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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.
Unique "enchanting" rewards
So I'd like to see two type of enchanting in this game, the first will be the common tradeskill sort that gives weak effects or buffs to weapons and armour - and perhaps structures.
On the other hand there would be more powerful sorts requiring a multistep process. These could be mediated by quests, hidden one-time events, rare materials, specific classes or even standing in a node and the interplay of all these things. It may not necessarily be "enchanting" like the skill but a means to give one time rewards.
Here's how I would design one:
You're a highly experienced and powerful fighter and a node was just invaded by a fiery dragon. You lead the group which kills the dragon and as it dies it burns up into an extremely hot ember that forms a crater on the ground. The ember just stays there and keeps burning and you can't pick it up. Clearly you require some help.
Fortunately, in your party are a mage and a cleric from the nearby science and religious nodes. They go back to their nodes to read in game books (due to historical reasons only these two nodes contain lorebooks with the necessary material to figure out what to do) to discover that together they must douse the flame with magical water. The corruption on the ground around the crater indicates it is also an unholy flame. The magical water is acquired from a water elemental that can be summoned (by a summoner in a cave behind a waterfall that only opens up by sacrificing a goat) and trapped by a magical entrapment device. However it also must be blessed by a cleric with a high enough standing in the religious node.
You do all this and the flame is doused, the source of the ember is a piece of white opal the size of your fist. You pick it up and hear a voice in your head, it's talking to you, it is a powerful deity that was slain by his demonic counterpart who ripped out his heart (containing his soul) and set it alight, and raised a dragon from it to terrorise mortals. It asks to be returned to its body atop high up mountain where his body still sits dead on a throne. Afterwards, the demon invades your mind and promises you power if you return the heart to him instead.
If you choose to give in to the demon you will descend into a cave under the mountain where you find hundreds of other fiery demons you must fight your way through. You finally reach a room where you find the demon bound by magical chains - he explains that long ago after he slew the the deity whose heart you now possess, the ancient priests and mages of the science and religious nodes nearby banished part of his spirit under the mountain. Unfortunately he cannot come back to this world, but he can still enact his revenge - hence why he made the dragon, and you can help him. He will imbue your weapon with the fiery heart of a god to give you some sort of insane unholy ungodly fiery enchantment that will spawn actual fires on the ground and buff everyone in your raid with fire damage on hit that ignores all resistances.
In return, you gain a quest to visit any nearby military node, convince them to align with the demon and declare war on the science and religious node that trapped him. If you fail, the curse he puts on you will eventually kill you and raise you as a dragon and some other shmuck will get a go instead but hey you get some cool monster coin action. If you succeed, you keep this ungodly insane enchantment that buffs your entire raid or node or guild or whatever (there'll probably be limitations so it doesn't break PvE raids/bosses but will be strong in GvG or node vs node action).
If you choose to help the poor trapped deity you will climb the mountain where you find the demon and fiery demons (too many to kill) will come after you. You'll require the protection of a party to get to the top. You fight your way up with demons trailing behind you. You find a large throne with the corpse of a deity sat upon it. You approach and return its heart. It turns out that long ago it sacrificed itself to imprison the demon (removing its heart released enough magical energy to banish the demon) but after its soul being put on fire it's having second thoughts but forgot to tell you that. But this didn't solve the problem as the demon can still operate indirectly.
Returning the heart to the deity will undo the banishment. You don't have much time and must jump from the mountain and be saved by the deity. You're just in time as the mountain erupts, the demon has returned and you must fight alongside your new deity to kill the demon permanently this time. The science and religious node must fight alongside each other, you all kill the demon and the mountain is clear. This unlocks a new source of minerals (and possibly new minerals). The deity will return to the religious node where he will be worshipped by the priests there like in ancient times. In return this is a powerful raid boss that will defend the node from invasions. The demon will leave behind some sort of fiery residue that the science node can take to develop some sort of weapon or something with.
You personally will have your weapon blessed with a powerful enchantment to shield you from fire damage from all sources. This could be used in PvP or in raids.
Basically the demon has no sense of self-preservation, it's crazy and has a sick love for inflicting pain on others and especially wants revenge so does not care it's partially banished. It knows that the only way to come back is to bring back the deity that entrapped him and the demon already lost once. In this setting it can torture the deity while enacting its revenge and even using him as a vehicle to enact his revenge.
TL;DR
"Quest"-like events (they have no ingame quest log entries just clues) that require multiple people, research, time effort to ultimately give one player a thunderfury-like gamechanging weapon but will also be linked to node-wide rewards. It's true someone could get a gamechanging item like this then forget about it, logout and quit but it's probably unlikely - if you read the part where it needs people of high standing in religious/science nodes and the help of many other players it makes that less likely.
One path will help a military node (but there is risk/reward) as well as the player by giving them a weapon that buffs the entire raid - it will be an offensive bonus. Another path will help a science and a religious node by providing very powerful defensive bonuses.
Other players who partake can claim different levels of rewards from relevant nodes. It could be gold or items. As it is all node based the node wide rewards should be something even players who don't get the overpowered weapon appreciate as it benefits their node and ultimately themselves.
Oh and you could technically enchant a level 1 vendor trash dagger - I believe in freedom - but you'll probably want to find a blacksmith to forge you something powerful.
On the other hand there would be more powerful sorts requiring a multistep process. These could be mediated by quests, hidden one-time events, rare materials, specific classes or even standing in a node and the interplay of all these things. It may not necessarily be "enchanting" like the skill but a means to give one time rewards.
