Far range artilery seems rough, short of spotting them from a distance Alisha really doesn't have much else that works at far range. Might be possible just through sheer will with a rifle, but still something to think about.
But ya, basic plan for Alisha seems to be to spot foes at a distance, sneak in, do some major damage, gtfo with speed if it comes to worst.
Keep in mind that builds can shift significantly and you can totally push focus in other directions. Whether that's focusing on a given tree in ways that change its apparent focus (Farsight has the potential for long range builds, for instance, at a number of scales) or looking for new skills or items that change your paradigm, or trying to proc other core nodes or unlock the currently locked ability trees for existing nodes.
As a side note, Alisha knows that you get +1 to all stats per level, gear total tends to top out at around twice its average level in its focus stat(s), and you get some stat increases from leveling skills to certain points as well.
Skill cap, while I'm at it, is 50 + Level, with Core Node abilities that increase the cap by 10 per. Its believed the hard cap is 150, but no one got there in the beta.
[X] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[x] [COLOR] Orange accents under smoke black fur
[x] [FRAME] …large, fluffy frame. (Presentation: Attention-grabbing, soft, comforting)
Be the fluffy void with some shining bits of star light. Orange is cooler then red, be a bit of a Halloween catfox.
[x] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[x] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[x] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[x] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[x] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[x] [GAMING] whatever your friends are doing. You honestly don't care much what part of the game it is. You'll do whatever, as long as it's working alongside someone you get along with. It's the teamwork and mutual support you want, more than a specific goal.
Why not play up being a fresh faced catfox thing (now with fire) but raised by our strange elf parents? I'd say with our character being lonely in space with whatever space disease we have, we might love the whole embodying someone else and making friends while going places.
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] content creation. You're not a huge star by any means, but you like to make things outside of the game, about the game. Art, videos, guides, streams, whatever seems relevant, you've tried all of them at least a bit.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[X] [GAMING] whatever your friends are doing. You honestly don't care much what part of the game it is. You'll do whatever, as long as it's working alongside someone you get along with. It's the teamwork and mutual support you want, more than a specific goal.
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] crafting. You love crafting systems, and frequently end up providing for your guildmates and making fortunes of in-game currency. There's something really rewarding about making your own gear, and having your friends use things that you made.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
Our main trick is the use of multiple weapons. If we can gun and melee at the same time without putting the gun in auto-fire, that's two sources of attack. If the gun must be put in auto-fire, the damage gets drastically reduced, but it's still significant (33% of ATK for the auto-gun).
If we can do pyromancy/floramancy at the same time, that's a third source of damage.
Comparatively, point blank shots and ambush predator are only giving us about 5% more and 15% more respectively. The point blank shots bonus is based on FCS and only for firearms to boot, so we don't need to mould our playstyle to it if we don't want to. Ambushing we could still do, because our defense isn't great in a stand-up fight.
Skillwise we have Firearms, Natural Weapons, Stealth, Floramancy, and Pyromancy. I don't know if skilling up all 5 will be harder than just one. Right now they're all at lvl 1, so we can just use them all equally. Maybe later if we find one of our skills is much more developed than the others, we'll want to specialise.
We're not doing great on defense, with our endurance (the main defense stat) being low in the first place. The increase from Environmental Absorption out of the Druidic Training Core Node isn't giving much more (5-6 Def). The extra defense against fire from Felixar Flameheart isn't all that dramatic (10 Def vs fire).
Stealth is our real defense, but stealth is always all or nothing. There's also dodge, but that doesn't have a stat, and might rely on actual skill and reaction time.
For other tricks that might help us avoid damage, maybe if we can do some combat floramancy, or play keep-away with fire.
Defense skills: Stealth and maybe Floramancy/Pyromancy.
Crafting:
With Floramancy, Herbalism, Woodshaping and Mining, Saphielle's has good crafting potential. 4 crafting skills from 8 core nodes at lvl 1 is probably quite high right from the get-go. Cartography is also on the table, which may help with exploration so we should probably try unlock that.
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] crafting. You love crafting systems, and frequently end up providing for your guildmates and making fortunes of in-game currency. There's something really rewarding about making your own gear, and having your friends use things that you made.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[X] [COLOR] …bright blue with a powder blue undercoat. (Color of pure ignition of propane)
[] [FRAME] …fluff hiding a lithe frame (Presentation: soft, comforting, but surprisingly agile and skillfull when the the situation calls for it) @notthepenguins
got a write-in for the frame, a mix of general attitude being soft and comforting (without the flamboyant part), and a "lithe, slender"y attitude in fights and steatlh. Is that ok?
