* THIS IS ALL ON TEST ONLY AT THIS TIME *
I've just overhauled the elemental modifiers for all Warrior Mage spells and Bard spells in the Elemental Invocations spellbook (Which previously did not have these modifiers at all). They will now modify both difficulty and mana costs and range from -10% to +10% (The old range was -5% to +5%, often smaller, and mana was not modified). I've also entirely redone the logic for every element to create a much more robust system overall.
For example, under the old system lightning was +3% when raining and -3% at all other times. Now it depends on the overall climate, the season, the time of day and severity of weather.
Along with this comes a new ability for both Warrior Mages and Bards: PERCEIVE ELEMENTS (element/all/help)
This ability lets you measure the overall environmental conditions for each element.
The details should be sufficiently explained in the help text in game (And if it's not, please let me know what you feel is missing so I can clean it up.) I'm happy to clarify what any particular element is looking for except Aether.
If you find results that don't make sense please let me know with as many details as possible (The exact room, time and weather should be enough in most cases). I know for a fact there's some environmental settings around the world that are just weird so at this time I'm only going to chase down places that seem egregiously wrong (You're in the middle of a lake and it says fire magic is good to go or water is awful, or you're at the bottom of a cave and it's recommending air magic instead of earth magic... that sort of thing).
Please note that this involved updates to 51 separate spells so... odds are I made a mistake with at least one of them so if you get an error casting let me know and I'll fix it up. These updates were a change to how we handle these modifiers on the backend and should be fairly invisible, though if you notice anything different in discern this would be why. Discern should be assuming neutral modifiers.
There's also a few spells that are kinda funky. Most of them are hybrids, and I might change how these are handled since I'm not in love with the current solution (Both modifiers are applied linearly which can give unpredictable results and isn't bound within the same overall +/- 10%).
Desert's Maelstrom - This is an Earth and Air hybrid.
Shockwave - This is an Air and either Water or Fire hybrid.
Breath of Storms - This is normally Electrical but when Will of Winter is in place it will use Water.
Phoenix's Pyre - This uses Fire and will use Water in addition when Will of Winter is in place.
This will come to the live instances after the QC is finished and I collect sufficent feedback from players to make sure this isn't going to be too large of a change.
Thanks to Armifer for his input throughout this project.
-Raesh
"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things
DR-RAESH
DR-RAESH
ON TEST - Magic Changes [Warrior Mages]
03/22/2016 09:24 PM CDT
I've just rolled out a number of major changes to Warrior Mage magic on the test server only!
First is an update to the elemental modifiers system that was already on test. Instead of changing difficulty or the mana costs directly it will change the efficacy of your mana. This should be notable (I was aggressive in how much this matters, possibly too much).
Please be aware that at this time the efficacy modifier only applies to the actual prepped mana, not to mana contributed through harnessed mana or cambrinth. This will be changing in the near future.
This change applies to all Warrior Mage spells (and the Bard Elemental Invocations spellbook).
Secondly, the previously announced changes to magic are all live for Warrior Mages (... and Elemental Invocations). In brief, these include:
1) Mana now recovers at a linear rate (This is live on test for everyone, and has been for awhile).
2) Debilitation and TM spells have had their mana costs drastically altered (These are generally reductions, AoE TM is the main exception) and backlash rates reduced.
3) Mana costs, difficulty and backlashes have been re-balanced and standardized for all spells. Additionally we've added a 5th 'tier' of spell difficulty.
At this time Warrior Mages have no Esoteric spells, but it gives us room to grow (Riftal Summons is the only spell in this general range right now.)
4) Reduced slot cost for AoE TM/Debil spells.
5) Still Pending: Improved effectiveness of AoE TM spells.
See http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/Abilities,%20Skills%20and%20Magic/Game%20Master%20and%20Official%20Announcements/view/427 for full details of the system wide magic changes.
(I know it's not ideal to test both of these systems at once, but that's how the system updates shook out.)
Finally, there are some specific spell updates I made while making all the other adjustments:
Ethereal Fissure - Removed Augmentation as secondary skill.
Electrostatic Eddy - Reduced to 2 slots.
Chain Lightning - Reduced to Intermediate, reduced to 1 slot, reqs changed to AL or Tingle. Rewrote messaging.
Dragon's Breath - No longer uses Utility skill.
Frostbite - Reduced to 2 slots.
Tremor - Reduced to 2 slots.
Magnetic Ballista - No longer uses Utility skill.
Stone Strike - Updated messaging to use the old Fist of Stone damage table.
Zephyr - Increased to 2 slots.
Shockwave - Reduced to 2 slots, changed to impact instead of slice damage with tweaked messaging.
Thunderclap - Reduced to 2 slots.
Blufmor Garaen - No longer uses Utility skill.
I very much want feedback on these changes and appreciate your help with all of this. I will again ask that we focus on keeping the conversations civil and productive - something I believe we did a very good job when this discussion was initially started.
