Some ideas and things

[Matthew]

Some things i have thought up and scribbled down over the last few weeks. . .

If its not already done, all things that lag your character, skills used by or against you, could be reduced by haste, if it is already done perhaps not enough. This will make skills that 'stun' more powerful and make a distinct difference between the types! Also protective shield is too powerful and dirt kick has become useless! PS. Im not sure if this is already implemented cause i have never wanted to check, but haste affecting lags is an easy way to balance things with small tweaks.

Each time a skill is nerfed too much, equipment is needed more, no one wants to fight and loose shinies. Dirt kicks first unneeded nerf was its not affecting things immune to earth which i never understood, even if i was immune to dirt if you throw it in my eyes i still can't see through it until i rub it out, then there its dependence on there needing to be 'dirt' about, worst idea ever. If 'other' blinding skills weren't good enough then buff them not nerf dirt kick! To go with my other idea if dirt kick lag was halved when successful and your hasted it would be a good improvement but not to powerful as it can still miss often.

I reckon there should be only one mage class too with distinctions between robes and most spells coming from books, that are harder to get than they are now. By harder i don't mean popping less but coming only from harder to kill mobs. Instead of the book 'farming' that goes on in mid level zones.

PPS. Solamnics kind of dislike mages and the arcane, their powers are pretty buff at Rose and above but perhaps crown, sword and rose etc could all be altered so that they can rp properly and not use arcane aids like haste and harden skin potions? Promotion should be dependent on avoiding them too. Or hey, they could have a 'faith' score that their powers are dependent on which gets reduced by using arcane things(for instance using displacement orb could be a massive reduction in your 'faith score' and so pds blocking gets a massive nerf or quaffing an armor potion reduces faith a little each time and eventually nerfing your faith to a noticeable difference in pds blocking and shadowbane damage and solamnic weapons/plate strength.

I liked playing my assassin in solamnia but i had to use sanc orbs, displacement and hastes etc all the time, especially if i wanted to avoid using the skills i considered 'unsolamnic' Perhaps different classes could get different empowers like Takhisis does. But after trying to rp an assassin in solamnia im not sure id recommend they be allowed to join as it was said beginning this wipe.

[moq]

make spellbooks harder to get?!
dont you think it is hard enough nowadays?

[Matthew]

Heh hold up, remember that current spell books are not what i have suggested. . . .

[Vesper]

Ahem.

1. Dirt kicking is counted as earth-based attack, so it is natural for earth-immune creatures to be unaffected by it. AFAIR it was always like that. If you mean invokers with earthshield, then dirt does not hit their eyes, it is deflected by the shield. Actually dirt kick was a little buffed now, since it persists for whole hour no matter the tick. About 'there needs to be dirt' - well, it's said one can find the dirt if he's smart. But can you find dirt within the clouds, where you have to fly in order not to fall down?

2. One mage class? So you want a lich who could vapour chain along with displacement and shields and haste and PWK? But still, even so, one would have to earn some books before he would be able to do all these, and raise oneself to a degree when he would be able to defeat a single mob holding a spellbook. Alone I mean. Think about a mage who can do no spells, can do parries and dagger attacks, and consider him against anything worthy of fighting? He would be defeated in an instant I believe. Even if not, it would take forever to defeat said mob. Enter, catch some attacks, do some swings, flee if you are lucky, far away so you'd be safe from a wandering thing. Then repeat. Will you be patient enough to achieve even a single spell? This will not be an attraction for anyone who has no backup of OOC gangs or powerful chars capable of acquiring books to play a mage then. And finally, this is against the Dragonlance world conception.

Um, well, you say 'most spells' so magic missile will be in place, as well as faerie fire and invis. Anyway this does not surpass the cost of getting any extra spells from books, if done alone.

3.  Haste reducing lagging from any delay? Hmm, I am not sure, but this could lead to 'haste reducing delays of any/some skills activated by a command', say one hasted could bash more often than one not hasted. The same could even apply to casting... umm, this will have the effect of halving the number of battle rounds between actions. So one could stab a dragon and flee without it tracking, etc etc etc. I'd say a no. And, this would heavily disbalance the world against heretics, who just cannot haste self.

[blah]

I like to consider invoker shields as their way to protect themselves from magic(spells and elemental damage in weapons). Since dirt kick is not magic (heretics use it), my vote is against immunity...
It is not logical if duration of skill depends on tick. Dirt kick for example...if you learned skill, what matter it has with you when it is tick happening? Perhaps duration of dirt kick should depend on character rank and skill mastery.
For mages i have opinion that knowing what spells mages can have is spoliing game. Not only mages...Everybody knows what class can do and there are no surprises... If i make mud sometime, i will have goal that no same chars exists. Mage would obtain only basic skills, and one basic spell and all other spells would have to find by killing mobs (like artifacts poping). For example one if lucky finds fireball by killing trolls etc. But power of such fireball can vary also, for example for one mage spellbook will contain fireball at rank 12  will be at learned like spell of rank 12, and for another mage at rank 10 and be a bit less potent. And make pool of 1000 different spellbook spells:) then there will be no mages with same spells. Diversity of spells can be achieved by changing effects, duration,magnitude...

[Rionne]

Vesper: presumably, he means alignment restrictions on certain types of magic. So you will have to be good to learn abjuration, and evil to take necromancy.

[Quino]

2Vesper:
Nicely said. But still I think that dirt kick should depend on dexterity, not intelligence.

