"Exploits, Nerfs, Banning and Overequipping" by Gaute Godager

[__________WGMelchior]

As some have said, overequipping in itself isn't a bad thing.

It's like being rich. You have resources to do a lot of things. Even though it's usually quite hard to get rich, it's a goal a lot of people have. There is nothing wrong with it.

But (and this is a big but) the people how aren't rich are going to whine. Envy, it's called. Countrary to public belief, being rich isn't all that nice. It's not needed. A lot of people get by without being rich.

Sum: You don't need to be rich to have a good life, although it might help in some cases.

If this game would have been complete/balanced/fun, then the statement above would apply.


It isn't. Suprise!

With the current mob balance, you have to be rich. Otherwise you'll be dead. The problem is that there are few ways to get rich unless you are rich already. You should NEVER have to overequip just to be able to survive.

That is the problem. This game isn't based on levels, or skills, or time. It's based on items. Sure, the items rely on skills, which relies on levels. But you can always tweak those skills, if you have the right items. It's a kind of evil circle. The higher you get, the more you need to overequip.


Create a character. Give that character equipment that is her/his level. That should be a balanced character.

If you are trailing behind in equipment, it should be a penalty, but your skills should in a way balance that.

If you are ahead in equipment, it should be a bonus, not a requirement.

[___________Stanbeast]

Well I am a pimped up UBER soldier (and I still suck).... LVL 83 with about 2.7k ac's all of the armor I wear are beyond my possibility to wear with out buffs.

I have nothing against making players use items their lvl. BUT you have to make monsters ALOT easier, a person should be able to do missions solo to get the items he wants/needs. Then I am all for it.

You guys have soldiers to a point that I cannot do 50% missions even though I am TOTALLY decked out. Fix this first.

[______________Hodaka]

Although I'm pushing the "not buffing grays" line of fixing overequipping, I agree with what Hoover says on page 3 and a few others have mentioned. The colored bars over our heads should not be based only upon level, but somewhat on our abilities and equipment. Funcom could generate some magic number based off of X number of our stats, factoring in level as only one piece of the puzzle. Thus, a twinked player would have to fight more difficult players in PVP and would end up taking harder missions than a non-twinked of the same level.

Mobs should be adjusted accordingly, so that when i take a 50% mission, I don't find myself sitting at a reclaim terminal wondering how a "green" put me there..

[________thinkaboutit]

ok, being able to "overequip" isnt exploiting anything, everyone can do it, its not like you have to hack the game to do it, it is proabably the only thing buffs are used for in the game, it is actually fun to try and buff to get armor on and so on. if you go into omni trade at anytime, and start talking about doing this to the game, you will get 99 percent of the players SUPPORTING overrequiping, it is what makes AO AO.......i know people who are going to cancel their accounts if the game is taken down such a crappy path, which is where it will go if overequipping is taken out, people will cancel their accounts, thats LESs money for funcom, ok lets look at the equation

no-overequiping+AO=funcom because of less $

i think you should probably fix the REAL bugs in the game first, i mean is this just some rouse to make us FORGET about the stuff that is REALLY wrong with AO, like for instance, why is there still no MA weapons, like the mythical throwing knife? i have buffs for it, so where is the weapon? that is beside the point.........im just sayin if you want to keep the MAJORITY happy u will forget about this dumb crap overequipin bs, or if you want to piss alot of players off go ahead and take it out of the game, i just wanted to be the voice of the majority ao on this issue, i mean, funcom will be out of business anyway as soon as final fantasy eleven hits, so peace

[________thinkaboutit]

how the hell is overepuiping exploiting, its part of the game, its not cheating , damn its like a bunch of fanboys decided to have a spend the night pajama party and ***** and moan about why it just isnt fair they dont have enough money to buy the same armor as EVERYone else, its what makes buffs worth the buff , damn you people need to stop being so gay about this

[________thinkaboutit]

Originally posted by Tedric
I would tend to support the "degrade items if stats are not met" option. That way debuffs would not have extreme effects, but twinks with equipment N levels above their own would get less advantage from their stuff.

