IIIlusionist [253384] —
Original article
Torn's array of armour and weapons has mostly stayed the same over the past few years. We've had a handful of new pieces here and there, and there was the update which gave each piece variable attributes, but overall there's been nothing to get excited about on the combat item front for quite some time.
However, as a member of the committee, I can confirm that change is in the air. Torn's people are about to be exposed to a whole new locker of weapon and armour items. And I can also confirm that this unveiling will be happening soon....ish.
So what exactly can players look forward to from this forthcoming overhaul? Well, first of all, I must clarify that although initial discussions on this subject have begun, nothing is so far set in stone. Therefore, while most of the information in this article will be close to what players can expect upon release, some aspects of the update may differ from how they are described.
To begin with, let's look at armour sets and bonuses. The aim of this update is to introduce full armour sets to the game, with each piece having their own individual bonus effects. On top of varying levels of damage reduction, these bonuses will hopefully give players an extra edge in battle. But one of the biggest changes involves the addition of armour set bonuses, with this alteration forcing players to think carefully about what they're wearing and why.
Wearing five pieces from the same armour set will provide an added bonus on top of the individual item bonuses. Players will have to weigh up the benefit of wearing a full set or mixing up pieces from different sets to compliment their play style. The specific names and bonus values are not yet finalised, but here are a few examples to give you all a little taste of what you could be decked out in.
Riot Gear - decrease enemy melee damage
Dune Armour - boost dexterity
EOD Armour - small chance to provide full damage block
Marauder Set - increase to maximum life
The possibilities regarding armour sets are enormous, and this is just one of many game-changing ideas currently being floated around. Even after the initial release, we could see more and more armour becoming available if additions are deemed necessary. But for now, let's move on and look at the changes to weaponry.
Torn has a massive variety of weapons. However, only a dozen or so are used with any regularity by players who know what they're doing. The forthcoming update hopes to reduce the number of these redundant items, making even the worst weapons usable by boosting their stats. This will be done by creating legendary weapons, whose stopping power will be boosted by increasing damage, honing accuracy and through the provision of special bonus effects.
This change should give players more freedom to experiment with alternative weapon items, while also increasing the number of different weapons used in battles - ultimately making for more interesting and unique gameplay. So does this mean that a legendary Glock could compete with a regular Armalite? No, not really.
A standard Glock will still be an absolutely useless weapon. However, the introduction of legendary weapons simply means that a legendary Glock becomes a more useful weapon to have in battle. The best weapons will remain the best weapons, with those in the middle becoming something of a grey area due to the tiered nature of legendary status.
There will be three tiers of legendary weapons; yellow/superior, orange/epic and red/legendary. Each tier will provide a boost to damage accuracy as well as providing a bonus effect, and the higher the tier, the bigger the boost you'll receive. Yellow items will give one minor bonus, with these valued at a few hundred million dollars each. Orange items will give two minor bonuses or one moderate bonus, and they should cost several billion. Red items will be the most expensive upgrades at 100 billion dollars plus, but for this price, you'll receive two moderate bonuses or one major bonus.
Legendary upgrades will be made available in weapon and armour caches, and a few ideas are floating around for how caches will be acquired. The first idea is to have them as rewards for competitive faction war victories, and another possibility has them randomly spawn abroad. But as with any significant change, there are always a few questions to be asked regarding how this will affect the status quo:
1.) Will these upgraded weapons be overpowered and make stats redundant?
2.) Will they make the elite, expensive weapons already in circulation - namely the gold-plated AK - redundant?
Chedburn has said that he wants legendary weapons to be "freaking awesome, and freaking powerful". However, he does not believe their introduction will reduce anyone's need or desire to train their stats. These boosts will be more effective the higher your stats, and no one upgrade will be so powerful as to render your attributes irrelevant.
For example, if a legendary weapon gives you a 20% boost to damage, the higher your strength, the more return you will get from the 20%, thereby encouraging players to train to unlock the full potential of the weapon. That being said, a few will remain sceptical about this change, as we have all seen with companies how overpowered some boosts can be - kick of doom and indestructible tank top spring to mind.
As we've already said, nothing is being introduced which cannot be tweaked post-release. Time will tell how the first upgrades are received, and adjustments are often needed even with the most successful updates. Either way, the end result should be "now I can beat that guy I always just barely lose to", not "now I can beat anybody" - a quote from a player which eloquently summarises how legendary weapons are intended to affect the game.
Aside from overpowered weaponry, the second concern players shared was how legendary weapons would affect the price and status of the current best weapons in the game. Some people have forked out billions for a gold AK, dual guns, pink mac, etc. So what will happen to these when the update comes?
