Is a bit too random, i think. Even fights between 3c cause
mages of different weapon skill comes out to be the same, a fight
where damage is dealt via skills and recovered via mana.
Then again, it seems that the only time you are using mana for
damage is when you are in a situation where you can't use it for
healing... i.e, a tank-out battle where both of them are stuck
and one of them isn't sunk. In closed quarters between two similar
mind mages with sink, it seems skills are far more effective than
spells.
Not that there's anything fundamentally wrong with that usage,
other than that it sort of narrows things down. This is something
we'd probably want to see happen under skill trees, this
specialization in a few areas rather than a jack-of-all trades, but
when everyone is specializing in the same thing there is a small
problem.
It would be interesting if sink was a LOT cheaper, probably nearly
half the amount or even less than what it costs now, but has a life
limit other than ticks. For example, a 60 mind sink will automatically
disappear after sinking 60 mana's worth, while getting destroyed
instantly when a spell cuts through it. A 100 mind sink will poof
after absorbing 100 mana's worth, and should get destroyed when
a spell goes through it too. maybe it'll be able to sink just one
more spell if you are 3rd circle.
Also, healing should probably be limited to certain degrees. Roots
would heal more when you are at leaking than when you are at cuts,
and you couldn't heal using cure light when you are beyond many
nasty, and can't heal using cure crit when you are better off than
many nasty. This will give some advantage back to con, since
they can heal a lot more using cure crit or roots while dex chars
will remain at many nasty even with cure crit, leaving them vulnerable
to one good skill or two.
On top of that, items should probably come with a built-in suscept
and resist if they are hit. I think there is already a code that
determines which item got hit, and instead of applying resist and
suscept all over the char, how about applying it partially? So i
could be susceptible to pierce on body, but nearly immune to it on
my feet, say.
Oh well, i'm seriously not being helpful throwing up ideas that
takes too much effort to implement, but anyway, it's fun venting.
Dh
From: Ptwang
Friday, September 29 2000, 07:51AM
I agree with the proposed change to sink, it's how it works
on other muds, being able to absorb just 1 or 2 spells with
a reduced mana cost and casting lag sounds good to me.
Dunno bout the rest, too lazy to read long posts. :P
From: Darkheart
Friday, September 29 2000, 09:16AM
was also thinking... how about limiting the amount of spells you
can have prepped by your mind? so if you have 100mind, you can
prep 100 mana's worth (a str, armor, and a sink?) and having
less mind than that would mean less prep spells. Doesn't
have to be 1-1, and maybe there should be some bonus for being
3rd circle as opposed to 2nd.
From: Rufus
Friday, September 29 2000, 09:53AM
I really like the ideas about sink... I forwarded those on to the
coder list with the following additions/expansions:
Sink cost is directly related to how much it can absorb (perhaps a 5
to 1 ratio)
it can absorb a number of spells up to mind/20 -- max of 5
it can absorb an amount of mana up to 3xmind/2 (max of 150 --
max cost on the spell would be 30 which is 5 less than current)
Also, I don't think this should be applied to item cast things, though.
The 'mana expended' isn't calculated with item cast spells (those on
weapons and the ilk) so the benefits of the spell are negated. So as
far as how it handles object cast spells, it'd remain somewhat the
same.
On the buffing -- that's a neat idea, I agree... oie would it be a pain
to implement =) I'll put some thought into it.
On the issue of the resistances and such -- I'm not 100% happy with how
they're implemented (call it hindsight) but right now they're treated
in a similar manner to stats... ie that a wrist item giving you 5 str
doesn't just give 5 str to that part of the body, it's a 'global'
bonus. Bad analogy, but that's what it does, basically. I guess a
better analogy is that each piece of armor provides an overall bonus
to AC. It uses the hit location only after testing the AC, rather
than picking the location and testing the AC in that location.
As to the healing issue -- I agree that there needs to be a change there.
I've been trying to think of ways to alter the way it works without
having to 'nerf' the thing (making cure crit have a worse mana to hp
ratio, etc) though it might come to that =(
-Ruf
From: Darkheart
Friday, September 29 2000, 10:21AM
I knew the idea was fun, but was also quite sure implementing it
isn't half as fun... good luck Ruf and thanks for listening.
DH - who gets to do the fun part of thinking stuff up
From: Skar
Monday, October 02 2000, 01:58PM
Please don't limit the number of spells I can wear at one time. I
almost always wear at least four, and often go beyond that. If I were a
cause mage, I'd probably double the number of spells I maintain.
