So we all know that CoS will not have classes but a skill system.

We know that CoS will have five Leagues of magic and that a player can use any of the thirty Cadres, which are basically a pre-made study curriculum that, if followed, will help the player become a certain style of character. This is as close to a class system as the game offers. You could say CoS has 30 classes but a player does not have to follow the Cadres at all and just custom build there charater.

And we all know that CoS and Jatar like to hear from Potential players.

So lets use this thread to post idea's and debate those Idea's for skills, spells and Abilities.

Lets Assume that all the standard skills are in place. IE 1 handed slash, 1 handed blunt, ect.

(I will try to keep this post updated with the list)

List

Duel Wield - allows Player to use a weapon in each hand 

Lifesteal direct damage - takes life from target and heals caster

Lifesteal damage over time - takes life over a short period of time and heals caster

Snare - slows target movement speed

Hmm...

Light sKill:  shines light from the player who used the spell for 15 minutes (simpler than carrying a torch).

Protect Minimum:  defence +10% for 20 minutes

Protect Medium:  defence =20% for 20 minutes

Protect Maximi\um:  defence +30% for 20 minutes

Earth's Grip:  MaK es target unable to move for 60 seconds (attacK s may weaK en this spell.)

_______________________________________________
 

Also, by abilities, do you mean things lie lumberjacing and herblose?  I would love to see herblore in the game.

Mike, we do plan on having a light Ability, but it's a little different than you are thinking.  You can 'throw' light.  Example: there is a dark hallway ahead, you can send light down the hallway, lighting it briefly to see what is hiding in the shadows.  Or, send up a 'flare' into the night sky to light a battlefield.

The thing is, we don't want to eliminate the use of torches in the game.  Your character holds a torch, and the light is very realistic.  If you are attacked while holding a torch you will have to decide what to do.  Hit the monster with the torch?  Toss it to the ground so you can pull a weapon (which will cause the light of the torch to come from the ground, making for weird shadows and less light).  Anyway, yes to a Light Ability, but not to replace torches, they are too much fun.

Originally posted by Jatar

Mike, we do plan on having a light Ability, but it's a little different than you are thinking.  You can 'throw' light.  Example: there is a dark hallway ahead, you can send light down the hallway, lighting it briefly to see what is hiding in the shadows.  Or, send up a 'flare' into the night sky to light a battlefield.

The thing is, we don't want to eliminate the use of torches in the game.  Your character holds a torch, and the light is very realistic.  If you are attacked while holding a torch you will have to decide what to do.  Hit the monster with the torch?  Toss it to the ground so you can pull a weapon (which will cause the light of the torch to come from the ground, making for weird shadows and less light).  Anyway, yes to a Light Ability, but not to replace torches, they are too much fun.

Sounds neat.

Something which really pulls my interest in CoS is the realism.  For instance, in several games, the torches aren't even carried.  They just show light without my character even holding the torch....just doesn't make much sense  to me; since I didn't know my character was a walking lightbulb

I love the idea of holding torches.  Just a quick question, will weather effect torches?

Weather is something we're still developing, so how it affects torches is yet to be decided.  However, we are considering (not promising) that heavy rain could put out a torch (but not a lantern) and wind could affect the flame.  We'll see.  We have many weather related effects under consideration, but at this time they are back burner to getting our primary technology and game play working together.

I don't know if this has been announced yet, but maybe knowing some of those preset "classes" will help with this thread...

As for skills:

<Insert Weapon type> specialization - Increase weapon damage by x%

Heal - Duh

Stealth - Make character invisible and undetectable for 60 seconds, deactivated when certain actions are done

Sprint - Increase movement speed by x%

Rage - Increase Weapon damage by x% and health by x% for given amount of time

Mana Tap - Trade off health for mana

Health Tap - Trade off Mana for Health (kinda like Heal i suppose, but w/e)

Lightning, Fire, Ice, Wind, etc... bolt - shots x number of bolts at a target

Curse - Deal x damage over x amount of time

Area Heal - Heal all your ally's in a given amount of area

Just some ideas I have, but I'm sure MMO Magic knows what they're doing with the skill system and has there ideas down.  Just listing skills would be to hard because we don't know much about the combat system and what it's all about so making skills up would be pretty hard.

