Any chance of seeing fist of stone and aether(/Sun) lance return as heavy TM? They both already look like canon fire! Fire and earth are good books for a heavy TM spell, too.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
FAMEBRIGHT
DR-RAESH
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/06/2016 04:47 PM CST
This is the currently planned initial Heavy TM spell for Warrior Mages:
Flashfreeze
The caster attempts to seed the target with a miniscule ice crystal that has a temperature near absolute zero. This causes massive cold damage.
It's an old spell idea for a 5th tier TM spell (back when TM spell tier really mattered) that I revived and I feel like Warrior Mages would benefit from another cold damage spell.
That said, I'm tentatively intrigued by the idea of bringing back Fist of Stone as a Heavy TM spell. It wouldn't be a hard project and looking over the messaging (Which is a major time saving) seems viable for this type of spell.
-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
Flashfreeze
The caster attempts to seed the target with a miniscule ice crystal that has a temperature near absolute zero. This causes massive cold damage.
It's an old spell idea for a 5th tier TM spell (back when TM spell tier really mattered) that I revived and I feel like Warrior Mages would benefit from another cold damage spell.
That said, I'm tentatively intrigued by the idea of bringing back Fist of Stone as a Heavy TM spell. It wouldn't be a hard project and looking over the messaging (Which is a major time saving) seems viable for this type of spell.
-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
BADGOPHER
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/06/2016 06:59 PM CST
Potentially stupid question, but couldn't that spell work for all the elements?
An ice seed as described, a fire seed isn't intrinsically different. Aether either since it's goofy.
Stone would have to have a gravitational-black-hole type effect of drawing earth to itself. Electricity I'm not sure of. Organic beings could have the nervous system explode, non-organic could generate static electricity or something.
I personally like the idea of being able to cast a spell like that as any 'flavor' of elemental mage, based on your align, and I don't really expect all the schools to get versions of the spell, too few GMs. And (and and?) I like being able to play to a single dedicated school, which is roughly impossible in DR (I'm an earth mage who spends 90% of his time casting air/aether spells, and 9.9% casting fire/electric...)
An ice seed as described, a fire seed isn't intrinsically different. Aether either since it's goofy.
Stone would have to have a gravitational-black-hole type effect of drawing earth to itself. Electricity I'm not sure of. Organic beings could have the nervous system explode, non-organic could generate static electricity or something.
I personally like the idea of being able to cast a spell like that as any 'flavor' of elemental mage, based on your align, and I don't really expect all the schools to get versions of the spell, too few GMs. And (and and?) I like being able to play to a single dedicated school, which is roughly impossible in DR (I'm an earth mage who spends 90% of his time casting air/aether spells, and 9.9% casting fire/electric...)
FAMEBRIGHT
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/06/2016 07:42 PM CST
As the player of a water cabalist (which us admittedly one of the easier ones), I think generally elemental devotees are at least more playable than a shocked empaths or redeemed necromancer.
The idea of a spell considering your alignment is very cool, though, and might introduce some interesting tactical choices.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
The idea of a spell considering your alignment is very cool, though, and might introduce some interesting tactical choices.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
DR-RAESH
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/06/2016 07:50 PM CST
>>Potentially stupid question, but couldn't that spell work for all the elements?
Just about any spell could work as any element given the proper flavor, but you all complain about redundant TM spells when we do that :)
Seriously though, to do that you'd need to write six TM tables and, as some of you may have gathered, writing TM tables is absolutely awful. If I'm going to write six of them I'm certainly going to write six different spells instead of the same spell six times.
-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
Just about any spell could work as any element given the proper flavor, but you all complain about redundant TM spells when we do that :)
Seriously though, to do that you'd need to write six TM tables and, as some of you may have gathered, writing TM tables is absolutely awful. If I'm going to write six of them I'm certainly going to write six different spells instead of the same spell six times.
-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
BADGOPHER
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/06/2016 08:08 PM CST
>Seriously though, to do that you'd need to write six TM tables and, as some of you may have gathered, writing TM tables is absolutely awful. If I'm going to write six of them I'm certainly going to write six different spells instead of the same spell six times.
I was afraid of that. I was honestly hoping the engine could support simply swapping 'your fire-seed' for 'your elementX seed' and be done with it, rather than you have to create 6 individual spells.
I, for one, wouldn't complain about it. But then again, I'd be OK with most spells taking the form of your aligned element/anti-aligned element, with the effects being the main driver. Of course I'm an outlier.
I was afraid of that. I was honestly hoping the engine could support simply swapping 'your fire-seed' for 'your elementX seed' and be done with it, rather than you have to create 6 individual spells.
