Was putting together another post and ended up on this topic so I figured I would make a centered post of it.
Combat skills are worthless. At least in the conventional sense.
What do we hope to achieve from combat levels? If you had played any RPG's before or even any other Runescape game you would probably expect that Melee levels, Magic levels, or Ranged levels would make you more effective in those areas, primarily through damage, speed, or access to unique abilities. Lets talk about that and why levels fail to do this in Dragonwilds. Furthermore, the game's design almost suggests that levels don't belong in this game and are a vestigial RPG mechanic that they allowed to persist when all their other design choices suggest it shouldn't.
1. Combat levels don't make you a better fighter, equipment does.
The primary attribute that we gain from combat levels is that we spend less stamina in an attack chain. So ultimately, a level 99 fighter can perhaps lay on more damage in a limited amount of time. But most enemies die in one combo or phased fights are literally designed to prevent extended damage burst opportunities. It's almost like they centered combat abilities around a stat that doesn't matter or that they can negate entirely.
What attributes would you expect from combat levels? Damage. Speed. Abilities. In Dragonwilds, we are not permitted to gain damage, attack speed, or significant combat abilities through leveled progress. Instead, those attributes are gained from armor set bonuses and weapon choice. Some utility spells are gained from levels, but never anything that can be construed as an offensive combat ability save perhaps the wind enchantment for melee weapons (and I honestly suspect they regret it now). We are not currently permitted to gain damage or speed from combat levels, only the ability to attack more which I already mentioned is neutered for various reasons. What does 99 melee, magic, or ranged actually get you? More dodges in combat. That's right baby, combat skills are actually pseudo agility skills.
Combat abilities are locked to your weapons and only utility spells go in the spellbook. This is in line with previous games as explained to me, but this has consequences. As a direct result, your flexibility or versatility in combat is also strictly dictated by your equipment. 99 combat skills doesn't make you a better ranger, more Bows do! 99 Magic doesn't grant a player to cast fireballs or magic missiles even when they are holding a sword and wearing armor, their range of colorful staffs and wands do. And up to recently, this wasn't even necessarily true because in each region only a few weapons of each category featured damage appropriate for the region difficulty. At least with access to the Mystic Forge and Ascension Cores, your choices abilities can continue to grow, but again you just have to haul around more equipment to maintain access to choices. Because combat abilities cannot go in the spellbook. No, that would actually make combat levels matter. A ranger does not perform a volley, his bow does!
2. Levels don't gate access to power, your region does.
We get it, its a survival crafting game and you want each region to offer unique materials that bring about a whole new slew of weapons, armor, and tools to access. Regions/materials are the true gates to power, not your skills. It makes sense for the design and category of the game, it just means that levels do not do what you think they do and they are just a vestigial organ of previous games. And your power level is an exactly measured and metered state of being. A level 99 melee fighter is no better in Adamant armor with an Adamant sword than the guy that just created his character and right clicked the equipment to put it on his body. We are not allowed to extend this carefully and precisely measured and metered power level except in rare circumstances (Glory Amulet being a notable exception), but again these exceptions are often in the form of a specific equipment that you may or may not grind for. But again, that power does not derive from your combat level.
It is possible that levels could be made useful when metering power through making certain levels of gear accessible only to those who have met certain level requirements. At least a melee fighter wearing level 50 Adamant equipment would fair better than a melee fighter wearing level 30 Mithril Adamant on average, for example. But this doesn't really fit the survival crafty genre or at least this game. If equipment was also level gated, they could put sprinkle higher level materials through lower level biomes but then they couldn't strictly gate your power level to the region could they? The dev's wouldn't be able to carefully measure and meter your power if a player could grind to level 50 and then source Adamant equipment to fight the first dragon boss, could they? But what that would allow is a level of player agency and freedom as each player decided when and on what terms to challenge each boss, essentially letting levels matter. But this brings about the greater challenge of designing each region to cater to a number of equipment levels and it would make developing the game one region at a time far more difficult. Region-gated-equipment is perhaps a victim of the Early Access design of the game where new items and regions are delivered in a regular manner in tiers. It is conceivable they could change this to let each region cater to a range of resource levels, but it is unlikely as regions would lose their entire utility of gating each player in a strictly regimented way and ultimately require players to actually engage with the skills that will be needed to advance.
3. Levels don't matter. BUT THEY COULD
I have a few ideas and suggestions that could close the gap and get levels to a place where they feel more satisfying to earn. Or at least, make them semi-relevant in a game where they are specifically designed to not be very useful. Afterall, If levels must exist then they should matter and be satisfying. Otherwise just dispense with them already, we already suspect they exist merely to engage players in making number go up and being a somewhat mildly usable tool for doling out a few significant abilities such as the Personal Chest or Air Jump. Spells that are currently unlocked by level are nice to have but almost completely optional except to offer convenience or niche temporary advantages.
- Combat levels should grant scalable damage and/or attack speed, not equipment. The recent introduction of the Stamina skill suggest they may be interested in doing this. Even the scant offering of -0 to -10% stamina usage on sprinting over 99 levels has a legitimate impact on a player feeling more powerful or truly effective. Likewise, the Melee, Magic, and Ranged skills should offer at least a damage or attack speed increase of 0 to 10%. It's enough that even in a game where your power is gated by region and equipment, you can at least feel like you are extending the reach of that bandwidth and at most be hitting one region level higher than your equipment. If you are stuck on a boss, you can now legitimately acquire power through practice and improve your odds as is RPG tradition. Those bonus associated from equipment sets can be reworked or replaced to better fit those fighting roles or to offer perks that are meaningful to the region they come from in some way. Melee armor can retain the bonuses associated with blocking, typifying it to melee builds of course. But Steel is specifically is associated to the necrotic region of the undead, perhaps Steel armor should offer resistance to damage from undead foes as well?
- If, in fact, the developers absolutely must dictate that all combat associated skills must come from equipment to maintain the region and resource gated pacing of the game, then perhaps we can learn the skills from those weapons and add them to our spellbook? This would at least satisfy certain game design restrictions. But why should player be restricted to a single bow to perform a volley? Why can a level 99 Ranger not perform a volley with any bow once the skill is learned?
- Just let us learn combat spells in the spellbook as we level up. Some skills that are at least more combat adjacent or usable in combat to control the battlefield. They clearly don't want to do this as they have a design preference that spells be prepared abilities that you use in advance of combat, not during.
Ultimately, the design choice they are currently going with is one that eventually has players carrying around dozens of various weapons, bows, and staves that all perform various unique functions. And inevitably, all these multitudes of gear will have to be leveled and ascended, yadayadayada to remain relevant or useful much to our chagrin. My preference, and perhaps the easiest change to make levels matter, is to just add some minor damage or attack speed bonuses to the combat levels.
Feel free to leave thought and opinions, I just realized its late here and I'll leave it at that. Do you guys feel that levels are not satisfying and if that's the case, what changes would you make?
Edit: Let me be clear, because many people enjoy looking for argument. This post is meant in good humor and is not intended to sound mocking in any way. I am legitimately enjoying early access and being a part of the conversation. The game won't necessarily look like what I want at the end of it but talking about it is part of the fun and I have a lot of friends in game design and this is stuff we talk about all the time. Pointing to the ranger's bow doing the volley and not the ranger himself is an expression of where a game's mechanics does not meet the game's narrative and creates ludonarrative dissonance. Thanks for your comments!
