is fun" attitude in the beginning (for anyone who has played Dwarf Fortress).

(16-09-2014, 07:38 PM)Juko link Wrote: [ -> ](for anyone who has played Dwarf Fortress)

http://forum.nordinvasion.com/index.php?...937.0.html
I figured you'd enjoy this

Yes to this. I'd asked for a decrease in XP needed for T4 before, but this would be good too.