As others have also said, at the same time you need to check the MOB power levels. Right now it seems thatthe power level is geared towards the over-equipped characters, so that "normal" characters have a hard time against greens (sometimes).

As for exploiting: yes, I think you are a bit too naive/easy on the exploiters. One warning then out is what I would recommend. You *really* need to take a tougher stance on expolits and cheating of all kinds, if ruins the motivation for the honest players to see cheaters get away with all kinds of things in a very blatant fashion.

exactly, majority rules, make a poll to vote on overequiping, very good idea

[«¤ W¥RM ¤»]

I have seen some of this topic referenced, but not explored fully.

My thoughts:

First you (Gaute) start off by defining Exploits, nerfs, etc. This is good, but I wish to share with you some personal experience. I earn my living (in Real Life) as a Software Technical Support Technician for a software company. My employer does not make games, but we make multi-user simultaneous network software. It is not fun supporting these types of programs, because there are so many variables, it is almost impossible to replicate each and every situation which can possibly occur. Many of the "issues" which I deal with on a daily basis cannot be replicated because it is impossible to replicate the actions of each and every user in multi-user environment at any exact moment.

One of the most important things I have learned is that you need rules/definitions. You need to explain what is and isn't allowed. But it doesn't stop there. If you are not clear in your definitions of what is and what isn't an exploit, then you leave the definition open to interpretation. When you do that, you have a problem.
My company gets lawsuit threats & disgruntled/unsatisfied customers, Funcom seems to get disgruntled/unsatisfied customers and lack of renewels on the monthly invoice. Either way, it is not good for anyone.

To fix, the first issue that we usually tackle is to define EXACTLY what you are considering an exploit... You say

"Exploit
Our RoC states: (point 11) "Exploitable bug: bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits in-game for a character of their profession and level"."

You did not back up your definitions with numbers, facts, and example situations. You state that exploitable bugs are those things that grant the user unnatural or unintended benebenefits in-game for a character of their profession and level". Ok. That's all fine and well, however, we - as players, have no idea what the natural and intended benefits in-game for a character of our profession and level should be. Whatever path you decide to take for future fixes, patches, modifications to this game, I would suggest that you specify - CLEARLY - In language which leaves nothing open to interpretation - what you mean by that.
Define it.
Use Examples.
Obviously the game offers buffs and such things as implants so that players can use items above what the IP stats will allow. It seems to be part of the underlying motivation for having these things in the first place.
But we don't know what Funcom intended when they say natural or intended. If you used an example:

Natural and/or intended benefits of implants, buffs will allow a player to buff him/her-self by X amount of (STR,STA,INT, etc) and Y amount of (complit, 1H edge, Burst, runspeed, etc) and will allow a player to buff another player by...
x amount of (STR,STA,INT, etc) and y amount of (complit, 1H edge, Burst, runspeed, etc). Anything above and beyond this definition constitutes use of Exploits...etc, etc...
By being specific in your definitions, people will not have the excuse that you are not clear on HOW MUCH is TOO MUCH buffing...


I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about this issue too...

«¤ W¥RM ¤»

[______________Hodaka]

yeah, except for the fact that no one knows all the factors involved... we get a bunch of votes for something that ends up breaking the whole dang game and a bunch of people are going to feel really stupid..

majority rule is not always the best course.. funcom needs to make this decision, with our input only.. not with us dictating the course of action..

not only that, but without an ingame poll, you're definitely not getting the majority of gamers here on the forums..just the majority of the most vocal

Originally posted by thinkaboutit



exactly, majority rules, make a poll to vote on overequiping, very good idea

[____________eleetist]

Originally posted by thinkaboutit
exactly, majority rules, make a poll to vote on overequiping, very good idea

Although majority rules is great in theory, you do have to respect the player base. From what I have read (which is nearly every post), it seems that the general theme is Agents very much against ending all overquipping (heck that's all we got at the moment), Fixers pretty much need to overequip too. Other than that there's a fair split among the rest of the posters both for an against it. But for the sake of argument let's say the split is 60% people want to end any and all overequipping (hard cap on your level) and 40% feel they need to overequip or they are worthless in the game (I fall in this group, because I couldn't solo a green without it).