Here's how I would design one:
You're a highly experienced and powerful fighter and a node was just invaded by a fiery dragon. You lead the group which kills the dragon and as it dies it burns up into an extremely hot ember that forms a crater on the ground. The ember just stays there and keeps burning and you can't pick it up. Clearly you require some help.
Fortunately, in your party are a mage and a cleric from the nearby science and religious nodes. They go back to their nodes to read in game books (due to historical reasons only these two nodes contain lorebooks with the necessary material to figure out what to do) to discover that together they must douse the flame with magical water. The corruption on the ground around the crater indicates it is also an unholy flame. The magical water is acquired from a water elemental that can be summoned (by a summoner in a cave behind a waterfall that only opens up by sacrificing a goat) and trapped by a magical entrapment device. However it also must be blessed by a cleric with a high enough standing in the religious node.
You do all this and the flame is doused, the source of the ember is a piece of white opal the size of your fist. You pick it up and hear a voice in your head, it's talking to you, it is a powerful deity that was slain by his demonic counterpart who ripped out his heart (containing his soul) and set it alight, and raised a dragon from it to terrorise mortals. It asks to be returned to its body atop high up mountain where his body still sits dead on a throne. Afterwards, the demon invades your mind and promises you power if you return the heart to him instead.
If you choose to give in to the demon you will descend into a cave under the mountain where you find hundreds of other fiery demons you must fight your way through. You finally reach a room where you find the demon bound by magical chains - he explains that long ago after he slew the the deity whose heart you now possess, the ancient priests and mages of the science and religious nodes nearby banished part of his spirit under the mountain. Unfortunately he cannot come back to this world, but he can still enact his revenge - hence why he made the dragon, and you can help him. He will imbue your weapon with the fiery heart of a god to give you some sort of insane unholy ungodly fiery enchantment that will spawn actual fires on the ground and buff everyone in your raid with fire damage on hit that ignores all resistances.
In return, you gain a quest to visit any nearby military node, convince them to align with the demon and declare war on the science and religious node that trapped him. If you fail, the curse he puts on you will eventually kill you and raise you as a dragon and some other shmuck will get a go instead but hey you get some cool monster coin action. If you succeed, you keep this ungodly insane enchantment that buffs your entire raid or node or guild or whatever (there'll probably be limitations so it doesn't break PvE raids/bosses but will be strong in GvG or node vs node action).
If you choose to help the poor trapped deity you will climb the mountain where you find the demon and fiery demons (too many to kill) will come after you. You'll require the protection of a party to get to the top. You fight your way up with demons trailing behind you. You find a large throne with the corpse of a deity sat upon it. You approach and return its heart. It turns out that long ago it sacrificed itself to imprison the demon (removing its heart released enough magical energy to banish the demon) but after its soul being put on fire it's having second thoughts but forgot to tell you that. But this didn't solve the problem as the demon can still operate indirectly.
Returning the heart to the deity will undo the banishment. You don't have much time and must jump from the mountain and be saved by the deity. You're just in time as the mountain erupts, the demon has returned and you must fight alongside your new deity to kill the demon permanently this time. The science and religious node must fight alongside each other, you all kill the demon and the mountain is clear. This unlocks a new source of minerals (and possibly new minerals). The deity will return to the religious node where he will be worshipped by the priests there like in ancient times. In return this is a powerful raid boss that will defend the node from invasions. The demon will leave behind some sort of fiery residue that the science node can take to develop some sort of weapon or something with.
You personally will have your weapon blessed with a powerful enchantment to shield you from fire damage from all sources. This could be used in PvP or in raids.
Basically the demon has no sense of self-preservation, it's crazy and has a sick love for inflicting pain on others and especially wants revenge so does not care it's partially banished. It knows that the only way to come back is to bring back the deity that entrapped him and the demon already lost once. In this setting it can torture the deity while enacting its revenge and even using him as a vehicle to enact his revenge.
TL;DR
"Quest"-like events (they have no ingame quest log entries just clues) that require multiple people, research, time effort to ultimately give one player a thunderfury-like gamechanging weapon but will also be linked to node-wide rewards. It's true someone could get a gamechanging item like this then forget about it, logout and quit but it's probably unlikely - if you read the part where it needs people of high standing in religious/science nodes and the help of many other players it makes that less likely.
One path will help a military node (but there is risk/reward) as well as the player by giving them a weapon that buffs the entire raid - it will be an offensive bonus. Another path will help a science and a religious node by providing very powerful defensive bonuses.
Other players who partake can claim different levels of rewards from relevant nodes. It could be gold or items. As it is all node based the node wide rewards should be something even players who don't get the overpowered weapon appreciate as it benefits their node and ultimately themselves.
Oh and you could technically enchant a level 1 vendor trash dagger - I believe in freedom - but you'll probably want to find a blacksmith to forge you something powerful.
0
Comments
Yeah ...giving god mode to masses of people is not going to end well. I prefer the talisman/nemesis approach. The nemesis destroys nodes.....the talisman destroys the nemesis (and only the nemesis). This is an ultra rare and Legendary item that is tuned to an equally rare selection of nemesis'. Neither can exist without the other. The nemesis destroys certain node aspects as penalties. The talisman offers node buffs. Which talismans you deem worth suffering, will depend on the nature and make up of the node.
Balanced. Situational. Choice. Conflict of interest among residents.