Q&A: Character Progression

Here’s some burning character progression questions answered :

What is the RPG aspect of B < in your current vision ?
In many respects we’ve got in the pipe for RPG mechanics is more expansive than what we’d originally planned for Oort Online / Boundless. We could talk for hours about what is and what isn’t considered “RPG” (we won’t!) but character, weapon, tool, equipment and wearable progression will all play a big part in how you improve within the Boundless universe.

Will the character progression be open-ended or will we have a level-cap?
Character progression comes in two forms: Professions (eg: Hunter, Trader) and Skill Unlocks. Skill Unlocks are finite, but you can theoretically unlock profession levels indefinitely.

How is the character customization in regards of gameplay going to be (skilltree, perks)?
Character Skill Upgrades come in the same categories as Professions – Explorer, Hunter, Defender, Builder, Miner, Gatherer, Trader and Crafter – and each character can unlock skills (specialising) in up to 3 of these skill trees. There’s also a universal mega-tree called Founder. Max skill progression is being structured to last 100s of hours, with players at a maximum skill level each with their own unique skillset, useful in the Boundless universe in their own way.

do you plan different classes (mage, warrior …) ?
No… but! If you think about the different combinations of specialisms as a class there’s 56 of them :wink:

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:thumbsup: on multiple specializations and professions. Hopefully results in a lot of diversity of characters

I’m curious how this relates to the “traditional MMO end-game” (combat end-game; i.e. titans). Will players aiming for that sort of end-game progression have a required specialization (hunter? defender? multiple required?). If not, how are you approaching balance between the specializations?

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When you can only specialize in 3 skill trees excluding the others. Is there at least a way to unlearn them so you can specialize in others?

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Can you go more into detail how profession progress and the “infinite unlock” works. I’m interessted how the “infinite” profession balance ingame and endgame.

What if i like to change my professions in a later state of the game ? Do you plan a “revert” of the used skill-points ?
@KuroKuma you were faster with asking this :smiley:

Do we get more than “1” character per account or do we have to choose “wisely” before we do anything ?

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I by the way thought about a useful task within the game. Maybe it’s even possible to create an own profession for it and combine with hunter (if you didn’t implemented this in another profession like gatherer):

animal breeder

Since we have probably a lot of monsters and animals it would be interesting to be able to tame, multiply and sell them. Furthermore it should be possible for all creatures except boss creatures. And in case you want to raise extremely dangerous monsters (like lava, poison, whatever creatures) you must be able to create special environments for them from which they cannot run out. A worm that eats stone has to be raised in a iron cage.

Sorry for humiliating this thread for a suggestion. But it just came to my mind :stuck_out_tongue:

In anyway, I like the progression model.

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I’m only speculating here, but to me it sounds sort of like Diablo III’s Paragon system. After reaching max level, you stop unlocking new skills and abilities, but you begin unlocking Paragon levels which allow you to slightly increase a chosen stat.

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I´d assume (hope) that we are going to need the typical MMO raid setup of tanks (defenders i´d assume) + DDs (Hunter) (+ Healer?). But it would be extra awesome if the devs would also incorporate non-combat skill-lines into the titan mechanic. For example shortcuts that can only be found by explorers or bonuses that can only be obtained if you have a Miner/Gatherer in your group.

@ben
I´m really curious what Character Skill Upgrades each category will offer

  • Explorer - Mobility & survival bonuses?
  • Hunter - The classical DD tree?
  • Defender - The tank?
  • Builder/Trader - ?
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What is DD short for? Damage Dealer instead of DPS?

Yes, DD stands for Damage Dealer (the role a player can take) whereas DPS stands for Damage per Second (a number that quantifies the average damage output of a character over time)

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I was wondering what Defender meant, but I guess it stands for the traditional MMO tank. Other than that, I still wonder what gatherer entails, as the only real thing to gather would be timber or plants, and that would likely be up to the crafter/miner profession anyway. Funny how these FAQ posts often make more questions than they answer. :yum:

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Well the trader will probably get his money sink on pedestals lowered.

Thats a rather obvious skill tree ability.

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I’m afraid it might be something like that yea. But we’ll see^^

This on the other hand I’d support.

I’d say for example the hunter should have a skill which helps him to hunt animals.
Not everything has to do with combat.
When I saw those professions, Defender was the only one I associated with combat at all.

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My questions:

Why Trader is specific profession?
Why should I choose Trader Profession unstead of Miner which will give me lots of ores that I can sell in my shop?
Trading is available to anyone, so hunters, miners, gatherers are more likely to find something rare to sell…

Wearable? Like what? Orbs or something to buff yourself\allies?

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Mining too is available for everyone the proffesion stats will just provide you buff in said proffesion. So for example if you are member of a large guild that gathers stuff having one trader will probably help with… Eh something? Probably a smaller moey sink from trade pedestals.

Progression wise at least the only wearable mentioned have been armbands and such that will provide stats of different kinds

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My reason for asking was more about the odd usage of the terminology rather than the actual definitions >.<. Most AAA MMOs use the terms “Tank, DPS, Healer” for the three main roles.

And what does DPS mean in those MMOs? Damage Pounder Superior?^^

Damage per second. So you have one taking a lot of damage without dying one dealing a lot of damage very quickly and one that makes sure that neither dies during the fight.

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But Damage per second is kind of a stupid name for the role^^ I mean every class has a DPS. Ambiguity is bad^^
DD makes much more sense.

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That’s up for discussion that should probably not take place here. I was only curious because Vastar mentioned typical MMO raid setups and nearly all of them that use the holy trinity call the non-tank/non-healers DPS. I’ve been playing MMOs for 10+ years now and this thread is the first time I’ve ever seen DD. I wanted to clarify what he meant in case others were also confused by the non-standard terminology.

As far as I know it’s been used for years because it’s a fairly nice metric to judge damage classes by. Healers and tanks can be measured by how much damage is being taken overall and if everyone is still alive. But without metrics such as DPS it’s difficult to tell how well a damage dealing class is doing. Since for most games the objective is to do as much damage as possible in as little amount of time as possible (to minimize encounter duration and incoming damage) the metric of DPS was born and has since plagued raiders as a preferred quality over skill and raid awareness :frowning:

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I think the terms are fairly regional. I only ever hear DPS in the States, but I’ve seen DD in most euro forums. :upside_down:

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