In a perfect majority rules overequipping would be ended and I'd say Funcom would lose at a minimum 20% of it's overall userbase who feel shafted and whom would now be killed by grays.

Many players equip above there level. It's certainly not necesarry though. I have a Lvl 40 Soldier that's equiped at his level and in comparison to my Agent who at Lvl 40 had a QL59 Stig and Omni-Pol Assualt Armor... Only my soldier had an easy time at missions. And I am referring to 50% missions.

From playing since the Final Beta I think it has been clear that Funcom intended buffing to equip higher level stuff... The biggest question is where is the greatest diversity, which is clearly at Lvl's 1-50 where being able to get high NCU and a good buff can make you invincible. After that things begin to even out a lot more. So I really don't think ended all overequipping is a great idea.

I think you can see that ending the buffing that creates the undesirable result is more effective. In other words, one of two effective methods:

1) Level cap on who you can and can't buff
or
2) Title Level limits on all Nano Programs. So to use a QL50 Nano on someone that must be Title Level 3 (i.e. 50+)

I think this would impose an interesting limitation on things.

I would imagine the greatest problem effecting overequiping is the ability for a Low Level player to get a +50 mastery buff, a +100 Wrangler, and +20 Experience buff. Under what I have mentioned the +50 would not be obtainable til Title level 3 and the +100 wrangle until Title Level 4. This would definitely put a fair cap on the equiping, while allowing people to be a little more diverse. No one wants to have to buy a new weapon everytime they level.

[Camisado]

I posted this on a different thread its @
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...?threadid=1831

Heres my ideas on a solution to the over-equiping "problem".

It seems to me that the major problem is the extreme over-equiping of weapons, and when I say extreme I mean compared to the level of the character. For example when I was level 40-45 I was able to equip my Ql79 mauser using my own buffs and Ql 30 implants and most importantly a +70 wrangle. This is nearly twice as high as my level. I would consider that extreme ( I would also like some clarifacation if Ql was designed to coincide with character level). If wrangles were redesigned so that they had level requirments (split from 10 to 160, I havnt done any math on this just an example) then this should prevent what I consider extreme weapon over-equiping.

I wouldnt adjust implants. If all surgery stations are fixed I dont think its possible to over-equip these to high anymore. Redesign treatment buff so that it has level requirments as well (1-80, 81+).
Maybe add another treatment buff in the middle.

Leave armor as it is, again I dont think its possible to extremely over equip this. If im wrong, then put level checks in for ability buffs as well. Also, create a line of nanos to buff Phy\Intl so that it is possible for all players to over-equip armor (I dont know why
there isnt one already).

I still think that much of the problem of unbalanced PvP lies in the debuffs that cause so many problems for nano-casters (although IMHO they are still one of the toughest PvP classes) and I see this as an entirely different issue from over-equiping.