[X] [FRAME] …lithe, slender frame. (Presentation: Nimble, agile, skillful)
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] crafting. You love crafting systems, and frequently end up providing for your guildmates and making fortunes of in-game currency. There's something really rewarding about making your own gear, and having your friends use things that you made.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[X] [GAMING] whatever your friends are doing. You honestly don't care much what part of the game it is. You'll do whatever, as long as it's working alongside someone you get along with. It's the teamwork and mutual support you want, more than a specific goal.
Just generally floating from activity to activity, as mood (and availability, and friends) dictates.
got a write-in for the frame, a mix of general attitude being soft and comforting (without the flamboyant part), and a "lithe, slender"y attitude in fights and steatlh. Is that ok?
[X] [COLOR] Orange accents under smoke black fur with the Propane blue Speckled deep in
[X] [FRAME] …large, fluffy frame. (Presentation: Attention-grabbing, soft, comforting)
[X] [COLOR] …coal-black with red accents.
[ ] [COLOR] …red with orange accents.
[ ] [COLOR] …orange with red accents.
[ ] [COLOR] …something else. (Write in, must be fire-themed in some obvious way)
Hm... my first choice for coloration isn't a listed option and doesn't really fit with the theme, anyway. Out of the listed options, I'd go with orange with red accents... but literally no one else has voted for it. I can see the appeal of black with red accents and I definitely don't want to be blue (really stands out, bad for a stealthy vibe, and I just don't like blue much), so coal black with red accents gets my vote here.
Your build was an easy decision, though the fine-tuning took a while. You preferred a…
[X] [FRAME] …lithe, slender frame. (Presentation: Nimble, agile, skillful)
[ ] [FRAME] …large, burly frame. (Presentation: Powerful, durable)
[ ] [FRAME] …large, fluffy frame. (Presentation: Attention-grabbing, soft, comforting)
[ ] [FRAME] …small, wiry frame with a few carefully-placed scars. (Presentation: Runty, scrappy)
[ ] [FRAME] …small, cute frame. (Presentation: Friendly, cute, likeable)
[ ] [FRAME] …something else (Write in, needs approval, must affect chosen/preferred social presentation)
Pretty easy decision, especially factoring in that looking at the votes, right now it's between lithe and slender and large and fluffy. Between those two... I can see the appeal of large and fluffy, I really can, I think it could lead to fun possibilities, and I even considered voting this way... but we're supposed to be a stealthy ambush predator. Large and fluffy is even described as 'attention-grabbing'. If we're lithe, we can decide when we want attention and when we want to blend in or slip away unnoticed. Also, in general, I really like building characters where it feels like all the pieces fit together.
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[ ] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[ ] [GAMING] player-versus-player combat. There's nothing quite like pulling out all your skills and tricks and pitting them against someone else's. Some of the most rewarding moments you've ever had were the end of a hard-fought duel. You've even won a few small tournaments!
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] crafting. You love crafting systems, and frequently end up providing for your guildmates and making fortunes of in-game currency. There's something really rewarding about making your own gear, and having your friends use things that you made.
[X] [GAMING] achievement hunting. You see a bar, you want to max it out. You want to grind out faction reputation, jump through hoops in dungeons, whatever helps you fill out that achievement list.
[ ] [GAMING] content creation. You're not a huge star by any means, but you like to make things outside of the game, about the game. Art, videos, guides, streams, whatever seems relevant, you've tried all of them at least a bit.
[ ] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[ ] [GAMING] whatever your friends are doing. You honestly don't care much what part of the game it is. You'll do whatever, as long as it's working alongside someone you get along with. It's the teamwork and mutual support you want, more than a specific goal.
A particularly meaningful vote, I think, in terms of the big picture, what is our focus and the focus of this narrative going to be? Since we're talking MMO... I'm voting for the things I actually like doing in an MMO, makes sense to me; I'm hopeful that will make for a similarly enjoying narrative. Which: I like every type of exploration. I like exploring for stuff to find and do, and I also like exploring for its own sake and sometimes explore even when I know there's nothing to do or get in an area, just to have done it all and seen it all. And huting for lore and questing to me is another type of exploration. I really do at times like to try to see and do everything. I also like crafting skills, if a game has a lot of non-combat stuff that's well done I sometimes focus on that way more than on combat; it also kind of falls under the heading of 'do everything'. Achievement hunting definitely motivates me, I can't help it, I find it very rewarding and I can enjoy the added direction it gives, though at other times I find myself thinking, why do I feel so motivated to do this instead of something I'd have more fun doing?
