3/21/16 Update Discussion Thread

[BadSkeelz]

That's what I meant. It s called a "quarter," though. It's a whole sector of the city, with its own apartments and shops and all kinds of stuff. I can't see why anybody would want to play a gemmed mage with this change, or at least not enough to make such a large portion of the city feel like it has any purpose.

Quarter does not literally mean 25% of a city, and often has not through history. The Gemmed section of town is also not to scale (just like the rest of Allanak).

As for whether you think this change makes the Gemmed character more or less appealing, that comes down to what you personally envision the Gemmed role to be. As we don't have good documentation, currently its to each his or her own.

[Armaddict]

I'm not sure what it is, but something about just isn't seeming to sit right with me over it.  I can't even really effectively describe it, which is making me think it's just aversion to drastic change, at this very moment.

I will say...please keep this under control.  Please don't make this into magick hidden everywhere.  When I talked about rogue magickers, I wasn't talking about them hiding everywhere under my nose; I was talking about a very real separatist sort of movement that was only truly visible in the gemmed's eye (or in drastic situations that would, of course, only deepen the lack of understanding of the populace and their distrust).  You've iterated that you'll be watching it, but I'm saying please anyway, because the hype appears to already be building up into meta-powers and how to use it to become uberpowerful the fastest and greatest.

The moment that I see clans finding out about it and immediately finding it useful rather than flabbergastingly deceitful and hard to deal with, I'll be having a very hard time.  Right now, that possibility is what I'm kinda dreading.

[Warsong]

That's what I meant. It s called a "quarter," though. It's a whole sector of the city, with its own apartments and shops and all kinds of stuff. I can't see why anybody would want to play a gemmed mage with this change, or at least not enough to make such a large portion of the city feel like it has any purpose.

Quarter does not literally mean 25% of a city, and often has not through history. The Gemmed section of town is also not to scale (just like the rest of Allanak).

I know that! I referred to it as a "quarter" because it's called the Gemmed Quarter. I don't know what your point is. Why does it matter that it isn't actually 25%? It's a significant portion of the city, that's what matters.

[Molten Heart]

Are there any planned changes for mage progression? I'm hoping for something more interesting than casting spells ad nauseum.

This, is the only thing I dislike about mages.  If you want to learn X spell that's three spells down, you gotta grind through three spells just to get X spell.

I never really bitch too loudly about it though, because for the life of me, I couldn't think of a better way to improve it than the grind.

Maybe if magick was a skill in general from use, instead of per spell.  But even that, would probably take a whole re-write of code.

If only there were some way for mundane skills to atrophy away as elementalists skills were used more and more. Maybe a ranger/merchant/burglar/assassin/warrior/pickpocket would become a full elementalist over time and leave their old skills behind as a subguild. It'd be kinda cool in rare cases for older elementalists who leaned heavily on their elementalist abilities.

[Armaddict]

I mean...are we about to turn into Avatar: The last airbender, up in here?

[Asmoth]

That's what I meant. It s called a "quarter," though. It's a whole sector of the city, with its own apartments and shops and all kinds of stuff. I can't see why anybody would want to play a gemmed mage with this change, or at least not enough to make such a large portion of the city feel like it has any purpose.

Quarter does not literally mean 25% of a city, and often has not through history. The Gemmed section of town is also not to scale (just like the rest of Allanak).

I know that! I referred to it as a "quarter" because it's called the Gemmed Quarter. I don't know what your point is. Why does it matter that it isn't actually 25%? It's a significant portion of the city, that's what matters.

What he means... Is that because it's codedly a huge part of the city, doesn't mean it really is.  There is way more Allanak than we can walk in.  Virtual streets, alleys houses etc.

Don't get hung up on the physics of it.  Otherwise you'll lose your mind when you figure out you can walk out the west gate and around the city to the salt road in a tenth of the rooms it takes walking through the city.

Not everything is built to scale.

[Dar]

I dislike the change in code, as far as skills and so on. I think it makes the elementalist subguilds too powerful.

What I love though is the fact that elementalism is no longer a driving force behind the character motivation. That's what usually kept me away from playing mages too often, the difficulties in grokking their motivations. Now though ... they're just normal mundanes who were handed a bazooka. No problem

[RogueGunslinger]

I mean...are we about to turn into Avatar: The last airbender, up in here?

No but fuck wouldn't it be cool if your characters casted with martial arts forms instead of random words and gesticulations?

[BadSkeelz]

Because you still seemed hung up on it. The Gemmed Quarter is not a significantly large portion of the City in-character. It's a crotch of a district wedged between Caravan's road and the Rinth. It does have a fair bit of amenities (though it lacks others like a good tavern and rumor board), but that's more a fault of the rest of the City being underdeveloped than the Gemmed section being over developed.

