03-03-2020, 03:26 PM
Thanks Woody, very interesting read.
How I see it. NI is following M&B meta. NI is a siege defence in a miniature, simplified and cleaned to bare minimum. Native M&B siege defence looks like small shieldwall, couple of slashers and ranged characters rest. If you adapt this to multiplayer you might see some roles are not very funny for PC to fill. Shielders do nothing that means no fun gameplay. Slashers auto-click one button - no fun gameplay. Therefore, only fun gameplay might be achieved in such invasion mod with ranged class. I'm excluding Cavalry invasions, because they have drastically different metas and there are much better M&B mods for it then NI.
So NI2 should have 3 ranged DPS-classes: Archer, Crossbowmen, Peltast
And melee utility class - slasher and shielder hybrid, which might have ability both to corner bots (only real shielder use in NI) to help ranged team to clear faster, and slash if bots are impossible to corner. Shieldwall function in such meta should rely exclusively on cades.
The game should motivate people to play ranged classes, because more then 1-2 melee characters will lead to lack of space at cades and blocking ranged characters. As I said, I only see utility role for melees. And very important to have them good in both shielding and slashing, that means replaceable, and no more wipes after your shielder stupidly died when you're low on tomes or just left the game, crashed or whatever. Useful support - yes, must have dedicated - no.
As for ranged class balance I like how it now. Some say throwing is too good, but for example Warden have his maps, like Senuzdga or Jalen. With good amount of maps with long shooting ranges peltast-archer balance should not be a problem, everyone will have place to show his best.
Of course, as you Woody mentioned, there are 2 levels of play: "noobs" and "pro". And certainly I only cater to second category. But I think with such classes choice casual players also will have tools to make fun with.
How I see it. NI is following M&B meta. NI is a siege defence in a miniature, simplified and cleaned to bare minimum. Native M&B siege defence looks like small shieldwall, couple of slashers and ranged characters rest. If you adapt this to multiplayer you might see some roles are not very funny for PC to fill. Shielders do nothing that means no fun gameplay. Slashers auto-click one button - no fun gameplay. Therefore, only fun gameplay might be achieved in such invasion mod with ranged class. I'm excluding Cavalry invasions, because they have drastically different metas and there are much better M&B mods for it then NI.
So NI2 should have 3 ranged DPS-classes: Archer, Crossbowmen, Peltast
And melee utility class - slasher and shielder hybrid, which might have ability both to corner bots (only real shielder use in NI) to help ranged team to clear faster, and slash if bots are impossible to corner. Shieldwall function in such meta should rely exclusively on cades.
The game should motivate people to play ranged classes, because more then 1-2 melee characters will lead to lack of space at cades and blocking ranged characters. As I said, I only see utility role for melees. And very important to have them good in both shielding and slashing, that means replaceable, and no more wipes after your shielder stupidly died when you're low on tomes or just left the game, crashed or whatever. Useful support - yes, must have dedicated - no.
As for ranged class balance I like how it now. Some say throwing is too good, but for example Warden have his maps, like Senuzdga or Jalen. With good amount of maps with long shooting ranges peltast-archer balance should not be a problem, everyone will have place to show his best.
Of course, as you Woody mentioned, there are 2 levels of play: "noobs" and "pro". And certainly I only cater to second category. But I think with such classes choice casual players also will have tools to make fun with.