Shattered Kingdoms

Now I want to be able to summon raptor jesus.

Never give up, never surrender!

I actually really like this idea.

Good:
Adjectives
Automated dehoarding
Religion/Faction status threads on the forum

Bad:
The current weapon system, due to excess bad options and the obtuseness of the whole thing,
The current scarcity models espoused by the economy and item management systems,
and something I've promised not to talk about.

Updates:
Go open source (ironically, the easiest of these suggestions),

but since that will never happen, offline investment/seeking system and access level based faction management,

credit original content providers, from Mercedes Lackey to GL, beyond what's required to be in place by the DIKU core. Even if Dulrik retains rights, he should respect authorship (if not ownership) more,

and institute "Enforcers" - highly monitored angels with reduced system information and influence bound by a modern, well-defined terms of service instead of the awful draconian current option, selected by the community, not the pantheon, via automated democratic process.. I think it's been proven by now that the pantheon is not capable of selecting enough good enough candidates fast enough, whether its due to idling or immfighting, to maintain an invigorated environment. Enforcers would have the ability to enlight/curse/invest/remove/snoop/report/lock characters and create roleplay, but not create content. If there's so much for immortals to do before taking care of whatever the current complaint is, adding more positions able to deal with complaints should be a no brainer. For bonus points, come up with a way to make it in-character, and call these people "Heroes."


Other updates:

Add a (prone) aura to short descs when it is appropriate and remove the action modification. prone should be obvious and not need highlighting.

Give position ranks of something like U1...UN ("Unpositioned") for group members in the room but not in formation. This is useful for many hardcore reasons.

Require builders to create an in-game, functional "how-to" guide for their areas that can be easily accessed by solitary explorers. Whether diaries, note boards, a particularly boisterous gate guard, or whatever. Don't use lore. AND DOUBLE BLIND PLAYTEST THE GODDAMNED THING.

Allow "focus" to be set on allies so that non-targetted spells hit them and end-of-turn glances reflect their health. Basically, healer mode. Third row healers don't focus on anything during combat now anyway.

Remove Final Strike and Charm Person. Grant sorcs a 'simulacrum' spell, which takes a body part as a reagant and spawns a pet-version of the source creature with no upkeep cost, but a significant cast time and upfront cost. One simulacrum per caster. In other words, take the hand of your enemy, and you can clone your own copy of him. Resulting level would be a function of caster level and original creature level. This mechanically makes sorcs more in-line with the pet system's various intentions, removes the ability of sorcs to harness the overpowered content by way of constant, passive buffs created by improperly supervised builders, removes many trolling applications of the class, and more or less modifies the class in a way that could be a breath of fresh air to a stale and overpowered class. Simulacrums could be their own race with predictable core strengths and weaknesses, decreased abilities consummate to what the charm spell does (lower concentration, for one), but allow for some diversity based on the base creature. Alternatively, simulacrums could have a final strike-like spell effect on their creators which provides some sort of trade-off debuff, perhaps a permanent reduction of mana, or some other strategic investment.

Revise spell fade messages to be unique

Correct the spelling of the "affects" command and menu

Add a 'sustenance' spell for classes who get the means to provide food and water (and warlocks) at Journeyman rank. Targetable, very low mana upkeep, no concentration beyond what's required to show up on the menu. Sustenance prevents the affected character from getting hungry or thirsty. This provides an alternative to stockpiling created resources at the level where characters will be spending more time adventuring and desiring less encumberance while doing so.

Add a 'gentle repose' spell for clerics and necromancers that does what embalming fluid does.

Give scouts an ability to not need ammunition and remove them from the bothersome and poorly featured task of managing ammo. Perhaps add key items that enable various ammunition in addition to standard options. Call it 'quiver' or something.

Remove the Fist. Add a cabal with abilities that make casting more flexible and interesting. Theme them around a business, a guild as it were, with aspirations completely grey yet completely counter to the Crucible's. Instead of amoral monsters, they become efficiency monsters. I would offer suggestions for abilities, but that's useless here.

Remake religious spells so that they're all as ridiculously awesome as Mira's. Your religious spell should be the spell people most want you to cast when you're in a group and the spell you're most likely to cast when alone. That's only true right now for Ain and Mira. Some random ideas:
Aludra: a songs of silence/intimidate hybrid that outright attempts to stop enemies from being in or starting combat, bonus points for being a held spell. Spirit aura is for shamans.
Alshain: "bug Alshain is an immortal," a battlecry that rights all wrongs and provides a souped up dispel/cancellation component of holy word without the damage. You know, purifying things... in a way that's tactically advantageous.
Dulrik: make it a command wrapper with a mana cost to use instead of a spell that everyone does in a macro to the same effect anyway. Like "augur look" and "augur cast harm Jaeyd" and so forth. Also makes it less obvious to others, making it more intriguing for RP applications.
Meissa: uhm, more of the same?
Zavijah: It's cool and all, but some kinda tongues/understand/know-the-names-of-people bundle might be more interesting
Achernar: Let the spell be cast on a weapon and held, to sort of turn it into a beat stick. Or, make a new buff: targets who die under the spell rise as undead under the caster's control for a short time.
Ain: Fix the bugs and its cool
Marfik: Scramble formation of target's group, even potentially disbanding it.
Mira: You have the most OP spell already, you don't need any help.
Nashira: Conjure a "Goodberry," a berry with a spell effect decided at time of casting. Basically, brewing without needing a vial. Goodberries would be somehow nosave for non-faith members and might warrant a crumble timer to prevent stockpiling
Sadal: Fill a room with a tempest, decreasing available concentration, requiring swimming, maybe even water breathing.. could be a multi-round spell like dnd druids get. Something flashy and wet.
Yed: Why not give them conjure elemental? Counting as their store pet, of course.
Algorab: Why don't they just have fear? It's an awesome spell.
Dabi: It's pretty cool as it is. Maybe some kind of taunt thing might be more interesting, I don't know. Like a reverse sanctuary, compelling everyone around the target to initiate combat with it without comitting a crime by doing so.
Sargas: Target grows 2-4 more arms depending on caster level that you can use weapons in. Girugamesh style.
Thuban: Telepathy, hearing the tells/ptells/identity-protected cb chatter coming into and out of rooms in the current room's area alongside a report of what players are IN the area. For bonus points: allow any spoken dialog containing the caster's name to reach the caster's ears while the spell is in effect.