And finally maybe create a new line of stores that carry Ql200+ gear.
<edit>
This was my initial reaction after reading the article, it is from the thread linked above....
I have just finished readind the same article and I had no idea that over- equiping the was even considered an exploit. I consider the buffing programs to be a great aspect of the game. I thought that the hole purpose of them being in the game was to over equip items. Why do wrangling nanos even exist, if not to over epiup, is it so that i can pay a trader a large sum of money to use a Ql 79 Mausser for 2 minuites..........I really want to use alot of four letter words to discribe how angry I am at Funcom and the Dev. team for creating this problem I cant see how they couldnt see this comming.
As a Fixer I have a hard time doing 60%(can any class do 90-100%) hard missions with Ql 60 Nadir armour and a Ql 79 mausser, I have nanos that are atleast 20 levels lower than I am (id say thats a little "under-equiped, gonna fix that funcom?). If u make my equipment at my level ill have to go off and team with greys and I can make 1 exp per kill if I could find a team to except me.
Also u would suck a huge portion out of the anarchy online economy many players make alot of money buffing and creating high level implants.
Again i have to ask WHAT WAS THE POINT OF CREATING BUFF NANOS AGAIN!!!????!!!
The only way I could see "fixing" this "problem" would be to get rid of debuff nanos, but even that sounds rediculous to me but maybe buffing isnt the problem and the debuffs are.
I caution Funcom to be careful in how they try to "fix" this "problem", because Im not sure I would stick around much longer after AO was patched substantially or even moderatly
for "over-equiping". But if you do decide to follow through with this patch might I suggest renameing your product "Stupidity-Online 13.2"
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU CREATED BUFFS!!!!!???!!!

<edit>
...Also I think that its important to remember that its a game and people who play it better should have an advantage.
One last thing I also agree that any exploiter should be banned if they do it again after the first warning.
<edit>
I just dont understand how Funcom could have designed a skill system so based on buffs and implants and now see over-equiping as an exploit......

I am not as pissed off @ Funcom for creating this problem as I was, But what Funcom does to fix this problem will decide how much longer I play AO....

[_____________potoole]

In regards to exploits:

1)Define them.
2)Fix the bugs.

To exact immediate banning on exploiters is ridiculous. The exploiters do you a tremendous service by finding your bugs. Your system of three strikes and you're out seems well thought out and in my opinion doesn't need to be changed. You still get the benefit of players that can find your bugs and they get the opportunity to continue playing without using the exploit.

Now you're obviously dealing with human nature when it comes to whether the player reports the bug or exploits it. It is idealistic to think that all players are going to be honorable and not exploit your bugs. Hence, quickly fixing the bug solves most of the problems.

As long as the bank leaves the window open, human nature dictates that someone will keep taking the money. Your pre-emptive strike on exploiters should be to FIX the EXPLOITS! If not you are only shooting yourself in the foot by trying to punish your player base. 628 people banned = $12.95 x 628 = $8132.60 lost revenue per month!! Not to mention the man hours you spent chasing people down and banning them.

If a player's activities directly or intentionally harm another player then you have an obligation to reform or remove that individual. Otherwise thank them for finding your bug, give them the opportunity to not exploit it, fix the bug and move on.

[__________NicholaSix]

Honestly the timid "official polls" are a joke. You are posing some questions to the community about serious balance issues and you do it in a forum that is going to provoke tons of flaming and little useful content.

MAKE AN OFFICIAL POLL. MAKE SEVERAL for each of the key topics. Doing a Poll of what people think of the current PVP system would be a GOOD IDEA too. You guys made some serious changes in 13, and the best way to get feedback that is less biased is to MAKE A POLL.

What do you think of the new PVP system?
o - I love it!
o - It's Ok
o - I can't stand it

From these responses make a second poll.

for example say 80% responded "I can't stand it"

your next poll could be somehthing like

What changes would imporve PVP?

o - remove 50% reduction in damage keep 40% cap
o - remove 40% cap keep 50% reduction
o - half heals effectivness
o - increase the Invunerable time to 30 seconds
o - remove store zones from outposts
o - disable zoning when you attack (if you don't counter attack "see full defense" you can still zone)
o - forget the invunerable thing, make gas islands.


In relation to this thread MAKE several polls addressing each of the main issues:

"What to do with Serious exploiters"
o - Ban them now, they aren't Dev Diss they knew what they were doing
o - Give them a second chance but remove their exploited gear and CR, see 1k token boards and duped items.
o - Leave them alone, they are my friends! Slap em on the wrist, and tell them to stop their sillyness or they will have to wear dunce caps.
o - de-equip everyone, make bags in their banks for their stuff to go into and make banks larger for a month so stuff doesn't vanish.