I, for one, wouldn't complain about it. But then again, I'd be OK with most spells taking the form of your aligned element/anti-aligned element, with the effects being the main driver. Of course I'm an outlier.
DR-RAESH
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/06/2016 08:13 PM CST
>>I was afraid of that. I was honestly hoping the engine could support simply swapping 'your fire-seed' for 'your elementX seed' and be done with it, rather than you have to create 6 individual spells.
This isn't an engine limitation, it's a limitation of a text based game. The messaging you need to describe someone bursting into flames is totally different from that needed to describe them being frozen solid or scrambled by gravity or what-have-you. We're not talking about a color pallet swap.
The minimum message burden for a TM hit table is 72 token rich messages.
-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
This isn't an engine limitation, it's a limitation of a text based game. The messaging you need to describe someone bursting into flames is totally different from that needed to describe them being frozen solid or scrambled by gravity or what-have-you. We're not talking about a color pallet swap.
The minimum message burden for a TM hit table is 72 token rich messages.
-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
BADGOPHER
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/06/2016 08:56 PM CST
>This isn't an engine limitation, it's a limitation of a text based game. The messaging you need to describe someone bursting into flames is totally different from that needed to describe them being frozen solid or scrambled by gravity or what-have-you.
Not if you have (really) low standards! And I do.
I get what you're saying though.
Not if you have (really) low standards! And I do.
I get what you're saying though.
UNSPEAKABLEOATH
SYRAKEN
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/07/2016 11:10 PM CST
Time for the people to think of suggestions of what it'd look like if a monster imploded! ... or wouldn't a stone one petrify? Or is that already a thing.
When responding to something, make sure you have the facts. Otherwise you are just wasting time. -sig-
RHAZIN
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/09/2016 04:37 AM CST
Outsource dmg tables to players? Maybe just put up a google doc?
DR-RAESH
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/09/2016 01:24 PM CST
>>Outsource dmg tables to players? Maybe just put up a google doc?
This sounds like a good idea. Experience tells us it is not a good idea.
-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
This sounds like a good idea. Experience tells us it is not a good idea.
-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
PRIMEQ
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/09/2016 09:42 PM CST
For what it's worth, I would put some work into damage tables if it meant getting spells out faster. I'd just need an example damage table from another spell to work with.
What happened in the past? Maybe I lack imagination, but it seems like the worst case scenario is just having to delete a bunch of invalid entries. Or maybe some miscreants delete some good work before it can be saved.
- Navesi
What happened in the past? Maybe I lack imagination, but it seems like the worst case scenario is just having to delete a bunch of invalid entries. Or maybe some miscreants delete some good work before it can be saved.
- Navesi
DR-RAESH
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 01:59 AM CST
>>What happened in the past?
Hard truth time:
Most player submissions for anything development related aren't useful.
There's a lot of reasons for this, but most of them boil down either not having practice doing what we're asking for or not actually doing what we wanted (Either because it's hard to describe or we didn't communicate it quite right or whatever).
That's okay - anyone who joins staff tosses out a lot of what they do at first, and even with experience a lot of what you do gets tossed. Most of us cringe when we look at our early work.
I still frequently have to rewrite code several times over until I find an approach I like and most of my messaging gets heavily revised or entirely replaced multiple times before I'm happy with the final product. Take the recent elemental mods system I'm working on - because I'm not happy with how it's going on test I had to revise some of the guts and am going to have to go and make manual updates to ~55 spells. Again. It happens.
So we spend time writing out guidelines, setting up a submission tool - and maybe we get some submissions (and maybe we don't). We spend time looking over what we got and... end up tossing most of it out. Or all of it. And what we don't toss out ends up going through so many revisions to turn it into what we want that it really hasn't saved us any time at all.
And that's for relatively simple things!
For a TM damage table... well, let me give an example:
A massive gout of scalding water and superheated steam barrels into $X1's $T9, instantly searing away $S3 and $S7. The impact violently rips through $X1's entire body and nearly cuts $X1H in half, a few sinewy pieces of gristle barely connecting the two pieces./A massive gout of scalding water and superheated steam barrels into your $T9, instantly searing away $S3 and $S7. The impact violently rips through your entire body and nearly cuts you in half, a few sinewy pieces of gristle barely connecting the two pieces.
Now write 60 variants of that.
-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
Hard truth time:
Most player submissions for anything development related aren't useful.
There's a lot of reasons for this, but most of them boil down either not having practice doing what we're asking for or not actually doing what we wanted (Either because it's hard to describe or we didn't communicate it quite right or whatever).
