Pirates of the Caribbean Online Fansite & Forums - Suggestions For Weapons, Quests and Leveling

*Astericked numbers are explained in more detail down below.

*1. They could have a quest for leveling weapons, where you use a certain weapon to defeat a certain amount of certain enemies. The reward, instead of notoriety, could be experience points in that weapon. Every completed objective would not give an automatic bump to the next level: they'd give a certain amount of experience (500, 1000, etc.). That would be greatly helpful when it comes to things like grenades, as well as for weapons in the range where leveling them is monotonous. Notoriety gained would be less than the experience gained with a weapon, which is one of the things that clog time spent leveling (for example, each new treasure will add a small amount to your notoriety, all quests quickly bring up levels [at least in regards versus weapon-leveling], and other weapons add to your notoriety).

*2. To solve a lack of content problem, and to fufill Disney's wish of keeping us occupied, they could introduce various alternate builds of the weapons if you reach a certain level, talk to certain people, etc. This would be a whole 'nother skill set, and to not make notoriety too easy to boot, the levels would be gained via quest. This would expand the weapons without throwing them out of balance, provided no build exceeds the others without a doubt and aren't ultimately superior.

3. To make leveling easier, they could bump the rep of gray enemies to half, green to three quarter, and red to one and a quarter rep--all except yellow enemies being boosted.

*4. Basicly added to the game--some skills need adjusting.

*5. They should, if 4 is given, raise the damage the currently released upper level (as in, anything higher than the lowest) weapons do. +2 is really no reason to get a weapon, the only good upgrades being the looks of some of the weapons and the additional barrels on the larger pistols. As well, they could release weapons like my Parrying blades, for those who don't neccesarily use a weapon for the damage they do.

For things of a different sort, they could do stuff of the following:
a--remove the current combo sytem needed for the Dagger and Cutlass, and insert a new one where a) moves can be skipped but b) there is a "Reward" for higher level combos. The reward could be something simple, like this: the second move of a combo gains a 1% boost in damage; the third move gains a 2% boost; the third move gains a 3% boost; hopefully, you see where that is going. A Blade Storm after a full combo would be gaining a 6% boost in damage, which isn't a small number.
b--with a in debate, they should make Flourish 3 seperate hits each doing a third of the damage, which would be more effective with the reward system; the same should be done with things like Blade Storm, Swipe, Eviscerate, and Vipers Nest. Blade Storm would be 5 hits then, each getting a boost from the one before and all the others prior. Technically then, you'd be getting a Blade Storm after a full combo getting in (1/5 BS + 8%) + (1/5 BS +9%) + (1/5 BS + 10%) + (1/5 BS + 11%) + (1/5 BS + 12%), which I suppose to average in at BS + 10%. However, one couldn't do the quick BS trick, so it'd even make things fairer I suppose.
c--add in skills of the type of Leadership to quest for when a weapon reaches 25. These wouldn't require any point in investment and couldn't be invested in further, leaving nothing to offsetting in regards to any balance.

There are a million more things to do that could work, but a commercial caught my eye and derailed my mind, so I'll leave it open.
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*Explanation:

1. These weapon quests would reward experience points in a weapon, not guarantee'ing (tricky word, that one) a raise in level but promising a raise as related to notoriety versus the weapon experience. This would give the quests more pertinance as the quests would actually do more to raise your notoriety, and not be done just for the sake of obtaining Leadership and all; and, if you're level 40 but some of your weapons aren't mastered, they'd be a way to get more experience from tasks otherwise made the more unrewarding. As well, a weapon one finds tedious would be far less so. The quests could help explain how to use a weapon if that is not really known, and they would give a reason (that reason being the promise of mastering) to take back out a weapon otherwise put away.

2. With a new weapon for sale at level skill level 5, a barrel/pouch/other container upgrade for sale at 7, a new weapon for sale at 10, a container upgrade at 12, one weapon upgrade at 15, a container upgrade at 17, and, lastly, a weapon upgrade at 20, I'd say that the rate of improvements is 1 per 2.5 levels upon getting the gist of a weapon. I'd introduce the weapon alternates at level 22. These weapon alternates would be accessed by reaching level 22 with a weapon, talking to a certain someone, doing a long, tedious quest (though this is one by far with great reward, the only other large reward of a quest up to this point being the skill Leadership and some decent clothes), and finished off with a large bribe for those with too much money. These would give you the certain alternate that you quested for, starting at level one. There could be multiple alternates of a weapon, modeled after the npcs, enemies lying about, props lying about, or in general after cool things people want to see. They could be drawn by having the weapon in question out (cutlass, dagger, staff, etc.) and then by pressing the key for the alternate, which I would make the numbers. They could do that OR have it so that we can only bear one alternate form of a weapon at a time, with a key like O being used to switch the weapons out; OR they could have the weapons manually switched at the store.

These weapons would not boost notoriety or experience with the un-alternate form, and anything gained from them would be limited to plunder and treasures. Their levels would be raised by quest, forcing you to run around and kill things with that weapon. A level being gained would only grant a skill point and possibly open a new skill within the new skill set. No HP increase and no voodoo increase would be given, seeing as you had already gained experience with the un-alternate form of that weapon. This would keep the weapons in balance while in essence adding a million more possible weapons, and would add things to do without them blocking other things to do.

4. Notoriety can't just be raised with the weapons staying the same with any current balance expected to survive. 44-46 would be like the new 40, with 50 being a health buffer making some attacks, possibly, requiring more hits and boosting more weapon damage. Hence, all the attacks would do less damage at level 40 where current masters are, with the same amount of damage being done in the 44-46 range (44-45 being the easiest numbers to compute to boot) and more damage being done beyond that.

5. Actually, even if notoriety isn't raised, they should raise the damage boosts the higher-level weapons give per hit, simply because they are pointless mostly, aside from the first two pistol upgrades. If the notoriety is raised, this will be increasing HP by 25 per level and raising the damage of weapons by a certain percent per level. With both, more meat to absorb hits and the weapons doing more damage per hit, the small damages of +8 really don't do much, especially on the attacks that do a lot of damage. A boost of +10, +20, +30, +40 would help the small-fast attacks like Poke and Soul Flay, a smaller boost not being so drastic. (After all, 5 Pokes with +40 instead of +8 would be 32 x 5, or 160 more all by itself [200 vs. 40], not figuring the Poke damage.)

Weapons like the parrying blades (these could be bought and switched as the clothes currently are) could do things like give an edge over another with a different blade out, and could give an alternative effect when drawn to one who doesn't really care for the extra damage. The idea is like this:

Parrying Blade (sold item, level 6) - deals 10% less damage than a regular cutlass, but Parry has more effect (3% chance per point).
Parrying Blade #2 (sold item, level 11) - deals 10% less damage than a regular cutlass, but Parry has more effect (4% per point).
Parrying Blade #3 (quested item, level 16) - deals 15% less damage than a regular cutlass, but Parry has more effect (5% per point)
Parrying Blade #4 (quested item, level 21) - deals 15% less damage than a regular cutlass, but Parry has more effect (6% per point)

(These blades would also help leveling as they'd increase hits, and may give the edge in a fight versus another with a cutlass or dagger if luck is with you and you parry well with the proper points invested [I'd say 5 or so].)