On the other hand, regarding things I'd tend to avoid... For one, I tend to be a loner in games. I usually enjoy the world a lot more than the other people in it. I usually spend most of my time solo if I can get away with it. I've literally never done organized raid stuff (and thinking about the way that some games make you to to actually get 'strong'... makes me glad I've avoided those games). So, for me, raiding and doing stuff with friends is not a priority. I'm not an isolationist; sometimes spending time with friends in a game can be wonderful and wanted, but on balance I play solo. I tend to avoid PVP, too. It's stressful and usually not that rewarding. Sometimes it can be fun or exciting, and sometimes I'd dip my toe into it, maybe; I wouldn't avoid it always and under every circumstance, but... mostly. Plus it falls under the heading of being social, in a way. In games I prefer interacting with the world itself (including NPCs) more than other players, yeah. Not into the content creation thing, probably because I'm a bit old. And NPC politics and factions... Maybe. It could be interesting. It's not why I'd tend to play a game, but I could see myself getting into it. Out of all the things I'm not going to vote for, it's probably the one I'd be most likely to spend the most time playing with if given the opportunity... although there's also a chance I'd totally ignore it in favor of more traditional exploration stuff. (To me, playing with NPC politics and factions I'd kind of conceptualize as another way of exploring a game's world, more than anything: exploring NPC interactions and seeing what happens is a form of exploring to me. So maybe keep that in mind, especially since I'm sure we will do some of this, as it's gotten quite a few votes.)
[ ] [DESTINATION] The forest
[X] [DESTINATION] The village
[ ] [DESTINATION] The spire
[ ] [DESTINATION] Somewhere else (write-in, needs approval)
I mean. I get wanting to just head off into the forest, but when a game puts you right next to a village, you're *supposed* to go into the village. It's obvious. Sure, the forest is tempting, I agree, but if you skip the village, you risk missing stuff. I don't like missing stuff. Gotta have a thorough look around the village, then we can hit the forest... definitely can't go straight to the spire, that's the 'skip lots of stuff' route. Me, I'd probably spend a relatively long time (and I mean a really long time: even someone who's reasonably thorough moves through a game a LOT faster than I usually do) exploring the village and then the forest before ever even thinking about the spire and only hit up the spire when I was convinced I'd found *everything* everywhere else, since it's the obvious 'move on/trigger next major thing' point and I like to see everything available before further advancing the story. Or you DO miss stuff.
Unrelated to voting: Really impressive amount of work put into the character sheet, abilities, etc. I'll save comments until it becomes more relevant for decision-making, but I do appreciate the work. Definitely some interesting things there to look forward to, and it does give our character some interesting grounding.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[X] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[x] [GAMING] whatever your friends are doing. You honestly don't care much what part of the game it is. You'll do whatever, as long as it's working alongside someone you get along with. It's the teamwork and mutual support you want, more than a specific goal.
[X] [GAMING] crafting. You love crafting systems, and frequently end up providing for your guildmates and making fortunes of in-game currency. There's something really rewarding about making your own gear, and having your friends use things that you made.
[X] [GAMING] player-versus-player combat. There's nothing quite like pulling out all your skills and tricks and pitting them against someone else's. Some of the most rewarding moments you've ever had were the end of a hard-fought duel. You've even won a few small tournaments!
[X] [GAMING] content creation. You're not a huge star by any means, but you like to make things outside of the game, about the game. Art, videos, guides, streams, whatever seems relevant, you've tried all of them at least a bit.
[X] [GAMING] achievement hunting. You see a bar, you want to max it out. You want to grind out faction reputation, jump through hoops in dungeons, whatever helps you fill out that achievement list.
You contemplate sequence-breaking the start for a moment, rushing ahead to the local hub (if that was what it was) and seeing what quests you could do there. Quests which out-leveled you a bit were usually the best way to get experience, in your opinion, as long as it was a game with a skill component. But you weren't playing Eclipse Arc to rush yourself to the level cap, and the game had even done you the courtesy of giving you a starting quest with your backstory tied in. It was a better idea to head to the village you were clearly intended to start at.
If it turns out to be boring you can always just ditch, anyway.
You break into an easy trot, wind ruffling your fur… and stop again. Normally, you'd get starting equipment, clothes and so forth, but you didn't feel anything on you. That makes sense, you suppose, given your species, but you should still figure out what your starting gear was. Hopefully they hadn't taken away your starting weapon just because you had claws and teeth.
You open up your equipment page and tilt your head curiously.