I think it will get a lot more use as a lot more Gemmed will be rolled up by people who want to play the warriors, rangers, and assassins with supplemental magick.

I mean...are we about to turn into Avatar: The last airbender, up in here?

can I be maskdude. he hates them benders rite

[Lizzie]

Ummh. Actually, I honestly imagine there will be an 'increase' in gemmed population. To a point of ridiculous.

A legitimized group of mundanes with super powers? A group of people who are greater in number then militia, have no restriction on sparring/combat abilities and can do shit like ... illusion aspect, or guile aspect?  Oash is going to become the scariest house ever. I really hope the political backlash for employing mages is intensified for them. Especially if they suddenly get Elites AND magickers at the same time.


Guys? This didnt make magickers weaker. This made them insanely more powerful.

A templar has political/social restricitons on sparring and improving his combat. Not counting spells, a skilled ranger could kill a Templar one on one, no sweat. Now ... you'll have a skilled ranger/warrior AND spells.  

Assassin+Illusion:Scaaaaaary.

Not really. In fact, not at all. As soon as you're seen casting a spell you're outted and either hunted down/PKed or gemmed/tolerated only in limited parts of the game world.  That's exactly as it was with the full spell list. Except - now - you don't even get the benefit of the full spell list for all the risk you take.

Also - very very disappointing, I checked my guild options, and now realize all I see are the non-karma options. I have plenty of karma but none of it grants me anything on the main guild list anymore. This has 5 karma, that has 4 karma, the other has 6 karma, I have no idea what's available to me anymore without having to special app.

What are the new karma levels?
1 karma:

• Water touched.
• Stone touched.

2 karma:

• Rukkian aspect of protection.
• Rukkian aspect of creation.
• Rukkian aspect of empowerment.
• Vivaduan aspect of healing.
• Vivaduan aspect of corruption.
• Vivaduan aspect of creation.

3 karma:

• Fire touched.
• Wind touched.

4 karma:

• Krathi aspect of guile.
• Whiran aspect of tempest.

5 karma:

• Krathi aspect of agony.
• Whiran aspect of travel.

6 karma

• Whiran aspect of illusion.
• Krathi aspect of devastation.

FAQ

Er that's not what I meant Rath, sorry! I meant very literally - that I can no longer see what *I* have available to *me.* I can read what everyone has the potential to have to them. But previously - I was able to type O and see all the stuff I could do. PLUS I knew that all the subguilds except for the sorcerer ones, were available to me - all without special apping.

I don't know how many karma points i have anymore. I haven't had to check, because I only had to type O to see the entire list of everything I could do. If I wanted to do more, I'd special app it.

Now - I'm totally lost. There are more options available to me that I *cannot* see on a simple easy list, than there are options to me that I can see.

[RogueGunslinger]

I mean...are we about to turn into Avatar: The last airbender, up in here?

can I be maskdude. he hates them benders rite

Amon, you filthy casual.

[Pale Horse]

I think we've worked ourselves into a pigeon-hold about what it means to be Gemmed.

Before this change, Gemmed were only walking magick-sacks with the possibility of having some useful mundane skill through a sub-guild.  If you've ever been into the Gemmed quarter you can see that there's Gemmed who practice all sorts of skills other than magick.

Now, players are going to have to get used to being that sort of Gemmed.

[Rathustra]

Ummh. Actually, I honestly imagine there will be an 'increase' in gemmed population. To a point of ridiculous.

A legitimized group of mundanes with super powers? A group of people who are greater in number then militia, have no restriction on sparring/combat abilities and can do shit like ... illusion aspect, or guile aspect?  Oash is going to become the scariest house ever. I really hope the political backlash for employing mages is intensified for them. Especially if they suddenly get Elites AND magickers at the same time.


Guys? This didnt make magickers weaker. This made them insanely more powerful.

A templar has political/social restricitons on sparring and improving his combat. Not counting spells, a skilled ranger could kill a Templar one on one, no sweat. Now ... you'll have a skilled ranger/warrior AND spells.  

Assassin+Illusion:Scaaaaaary.

Not really. In fact, not at all. As soon as you're seen casting a spell you're outted and either hunted down/PKed or gemmed/tolerated only in limited parts of the game world.  That's exactly as it was with the full spell list. Except - now - you don't even get the benefit of the full spell list for all the risk you take.

Also - very very disappointing, I checked my guild options, and now realize all I see are the non-karma options. I have plenty of karma but none of it grants me anything on the main guild list anymore. This has 5 karma, that has 4 karma, the other has 6 karma, I have no idea what's available to me anymore without having to special app.

What are the new karma levels?
1 karma:

• Water touched.
• Stone touched.

