Poll: Active vs Comestic vs Stats.

[The-Traveling-Bard]

EDIT: What I mean by active progression is seeing your spells evlove, and improve over levels. Example: A fire bolt turns into a fireball which turns into a meteor from the sky.
Example: Cleave hits 2 enemies. Cleave hits 3 enemies.
Example: Shot two arrows, shot three, shoot arrows in a rapid session.
As well adjusting colors, glow, making it flashier, making it bigger, making it feel like a powerful ability.

Things like this. Skills/abilities improving upon levels.

What do you prefer to show your character has progressed through the game? Is it powers, and abilities? Stat increases for those 10k hits. Or is just showing off your awesome armor?

For me I prefer Cosmetic > Active > Stats.

I am a massive role player, and I prefer picking the armor that best suits my character job, personality, etc. etc. I don't choose what's the best gear in the game, but what I am role playing as. Some of my favorite sets in the video game are the low level ones because they're simple looking. But sadly.. I gimp myself severely due to harder enemies later in the game. But I understand why this isn't in most games, but I would like to see more "Transfer the skin" options in games now.

I enjoy active progression, because I love seeing skills/powers go off, and have them be interesting. I want to require the powers of a God, or a sneaky assassin, a famous wizard, a famous bounty hunter. Etc, etc.

Stat progression.. eh. Apple and oranges to me. Being level 10 in a game, and having it increased to level 20. There's really no real difference for me besides numbers. Technically the game didn't get any easier unless they didn't add in any content to challenge you at level 20, and the game didn't get any harder, because you'll acquire the gear soon to defeat those high level enemies. Therefor it continues an endless circles.

 

[thesilentman]

Depends on the game. In Skyrim, fucking yes, I'll take the armor that looks the coolest. But in Dark Souls, I'll take armor that fits my play style and helps my stats, which amounts to a patient halberd user. If it doesn't quite fit either of those categories, I usually just compromise between stats and aesthetics.

Active is pretty much a given. I don't think I need to explain why just saying "I beat (for example) the Four Kings in Dark Souls" shows my progression up to that point.

 

[krazykidd]

Stats > active > cosmetics.

Cosmetics.I couldn't care less about how my character looks . Put him in a dress , or a robe or naked does't mean much to me . As long as what he wears had better benefits than what i had.

Active. I guess this is skills and move sets? A little more important than cosmetics , if a move looks cool , more power to it , but i care more about it's usefullness . If it's usefull i'll use it , if not i won't.

Stats . I love stats . I love seeing that +1 when i level up . I like seeing my endurance /life/ mana /etc go up in number , it helps me see my character progression . I also love bein able to customise and distribute points to different stats .On thing that annoys me to no end though is when there is no limit . If there is no limit that i have no idea how strong i am , just that i have a big number next to a stat . Example , world of warcraft . Numbers just go up and up without a real limit, a maximum . When you compare that to say , SMT:Nocturne , where the max stat for anything is 99 , i can te how far i am from my goal .

 

[felbot]

honestly stats are the truly important thing here, a flashy over the top animu armour is worthless if it doesn't protect you well, and how well it does that is measured in stats.

abilities would come second as they do occasionally provide some utility like a flahs or a pull or just some passive skill's.

 

[aguspal]

Stats > active > cosmetics.

Cosmetics.I couldn't care less about how my character looks . Put him in a dress , or a robe or naked does't mean much to me . As long as what he wears had better benefits than what i had.

Active. I guess this is skills and move sets? A little more important than cosmetics , if a move looks cool , more power to it , but i care more about it's usefullness . If it's usefull i'll use it , if not i won't.

Stats . I love stats . I love seeing that +1 when i level up . I like seeing my endurance /life/ mana /etc go up in number , it helps me see my character progression . I also love bein able to customise and distribute points to different stats .On thing that annoys me to no end though is when there is no limit . If there is no limit that i have no idea how strong i am , just that i have a big number next to a stat . Example , world of warcraft . Numbers just go up and up without a real limit, a maximum . When you compare that to say , SMT:Nocturne , where the max stat for anything is 99 , i can te how far i am from my goal .

I should proably copy and paste this...


Is... pretty much what I was going to say. LOL.

Althougt I am not exactly *SURE* Whats the difference betwen "Active" and "stats"....

 

[skywolfblue]

Hmm, tough choice between active and cosmetic for me.

I'll go with "Active".

While cosmetics are awesome, it's slightly more rewarding for me to get awesome-looking spells with great mechanics, that meshes well with good gameplay. There's this moment where mobs that would have been difficult previously are made suddenly easy by the new spell or some combo involving it, and you just have that wicked grin on your face, smiling with sweet sweet revenge as you freeze all those dudes solid or bladestorm their asses, that is simply... glorious!

I am a massive role player, and I prefer picking the armor that best suits my character job, personality, etc. etc. I don't choose what's the best gear in the game, but what I am role playing as. Some of my favorite sets in the video game are the low level ones because they're simple looking. But sadly.. I gimp myself severely due to harder enemies later in the game. But I understand why this isn't in most games, but I would like to see more "Transfer the skin" options in games now.

I agree completely. I'd really love to see more games include ways to allow low-level outfits to be upgraded to current tier so people can keep whatever outfit they want.

 

[The-Traveling-Bard]

honestly stats are the truly important thing here, a flashy over the top animu armour is worthless if it doesn't protect you well, and how well it does that is measured in stats.

abilities would come second as they do occasionally provide some utility like a flahs or a pull or just some passive skill's.

Stats could still go up in other ways.
When fable 2 came around, and got rid of armor ratings. They added a skill that leveled up your defense.

Stats can always be re-worked so it works the same, but without hindering cosmetic preferences. The problem is no game has done this correctly. The ones the tried to do this.. didn't do it in a way that's appealing to both.

You can still have armor that has it's uses, but without armor rating. Therefor it's up strictly to what you want out of the armor. Let's take Skyrim for example.

The key differences are Heavy Armor is noisy, and loud. Light Armor is quieter, and swifter.

I match prefer to see .
Heavy armor be.
Stagger less, knocked down less, absorbs hits on chance. Resist to bleeding debuffs. Noisy, and loud. Makes you slower.

Light Armor. Quieter, move faster, dodge more quickly, more vulnerable to stagger.

You see where I am going with this.
Then add "Defense" as it's own stat, and then you can have more control on how much damage you want to resist. This keeps players becoming over powered, and to me offer easier balance.

But I don't know if it's easier balance. In mind it is, but I am not a game designer.

 

[WoW Killer]

Active, every time. Pure stat progression conflicts with the difficulty curve; it makes the game easier the more you progress, whereas a game should generally start off at its easiest and then get harder. So then you can put in enemies with progressively better stats themselves, but you end up with no sense of progression at all; your +1 Strength get nullified by the mobs +1 Toughness. When you gain new active abilities, you're still gaining in power to get that sense of progression, but you're being asked to perform more complex actions as the player. In other words, your character gains in potential output, but it's up to the player and their skill to reach that potential. Only then do you have the sense of progression working together with the difficulty curve.