Well, you certainly didn't start with anything equipped. It is interesting, though, that they adjusted your gear slots to your body plan. Would gear automatically change its shape? How did a tail slot even look?
Your eyes catch on an icon on the equipment screen that you hadn't seen during the beta, a claw icon next to where your weapons would go. You tap it with one paw and the screen changes, displaying the details of your natural weaponry.
Hm… you contemplate that for a moment. You haven't ever really looked into the damage system for Eclipse Arc, but they seem… good? At the very least, them scaling with your level would mean that you always have an okay melee weapon. And there will probably be upgrades to them in your Felixar Flameheart node, if nothing else.
You shrug and move over to your actual inventory. And there it was.
There it is. In Eclipse Arc, there is a sharp divide between your Inventory and your bags. Your Inventory is sacrosanct. Nothing can remove things from it but you, no one can look into it, and when you put something within it the item vanishes from the world entirely. The tradeoff is its sharply limited size. Your Inventory can only have four items in it, total. Exceptions exist, 'stackable' items like most gathering materials count each stack as one item, but the slot limit is extremely tight. If there's a way to increase it, no one found it during the beta, and honestly, you doubt that there is one, as the intent is clearly to force people to use the other form of item transport: bags.
Bags, when Equipped, can hold more items, as one would expect. They are limited, however, by a maximum number of slots and a maximum amount of weight. In return, you get convenience: an Equipped bag shrinks down to a manageable size, reduces the weight of its contents, and the game lets it 'cheat' physics a bit to stay on you in the kinds of rapid movements people – that is to say, you – love so much in VR games.
Unfortunately, there is a limit on the number of bags you can have Equipped at once. One at level one, two at level ten, three at level twenty, and so on.
Nothing stops you from carrying more – you can just shove things into a sack and drag it around – but if you do that you have to deal with all the inconveniences of actually dragging a sack of objects around. In the beta, a few high-level crafters found recipes for magical bags that helped solve some of those issues… but they couldn't find the materials the recipes called for, so no one knows how well they work.
You equip the ⧼Canvas Bag⧽ and feel it appear on your back, strapped down with some sort of… you crane your head around to see, and spy a leather band, sort of like a belt. Interesting. You think about equipping the gun, but well… you don't exactly have a good way to hold it aside from making it float around you as a Bonded Weapon. And walking up to the village with a shotgun floating over you seems like something that could start you off on the wrong foot.
You continue your trip to the village, loping along easily past fields of plants you don't recognize, and arrive before you know it.
The village itself is dominated by a large structure with a duo of smokestacks, each letting out a steady stream of white smoke. Several wagons – overgrown carts, really – wait at a pair of large double doors, though whether they're used for delivery or pickup is hard to say. People bustle back and forth, along the street and going into the myriad of other buildings and shops, but as they catch sight of you they almost invariably slow to a stop, panic, and then see the bag on your back and calm down. Maybe they've never seen a Felixar before?
A short figure, some kind of halfling if you had to guess, slips out of the industrial building, wearing gray traveling robes with a peacock green hat and rust-red metal gauntlets. That sort of chaotic gear combination meant it was probably a player; NPCs usually had some sense of style.
Further down the central road sits a raised building, needing stairs up from the street to enter, with a tired-looking Hicys man in dull scale armor standing guard outside. A town hall or courthouse, maybe?
To your left, a bit before the large industrial building, is what is unmistakably a West Victorian tea house. You can't say you expected to find something right out of the Meiji era in here, but it gives the place a nice, classical vibe. As you watch, a woman wearing leather chaps with a vaquero hat strides angrily through the batwing doors, leaving them swinging back and forth, slats clattering. A revolver sits at her hip, and you see a star-shaped badge pinned to her vest.
Your tail swishes back and forth as you consider your next step. It doesn't take long, though – you settle on…
[ ] …catching up with the other player. Early quests go better with a buddy anyway.
[ ] …intercepting the vaquero. That badge meant she must be a lawman, so she probably had a quest to give.
[ ] …headed into the town hall. Whoever was in there would have a good idea what needed doing.
[ ] …something else? (Write-in; needs approval but I'm not gonna be too restrictive on it. The world is your oyster)
Inventory and equipment has been added to the character sheet.
[ ] Skulk about rummaging through NPCs things while their not looking. Afterall, the best quests are the secret ones you unlock by poking your nose into places your not allowed. @notthepenguins this work?
[ ] Skulk about rummaging through NPCs things while their not looking. Afterall, the best quests are the secret ones you unlock by poking your nose into places your not allowed. @notthepenguins this work?