The bottom line is that these weapons will still be some of the most powerful in the game, but over time a small handful of orange/red legendary weapons will surpass them magnificently. Let's explain how this might work by walking through a hypothetical situation.
An unsuspecting Torn player stumbles upon a weapons cache and opens it. Let's say the unsuspecting player is Champion, who we've been led to believe has a Gold AK in his possession. Champion opens the cache with his bare hands - something only a real SA member can do - and he finds a Glock.
Now, if it is a standard Glock it will have a damage value approximately 50 times less than Champion's beloved Gold AK - that's no use to him at all. But since it's only the best for Champion, it turns out he's stumbled upon a legendary red Glock. This upgrade could theoretically see the Glock's damage rating surpass that of the Gold AK, despite the huge difference in damage values beforehand. Our trusty Glock isn't looking so useless now eh.
Of course, not everyone is going to be waving a legendary red weapon around. These items will be very rare indeed, and subsequently very costly. We saw a similar effect stem from the previous update which gave certain items variable stats. This led to some armour pieces, notably combat armour, being sold for 100's of millions of dollars after being bought for only a couple of million.
The concerns raised in this article are legitimate, but since we've overcome similar problems with previous updates, there's no reason to think we can't do it again. And in this instance, the rewards on offer should far outweigh any potential negatives. In addition to the features we've already mentioned, legendary weapons will also receive one or two bonus effects such as the chance to bypass armour, passive boosts to stats, double action turn, paralyze, and the ability to replenish life based on damage achieved but to name a few.
One further bonus that might kick the salivary glands into overdrive is the Warlord weapon bonus, which is currently only a suggestion but if implemented would increase the respect gained from attacks. However, as exciting as these additions are, it's the boosting of previously obsolete items which should really get everyone's juices flowing.
As it stands now, there are a small number of obvious choice weapons and armour that most players tend to equip due to their clear superiority. This update plans to introduce hundreds of thousands of variables in both weapon and armour attributes, making it difficult, perhaps impossible, for go-to armour/weapon combinations to exist in the game.
Even legendary items will have differing values, so one red legendary item could well be significantly stronger than another red item, meaning players will be striving to continuously improve their equipment even if they hold some of the best weapons in the game. Regardless of the specific bonuses and features we end up with, this update will certainly provide a challenge for veterans and newcomers alike. There will be no easy answers as to which loadout to choose. And, there will be no obvious response regarding armour sets either.
This update is going to shift a lot of comfortable players off their backsides and into unknown territory. And I look forward to seeing who has it in them to deal with that.
However, as a member of the committee, I can confirm that change is in the air. Torn's people are about to be exposed to a whole new locker of weapon and armour items. And I can also confirm that this unveiling will be happening soon....ish.
So what exactly can players look forward to from this forthcoming overhaul? Well, first of all, I must clarify that although initial discussions on this subject have begun, nothing is so far set in stone. Therefore, while most of the information in this article will be close to what players can expect upon release, some aspects of the update may differ from how they are described.
To begin with, let's look at armour sets and bonuses. The aim of this update is to introduce full armour sets to the game, with each piece having their own individual bonus effects. On top of varying levels of damage reduction, these bonuses will hopefully give players an extra edge in battle. But one of the biggest changes involves the addition of armour set bonuses, with this alteration forcing players to think carefully about what they're wearing and why.
Wearing five pieces from the same armour set will provide an added bonus on top of the individual item bonuses. Players will have to weigh up the benefit of wearing a full set or mixing up pieces from different sets to compliment their play style. The specific names and bonus values are not yet finalised, but here are a few examples to give you all a little taste of what you could be decked out in.
Riot Gear - decrease enemy melee damage
Dune Armour - boost dexterity
EOD Armour - small chance to provide full damage block
Marauder Set - increase to maximum life
The possibilities regarding armour sets are enormous, and this is just one of many game-changing ideas currently being floated around. Even after the initial release, we could see more and more armour becoming available if additions are deemed necessary. But for now, let's move on and look at the changes to weaponry.
Torn has a massive variety of weapons. However, only a dozen or so are used with any regularity by players who know what they're doing. The forthcoming update hopes to reduce the number of these redundant items, making even the worst weapons usable by boosting their stats. This will be done by creating legendary weapons, whose stopping power will be boosted by increasing damage, honing accuracy and through the provision of special bonus effects.
This change should give players more freedom to experiment with alternative weapon items, while also increasing the number of different weapons used in battles - ultimately making for more interesting and unique gameplay. So does this mean that a legendary Glock could compete with a regular Armalite? No, not really.
A standard Glock will still be an absolutely useless weapon. However, the introduction of legendary weapons simply means that a legendary Glock becomes a more useful weapon to have in battle. The best weapons will remain the best weapons, with those in the middle becoming something of a grey area due to the tiered nature of legendary status.
