Post by Emiliana on Aug 23, 2023 14:20:54 GMT 1
I want to start by thanking you all sincerely for playing our Nyx worlds so far, and for all of the heated debates and feedback on what you do or do not like, and how things can change. I read every single line in the discords, scouring for your thoughts and I appreciate every bit of it, even if I don't reply, know that I am probably just thinking about what you've said and considering possibilities, new code, changes, and may just not have a fitting or insightful answer or reasoning at that time.
Nyx 1 and 2 were wild and imbalanced times, and while Nyx 3-6 is a little better, I think Nyx 7 proves that we're in a bit of a rut, that we're going through the motions. The quests, the training grounds, the loot box, the fauna, the new discoveries, the map interactions and PVP, they might've worked before, but all are more stale now. Trust me, I'm right there with you where that feeling goes. It makes me unhappy to see it, and I don't want to put the players through it again, it is just clear to me that things have to change, and now is the time.
There will not be another Nyx in 2023! The next round, Nyx 8 will be January 1st, 2024. When it comes back, it will come back as something much greater, and I hope you check it out. Until then, we'll be keeping you busy in Agonia this fall.
Emiliana
---
Maps
Starting out, we used a temporary map from Dro as a throwback and test of the mechanics for two rounds, it was incredibly claustrophobic and bloody. Griffins were a mere 10 steps away from a capital! You could go to and enemy capital and back within 1500 moves in some cases.
Nyx 1, Dro Map Image
Next, I want to expand the map to make the terrains more evenly spread, and fairly dangerous for each raid-ability during training wise. In the above image, forsaken (Northwest) had very good training options on the western edges that were out of range of Undead (Northeast) and harsh on many Order (South) members.
Nyx 3, Version 1 Map Image
And so, I created the map named Nyx 3. As you can see, it focuses on a centralized island with 3 home-land prongs coming out for each faction. The distance from cap-to-cap increased by about 40% or more, but since the capitals are no longer 10 steps from training it simply means that the capitals are safer, while those who are out training aren't much safer, and players were out of capital more often. Layout wise, it was now equally dangerous for all, fauna 4, 5, 6 were only located on the central islands and your options always put you close to at least one other faction. This map was incredibly choke-heavy, and during this round a dominant force quickly gained control of the middle and shut out training from the enemy teams, giving them no options to train. While that's in the spirit of Nyx, it was a little too dominant.
Nyx 3 was modified into Nyx 3 v2, to give a few more options for training and to expand the sight-lines a little, making it slightly harder for an enemy to locate you on a whim.
Nyx 3, Version 2 Map Image
With Nyx 3 v2, the outer edges between each faction's capitals were filled in with mid-level training and a little extra loot. The highest training, and most powerful recipe items are still in the middle only, but you now have 3-4 options for training instead of 1-2, allowing you to play to the situation of the island, against the dominant faction a little easier. This map served us well for round 4, 5, 6 and 7, but little problems kept creeping in that are more fundamental to the game systems themselves than from a map layout. Since this is a rush server, we absolutely must have quick distances to and fro, but with normal TPS/Agonia mechanics this meant that the map was small, and player's sight and knowledge of areas allowed too much to be checked too easily still.
Maps, Moving Forward
Moving forward, what I want to try is to radically shift how the movement, turns, and sight interact with one another.
-The maximum amount of movement stored increased to 4500 (from 1500).
-The amount of movement recovered per hour increased to 450 (from 150), you will gain 3 movement every 24 seconds.
-The new map will increase in size about 2.5~2.7x to compensate.
Comparison wise, the distance (width/east-west alone) between New Heaven and Exodus in Agonia is 236 tiles. In Nyx 8, this is roughly 219 tiles currently. Nyx 3 is only about 50-70 tiles cap to cap, but has a lot of diagonals (1.41x).
This increase alone drastically changes what we are allowed to do with map size, and the ramifications of sight in Nyx. It is lowering your effective sight by 66%, where if we did that directly and left the map the same as Nyx 3, it would feel awful.