"Weapon disabling"
o - guns and swords should be just like nanos, if you dont meet the reqs they de-equip. Note we will make an attemt to fix the melee weapon bug if we do this since normal fist attacks would stop working too.
o- guns and swords will be less effective and work at a QL close to or at the max for the skill level of the user.
o- do a 10% cut off effect on all gear.

"Item disableing"
o- yes if you are debuffed below your belt or ncu reqs your belt comes off. If you do not always meet the req of your belt it comes off as soon as you don't. If you lack the ncu to run your buffs that are currently running they terminate till they fit your avaliable ncu at once.
o- if you can buff into this stuff you can wear and use it. It's passive gear once it's on.
o- check this item on zone only and remove any NCUs or belts that don't meet reqs

"Implants"
o - check them against key stats. if the key stat (not treatment since no one meets treatmenet reqs and everyone uses at least the +100 station bonus) is 25% below the req remove the implant or totally disable it till the req is met.
o - leave implants alone.
o - scale the implant's effectivness according to the % of the primary req met.

THERE

MAKE SOME POLLS

[____________Nemesyss]

Read WGMelchior's Post,

And when you are done-- read it again--

Then read the following quote from his post-

"With the current mob balance, you have to be rich. Otherwise you'll be dead. The problem is that there are few ways to get rich unless you are rich already. You should NEVER have to overequip just to be able to survive."
"That is the problem. This game isn't based on levels, or skills, or time. It's based on items. Sure, the items rely on skills, which relies on levels. But you can always tweak those skills, if you have the right items. It's a kind of evil circle. The higher you get, the more you need to overequip. "

So what have we learned?--
This game is unbalanced-- and unbalancing begets unbalancing(overequiping) *FACT*.

This game is one dimensional-(you hunt to gain levels and do missions to gain money-- period)

Add more to do in the game to succeed-- ie gain levels and experience and wealth, and everyone wont be looking for items to overequip to make it possible to do the above one-dimensional tasks.

IMPORTANT:
If the game had begun as balanced-- with appropriate level equipment available allowing you to hunt appropriate level mobs for appropriate level equipment in appropriate level missions for appropriate level credits-- there would be no problem!-- *FACT*
And only a few I want to be uber people out there-- meglomaniacs mostly-- would feel the need to spend millions of credits to over buff to over- implant to over armor and over weapon themselves -- since it wouldnt be necessary to do so to survive and have fun. *FACT*

Put in a level system that allows chars to prosper-- put in a level cap on items-- as is already being done in dungeons with special equipment-- and POOF-- guess what?!?-- this discussion becomes as obsloete as this whole OVEREQUIPPING problem.
*FACT*

[Cambist]

This is something similar to Mikebond's post about not being able to buff greys. I'd posted this the day before yesterday before you had the Official post up. I don't think you should limit it to someone who is grey to you, as you can still group with greys and might need to do team buffs, but this is my modified version..

One good idea that I thought might help was limiting buffs to people in your "grouping" range or lower.

If you could only get buffed by someone you could gain XP with or lower level than you, we wouldn't have as many problems with "uber" low level pvpers. This would also make people who are around the same level try and communicate and group together more. It should also keep people in reasonably leveled armor and weapons.

Anyway, this was an idea posted by jws a ways back that I rather liked... Keeps overequipping, but limits it to a large degree. Much like the comp-lit buff change for traders. However, you should really look at mob difficulty if you keep making these changes. Most of us overequip because we wouldn't be able to do missions or be viable in a group otherwise. It's rather expensive to equip this way and I'd probably not do it as much if I could live without it.

