Difference between revisions of "Sacred 2:Combat and Game Basics"

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==Auto Levelling Explained==
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{{Languages}}
  
Or perhaps more, Why Auto Levelling is Your Friend.  There has been a lot talk on the forums lately in respects to auto levelling, because after it was discovered how Oblivion handled it, gamers really, really didn't like it.  This section details the auto levelling in Sacred 2 and also explains why it's a completely different mechanic to the way Oblivion handled it, and also why in fact, we need auto levelling or the game itself will become unplayable. So here we go:
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== Combat Basics ==
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Injury to both you and your enemies is calculated in "hit points". Once your hit points (or your enemy's) are depleted, your (his) life is ended. Your current life reservoir is reflected in the red portion of the oval around your portrait in the upper left corner of the screen. Your enemies' are reflected in a horizontal bar that appears when you target them by placing the mouse cursor over their image.
  
===Oblivion vs Sacred 2 Auto Levelling===
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Your effectiveness when fighting as regards to melee and ranged is determined by several factors.  In particular, the damage you inflict upon your enemies depends upon three main factors:
  
First up, there is a misunderstanding about auto-levelling - people are using the term as interchangeable between how Oblivion handled levels and how Sacred 2 does.  The two are not the same so lets clear this up.
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* Your [[Sacred 2:Attack Speed|Attack Speed]] – How quickly do you strike your opponent?
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* Your "Chance To Hit" – How likely is it your blows will land?
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* The [[Sacred 2:Damage|damage]] dealt per hit – How hard do you hit?
  
Oblivion adjusted the monsters based on your level.
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Similarly, the injury they do to you depends upon the same factors, but in mirror image.
  
Please look at what I wrote there, as it's important: It adjusted the '''monsters''' based on '''your level.'''
 
  
This means, the monsters ''changed''.
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== [[Sacred 2:Armor|Armor]] ==
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Increased levels of [[Sacred 2:Armor|Armor]] provide greater Resistance by enabling more effective use of equipment, and also permit increased movement speed by reducing the encumbrances imposed. Armor may also affect the regeneration times of your Combat arts and plays a great part in balancing Combat Arts.
  
The monsters actually changed. This meant you could never do what gamers love doing, which is getting ahead of the power curve. You could never go and craft that perfect weapon, and then come back to fight that awesomely hard monster that was there earlier, guarding some chest that you were curious about. Why not?  Because it's now changed into something even harder to match your character level.
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== [[Sacred 2:Attack Speed|Attack Speed]] ==
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The rate of attack for any character is affected by her Attack Speed rating ("AS"), and also by the type of weapon in use. Some weapons, such as daggers, are intrinsically faster, while others, such as two-handed swords, are innately slower. Additionally, certain characters have a natural ability to use some weapons faster than other characters. You should be aware of this synergy. Selecting an appropriate lore (e.g. Hafted Weapons for use with Thaine's Axe) can increase attack speed. Your attack speed is not affected in any way by the enemy you are fighting.
  
This is far, far, FAR different thing to adjusting the monster '''level''' based on '''your''' level:
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== [[Sacred 2:Chance To Hit|Chance To Hit]] ==
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Sacred 2 differs greatly from Sacred with the inclusion of new modifiers like evasion and others that make the process of choosing socketables and/or armor that offer benefits for hitting enemies successfully much more complicated. With Sacred, the only element a player had to consider was Attack, while Sacred 2 introduces evasion.  The Chance to Hit Calculator will calculate all chance to hit modifiers and easily help players determine if what they are wearing, socketed or wielded as weapon is increasing or decreasing their chance to hit.
  
* Sacred 2: If a rat goes from level 1 to 40, that's one thing.  
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== [[Sacred 2:Combo|Combo]] ==
* Oblivion: If a rat is a rat at level 1, but a [b]minotaur[/b] at level 40, that's something else.
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Most Combat Arts can be placed in combos to increase their potency. For instance, a [[Sacred 2:Shadow Warrior|Shadow Warrior]] could create a combo of [[Sacred 2:Demonic Blow|Demonic Blow]] and [[Sacred 2:Frenzied Rampage|Frenzied Rampage]] (for one hard hit to one monster and several smaller hits to it or other nearby monsters if the first one has perished). Up to three Combat Arts may be included in a combo if a player has taken the skill [[Sacred_2:Combat_Discipline|Combat Discipline]] or four Combat Arts if a player has achieved  Combat Discipline mastery (75 hard skill points).  Without Combat Discipline, a combo may only contain two Combat Arts.
  
