Duelling Changes: FAQ

G’day g’day… this thing still works, right?

Over the past few weeks you’ve been eagerly peppering your local community managers with plenty of questions and feedback about the most recent duelling changes released on the public beta. Words always sound better straight from the horse’s mouth, so I’ve compiled a list of frequently asked questions from a developer’s perspective.

How did resistance calculations change?

As in the previous change to the duelling formula, the impact of the secondary resistance skill was adjusted. (That is, reflex against melee duellers and toughness against ranged duellers.) In the 2008 formula, the secondary skill added 50% of its value to the calculations, which was reduced to 25% in the 2011 formula. We leave it to you and your trusty Wyatt Earp Colt Buntlines to estimate the new midpoint for yourselves.

How did the stance bonuses change?

Selecting the correct dodging position no longer attracts a 50% upfront chance of the shot missing entirely. Of course, you will continue to receive a significant percentage bonus to your dodging skill.

How did the other duelling calculations change?

Most of the other changes are inline with the 2008 duelling formula. The internal workings have never been discovered and I’m not about to change that, but most notably look out for less of an emphasis on aiming and dodging in favour of appearance and tactics.

Resistance skills were originally overpowered, won’t they become so again?

This problem has been carefully considered, so the answer is no, provided our estimates are in the ballpark. The previous change to the duelling formula saw melee-resist duellers swing from grossly overpowered to somewhat underpowered. Since we expect many of the other changes to favour ranged duellers, we feel it is appropriate to give resistance duellers a bit of an initial boost. We will make further adjustments as necessary.

Charisma builds were overpowered too, what about those?

That’s debatable. Charisma builds gained popularity amongst soldiers because they play to the strengths of their class bonus, effectively reducing losses while offline, when you cannot actively adapt to your challengers’ weaknesses. (As you know, zero motivation duellers are especially focused on minimising losses; it’s not as critical to experience duellers.) There was no real problem to speak of in other contexts. As the past few years have demonstrated, massively weakening appearance and tactics to address this issue was a mistake, eliminating fundamental diversity in skillsets and tactics. It would be foolish to conflate class and duel balancing a second time.

Okay then, how did you account for soldiers?

So far we haven’t but it’s an issue we’re actively monitoring. Most duellers pick the soldier class because it has always been the only class that provides an in-duel advantage. (The dueller class has had additional convenience bonuses added over the years, though, to account for this.) It would be possible to decrease its effect from 50% to, say, 20%. However, we don’t intend to do so lightly and therefore no changes are being even trialled for now.

When will the formula changes be released?

When we are satisfied they are an improvement for both game design and community popularity!

Are more changes to zero motivation duelling planned?

No, not at the moment. We believe we have addressed almost every reason for zero motivation duelling, shifting the advantages and conveniences in favour of experience duelling. In doing so, we have done our job: providing the mechanisms and mechanics to promote a fun game for everyone. We can’t rule out any further tweaks and adjustments for the rest of time but it wouldn’t be an RPG if we tied strings to the limbs of every player.

That’s all folks! Chuck us a comment if there is something you’d like us to write about 🙂