The Aludra spell isn't like spirit aura. There are some distinct differences between the two that I can't discuss here because I've been banned too many times just for mentioning "religious spells", but the Aludra spell is like the D&D spell <adhesive medical strip> which <adhesive medical strips> the damage taken.

And I don't know where you've been but that bug has been fixed.

Edit: [REDACTED] ninjas. I want a [REDACTED] ninja class. I forgot to add that in my proposals.

grep, you missed Sadr.

The Thuban religious spell is fine, in fact it is more than fine, it is one of the three best religious spells currently available. Don't even joke about needing to change it.

While greps idea for a new sadal religion prayer is kinda neat, I have to say I kind of really like our current one.

RPwise I think it is really fitting to the concept of Sadal. She isn't such a hands on god really (probably more due to us not having an actual named patron in years), and so while her prayer is useful, it also means the characters have to make use of it on their own. It is more subtle than mira, dabi, ain or even aludra which are very much visibly present.

It can also be the deciding factor in life or death in PK or just adventuring. I think it is understated honestly.

I dunno, maybe I just don't know enough of mechanics and what not to make a valid argument for it. But I like it. Flashier isn't always better.

Good:
1) Ranged combat: I can only imagine how challenging it was to code, but I think that it was an excellent addition and definitely adds to the "Tactics" possibilities in game.
2) Regen linked to hp/mana/move pool: I remember when I had a gnome priest back in the day and having to sleep forever simply because I built him with mana trains... the current situation rewards rather than punishes
3) More zones to explore: SK has always had appeal to me because of its rich history. Inventive immstaff continue to add areas to Pyrathia and that is greatly appreciated.

Bad:
1) Final strike: seems to be a high level sorc spell slot mostly wasted.
2) ... echoing other people.... the "I win" spells need to be looked at I suppose (not enough PvP experience to qualify with personal anecdotes)
3) Player count/turnover: we as players need to maintain a high level of RP interaction... and as long as the immstaff is keen to improve SK, I remain confident that the numbers will improve

Proposed changes:
1) I agree with update #2 of Aust's post.... Currently aging does not seem to benefit melee/fighter-type classes at all. As a result, perhaps not many people play their combat characters beyond the first age-tick. This leads to character turnover and reduces the epic scale/influence the character could have potentially had. In order to promote longevity, I suggest that with each age tick, there is a passive increase to success/critical success rates of all skills.

I believe as is, even mastered skills do not guarantee success. So having this small improvement that stacks atop each skill reflects how age/experience has given the character insight that youth lacks. The across-the-board increase would actually make all long-lived characters "better". In relation to combat, their chance to dodge, shield block, trip, dirt kick, etc. would be improved slightly... mastery of weapons would improve slightly, allowing them to strike more surely. Regenerative skills, fast healing, endurance, meditation, trance, would all have a higher chance of kicking in (pretty certain that for meditation/trance at least, it is not guaranteed to trigger each tick). Utility skills would be improved too, tame, fletch, brew, scribe... would all see an improvement enabling the aged characters to accomplish tasks at a higher success ratio than their younger equivalents. The best brewers/scribers will be the old craggly ones near death.

The loss of physical prowess (loss of str, dex, con) associated with aging would be offset by improved skill execution (thereby giving aged casters a slight boost, but also increasing the viability of combat characters more since they are skill-heavy). Referring back to Aust's scene where the seasoned old warrior easily defeats the young mouthy punks in the tavern... this could happen through this proposal. Even moreso, with the aid of magics (giant strength/haste), they can temporarily return to the speed and strength of their glory days, now armed with greater insight through age and experience.

Assuming a straight percentage increase across the board (easiest way of implementing I'm guessing), the classes benefiting most from this system would likely be rogues and hellions. With their backstab and cleave chance/crit chance making them deadlier. But again... I think this would add depth to the legend of these long-lived characters and would not be a bad thing.

I understand that hand-in-hand with a suggestion such as this is the possibility of abuse... character storage/incubation. Given the already in place code to recover equipment from inactive characters and auto-deletion for extremely inactive characters, I actually don't think that the effect of incubation will really be that great. If players want to incubate their characters until an age tick (something I think that most people really wouldn't care much about doing), they will also need to roleplay being an older character (which is perhaps bound to be better than, "Hey I'm 17 and a GM").

Implementation: Passive, success/critical rate boost that stacks atop skills. Increases with each additional age tick.

2) Expand nospam filter to include "nospam ammo"

I imagine it would work similar to "nospam item" except that it would be limited to manipulation of "ammunition" type items only.

3) Two good proposed changes is all I have currently. But I must say that I am immensely enjoying my return to SK activity (blissfully unaware of any drama or OOC shenanigans). Here's hoping the game continues to improve and that we will take on/retain some more quality players!

I don't believe aging has as profound an impact on a character as most people think it does.