That's okay - anyone who joins staff tosses out a lot of what they do at first, and even with experience a lot of what you do gets tossed. Most of us cringe when we look at our early work.
I still frequently have to rewrite code several times over until I find an approach I like and most of my messaging gets heavily revised or entirely replaced multiple times before I'm happy with the final product. Take the recent elemental mods system I'm working on - because I'm not happy with how it's going on test I had to revise some of the guts and am going to have to go and make manual updates to ~55 spells. Again. It happens.
So we spend time writing out guidelines, setting up a submission tool - and maybe we get some submissions (and maybe we don't). We spend time looking over what we got and... end up tossing most of it out. Or all of it. And what we don't toss out ends up going through so many revisions to turn it into what we want that it really hasn't saved us any time at all.
And that's for relatively simple things!
For a TM damage table... well, let me give an example:
A massive gout of scalding water and superheated steam barrels into $X1's $T9, instantly searing away $S3 and $S7. The impact violently rips through $X1's entire body and nearly cuts $X1H in half, a few sinewy pieces of gristle barely connecting the two pieces./A massive gout of scalding water and superheated steam barrels into your $T9, instantly searing away $S3 and $S7. The impact violently rips through your entire body and nearly cuts you in half, a few sinewy pieces of gristle barely connecting the two pieces.
Now write 60 variants of that.
-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
SYRAKEN
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 02:36 AM CST
>>Now write 60 variants of that.
Just give us the proper lettering (assuming those literally do correspond to body parts and locations and aren't just examples) and we'll get to work. >:O!
When responding to something, make sure you have the facts. Otherwise you are just wasting time. -sig-
FAMEBRIGHT
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 02:53 AM CST
While that sounds like a lot of fun in the abstract, it's definately not a task I'd want to undertake without a TM damage messaging bible and that's tripping right over NDA land.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
BINU
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 05:27 AM CST
While you're thinking of recycling old spells that aren't around anymore for their already written messaging, look into Aether Lance and Frost Scythe. Those two had some amazing messaging. I still have a lot of good crit messaging saved from both...somewhere.
TEVESHSZAT
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 09:56 AM CST
>>Just give us the proper lettering (assuming those literally do correspond to body parts and locations and aren't just examples) and we'll get to work. >:O!
Not to put words in Raesh's mouth, but I think part of the problem is that the work your average player provides in these kinds of contexts just aren't good.
As a comparison, players aren't given access to ALAE until they pass a test to prove they have a general understanding of how world building works, similar to how players aren't trained to become GMs until they prove they have a general understanding of how to GM.
With that said, it might be interesting someday to have critter and spell versions of ALAE show up someday, but that would also require GM time investment and the development of tools that would facilitate it.
Item suggestion spreadsheets probably work well because an item is one of the least complex things to write in DR. Not that creative ones aren't awesome and bad ones can be terrible, but it's a lot less complex and a lot more accessible than damage trees or room descriptions or critter messaging or etc.
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
Not to put words in Raesh's mouth, but I think part of the problem is that the work your average player provides in these kinds of contexts just aren't good.
As a comparison, players aren't given access to ALAE until they pass a test to prove they have a general understanding of how world building works, similar to how players aren't trained to become GMs until they prove they have a general understanding of how to GM.
With that said, it might be interesting someday to have critter and spell versions of ALAE show up someday, but that would also require GM time investment and the development of tools that would facilitate it.
Item suggestion spreadsheets probably work well because an item is one of the least complex things to write in DR. Not that creative ones aren't awesome and bad ones can be terrible, but it's a lot less complex and a lot more accessible than damage trees or room descriptions or critter messaging or etc.
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
HASTALUEGO
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 09:59 AM CST
>>Now write 60 variants of that.
Praise to you, good sir.
Praise to you, good sir.
TEVESHSZAT
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 10:07 AM CST
>>While that sounds like a lot of fun in the abstract, it's definately not a task I'd want to undertake without a TM damage messaging bible and that's tripping right over NDA land.
IMO the "bible" isn't that complex, and I'd be surprised if it's NDA. A lot of it comes off as common sense, anyway (watch me get a part wrong, now). Looking at Raesh's sample and my general understanding based on seeing things go wrong when stuff gets buggy...
$X1 = Character name
$X1H = him/her. There's probably a his/hers version, too.
$T9 = all the $T tags are probably specific parts of the body. $T9 might be whatever a critter has tagged as their abdomen (most might be abdomen, but there are critters that have more unique body types)
$S3/$S7 = similar to the $T tags, this probably relates to what kind of stuff a critter is made out of. Maybe some will be made of flesh/bone, others might be made out of mud/twigs. I could see why this is the preferred way to start splitting up messaging for different creature types (fleshy, undead, construct, cursed, etc) because you might not have to be as varied for each creature type.
