Sorcery and You.

A private club of philosophers discussing the secrets behind life and death.
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Jaren
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Sorcery and You.

Post by Jaren »

As many of you know I have been beta testing the new Sorcery guild (yet to be officially named) and I thought I'd provide a little bit of info about them as well as provide a place for everyone to share their thoughts and ideas on what direction they might like to see them take in the future.

(Under development, may be changed)
(Also note that I am paraphrasing all descriptions. The in game descriptions are MUCH cooler)

So far there are 4 abilities and 2 new channeled "elements" available.

Channeled = Sorcery (uses nether and ice to attack)
Channeled = Cryomancy (ice attacks)

Ability = Soul Harvest (For sorcerers to gain guild pts from corpses and charge a "blood talisman" to regain some fatigue)
Ability = Freezing Aura (adds ice to melee attacks and chance to dmg attackers with ice)
Ability = Ice Barbs (adds extra damage to weapon attacks)
Ability = Shadow Familiar (Fun little summon that follows you around and attacks.. I have yet to test it)

The guild, so far, also offers a shop where a new blood talisman can be bought and may later offer fancy staffs like other guilds.


Suggestions

Now that THAT is out of the way let me take some time to offer some of MY fun suggestions. (open to debate)

I would LOVE to see some kind of life steal ability. This has always been my favorite ability in many games. It could go something like this: You channel sorcery and then depending on how many you channel will determine the str of the spell. Upon successful attack you will steal some life force from the critter doing nether dmg and will have a chance to heal some of your own wounds.

Control undead. Take control of any nether based critter and then play the Oingo Boingo song Dead Man's Party... well maybe not the second part... This ability may have to have a limit as to how many minions you can have at one time and how easily a critter can be controlled. (rumor has it this ability may be in the works for the distant future)

Spell based armor. It could use something like conjured bone armor or a nether based aura that stops incoming attacks.

Corpse Explode. Always a classic in many other games. Would have to be able to leave the riln on the ground after explode and should probably render the corpse unfit to be harvested by the blood talisman afterword. Might make the aoe dmg a percentage of the corpse's original strength.

Fear. Make weaker critters run away.

Invisibility. Gather dark forces around you to conceal yourself entirely. This spell will break combat making you safe but will render you unable to do anything else but move around. The spell only lasts as long as you can channel sorcery so if you use it too late in a battle you my be too fatigued and die anyway. Also offers no stealth bonuses.

Ice Sanctuary. Make a happy little igloo to... <cough> Gather the moisture in the surrounding area to create a temporary safe sanctuary to rest.

Well that's all i can think of for now. As always questions, comments and jokes are welcome.
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Post by Isiaa »

On the armour it would stop damage but should increase vulnerability to Thaumaturgy or light based damage.
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Post by Rias »

I like pretty much all of your ideas, except maybe the ice sanctuary - that is to say I like the spell, but I'm not sure if I want sorcerers to have it or not. That's not a definite 'no', though.

For an armor spell, I had two ideas: One being an Ice Armor spell which I may just expand Ice Barbs to do, which temporarily adds to the damage reduction of a piece of armor you cast it on. The second being similar to the Elemancer Geo Shield, but with released nethrim 'ghosts' from your blood talisman - they swirl about you, occasionally blocking or weakening incoming attacks.

Some other spell ideas I've been tossing around:

Nether Infusion: Passive ability. The sorcerer infuses himself with nether, giving him large nether/cold resistances, slight weakness to thaumaturgy/iron, and allows him to take wraith form upon death. Will be much more beneficial when death is expanded to be more than "Poof, you're at the chapel!" Would possibly cause templar/monk healing to have some detrimental effects on the sorcerer, but would make way for another ability allowing the sorcerer to self-heal somehow.

Minor Haunting: "Haunt" the area with minor incorporeal nethrim, released from your Blood Talisman. Would be a "ooo, cool" spell, with some use regarding combat: During the duration, the haunting nethrim can interfere with the actions of those not grouped with the sorcerer, including distracting hostiles (lowering defense and perception, enabling others to flank), knocking hidden characters out of hiding, inflicting roundtime, and possibly causing fear.

