DISCLAIMER: These are all conceptual ideas to represent a suggested change, and not indicative of what AGS might do with this idea were it to be implemented. This is not meant to be presented as a set in stone set of rules, nor has it been internally balanced by a development team. You are all of course willing to waste your time nitpicking the various concepts and numbers and wording and placement of passives to your hearts content. Please however do try to stick to the actual concept, not the examples of it, in your feedback. Please and thank you.
TL;DR - Make attributes viable for actions and effects and not specific weapons and their damage, with a passive effect every 50 points. FOR EXAMPLE, If I have 122 STR, and STR is giving me now a 0.5% bonus to melee physical damage per point, I now have a 61% bonus to that damage. Again, the numbers here are purely for example and do not represent any semblance of a balance pass.
The current system, where certain weapons scale directly with certain stats, and then those stats also provide a handful of small, often nearly inconsequential passive bonuses, feels very very slim and uninspired in comparison with what could be done with what we have.
Instead of scaling per weapon, and then providing passive in chunks of 50 points, I think New World would benefit overall from the Attributes acting a lot more like they do in pretty much every other game, and providing a small bonus per point, that stacks up. These bonuses could be tailored to fit the current design of weapons, while not limiting the pairing and build diversity nearly as much.
Instead of scaling the weapons themselves, scale the things that weapons do.
If it was set up this way, even pieces of gear that roll with a stat you’re not focused in will provide you some sort of benefit, even if it’s a small one. Attributes would have a lot more value past a few points of damage and a weak perk every 50 points.
Each point in an Attribute could provide a 1% bonus to the things listed below, perhaps 0.5%, I don’t know, don’t nit pick me on the numbers.
For example:
STR (TL;DR - Melee, Physical, Blocking, Stamina): Physical Damage, Melee and Ranged damage (works for abilities too, has a 1.5x bonus for Heavy Attacks), Stamina damage (to blocking targets), Reduced Stamina damage on your own blocks. Could also scale Physical Penetration, or increase Physical Resistance.
This will scale gems that do “Bleed” damage.
Its non-combat bonuses could be carrying capacity in more weight and material weight reduction.
Anything that has to do with lifting heavy things, swinging a weapon, close quarters combat, general sturdiness. STR could now be viable for the Rapier on a non-crit build, the Void Gauntlet’s melee skill, Bow Heavy attacks, or just in general provide some useful weight and stamina bonuses for anyone. Before anyone decries the “Ranged” bonuses, please attempt to use a heavy bow or a black powder rifle with noodle arms before commenting.
Currently 41.6% of all weapons scale with STR.
DEX (TL;DR Weakspots, Phys/Elemental, Crit chance, dodge): Backstab/Headshot damage, Crit chance, Melee and Ranged Damage (1.5x bonus for light attacks, works for abilities too), reduced Dodge cost, Maximum Stamina.
Could also scale Physical and Elemental resistance/penetration at 0.5x.
This will also scale gems that do “Bleed” damage.
It’s non-combat bonuses could be overall gathering speed, chance for rare items while gathering.
Dexterity and Agility are not the same, Dexterity focuses a lot more (definitively) on being good with your hands. I gave it the dodge cost reduction anyway, just because it works well with Tactical Reload, and Max stamina because this nit-picky distinction between the two words doesn’t really matter…a whole lot. This would give DEX a bonus towards all the light attacks done on any melee weapon, including the big ones. It would also help scale the new Void Gauntlet’s melee component, provide crit chance for any build, as well as useful crafting and mobility perks.
Currently 50% of all weapons scale with DEX.
INT (TL;DR - Magic damage, crit damage, DoT, Mana): Magic damage (all kinds, remove ‘elemental’ from this tree, light and heavy attacks both 1.5x bonus, works with all magic damage abilities.), Critical Damage, DoT duration, Maximum Mana.
Could also scale Elemental Resistance/Penetration.
This will scale gems that do Magical damage, all of them, including Nature damage.
Its non-combat bonuses could be the inclusion of extra Azoth along with all loot, and overall harvesting yield.
Making INT scale magical damage, critical damage, and damage over time allows it to be useful for a handful of weapons that otherwise would see no benefit from it at all. Moving all the Magical Damage gems to INT, taking the FOC scaling away from a couple, will be covered in a new gem type mentioned in the next section.
Currently 33.3% of all weapons scale with INT.
FOC (TL;DR - Healing done, mana regen, buff/debuff duration.): Healing Output, mana regeneration and duration of buffs/debuffs could all scale with Focus. Any Focus would apply to any healing from any source, as long as it is you doing it (ie, not consumables or other players), you also get a bonus on the duration of any buffs from any passives on any weapons, as well as a counter bonus to debuffs applied from any of those same sources.
Its non-combat bonuses could still stay largely fishing based, maybe further increase the gathering speed and item rarity, at a lesser value.
Focus will scale with a new type of gem that converts a percentage of the weapon’s damage to healing in an area around the target, or in a chain like its damaging counterparts. It removes weapon damage to provide healing to party members or self at close range.
Focus now becomes a universally useful stat for anyone who uses mana or has any healing from their weapons. Focus gems provide some extra group utility and self healing at the cost of some damage, useful for an off-weapon, utility back bar weapon, etc.
Currently 16.6% of all weapons scale with FOC.
CON: (TL;DR - Not a damage stat, shouldn’t be.): Constitution can remain pretty much untouched, it already provides health per point. The only change would be to reallocate its effects, like of course more Health, Health Regen, Healing Recieved, Consumable Effect, etc to a 1:1 point:effect ratio like the rest of the attributes.
It’s non-combat effects could effect carrying capacity not unlike STR, or another mixed bag at lower values from the rest. CON is probably the easiest one of these to figure out once it all is said and done.
I know this was a lot to read, and I hope my message get’s across, I can be pretty damn long winded sometimes. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope you like my idea.