Mid-combat point reassignment

[aardvark]

I can't say I like any of the suggestions so far. I thought the 4/3 point respec limits were the anti-cheat part of this. If someone wants to change their points around mid-combat, I say let 'em. It's a game; it's supposed to be fun (or engaging, at least). If that's someone's idea of fun (?!), they should be allowed to do that.

[donkatsu]

First, let's go on the assumption that this is cheating, or unintended behavior. So far, the general design philosophy has been to draw a clear line between cheating (via cheat mode) and normal play. I think the other undetectable "cheaty" thing I can think of is to force-shutdown the client, but this takes it one step further because it's something you can do in the game, with the tools that the game has given you. So there must be some value in detecting and preventing cheating, otherwise cheat mode would be on by default and it wouldn't show up in your character profile.

Or perhaps a radius around the player, regardless of LoS. I could totally see one-turn blinding myself to get around the limitation

Or just ducking around a corner or something. Doomed could trade off some of those wiggly class points for the ability to block their own LoS at any moment; alchemists have smoke bombs that'd do the same thing. There's probably a few more; archmagi with stone wall, wyrmics with quake... so forth, so on.

You're not thinking of the practical usage of these "workarounds". First of all, except for respeccing Doomed Creeping Darkness, all of these take at least one turn, which in itself negates the usefulness of mid-combat respec. Changes in vision with respecced Dark Vision take a turn to kick in, and when it did, well, you wouldn't be able to see your target unless you... removed points from whatever you just put in and put it back into Dark Vision. Second, all of these abilities have cooldowns and resource costs, which again negates the usefulness of mid-combat respec. The problem is that it is optimal, not that it is possible. And right now it is optimal because doing so is completely free.

So are there any actual problems with only allowing respec when enemies are in LOS? It doesn't even interfere with regular levelup unless you want to shuffle points around, in which case all you have to do is just finish your current fight first.

[bricks]

So are there any actual problems with only allowing respec when enemies are in LOS? It doesn't even interfere with regular levelup unless you want to shuffle points around, in which case all you have to do is just finish your current fight first.

I'm guessing you mean "aren't in LOS," and I agree. Assigning points should be easy, removing them should be hard.

[donkatsu]

Er yes, that.