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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Crafted Magic System,
Not sure if this addressed but I hope the magic system will be discovered and somewhat random and unique to each character.
What do I mean by this?
Well use something like soul points for total magic potential, this is like Mana from other games. Mana regenerates constantly at an even pace. Regeneration of soul points comes at a base level formula according to race, class, skills etc. Some races will generate base soul points slightly faster then others, some classes might have a skill that passively or actively allows this, certain items can be worn to increase this natural regeneration. This would be the basis.
Magic would come from 6 different types of power
Elemental Fire, wind, Earth, Water
Soul
Divine
Channeling
Planar
Void
Each time you create a character you are imbued with regeneration levels that are randomly assigned, each character would be unique, these number can be added too but not subtracted or changed. Certain races would have higher min/max and therefore a higher chance to have a higher level of regeneration.
Character creation would tell you what your regeneration/max channeling levels are before you chose your class. You may only make a new character every time you advance say 20 levels in your pervious character, or 3 per week whichever comes first.
Each EPOC of the game will have randomly preset number of different powered mages born,
Avatar ( highest level of regeneration/Magic Channeling ability) Extremely rare, 3-4 every EPOC
Master of Magic ( less then Avatar but greater then all others ) Rare 10-30 every EPOC
Lord of each magic type ( 1 type of magic equal to the Avatar, but all other types normal ) 60-120 every EPOC
Master of (x) ( 1 type of magic equal to the Master of Magic ) 200-300 every EPOC
Wizard Affinity ( + something to every skill less then a master, racial max ) uncommon 500-1000 every EPOC
Mage Affinity ( + something to 1 skill, racial max ) common no limits
These abilities can be raised or lowered using potions, enchantments, buffs, rituals within the game but it adds to the starting level, so buffing a servers avatar with a strong enchantment would have more effect then a normal player.
However a normal player could have an artifact that makes him as strong as an un-buffed avatar.
Players would determine race, then see what there rates and natural abilities are and decide on a class from there.
Maybe there would be a game mechanic that could induce a more powerful character to be born? Like after completing a level on the node, have a quest that would need to fulfilled, with the first ones to do it getting to be reborn as Avatars?
This would make for a unique narrative of magic that would give characters, character and make the game or of a story and motivation as to what people would spend their time doing.
It would change people choices for character development knowing that will not be able to reach the highest levels of some things, this could work be done for all the different skills.
Magic itself could be a random combination of things that is unique to each character, that would need to be discovered according to the character, this would prevent massive lists of all knowledge just being found on the internet.
If each spell is different for each character, and can be personalized to take advantage of character characteristics. It would
make people have to experiment and explore for different magical abilities.
So based on different levels of emphasis you would adjust your spells, your fireballs might be larger effecting more people or small for more penetration, more smoke for hiding or brighter for light in the dark. Based on your preset choices then filtered through your personal magical characteristics.
My fireballs as an Avatar might blow up hordes of demons and regenerate quickly.
I might be able to use an enchanted item to generate the same effect.
To summarize, magic should be customized, random and based on the characteristics of a character.
Any way this is just my 2 cents. Bet whole systems already laid out.
What do I mean by this?
Well use something like soul points for total magic potential, this is like Mana from other games. Mana regenerates constantly at an even pace. Regeneration of soul points comes at a base level formula according to race, class, skills etc. Some races will generate base soul points slightly faster then others, some classes might have a skill that passively or actively allows this, certain items can be worn to increase this natural regeneration. This would be the basis.
Magic would come from 6 different types of power
Elemental Fire, wind, Earth, Water
Soul
Divine
Channeling
Planar
Void
Each time you create a character you are imbued with regeneration levels that are randomly assigned, each character would be unique, these number can be added too but not subtracted or changed. Certain races would have higher min/max and therefore a higher chance to have a higher level of regeneration.
Character creation would tell you what your regeneration/max channeling levels are before you chose your class. You may only make a new character every time you advance say 20 levels in your pervious character, or 3 per week whichever comes first.
Each EPOC of the game will have randomly preset number of different powered mages born,
Avatar ( highest level of regeneration/Magic Channeling ability) Extremely rare, 3-4 every EPOC
Master of Magic ( less then Avatar but greater then all others ) Rare 10-30 every EPOC
Lord of each magic type ( 1 type of magic equal to the Avatar, but all other types normal ) 60-120 every EPOC
Master of (x) ( 1 type of magic equal to the Master of Magic ) 200-300 every EPOC
Wizard Affinity ( + something to every skill less then a master, racial max ) uncommon 500-1000 every EPOC
Mage Affinity ( + something to 1 skill, racial max ) common no limits
These abilities can be raised or lowered using potions, enchantments, buffs, rituals within the game but it adds to the starting level, so buffing a servers avatar with a strong enchantment would have more effect then a normal player.