It also has a large impact on your training ratio between turns and moves, and with our new patrol option, I think this is okay. Players can use patrol in camps just as well and it will save many clicks per day if you are simply training and not travelling or raiding.
With 120 turns, and 10,800 movement per day, and with Nyx's 24% encounter rate, you could get 28.8 fights from turns, and if you were at 20 movement per step, in the 10,800 movement points you could get 32.4 fights (at 1/4th explore rate), or 64.8 fights (at 1/2 explore rate). While this may not be the final figures, this is a very large difference in practice and will have a few impacts.
-Training is way more about movement than before, and tribes will have some adjustments to their move rates.
-Movement enhancing gear is drastically increased in effectiveness, while Sight equipment is reduced in power, but we will compensate a tiny bit with new items.
-Players will focus less on mountains, no matter their race. Players will want to look for a spot where they can better use their moves, and will be able to get there.
-Individual terrain areas can be larger, providing more fertility access in relevant areas making herbs easier to find, and allowing tribes to show off their legs in each terrain.
-Crafters/Support and Warrior characters alike will lose less daily weapon XP potential when focusing on using turns to craft.
-Way more fights per day, with proportionally the same herbs generated, is more stress on healing items.
Along the way I've added unique and variant encounters, such as the realms of fire, ice, and storms, and the ever-lovely Hydra. I would count on seeing even more of this stuff including in the new fauna and quests!
---
Crafting
In Nyx 1-6, we used a simple crafting system with 1 person blacksmithing, tailoring, woodworking, and alchemy, with them expected to dump every last turn they had into their craft in a race to the higher skills, when they can unlock the upper tier recipes. This gave a large advantage to dwarr in particular, and a large difference in time of these recipes unlocking. That is in practice fine for a while, but players playing around that just play turtle for those days, there was no active pressing need to be risky and confront that faction until you caught up. It also made it so someone was playing with nearly zero option or drive to normally compete, as they are so far behind on character building power, us limiting camps to a few people makes crafting and training in this circumstance even more impractical.
In Nyx 7, I introduced a new system where the skill to craft something is relatively low, but recipes unlock based on a clock starting when the round begins. I think this worked okay but it can definitely use a lot more smoothing, and I think that with all changes considered it is one way to greatly improve Nyx overall.
Crafting, Items, and Etc., Moving Forward
In Nyx 8, I want to modify the crafting system in that same regard a little more. Certain recipes will be even lower skill, and the time to unlock will be more evenly spread throughout. There will also be new items that will assist in your crafting that are more accessible than hydra items.
The goal here is for everyone to value crafting, even if just for themselves. When push comes to shove, players should have multiple options of who and what to craft.
-Tier 1 (10 skill), Tier 2 (40 skill), Tier 3 (70 skill), Tier 4 (100 skill), Tier 5 (130 skill).
-Revamp of support item recipes, so players can level up on more items (such as iron ingots).
-Better drops for common materials (hide, gut, bone, meat) from reliable, worthy sources.
-Better finds of all herbs, so buff potions are more readily available and alchemy is a global hobby.
-New Powerful recipes for alchemy (Timeworn Alchemist's Stone), and tailoring (Explorer Boots, brand new capes, etc.)
-Reduction of turns to craft shields (so 1h+shield is equal to 2h). Material wise they will be more expensive, but not turns.
-Many exciting new items, while keeping the legacy of existing Nyx gear alive.
-Less reliance on Riker, more recipes and targeted drop farming for players.
-Introduction of Runic crafting, allowing players to create level 1 runes and gain XP easier.
-Revamped Acid and Poison runes.
-Reworked +Runic skill items. Needing +runic on every belt moving forward is an ugly bandaid!
-Introduction of Leadership crafting.
-Revamped junk, iron, and noble chest system. These boxes seem to be really fun for the player and a way to consistent add value and reward, and will definitely be expanded upon.
