ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/Less profession restrictions
| Guild Wars 2 Suggestions |
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New concept of professions (Discussion)
Forgive the somewhat vague title and this garrulous rant of mine, but it's unfortunately necessary to articulate my point completely, and I believe I've covered all limitations, such as art and models. This sounds complicated but it's really not, just think about it for a second. I had the unusual idea to remove the "primary" professions system entirely... almost. This will sound somewhat somewhat unbalancing or impractical at first, but I implore you to finish reading before you judge.
The profession system in the original Guild wars is and always has been balanced and largely adequate: two professions, one of which is somewhat limited in its usage. For the purposes of actual gameplay, this system will remain unchanged. What my implementation might change would be the primary profession system off the battlefield. In a nutshell, I want to make primary professions changeable. Of course, this would be difficult given that armor, energy, and in the case of the Dervish, even health are based off of the primary profession. However, an astute observer will note that all of those things are derived from one facet: armor. Armor controls all aspects of the character that differentiate it from other professions except for attributes and skills. If an Elementalist were to put on warrior's armor, he/she could essentially run around like a warrior with 20 max energy, 80 (+20 vs. physical) base armor, and (as the armor is warrior's) use warrior runes. All that would need to be done beyond this is the simple change of primary attributes: Energy storage becomes strength. What's left is an Elementalist character model... and, more relevantly, a character with all of its previous titles, zones unlocked, quests completed, etc. Rather than further needless rambling, I'll go ahead and outline the central points:
- Primary profession is changeable. This follows the same restrictions as secondary profession changing: only in non-combat areas (I say non-combat because many areas are non-instanced in GW2, so the concept of "town areas" may be different), you must unlock the profession first, etc.
- When the primary profession is changed, the charcater gains access to the primary attribute of that profession, but loses access to their old one. In this same way, any insignii/runes that are limited to their old profession on their armors are rendered null: they exist, can be viewed/salvaged/overridden/etc., but take no effect.
- When a character is created, the player chooses from several models, one for each profession (example: warriors are big and bulky, necromancers are wiry and bent over, Ritualists are contortionists, etc.). These models have nothing to do whatsoever with the professions. It does, however, have everything to do with armor art. Note that armor art and armor are two entirely different concepts, explained in detail below. The model chosen defines the armor art: thus, choosing the model elementalists use in GW1 would grant access to elementalist obsidian armor in GW2 as an art style (assuming said armor even exists).
- Armor art is the difference between, for example, Obsidian and Ascalon armors.
- Armor (or armor stats) is the difference between, for example, a warrior cuirass with a Radiant Insignia and an elementalist's robes with a Blessed Insignia. The former has 80 armor, +20 vs. physical, +10 while in a stance, and grants 0 bonus energy and no additional energy regeneration. The latter has 60 armor, +10 while enchanted, grants 5 energy, and gives 0 additional energy regen. Those are statistics, having nothing to with the appearance of the armor itself.
- Armor will have something of a "color wheel" of runes: there will be a radial menu on each armor piece when right-clicked (or whatever), this will allow players to choose the profession any runes they are attaching it to will affect. As an example, let's say our currently Elementalist primary character wants to upgrade his Tyrian armor chestpiece so he can play as a warrior. He already has a Blessed Insignia Rune of Minor Energy Storage on it now, but that only applies when he's an elementalist primary. To do this, he right-clicks his armor, causing a radial menu with 10 icons to appear. He clicks the one with the Warrior icon, and two empty slots appear near his armor icon: one says "I" for Insignia, the other says "R" for Rune. He clicks-and-drags a Radiant Insignia into the I slot and a Rune of Superior Vigor into the R slot. His chestpiece now grants +3 energy and +50 health, in addition to the default statistics, but only when he has the Warrior primary active. He then switches his primary profession to warrior (which is done the same way secondary switching is now), causing his armor to change "active statistics." It looks the same, but instead of the 60 armor, +10 while enchanted, and +1 energy storage, it gives +3 energy, +50 health, 80 armor, +20 vs. physical. When he switches back to Elementalist, he'll still have his other rune & insignia available for use.
Again, armor art is affected by the character model chosen at the beginning of the game. I believe that's all that needs to be shown, feel free to add anything if you feel I have left some holes in the design.
- Why this is a good idea
- More physical variety amongst professions.
- Less title/XP grind, as one character can serve all purposes if properly outfitted and prepared.
- Why it may not work out
- It may be somewhat difficult to implement.
- ANet may wish for players to have many characters, rather than one "catch-all" character (Note that this doesn't prevent players from getting as many characters as they desire, it merely alleviates the need to do so).
