-Don’t Panic and Bring a Towel-
I understand the reticence people have with change, especially change in things that they love. Change can be a terrifying and frightening thing. Like a dragon hatchling tapping against its shell, we always risk knocking on a larger world that we cannot possibly hope to fully understand from where we lay. And as the pieces of our understanding fall away and we poke our heads from our comfortable little homes, we are assailed by the cold, fresh air, both terrifying and exhilarating.
My initial offerings were not nearly as fleshed out as these and offered a potential path forward. I was astounded at the responses; it was not a cry that the ideas were horrible, but that dragons needed time to reflect on the changes already presented and implemented. There is some logic in this. This game was originally named Horizons – it had its sights on a vast and distant horizon, but it stumbled because it did not look where it was going. It saw the great and beautiful mountains in this distance and failed to notice it was standing in quicksand.
Despite this, I still believe in the concept of the horizon. But we cannot let ourselves fall victim to extremes. We cannot allow ourselves to focus only on the distant horizon, and we cannot stay mired in the mud, afraid to take another step. Fortunately, we have all the time we need.
The Developer’s Desk recently posted that the remainder of the year will be spent on bug fixes and art assets. As such, it is highly unlikely that any of these ideas will be implemented or even considered. That does not mean we should forget about them, but rather discuss them now, before setting out for the distant mountains. Just developing these classes, their lore, and their spells and abilities, has taken me a month and this work is purely theoretical without any kind of actual programing.
But I was more than happy to do it, because I have a stake in where dragons go from here, as do you. Do not be afraid to discuss and to put your heart into it, but do not let your passions turn into hate and do not let your criticisms be guided by fear. In the near thirteen years I have been a part of this game and this community, I have seen great ups and downs and I have plenty of reason to fear and distrust. But I still want to see this game, and its community, flourish. That is why I have continued to return here. That is why Resurgam is my forum and character mantra. We shall rise again.
If you are reading this, you have nearly reached the end of this grand effort I have put forward. I wish to thank you for having taken the time to at least skim through it, as it has taken up quite a bit of my free time. I hope you have enjoyed it and I hope that you find at least something interesting you would someday like to see in game, even if the concepts presented in their current state are not what you would like.
Above all, remember this: don’t panic. There’s a 99% chance that this will not be implemented unless we truly clamor for it. Even with all the work I did to make this as easy to implement as possible, there is still a huge amount of work that would still be necessary in the actual coding, especially now with departures that shall be missed. It will take a great deal of time before any of this, even piecemeal, will see the light of day. Drulkar only knows if there is a dawn awaiting us over the horizon.
-Obligatory Biped Addendum-
There are a lot of interesting things that I think I’ve done here. Some things, like healing repeater spells, damage absorption shields, and so on, might be seen as desirable to bipeds as well. They have had a grand monopoly on schools since the game’s release and it has made them extremely unique – not only to the dragon experience, but in comparison with many other games. Few come close the multiclassing abilities that Istaria has. There may be some concerns that we are moving into their territory and could dilute the difference between biped and dragon play experience.
There are two things I wish to say on this subject. The first is apologia: The fact that these proposed schools are coming now, 12 years after release, is noteworthy but unlikely to change the paradigm that has existed for so long. Dragons will only attain access to them after having fully been immersed in the single-school experience, as they only unlock at 100, while bipeds have access to seven schools practically out of the door, with a grand total of 28 available, still eclipsing the proposed 7 for dragons, a full fourth of biped options. And for some dragons like myself, who have been continuously subscribed these twelve years, we have been immersed in this single school long enough. I am hopeful that the stances and the limited options will provide specialization that is flexible enough for everyone, but specialized enough to make each experience a bit more unique, both from what was, and from bipeds.
The second thing I wish to say is that I fully believe in and support the idea of biped prestige schools. In having done research on the forums for this project, I noted that a lot of opinion on the Neo schools was muted primarily because they would fundamentally alter the play experience that exists for bipeds at current. People didn’t want to change in short. And there is a reason for it – a friend of mine who had only recently tried the game said that she enjoyed the biped play experience as it was. It is simple, yet challenging, with amazing depth and options. Like the old dragon adventurer school, people don’t want it to change. But that doesn’t mean they can’t have more things, new things, interesting things to grab their attention and bring them back. Much like the dragon prestige schools, I believe bipeds would be likely to benefit from and enjoy new schools with far stepper requirements to attain than those currently available, with truly unique play styles. There have been fantastic suggestions for these schools already, as well as the tech for resource mechanics that simply are not seen in game at current.
But someone else is going to have to write those up, because I am pooped. ;p
Re: Talk to the Team: Dragon Schools: New Schools
Originally Posted by Talitha