---
Tribes
General
Previously, tribes had their normal starting stats of (for example, a giant: 24 STR, 24 Health, 8 AGI, 7 Endurance), and with Nyx 7 I doubled this for every tribe, they are now born with twice as many stats.
I did this for a few reasons:
-It would make the round feel different than Nyx 1-6
-It would slightly lessen the impact that healing items had on stalling for backup, as you would hit with more strength.
-It would allow players to use more weapon variety more easily (without relying on jewelry or dogtags)
-It would ease players into higher fauna earlier, and allow Mythos to survive better on our now smaller camps.
-Mythos can now unrune gear!
I think it is a very good change and I think it worked out fine. There is no mathematical secrets and no one was disproportionately helped or hurt, as it's all based on the balanced tribe math. The only actual impact this will have (outside of vs. fauna) is that stronger characters now, will have a worse ratio against weaker characters now, compared to the past. An example:
Nyx 1-6
Strong: Born with 55 stats, gained 70 stats during the round, +10 gear: 135 total
Weaker: Born with 55 stats, gained 40 during the round, no gear: 95 total
Ratio: 135/95 = 1.42 (or .703), the strong player is roughly 42% stronger.
Nyx 7
Strong: Born with 110 stats, gained 70 stats during the round, +10 gear: 190 total
Weaker: Born with 110 stats, gained 40 during the round, no gear: 150 total
Ratio: 190/150 = 1.26 (or .789), the strong player is roughly 26% stronger.
In the most extreme example case, we could start you with 500x starting stats, and your training during the round would amount to the tiniest tiny decimal of your total power, but it would still be absolutely balanced in a fight. Giants would have 67,000 starting HP! But with such an extreme case, you would feel zero need to train well because it has no impact at all on your performance, which is something we want to avoid very much.
Still, this fights the "godliness" factor that players could reach in the earlier rounds, just a tad, without us having to nerf rewards from doing well or having gear. We want all characters to be competitive, we want warriors to craft and we want support players to train main as well. It is everyone's job in Nyx to fight for your faction in PVP, and this is just another avenue that allows us to help that be a reality.
Weapons
Previously, we've not had many rounds at all reach the age to use tier 4 weapons. With the recipes being lower now, and players having enough stats and HP due to starting stats increase, we can now even support tier 5 weapons. The base damage of these weapons is a very high number, and without higher base HP from the doubled start, fights would be over with way too quickly. This is even somewhat true of tier 4 weapons, while it hasn't been an issue so far, it was a limiting factor moving forward.
Also, I want to revisit the availability and quantity of types for weapons. Personally I feel a round would be healthier and better if there were very few weapons to choose from, as it's more likely you can use an ally's weapon, an enemy's weapon, and for crafters to stockpile backups. Obviously, we need to keep one of each different profile around, but a preliminary reduced list would be:
Blacksmithing: Dagger, Sword, Two Handed Sword, Fist
Woodworking: Bow, Polearm, Two Handed Hammer
Obviously this has interactions with tribal favor and their 2% xp bonuses, so we'd get that straightened out. It also has a big impact on which armors are popular or not, and which defenses are used, so we can review those to make sure everything is decent enough. We are hesitant to do this because it is a lot of flavor lost and people like certain weapons and RP, but I think it's a worthy goal for the economy-side of Nyx, and with extra starting stats, it's not a big blocker anymore.
Giants and Fists
Giants are awesome flavor, and something lots of people want to try in Nyx historically. With squished training damages on weapons, more INT buffs, no one else really buying INT with evo, I believe giants are a decent choice today, but I want to make them a little more special. Moving forward, fists will only be available to giants, others won't even be able to use work bands for secondary skill and evolution training. This will allow us to buff fists, without it becoming the defacto best weapon in the game, just a very very good tool for giants. With less weapons overall, giants using a weapon their enemy cannot use is now a perk instead of a game-wide problem.
