Understanding Damage:
- Melee weapons generally have "DP +" something. Strength affects them. Ranged weapons generally have a flat DP stat. Strength doesn't affect them. If some weapon is rather unusual, feel free to deviate from this, but realize that ranged weapons should not usually out-damage melee weapons when intended for the same level of character.
- GMs shouldn't try to out-do others' quest rewards. Those who are new to being a GM often feel that the rewards define a quest, and in turn will try to give some form of equipment that would benefit everyone. Then the next has to be better, and it goes on. This disrupts the balance and scale of things, and can sometimes get other GMs ticked off because players end up with a huge variance in power. It could also spark fairness issues when certain people get "alpha" equipment.
- Another note about scale... Please keep in mind that weapons' damage shouldn't be enough to make a spellcaster into a warrior with spells. Wait until the class update for people to be running around as fighting mages.
![bluetongue.gif](http://www.cspacezone.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/bluetongue.gif)
Understanding Effects:
- Equipment should very rarely implement class' signature abilities. These are abilities like dual wield and invisibility which are intended to help balance certain classes. When a piece of equipment allows for anyone to dual wield, for example, there goes a big strength of warriors. If a certain type of effect is only implemented in one or a couple classes, chances are that it shouldn't be used in a piece of equipment. Keep in mind that this will be relaxed a little when the class trees go up.
- Weapons should usually have the most potent effects of equipment. This is because there are fewer (often only one) slots for them. Next would be the jewelry slots. If you implement effects in some other type of equipment, please be sure that it is really worth it. By all means you can do it, but just think about it a little bit.
- Please don't neglect placing some sort of limitation or energy cost on an effect that needs one. This includes equipment that can do damage other than through standard attacks. You don't want to make wizards obsolete, for example, by providing nukes on equipment that require no energy.
- Just remember that even simple effects on equipment can very easily provide balance problems. When I get a preview ready for the new classes, there will be some ideas for safe effects that can be implemented. Until then, however, please take great care with effects.
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I know that there have been at least a couple issues with this during the past week, but I'm not too worried. There are some new GMs that are still getting accustomed to this, and I just need to make aspects like this clear so things are going smoothly by the time the class update comes along. When that happens, all of ya'll will be in uncharted territory, so we need to at least get through this step so we're ready.
![bluetongue.gif](http://www.cspacezone.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/bluetongue.gif)