Greetings,

I just thought I would update you as to what exactly is left in the Spell Review. There are, if I'm counting correctly 13 spells left to update. All of the contested spells will have to be rolled in all at once, due to the mechanics change involved (so those will be released last). The spells left are as follows:

Ring of Spears
Gar Zeng
Paeldryth's Wrath
Aether Cloak
Fireball
Ethereal Shield
Aether Lash
Ice Patch
Fist of Stone
Thunderclap
Magnetic Ballistae
MOF
Shockwave

Also being included in the Spell Review are the release of two new spells.

Mark of Arhat
(New 5th tier Lightning spell, tentatively named Lightning Storm)


~V

<--- Warrior Mage Haiku --->
My pants are aflame
I did not learn water spells
so now I must ARGGHHHH

http://www.livejournal.com/users/valdrik/

http://www.naebunny.com/TopFrameSet.htm

Heya folks, sorry about the issues with MOF, we're working to resolve them. Hopefully it shouldn't be too long. In the meantime keep a river handy in case you want to extinguish it. The deeper the better. =)

-Chakram

---

"NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES"

Hey everyone,

I suppose you want to know where development stands right now for the guild. What's being worked on? What's at the top of the list?Well, here's a quick rundown of the stuff that's happening.

1) Aethereal Pathway Quests 5-8

I've been plugging away at these, and have the actual quests about 30% coded at the moment. Once they get written they have to be tested and debugged, and then I get to integrate them into the existing quest structure. Whee! I'm still hoping to get the coding and debugging done by Christmas, so that they can go into QC shortly thereafter.

Also, I know the syntax fix to the quests for APs 1-4 is taking a little longer to release than I intended. It's still waiting to be QCd, and I don't have any idea how long it will take at this point, as it's considered by most to be a 'non-essential' fix. I'll keep plugging away to get it checked, because it's something I want to get out of the way, especially before I start combining the quests for APs 5-8 with the existing quest system.

2) Cantrips

When I first joined the guild team back in May, my first major project for the guild was to rewrite the cantrip code to make it easier to add new cantrips to the system. After I did this I reworked a few of our existing cantrips, fixed a lot of bugs, and created six new cantrips. This project is far enough along in QC to announce its existence, but I can't tell you what the new cantrips are, yet. They're fun to play around with though, that's for sure. :)

3) Spell Review

Because of the lack of members on Team Magic for a few months, my progress in obtaining magic clearance was basically nil. However, we're reorganizing even now and I finally feel that we're getting somewhere. As some of you may remember from one of Valdrik's old posts, anyone who wants to gain magic clearance has to code up and release a spell. I'm working on one for Warrior Mages, of course. So even if it has been taking awhile for me to get cracking on the spell review, at least you know you'll get a new spell out of it.

4) New Spells

Aside from the above-mentioned new spell I'm working on, I've begun putting together a proposal for Lightning Storm (based on a few suggestions on the boards, and some devious ideas of my own). I'm also continuing to work on Mark of Arhat, though I won't be able to actually do any testing in it until I get magic clearance.

5) Familiars

I haven't heard from Rottcloar in awhile, so I really can't say what the status of the familiar rewrite is. Without knowing if he's still working on it, it's hard to jump in and know where to begin. I'm hoping I can get some help soon on this front, but it may be something I have to deal with myself after the AP quests are finished and the spell review is well underway again.

6) Arm-Worn Shields

Nope, I haven't forgotten about these. I tried talking to the people involved in making this happen, but I have a feeling that something got lost along the way. I have no control over that, so I've decided to try my hand at making a few of my own. I'm not sure if they'll ever see the light of day, but I certainly hope I can release a few in time for the holiday shopping season. We'll see.

7) Sentinels

As far as I know, these big boys are still in QC. As Chakram may have mentioned, there's quite a bit to them, and a lot of things that need checking. I'm helping where I can, but this is really his baby.

