This is a big list I felt the need to write up. It can be referred to and used by other aspiring V2 fanatics, or Aranock itself, but it may be my go-to set of changes if I were to ever host my own server.

Some of the things on this list, of course, enter "taboo" territory; that is to say, "erasing" the nostalgia-factor that attracts players-who-used-to-play-V2 to V2 servers. If Aranock happens to borrow things from this list, I certainly don't mind, but I certainly don't expect it to happen in the long run.

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1) Nerf Bless and Curse

At present, Bless and Curse are the two fundamental cores to every build that has them. Every 5 points invested will increase or reduce the target's base stats by 1, with an additional 3 at base regardless of stat level. As a result, improving Bless and Curse is often the safest bet you can make, and without one or both of these spells you're left in the dust. It is one of the fundamental reasons why Harakim and Sorcerer are perceived as 'better' than their peers.

I would consider adjusting this by changing the way these spells alter the base stats. Instead of every 5 points offering +/- 1 to everything, I would instead do something like this:



This would cascade each stat so that two points in bless gives 1 point in one of the base stats. Ultimately this would cause these spells to be half as powerful as they presently are, while simultaneously costing fewer points to see an effect.

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2) Alter the way 'spellmod' works, and/or add a "recipient" version of it.

Spellmod is an infamous hidden stat that changes how spells are calculated, and depending on your spellmod it might take more or fewer points in a spell to reach a similar level of effect to another race.

This isn't a problem itself, but there is room for an "opposite" version that modifies incoming spells when a target receives something. This can effect both good and bad effects when a spell is cast on you from an ally or enemy.

For example, certain enemies could have a lower incoming spell mod. This would effectively mean that curse and stun would have less effect on the enemy. But it would also mean that spells cast on that enemy by its allies would also have less effect. This could be taken in interesting directions when applied to players as well, acting as a sort of middle-man to a high-spell character buffing a high-melee one.

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3) Change how Templars work in terms of WV/AV

Templars are weird. They rely on their spells just as much as every other class, but they intentionally lack mana regen and have to either focus on keeping an inventory stacked with potions at all times (which no other class needs to ultimately do), or stick to zero mana and miss out on extra stats. Templar ends up being a matter of covering your weakness without really having its own strengths.

With the above 'receiver' spellmod in mind, it could be possible to give Templars new skills outside of spells that might offer similar bonuses, but might fundamentally make more sense to raise.

For example, a 'weapon mastery' skill and an 'armor mastery' skill, each of which might improve a character's WV and AV based off the weapon and armor they have equipped. It might not necessarily need to be templar-exclusive, but because templars can easily earn high WV and AV without spells, it would benefit them quite well as new core abilities to play with.

And, if a recipient spellmod is taken into account, spellcasters buffing templars with access to these new skills might only see very minor changes in their WV and AV beyond what they can achieve themselves.

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4) Expand the speed mod and possible movement speed ranges

At present the game has an internal 'speed mod' that affects all animations. It is noticeable as a detriment when you start the game, and kinda just makes things feel slow for no reason.

It may be possible to expand this speed mod to reach faster speeds, which would remove the need to start players at such a crawling pace. Further, this would offer a new dimension of play that players can focus on, enabling characters and enemies that act faster but hit weakly, or act slower but hit harder.

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5) Replace 'Stun' with 'Slow'

Stun is broken. Early on it is difficult to use and offers no real benefit, eating mana and doing nothing. Gradually it starts to become acceptable, but then it goes way, way past that point and ends up being an oppressive force both offensively and defensively. Enemies can easily be stunlocked and cease to be a threat, and even Aranock has gone so far as to intentionally make enemies immune to it in the end-game.

As with above, expanding the movement speed range can enable the ability to remove stun entirely and replace it with a spell that reduces a target's speed. This could alleviate the end-game brokenness Stun currently presents, as well as offer a better alternative to the early-game lousiness Stun currently presents.

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6) Change what fundamentals BWIAS offer

Internally, Strength gives you a higher maximum damage when you hit. Strength also improves how quickly you mine walls. Strength also improves movement and action speed. Strength also gives a double-bonus to many weapon skills, resistance and immunity. Strength does everything.

Agility improves movement and action speed and some weapon skills. Braveness, Intuition and Willpower improve spells I guess. That's it.

Instead, I would consider having Agility have a stronger presence when it comes to action speed, and possibly allow you to attack faster when invested.

I would consider having intuition and willpower pull different duties depending on whether a spell is offensive or defensive. As well, I'd consider the base stat to in some way contribute directly to either spellmod, or spell duration, or perhaps the speed of the casting animation.

Braveness I might see offering some bonus to something else, but it technically benefits almost every skill in the game so it might be fine as-is.