-Raesh
"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things
First is an update to the elemental modifiers system that was already on test. Instead of changing difficulty or the mana costs directly it will change the efficacy of your mana. This should be notable (I was aggressive in how much this matters, possibly too much).
Please be aware that at this time the efficacy modifier only applies to the actual prepped mana, not to mana contributed through harnessed mana or cambrinth. This will be changing in the near future.
This change applies to all Warrior Mage spells (and the Bard Elemental Invocations spellbook).
Secondly, the previously announced changes to magic are all live for Warrior Mages (... and Elemental Invocations). In brief, these include:
1) Mana now recovers at a linear rate (This is live on test for everyone, and has been for awhile).
2) Debilitation and TM spells have had their mana costs drastically altered (These are generally reductions, AoE TM is the main exception) and backlash rates reduced.
3) Mana costs, difficulty and backlashes have been re-balanced and standardized for all spells. Additionally we've added a 5th 'tier' of spell difficulty.
| Old Tier | New Tier |
| Intro | Intro |
| Basic | Basic |
| Advanced | Intermediate |
| Esoteric | Advanced |
| N/A | Esoteric |
At this time Warrior Mages have no Esoteric spells, but it gives us room to grow (Riftal Summons is the only spell in this general range right now.)
4) Reduced slot cost for AoE TM/Debil spells.
5) Still Pending: Improved effectiveness of AoE TM spells.
See http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/Abilities,%20Skills%20and%20Magic/Game%20Master%20and%20Official%20Announcements/view/427 for full details of the system wide magic changes.
(I know it's not ideal to test both of these systems at once, but that's how the system updates shook out.)
Finally, there are some specific spell updates I made while making all the other adjustments:
Ethereal Fissure - Removed Augmentation as secondary skill.
Electrostatic Eddy - Reduced to 2 slots.
Chain Lightning - Reduced to Intermediate, reduced to 1 slot, reqs changed to AL or Tingle. Rewrote messaging.
Dragon's Breath - No longer uses Utility skill.
Frostbite - Reduced to 2 slots.
Tremor - Reduced to 2 slots.
Magnetic Ballista - No longer uses Utility skill.
Stone Strike - Updated messaging to use the old Fist of Stone damage table.
Zephyr - Increased to 2 slots.
Shockwave - Reduced to 2 slots, changed to impact instead of slice damage with tweaked messaging.
Thunderclap - Reduced to 2 slots.
Blufmor Garaen - No longer uses Utility skill.
I very much want feedback on these changes and appreciate your help with all of this. I will again ask that we focus on keeping the conversations civil and productive - something I believe we did a very good job when this discussion was initially started.
-Raesh
"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things
DR-RAESH
Re: ON TEST - Magic Changes [Warrior Mages]
03/23/2016 08:56 AM CDT
These changes are for the Test server only
The aforementioned improved damage template for AoE spells is now live. Be aware - this isn't a massive increase.
I've also put the Frost Scythe spell on preview on Test. This is a single target intermediate TM spell that requires Icepatch or Frostbite and 2 slots. What makes it special is that it's the prototype for a new armor piercing damage template. This means it should be less effective on lightly armored targets compared to most TM spells but more effective against heavily armored targets (This makes it kind of the reverse of a multishot spell). I imagine the general idea of the mechanic at works here is familiar to most of you.
Please let me know how it feels - I'm fairly happy with where the numbers are at right now but there's a lot of noise in damage from attack to attack and I can see the numbers whereas you can't - so your feedback here will be really helpful.
-Raesh
"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things
The aforementioned improved damage template for AoE spells is now live. Be aware - this isn't a massive increase.
I've also put the Frost Scythe spell on preview on Test. This is a single target intermediate TM spell that requires Icepatch or Frostbite and 2 slots. What makes it special is that it's the prototype for a new armor piercing damage template. This means it should be less effective on lightly armored targets compared to most TM spells but more effective against heavily armored targets (This makes it kind of the reverse of a multishot spell). I imagine the general idea of the mechanic at works here is familiar to most of you.
Please let me know how it feels - I'm fairly happy with where the numbers are at right now but there's a lot of noise in damage from attack to attack and I can see the numbers whereas you can't - so your feedback here will be really helpful.
-Raesh
"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things
DR-RAESH
Re: ON TEST - Magic Changes [Warrior Mages]
03/28/2016 12:47 PM CDT
coughcough There was a bug that was preventing the Elemental Mods from actually doing anything at all on Test after the latest revision to them. This has been fixed. cough
-Raesh
"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things
-Raesh
"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things
DR-GREJUVA
Re: ON TEST - Magic Changes [Warrior Mages]
04/04/2016 07:06 PM CDT
In the Test Instance only, Dragon's Breath is now a Heavy TM spell. This means that it should hit much harder, and both the cooldown and duration have gone up across the board.
GM Grejuva
GM Grejuva