8) Odds and Ends

There are a few other, smaller projects that aren't necessarily related to WMs that I've been called to work on, but they aren't interfering with my work on the guild itself. In fact, I'm doing my best to ensure that there's a WM-specific twist in these side projects, just to keep it interesting. :)


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

Greetings!

After examining the logistics of the quest system I developed for the APs 5-8, I've decided that waiting to release all four quests at the same time would not only be unfair to the guild (nobody wants to wait longer than necessary), it would also cause a lot of grief for the questers.

Therefore, to avoid excessive headaches and get these abilities out as soon as possible, I've decided to take the following steps:

1) Get the quest system finalized in such a way that all four quests can be built separately.

2) Develop each quest sequentially, releasing it as it is finished.

What this means is that instead of waiting six or more months for all four AP quests to be finished and released as a package, I'm going to release the individual quests as they come out of QC and are approved to go live.

The first quest in particular, for AP #5, is relatively simple and should be ready about the same time the quest system is finalized and ready to roll. While I can't provide a solid timeline for this, my conservative goal is a 1Q 2006 release for the first quest. The others will follow as they are completed.

- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

Hey everyone,

Just thought I would post an update on a few things and let you know that I haven't disappeared.

- I've been fighting off a nasty cold/cough for the past week or so. With my health not at 100% and RL work getting crazy, it was all I could do to keep on top of Merelew II issues that kept cropping up. I wasn't able to do much in the way of guild development until a few days ago.

- I'm glad you guys enjoyed the grand opening of War and Craft. As with my first attempt at anything I had hoped for the best, but it certainly exceeded my grandest expectations. I hope to bring back this tent in the future (with a different variety of merchandise). I know there's at least one thing that I didn't get a chance to make for Merelew II that I'll be preparing for the next big celebration (whenever that happens to be). I've also been picking up some great ideas from your posts.

- The past few days I've been making extensive progress on the Aethereal Pathway quests. At this point I would say the coding for the quest mechanics, quest area, and first quest are 75%-80% finished. That isn't too bad, considering I was at around 40% a week ago. There are a few more things to finish, and a bit of text to write. I'll need to do some extensive testing once the coding is finished, but what is there so far looks very good.

- I'll be getting around to the Pattern Hues color contest as soon as I am able. I have a feeling you may be surprised by the list of winners. :)


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

If you check the DR spell page for Warrior Mages, you may notice a couple of new things. I also remove the listed requirement of Ethereal Shield for Aether Lance, since that was wrong. Expect an update to the Chain Lightning spell in a few days when it's live in all instances.

If there are any other spells that have missing or incorrect prerequisites, or are missing some important information, please let me know.


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

A few minutes ago I released the updated version of Aether Lash in all instances of the game as part of the Warrior Mage spell review. There are two main changes to this spell:

1) It is now functioning on the new TM model. The minimum prep has been lowered significantly, the mana cap has been increased very slightly, and the difficulty of the spell has been lowered quite a bit.

2) The spell does not require an empty hand to cast.

Enjoy!


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

Hello, ladies and gents. I'd just like to take a moment to post a quick 'where we are in development' message.

Aethereal Pathway Quests

The majority of the big stuff (quest mechanics and utilities, as well as the quest for the 5th pathway) has been through technical QC and is now up for creative QC. We're still waiting on some of the area QC to go through, but most of this is finished. I won't have an ETA until the project is through the first stages of creative QC, but the end is finally in sight.

Spells

Although the situation with the magic system has caused setbacks, there are a couple pieces of good news.

The rewritten version of Shockwave is being tested and should be ready for QC very soon. I'm very happy with it as it seems to be far more powerful than the original, with some lovely messaging thrown in for good measure.

Paeldryth's Wrath, due to the recent adjustments to contested spells, needed some serious emergency tweaking. The new version of this spell is now being tested. The new version uses an SvA attack to push back/knock down the victim, but won't cause damage by itself. A TM air attack will strike the victim a few seconds after the knockback to cause damage. This should benefit the caster since the victim can be knocked off balance before the TM attack is made. Oh, and the knockback part of the spell also has the potential to blow naphtha in your hands on the victim.