Originally posted by dafuzzle

Just some ideas I have, but I'm sure MMO Magic knows what they're doing with the skill system and has there ideas down.  Just listing skills would be to hard because we don't know much about the combat system and what it's all about so making skills up would be pretty hard.

My suggestion would be to think outside the box.  Try to think of something that you'd like to see in a game that maybe you haven't seen before or really liked from another game.

There are no bad ideas, even bad ideas can spawn great ideas.  Mundane things like "add X damage" or "dual wield" are probably things that have already been thought of... it's the ideas that you may not normally see that Jatar is probably interested in.

Remember that not every ability has to be a combat ability or an ability that just damages or just heals.  Abilities that just buff you or your group are also useful and having something unique can really add flavor to someone's skill lineup.

I would like to see some sort of Necromancery, kind of like the ability to summon minions, have diseases or "plague" spells which do damage and debuffs plus some of the spells actually effecting you partially, like taking blood for summoning.

Originally posted by demonic87

I would like to see some sort of Necromancery, kind of like the ability to summon minions, have diseases or "plague" spells which do damage and debuffs plus some of the spells actually effecting you partially, like taking blood for summoning.

Yeah, I would like to see that as well.  I love the idea of summoning especially, but it should be a challenge.

For instance, if a player wants to summon a dragon, they must complete a quest that involves them getting different pieces of a dragon (one tail, a pint of blood, and a dragon's eye).  And for each one, they have to travel through some twisted adventure to achieve them.

what i want to know is if spells and abilities could hit multiple things at once. i just think that this would be awsome.

Originally posted by noobzor

what i want to know is if spells and abilities could hit multiple things at once. i just think that this would be awsome.

First off, you must have lots of opponents at once in order to hit several at once, we are trying to give you battles with lots of opponents some of the tiime.  And yes, there will be area of affect type attacks, as well as multi-strike capabilities for certain abilities.

This is, of course, not earth shaking, many if not most MMOs offer the ability to attack multiple opponents.  I just want to assure you that this basic need is also met in CoS.

We are going a little further in this area with something we call 'Uber' abilities, which are truely 'earth shaking' in their power  to do mass destruction (and other things).  However, other than teasing you by mentioning them, I can't tell you more at this time.  Some things must be saved for later :)

What about every skill having an equal and opposite effect, so that in strength there is a weakness...

generic utility skills would not fall under this effect though, so mainly combat related skill lines. 

Originally posted by Isane

What about every skill having an equal and opposite effect, so that in strength there is a weakness...

generic utility skills would not fall under this effect though, so mainly combat related skill lines. 

Hmm, interesting idea.

It could lead in the 'timing' of the skill and how long it takes to happen.  For instance, if I were to use an "uber" ability, which is very powerful, then I will be vaulnarable to attacks, as well as it lowering my defense.  So you will be dealt higher damage if using a stronger skill (since your guard will be down).

Or, perhaps if I use, for example, "fire ball" I will be more vaulnarable to water within 15 seconds of using the skill.  This would actually lead to much more active combat, since for every move your opponent does, you can find a weaknes...Really good idea, Isane.

p.s.  Sorry for typos...nto my day.

Originally posted by mike470

Originally posted by Isane

What about every skill having an equal and opposite effect, so that in strength there is a weakness...

generic utility skills would not fall under this effect though, so mainly combat related skill lines. 

 

Hmm, interesting idea.

It could lead in the 'timing' of the skill and how long it takes to happen.  For instance, if I were to use an "uber" ability, which is very powerful, then I will be vaulnarable to attacks, as well as it lowering my defense.  So you will be dealt higher damage if using a stronger skill (since your guard will be down).