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7) Change how skills are distributed in the early game

Everyone starts out with roughly the same core set of skills, many of which go unused. Dagger on mercenary, sword on templar, hand to hand to name a few. Some skills are also must-haves, and it is impossible to break from the same usual quest structure of looping around town until you finally get access to Bless and Curse or Surround hit.

Instead, I would consider changing this so that characters start out with almost everything they need at core to be functional, but have the option to track down particular quests for particular skills. Something like Hand to Hand could be left entirely ignored, or it could be learned by a particular quest. The end result may be entirely the same, but it would allow a brand new character to access whatever grinding point they want, and potentially bypass having to follow the starting questline entirely.

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8.) Offer additional meaningful choices while raising a character

At present the most meaningful choices you make are what class you arch into, and which arch-skills you choose if limited to a handful. That's it.

I would plausibly consider adding other meaningful choices during earlier points in a character's career. Things like choosing to learn one weapon skill over another early on, or being able to change the way certain skills behave. Things similar to the act of arching, but on a smaller scale.

Perhaps alternatively, arching could be a multi-tier event, and arch classes could have a second spread of possible arches that further specializes what a character is capable of?

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9) Nerf heal

Heal can be a bit of a pain in the butt when you fight and whittle away at an enemy. Aranock's Lizard Dwellers are infamous for this, boasting over 500 hitpoints and 500 mana. Recently I learned they have a 120 mod concentrate as well, meaning their heal spell only costs about 15 mana instead of the usual 25. These fights are awful and take forever.

I would consider adding an additional debuff effect to heal, perhaps called "healing sickness". This debuff would be able to stack with itself up to ten times, lasting only 1 minute regardless of stack size. Each stack would reduce Heal's power by 10%.

This would alleviate frustrating heal-war fights, and a special NPC case could be added so NPCs stop casting heal when the debuff is stacked 10 times on their target. The duration of 1 minute is also present so that players can't heal-scum through dangerous situations, and have to eventually let the effect wear off before continuing. Alternatively, dispel could be used to remove it.

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10) Adjust or remove soulstones

Soulstones are intended to add extra bonuses to gear in exchange for a reduced shelf-life of that gear. Unfortunately there's a tough discrepancy on how it is presently used, and instead of utilizing various soulstone gear for combat and keeping it equipped at all times, cheeky players only worry about creating gear with very high spell stats and equipping them exclusively to spell themselves up, then remove them so they don't get damaged at all. This effectively lets them utilize these powerful pieces of equipment as long as they want.

It's hard to think of a valid solution to this, but it could plausibly be made so either spells have a shallower potency through soulstones, or so that the bonus from soulstones have a global "cap", and equipping many pieces of gear beyond this cap would have no additional effect. It could also be made so that soulstoned gear decays at all times and have a real-time shelf life instead of a combat-damage one.

It may also be a valid solution to scrap the system entirely since combat benefit is short-lived and expensive, while spell benefits effectively last forever and are super cheap.

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11) Spells cost a lot starting out, cost very little in the endgame

It costs 65 mana, not including losing focus, to fully spell yourself. At the end of the game this is trivial, but in the beginning of the game it is extremely difficult to keep yourself buffed while barely scrapping the mana together to do so, having to carry around many potions or purple flowers. Offensive spells like Curse and Stun are also rendered very difficult to use early on, but trivial in the endgame.

I would consider changing it so many, or all spells behave similarly to Blast, in that the mod of the spell affects the cost of the spell. These costs can have a floor value (say, 5) and possibly a ceiling value of their current costs, or they can extend beyond that for casters that have the most powerful spells at their disposal (they have access to concentrate anyway so I'm not sure how detrimental it would be).

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12) Make areas feel more 'open'

Some parts of the game feel a tad cramped due to their design, many of which try to offer a more 'organic' or 'realistic' approach to map design. Unfortunately this doesn't mesh well with the movement system in place in the game, and it causes certain places to feel cumbersome and difficult to navigate.

While map space might be at a premium, it isn't impossible to have a space feel both open but organic at the same time without sacrificing either. I would suggest assuring hallways are at least 3 tiles wide at all times so that navigation and combat never feel like they're at odds with the world design.

For example, the following is a 3-tile-wide corridor, while still offering a more 'natural cavern' feel by having the walls alternate on either side of the hallway.

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13) Adjust the early questline to be more open-ended

At present the early quests have a static route and every character will end up doing the same quests in the same order, and as a result things start to feel very same-ee for a very long time when starting different characters.

I would possibly consider adjusting it so there is a larger variety of jumping-on points for the questline, or more of a branching increase in available quests from the start. It's difficult to visualize exactly how this might be done without unintentionally making certain encounters 'too easy', but it may be more interesting to be able to pick "which quest you do next" while there are still quests available to do.

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I may add more to this list in the future, but take away from it what you will.