Currently, the fist profile goes like this: tier 1-3 performs like a dagger, while tier 4 performs like a sword.
Moving forward, when it is giant only: tier 1 will behave like a blowpipe, tier 2 will behave like a dagger, tier 3 will behave like a sword, and tier 4 will behave like a hammer.
This means the attack power of the fist weapons never actually goes up when you increase in tier, but your damage goes up quite substantially, allowing you to train quickly while being a powerhouse in PVP, nullifying one of the weaknesses of giants while retaining the strength.
Skeletons & Kiith
Skeletons are a very neat tribe, I was excited from the first time Belouch mentioned them, and the necromancy spell page is really fun! It's taken a while, and they've had some rough rounds as we got them straightened out vs. runic, but I believe the new 2x starting-stats opens up a lot of breathing room there. Players with higher strength (and higher tier 4 and 5 weapons later) are hitting for higher damage, which means that skeletons will reduce more damage, leaving more room for players to play with runes while not massacring skeletons outright. Don't be scared if you see a few more runes in the future!
The sight penalty on skeletons won't be going away moving forward, we've already reduced it, and they'll be getting some love that's not necessarily a buff in a particular way but just gives them some more flavor and uniqueness.
Spells & Others
I want to try to add at least one additional spell to each tribe, but some may receive something that's not a spell at all, but access to a unique function like necromancy, just not as large in scope. Doing this to everyone all at once can add flavor to the tribes without impacting the balance of them altogether, as they'd all be getting raised alongside one another.
Maybe Leafborn can bottle up excess unused mana into a potion form, expanding their arsenal and ability to spend massive amounts of mana in one day, or to share with their allies with their new spells... just don't let it fall into enemy hands.
Perhaps Kiith can conjure special fortifications to share to their already durable skeletons, spreading their mana even thinner and making their choices even more difficult.
What if Norsks could revel in their victories, using enemy dogtags for even larger, although temporary, stat gains?
---
We have a lot planned for Nyx 8, and a lot of data and experience from you guys to reflect on, so we will do our best and hope you enjoy it when it comes.
Thanks for reading, I just wanting to throw some scratch notes out there today. Other post-mortems and thoughts on other topics might pop up later!
Nyx 1 and 2 were wild and imbalanced times, and while Nyx 3-6 is a little better, I think Nyx 7 proves that we're in a bit of a rut, that we're going through the motions. The quests, the training grounds, the loot box, the fauna, the new discoveries, the map interactions and PVP, they might've worked before, but all are more stale now. Trust me, I'm right there with you where that feeling goes. It makes me unhappy to see it, and I don't want to put the players through it again, it is just clear to me that things have to change, and now is the time.
There will not be another Nyx in 2023! The next round, Nyx 8 will be January 1st, 2024. When it comes back, it will come back as something much greater, and I hope you check it out. Until then, we'll be keeping you busy in Agonia this fall.
Emiliana
---
Maps
Starting out, we used a temporary map from Dro as a throwback and test of the mechanics for two rounds, it was incredibly claustrophobic and bloody. Griffins were a mere 10 steps away from a capital! You could go to and enemy capital and back within 1500 moves in some cases.
Nyx 1, Dro Map Image
Next, I want to expand the map to make the terrains more evenly spread, and fairly dangerous for each raid-ability during training wise. In the above image, forsaken (Northwest) had very good training options on the western edges that were out of range of Undead (Northeast) and harsh on many Order (South) members.
Nyx 3, Version 1 Map Image
And so, I created the map named Nyx 3. As you can see, it focuses on a centralized island with 3 home-land prongs coming out for each faction. The distance from cap-to-cap increased by about 40% or more, but since the capitals are no longer 10 steps from training it simply means that the capitals are safer, while those who are out training aren't much safer, and players were out of capital more often. Layout wise, it was now equally dangerous for all, fauna 4, 5, 6 were only located on the central islands and your options always put you close to at least one other faction. This map was incredibly choke-heavy, and during this round a dominant force quickly gained control of the middle and shut out training from the enemy teams, giving them no options to train. While that's in the spirit of Nyx, it was a little too dominant.
