Spamcasting!

[thewolfen3]

Need I quite actually say that much about it? I wish to know what you all view as acceptable for the practice and also improving with this matter.

As always, no actual mechanics required, simply opinions as well as suggestions.

[BadSkeelz]

Introduce critical spell fails where you explode.

[MeTekillot]

Emote as much with your casting as much as you would do with your sparring.

[Lizzie]

So like if you're a broccoli mage, you could do this:

emote The sudden stench of boiled broccoli permeates through the air as @ raises ^me arms overhead. Dead-eyed, as though in a vegetative state as well, #me begins to chant.

and then spam cast til you're out of mana.

[Armaddict]

emote The sudden stench of boiled broccoli permeates through the air as @ raises ^me arms overhead. Dead-eyed, as though in a vegetative state as well, #me begins to chant.

I hope you're super proud of that.

[Revenant]

Spamcasting is fine, just get it out of the way, then get back to emoting about huddling in a corner and crying over your freak of nature status, then way a Templar begging for a hug, be sure to specify you're not talking about the cuddler. More crying. Go out, spook out other mages with your weirdness. Run away, cry some more, think One of these days, I'll show them ALL. I'll SHOW them!

Repeat until mage explodes. Welcome to Armageddon.

[Nergal]

Some suggestions:

- Treat training spells like clans treat training skills. Clans set time for sparring and time for other things as a way to structure the day for PCs. So set a time for yourself too. For example, high sun for a Krathi or at night for a Drovian. Take a day off under certain conditions, like if you're a Whiran and the winds are low.

- Emote/think/feel the process of practicing being under the effect of a spell, if you're casting a spell on yourself.

- Don't worry too much about "spamcasting" unless you're doing it to the exclusion of other things a person would reasonably do and doing it for more than 10-20 minutes or so. If you're roleplaying your character, you're not spamcasting.

[Jihelu]

If you think it would make someone raise an eyebrow, use a few emotes.
If note, you should be fine.

[Asmoth]

The system is sorta wonky in comparison to the rest of the skill system.

As it says in the help file about learning, you learn from failing, and this is partially true for casting, but it's also different if you're talking about increasing the horns of power.

Add in the un and nil reach, real and no effect spell casting and it gets even a little more murky. I know I personally am of the opinion that I wish nil casting was differently emoted command wise instead of looking the same as a real cast, because it's not. So on the outside someone might think you're doing mon un babyeater instead of Wek nil gemlove.

I almost wish the system gave you learning the more spaced out the casting was, like say that I haven't faster spell one in a real life day and I'm trying to get it from Wek to Yuqa, and it took that into effect and gave me a bonus to bumping the power chance versus just being a random dice roll or however it's handled now.

Magick is wierd as shit, the only other system in arm that has confused me as much is the way.

My personal opinion about spam anything is as Nergal said, if you're avoiding people and not role playing them that's a problem, but it also is a system that inherently requires you to cast a shitload to learn, so it's almost a trick box, don't cast too much, be ineffective and weak, cast too much, you're a twink.

I am not a two paragraph, think about every action using the think command and feel every emotion through feel command player, mostly because that's tedious oocly, but I do throw what I feel is a decent amount out.  I just think that sometimes the view of magic mere from the outside is that people only ever see them in one part of their role, the water mate filling barrels over and over and not the person talking about their family they had before they turned wierd.  Or they are using that one person who emotes like they are going for an Oscar in the muddies and assume that everyone else must be a Joliarts trained arm player to do it "right".

[HavokBlue]

I don't know if it's the lack of sleep or what, but the above post is a little bit confusing to read.

[Asmoth]

I don't know if it's the lack of sleep or what, but the above post is a little bit confusing to read.

It's difficult to be too clear on the subject without getting into exact mechanics and having people freak out.

[RogueGunslinger]

IF we're being honest. Skill-gaining is weird as shit in Armageddon in general. It's the only game I've ever played where I look forward to, and celebrate failures.

I'd much rather progression happen on critical success and maybe even a small % of just random use, instead of just failure. That way people aren't trying to manufacture failure in order to progress. And players who are in certain clans can see some progression where the current system stagnates them and puts them behind hunters and the like.

[Delirium]

The most important way to avoid feeling like you're just spamcasting is spend a lot of time - moreso than you would on a normal character, even - developing your character's personality and quirks.

They need habits, hobbies, likes/dislikes, and you need a firm grasp on who they are and how they react to the world.

To do this you really need to be comfortable with solo-roleplay, so that you can develop your story and get a solid feel for your character, whether or not there are witnesses around.

The reason for this is that otherwise, it's way too easy to just feel like your character is nothing but a spell-casting robot, because basically that's what they will be.

source: 1+ years as a gemmed who avoided mingling with mundanes and still had a wagonload of fun.

[HavokBlue]

I don't know if it's the lack of sleep or what, but the above post is a little bit confusing to read.

It's difficult to be too clear on the subject without getting into exact mechanics and having people freak out.

It was more a grammar/sentence structure thing. Sorry. It's hard to bring up without coming across as mean which is not my intention. I think some potentially good points are maybe lost in a post I had difficulty reading but like I said, I'm suffering from lack of sleep right now so if I'm just crazy, disregard me.

[Asmoth]

I don't know if it's the lack of sleep or what, but the above post is a little bit confusing to read.