Anther's Call, Aegis of Granite, and Mark of Arhat are still in development, and I do bits of work on each of them when I have the time. :)

Outside the Crossings Guild

Though not a high priority project, I've been discussing this problem with other members of the Warrior Mage team and we've narrowed down the possible solutions considerably. Now that we have a good idea of what we want to do, we can start coding solutions and testing them out. As Chakram said though, I'm the one doing most of the coding. Poor me. ;)

Titles

I've sent out a new batch of titles for consideration, but haven't received a response on them yet. Hopefully we'll be able to get the requirements for Battle Mage ironed out in this batch -- I forgot about it in the previous batch. I've also been in touch with the Barbarian GMs concerning the WM titles taken from the Barbarian-only list. We've reached a consensus on altering the four titles in question to preserve Barbarians' ownership of those titles while still maintaining the spirit of the original WM versions. As with the other titles, the requested changes are pending approval.

Cantrips

No new cantrips are planned at this time. The handful that were released will have to tide everyone over for now.

Familiars

No new news to report, aside from the possible familiar alterer visitation.


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

Just so you get a better picture of where we stand, I've been playing around with the spells seeing if I can break them and check to ensure that they look okay.

I've also done a bit on the AP quests, almost all of the QC's that I have for that are done, I've got one QC left, although not the biggest of them it's still a fairly big one.

I had begun a rewrite of the TM ranges, so I could make sure that they were debugged for you all (the old code is getting a bit ripe around the edges), but that's on hold for a bit.

-Chakram

---

"NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES"

"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before" - Mae West

Hi everyone,

I just thought I'd post an update on where we are now seeing as the release of P5 has removed a lot of development barriers and things are moving forward quickly.

First of all, the top three things you'll see in the near future.

1) AP Quests.

If all goes as planned, we'll be releasing the quest for AP #5 next week in Platinum for preview and general debugging fun. About a week after that you can expect to see the quest for AP #6 in Platinum as well. Depending on how the release goes, we'll push both quests into Prime and TF simultaneously a week or two afterwards. The quests for APs #7 and #8 are in the final stages of development, so they should be coming along within a month and a half at the very latest. That's a good two to three months of fun right there.

2) New Spells.

The Mark of Arhat spell is now being QCd. In addition, and as a nice surprise (even to me), the Shockwave spell is nearing a completed QC. I'll be focusing on getting these two spells through QC as fast as possible, so look for them within the next month. I've also decided to run a trial of the Fire Ball concussive blast updates in Prime for feedback and testing, so be prepared this weekend for that.

I haven't heard any feedback yet on my two spell proposals, Asphyxiate and Lightning Storm. The proposal for the new TM water spell is being revised, but there may also be another TM water spell proposal coming along in the near future. We're placing these at 2nd and 3rd tier, so the Water book will be well-tended. I'm also sitting on a proposal for a new Aether TM spell (3rd tier), as well as two or three Air TM spells. As I mentioned recently, both Aegis of Granite and Anther's Call are more than 50% done, but each is waiting on some fairly complex core code that may take some time to finalize. Thus the focus on other "new" spells.

3) Familiar Stuff.

The updates to the dark talisman and fir talisman quests are being QCd. These are pretty minor updates from a technical perspective, so I don't expect them to take very long. They are, however, major from a player perspective, so I intend to release them as soon as possible.

Okay, now the long term projects.

1) Sentinels.

I'm pushing our team to get the things directly under our control finished within a few weeks. There's still a lot being worked on by other individuals not part of the WM team, but we'll have our portion done and ready to go.

2) Familiars.

GM Chakram is discussing the possibility of returning direct development of our familiars to the team. Since GM Reisten is more eager to work on enchanting, I've decided to dip my toes in the familiar system to see what's been updated and what still needs work. We've got a wish list a mile long for familiar development, and it's time we saw some of that in the game.

