Weighting / Padding / Sighting Rescale
One of the major goals of redesigning the system was to open up Weighting/Padding/Sighting (from here referred to as W/P/S) services from behind the auction quality service wall due to its power level. To accomplish this, the numbers have been rescaled to create a system that benefits at lower amounts of W/P/S but maintains game balance as players work towards higher amounts.
At a high level, the new values follow the following chart
| Old value | New value | Old value | New value | Old value | New value | ||
| 1 | 10 | 11 | 180 | 25 | 1000 | ||
| 2 | 20 | 12 | 210 | 30 | 1500 | ||
| 3 | 30 | 13 | 240 | 35 | 2000 | ||
| 4 | 40 | 14 | 270 | 40 | 2500 | ||
| 5 | 50 | 15 | 300 | 45 | 3500 | ||
| 6 | 70 | 16 | 340 | 50 | 5000 | ||
| 7 | 90 | 17 | 380 | ||||
| 8 | 110 | 18 | 420 | ||||
| 9 | 130 | 19 | 460 | ||||
| 10 | 150 | 20 | 500 |
Simply put, the amount of W/P/S needed to go from old style 39 to 40 points (100) is significantly more than the amount needed to go from old style 4 to 5 (10) points. The old values are now breakpoints at which the combat effectiveness of the W/P/S are fed into the combat systems, and very little has changed in how they are used in combat. The new values provide a means to advance the weapon in a more granular way. The above chart shows the lowest value required to achieve that level of combat effectiveness, with additional points working towards the next increase in combat effectiveness.
Item Enhancement
W/P/S properties of armor and weapons have been moved into a dedicated attributes. Doing this will open the possibility of item systems that have been previously blocked due to overlap.
Permanent item enhancements such as flares/permabless/TD/Defender/etc will now be able to be on the same item as a W/P/S item. Adding these properties to currently W/P/S items will still be auction type wins, but adding W/P/S to items with those existing properties will be allowed as the system has been build around allowing W/P/S services on these items.
Temporary item enhancements such as blessing, guiding light flares, and eblade will be castable on W/P/S items up to specific limits, and with reduced effectiveness than a non-W/P/S item. This includes reduction to the AS bonus, flare potency, and/or charge counts of the temporary enhancement. As a general guideline, anything that assess at heavy and over will not accept a temporary flare, and will be very challenging to bless for all but the most skillful clerics. Consecrate (1604) will be very beneficial towards the blessing of weapons, especially those with more than heavy weighting.
W/P/S items are now also player enchantable, and no special temper potion is required! A difficulty penalty to success that correlates to the amount of W/P/S on the item, very similarly to ensorcell. Ensorcell difficulty penalties will remain the same in the new system. The penalty only increases when enough services have been acquired to actually increase the combat effectiveness of an item. An item that is "in between" combat effectiveness levels does not increase in difficulty until the next level has been reached.
Last but not least in the space of item properties is that each W/P/S type now occupies its own attribute, meaning items can now have both CRIT and DAMAGE weighting or padding, and both will be applied during each combat interaction that would normally benefit from them.
Services Model
Moving to the above rescale allows W/P/S services to be offered more commonly at events, and even through automated NPCs. W/P/S offerings will be at most events, big or small, free or otherwise. Wandering merchants may also offer the service on occasion. While it is debuting at Duskruin as a bloodscrip service, it will be offered for silvers at most other venues. The system is built to replace the randomness of limited raffle wins and reward consistent progression.
A 60 day Service Window is started at the first W/P/S on an item. Every W/P/S service done to that item within that 60 days will increase the Service Count within that window. Items will become more expensive to work on as the Service Count increases. Prices increases happen at Service Counts of 5, 10, and 15, with significant prices increases starting at 20+. On the first service after 60 day Service Window ends, the Service Window and Service Counts are reset. Prices for low service counts will be accessible to most players, while those with deep pockets willing to pay more to push into higher service counts can make improvements faster.
Base item pricing will be determined based on the other attributes of the item, including (but not limited to) enchant, flares, resistances, scripts, etc. The price of a single service of W/P/S is consistent no matter how much of that W/P/S type is on the item, but there is a surcharge for other types of W/P/S on the same item.
Item Conversion
Finally, current W/P/S items will be converted to the new system automatically by performing many normal game actions with the item. If you aren't sure, take it to your warrior friends to have them assess the item. These items will see no change in effectiveness on conversion, HCP armor is still HCP of the same value on the new scale.
Note The smithy at Duskruin is not open just yet so we can observe the system and make sure its stable. We'll be observing the system to make sure its operating like we expect and then will announce the opening of the smithy separately.
This message was originally posted in Hunting and Combat, Weighting and Padding. To discuss the above, follow the link below.
http://forums.play.net/forums/19/212/2268/view/65
