I was discussing this in the discord earlier with some people, and I’m curious for an explanation of the mechanics or some insights on how investing stats and split scaling works the way it does in this game. The devs want to promote unique builds and build diversity, and a large part of that is already obvious in how this game has no classes at the start. I feel like the mechanics of leveling up betray this a little bit, and overly punish imperfect stat investment.
As an example, If I have a one handed sword that is 26/26 str/fth requirements, and a shield with a 42 fth requirement, and I put 26/42 into str/fth, I’m losing way more damage from scaling than I find reasonable. If I had put the extra 16 points in faith into str/fth equally, I would have 34/34 in the stats. the 34/34, despite having an identical amount of stats in offensive attributes when combined, gives me a LOT more scaling damage than 26/42.
I’m just curious as to why it seems to be a system that leans heavily into equal stat spreads, rather than a system of weighted stat scaling or just total stat investment for dual scaling weapons. I think that Dark Souls, (an admittedly different game), with its similar stat requirement and scaling mechanics, has a much more intuitive system. In its system, I am still punished for not going 34/34 on stats, but going 26/42 would leave me with more scaling than in NRFTW.
I feel like a big talking point of this game is the customization in build and variety, but if I want to use more than 2 stats at any point in a playthrough I am immediately stretched thin by the restrictive system in place.
Lets say want to have a str/fth sword for one situation, and a str/int sword for another, maybe one does cold and one does lightning damage so they have their uses. And lets say both have a requirement of 16/16 for their stats. In DS, if I level strength, both of these weapons will go up in damage. Not as much as if I invested in both of their stats, but enough for it to be worth it. In this game, the scaling on both would be pitiful if I only invested in strength so that i could use both and they could keep up. Rather than getting my choice in what to use depending on situation, I have to pick which will be my viable choice for the future.
This also makes me curious on having 3 main-hand weapon slots. What’s the real point of those if you will probably end up filling them with the same archetype or scaling stat weapons? I’m either putting 3 petaled spears with different enchantments in there, or I’m putting only str/fth medium weight weapons in there. Its hard to have build variety because I either give up too many utility stats or I give up too much damage for the weapons to be useful. Enchantments only slightly remedy this, because what’s the point of 20% bonus plague damage if the base is so low because there’s no scaling on it?
So do I think the system is bad? I wouldn’t say so. I’m sure its a design choice, but I think there’s already (imo) more logical existing weapons and stat scaling mechanics in the space that could be (if the devs felt that was how they wanted to do it) lifted and implemented. While this game doesn’t have “classes” it has them in a sense. The class system goes from picking it early to picking it later. You aren’t granted much flexibility, and when you are, the cost is much greater than other games with similar mechanics. The enchantments, spells, and other customization systems are great, but % based systems like those are just harmed that much more by these base damage affecting scalings.
All I’m really curious about is why these design choices were made and if they are in consideration for slight (or major) change in the future. This game has so much potential and I already love it. I just think there may be a more intuitive or readable way to go about it. I can only imagine when multiplayer comes out and my friend gets a dual scaling str/dex weapon, hits the requirements, then dumps all future stats into strength because he loves big weapons. Then realizes his weapon has gained next to nothing in terms of damage even though he’s invested so much into one of the stats the game tells him it scaled off of.