Shattered Kingdoms

From past post's on other sites, Vaalim was mentioned about being sent to hell for useing charm to kill the enemy, and was punished for useing it offensively to take out the said person instead of for Rp purposes. Would the staff clear this up, and if this is true, perhaps state this in a new thread so people are not randomly sent to hell because of a lame rule that one of the Imm's staff decided to start upholding and enforcing.
Thanks.

Or in a NEWS post in-game. That would be better.

We had a chat. Four Immortals were present. We made a request to use charm in a more reasonable manner for the fun of his opponents. He asked us to change the spell. We've asked for various changes to the spell and I'm sure something is working. He quit when we asked if he'd honor our request. There has been no punishment issued and he's only still in Hell because he hasn't logged back in.

I see, that clears up alot then. Thanks for responding. I would guess that if something is to change, it will be when the new toys come out at xmas time.

This is not only expected from this particular player, but all of you who have the spell in your arsenal. If you have witnessed repeated incidents of no RP while being charmed, please make sure to inform us and we'll be looking into it.

On a sidenote, though there has been some discussion amongst the staff about the spell, a change would require the attention of our implementor. Feedback on this topic is welcome, as long as you give it in a civilized manner.

Make it unable to order charmed PCes to do anything that's marked as "aggressive" by the code, and turn auto-assist off for them automatically. However, make it impossible for them to send a tell or cabal chat unless ordered to, or attack anything at his own will.

I think that charm person needs a LOT of work. It must be done in a manner that it will not mean the instant death of the charmie, but also, make it unavailable for it to break the charm easily (cause now it's REALLY easy to do that)* as well as contact other people in secrecy of his master.

*I do have some examples I have already experienced, and if an immortal would like the feedback I could provide them with some information.

I still say one of the quickest and easiest fixes is to allow new saving throws for all "hostile" actions, and if they save, to have the action interrupted Intimidate style, for the dubious "remove all, drop all" combo, and at regular time-based intervals.

This way offensive uses of charm entail a risk even if the spell succeeded. This gives the player a reason to stay at the keyboard, if nothing else, if their character is charmed.

Alternatively, perhaps the spell could have an adjusted concentration requirement if used on a PC versus an NPC? This could be done to the point where a caster would need to be in a very precarious or well-supported position to attempt such a charm.

The best options are the ones, I believe, that add elements of gameplay: give and take, risk and gamble, and so forth, as opposed to straight-up barriers or limits. That fits the theme of some of the best aspects of this game.

I can agree with that. I'd go as far as say if you aren't ordering them to do anything it's a lesser save, and it could compound with each order or something... although... charming a NPC is usually a pretty critical mode of defense/offense for a caster, and I know I wouldn't want to loose the ability to have a good charm like that.

I'm torn. Maybe just have the saves for the PCs and maybe select NPCs?

Any number of random fun features could be added.

Charmed PCs could be gate-able regardless of their location.

Outer Guardians could refuse to escort charmed PCs inside HQs.

Charm scrolls could have a chance to critically backfire and let the victim wind up charming the aggressor.


The sky's the limit.

I thiiink the means of breaking charm you are mentioning has something to do with Thran's old Hammarb that broke it somehow when you charmed him in... Nerina I think? If this is it then I am quite certain the commands that allowed him to do so have long since been taken away from people under the charm spell.

Also, you can no longer CB or tell while charmed, you can't do anything other than say actually.

:edit: Also, to just chime in, I think I understand the situation the staff is in, considering how few code updates have gone in over the last loong while, I would guess Dulrik is very busy, and he is certainly the only one who could change anything in the code of Charm Person.

In short, expect to make do with "soft" counters for a while at least, and screaming murder at the Immortals won't do anything to help the process along.