Comments from the Devs

[Gokulo]

Joy joy, Christmas present.

[Jinn]

Phase 1: Fall damage testing :o

interesting

[Elona]

Phase 1: Fall damage testing

interesting

[Jinn]

D: wut?!

Only reason I say interesting is because there are currently 423049302940392490324 invisible walls set up everywhere in the alpha and the falls you can take aren't very far at all to be considered worthy of adding fall damage into the game. Also saw a topic about removing walls and taking fall damage on the Alpha test forums, guess SE liked the idea >.>;

[Elona]

D: wut?!

I like the fall damage idea, dunno how hard it is to make it work in real, both in open world and in raids.

[Gulkeeva]

Hopefully they don't do something like fall damage to where you can actually die from it.. although that could be hilarious...

[Jinn]

Not dieing from fall damage reminds me of the 2hour falls in Tera onto jagged rocks and surviving with 1 HP -_-

I'd prefer death from fall damage, so many funny moments in wow where I'd be running around and see a body fall from the sky right in front of me...

[Sephiroth]

Phase 1: Fall damage testing

interesting

You've just given me an image of dozens of players jumping off cliffs committing suicide in efforts to test this.

Not sure how I feel about the death vs. 1 HP options though, death could be annoying when solo but leaving you with HP regardless just makes the damage pointless since HP regens so fast when not in combat.

[miokomioko]

New alpha gameplay footage: Tam-Tara Deepcroft

[Rionel]

I don't see much reason to include fall damage at all. Like, what "valuable" purpose does it serve other than trying to make it more "realistic"?

It just seems kind of an inane thing to include. Just let people jump off of where ever!

[Elcura]

Fall damage is a consequence. If you could jump and fall from great heights without penalty you could easily get away from dangerous enemies without much problem. If there's a short cut in a dungeon that requires a fall then there's a reason to not take it because at the bottom you might get fucked up (by enemies) whereas if you walked normally you would make it.

Not every example or reason, but there is a reason.

[Jinn]

Perhaps a debuff to simulate every bone in your legs being shattered would be cool, 50% reduced movement xD

[Prothescar]

as long as it isnt "Exposed" like in RIFT

[jwang]

I love the Piscodemon/Soulflayer/Squidface mobs. They're just so adorable, in a C'thulu way!

[Rionel]

Fall damage is a consequence. If you could jump and fall from great heights without penalty you could easily get away from dangerous enemies without much problem. If there's a short cut in a dungeon that requires a fall then there's a reason to not take it because at the bottom you might get fucked up (by enemies) whereas if you walked normally you would make it.

Not every example or reason, but there is a reason.

But what does this consequence serve exactly? It just seems like an unnecessary thing in the grand scheme of things, or at best, something that doesn't really warrant that much attention in the first place as there are much more important issues to be looking over.

Getting away from dangerous monsters doesn't seem like a big issue to me... so long as it isn't turned into an exploit to kill them more easily with "hit run repeat nauseum" tactics. But there are certain safe guards that have been implemented to avoid this problem I believe.

There should definitely still be some boundaries in place for sure, in cases where jumping off would be "skipping" parts of the dungeon or what not. It's all a matter of when a boundary is appropriate, or better yet, design the dungeon so that there is no sense of invisible boundaries in the first place (like Mario Galaxy per say) or maybe even some sort of inherent environment restrictions that are appropriate for the location.

Either way, I just hope it doesn't become a huge debate or anything. It's really such a small thing.

[Grey Jorildyn]

And yet also important. The game "feels" like it needs it so it should be there. Heck all the battered housewives are clamoring for it. Finally something we agree on!

[Lucavi]

Think about it in terms of PVP, then, since you can't see a PVE use for it just yet. If you're going to incorporate terrain differences, what's to stop a wounded target from just running off a cliff onto a ledge far below and getting away scott free? Yeah, you could just jump off and follow, but imagine how much time you'd waste heading back up.

You'll just have to trust me on this, if you haven't experienced it yet. There are plenty of other games that have open zones with massive terrain differences and PVP, and if you don't stop someone from just leaping off somewhere to escape a threat, no one will ever finish fights. GW2 is a perfect example of this, because there are so many cliffs in the WvW zones that you can either jump off of, or be pushed off of, to your death. Where things become interesting is having actual talented abilities that reduce falling damage and provide benefits or traps when you land. For example, a thief has an ability that reduces their fall damage but a good percent (somewhere around 33-66%) and triggers around a 6 second stealth when they land. This lets them get away when they hit the ground, but they have to use a precious talent spot to have it, that could have been spent elsewhere.

You can also include better mechanics in boss fights if you now have the threat of being knocked off a ledge to your death (or severe damage). All of a sudden, wind mechanics work very well, as do long-range knockbacks. It adds to depth.

[noblemountain]

Or...like in SWTOR, it could just be a useless annoyance. OH I'M SORRY I JUMPED OFF THE SECOND FLOOR...I'M A GOD DAMN JEDI!

[Alkar]

That's why it's being implemented in a beta test.

[millionsknives]

But we're not Jedi If we wanted to be really petty we could say DRGs should jump of higher things, but it's not worth it.

Fall damage is a good idea, if not from a balancing point of view, purely from an immersion one.

Edit: Letter from the Producer No. 40

ARR will be in an Astral era. Setting it in the 7th Umbral would have been much cooler :/