Major Haunting: Like minor, but the haunting nethrim also attack hostiles and guard the caster. A very nifty way to deal with swarms of monsters - a cross between a short summon and an AOE spell.

Soul Seeking: Send your Shadow Familiar to find the location of someone else and give you a glimpse of the area they're in. A utility spell.

Various minion creation spells, some requiring corpses, others involving summoning beings of pure nether. Have pretty complex plans for them, not feeling like writing it all up at the moment.

Possession: Take personal control of a minion, or infuse your own soul into a corpse to animate it. This will leave the caster's original body defenseless, so is best initially performed somewhere where the caster's original body will be safe. (This mechanic already exists for GMs to control NPCs, so it wouldn't be difficult to implement.)

Demonic Possession: The caster allows a demon to partially possess himself, granting him certain skills and powers. The demon may occasionally gain control of the caster, allowing it to perform random actions, some beneficial, some detrimental.
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Post by Isiaa »

On demonic possession.There should be a chance of failure leading to death and certain requirements.For instance a penta/hexa/septagram would be required depending on the demon.The more powerful the demon the higher the value of the diagram.At the highest level would require a septagram, the lowest a pentagram.It would also be very draining on the caster as the caster has to fight to keep possession of their own body and mind.Instead of direct death the summoned demon might go on rampage attacking any and everyone it meets.Starting with the summoner.
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Post by Rias »

I like, Isiaa. I've got some rudimentary summoning-circle-drawing mechanics in place, but they don't do anything other than add a circle to the room quite yet.
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Post by Isiaa »

Thank you.
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Post by Jaren »

So far I like all the ideas presented. The pentagram idea could add a whole other mechanic for summoning, casting area spells etc. I also think it would be really cool to use a GM power and talk as a critter. Gonna make a lot of people jealous with that one =)

On that note let me discuss a few things I "try" to think about when creating new stuff.

Whenever creating a new spell or ability I try to keep a couple aspects always in the back of my mind. The first part is the "wow factor" how neat is the spell, how well does it fit into the lore of the game, how will this spell look when played solo or in a group. A second part is purely mechanics. How will this help the player, how powerful is it, if it is very powerful are they any drawbacks to balance it. Also need to keep in mind the "tedious" factor. What must the player do to perform this spell. How many times must he do it? If the spell requires a lot of lines of text or a lot of real time to perform does the reward offset the extra effort?

A classic example of the tedious factor is the summons in Final Fantasy 7. The first couple of times you saw them they were AWESOME!!!. Then after you've seen them 30...40...50 times you start to wish there was a way to skip past um.

Also when thinking of spells it is very hard to have an original idea seeing as many other game designers have spent countless hours thinking along the same lines as me. So whenever I think of something... odds are it is drawn from a previous source or someone else has had a similar idea.

If you've read this far thank you for enduring my random musing. If anyone has ANY more ideas to contribute please do so. There is no such thing as a bad idea when it comes to development. It may not make the final cut but it WILL add to swirling soup of ideas from which the final product will be drawn.
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Post by Rias »

Regarding drawn circles and the various geometric -grams within - I was thinking of having some different circles for trap-like effects. So you could lure an enemy into a Holding Circle, preventing them from acting until the circle dissipates (and you could hit them with ranged attacks while they remain helpless). Or draw a Repelling Circle and step into it yourself, to give yourself a sort of minor sanctuary to rest in (though there would be a chance for hostiles to overcome the circle and step through to act against you).
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Post by Isiaa »

Tch.While your at it make a trap that summon a minor demon when someone steps into it to cause some damage.Fire,cold or nether type would fit.Or just open a hole through the planes to whatever plane demons inhabit to cause fear and damage. Basically trap circles have a LOT of variables.
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Post by Jaren »

A few thoughts I had....

What happens when the justice system gets fully implemented, you're kicked out of town and you need to get healing? There is only one healer that I know of and he is in town and would probably only service "good" characters. So do you think it would be possible to house an "evil" healer elsewhere. I would say put him/her somewhere in the sorc guild but I'd imagine thieves and other shadowy characters might want to have access to him/her as well.