3) Enchanting.

As I mentioned above, GM Reisten is eager to begin work on enchanting. The problem right now is that we don't know what's happening or being decided about what the enchanting systems are going to entail. I hope to find out soon so we can start moving in the right direction. You guys have waited long enough for this; it's time to make some real progress.

4) Spell Review.

Yes, the spell review is still on. Upgrading Chain Lightning is the biggest concern at the moment. GM Dartenian found some rather interesting issues that are causing it to miss far more often than it should. Hopefully we can get this fixed quickly and bring the spell back up to the level we've come to love. Other spells will follow as the magic system fixes are made.

Quite a lot of fixes were stress-tested with excellent results during the P5 release, but some other problems have reared their ugly heads (Fire Rain, for example). These are design flaws in spells that become apparent when technical limitations are approached. Fixing them won't reduce spell effectiveness, but they should keep the game from crashing in the future. They're going high on my list of spells to update, but fortunately the fixes won't be too difficult.

As a small side note, I feel I should mention that I also made quite a few behind-the-scenes adjustments to existing spells for the release of P5. These weren't changes that affected players directly, but enabled critters to use spells more effectively (or in some cases, to use them at all). I've also got plans to improve how damaging spells work against critters of strange types, since I'm sick of watching arms and legs get blown off viney critters. :)

5) Something Else?

One of our top priorities for the coming year will be creating more WM-friendly hunting options here and there. While just a few are in the planning stages, it's safe to say that these creatures will be unlike anything you've encountered before. Blackfire development, elemental planar travel, and WM history will also be on our list of long-term projects.

That's all for now. Hope you're enjoying the P5 guild!


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

The talisman quest updates are now live in Platinum and The Fallen.

Dark talismans require a different (non-money) sort of offering to complete the puzzle. Fir talismans do not require payment to obtain, but there is a limit to the number of pieces of bark you can get within a certain time period.

- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

At the request of the SGMs, the Arcane Sniper title has been replaced by the Arcane Bullseye title. The old requirements for Arcane Bullseye will now provide you with the brand-new Arcane Dead-Eye title.


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

The Ice Patch, Chain Lightning, and Lightning Bolt spells have had a few bugs and features fixed. Since some of the updates involve core magic additions, these updates are live only in Prime and Platinum for the time being. If nothing breaks they will be released in The Fallen in a few days.

Ice Patch:

- Several typos and messaging problems were fixed.
- Players who have their legs broken will now properly be knocked down.
- The ability to cast on a corpse, reducing its drag difficulty, has been fixed.

Lightning Bolt:

- The flash messaging to adjacent rooms has been fixed.
- You can now give corpses a 'shocking experience'.

Chain Lightning:

- The flash messaging to adjacent rooms has been fixed.
- The first bolt of the spell will now hit what you are targeting or casting at, regardless of Ethereal Shield status. Please note that if you are attempting to cast on a victim who is not engaged in combat with you, you will still need to CAST AREA, meaning you must first TARGET <victim> to have the first bolt hit your target; CAST <victim> will not work unless the target is in combat with you.
- An experimental fix has been put in place in this spell to remedy the 'harness issue'. The spell should now properly recognize when additional mana has been used in casting the spell, either from cambrinth or harnessing.


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

While I'm calling this a weekly update, I'm not sure if I'll be posting updates on my progress every week. Think of this instead as an update on what I've been up to the past week, to keep you in the loop concerning important matters.

The biggie right now is that I've taken a deep dive into the familiar system that GM Rottcloar began updating. Despite starting with zero clue about what changes were made and what wasn't updated, I've learned quite a few things about the updates that make me very happy.

I'll be digging deeper into the familiar system and tweaking stuff as I learn more. The overall impression I get is that it possesses far more potential than what's in place now, and should be much more interesting to play with. Many of the features that you've been wishing for for a long time are already in there, but I also see some room to add my own ideas on expanding familiar functions.