There will be three tiers of legendary weapons; yellow/superior, orange/epic and red/legendary. Each tier will provide a boost to damage accuracy as well as providing a bonus effect, and the higher the tier, the bigger the boost you'll receive. Yellow items will give one minor bonus, with these valued at a few hundred million dollars each. Orange items will give two minor bonuses or one moderate bonus, and they should cost several billion. Red items will be the most expensive upgrades at 100 billion dollars plus, but for this price, you'll receive two moderate bonuses or one major bonus.
Legendary upgrades will be made available in weapon and armour caches, and a few ideas are floating around for how caches will be acquired. The first idea is to have them as rewards for competitive faction war victories, and another possibility has them randomly spawn abroad. But as with any significant change, there are always a few questions to be asked regarding how this will affect the status quo:
1.) Will these upgraded weapons be overpowered and make stats redundant?
2.) Will they make the elite, expensive weapons already in circulation - namely the gold-plated AK - redundant?
Chedburn has said that he wants legendary weapons to be "freaking awesome, and freaking powerful". However, he does not believe their introduction will reduce anyone's need or desire to train their stats. These boosts will be more effective the higher your stats, and no one upgrade will be so powerful as to render your attributes irrelevant.
For example, if a legendary weapon gives you a 20% boost to damage, the higher your strength, the more return you will get from the 20%, thereby encouraging players to train to unlock the full potential of the weapon. That being said, a few will remain sceptical about this change, as we have all seen with companies how overpowered some boosts can be - kick of doom and indestructible tank top spring to mind.
As we've already said, nothing is being introduced which cannot be tweaked post-release. Time will tell how the first upgrades are received, and adjustments are often needed even with the most successful updates. Either way, the end result should be "now I can beat that guy I always just barely lose to", not "now I can beat anybody" - a quote from a player which eloquently summarises how legendary weapons are intended to affect the game.
Aside from overpowered weaponry, the second concern players shared was how legendary weapons would affect the price and status of the current best weapons in the game. Some people have forked out billions for a gold AK, dual guns, pink mac, etc. So what will happen to these when the update comes?
The bottom line is that these weapons will still be some of the most powerful in the game, but over time a small handful of orange/red legendary weapons will surpass them magnificently. Let's explain how this might work by walking through a hypothetical situation.
An unsuspecting Torn player stumbles upon a weapons cache and opens it. Let's say the unsuspecting player is Champion, who we've been led to believe has a Gold AK in his possession. Champion opens the cache with his bare hands - something only a real SA member can do - and he finds a Glock.
Now, if it is a standard Glock it will have a damage value approximately 50 times less than Champion's beloved Gold AK - that's no use to him at all. But since it's only the best for Champion, it turns out he's stumbled upon a legendary red Glock. This upgrade could theoretically see the Glock's damage rating surpass that of the Gold AK, despite the huge difference in damage values beforehand. Our trusty Glock isn't looking so useless now eh.
Of course, not everyone is going to be waving a legendary red weapon around. These items will be very rare indeed, and subsequently very costly. We saw a similar effect stem from the previous update which gave certain items variable stats. This led to some armour pieces, notably combat armour, being sold for 100's of millions of dollars after being bought for only a couple of million.
The concerns raised in this article are legitimate, but since we've overcome similar problems with previous updates, there's no reason to think we can't do it again. And in this instance, the rewards on offer should far outweigh any potential negatives. In addition to the features we've already mentioned, legendary weapons will also receive one or two bonus effects such as the chance to bypass armour, passive boosts to stats, double action turn, paralyze, and the ability to replenish life based on damage achieved but to name a few.
One further bonus that might kick the salivary glands into overdrive is the Warlord weapon bonus, which is currently only a suggestion but if implemented would increase the respect gained from attacks. However, as exciting as these additions are, it's the boosting of previously obsolete items which should really get everyone's juices flowing.
As it stands now, there are a small number of obvious choice weapons and armour that most players tend to equip due to their clear superiority. This update plans to introduce hundreds of thousands of variables in both weapon and armour attributes, making it difficult, perhaps impossible, for go-to armour/weapon combinations to exist in the game.
Even legendary items will have differing values, so one red legendary item could well be significantly stronger than another red item, meaning players will be striving to continuously improve their equipment even if they hold some of the best weapons in the game. Regardless of the specific bonuses and features we end up with, this update will certainly provide a challenge for veterans and newcomers alike. There will be no easy answers as to which loadout to choose. And, there will be no obvious response regarding armour sets either.
This update is going to shift a lot of comfortable players off their backsides and into unknown territory. And I look forward to seeing who has it in them to deal with that.
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