On that note a training dummy in the sorc guild would make me very happy =)

Another sorc related thought. I have been using the "harvest" command for a while now and I have been finding it a little tricky to rack up the guild points. I like the mechanic and I think it is cool from a lore standpoint however I can't help but think there has to be a better way to "gather souls".

Part of the problem stems from the current loot system in that if you have 4 infested guard corpses on the ground you can only interact with the first one until it is buried. then the second and so on. The same problem carries over to the "harvest" command which is essentially another kind of looting. So not only do I have to type out the name of the object I am harvesting (ie harvest ag, harvest gua, harvest hou etc) but I have to wait till it is riln looted and buried to access another. I also have to fight with my own party members who bury the corpses so THEY can loot the next corpse. Not only do I have to fight this problem but the spell inherently has a chance to fail....

I have been looking at the other guilds and what they have to do to gain guild points and they seem to have an easier time. ie just cast spells, attack from hiding or attack the fungus men. Is this extra difficulty intended seeing as sorcs are just that awesome or is this just something that will be addressed at a later time?

A few ideas might be if I could cast "harvest" once in an area and all the corpses souls would come flying towards me. Maybe add a huge RT and extra fatigue drain. Or maybe an auto-battle like effect where I cast "harvest" once and it will go through each corpse one by one until all have been sucked dry (regardless of who have been looted or who has been buried.

Maybe I'm just being lazy... lol I dunno Once again any input is appreciated.
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Post by Isiaa »

Possibly a heaven zone for sorcerers and templars to fight it out.As for the healing possibly a life drain.
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Post by Nootau »

I would support the auto cast feature. Tag old corpses to turn them into a husk, making the loot name husk?
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Post by Rias »

I'll see about adding in a healer for the folk not in Shadgard's good graces. As far as the training dummies, they've always sort of bothered me since people can do so much with them to gain a fair amount with zero risk, and I get grumpy about all the catches I have to code in to make sure people can't use them to get certain skills up indefinitely by practicing on them. That said, they've been around forever, and it would be sort of mean to take them out at this point, so I'll consider adding some in around neutral areas.


As far as the harvesting and guild points, it's not the intent to be harder for sorcerers to get guild points, and I'll soon be adding in some other ways for sorcerers to get them (such as casting sorcery spells, akin to elemancers casting elemancy spells for guild oints). I'll probably bump up the points gained from harvesting a bit since it takes extra time and has a failure chance, and look for ways to make it a bit less troublesome.
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Post by Nootau »

Healing without Hildibrand?!

You know you could always make people, ya know, use BANDAGE wraps for moderate or light wounds and SPLINT serious wounds and let them heal damage at quarter the rate of Hildibrand's ointments and salves.
The elements are slaves to no being. One must learn to ask for their aid, the elements offer power to the humble. This is why no one is truly a master yet everyone is a student..
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Post by Jaren »

Few more thoughts...

#1: I tried to harvest a Scarecrow Farmer the other day and I was unable to.. I got the message something along the lines of "there soul has already been drained". Is this intentional seeing as their "souls" can move to another "unit". Or just a weird oddity?

#2: Seeing as Jaren has been extra sneaky lately I was wondering if it was possible to have the shadow familiar (ie Fred the Familiar) come and be sneaky with me when I hide. Kinda like in the elder scrolls oblivion game when you crouch to hide so does your companion. However, is this intentional? Do you want the shadow familiar to stand out as a drawback to a mage using stealth?

#3: I have no real understanding of the code going on behind the scenes however I still had an idea for the "harvest" command that might be useful. I was thinking what if we combined the "bury" command and the "harvest" spell into the same command? This way we could make a quick fix for "harvest" that would make it a little easier while still using the existing loot system. Oh and for this to work you would have to tag all riln as "drop on death" otherwise you'd be burying the loot too. (unless of course you wanted to combine loot+bury+harvest but that might be silly)
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Post by Rias »

1) Yeah, scarecrows can't be harvested, but the messaging as it is is misleading. It warrants changing - low priority, though.

2) I think shadow familiars hiding would be okay.

3) The issue with harvesting and burying in the same action is that you miss out on actions that can be performed on an already-harvested corpse (butcher, animating the dead (when it's implemented!), etc.). Is your concern simply the inconvenience at having to type several commands, or is it more than that?