Nyx 3 was modified into Nyx 3 v2, to give a few more options for training and to expand the sight-lines a little, making it slightly harder for an enemy to locate you on a whim.
Nyx 3, Version 2 Map Image
With Nyx 3 v2, the outer edges between each faction's capitals were filled in with mid-level training and a little extra loot. The highest training, and most powerful recipe items are still in the middle only, but you now have 3-4 options for training instead of 1-2, allowing you to play to the situation of the island, against the dominant faction a little easier. This map served us well for round 4, 5, 6 and 7, but little problems kept creeping in that are more fundamental to the game systems themselves than from a map layout. Since this is a rush server, we absolutely must have quick distances to and fro, but with normal TPS/Agonia mechanics this meant that the map was small, and player's sight and knowledge of areas allowed too much to be checked too easily still.
Maps, Moving Forward
Moving forward, what I want to try is to radically shift how the movement, turns, and sight interact with one another.
-The maximum amount of movement stored increased to 4500 (from 1500).
-The amount of movement recovered per hour increased to 450 (from 150), you will gain 3 movement every 24 seconds.
-The new map will increase in size about 2.5~2.7x to compensate.
Comparison wise, the distance (width/east-west alone) between New Heaven and Exodus in Agonia is 236 tiles. In Nyx 8, this is roughly 219 tiles currently. Nyx 3 is only about 50-70 tiles cap to cap, but has a lot of diagonals (1.41x).
This increase alone drastically changes what we are allowed to do with map size, and the ramifications of sight in Nyx. It is lowering your effective sight by 66%, where if we did that directly and left the map the same as Nyx 3, it would feel awful.
It also has a large impact on your training ratio between turns and moves, and with our new patrol option, I think this is okay. Players can use patrol in camps just as well and it will save many clicks per day if you are simply training and not travelling or raiding.
With 120 turns, and 10,800 movement per day, and with Nyx's 24% encounter rate, you could get 28.8 fights from turns, and if you were at 20 movement per step, in the 10,800 movement points you could get 32.4 fights (at 1/4th explore rate), or 64.8 fights (at 1/2 explore rate). While this may not be the final figures, this is a very large difference in practice and will have a few impacts.
-Training is way more about movement than before, and tribes will have some adjustments to their move rates.
-Movement enhancing gear is drastically increased in effectiveness, while Sight equipment is reduced in power, but we will compensate a tiny bit with new items.
-Players will focus less on mountains, no matter their race. Players will want to look for a spot where they can better use their moves, and will be able to get there.
-Individual terrain areas can be larger, providing more fertility access in relevant areas making herbs easier to find, and allowing tribes to show off their legs in each terrain.
-Crafters/Support and Warrior characters alike will lose less daily weapon XP potential when focusing on using turns to craft.
-Way more fights per day, with proportionally the same herbs generated, is more stress on healing items.
Along the way I've added unique and variant encounters, such as the realms of fire, ice, and storms, and the ever-lovely Hydra. I would count on seeing even more of this stuff including in the new fauna and quests!
---
Crafting
In Nyx 1-6, we used a simple crafting system with 1 person blacksmithing, tailoring, woodworking, and alchemy, with them expected to dump every last turn they had into their craft in a race to the higher skills, when they can unlock the upper tier recipes. This gave a large advantage to dwarr in particular, and a large difference in time of these recipes unlocking. That is in practice fine for a while, but players playing around that just play turtle for those days, there was no active pressing need to be risky and confront that faction until you caught up. It also made it so someone was playing with nearly zero option or drive to normally compete, as they are so far behind on character building power, us limiting camps to a few people makes crafting and training in this circumstance even more impractical.