Or, perhaps if I use, for example, "fire ball" I will be more vaulnarable to water within 15 seconds of using the skill.  This would actually lead to much more active combat, since for every move your opponent does, you can find a weaknes...Really good idea, Isane.

p.s.  Sorry for typos...nto my day.

I wrote a paper about 5 or 6 years ago , which uses a 3D globe . And maps varying type of game elements within these globes using an equal and oppposite approach.

So there was an alignment globe and a skill globe which had for example magic and metal opposite, stealth and ranged opposite. By moving a pointer within the globe you basically had skills that made up a class and all the opposites. There are 5 globes overall but i'm not saying what the other 3 are :), but they fall into kingdom/influence and global effects.

Charachters could also specialise to negate certain opposites in about 4 areas so you could for example have a magic wielding tank... and negate the fact that the two don't combine well.

(The idea is if you get some exceptional damage coming in the odds are you know the weakness straight away and if the other player happens to be an opposite to you it has amusing effects)

Originally posted by mike470

Originally posted by Isane

What about every skill having an equal and opposite effect, so that in strength there is a weakness...

generic utility skills would not fall under this effect though, so mainly combat related skill lines. 

 

Hmm, interesting idea.

It could lead in the 'timing' of the skill and how long it takes to happen.  For instance, if I were to use an "uber" ability, which is very powerful, then I will be vaulnarable to attacks, as well as it lowering my defense.  So you will be dealt higher damage if using a stronger skill (since your guard will be down).

Or, perhaps if I use, for example, "fire ball" I will be more vaulnarable to water within 15 seconds of using the skill.  This would actually lead to much more active combat, since for every move your opponent does, you can find a weaknes...Really good idea, Isane.

p.s.  Sorry for typos...nto my day.

Mike this may make more sense but this is a summary of thoughts that may make more sense, used for initial write up.

Interesting read Isane, my head hurts now.

One thing I realized you say is that magic won't go with tanking (just an example).  IMO I don't really like that idea, because it takes away from the freedom of becoming whatever you want.  Players shouldn't not pick an ability because they want to be a tank.    All abilities should be able to be done by everyone (remember, Isane, there are no classes in CoS).

The problem with that Isane is that it makes it class based in a way since you limit skills based on what you pick, so I don't see it working since CoS is purely a skill based game.

Originally posted by dafuzzle

The problem with that Isane is that it makes it class based in a way since you limit skills based on what you pick, so I don't see it working since CoS is purely a skill based game.

No different from a soft cap on skills, and that system above is purely skills.

Originally posted by mike470

Interesting read Isane, my head hurts now.

One thing I realized you say is that magic won't go with tanking (just an example).  IMO I don't really like that idea, because it takes away from the freedom of becoming whatever you want.  Players shouldn't not pick an ability because they want to be a tank.    All abilities should be able to be done by everyone (remember, Isane, there are no classes in CoS).

 

I should be a little clearer the abilities are also skills, oh it is hard i may rewrite this with no reference to anything but skills. When i refer to skills it's an analogy a mix of skills create ' what would be perceived as a traditional class', certain sets of skills will not work as well with others.

And the abilities are a type of skill, they are all learnt through use or a trainer, it is just that there will always have to be different classes of skkills, passive/ combat / trade ... etc etc I just refer to combat related as an ability.

 Magic will go with tanking it is just that certain combinations are very powerful, and traditionally don't mix. What the system above develops is skill based but with some long term development. oh well never mind, i just spent some time ages ago looking at a framework that would be skill based lend itself towards a very flexible item system and also provide some longevity. its also traditional fantasy... so elements that are really opposites have to be developed.

Skill based sytems should allow charachters to develop base on actions but if they allow everyone to everything you will have a ig problem there wont be a game.

(Anyway it was only a few suggestions, and I am a true believer of letting developers develop and I will play the game so whatever comes out I will try it.)