P.S. Regarding loot, note that you can also use it to LOOT [CORPSE] [ITEM] to loot worn items off the corpse. Riln isn't the only loot to be had.
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Post by Jaren »

Refer to the above post for my concerns on the "harvest" command. I guess the concern is more when you are in a large group. When solo it's not so bad to do if no other critters come your way. (ie my current situation) Another thing is many of us are much slower at typing, so actions that may seem trivial to others are a bit more tricky for us slow pokes (especially under the heat of battle). Also didn't know about the "(butcher, animating the dead (when it's implemented!), etc.)" thing, sounds like fun!

As for the LOOT [CORPSE] [ITEM] command... am I the only one that normally ignores this? Granted if you kill a warlord or something some of the group may want the fancy armor if they haven't acquired it already but otherwise most of the other stuff is difficult to carry and difficult to sell (especially in bulk when everyone else tries to sell similar items at the pawnshop). Also most armors can't even be sold "yet".

As always I appreciate any work you do on this. I try very hard not to become an overly squeaky wheel. I also realize, a little bit, of the kind of work that might go into a project like this (having designed and maintained small webpages for other people in the past).
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Post by Rias »

I was just making sure you knew about the other looting options, since you were talking about riln dropping on death. I'll see what I can come up with for making harvesting a bit more convenient. The idea of harvesting from all corpses in the area could cause issues if there were multiple sorcerers. An auto-harvest (like auto-battle) could work, where it keeps trying for the next harvestable corpse until none are left. If two sorcerers in a group did that, they'd just end up taking every other harvestable corpse. We'll start with that.
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Post by Jaren »

Oh oh! Another idea. What if we could somehow keep a tally of how many souls are in the talisman? Something like:
"examine talisman There are 53 souls are trapped within."
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Post by Rias »

Good idear. I'll get on it.
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Post by Jaren »

If I may put in my 2 cents, may I suggest a skill to place at the top of the sorc to do list.

Invisibility

I think I would have this work a little differently than previously posted. It would be a magic themed stealth. Offer no stealth bonuses (like sniping) but the strength of the spell would be determined by your sorcery skill. So any perception rolls to defeat it would be rolled against your sorcery skill. I would also prefer not to have to channel this spell as it is hard enough to hold a channel and all this really is is a magic themed stealth with the advantage of using a sorc skill and the disadvantage of losing stealth attack perks.

From a lore perspective I don't really see Jaren hiding behind boxes and crouching down sneaking behind crowds. I picture him kinda fading in and out of shadowy magic nether.
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Post by Jaren »

As I struggle to raise some skills without a trainer a thought occurs to me for a convenient little spell that many mages in many other stories have used.

Magical Transfiguration

Just like the magical enchantress that appeared to the beast as on old women (Beauty and the Beast) or just like Sauron who disguised himself as the handsome Annatar to the elves. Sorcerers should TOO be able to magically disguise themselves as something other than what they are.

Mechanics: The spell would require you to hold 3 channels of Sorcery. It would also render shadow martyr void and would greatly lower your defenses. The spell can also be detected by someone with a high enough perception skill. Now I can see two possible different versions of this spell. One that would only work for npcs and one that would work for both. The npc version might disguise you as an [odd looking citizen] which could then be used to quickly use town services or RP with other players. The other idea is to disguise yourself as a player that is currently online. So I could disguise myself as say "Alexander". Which would make for some funny situations should we be caught in the same room. lol
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Post by Lacie »

I think that ability would be more suited to the Utasa.
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Post by Rias »

Yeah, the illusions and deceptions are more in the area of utasa (magical variety) and thieves (nonmagical variety). When it comes to town services for bad guys, I'm going to just need to set up a badguy/neutral outpost out there somewhere. I wouldn't want it to be only sorcerers that can manage as badguys, since they'd be the only ones with the spell allowing them to continue to use town amenities such as trainers.

This isn't saying I don't like your spell ideas, I just think they're in the realm of other guilds that specialize in those sort of things. I also have lots of nifty spells in line for sorcerers yet.
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Post by Landion »

Jaren is already OP! QQ! Nerf bat!

Heheh.
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