2 karma:

• Rukkian aspect of protection.
• Rukkian aspect of creation.
• Rukkian aspect of empowerment.
• Vivaduan aspect of healing.
• Vivaduan aspect of corruption.
• Vivaduan aspect of creation.

3 karma:

• Fire touched.
• Wind touched.

4 karma:

• Krathi aspect of guile.
• Whiran aspect of tempest.

5 karma:

• Krathi aspect of agony.
• Whiran aspect of travel.

6 karma

• Whiran aspect of illusion.
• Krathi aspect of devastation.

FAQ

Er that's not what I meant Rath, sorry! I meant very literally - that I can no longer see what *I* have available to *me.* I can read what everyone has the potential to have to them. But previously - I was able to type O and see all the stuff I could do. PLUS I knew that all the subguilds except for the sorcerer ones, were available to me - all without special apping.

I don't know how many karma points i have anymore. I haven't had to check, because I only had to type O to see the entire list of everything I could do. If I wanted to do more, I'd special app it.

Now - I'm totally lost. There are more options available to me that I *cannot* see on a simple easy list, than there are options to me that I can see.

Could you put a request in with a log of what you're seeing and a description of what you expect to see? I'm off to bed now, but in case there's a problem having it in the system might mean someone sees it before I wake up.

[Asmoth]

The only thing that would make this better in my eyes is if the magick cast didn't give away element.

I feel it would make the magicker more mysterious and less likely to be (sniffed out and countered).

But hey, we can't have everything!

[BadSkeelz]

I mean...are we about to turn into Avatar: The last airbender, up in here?

can I be maskdude. he hates them benders rite

Amon, you filthy casual.

long as he hates them gickers.


Man now I want to make Giant Dad "the fatherly half-giant", going around Zalanthas with my bone zweihander and asking magickers "wot rings u got bithc?" before killing them.

[Jingo]

I mean...are we about to turn into Avatar: The last airbender, up in here?

can I be maskdude. he hates them benders rite

Amon, you filthy casual.

Mask dude actually was a bender.

[BadSkeelz]

I just can't win with this change can I.

[Beethoven]

Rath, the problem is that the list of karma options brought up by pressing O after logging in only shows available races and guilds, not subguilds.

[Large Hero]

[Vositus]

Cool that this seems so well received.

Bummer I'll never play a Nilazi. I've never been interested in playing a magicker, except for that one.

[Chettaman]

I'm so stoked about this.
So stoked... dammit. Damn you all. I'm trying to stop playing this game and you go and do this!
DAMN YOU CRACKAGEDDON!

[Harmless]

I deeply dislike removing entire elements from play.

I like magical subguilds.  But I also deeply dislike removing full-guild elementalists as an option.

This greatly diminishes my desire to play, since I was always aiming towards getting enough karma to play a powerful magic class.

Count me in among those who dislike the total removal of multiple guilds.  My dislike for this change is so strong that nothing is really going to change my opinion unless those guilds are brought back as options. I will end my comments here as I am sure the staff decision on this matter is "final."

Just to be clear I do love the magical subguilds. I just don't see why it had to include removing all the Magick mainguilds.

[Majikal]

I'm turning into BadSkeelz. I'm seriously not going to like this change in the short term. Magick-lite? Nope. Magick eeeeeeeverywhere. Good thing Tuluk's closed or we'd get to see templar heads pop off from the sudden magick overload that I think this change is going to bring.

Instead of some people that can do serious magick, it's going to be a bunch of people that can do a little bit of magick. Lots of people are going to want to dabble with these options.

Ranger Jedi's man, ranger fucking jedi's.  

I wish a TRUE elementalist was still an option. Would be nice to have more limited subs and then the true elementalists.

[BadSkeelz]

I'm turning into BadSkeelz

Ranger Jedi's man, ranger fucking jedi's.  

edit: R.I.P. Elkran/con artist concept.

[Asmoth]

I'm turning into BadSkeelz. I'm seriously not going to like this change in the short term. Magick-lite? Nope. Magick eeeeeeeverywhere. Good thing Tuluk's closed or we'd get to see templar heads pop off from the sudden magick overload that I think this change is going to bring.

Instead of some people that can do serious magick, it's going to be a bunch of people that can do a little bit of magick. Lots of people are going to want to dabble with these options.

Ranger Jedi's man, ranger fucking jedi's.  

I wish a TRUE elementalist was still an option. Would be nice to have more limited subs and then the true elementalists.

You are not stoked to play a ranger who is out minding his own business, and all the sudden a mek or met rolls in and he waves his hand and says, "I'm not the ranger you want to eat." and then pets the beast?

Or a warrior who shoots fire when he farts?

A burglar who literally can vanish?

The opportunities are everywhere!