So Sacred 2 auto-levelling is not the same as Oblivion, therefore the arguments that pertain to Oblivion's system and why it was horrible, do not apply to Sacred 2's.
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== [[Sacred 2:Damage |Damage]] ==
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The actual damage inflicted upon your opponent again depends upon both your character and your opponent. The higher your damage value, the greater the injury; while the higher their successful resistance v.s. the type of damage being inflicted, the lesser the injury.
  
===Challenge and Difficulty===
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== [[Sacred 2:Damage Types|Damage Types]] ==
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Regarding the 5 elements used ingame, involving damage and their corresponding Chance for  [[Sacred 2:Secondary Damage Effects|Secondary Damage Effects]]
  
Now the reason auto levelling comes under fire, is actually because players aren't finding the game challenging enough and blame it on the auto-levelling feature.  Auto-levelling is, actually, a moot point since the '''real issue''' is that there is ''no challenge'' and that gamers cannot get ahead due to the perceived auto-balancing.  Lets look at another popular hack 'n slash RPG, Diablo 2. In Diablo 2 for example, you could find a great weapon, and suddenly you were at the upper end of the power curve.  The power curve is the balancing mechanism that provides challenge.  It ensures you are not to strong, and also that the enemy is beatable.  In Diablo 2 it fluctuated a lot, you found a monster who was better, then you levelled up got a new skill and were back up there. It was a constant struggle which was enjoyable. In Sacred 2 the difficultly appears fleeting, if not absent.  Here are a few possible reasons from my experience so far:
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== [[Sacred 2:Damage Mitigation|Damage Mitigation]] ==
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Damage Mitigation is an extremely important aspect in Sacred 2 Fallen Angel and its expansion, Ice and Blood. In essence, it means that a certain part of the damage your character had just taken is completely omitted before any other damage calculations begin (armor rating, resistances, etc.).
  
1)  It didn't get as much attention as it should have.
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== [[Sacred 2:Day/Night Cycle|Day/Night Cycle]] ==
2)  The world is huge and free-roaming (talk about this in a second).
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The sun rises and sets every day in Ancaria, though the Day and Night have little effect on the game world.
3)  The level range is huge, 1-200.  Put that in perspective, Titan Quest was 1-75 and Diablo 2 was 1-99.
 
  
Sacred 2 has a huge difference to Diablo 2, it has a fully open world.  Each area has level caps for the monsters.  So the rats in the first area around Sloeford actually cap out at level 37.  The reason for this, is that as per the manual, you get experience based on the level of the creature you defeat.  You can't go and kill thousands of creatures that are level 1, who provide no challenge for your level 80 Seraphim, because they give you 0 XP.  The closer their level gets to your character level, the better, the higher compared to your character level the better too as then the highlight for the enemy creature is red which yields maximum experience.  The reason enemies increase in power as you do, and the reason that they are capped as I was saying, is because then you have time to explore this massive area, and level up and so on, '''without''' exhausting the supply of enemies around your level - so you get enough experience to level up.
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== [[Sacred 2:Enemy Levels|Enemy Levels]] ==
  
Diablo 2 [http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Experience did the same thing], except they capped the max too.
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=== [[Sacred 2:Auto Leveling|Auto Leveling]] ===
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Comparisons have been made between Sacred 2's method of balancing player to monster difficulty via leveling to that of Oblivion's. Sacred 2's auto-leveling of enemies is a wholly different method than Oblivion's and is, in fact, needed for Sacred 2 to function properly.
  
In Diablo 2 the world is linear (randomised, but closed).  It's like a complex maze.  The enemies are staggered in their level. Look at the way the enemies' levels are organised on [http://www.d2tomb.com/monsters3.shtml this page.]  They offer a good range, but are ''all around the same average level.''
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Many players interchangeably use the term auto-leveling with the understanding that leveling is handled the same way in both Oblivion and Sacred 2, while both in fact are different. An important consideration which distinguishes the two as being different, is that Oblivion would introduce a completely new monster type to offer a player challenge as his levels increased, while Sacred 2 would simply offer the same type of monster but at a different level.
  
