28-03-2012, 03:09 PM
You might have noticed we have been very quiet on the patch front lately. Well we decided to skip the next few patches and go straight for our next milestone 0.4.0, we have been working for a bit and we are now kicking into gear trying to get it finished soon. We are hoping for a release next week, but as usual I don't give promises. 
The reason I am making this post before a patch however is that this patch will bring a long some rather big changes in the mod as it is now, and we feel we should give you a heads up about it before it goes live and takes you of guard.
The main thing about this patch for us is to bring stats on everything, player classes and AI, down by a bit. As it is now we are touching caps on everything (even way over caps on some things) and this makes it an incredible pain to keep things balanced and it also gets in the way of later reward systems we have in mind. This does not mean you will all be peasants, far from it, we are simply toning down the top tiers a bit so you won't step from a warrior to a demi-god in 1 tier like it is now. With this change we can also give a lot more incentive to hybridize and give actual choice on what class you want as your next one after you have hit top tier in one class. Which brings me to the main point of this post.
There has been rumours and discussions about new classes for a while now. And yes, we are bringing in two new classes for players in 0.4.0!
Crossbowman, will be the new sniper favorite. Awesome accuracy, high piercing damage, but slow to reload. Will also be wearing medium armor as well as have the ability to fight with one-handed weapons and shields rather well if he gets forced into melee.
Skirmisher. This will be a lightly armored and very fast melee hybrid type. Focusing on polearms, mainly spears and pikes. While also being deadly with throwing weapons and shield.
Archers will be the ones with high rate of fire from now on, while suffering a bit on the accuracy side compared to crossbows. Commandos will remain the kings of melee still able to withstand a ton of damage with their thick armor and strong shields, but will also remain quite deadly up close.
As for Cavalry. Some of you might have seen this coming and some of you will likely hate us after this patch. After much discussion for months now we have finally decided on taking Cavalry, both player and AI, out of Nord Invasion.
There are several reasons for this. Cavalry as it is now is a monstrous soloing machine at top tier, it can solo content not meant to be soloed with ease if the player knows what he is doing. Of course we could just tone down Cavalry, but then we will end up going over the line. There is a fine line in regards to Cavalry, either it is overpowered or it is useless. There is no middle ground. Yes we can add measures to counter Cavalry like pikes and ranged weapons, but these hurts players on foot just as much, if not more, then players on horseback.
Secondly Cavalry is not a team class, it's never playing in sync with other classes and it has a tendency to always be the last man standing and a great delayer when everyone else is dead. Yes Cavalry kiting is a form of team play, but it is in essence a way to break the AI and this makes it even harder for us to balance the mod. Do we balance it around Cavalry kiting to be able to get anywhere thereby making it impossible to succeed without it. Or do we balance around players on foot being able to hold ground at tactical positions trough teamwork, thereby making it a walk in the park when you have Cavalry kiting. Once again there is no proper middle ground.
It also makes our job of making balanced and fun maps a lot harder. You have to take account for the stupid AI cavalry being able to reach players and you have to try to make maps suited for player Cavalry as well as players on foot, this brings us back to the kiting question. Giving Cavalry players the tools and stats to be able to hold their own on the ground with on foot players is also a touchy subject, why would you go a foot class if you are as powerful on foot and you get a horse?
Our main concern is that Cavalry has never properly fit in Nord Invasion it has always been the odd man out and it always will be. That's why we have decided to take it out completely, this way we can focus on getting Nord Invasion to the direction we want, a great cooperative mod with intense defenses focused on teamplay and varied tactics.
We understand some of you will be mad about this especially for all the work you put into getting your levels and gear. We can assure you though that all gear both crafted and looted will be converted into new gear with similar stats and value. Experience will also be compensated at the time of patch as well as respec for all players.
Of course there will also be new stuff in the patch, but we want to keep some secrets you know..
Love,
Worm
The reason I am making this post before a patch however is that this patch will bring a long some rather big changes in the mod as it is now, and we feel we should give you a heads up about it before it goes live and takes you of guard.
The main thing about this patch for us is to bring stats on everything, player classes and AI, down by a bit. As it is now we are touching caps on everything (even way over caps on some things) and this makes it an incredible pain to keep things balanced and it also gets in the way of later reward systems we have in mind. This does not mean you will all be peasants, far from it, we are simply toning down the top tiers a bit so you won't step from a warrior to a demi-god in 1 tier like it is now. With this change we can also give a lot more incentive to hybridize and give actual choice on what class you want as your next one after you have hit top tier in one class. Which brings me to the main point of this post.
There has been rumours and discussions about new classes for a while now. And yes, we are bringing in two new classes for players in 0.4.0!
Crossbowman, will be the new sniper favorite. Awesome accuracy, high piercing damage, but slow to reload. Will also be wearing medium armor as well as have the ability to fight with one-handed weapons and shields rather well if he gets forced into melee.
Skirmisher. This will be a lightly armored and very fast melee hybrid type. Focusing on polearms, mainly spears and pikes. While also being deadly with throwing weapons and shield.
Archers will be the ones with high rate of fire from now on, while suffering a bit on the accuracy side compared to crossbows. Commandos will remain the kings of melee still able to withstand a ton of damage with their thick armor and strong shields, but will also remain quite deadly up close.
As for Cavalry. Some of you might have seen this coming and some of you will likely hate us after this patch. After much discussion for months now we have finally decided on taking Cavalry, both player and AI, out of Nord Invasion.
There are several reasons for this. Cavalry as it is now is a monstrous soloing machine at top tier, it can solo content not meant to be soloed with ease if the player knows what he is doing. Of course we could just tone down Cavalry, but then we will end up going over the line. There is a fine line in regards to Cavalry, either it is overpowered or it is useless. There is no middle ground. Yes we can add measures to counter Cavalry like pikes and ranged weapons, but these hurts players on foot just as much, if not more, then players on horseback.
Secondly Cavalry is not a team class, it's never playing in sync with other classes and it has a tendency to always be the last man standing and a great delayer when everyone else is dead. Yes Cavalry kiting is a form of team play, but it is in essence a way to break the AI and this makes it even harder for us to balance the mod. Do we balance it around Cavalry kiting to be able to get anywhere thereby making it impossible to succeed without it. Or do we balance around players on foot being able to hold ground at tactical positions trough teamwork, thereby making it a walk in the park when you have Cavalry kiting. Once again there is no proper middle ground.
It also makes our job of making balanced and fun maps a lot harder. You have to take account for the stupid AI cavalry being able to reach players and you have to try to make maps suited for player Cavalry as well as players on foot, this brings us back to the kiting question. Giving Cavalry players the tools and stats to be able to hold their own on the ground with on foot players is also a touchy subject, why would you go a foot class if you are as powerful on foot and you get a horse?
Our main concern is that Cavalry has never properly fit in Nord Invasion it has always been the odd man out and it always will be. That's why we have decided to take it out completely, this way we can focus on getting Nord Invasion to the direction we want, a great cooperative mod with intense defenses focused on teamplay and varied tactics.
We understand some of you will be mad about this especially for all the work you put into getting your levels and gear. We can assure you though that all gear both crafted and looted will be converted into new gear with similar stats and value. Experience will also be compensated at the time of patch as well as respec for all players.
Of course there will also be new stuff in the patch, but we want to keep some secrets you know..
Love,
Worm
![[+]](/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Spoiler
(((((
, sounds epic 
.