In response to this post: http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/DragonRealms%203.0/Empaths/view/131

>>I would love to read details.

Right now I have approval for a slow group healing method, that would be start out healing sort of capriciously, with the capriciousness factor decreasing with skill. Right now this is slated to be 90th circle, ish.

As well as an instantaneous transfer of all wounds with no reduction in severity, that is slated for 80th circle, ish.

Wound redirection, slated for 70th circle, ish.

All of this (except redirection) is post healing rewrite, though. Post X3 I expect to mostly be putting out fires and dealing with bugs for a while, then once X3 is settled in, to finish the rewrite of the healing system, with these additions to follow "soon."

The healing rewrite is pretty massive so it will probably be tested in the test instance once X3 has well and truly settled down. It has been back burnered for a while, basically since I realized it would probably be a mistake to release the Empath shock rewrite, spell rewrite, everything rewrite...all at the same time. So once I can turn my attention to it, I'll have to refamiliarize myself with it, which will take a while. There are some insidious bugs that I haven't been able to track down that need to be fixed, and there are some engine changes that need to be made that I am still waiting on. But new healing is the next push for me after X3 is finally out the door. (No timeline, as ever.)

These healing methods are meant to teach better than the standard healing, since the healing curve for the standard healing actually begins to taper somewhat at around the empathy that you'd have at 90th circle.

I have more ideas but they have not yet been approved so I'll wait to talk about those until I actually have the green light from The Bosses.

Melete

---

Here as he walked by
On the 3rd month of Lirisa the Archer
In the year of the Iron Toad
A nameless Dwarf
In a flash of genius discovered
The fundamental formula for
THE BEARD INTEGER
& cut it on a stone of this bridge

Me Likey!

Could you go into a little more detail about group healing? You mean like one empath healing multiple people?

The following also did not escape my attention:

>R>tou warr
>You reach out and lay your hand on the sedate alfar warrior's arm.

>You sense a successful empathic link has been forged between you and a sedate alfar warrior.
>You feel the burning fire of pain and suffering slowly building as you begin to draw out the truth of the warrior's injuries.

>The creature's life force is alien to you. Though you can empathize with a sedate alfar warrior in a sense, peculiar sensations begin to overwhelm you and you feel your control of the empathic link slip away.

My takeaway is that the backend support for critter healing is there, waiting... waiting...

~ Player of Farman et al.

>>I picture healing while transfering to some degree.

Group healing in this context means transferring the wounds of multiple people, yes, slowly and automatically, not using magic to heal the wounds on a group. That's to say, healing in this context means "transferring to the Empath" and not just making the wound go away.

Empathy is a lore skill, not a magic skill, so the healing systems will be all Empathy.

>>group healing? You mean like one empath healing multiple people?

Yes, there will be a way for an Empath to create persistent transference links that don't require constant touching to be reinstated. So the empath will be able to perceive the health of people with whom they have these links, without having to touch, as well as heal through them, so long as the patient and the empath are still in the same room. So you'd create these persistent links then start the slow group healing, and it would work on whoever you had the persistent link with.

>>Does this mean that the TAKE ALL syntax is no longer part of the new base healing system

TAKE ALL will still be a thing in the new healing system, but it's not instantaneous, there is still a several-second delay. The instantaneous healing would really be instantaneous, and it would teach more. It's also needed for another system that I am cooking up, but am not yet ready to talk about.

>>My takeaway is that the backend support for critter healing is there, waiting... waiting...

Critter healing isn't really supported, I just added that bit because I knew people would try to heal their Alfar <g>. That's not to say it's not ever going to happen, just that no work on it has been done, nor have any proposals been written.

Melete

---

Here as he walked by
On the 3rd month of Lirisa the Archer
In the year of the Iron Toad
A nameless Dwarf
In a flash of genius discovered
The fundamental formula for
THE BEARD INTEGER
& cut it on a stone of this bridge

>Yes, there will be a way for an Empath to create persistent transference links that don't require constant touching to be reinstated. So the empath will be able to perceive the health of people with whom they have these links, without having to touch, as well as heal through them, so long as the patient and the empath are still in the same room. So you'd create these persistent links then start the slow group healing, and it would work on whoever you had the persistent link with.


This is a great direction to take high level healing.. thank you for posting your thoughts on this as healing has been stale for such a long time.

Very much looking forward to seeing some of these changes (eventually) come to fruition now that 3.0 is out, pending more debugging of course.