-Sell-

[_______________Bjond]

On exploiting, if it's such an enormous problem, it's not like we didn't warn you. In beta we told you the game was too buggy to release and you released anyway. The test-server people continually warn you of bugs that you release anyway. So, your neighbors tell you that all that garbage on your front lawn stinks and you should get rid of it. Now you've got a rat-infested hovel and you're asking if you should shoot the rats or not?

Sheesh, get a clue. TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE!

Now, think back to beta again. We also told you the game was too unbalanced to release. Now, you've basically admitted that not only is it incredibly unbalanced, but the only way you can think of to fix it is to rewrite one of the most basic features of the game. The entire deprive/ransack/wrangle line only serves over-equiping (removing it kills the trader class). The +100 treatment on clinics only serves over-equiping. The stat buffs on items only serve over-equiping. Tutoring (though still buggy) only serves over-equiping. I could go on and on. Over-equiping is a fundamental aspect of the current game.

So, you want to remove over-equiping after release? Hell, if this was beta, go for it. It's released! If you make changes like this, you should just refund all fees and enter beta again until you're *sure* you're happy with things. The problem is not over-equiping, it's that you've balanced combat only for the most over-equiped characters. You need to rebalance it for *average* players. Over-equiped players *should* have a big advantage.

Think about it -- it's only a temporary advantage. The advantage seriously degrades and goes away entirely as you approach 200. For lower levels, if a player wants to *stay* over-equiped, he needs to replace all his gear every 5 levels. He'll have to stop leveling and gather cash and items to stay on top (hint: while he stops leveling the average player catches up). Staying on top of that over-equiped curve takes lots of cash and that's why people are so upset now.

Imagine you have a class and you've got a young Einstein in it. You can spend your time teaching him and loose the other 99% or you can teach the rest and let E learn on his own. By balancing combat at the high end, you've decided to let the other students rot. The solution is not to lobotimize Einstein and continue to teach at his level.

The most fundamental problems we have here are not exploiting or over-equiping. It's that Funcom wants to blame exploiters for all the problems with bugs rather than fix bugs. It's that Funcom sees nothing wrong with making sweeping changes that would destroy characters.

[______________Hodaka]

IMHO, they should also modify that and make it so you can't team with grays.. make things visually easier when you team as well.
Plus, unless they eliminated it, it would fix the exploit that allows high level characters to ganks lowbies in PVP..

Originally posted by Sellyoursoul
This is something similar to Mikebond's post about not being able to buff greys. I'd posted this the day before yesterday before you had the Official post up. I don't think you should limit it to someone who is grey to you, as you can still group with greys and might need to do team buffs, but this is my modified version..

-Sell-

[_______________Bjond]

Can't team or buff greys is a truly bad solution. So, my doc friend that happens to be deep red can no longer buff me? I have to hunt out a near-level doc just to get the exact same buffs my friend could cast on me? Bad choice. Fix the PvP bug by using the highest limit rather than the lowest team member.

These questions should never have been asked. This is not a just a can of worms, it's a seething snake pit. Leave the game rules alone, fix bugs, balance combat by adjusting MOBs.

[______________Daroon]

From the posts I see on this thread, there is too much uncertain information and speculation on what over-equipping actually is.

This might be slightly off topic, but I really think this has a lot to do with the problem causing the over-equipping issues...

The way I see it is very simple:

If you use self buffs or general buffs to use weapons armor ncu belts, that is NOT over-equipping... the QL of your gear does not mean you can't use higher, but its just there to show you a number to compare it to other items of the same type...

the problem I see and I don't like is players using high level buffs that can only effectively be used to over equip... they serve no other usefull purpose in-game...

Any one in-game can use a QL 48 armor sleeve but some warrior types might practiaclly be able to wear it unbuffed at lev 40 where some other nano based may not be able to wear it till lev 55 with buffs ... thats part of your profession and it was the players choice to create not Funcom...

The very first thing that needs to be dealt with is balancing PvP... this is where the problem really lies... I don't want to engage in PvP with my lev 45 enforcer with QL 40-48 gear with a lev 33 anything using the same QL50+ gear.

