Balancing the Races of Skywind

I was looking at the racial's and personally I believe it could be done a lot better then copying vannila Morrowind, As it stands it is highly unbalanced for some of the race's, some races are clearly superior stat wise to other races, now this may be close to what was in Morrowind and it would work for Morrowind as Morrowind was more slow- aced when it came to combat however this isn't Morrowind, this is Skywind and Skywind uses Skyrim's mechanics and Skyrim mechanics include things such as Concentration spells, which Morrowind did not have so I believe we can do much better as we have much more at our disposal, Morrowind didnt't really have "after effects" either such as disintegration.

For example.

In Morrowind and what I saw of the Racials, the High Elf Race had both an elemental weakness and a magic weakness to boot which combined add up to about a 75% weakness to fire, frost and shock effects and a 50% weakness to non-elemental destruction magic such as absorbtion spells and all they got in return was a 75% disease resistance which became redundant when you contracted corprus and gained full on disease resistance, now here is the thing why would people use this race knowing it handicaps them when compared to the other races? Yet on the otherside we have the Dunmer race who had a 75% resistance to fire based attacks and they had no weakness's whatsoever, tell me how this is balanced between these 2? the Altmer don't get enough in return for their weakness's not when compared to the Dunmer , all races should feel equally as attrative to use as one another to the player, some races shouls have abilties unique to them that make them stand out among the rest.

As for their racial abilties, many of them are pretty good however we could expand on the diverseity... I am also working on an overhaul mod of my own and had the idea to give certain "weaker" races (meaning the races who have the least benefits) with an advantage that the other races do not have, The Altmer Race for example could have a passive 10% damage bonus to all shock spells that they use, this would be rather significant bonus to them and help make up for the massive weakness's that they possess, the Nords could have a 10% bonus to Frost Spells. Khajiit could take less falling damage perhaps? Redguards could have a slight bonus to their attack speed? adding more things like this could help make each race feel unique and fresh so share your ideas another idea is to simply lower the abilties to less insane levels so instead of a 50% weakness to magic and a 25% weakness to each element the magic weakness could be lowered to 25% as well or the elemental weakness's could be removed entirely.

Last edited by TX12001 on 8 Jan 2016 - 04:27.

Hey TX, you should talk to

Hey TX, you should talk to Smitehammer about this. I believe he started outlining proposed changes with the game mechanics overhaul. Would be good to discuss this some more and nail it down. He's got a slideshow somewhere with this info

Keep in mind we don't want

Keep in mind we don't want the race you pick at the beginning to have too large an effect. These should just be minor effects. Balance is important, but there are many factors to that balancing. We're trying to avoid having some races inherently overpowered (like Nords were in Morrowind or Bretons were in Oblivion).

The proposed Altmer weaknesses were reduced from Morrowind. The 25% shock and 50% magic vulnerability doesn't stack to 75% weakness to shock. Shock is not considered 'magic'. Magic refers only to spells that deal straight damage with no elemental flavor. Altmer get a large resistance to disease and bonus magicka (50 points was decided as a reasonable amount, but this could be altered). The disease bit might be 'useless' once you get corprus, but not every character will be used to go through the main storyline, and it's not as though players should know they're going to contract corprus from the get-go.

Nords got a reduction in their frost resistance to 50% (from 100 - which was definitely ridiculous) and a new ability, Shor's Resolve, would see them take less damage from physical attacks when their health drops below 20%. Nords are traditionally good at resisting frost (and shock, to a lesser degree), but I don't see why they'd be savants at casting frost spells.

Redguards will have a resistance to poison (which is still rather useful since we have Skyrim's poison system) and they will have passive increased stamina regeneration when in battle. This was our answer to 'Adrenaline Rush', having them fight better for longer. I could see where a flat increase in attack speed could also mirror their ability from Morrowind - I just don't think it would be as useful.

Khajiit taking less fall damage might work. They have night eye toggleable and increased unarmed damage (we're hoping to add unarmed as an actual skill, to make this worth something). In the original Morrowind their downside was not being able to wear closed helms or boots, but they'll be able to do both in Skywind.

Later tonight when I have time I'll post a link to the sheets comparing races from the proposal.

Well the reason I mentioned

Well the reason I mentioned frost damage bonus's is because Nords hail from skyrim which is cold and well you know the rest, you could imagine a race hailing from a land that is either cold or extremely hot may have an affinity for using said elements magic-wise.

