Just thought I'd offer this idea:
A lot of muds (which I know Legend isn't a lot of MUDS)
that have class systems allow early mages to learn damaging spellse arly
Why not have some sort of easily obtained offensive spell?
Mages are really tough for an inexperienced player to level
as is, and I'm sure that scares away some potential players that try
a mage as their first character. Perhaps there can be
a slightly useful spell that requires only first circle words?
I think that would be very useful for new players
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From: Nelson
Thursday, August 07 2003, 12:54AM
First circle words are what, hide know remove (destroy?) cause create.
could do a spell using the words cause destroy remove! I guess. Cept for..
well the obvious problem.
Anyways Cause mages have tons and tons of crappy low level damage spells.
Create mages...have the uh, one. But it's not totally useless! Okay yes it is.
is. But still!
I think part of the point of mages is that they are a pain in the backside.
rather than any kind of spell change maybe they should just put a big
warning when you do get hometown info about agrabah and have it in big
red capitals that mages are a pain in the butt! Or something.
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From: Dolor
Thursday, August 07 2003, 10:57AM
Much aside from the fact that the magic system only allows for a single
first-circle word in a spell (which makes sense: each sentence is allowed
a single action, and the first-circles are verbs), your first character is
and always has been a learning experience--for me, this has been true on
every single place I've played on, Legend included. Rare are first char-
acters who are particularly effective, and most of those are played by
somebody who was introduced by an experienced Legendite. Most first char-
acters are difficult to play because they have ridiculous stat priorities,
or stat priorities which don't mesh with their choice of hometown, or
pursuit of skills--mine was a dex/con/str with perc picked 5th who was
from London and kept trying to use guns. Your average true newbie has
enough difficulties getting through the early levels that many probably
don't even know that they -have- mage abilities, much less how useless
the weaker mage's spells are in combat. Besides which, in -any- RPG I've
ever played, be it tabletop, console, or online, the mage is always the
most difficult character to level up, regardless of whether they have some
useful combat abilities early on--which makes sense, because the mage is
also the person who ends up with significantly more stuff they can do once
they reach the pinnacle of their training. If a true Legend newbie hasn't
been exposed to at least one or two RPG's of some sort before getting here
then making a mage character is probably not high on their priorities.
Levelling mages has always been a royal pain in the rear-end, but great
pains yield great rewards. Trying to smooth the road for mages isn't
going to be of particular use to true newbies who are probably still
wandering the hills well away from the road because they don't know where
the road -is-; it'll help people who know precisely what they're doing
when they set up their characters. Frankly, Legend has enough people
whose knowledge of the MUD is limited to "How to make good characters" and
"How to level to 50 without leaving Tara/Sherwood (pick one) on my own"
without making it even easier to get those levels without learning a damn
thing. Mages are just fine the way they are: excruciatingly difficult to
level.
-Dolor
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From: Masha
Thursday, August 07 2003, 11:46AM
Let's see about an append, eh? First of all, low level mages--
in any RPG I've every played, created, and whatnot--are not
supposed to do much more than be able to light a candle, make
a small puff of wind, or even identify things. Mage training
takes a while before they can even master something like creating
an orb of light, or causing someone to become ill. Apprentice (low
level) mages are just beginners.
I'm pretty sure in saying this that the creators of Legend followed
along the same lines of reasoning as I did. Levelling mages is going
to suck, I agree, but after you do level them to a certain point where
they can get access to better words as their training/levels allow,
then it becomes worth it.
And, if you're complaining about how much of a pain it is to level
mages at the low levels, DON'T PLAY THEM. It's pretty simple. Low
level mages don't need things like attack spells. They just learned
how to identify and object. Patience is what's needed. If you
don't have patience, then don't play the class.
Going back to hermitage,
--Masha Corlan
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