Note that this deals only with familiars, and has nothing to do with the changes to familiar-type creatures and any combat potential they may have; that aspect of familiars is being handled by a separate team, since those updates involve more than just familiars.

Now for the other fixes and stuff:

- Fixed Guildleader messaging for Karazhil, Margathe and Melear.

- Fixed some typos in the Ball Lightning spell.

- Fixed several bugs in Fortress of Ice, which are currently being evaluated in QC. I'll post when these are live. The fixes include:

a) The 'watch' bug allowing you to continue watching the room outside the fortress even after the fortress was gone.

b) The issue with Moongates allowing travel back inside a fortress even after it melted and expelled the 'other side' of the gate.

c) The issue with perceived duration. It will use the correct duration, and message this using in-game time measurements.

d) The gweth/range issue.


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

Heyos,

Sometime Saturday evening an extensive rewrite of the Earth Sense spell will be rolled live in Prime and Platinum. The primary purpose of this update is to convert the search function of the spell to use core stealth mechanics to provide a fair and equitable contest for everyone.

The spell's initial contest pitting the caster's PM and Perception skill against the hider's skill remains unchanged and will still be used to determine if a hidden presence is detected or not. However, this calculation will be run through core stealth instead of using a custom check built into the spell, and therefore will take many additional factors into account.

If this first contest results in a win by the caster, the caster will identify who or what the hidden presence is. A second contest, also performed by core stealth, will automatically occur if this happens which pits the Perception of the caster against the hider's skill to see if the caster can point at or act on the hider. Since this contest disregards PM skill, this will most likely be the most apparent downtweak to the spell.

The 'near-miss' in the contest has also been altered to fall in line with core stealth results and will be a slightly smaller range than the one in the custom check used by the spell previously. Presences detected in this range will not be identified by race or critter type as before; rather, they will be identified only as an 'unknown presence'. Considering warrior mages have multiple methods to act upon hiders even if they cannot point at or identify them, I don't consider this to be a huge issue.

The Perception bonus to the checks above has been changed as well, from a straight rank bonus to a percentage bonus. This bonus is still based on the spell's power, but unless the caster has high Perception skill the bonus will typically be smaller. However, core stealth calculations may offset this by providing additional bonuses and modifiers depending on the circumstances. The 'phantom bonus' which stuck around for a few seconds after the spell was cast will no longer exist.

The spell's ability to search adjacent rooms remains in the updated version. The required mana and skill to enable this feature hasn't changed. The penalty to skills for checks in adjacent rooms has been halved, however, meaning it will be much easier for the caster to find and identify hiders in nearby rooms.

Both hiders and invisible presences will still be affected by this spell. I only use the term 'hider' in this post because that's the most convenient way to phrase a concealed individual.

Existing restrictions on what cannot be detected by this spell still apply.

The spell's ability to find certain hidden portals remains unchanged, and the spell still tells the player what is visible in the rooms it scans. The spell's messaging remains unchanged except for the new addition below.

Earth Sense will also have a new feature -- a Multi Opponent bonus for the caster. This bonus is based on the spell's power, and decays over time. Moving to a new area will remove the bonus, while re-casting the spell replaces the bonus. The basis of this bonus is that the spell gives the caster a lingering connection with the earth in the local area that fades over time, enhancing his ability to determine his position relative to other opponents. The caster will be able to perceive to determine the strength of this connection.

Assuming the spell doesn't go kaput, I expect to roll it live in TF around the middle of next week.

Big kudos to GM Zeyurn for providing the core stealth hooks and QCing the updates in record time.


- GM Wythor

The plain and simple truth is that the truth is rarely plain and never simple.

Greetings,

The Static Discharge spell has been updated to comply with the Lethal Damage Directive. The following updates are live in Prime only, until such time as the spell's stability is ensured.

The ability to inflict vitality damage and cause wounds has been removed.

In exchange, the stun duration has been increased by a modest amount.

The nerve damage aspect of this spell was not affected.


