hellsya

[noobas]

Friday with Means - October 9th, 2009 - Parry and Riposte - Back from the dead!

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I had hopes this week for us being able to share the plans for ALL perks and actions accross all professions this week. Unfortunately it isn't going to happen as we really feel we need to make the ENTIRE plan concerning research, perks, nanos and other changes available at the same time or the changes to perks will only be taken out of context...and a source of MORE questions and argument as opposed to LESS. There are still some details we are fighting about...if we can't agree yet it isn't ready.

A good example of additional changes not contained with in perks would be PARRY and RIPOSTE.

One of the downsides of working on a project for as long as I have is that sometimes you can get "stuck" in the old way of thinking. The previous attempts at implementing parry and riposte actions in the past had been unsuccessful for many reasons...so the idea of resurrecting this old code had always been a firm "no" in my book for good reason. This brings us to the value of having such a good team working on AO. Kintaii (unlike myself) did not see this as a lost cause and continued to work on acceptable solutions to these unused skills and has put together with the rest of the team a good alternative to the old systems for Parry and Riposte that will allow us to bypass all the "old" reasons for not activating these actions. So here is the basics of what we can expect from Parry and Riposte in the larger effort of balancing/renewing that we are currently working on:

Parry and Riposte

A free full IP Reset will of course come with these changes. The addition of Parry and Riposte actions will come along at the same time as the changes to perks and nanos.

Parry

General duration will be 10 seconds.
Based on your Parry skill (and having a martial arts/melee weapon equipped) you will acquire a new action (like Backstab) that enables you to parry/block both regular and special attacks for the duration of the action. As your skill in Parry increases, your chances to negate damage from regular and special attacks during the active time of the Parry action increases. As your Parry skill increases the cooldown of this action will also decrease. The Parry action will always negate the damage of at least one attack…how many additional attacks are parried will entirely depend on your skill.

Riposte

Riposte is an active melee/martial arts action that will do damage based on your Riposte skill. A Riposte is a quick counter-attack based on a temporary opening offered by an off-balance attack by your opponent. An attack by your opponent will “activate” your Riposte ability giving you a short window of time to use it to inflict additional damage on an in-range target. This will not be a “huge” damage special but more of an active combat action that is available often during the course of regular combat. Individual player skill in taking advantage of this action will be a significant factor in how effective it can be.

In-Game Mail:

This week was a milestone for AO. We got to see the huge moment where the first mail (with an ITEM!) was sent and received by another player. The first item sent was the iconic foam-finger that Macrosun uses as his head on TestLive. Go Macrosun! ...and yes...I am a horrible boss...please come back to work on Monday. Screenshot complete with coder-graphics is below!

New Engine

Thank you all for the feedback concerning the appearance of the first screenshots with the new engine. We will be sure to turn on a lot of the expected features (filtering etc) in the next set. You all drew attention to some areas we may not have thought of...so thanks again.

Have a great weekend everyone!

[noobas]

ohhhh heelllllllsssss ya.


This is uber. I'm particularly stoked because this will give my keeper that extra little bit of uber defense that he REALLY needs.

10 seconds of parry is like that saving grace, if you time it right, you could have a couple specials blocked and this would really make a big difference against some of those uber annoying profs like agent/soldier/advy/enf with those massive SA/AS/FA's

ohhh yes, I can hear the retarded omlets already crying when they see:

Notum Wars update!!! GoA is at war! Noobasknight is WTFPWNING YOUR TOWERS! AND YOU CAN'T STOP HIM!

har har har! sheesh, It's going to be REALLY tight with IP. riposte will be forsaken, but I will get parry up for sure.

I hope the IPR will affect base stats. with any luck I'll be able to equip myself with all my 220-230 symbs without maxing psych/sense/agi/intel and save a few spoonfuls of IP for parry.

I'll probably drop sharp objects too, since thats a ridiculous IP sink for an attack that doesn't land enough. hohoho, I'm excited!

[Alphacenta]

Full IPR does reset every skill, including Map Navigation and base abils.

[Rulzern]

Sweet, maybe I'll end up playing my keeper again for a bit.

[noobas]

yea, I'm really stoked to take advantage of this.

The keeper isn't in bad shape.

I'm wondering if FC will do anything to condense the perk lines a bit though, considering how perk dependant we are, it would be really nice to have a few extra to max out 3 lines.

(currently I am 3 from full on reaper, 1 from full on blessing, maxed on HM)

[Mud]

pfft to keepers!

[InsaneEvan]

This is probably the best thing to ever happen to my MA.
Hells yeah.

[Grind42]

This is probably the best thing to ever happen to my MA.
Hells yeah.

Bumpidy for IPR & full PR's & re-equiping intels....


P.S Ev_Ed your Signature is incorrect please change it. Nelson quoted a famous poet Marianne Williamson (this poem was inspirational) I used it when doing sales training.

‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination.
It is our light more than our darkness which scares us.
We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous.
But honestly, who are you to not be so?

You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world.
For those around us to feel peace, it is not example to make ourselves small.
We were born to express the glory of god that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us.
While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same.
When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others.’

- Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles

[noobas]

thanks for the enlightenment Grind.

That quote is brilliant and beautiful. I used to have it on my wall back in canada, and read it daily.

Thanks.

[InsaneEvan]

Cheers Grind! I remembered the line from somewhere, and the magic of Google gave me Mandela as the first result, so I just assumed it was him.
However the full poem was included. Weird.

Also, as a froob, no Perk Resets! Less complicated... but far less effective! Yay? But IPR? Most likely.