SoPlayers '''were always fighting monsters around their level''', by nature of the way the game was controlled - it was a closed system, and players were known to be of a certain level by the time they reached area X or whatever.  If you were not, then you got depreciating returns in experience - and thus found it very hard, like the jump from normal to nightmare and nightmare to hell - as there were usually a few levels disparity between the two, ie, they didn't match up precisely.
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In Oblivion, it would be difficult for a player to do what a majority of gamers have done in the past, which is getting ahead of the power curve while remaining there indefinitely and receiving good experience regarding the same chosen monsterIt is impossible to go and craft a ''perfect'' weapon, with the hope in returning to destroy the previous enemy with ease especially if it was guarding a treasure chest that the player was curious about. This would have been impossible to do because the monster that was previously guarding the treasure chest, as in Oblivion would have now changed into a more powerful monster to match the character's new level.
  
===Summary===
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This is a significant difference from simply having an upwards adjustment to an enemy's ''level'' based upon a player's new ''level'' as in Sacred 2. Sacred 2 auto-leveling of enemies will have a rat (enemy) leveling from one to forty, which is different from Oblivion's method of increasing player to monster difficulty, which would have introduced a completely different and new monster type, a Minotaur for example,  to match the player's level at forty.
  
So, this has been a long read, but the auto levelling criticism is being levelled at Sacred 2 incorrectly.  The very last thing I will say, is that the initial areas are like a '''MASSIVE''' tutorial section. There is little challenge there ''on purpose'', you get to explore, poke about with your character and do some quests.  Because the game is so huge, this drags on a bit, because many veterans from action RPGs will play Sacred 2, and get to grips with the game immediately, they will wonder what's going on.  Why is it so easy, and even if they stick it out to level 30, it will still be easy.  One player on their official forums said that the game really starts around level 50, and if you look at some of the Hardcore players, you will see a lot of deaths at this stage.  Don't let the fact that because the developers decided to ''show you the monster level'', that it's doing something different, or indeed, that it's doing something different to our favourite games like Diablo 2.  It really isn't.
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The two types of leveling found within Sacred 2 and Oblivion are distinct and markedly different from each other.
  
The slow start is a bit of an issue in my opinion, because a level 37 character, for example my Shadow Warrior has almost fully cleared the entire starting area, and has just started to find some challenging battlesAll I can say is stick with it, as you will begin to see where the game goes and really enjoy it.
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== [[Sacred 2:Experience|Experience]] ==
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Each character gains experience for every kill made and when the character has gathered sufficient [[Sacred 2:experience|experience]] it will advance to a new level, allowing it to improve it's skills and attributes. The [[Sacred 2:experience|experience]] required to reach the next level increases with each level obtained, making each successive level more difficult to achieve.
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== [[Sacred 2:Graphical User Interface|Graphical User Interface]] (GUI) ==
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This is the interface on the screen the screen that the player uses to interact with the various features of the game.  It has many components.
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== [[Sacred 2:GUI Map|GUI Map]]==
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This is the map the player uses in the game to navigate AncariaThere is a hand-drawn world map as well as a highly detailed terrain map.
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== [[Sacred 2:Survival Bonus|Survival Bonus]] ==
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The longer your character stays alive without dying, the more your character's stats will increase.
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== [[Sacred 2:Spell Intensity|Spell Intensity]] ==
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Allows a character (or monster) to deal maximum damage with his spells more often.

Latest revision as of 19:01, 30 September 2013

Combat Basics

Injury to both you and your enemies is calculated in "hit points". Once your hit points (or your enemy's) are depleted, your (his) life is ended. Your current life reservoir is reflected in the red portion of the oval around your portrait in the upper left corner of the screen. Your enemies' are reflected in a horizontal bar that appears when you target them by placing the mouse cursor over their image.

Your effectiveness when fighting as regards to melee and ranged is determined by several factors. In particular, the damage you inflict upon your enemies depends upon three main factors:

  • Your Attack Speed – How quickly do you strike your opponent?
  • Your "Chance To Hit" – How likely is it your blows will land?
  • The damage dealt per hit – How hard do you hit?

Similarly, the injury they do to you depends upon the same factors, but in mirror image.


Armor

Increased levels of Armor provide greater Resistance by enabling more effective use of equipment, and also permit increased movement speed by reducing the encumbrances imposed. Armor may also affect the regeneration times of your Combat arts and plays a great part in balancing Combat Arts.