It's difficult to be too clear on the subject without getting into exact mechanics and having people freak out.

It was more a grammar/sentence structure thing. Sorry. It's hard to bring up without coming across as mean which is not my intention. I think some potentially good points are maybe lost in a post I had difficulty reading but like I said, I'm suffering from lack of sleep right now so if I'm just crazy, disregard me.

No harm no foul, I rolled outta bed and was using my phone in the shower to reply, which is an autocorrect punctuation failure all day.

[wizturbo]

You do not need to spam cast in order to skill up quickly as an elementalist.  I promise.  Treat training spells like any other skill and they'll advance quite swiftly, and you can spend your time having fun making friends, frenemies and enemies instead of staring at 49/106 waiting for a tick.

[HavokBlue]

I don't begrudge people who want to play powerful PCs and I don't begrudge people who derive a good portion of their enjoyment from skilling up their PC.

I think if you do these things to the exclusion of everything else your PC should realistically be doing, or you go sit in a cave and spamcast for five days so you can go PK random hunters with your sick new whiran just because, you should feel bad.

Part of having coded power is handling that power responsibly. Just because your Krathi CAN obliterate that orphanage doesn't mean you SHOULD, regardless of your thinly veiled excuse like "WELL MY PC HATES ORPHANS BECAUSE THIS ONE TIME IN MY VIRTUAL BACKGROUND" or whatever.

[Case]

I spamcast before logging out, otherwise cbf'd. RP is more fun and I'm in no rush. I doubt the benefit anyway, mages die super fast from overconfidence.

[Asmoth]

You do not need to spam cast in order to skill up quickly as an elementalist.  I promise.  Treat training spells like any other skill and they'll advance quite swiftly, and you can spend your time having fun making friends, frenemies and enemies instead of staring at 49/106 waiting for a tick.

This is why I sorta wish there was more code transparency.
Hypothetically:

If I knew that I could slice ginka fruit once an to get better from the get go, Then I wouldn't slice ginka fruit more than once an hour unless I had a reason.

As Help Time says, we play at a really fast pace and you are at a bit of a disadvantage due to things such as stats,action time and fear of bad notes.

If you knew right off the rip what the timers were then it would be easier to plan our it day without being impotent or twinkish.

[Delirium]

In almost every single scenario, the code enforces realistic behavior. So generally you can act like a sentient being would, and you'll progress.

The same is true for magick, maybe even moreso than several mundane skills.

As Case said, a major danger is overconfidence.

Including what I fondly term "30 day warrior syndrome". Not my invention, but it's applicable.

[Asmoth]

Part of having coded power is handling that power responsibly. Just because your Krathi CAN obliterate that orphanage doesn't mean you SHOULD, regardless of your thinly veiled excuse like "WELL MY PC HATES ORPHANS BECAUSE THIS ONE TIME IN MY VIRTUAL BACKGROUND" or whatever.

Why would you kill a bunch of orphans anyways you MONSTER!

(Protects all the orphans)

[Asmoth]

In almost every single scenario, the code enforces realistic behavior. So generally you can act like a sentient being would, and you'll progress.

The same is true for magick, maybe even moreso than several mundane skills.

As Case said, a major danger is overconfidence.

Including what I fondly term "30 day warrior syndrome". Not my invention, but it's applicable.

Few things,

One, how do you really know that it's realistic? Without seeing the code, nobody really knows, they are just spitballing.

Two, the overconfidence is probably a result of people saying that a magicker can wreck people at five days in. It seems that the perception is that magickers are super deadly when they really aren't. (I've killed magickers with warriors and rangers with no issue and been on the swap of that).  So stop treating magickers like they are a nuke when they are really a cherry bomb.

[Revenant]

I agree that if we all knew right from the get-go how the skill timers worked, we'd see a lot of bad habits brought over from hack and slash muds drop off considerably. The joy of the game is weaving a character into an on-going, collaborative story. Skill ups are a tedious chore and I'd prefer to be doing something else with my time, however, they are a necessary evil. When I first started playing, some of the lectures my PC was receiving from others made me feel like a real idiot for having assumed it would work the same as non RPIs I've played, that reward grinding more than interaction. I'm glad I got over that, but it can have a negative effect, the not knowing this thing or that thing. Some things, I think, like basic game mechanics, could have a good deal of benefit if spelled out for newer players. Find out IC just makes some of us feel a bit put-out by the concesdending ways and manners in which we end up learning.

[Delirium]

The helpfiles say it. Don't have time to look it up, but I'm sure if you browse through you will find what I am talking about.

[Nyr]

In almost every single scenario, the code enforces realistic behavior. So generally you can act like a sentient being would, and you'll progress.

The same is true for magick, maybe even moreso than several mundane skills.

As Case said, a major danger is overconfidence.

Including what I fondly term "30 day warrior syndrome". Not my invention, but it's applicable.

Few things,

One, how do you really know that it's realistic? Without seeing the code, nobody really knows, they are just spitballing.

It is true:  in almost every single scenario, the code enforces realistic behavior.  So generally you can act like a sentient being would, and you'll progress.  The same is true for magick.

http://www.armageddon.org/help/view/FAQ%209 explains how skills work.  http://www.armageddon.org/help/view/FAQ%2013 covers magicker FAQ stuff in general.