However, If I devote my entire IP reserve into melee attack, speed and comp lit for ncu belt and chips I can wear and I currently do unbuffed, QL 61 ncu belt and QL73 chips my 2HEdged is maxxed right now using a QL49 2H Loose Merchant Blade, and I still can not defeat some greens in the mission area. I can't use maxx attacks because the mobs are stacking ransack skills and deprive skills for -92 all attack skills.

So if you are really looking Funcom, there are still problems with normal gameplay as well as with exploits, and Both are important to address.

At least post us players some up-front rules on whats concidered over-equipping you read what I personally thing it is... Let's hear from the dev team!

Daroon

[______________Hodaka]

That's the price you pay to avoid overequipping. I'm friends with a lot of grays too, and yes, I'm gray to a lot of people also..

So you get another doc to buff you.. there will plenty that you're not gray to..

Nobody's going to be happy with any nerf that funcom makes.. we'll all pay a price..

This just seems like an easier one than many of the other choices out there..

Originally posted by Bjond
Can't team or buff greys is a truly bad solution. So, my doc friend that happens to be deep red can no longer buff me? I have to hunt out a near-level doc just to get the exact same buffs my friend could cast on me? Bad choice. Fix the PvP bug by using the highest limit rather than the lowest team member.

These questions should never have been asked. This is not a just a can of worms, it's a seething snake pit. Leave the game rules alone, fix bugs, balance combat by adjusting MOBs.

[talamakara]

Ok this is an idea people may or may not like but honestly oh well it's my oppinion. But i've read all these articles about people complaining and people pissed that they can't use armor or that someone is unfairly raising his abilities and all that, and yes i agree with alot of it. But what if in stead of de-equiping and doing an ip reset which is honestly no fair cause it took alot to get my ips were they are, but why take the class restrictions OFF the nano crystals and put them to weapons. Think about it, if you can use a lvl 85 weapon great but if you can use a lvl 85 nano crystal from say an enforcer to use on a doctor to allow them to survive more. IMHO I think first try my idea about taking the classes off the nanos, and put them on the weapons.

-So and Eforcer would use melee only like 1h edge/1hblunt, 2hedge/blunt
-an adv would use only melee weapons such as a axe or kitanna.
-The Martial Artist would use his hands for the most part but be allowed to use melee weapons esspessaly at low lvls.
-Agents all seem to preffer riffles so only all them to use rifles.
-Bureaucrats only Melee weapons.
-The Doctors need a whole new class of weapons just for them.The doc is ment to heal but when it comes to sergery he has to be precise. As so they deserve a class of like Lazer weapons(energy) that are better that the average. It would also help compinsate for thier lack of deffensive capabilities.
-Engineers should be able to use just ranged weapons(shot guns blasters) only heavy ranged weapons.
-Meta-Physasist is the only class i believe to be stricktly limited to something, staffs and poles and limited amounts of light weight swords. This because a "sorcerer" isn't suppose to be able to do massive melee damage. He is suppose to be able to throw a fire ball and leave a hole in the monster.
-Nano Technitian should use light weight ranged weapons.
-Soldier Should be able to use any ranged weapon in the game. The Soldier is suppose to be an expert in weapons.
Trader- The Trader I see no point in, the character template are hardly ever used and it has no real special features.

Now as you see the MP is still like a "sorcerer" and can still excell in the fields he uses now, but were like an agent has false profesion and can use the abilities of a MP for a while. They aren't going to be as strong.
So In my idea of removing the nano-crystal classes it should be set it up so that if a "visualization of fury" was used by a Adventurer it would be weaker than if it was used my a MP.
If a Doctor used thugs delight it wouldn't put his stats up as high as it would on an enforcer.
Now I don't know if my idea is clear to everyone or as clear as mud but to me it makes sense.

Talamakara