User talk:Diablerie
Notes on Game Balance
One of the issues I ran into while working on the Claws + Monk Gear mod was game balance. Powerful weapons are cool, but making something too powerful, too early in the game just isn't fun.
Fortunately (in a sense), hand-to-hand combat was already underpowered in Oblivion. Adding on-strike damage to gauntlets and claw weapons would bring it up to par with weapon combat. Then, to avoid having the player "lose" a slot, I could add additional properties to the item.
My rule of thumb is not to make items more powerful than anything that already exists in the game. Trancendent Sigil Stones are useful guidelines for this. For example, the best sigils can do 25 points of elemental damage, increase stats by 12, give 35% elemental resistance, or 20 points of shield.
Gauntlets use the hand slot, so doing damage and adding a "replacement" gauntlet ability would make it a fair item. Claws use the ring slot, and it's possible to equip two, so claws should only do half damage. I intentionally made on-strike claws and gauntlets not equippable at the same time.
Price works as a balancing factor only at low levels, where money is limited. By the time the player reaches level 15+, he can buy pretty much anything in the game. I think the best way to make items specifically for a higher level character is to make a level-limited quest.
-- Diablerie 11:25, 10 June 2006 (EDT)
Discussion
Comments are welcome! Please don't edit the table below, though. -- Diablerie 11:25, 10 June 2006 (EDT)
Claws + Monk Gear Item Plan
| Item | Item Type | How to Get | Abilities | Critical | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stonefist Bracers | bracers | merchant | Health damage 3; Block 6 | ||
| Bracers of the Sun | bracers | merchant | Fire damage 10; Light 30; Resist fire 15 | ||
| Elemental Bands | bracers | hidden merchant | Fire, Frost, Shock damage 5; Hand to hand 10 | ||
| Fists of Flame | leather gauntlets | merchant | Fire damage 5 | ||
| Hands of Oblivion | daedric gauntlets | hidden merchant | Fire damage 15; Strength 10 | ||
| Touch of Rime | fur gauntlets | merchant | Frost damage 5 | ||
| Frostbite | blades gauntlets | merchant | Frost damage 10; Damage speed 5 | ||
| Arctic Grip | glass gauntlets | hidden merchant | Frost damage 15; Frost shield 10 | Boost frost shield? | |
| Gloves of Lightning | steel gauntlets | merchant | Shock damage 5 | ||
| Stormtouch | orcish gauntlets | merchant | Shock damage 10; Fortify speed 8 | ||
| Thunderfist | elvish gauntlets | hidden merchant | Shock damage 12; Weakness to shock 50 (on strike) | ||
| Fist of the Brawler | knuckles? | merchant | Health damage 2; Hand to hand 4 | Damage strength 5 | weak set |
| Fist of Might | knuckles? | merchant | Health damage 2; Strength 4 | " | |
| Claw of the Bear | claws? | merchant | Frost damage 5; Strength 5; Resist frost 20 | ? | medium-powered set |
| Claw of the Tiger | claws? | merchant | Fire damage 5; Agility 5; Resist fire 20 | " | |
| Silent Death | katar? | hidden merchant? quest? | Poison damage 8; Shield 16; Sneak 10; Light, Heavy armor -100 | Fire damage 10 | strong set (unarmored) |
| Swift Retribution | katar? | hidden merchant? quest? | Poison damage 8; Shield 16; Athletics 10; Light, Heavy armor -100 | " | |
| ? | folding katar? | quest | ? damage 11; ? | Paralysis 2 secs | ultimate set; paralysis too powerful? |
| ? | folding katar? | quest | ? damage 11; ? | " | |
| Blade of Final Rest | claws? | guild merchant | Health damage 8; Disintegrate armor 80; Light armor 10 | Frost damage 3; Disintegrate weapon 200 | Dark Brotherhood set |
| Blade of Pestilence | claws? | guild merchant | Poison damage 5; Weakness to poison 50 (on strike) | " | |
| Hand of Justice | knuckles? | guild merchant | Frost damage 8; ? | Restore health 25 (on self) | Fighters Guild set |
| Hand of Valor | knuckles? | guild merchant | Shock damage 8; ? | " | |
| Bound Claws | daedric claws? | guild merchant (spell) | Fire damage 6; Damage intelligence 5; Damage wisdom 5 | Restore magicka 25 (on self) | Mages Guild set (summonable) |
| Bound Claws | daedric claws? | guild merchant (spell) | Fire damage 6; Damage magicka 10 | " | |
| Blade of the Deceiver | punchblade? | guild merchant | Health damage 8; Luck 5; Sneak 10 | Demoralize 75 | Thieves Guild set |
| Blade of the Infiltrator | punchblade? | guild merchant | Health damage 8; Agility 5; Security 10 | " |
Mod Planning/Discussion
General questions:
- Should there be a set of claws for each guild, or just some of them?
- Create new quests or tie in to existing quests?
- What kind of set bonuses for the claws?
One possibility is to have some sort of "critical strike" ability for claws. If matching claws are equipped, have a chance of doing extra damage on each hit. -- Diablerie 08:56, 11 June 2006 (EDT)
- I think crit strike chance for a matching set of claws is a great idea, if it can be done it's definatley the way to go. It would differentiate the claws from the gauntlets. I'd also say that the stronger claws should be better than the gauntlets, since they are the main focus of the mod, i mean the gauntlets can be any gauntlets , but the claws and katars are what is percieved to do extra damage. Also no damage gauntlets and claws at the same time. -- Cryo
To limit the level at witch you can get them i'd say place them on fixed level bosses , so even if a level 5 gets the quest, there is no way he can defeat the level 40 boss using the Blades of Final Rest for example.
Also have longer quests to get the whole set, for example you find out about a powerfull set of claws, and have to search someone out who knows their location and find each claw separatley in some dungeon or on some boss.
Another way to recieve quests is from books, like have a rare book that forifies h2h by 1 and tells you about the possible location of a certain pair of claws. -- Cryo
- I found an excellent place to have a hidden merchant and/or a quest giver. There's an "isolated house" in the southwest of Cyrodiil. On the world map, it's just north of the "st" in "The West Weald". The house just has some unimportant bandits in it, and they can be replaced with one or more NPCs. -- Diablerie 16:23, 12 June 2006 (EDT)
The DB and fighters guild claws are ok, i'd say add in some special Punchblades for the thieves guild that fortify sneak as well as do damage, but no claws for the mages guild though (or maybe a strong summonable set) -- Cryo
- Summonable claws! Awesome idea! Making a spell that "fakes" a bound item should be doable. It would be helpful if you could make a set of claws with a daedric texture, preferably ones that attach from the back of the hand. -- Diablerie 16:23, 12 June 2006 (EDT)
- Yeah ok i'll make a set of daedric claws, i already stared working on the katar model today , and on the ultimate claw set, i was thinking of dragon claws, seeing as how dragons are the most powerfull creatures in nirn (or whatever the world is called) plus it would look cool having dragon claws as weapons, now i just have to settle on a design -- Cryo
I'll write more as i get ideas, this is shaping up great so far -- Cryo