2blah:
Sounds odd... we just need to strip invis spell from everyone except abjurers and make it impossible tocast upon others, strip detect invis from everyone except them, add area attacking skills to some classes (i.e. fighter)

[Rialon]

I like to consider invoker shields as their way to protect themselves from magic(spells and elemental damage in weapons). Since dirt kick is not magic (heretics use it), my vote is against immunity...
It is not logical if duration of skill depends on tick. Dirt kick for example...if you learned skill, what matter it has with you when it is tick happening? Perhaps duration of dirt kick should depend on character rank and skill mastery.
For mages i have opinion that knowing what spells mages can have is spoliing game. Not only mages...Everybody knows what class can do and there are no surprises... If i make mud sometime, i will have goal that no same chars exists. Mage would obtain only basic skills, and one basic spell and all other spells would have to find by killing mobs (like artifacts poping). For example one if lucky finds fireball by killing trolls etc. But power of such fireball can vary also, for example for one mage spellbook will contain fireball at rank 12  will be at learned like spell of rank 12, and for another mage at rank 10 and be a bit less potent. And make pool of 1000 different spellbook spells:) then there will be no mages with same spells. Diversity of spells can be achieved by changing effects, duration,magnitude...

Hm, its like you think only of RP. IMHO all this would make mages impossible to play and do battle with. With all my invokers i spend most of their life searching for spellbooks and i still do not have the full set for my current one.

[Matthew]

Vesper - Hrm im kind of mostly talking about dirt kick in regards to mobs, warriors without whip spec especially have been affected a lot by the changes to dirt kick, honestly i would rather have reliable dirt kick than dirt kick that lasts a full hour if your lucky enough to land it even if you find dirt.... I agree with the current invoker shield blocking the dirt from even hitting the mage. Maybe cleric of Reorx immunity from shelter or roots of earth which ever it is shouldn't stop it though.

Ive actually written down extensive changes to create one mage class etc but have no time to post it yet... I guess it looks better when you have a whole picture i will post it sometime. I definitely do not want a displacing necro with low resisted damage spells! Just something a little more spread out and more like becoming powerful as a journey of growth rather than farming. And yes some restrictions depending on robes, i would also like to see certain classes able to change robes and alignments but that is another idea...

I could not condone haste affecting all skills and abilities, somethings would be illogical to change because they are affected by how fast something else can happen that isn't you. . . also even if it was a thing to change only somethings should be double speed if any, also if you have two hasted people, say the one bashing, bashes 1.5 times faster, the hasted victims lag could also be reduced by 1.5 but if the basher is a warrior his total attacks are always the same and the mage victim can also still only cast as often as before BUT he has taken prone damage for less time etc. . . Whereas if only the basher was hasted he would have an obvious advantage etc... actually im not sure it would be good for things that only lag one round... i dont thing the mechanic's will allow it well, bad example. Anyways lemme think on it some more.

I kind of like Blahs idea with spellbook strengths im going to have to think on it!

[Vesper]

Quino - well, perception is a kind of skill that utilizes both intelligence and dexterity, and you need exactly this to find still unused dirt. (This arises a question, can a blinded fighter do dirts? He cannot see any dirt at all)

Matthew - hmm interesting, a completely new magic system? Then perhaps most, if not any, people could learn some rudiments of magic, say detect evil, detect magic, armor, maybe even detect invis and invis of a lesser form - so say two fighters who are smart enough can invis themselves and see each other via their detect invis, but will fail to see invisible mages because of lack of knowledge. But, AFAIK this is already beyond the game limits (there is only one flag of invis in the world). Anyway please continue your work, this could yield something really advanced and fun.

Blah - about spellbook strength, you say there could be spellbooks of different say fireballs? Hmm, I think if a mage knows a level 8 fireball and has found a level 10 one, his knowledge could switch over to a level 10 fireball spell, so the mage will not need to start from scratch. But the pool of 1000 spellbooks could require a dynamic generating system, and this could end in the same spell system with a char-level as the base. You say however, that spellbooks should be rare... Hmm, maybe a mage could learn a spell from seeing a mob/player casting it on him, along with spellbooks?

Yes, and how your spellbooks should be acquired? Their availability and power should depend on what?

[blah]

It is possible to realise that idea with spellbooks with hard work and many calculations, but once it is done...you get game where there are no chars with same skills. That goal is worth of sacrificing some little time. For warrior types, same thing, manuals. (chance to find shuld be increased for low spells thugh). And it will make leveling and mob killing very interesting when you expect some nite spell.
By the way, why transmuters can change exclusive only to animals? Maybe animals are more suitable for druids, and for transmuters there are many other things with defensive or offensive properties.
For example, transmute to golem, or stone wall that blocks exits, or whirlwind etc.

[Kage]

- As for what determines what manuals or spellbooks are found...it could be a ratio between mob slayed and character level...plus to some defree Artifact find.  I also think this could lead to more temporary pops...better weapons or those temp. resists manuals or like a manual of haste...that gives haste for X amount of hours or until log...I like the idea of a reward for staying active for awhile...the longer your in the world ,thus susceptible to danger and loyal to the mud, the better chance for item pops.  Perhaps better random popped weapons and armor that disappear on leaving the realms( I believe thiulor's potion is like this) and cannot be passed to another...bonded to first who touches.  It is fine to find a snake's belt of steel when your lvl 10...but maybe a hero +20 could find some better things without full AF pop gear.  Just something to spice up the grinding...and travelling.
 
    You KILLED the draconian mage!
   a tiny note appears

 LOOK note
it appears to be a note that can be read by anyone
READ note
you read the note and it reads " wouldnt life be easier if you were faster?"
you feel yourself moving faster
AFFECTS

HASTE :  affects dexterity by 3 for 50 hours

something like that