In Nyx 7, I introduced a new system where the skill to craft something is relatively low, but recipes unlock based on a clock starting when the round begins. I think this worked okay but it can definitely use a lot more smoothing, and I think that with all changes considered it is one way to greatly improve Nyx overall.
Crafting, Items, and Etc., Moving Forward
In Nyx 8, I want to modify the crafting system in that same regard a little more. Certain recipes will be even lower skill, and the time to unlock will be more evenly spread throughout. There will also be new items that will assist in your crafting that are more accessible than hydra items.
The goal here is for everyone to value crafting, even if just for themselves. When push comes to shove, players should have multiple options of who and what to craft.
-Tier 1 (10 skill), Tier 2 (40 skill), Tier 3 (70 skill), Tier 4 (100 skill), Tier 5 (130 skill).
-Revamp of support item recipes, so players can level up on more items (such as iron ingots).
-Better drops for common materials (hide, gut, bone, meat) from reliable, worthy sources.
-Better finds of all herbs, so buff potions are more readily available and alchemy is a global hobby.
-New Powerful recipes for alchemy (Timeworn Alchemist's Stone), and tailoring (Explorer Boots, brand new capes, etc.)
-Reduction of turns to craft shields (so 1h+shield is equal to 2h). Material wise they will be more expensive, but not turns.
-Many exciting new items, while keeping the legacy of existing Nyx gear alive.
-Less reliance on Riker, more recipes and targeted drop farming for players.
-Introduction of Runic crafting, allowing players to create level 1 runes and gain XP easier.
-Revamped Acid and Poison runes.
-Reworked +Runic skill items. Needing +runic on every belt moving forward is an ugly bandaid!
-Introduction of Leadership crafting.
-Revamped junk, iron, and noble chest system. These boxes seem to be really fun for the player and a way to consistent add value and reward, and will definitely be expanded upon.
---
Tribes
General
Previously, tribes had their normal starting stats of (for example, a giant: 24 STR, 24 Health, 8 AGI, 7 Endurance), and with Nyx 7 I doubled this for every tribe, they are now born with twice as many stats.
I did this for a few reasons:
-It would make the round feel different than Nyx 1-6
-It would slightly lessen the impact that healing items had on stalling for backup, as you would hit with more strength.
-It would allow players to use more weapon variety more easily (without relying on jewelry or dogtags)
-It would ease players into higher fauna earlier, and allow Mythos to survive better on our now smaller camps.
-Mythos can now unrune gear!
I think it is a very good change and I think it worked out fine. There is no mathematical secrets and no one was disproportionately helped or hurt, as it's all based on the balanced tribe math. The only actual impact this will have (outside of vs. fauna) is that stronger characters now, will have a worse ratio against weaker characters now, compared to the past. An example:
Nyx 1-6
Strong: Born with 55 stats, gained 70 stats during the round, +10 gear: 135 total
Weaker: Born with 55 stats, gained 40 during the round, no gear: 95 total
Ratio: 135/95 = 1.42 (or .703), the strong player is roughly 42% stronger.
Nyx 7
Strong: Born with 110 stats, gained 70 stats during the round, +10 gear: 190 total
Weaker: Born with 110 stats, gained 40 during the round, no gear: 150 total
Ratio: 190/150 = 1.26 (or .789), the strong player is roughly 26% stronger.
In the most extreme example case, we could start you with 500x starting stats, and your training during the round would amount to the tiniest tiny decimal of your total power, but it would still be absolutely balanced in a fight. Giants would have 67,000 starting HP! But with such an extreme case, you would feel zero need to train well because it has no impact at all on your performance, which is something we want to avoid very much.
Still, this fights the "godliness" factor that players could reach in the earlier rounds, just a tad, without us having to nerf rewards from doing well or having gear. We want all characters to be competitive, we want warriors to craft and we want support players to train main as well. It is everyone's job in Nyx to fight for your faction in PVP, and this is just another avenue that allows us to help that be a reality.