However a normal player could have an artifact that makes him as strong as an un-buffed avatar.
Players would determine race, then see what there rates and natural abilities are and decide on a class from there.
Maybe there would be a game mechanic that could induce a more powerful character to be born? Like after completing a level on the node, have a quest that would need to fulfilled, with the first ones to do it getting to be reborn as Avatars?
This would make for a unique narrative of magic that would give characters, character and make the game or of a story and motivation as to what people would spend their time doing.
It would change people choices for character development knowing that will not be able to reach the highest levels of some things, this could work be done for all the different skills.
Magic itself could be a random combination of things that is unique to each character, that would need to be discovered according to the character, this would prevent massive lists of all knowledge just being found on the internet.
If each spell is different for each character, and can be personalized to take advantage of character characteristics. It would
make people have to experiment and explore for different magical abilities.
So based on different levels of emphasis you would adjust your spells, your fireballs might be larger effecting more people or small for more penetration, more smoke for hiding or brighter for light in the dark. Based on your preset choices then filtered through your personal magical characteristics.
My fireballs as an Avatar might blow up hordes of demons and regenerate quickly.
I might be able to use an enchanted item to generate the same effect.
To summarize, magic should be customized, random and based on the characteristics of a character.
Any way this is just my 2 cents. Bet whole systems already laid out.
0
Comments
To me that 9 'types' of magic.
And no one should be powerful in all magic.
Which implies being powerful in one negates another.
So it would require a 9 way distribution system
(Unless pairs of them were polar opposites anyway)
For race effect on spell skills.
I would rather see an overcharge+undercharge system
That denotes your are more akin to a specific kind of magic..but not without cost to the others.
Otherwise powercreep takes hold.
BUT....
Players themselves could also have 9 way distribution to match the spells 9 way distribution.
That way they can become tuned toward hyrbids of any kind ( specialists).
Here you wont need overcharge/undercharge because you are naturally harmonic/resonant with that kind of spell anyway.
You could also have spell crafters with the same 9 way distribution.
That makes every spell crafter unique within the world according to their distribution.
So specific tuned builds that use specific tuned spells will seek out specific tuned spell crafters.
This also does away with he 10,000,000 of this spell issue, because tailor-made items are required for optimal performance.
I like your idea about being able to customize magic. <em>If</em> (and only if) the devs have time, some sort of system a la Ars Magica mod for minecraft would be cool. In case you've never seen that before, basically you unlock research points over time and by killing bosses. You use your research points to unlock various spell types, areas, and effects. Then, you can mix-and-match those to create custom spells with mana costs that vary based upon their effects.
For example, you could put together <em>Range: Line</em>, <em>Damage: Fire</em>, and <em>Boost: Damage</em> to make a spell that shoots extra-powerful fire out in a line away from you. Again though, this is the kind of feature you should only consider if you have the time.
As for your Avatar/Master of Magic/etc. idea, I'm less enthused. Honestly, I kind of hate the idea of making your character very dependent on RNG. I'm fine with limiting resources, but doing it from the outset off of RNG seems pretty bad to me, from a game design perspective.
Now that I think of it each type node should have a different set of characteristics that make different levels of abilities max/mins more common.
And by starting off with a little bit of randomness in character creation helps a character make class, quest, equipment choices, and makes it harder to have the "Best" class character ratio etc. Especially if it's random and millions of combinations. It adds a lot to the story.
Each character would have a base level then some additions, it would make for some differentiation in characters so you won't end up with a specific build used by every member of a guild. Let me explain what I mean.
Say you have a Warrior Node the
1 Avatar - born with more strength and Speed and Hit points then other players - Again this would only happen
once the node reached the highest level. And some kind of super quest is completed to get components for a ritual, once the ritual is performed then the birth can happen, as a random 1 time chance from anyone creating a character or as a specific person who dies and is reborn.
10-30 Champions
100-300 Hero's
500-1000 War Lord's
Basically this could be adapted to add some kind of random bonus that is given to people that are associated to the
node based on the level of the node. It wouldn't necessarily be game changing but it would be sufficient to give players characteristics that can help define what they will do in the game.
So some cities might make better mages, some would make better warriors, some better clerics, some better traders etc.
with in game quests used to help the more powerful ones come into existence. Perhaps even part of the ritual would define what characteristics are boosted when they are born.