The messaging bible is probably the same as the item and room description bible, where you have to assume that it works even if someone is watching through a shadewatch mirror (like a room can't necessarily have "mist that clings to your skin" because what if you're peering north) or make you feel a certain way (although I imagine if a TM spell blows someone's arm off they could possibly stare at the remains in shock, but a third-party couldn't be written to respond that way).
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
IMO the "bible" isn't that complex, and I'd be surprised if it's NDA. A lot of it comes off as common sense, anyway (watch me get a part wrong, now). Looking at Raesh's sample and my general understanding based on seeing things go wrong when stuff gets buggy...
$X1 = Character name
$X1H = him/her. There's probably a his/hers version, too.
$T9 = all the $T tags are probably specific parts of the body. $T9 might be whatever a critter has tagged as their abdomen (most might be abdomen, but there are critters that have more unique body types)
$S3/$S7 = similar to the $T tags, this probably relates to what kind of stuff a critter is made out of. Maybe some will be made of flesh/bone, others might be made out of mud/twigs. I could see why this is the preferred way to start splitting up messaging for different creature types (fleshy, undead, construct, cursed, etc) because you might not have to be as varied for each creature type.
The messaging bible is probably the same as the item and room description bible, where you have to assume that it works even if someone is watching through a shadewatch mirror (like a room can't necessarily have "mist that clings to your skin" because what if you're peering north) or make you feel a certain way (although I imagine if a TM spell blows someone's arm off they could possibly stare at the remains in shock, but a third-party couldn't be written to respond that way).
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
SLHUBBARD
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 10:18 AM CST
Why do all TM spells have to be so complex, messaging wise?
Given that TM spells are used in combat, which is already extremely message/text-heavy, I really only want to know the basics: who got hit, for how much damage, and where.
I'm going to be killing thousands, if not tens-of-thousands of critters with the same spell. After awhile, I don't care what it looks like when they die.
I think rather than trying to give flavor/style to spells through messaging, they need to have some functionality that makes them distinct (e.g. different damage tables, secondary effects, or damage types). Maybe have one easter-egg-like crit for each body part?
I recognize that I am on the more extreme game play side of things (as opposed to role play), but I do think that most people would like to see interesting functionality over interesting messaging any day.
GENT
Given that TM spells are used in combat, which is already extremely message/text-heavy, I really only want to know the basics: who got hit, for how much damage, and where.
I'm going to be killing thousands, if not tens-of-thousands of critters with the same spell. After awhile, I don't care what it looks like when they die.
I think rather than trying to give flavor/style to spells through messaging, they need to have some functionality that makes them distinct (e.g. different damage tables, secondary effects, or damage types). Maybe have one easter-egg-like crit for each body part?
I recognize that I am on the more extreme game play side of things (as opposed to role play), but I do think that most people would like to see interesting functionality over interesting messaging any day.
GENT
TEVESHSZAT
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 10:27 AM CST
>>Why do all TM spells have to be so complex, messaging wise?
Sure we can just bring back energy bolt but if every spell was messaged like energy bolt it wouldn't be that fun.
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
Sure we can just bring back energy bolt but if every spell was messaged like energy bolt it wouldn't be that fun.
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
DR-RAESH
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 10:57 AM CST
PS: The TM Message System supports something like five different body types, each with a different hit table. So that could be "repeat x300". Except no one does that since we're not insane.
The downside of that is why you see skeletons with blood and, as I recently learned, is the reason you get broken messaging sometimes about about hitting things in the light brown or whatever. I'm going to look into a fix for that, but I'm not terribly helpful given the way the problem was explained to me.
-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 downside of that is why you see skeletons with blood and, as I recently learned, is the reason you get broken messaging sometimes about about hitting things in the light brown or whatever. I'm going to look into a fix for that, but I'm not terribly helpful given the way the problem was explained to me.
-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: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 11:03 AM CST
>>Why do all TM spells have to be so complex, messaging wise?
Answer number 1)
They don't. We have a generic TM damage utility, but we don't like to use it for single target when we can avoid it - and I believe most players prefer it that way. (Stone Strike, TKT, most AoE spells...)
Answer number 2)
Because, currently, messaging is the main that that clearly makes TM spells feel different from each other.
-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
Answer number 1)
They don't. We have a generic TM damage utility, but we don't like to use it for single target when we can avoid it - and I believe most players prefer it that way. (Stone Strike, TKT, most AoE spells...)
