As you read in the Title, this is more of a talk between me and you.
I'm writing this on the fly so there isn't proper editing, so bear with me.
This is because I wanted to relax a little since I will have my last exam of the first period of exams after Monday, so I'm studying hard.
Because of that, I'll probably delay Sunday's and Monday's release to the day after it.
Besides that, let's go to what I wanted to talk.
I wanted to discuss my ideas, the power scaling, and a bit more of what happened so we are all on the same page by the time the next chapter drops.
First, power Level.
So, I've taken a lot of inspiration from RPGs obviously, so things are like this.
If we exclude everything, the base setup of a Level 100 normal player is all stats at 100, while for the Hardcore players it's 300.
My idea for this is that monsters and creatures from games are always much stronger even when they are on the same level as the player.
Dale right now is Level 28, and his stats are already above 100.
But he is still pretty average within Resko.
How? Let's hypothesize.
And remember to leave your ideas and own hypothesis as you read, don't be afraid to take your time, I will read them all.
I'm here to talk after all.
Since Hardcore characters are the closest to NPCs if not exactly like them.
Then a Level 80 NPC would have in 190 the least to all stats.
Remember that a Hardcore player grows like this:
2X Stat gain per Level between Levels 0 to 49 for a total of 100 at Level 50
3X between Levels 50 to 79 for a total of 190 at Level 80
5X between Levels 80 and 100 for a total of 295
(I did a small change, previous, 2x used to be from 0 to 50, but I changed that from 0 to 49 and pulled everything one Level, it didn't change much apart from giving one extra Level with the x5 boost)
So if we were to say that Misgurd is a Level 80 character, then at the minimum, his total stat count would be 190.
But what makes an NPC special?
Monsters can have modifiers and ranks, allowing them to be Bosses and Raid monsters.
What about an NPC? What makes him comparable to a Monsters?
It's the many years of experience he has.
NPCs also have Classes, although in their own way.
They train and get stronger with the years... They lived their own lives and got their own little adventures.
Of course, there are always exceptions, like that strange rat in the caverns near a Level 5 village that is Level 35, being considered a Raid Boss.
Azimuth is still a game at the end of the day...
But there is something that I would like to say, so let's go back to the NPC question.
If a normal player were to attack Misgurd, he would deal fixed damage based on a series of calculations.
And as we saw so far, normal player actions are seen in a different way from the NPCs as through Dale's own eyes, not just because he is also one.
If a normal player were to attack this hypothetical Misgurd, he would be given a series of Buffs to make him fit of his role as the Guild head of the Mercenary Branch in Resko.
A true monster.
However, if Dale was to rise to the same Level as him, and train enough, his chance of defeating him are much higher not only due to his stats, but also due to the characteristics of his character.
While a Level 80 player may struggle against a Level 80 Boss monster, Dale would probably be able to solo it.
The more he grows the more of a 'Raid Boss' he becomes.
But that is only base stats. People can grow outside of them.
Dale started with a massive advantage and got several items at the start that made his stat value increase.
The Aspect of Might and now the change in Ratio of his Mana stat.
Over time, with training and more encounters, he will grow stronger and stronger.
Another good way of understanding the strength differences of the people in this world is seeing how I set the value of a Legendary Item.
The base strength value to use Caladgold is 300. That is, if you do not have the motivation to make it lighter.
300 is 5 points above 295, the limit of Level 100. This means quite a lot.
In a sense, this means that from my perspective, to be worthy of Legendary, one needs to be past Level 100.
What that means will have to wait...
In the first place, it means that a player would need to be pretty high Level to be able to use even if they find a lot of items to increase their stats.
And I am talking about a Hardcore player, for a normal player, they would have to be extremely cracked to be able to use it...
After all, their growth limit is 100 strength, to gain 200 more is a bit of a stretch.
This also brings into question Item scaling.
I was between 2 things at once.
And the first one was a more game-like system where items could have many rarities, and a rare Level 90 item would be better than a Legendary Level 10 Item...
And the other is that the rarity of items would slowly increase as the player Levels up.
For example, at Level 5 the average of the items would be normal.
And at Level 15 it would be Special.
At Level 30 Slightly Rare and so on.
I did not put a lot of thought into this, so the values could be adjusted, and they probably would, otherwise by Level 100 the average would be for everyone to be fully armed in Legendary gear.
And that will never be the case.
It's hard to talk about other aspects...
Everyone has 10 slots for Skills, and they can grow from 0-Star to ???-Star.
And between each Level there is a medium that is .5
So between 0 and 1 lies 0.5, and from 1 to 2 lies 1.5, and so on.
I have a few more ideas for this, but that will be revealed as we advance.
But in essence, I once had an idea for what the average for a Level should be in regards to the Level of their Skills, but I scratched that since because of the complexity of the Skills in the world, someone could be Level 80 and have an incredibly strong Skill that is only 0.5-Star.
Lastly, what happened so far?
Roughly one year ago, the closed Beta for Azimuth was released and Dale was chosen among 100 other players due to his dedication in playing the game and exploring its secrets even when there were many other alternatives for it.
After around 3 or so week, he hit level 100 and all of that happened, with the green box permanently occupying a portion of his eyesight.
He also learned that he could grow stronger in reality in a similar way he did in-game, so he started to prepare.
He got stronger and stronger until he hit a limit, and trained his Skill until the day of the game's full release came.
At the same time, his interest in the secret behind what happened continued to grow and it peaked when he learned that the Green box had changed when he logged into the game and that his progress in-game affected his real-life body.
As he got stronger in the game, he also got stronger in real life.
He choose the decayed city of Resko as his starting point, the starting point with the highest base Level of 65 (if I am not mistaken) and the place the furthest down South.
Slowly, he grew his reputation and made Resko return back onto the rails of development by recovering the holy Icon and pretty much reactivating the Church.
He cleared out a monster from the depts of the Catacombs and delayed Resko's dawnfall.
He helped the Alchemist recover her drive and set her on the right path, even though he didn't do much or so he believes.
And now he is slowly increasing his influence on the outside of Resko by hunting and learning the ways of the forest.
His actions have motivated many, and most of the elders are now slowly going back to what they usually were.
Soon enough, even if poor, Resko would be a pretty functional village with an alchemy shop, blacksmith, tailor, mercenary Guild, and more.
He also discovered another Dungeon, so the players will have a lot to do... If they can hunt in there of course.
He still has a lot of things to do though...
The problem with the Church far from the South...
Resolving the food and water crises caused by the desertification of the environment.
Scouting the mines outside of the Village to see what sort of Ores he can recover...
Exploring the ruins of the village and recovering its ancient facilities...
The possible danger deep within the forest.
The monsters lurking deep within Resko.
The players and their ambitions.
The Southern wall and what lies beyond it...
At the center of it all, lies his task of making Resko rise to glory once more.
And more...
There's a lot to do, and a lot to write, so I should have no problem making another volume XD.
I'll hear everything you have to say, be it events you would like to see to possible corrections and suggestions.
I really mean it, tell me what you think... I'm almost begging it at this point lol.
In any case, this was me, Follower of Abadom writing for 40 minutes, see ya all some other time!