Poison/Cure rate of decay

Started by Pariah, January 31, 2023, 08:19:55 AM

It seems from other threads that people seem to universally, at least the vocal/typer ones, think that poison cure degredation is too fast.

I don't know if they ever said how long it takes for an above average cure to lose it's potency down to average/below average etc.  (I'm sure Mansa will find the post if they did.)

While most of my gripes with the "new" poison system is still the old one, the herb placement being static and having to run around the world to collect them, plus the ambiguity of the flavors, I wonder why people want longer duration.

Is it because you play off-peak and there aren't anyone to make them, so when you run into the unicorn that is a good brewer/poisoner it's so rare you don't want to rely on unicorn sightings?

Is because you just don't get to play as much as you'd like, due to life, kids, work etc?  So to have to spend your one or two times a week playing watching your cures degrade in your pocket, thus adding on what others have stated as "busy work" to keep your cures/poisons up to snuff?

So I got to thinking, maybe we could fix it without being all or nothing (Roll back decay to pills lasting forever or pills decaying while you're on vacation and not playing the game).

What if...

There were items that keep poisons from decaying, but are large and bulky, designed for apartments like a chest or trunk size, have to be closed like a sealed food bin and any cure/poison that's inside won't decay provided it's in there and closed?

Then poisons only decay when carried in inventory or a bag and go off TIME PLAYED, versus game time.  So if I have my three bloodburn cures and one terradin cure in my aba.  I log off and go on vacation for two weeks, come back to play, the timer was in stasis because my homie wasn't actually here to tick it down?  This wouldn't punish the player for not being super hard core and playing every day, but it would also put some type of decay for the pills/mashes etc.

What you think?
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pls no clanned players already have enough advantages over unclanned ones (this would benefit peak players who are more welcomed into clans with limited slots anyway)

Quote from: Lutagar on January 31, 2023, 08:30:20 AM
pls no clanned players already have enough advantages over unclanned ones (this would benefit peak players who are more welcomed into clans with limited slots anyway)

Could always make the "bin" thing craftable and not require a clan.  Maybe made outta rock or some other easily findable materials.

Then you could technically be a rinther and plop it down in one of those random hidden away save rooms.  Sure there would be risk, but it is what it is.
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I don't have any real problem with it.  Your cures degrade over something like an RL month, that's plenty of time to re-up in my opinion.  And the higher end poisons are an extreme rarity -- you may have to take multiple weaker/older cures to match the strength of a perfect cure, but that doesn't seem bad to me.

    Thanks for moving this thread Pariah. To restate my opinions from my other thread posts (which was focusing on the mismatched PvP power balance and how that affects players but was being derailed by yours truly):


    • Poisons do degrade too fast, especially if off peak. Having the timer not tick if logged out with it on your person is nice for the assassin but is OP on longer timescales i.e. months because that character has no way of virtually keeping a poison fresh that long. Therefore, this is probably what assassin-favoring players want, but isn't going to improve the fairness of the situation.
    • The ability to use crafting (preserving crafts?), containers, or other means to prolong the life of a poison is more along the lines of realism and would extend the life of a poison to a reasonable degree. I want there to be more variability of poison lifespan. It makes more sense for say Chedya stems, a plant with fiber presumably among other things that naturally preserve it, to last longer than a floppy, gooey gland torn out of an insect, which should become an inert lump as it dries out within weeks. But as things stand, I can't detect a difference really in the spoil rate between poison types, or if it's there it's too subtle for me to notice.
    • I think the idea of poisons wearing off after application is fine and wouldn't mind that being very short, i.e. just a few in game days even (like the duration of a "buff" spell used by a mage in comparison is fine and makes sense.) However, the rotting of poisons pre-application is what is problematic now as a major "nerf". The application's duration can just be for the day(s) that the assassin uses to get their mark, and it's appealing to me that if the assassin doesn't succeed in finding their mark that their poison ends up wasted; makes sense.
  • I am NOT opposed to the codependence on brewers at all. The fact that you need a fresh or enough cures for that rare poison on hand at the time does mean you either need to be a brewer yourself, or to know one recently enough that their cure is preserved for the application day (in the event of a mistake, self-applying some of the deadliest poisons is going to be at least very risky and possibly fatal for the poisoner). Therefore, we can lengthen the duration of many poisons spoil time without changing the fact that a poisoner without brew or cures is handicapped significantly.
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From:  https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,58086.msg1080149.html#msg1080149

"Tablets can last nearly 6 RL months, and the timeframe for vials are in the order of a few RL months.   A mash, which is meant to be an intermediate crafting item, will only last one RL day."

Those numbers are from highest potency to inert.

If you really want to figure out how long it takes it to go from above average to below average, or whatever increments you want to know, you can probably do some rough math based on the numbers above and get a ballpark idea.
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any chance it can be changed so people with the brew skill can analyse the potency of a cure?

Quote from: Lutagar on January 31, 2023, 11:00:40 AM
any chance it can be changed so people with the brew skill can analyse the potency of a cure?

You can see the potency of a cure by using "assess -v <cure>"

Any cure that says 'old' is inert and will not work.
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Quote from: Lutagar on January 31, 2023, 11:00:40 AM
any chance it can be changed so people with the brew skill can analyse the potency of a cure?

Already a thing, but your brew skill needs to be above starting levels.  And as mansa said, you use assess  on it
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January 31, 2023, 11:39:15 AM #9 Last Edit: January 31, 2023, 11:41:56 AM by Pariah
Quote from: Halaster on January 31, 2023, 11:32:20 AM
Quote from: Lutagar on January 31, 2023, 11:00:40 AM
any chance it can be changed so people with the brew skill can analyse the potency of a cure?

Already a thing, but your brew skill needs to be above starting levels.  And as mansa said, you use assess  on it

Don't think it's worth creating a whole new thread, but why the colors of poison versus just spelling them out?

Assess goop will return you see a purple tinge of poison or something.

Help poison already tells us the name of all of them, it's not really a secret.

The color to my point of view just needlessly complicates it.  Why not just assess it and if you have poisoning see, "This is a weak version of bloodburn."

Or start with the color and then when you hit advanced/master just spell it out.
"This is a game that has elves and magick, stop trying to make it realistic, you can't have them both in the same place."

"We have over 100 Unique Logins a week!" Checks who at 8pm EST, finds 20 other players but himself.  "Thanks Unique Logins!"