Answer number 2)
Because, currently, messaging is the main that that clearly makes TM spells feel different from each other.
-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
ALGOTHI
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 11:59 AM CST
Having a TM spell with less variables like Fist of Stone as HTM in test might be a great way to run the HTM template by a larger number of testers. While I love the spell, I feel that BLB is a difficult test case due to its DO/Vit drain/splash damage issues.
Elusive
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
Elusive
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
TEVESHSZAT
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 12:32 PM CST
>>The downside of that is why you see skeletons with blood and, as I recently learned, is the reason you get broken messaging sometimes about about hitting things in the light brown or whatever. I'm going to look into a fix for that, but I'm not terribly helpful given the way the problem was explained to me.
Glances of its , how I always love seeing you.
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
Glances of its , how I always love seeing you.
Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.
FAMEBRIGHT
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/10/2016 02:02 PM CST
>The messaging bible is probably the same as the item and room description bible...
I would have imagined it in addition to details relating to grammatical constraints, it defines hit locations, and hit severity. Otherwise you'd have to look at a couple TM table every time you built a new one and that would add a ridiculous amount of time to the design process.
>I think rather than trying to give flavor/style to spells through messaging, they need to have some functionality that makes them distinct (e.g. different damage tables, secondary effects, or damage types). Maybe have one easter-egg-like crit for each body part?
That is how Gemstone does it. That is the reason I play Dragonrealms and not Gemstone. The release of the original first-tier TM spells after Fire Shard (Frost scythe, fist of stone, aether lance) was basically what hooked me.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
I would have imagined it in addition to details relating to grammatical constraints, it defines hit locations, and hit severity. Otherwise you'd have to look at a couple TM table every time you built a new one and that would add a ridiculous amount of time to the design process.
>I think rather than trying to give flavor/style to spells through messaging, they need to have some functionality that makes them distinct (e.g. different damage tables, secondary effects, or damage types). Maybe have one easter-egg-like crit for each body part?
That is how Gemstone does it. That is the reason I play Dragonrealms and not Gemstone. The release of the original first-tier TM spells after Fire Shard (Frost scythe, fist of stone, aether lance) was basically what hooked me.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
FRANKYFIGGS
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/11/2016 12:01 PM CST
would a hit messaging table for all the elements be in order? it could be used for all new elemental damage (bards, elemental weapon flares) and plugged into new TM spells? or take the damage messaging from elemental weapons and transfer them into a universal elemental damage table that would make applying elemental damage messaging much easier?
-Munch-
-Munch-
DR-RAESH
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/11/2016 12:06 PM CST
1) The combat messaging system (What's used for weapons) is a notorious quagmire of code. I do not believe anything would be improved by interacting with it.
2) Universal Messaging has to be extremely simple to work in most contexts. We have that system (See again: Stone Strike, Telekinetic Throw, most AoE spells).
3) Even if the Universal Messaging was made a bit less generic so there was one for each element, but somehow still flexible enough to plug into numerous spells - who would want Fire Shard to message like Fireball, which would message like Dragon's Breath?
-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
2) Universal Messaging has to be extremely simple to work in most contexts. We have that system (See again: Stone Strike, Telekinetic Throw, most AoE spells).
3) Even if the Universal Messaging was made a bit less generic so there was one for each element, but somehow still flexible enough to plug into numerous spells - who would want Fire Shard to message like Fireball, which would message like Dragon's Breath?
-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
FRANKYFIGGS
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/11/2016 12:07 PM CST
also for being the second most populous guild as of last census war mages feel good to play, solid in skills and powerful in pve situations. great developments in the past few years has made the guild more engaging, fun, and varied that it has ever been in the history of the game (within the balance ruleset, neck snapping IP will always be cherished, along with SD)
-Munch-
-Munch-
FRANKYFIGGS
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/11/2016 12:20 PM CST
ah, it would be a drawback to be too generic for certain. what about vampiring messaging from current spells?
-Munch-
-Munch-
HASTALUEGO
Re: Fist of stone as heavy TM
03/11/2016 08:05 PM CST
>>3) Even if the Universal Messaging was made a bit less generic so there was one for each element, but somehow still flexible enough to plug into numerous spells - who would want Fire Shard to message like Fireball, which would message like Dragon's Breath?
This. Even though the messaging is an obvious pain to do, the individualized stuff reads great and in a text game, that's important. For instance, the new Dragon's Breath stuff is great.
This. Even though the messaging is an obvious pain to do, the individualized stuff reads great and in a text game, that's important. For instance, the new Dragon's Breath stuff is great.
