The Indie Game Magazine September 2015 | Issue 53 | Page 7

GAME WATCH

In the Name of Free-dom

A

nother month, another awe-inspiring haul of updates coming to the
fine folks of WildStar’s Nexus. Seriously, does the team at Carbine Studios
even sleep? Apparently not, because in the
time needed to get our collective heads
around last month’s announcements, the
studio has shared even more.
Carbine’s most recent announcements focus
on ‘Class Stat Refactoring,’ which basically
means that they want player stats to be
more instinctive, rewarding, and consistent
for when the free-to-play transition flies into
orbit. (The free-to-play switch is happening
this Fall, and a closed Beta is currently going
on for select members to test out the new
format.)

According to Steven Engle, the Lead Combat
Designer, changes are being made to “give
players more ways to play and interesting
stats to build around, and [the folks at Carbine] are working to make the combat stat

by Ryan Noble

system more intuitive and clear. It all relies on gearing
improving the overall clarity of [player] stats choices, and
and making sure they feel balanced and fun.” also [cause] power creep at
end game,” which becomes impossible to
So, there’s the reasoning, but what are the
maintain by the time the next raid is released.
specifics, and how will it affect our ability to
fight through WildStar?
To start, alongside the free-to-play launch this
Fall, there will now be six core stats. Without
going into too much detail on these, these
core stats will be Assault/Support Power,
Armor, Health, Shield Max, PvP Power, and
PvP Defense. As you can probably tell, these
core stats are quite self-explanatory, which
is the main idea of the update. This should
make WildStar easier to pick up for the gamers
that join when the game goes free-to-play. If any Nexians out there are looking for a
Secondary stats are also being updated, with little more info on these combat stat updates,
the focus on more exploration, customization, Carbine Studio’s latest blog post was about
and control of your own playstyle than has just that, and I won’t be offended if you go
previously been possible. Again, Carbine is direct to the source. (As long as I see your face
looking to make things easier for beginners, again next month.) Until then, I’ll probably
while offering a more balanced stat system be trapped in one of the bone cages of the
Kel’Voreth dungeon. Help a guy out?
and increased player choice.
In addition, players will no longer be able to
increase Assault or Support power through
the use of Runes, which aims to balance the
power curve among players, while also allowing
them to create the Nexian they desire without
the drawbacks of contradictory stats and gear.
According to Engle, this was much-needed
as the “cstat imbalances cause uninteresting

www.indiegamemag.com

Developer: Carbine Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Website: www.wildstar-online.com
Twitter: @WildStar

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