Sunday, October 12, 2008

WAR stuff that doesn't make sense:

There are a lot of things in WAR that don't make sense, but these can often be attributed to bugs. I've found a few things that are most likely bugs, but if not they definitely require further explanation from Mythic. Here is the list, I'll let you be the judge:

1. Archmage dodgy dealings?
When the Archmage charges their tranquility or high magic to max, tiny Gork and Mork icons appear behind the flames. Is the Archmage batting for the Greenskins, or was this a dev cut and paste error from the Shaman?


2. Healing deals damage?
Why is healing measured in DPS? Shouldn't it be HPS (Health Per Second)?


3. Everyone is right handed?
Why are all the weapons right handed, and the shields/focus items left handed? I'm sorry, but all left handed babies are shot...


4. All weapons at the same level deal the same DPS?
I think it's odd that a staff can deal the same DPS as sledge hammer or great axe in melee. I could understand if the staff shot fireballs or something but no, it's a whacking stick. I know which one I'd rather be hit with...


5. Can't thank the Auctioneer?
Why does mail from Auction House have a reply button on it that doesn't work? Why does it even have a reply button to begin with?


6. DPS math a bit odd?
All weapons have a DPS rating and a speed rating. To get the damage value of the weapon, you divide the DPS by the speed (assuming speed is measured in seconds). This of course would indicate that every weapon has a set damage. A 16 DPS, speed 2 weapon would deal 8 damage per hit.

Here's the weird thing, if you set your char on auto attack, the damage is not constant. The values that come up vary (ignoring crits). Maybe the label should read 'average DPS'?


7. No auto-attack for pistol?
Why does the Witch Hunter pistol have a DPS and speed rating if you cannot use it on auto attack? It can only ever be fired via the use of a skill. Wouldn't it make more sense for pistols to just have a damage rating?


10 comments:

Elementalistly said...

My personal favorite is the DPS math.
Conan was slammed for having odd percentage numbers to calculate how damage or mitigation is done..
Yet, so many MMO's really have some type of Voodoo going on.
WAR seems to also be guilty of some of the same issues.

We can't forgot the infamous issue with "NO TALKING" as well. Why would a game with such a focus on grouping and a need for community interaction have such silence within the overall chat channels..
Stargrace discusses the need of community

Any new player never hearing of a MMO blog may be mystified over this total lack of interaction.

Funny stuff though...now, hit me with that stick please and keep your hammer to yourself.

Thallian said...

nice catches

Crimson Starfire said...

@openedge
There is definitely some kind of voodoo happening with the damage calculations in WAR. I could probably work it out with trial and error, but cba atm. Some smart guy will figure it out and post it on the forums.

Got to love the high damage whacking stick ;)

@thallian
Thanks mate.

Anonymous said...

The pistol is actually used for Witch Hunters during auto attacks as part of the dual wield mechanic.

Generally the animation is of the butt end of the pistol being used.

Crimson Starfire said...

Wow, I didn't even know about dual wielding pistols... that's awesome! I'll have to take a look later. Cheers for the info.

Melf_Himself said...

I think he meant, dual wielding with one sword and one pistol (ie, the way every witch hunter starts the game).

You can't only dual-wield pistols.

Crimson Starfire said...

Oh man... I got all excited for nothing :(

Anonymous said...

#2 is kind of a semantics issue. Healing doesn't deal damage...but it does "heal" damage. So it is appropriate to measure in DPS.

You don't heal a person whose life points are full. You heal the damage that causes their life points to drop below full.

It would, however, be appropriate to put HPS (Health per second) instead but is another acronymn to remember. Just remembering the operative word deals/heals allows using the same acronymn.

Anonymous said...

1. Probably not an error, but rather laziness and/or lack of time

2. They've standardized everything to DPS to make it a uniform unit of measure. Toughness reduces dps taken, strength increases dps dealt, willpower increases dps healed, etc. A little silly, but people know what it means.

3. Order: Left-handedness is a sign of the taint of chaos. Left handed babies are killed.
Destruction: Left-handedness is a sign of the weakness of order. Left handed babies are killed.

4. The base dps is the same, but all the non-staff weapons in that list hit harder than the staff. The sledge and waraxe are slower, so hit harder, plus the +60 strength equates into even more damage per hit.

5. Silly, but that's the smallest problem the mail system has :p

6. The term 'DPS' is an average, and always has been. Also, you take the DPS number and multiply by the speed, not divide. So the weapon in your example would generally deal a 32 damage hit every 2 seconds (or 16 damage per second). The actual damage of the weapon might be 24-40, which is also 16 dps. Why Mythic hides the damage range I don't know, but they did it in DAoC too.

7. As others have said, the speed will determine the damage per hit of your off-hand auto-attacks.

Crimson Starfire said...

@graktar
Wow... you almost made sense of everything that didn't make sense. I should have known better about the DPS stuff... bad math on my behalf.

Nice work. Cheers Graktar.