I'd actually like it if each

I'd actually like it if each race warranted a slightly different playstyle, having maybe not massive differences, but at least ones matching the differences in looks. Also, opposing to Skyrim where each race just had useless bonuses, it'd be much cooler if they had useful powers, but also race specific weaknesses. I'm not sure if Redguards really need poison resistance, it doesn't make much sense and combined with their massive natural weapon skill bonus, it would make them as OP as in Morrowind. It'd be much better fitting for Argonians, who's metabolism is used to Black Marsh, where everything is either, poisonous or carrying a disease.

Would be great to wipe innate

Would be great to wipe innate vulgar magick abilities (with compensation of common, teachable magick spells).
Instead of percents to damage and defense, would be great to have some more thin bonuses, like additional chance to freeze by cold spell or additional pick lock check zone.

Different item sets for each sex/race combination would be interesting too (maybe correlated to committed crime of this citizen).
As we have no classes in Skyrim, this can be their counterparts.

https://docs.google.com

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PQYeCRAKG5REhLSrzCrRURkM9it5lKFpjosMYDuADvs/edit?usp=sharing

Here's a link to what's been proposed so far, keeping the flavor from previous games.

Could khatjits for example

Could khatjits for example burn more time (as they have fur)?
Could argonians and some elves be just full immune to SOME diseases instead mathematical 75%?
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Active abilities like Voice of Emperor (+1 to disposition instead and better guards disposition), Nerd Orc Rage (could be changed to better HP regen), Animals' language (Forest Elves must be just stinks as animal at spring, it don't need to have active ab.) and Ghost Summoning (all race could do this? what?) would look old.

Whatever you want to do,

Whatever you want to do, remember make it simple as it is possible (or until it makes sense).

While I am by no means

While I am by no means opposed to the idea and actually agree that a greater amount of diversity in the racials sounds like a good idea, I feel I should point out that when used properly in conjunction with other parts of your character build, even the 'weaker' races such as the Altmer can be massively overpowered.

Take for example my favorite Morrowind character I have played to date, Elendiril. He was an Altmer and had the Atronach birthsign both of which I had never used prior to this but decided to use for my first mage character since I usually played a hybrid Warrior/Rogue with a slight dabbling in Enchantment. To put it succinctly, I have yet to create a Morrowind character who was even half as OP (even at low levels) as Elendiril.

I very like strong

I very like strong differences between races Khajjit - you can move much more quiet. You can see much better in darkness. You can jump when sneeking. You have 50 extra stamina points. You can move 30% faster and attack 30% faster with daggers skills bonuses - sneek 15 lockpicking 10 pickpocket 10p Argonian-compleatle resistance to poision. You can breath in water. You have 100 extra armor points. Once per day you can restore all health. Skill bonuses - sneek 10 one-handed 10 lockpicking 5 pickpocket 5 alternation 5 Bosmer 75% disease resistance. You get 2 ingredients from plants. You deals two times more damage with sneak attacks with bow. All animals don't attack you when they are not attacked. Skill nonuses - alchemy 10 archery 15 sneek 5 ligth armor 5 Dunmer-75% fire resistance, you have 10% chance to take no damage and one per day 50% chance for 30s. He have a bit more skill bonuses than other races Skills - destrucion 15 sneek 5 ligth armor 10 one- handed 10 Nord - 50% frost and 25% schock resistance. Once per day you can call blizzard. Once per day You can increase your armor by 100 points for 30s. Skill bonuses- two-handed 15 heavy armor 5 smithing 5 block 10 Redguard - 100 extra stamina points. Once per day you can deal 50% more damage, regenerate stamina 100% faster, take 20% less damage and attack and move 30% faster) skill bonuses- one -handed 15 two-handed 5, ligth armor 10, block 5 Inperial - you have 30% better persuasion skill and you get 30% better prizes. You have 30 extra points of health, magica, and stamina. Skill bonuses - one-handed 5, ligth armor 5, ilusion 5, restoration 10, speech 15 Orc - 30 extra points of health and stamina. You have 25% of frost and schock resistance. You have 40 extra armor points. Your armor skills are 10% more powerfull. You have 60 less magica points. Once per day you deal double damage for 30s. Skill bonuses - simthing 10 heavy armor 10 ligth armor 5 two- handed 5 block 5 Breton - 50 extra magica points, 30% magica resistance. Once per day you can increase your armor by 200 points for 20 s skill bonuses - alchemy 10 enchanting 5 conjuration 10 restoration 5 alternation5 Altmer - 200 extra magica , 50 % weaker to magic. 75%disese resistance Skill bonuses all magic skills and alchemy 5