So what was the point of the class change?

Against any non hg pc with less than 20d played.

Not everyone plays Arm to "win" at PK. This doesn't make those lesser combat classes bad in any way. They're subpar to a higher combat class BUT the higher combat classes offer little EXCEPT top-end combat.

You want something to do for the other 59 minutes while you're waiting for your skill timer ... those other classes are the best option for you.

Noone can seriously claim that the purpose of this class overhaul was to make characters start off a bit better than before. If that was really the goal, they could have just raised the starting skills of the existing guilds. I stand by my assertation that the whole thing is the result of staff feeling the need to "do something" but lacking the imagination or sheer interest to do something useful.

It certainly isn't a matter of realism. An RPI having a class system at all in 2018 is a bit of a joke. I can't even begin to imagine why they wouldn't have switched to a custom skill-picking system if they were going to make a big change anyway. Armageddon has always been hindered by its class system which interferes with so many aspects of the game for no good reason.

I'm pretty sure Arm's staff community is wildly dishonest about how many active staff members there are. The roster says something like sixteen, but let's be real, there's absolutely no way that sixteen staff members actively work on this game. It feels like five at most, and only some of them have any in-game presence. I get the impression that the majority of staff puts in a bare minimum of time to retain their titles and would never dream of devoting hours to player initiatives. That's why they're happy to sign off on a "class overhaul" that they don't need to worry about.

If this game had more than a select few staff members who gave a shit about anything, there wouldn't be several years between HRPTs, and people wouldn't be quitting in droves because they're tired of trying to play a roleplaying game with no semblance of story and plot. Those who remain are those who are delighted to see the original five classes split up into fifteen, of which about five are worth playing and the rest are useless filler.

Looking at these new classes, they look like they should have a taken a week's worth of man-hours to design and implement. Somehow it took two fucking years.

The two-axis thing isn't that bad an idea. The way it should have worked is that you have the two-axes, and moving towards more competency in one area means less competency in the other. You end up with 4 extreme, pure classes that are the best at what they do, and then you can put hybrid classes in between them. So instead of that table, it should be a chart that looks something like this (with the classes they made placed where they should go, not where they actually are):



Moving from any place on the chart to any other place should require giving up expertise in one area in exchange for other expertise. Moving towards city or wilderness utility is less costly in combat prowess than moving towards mercantile, but there should still be a cost.

It's just bad because they kinda did this in some places, and didn't in others. Miscreant is clearly the best at crime and stealth, and Stalker is clearly the best at wilderness survival, navigation and stealth. But classes like Raider and Enforcer don't really give up enough combat skill for the amount of utility they get, and the other classes that should be corner-adjacent (Infiltrator, Pilferer, Fence, Adventurer, and Scout) seems gimped because they didn't receive the same treatment.

 Also, I agree that 15 classes is too many; it would have worked a lot better with just 9. Merge Raider/Scout, Pilferer/fence, Enforcer/Infiltrator, Trader/Adventurer and delete Laborer.

Though I don't get complaints about "flavor" or "identity" though. It makes sense they would want to move away from a system where your character felt totally defined by your class. Anyway, Armaddict made this argument so anyone who repeats it here is a tool.

I think the lack of class identity is a double edged sword. Now you'll have less guild sniffing, but leaders will also have a much harder time knowing what their people can actually do. My other worry is that this will be an excuse not to raise clan caps because you can get a bunch of different half-roles in one person. Two people to a clan might satisfy staff when each one is 1/3rd of the three roles.

Having said that, there are still some things that make me scratch my head. Laborer is an absolute mess. Laborer is meant to be more mercantile than Soldier, but can't actually Mastercraft anything. It gets Master Scan, though? Which I guess is more mercantile oriented? It just makes no sense. It really needs a few Master Crafts to make up for the fact that it gives up Master Archery and other good combat skills in exchange for lumberjacking (as a city-based crafter? What?) and a handful of garbage crafts.

Among all the mixed classes, it's also the only one that can't forage food, sneak/hide, brew, poison, or hunt. I get that those skills don't make sense on an honest-to-goodness laborer, but it feels like it should have some utility to compensate for their absence. Language learning boost, food foraging, climb, and then a mastercraft or two (even if it's the rubbish ones like Clay) at least. Maybe an encumbrance or stat boost? As is, it's the "combat specialist" of the three mixed classes, but is outclassed by soldier in every way (except scan, listen, and bandage. Oh and clay working, can't forget clay working ) and doesn't get much utility to compensate.

I'm sure that's at least a big part. But I think if it was a more prominent reason, the class change would have been more rushed. Instead, it was a 2-3 year long project. If it was a petty move, it was a very slow one.

Don't forget that Nergal left, that probably set them back quite a ways. I think you're right though anaiahlation part of the reason they did it probably was because the skills were listed here. Sirra posted his "How to Ranger" guide what? 2014? For the code leak, they pretty much nerfed everything that was in there. Stilt-lizards, riding etc.

The thing that gets me is it's a pretty short term solution to spend so much time on.