Weapons
Previously, we've not had many rounds at all reach the age to use tier 4 weapons. With the recipes being lower now, and players having enough stats and HP due to starting stats increase, we can now even support tier 5 weapons. The base damage of these weapons is a very high number, and without higher base HP from the doubled start, fights would be over with way too quickly. This is even somewhat true of tier 4 weapons, while it hasn't been an issue so far, it was a limiting factor moving forward.
Also, I want to revisit the availability and quantity of types for weapons. Personally I feel a round would be healthier and better if there were very few weapons to choose from, as it's more likely you can use an ally's weapon, an enemy's weapon, and for crafters to stockpile backups. Obviously, we need to keep one of each different profile around, but a preliminary reduced list would be:
Blacksmithing: Dagger, Sword, Two Handed Sword, Fist
Woodworking: Bow, Polearm, Two Handed Hammer
Obviously this has interactions with tribal favor and their 2% xp bonuses, so we'd get that straightened out. It also has a big impact on which armors are popular or not, and which defenses are used, so we can review those to make sure everything is decent enough. We are hesitant to do this because it is a lot of flavor lost and people like certain weapons and RP, but I think it's a worthy goal for the economy-side of Nyx, and with extra starting stats, it's not a big blocker anymore.
Giants and Fists
Giants are awesome flavor, and something lots of people want to try in Nyx historically. With squished training damages on weapons, more INT buffs, no one else really buying INT with evo, I believe giants are a decent choice today, but I want to make them a little more special. Moving forward, fists will only be available to giants, others won't even be able to use work bands for secondary skill and evolution training. This will allow us to buff fists, without it becoming the defacto best weapon in the game, just a very very good tool for giants. With less weapons overall, giants using a weapon their enemy cannot use is now a perk instead of a game-wide problem.
Currently, the fist profile goes like this: tier 1-3 performs like a dagger, while tier 4 performs like a sword.
Moving forward, when it is giant only: tier 1 will behave like a blowpipe, tier 2 will behave like a dagger, tier 3 will behave like a sword, and tier 4 will behave like a hammer.
This means the attack power of the fist weapons never actually goes up when you increase in tier, but your damage goes up quite substantially, allowing you to train quickly while being a powerhouse in PVP, nullifying one of the weaknesses of giants while retaining the strength.
Skeletons & Kiith
Skeletons are a very neat tribe, I was excited from the first time Belouch mentioned them, and the necromancy spell page is really fun! It's taken a while, and they've had some rough rounds as we got them straightened out vs. runic, but I believe the new 2x starting-stats opens up a lot of breathing room there. Players with higher strength (and higher tier 4 and 5 weapons later) are hitting for higher damage, which means that skeletons will reduce more damage, leaving more room for players to play with runes while not massacring skeletons outright. Don't be scared if you see a few more runes in the future!
The sight penalty on skeletons won't be going away moving forward, we've already reduced it, and they'll be getting some love that's not necessarily a buff in a particular way but just gives them some more flavor and uniqueness.
Spells & Others
I want to try to add at least one additional spell to each tribe, but some may receive something that's not a spell at all, but access to a unique function like necromancy, just not as large in scope. Doing this to everyone all at once can add flavor to the tribes without impacting the balance of them altogether, as they'd all be getting raised alongside one another.
Maybe Leafborn can bottle up excess unused mana into a potion form, expanding their arsenal and ability to spend massive amounts of mana in one day, or to share with their allies with their new spells... just don't let it fall into enemy hands.
Perhaps Kiith can conjure special fortifications to share to their already durable skeletons, spreading their mana even thinner and making their choices even more difficult.
What if Norsks could revel in their victories, using enemy dogtags for even larger, although temporary, stat gains?
---
We have a lot planned for Nyx 8, and a lot of data and experience from you guys to reflect on, so we will do our best and hope you enjoy it when it comes.
Thanks for reading, I just wanting to throw some scratch notes out there today. Other post-mortems and thoughts on other topics might pop up later!