I think I would prefer the birth be to someone randomly making a character for a time after the quest/ritual is done. This would make for some interesting intrigue, as in if the Avatar isn't born to a high clan or one of importance then maybe he's assassinated to make room for the next one.
Thats why I hate vertical progressions systems so much.
The only possibility, is if players have limited lifespans.
The more powerful they are, the faster their imminent death.
But even this results in players potentially laying waste to masses of people...for a very very very long time.
Its not like monster coins where its a specific pinpoint attack task which is over and done with in minutes.
Granted, it's RNG, but the fact that those few players with "uber toons" could/would wreck other players, unless those players were supremely buffed/geared, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
The idea surrounding the various magics, races particular affinity for each, research, etc. seems like a winner, though!
I think what I was hoping for is a bit of randomness in player creation, both in magic and other attributes. In most role playing games the uneven levels of power creates a lot of different playing styles. Unfortunately current technology doesn't allow real characteristics of players to really come into play in MMO's. People's real reflexes etc. so levels, and artificial means of reproducing this come into play.
An Avatar player born to a mode would not be God like though, only say about 50% better then average players in whatever the Node specializes, Magic, fighting, healing, trading, praying. If it was randomly bestowed it would not be on the most skilled player either so you could have someone that really has no idea how to use it properly killed easily by a maxed out expert. Or a mage slaughtered by a fighter etc.
There's lots of ways the Top level of this pyramid is not better then everyone else, it just adds some backstory and intrigue to how you play the game. It might even be interesting to hide the characteristic from birth so that players would have to discover their special skills by actual adventure, and once they have tried different things realize hey I'm really good at magic or fighting or whatever, so choosing a class might come after getting to say level 10 or so.
People play MMO's to experience something different. Yet every game I've seen players try to copy the most powerful either for
pve or pvp. There's really no individuality. Other then that they are just explorers or might as well be playing second life.
If a game wanted intrigue and passion you would have to mirror real life in that all people are not equal.
A lot of times the drive to become better then someone is more important than being born with it.
There'd definitely have to be some magic or training's in the game that could equal the innate ability of the Avatar's.
There should be a randomness to crafting too then, for instance say about 6 qualities crafted items can have, when a master smith makes a sword, it could be imbued with 1 of 100 properties, like extra sharpness, or speed enhancement for lightness, these would be scaled for the skill of the smith and not under his control. Each sword produced would be unique, a smith could try different metals which might enhance the possibility of getting a rare imbuement, then if it's especially powerful, it could be sent to an enchanter to add more power to the weapon.
So as example a master smith mixes Ebony ingots with imperial steel to make a mace, he makes 10 of them,
he gets Sharpness +5, Sharpness +9, Sharpness +14, Speed +3, Durability +15, Durability +13, Affinity to Magic +18, etc...
the Affinity to Magic +18 might be really high and very rare, so he might take that to an enchanter that would do the same process
with magic, at the end of the day if you spend a lot of time and effort and have very high skill levels you might get something that could be randomly very powerful,
You could chose to take this uniqueness and name it as an individual item,
NIGHT BLADE - Made from hand crafted Imperial Ebony, this blade has the following qualities
Sharpness - 160% (+60% to normal damage)
Hardness - 88
Damage (at night or in complete darkness) - 270%
so basically what I am saying is adding random traits and qualities to weapons and armor or tools would make it possible for any skilled player to make something powerful enough to kill an Avatar,
The flaw in this you might think would be that as in most MMO's Avatar's would spend most of there time trying to acquire or craft the most powerful weapons, that's true and Avatar armed with Artifacts might seem unstoppable, but ask yourself this, how many people hate this guy?
Something you have or something you acquired should allow you to compete with players that are born that way.
Or at least have the brains to fight them like Batman vs Superman. Since Avatar's are not immortal or invulnerable anything sharp would be their kryptonite.
Listen man, I think you're missing the entire point of what people are trying to say here.
You keep talking about your so-called "avatars", but I can't help but feel like this would be majorly unfair. Let's say I really want to play a mage, like, really badly. Then my character randomly rolls into high Strength and low Intelligence, making it so I can't be a good mage.
There's a time and place for an RNG-based character creation system, but I don't think this is it. This game is supposed to be all about choice, and about giving everyone an equal playing field. The devs have specifically tried to make it so that every player will be relevant, whether they go for crafting, gathering, fighting, or politics. I don't think it's fair to raise some players up randomly in a game where everyone should have a fair shot.
I'm just advocating for a bit of randomness in it, People can always make more characters if they don't like there build or class, but if they play as a mage without any bonuses they may randomly come across magic that changes that they just have to be searching for it. Plus skill should be a larger factor then luck.