- GM Wythor

What goes up
is futile --
unless it goes out

Heyos,

I know that a lot of you are getting antsy about the contested spell updates, and that you have questions about what will happen to the guild's spells.

I'll give it to you straight: there are a few proposals still in the works, so I can't give you information about all of the spells. I can tell you that I'm working on them. What follows is a list of spells, what we're doing to them (if applicable) and where they are in the development process.

Static Discharge & Fire Ball: the updates have already been released.

Ethereal Fissure: the damage for casting opposing-element fissures is going away, rendering the spell damage-free. This update is currently in QC.

Magnetic Ballista: the initial attack is being moved to TM, rather than SvA. The knockdown potential of this attack will still be SvA. The excellent messaging for the SvA attack will be ported to all TM attacks. This update is currently in QC.

Shockwave: the elemental damage will remain, but use TM mechanics similar to how Fire Ball's collateral damage is handled. This update is currently in QC.

Frostbite: the skin bleeders will be going away. This update is currently in development.

Incinerate: this spell will be converted to a full TM spell. Its effects will also be quite different from its current incarnation. If the spell misses, it will no longer affect the target at all (instead of inflicting bad wounds). If the spell hits it will destroy the body area struck, rather than completely destroying the body. This update is currently in development.

Ice Patch & Ring of Spears: proposals for each of these spells are currently being reviewed. I'll let you know when I know for sure how we'll proceed with them.


- GM Wythor

What goes up
is futile --
unless it goes out

Greetings,

The Incinerate spell has been converted from lethal SvA to lethal TM. While it remains very similar to its original incarnation, there is one significant change. As it is a TM spell, it will no longer cause any damage if it misses the target. If it hits the target, the body part struck is incinerated, rather than the victim's entire body. This update is live in all instances.


- GM Wythor

What goes up
is futile --
unless it goes out

Heyos,

I've added two words to Ethereal Fissure's cast options: 'flame' and 'stone'. They are simply alternatives to 'fire' and 'earth', in case there are any conflicts with the parser that prevent you from casting the spell normally.


- GM Wythor

What goes up
is futile --
unless it goes out

Greetings,

I've just introduced some changes to a few Warrior Mage spells.

First off, I've fixed a minor messaging bug in Anther's Call when cast on hidden targets.

Second, Mark of Arhat now allows the caster one damage-dealing pulse if the target isn't in the same room; the mark then goes dormant as normal. This extra damage pulse occurs once per cast of the spell, to keep things balanced.

Third, the complete rewrite of Ring of Spears is now live. I realize not many of you may have this spell, and I am trying to get it on general preview so all warrior mages can take a look. Regardless, this spell is a dramatic improvement over its original incarnation.

Rather than functioning like a weak Shockwave, RoS puts an actual barrier at melee range between you and advancing foes. The default cast causes stone spears to spring from the ground around the caster at melee range. Every time foes try to get through the spears they'll have to a) win a spell contest to make it through, and b) dodge a TM attack to avoid damage. Enemies standing on the spears must make checks to avoid being pushed back and damaged, as will foes that linger among the spears for too long (the spears themselves shift and flex, making it difficult to stay in one place).

Ring of Spears also has a few other tricks up its sleeve. It can be cast on others (yes, it's true--it works!) to protect them (the only option here is melee range). If self-cast, the caster can use a "pole" option (CAST POLE) to cause the spears to spring out at pole range. Enemies at melee range will not be affected, but those advancing from missile to pole must get through the spears. The pole range spears have an additional feature: enemies attempting to retreat must contest the spell to get away. A second retreat is an automatic success (both contests), but there is a Roundtime for failing to retreat through the spears so the target can't spam the command to escape.

This spell requires a lot of hooks into the combat code, and there are a few engagement-skipping abilities that can get through. I'm trying to fix as many of them as possible, so if you encounter any issues with a non-flying target making it through the spears without any checks feel free to submit a bug report.


- GM Wythor

What goes up
is futile --
unless it goes out