Attack Speed

The rate of attack for any character is affected by her Attack Speed rating ("AS"), and also by the type of weapon in use. Some weapons, such as daggers, are intrinsically faster, while others, such as two-handed swords, are innately slower. Additionally, certain characters have a natural ability to use some weapons faster than other characters. You should be aware of this synergy. Selecting an appropriate lore (e.g. Hafted Weapons for use with Thaine's Axe) can increase attack speed. Your attack speed is not affected in any way by the enemy you are fighting.

Chance To Hit

Sacred 2 differs greatly from Sacred with the inclusion of new modifiers like evasion and others that make the process of choosing socketables and/or armor that offer benefits for hitting enemies successfully much more complicated. With Sacred, the only element a player had to consider was Attack, while Sacred 2 introduces evasion. The Chance to Hit Calculator will calculate all chance to hit modifiers and easily help players determine if what they are wearing, socketed or wielded as weapon is increasing or decreasing their chance to hit.

Combo

Most Combat Arts can be placed in combos to increase their potency. For instance, a Shadow Warrior could create a combo of Demonic Blow and Frenzied Rampage (for one hard hit to one monster and several smaller hits to it or other nearby monsters if the first one has perished). Up to three Combat Arts may be included in a combo if a player has taken the skill Combat Discipline or four Combat Arts if a player has achieved Combat Discipline mastery (75 hard skill points). Without Combat Discipline, a combo may only contain two Combat Arts.

Damage

The actual damage inflicted upon your opponent again depends upon both your character and your opponent. The higher your damage value, the greater the injury; while the higher their successful resistance v.s. the type of damage being inflicted, the lesser the injury.

Damage Types

Regarding the 5 elements used ingame, involving damage and their corresponding Chance for Secondary Damage Effects

Damage Mitigation

Damage Mitigation is an extremely important aspect in Sacred 2 Fallen Angel and its expansion, Ice and Blood. In essence, it means that a certain part of the damage your character had just taken is completely omitted before any other damage calculations begin (armor rating, resistances, etc.).

Day/Night Cycle

The sun rises and sets every day in Ancaria, though the Day and Night have little effect on the game world.

Enemy Levels

Auto Leveling

Comparisons have been made between Sacred 2's method of balancing player to monster difficulty via leveling to that of Oblivion's. Sacred 2's auto-leveling of enemies is a wholly different method than Oblivion's and is, in fact, needed for Sacred 2 to function properly.

Many players interchangeably use the term auto-leveling with the understanding that leveling is handled the same way in both Oblivion and Sacred 2, while both in fact are different. An important consideration which distinguishes the two as being different, is that Oblivion would introduce a completely new monster type to offer a player challenge as his levels increased, while Sacred 2 would simply offer the same type of monster but at a different level.

In Oblivion, it would be difficult for a player to do what a majority of gamers have done in the past, which is getting ahead of the power curve while remaining there indefinitely and receiving good experience regarding the same chosen monster. It is impossible to go and craft a perfect weapon, with the hope in returning to destroy the previous enemy with ease especially if it was guarding a treasure chest that the player was curious about. This would have been impossible to do because the monster that was previously guarding the treasure chest, as in Oblivion would have now changed into a more powerful monster to match the character's new level.

This is a significant difference from simply having an upwards adjustment to an enemy's level based upon a player's new level as in Sacred 2. Sacred 2 auto-leveling of enemies will have a rat (enemy) leveling from one to forty, which is different from Oblivion's method of increasing player to monster difficulty, which would have introduced a completely different and new monster type, a Minotaur for example, to match the player's level at forty.

The two types of leveling found within Sacred 2 and Oblivion are distinct and markedly different from each other.

Experience

Each character gains experience for every kill made and when the character has gathered sufficient experience it will advance to a new level, allowing it to improve it's skills and attributes. The experience required to reach the next level increases with each level obtained, making each successive level more difficult to achieve.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

This is the interface on the screen the screen that the player uses to interact with the various features of the game. It has many components.

GUI Map

This is the map the player uses in the game to navigate Ancaria. There is a hand-drawn world map as well as a highly detailed terrain map.

Survival Bonus

The longer your character stays alive without dying, the more your character's stats will increase.

Spell Intensity

Allows a character (or monster) to deal maximum damage with his spells more often.