Sorcery: The Light Version

[Lycanthropic 523]

After being part of the killing of 2 uniques atm and seeing allot of fun being had with the Valrei items that come from the uniques, it also got me thinking.

 

Sorcery is now possible on the Freedom clusters, but to have acces to this awesome feature, you have to manage to get a Valrei item in some way.

 

Now, most people arent close to strong enough to fight in a group against a unique. And others like me (who are able to do some damage to the beasts) can get very unlucky on the rolls for the loot-handout

 

 

 

Sorcery is a very nice feature, allows for some creative play in pve and mostly in pvp.

But, its very limited to the amount of players that have acces to it.

I dare to say, 75% of the freedom pve'ers will probably never experience what sorcery can do.

 

 

Thats why I was thinking of a "Sorcery Light" (like the low-fat-light, not the source of light like a lamp )

 

 

A range of small spells, buffs (and debuffs) and whatnot, that have their use in pve (mostly, to not unbalance pvp).

All of these which can be unlocked in a way similar to mediating.

 

 

For example, instead of a medi-rug, let people be able to make a sort of "Alchemy table" (with jars, pottery bowls, potions, ... as construction parts).

Same as sitting on your med rug 5 times a day, you could interact with this alchemy table 5 times a day to get up in skill (perhaps a new skill called "Sorcery"), unlocking various little spells or buffs to play around with.

 

 

And I do stress "LITTLE" spells, nothing to game-changing, just to let everybody taste a bit of this sorcery feature. (the powerfull ones would still remain in the Valrei-item-sorcery that exists now, but even those players could sit behind there alchemy table and unlock the smaller entertaining spells of the "Sorcery Light" version)

 

 

 

Some (existing) examples what could be possible to have fun with and not be to game changing:

* Newbie Agro range: Just like the newbie buff, but limited time active on you (say 1 hour decreased agro range)

* Flower Power: Spawns flowers in a 4-tile radius from where you stand

* Fish Bait: Create a random special fishing spot below your boat (must be deep enough) that lasts for 12 hours or so.

* Forbidden Fruit: Fruittrees in a certain radius from your cast, give fruit, ignoring normal seasons. Only one harvest per tree, after you harvest the fruit doesnt respawn untill a next cast, or its natrual season.

* ...

 

Just simple stuff like this, maybe some more powerfull spells the higher you get in sorcery lvl (like meditating):

* Clay Formation: Creates 2x2 area into clay for 2 hours

* Tar Pit: Creates a 2x2 tar area for 2 hours

* Fungi Illumintaion: Illumnates a huge radius underground centering from your position (something like a huge light token)

* ...

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, just random examples for not to game breaking spells, but which would allow every (premium) player to have some fun with and to have some use of the Sorcery system that is ingame (and not just those lucky enough to get ahold of a valrei item).

 

 

AGAIN: Its about the general idea, dont focus on my examples of spells/buffs or Alchemy table-thingy. Its to point in a certain direction what I mean by a "light" version of Sorcery accesible for all premium players.

 

[MrGARY 12,421]

64 uniques combined per server at once, respawning once a month, 192 possible charges given out per month

 

I don't think freedom needs more of epic, light version or not

Edited June 8, 2014 by MrGARY

[silakka 2,360]

64 uniques combined per server at once, respawning once a month, 192 possible charges given out per month

 

I don't think freedom needs more of epic, light version or not

 

64 uniques a month? maybe about 8-16 [freedom]

 

I do think that these charges shouldnt all just be combat related

+1

Edited June 8, 2014 by silakka

[Aeris 3,758]

We already have sorcery light (karma)

[Raamkozijn 201]

We already have sorcery light (karma)

Agreed.

 

However, I do think building a bit into that already existing Karma system might be a nice idea. The "Town Portal" and "Summon Corpse" are currently the only real use for Karma in my opinion, for both PvP and PvE. All those "Light up x radius" options are a nice idea of not-unbalanced abilities, but they feel a bit lacking. Maybe it's just that I don't have enough nearby offdeed lamps to make it worthwhile and boldly assuming the lamps will stay lit as if manually filled and lit (so...7-14 days or something?)

Key would indeed be to try and find abilities/spells that could be added to the list that won't imbalance PvP, I think. Last thing we want is to mess up 1 playstyle to add something for the other playstyle (regardless of which one falls victim over the other).

[Sevenless 385]

I like the idea however I feel that PvE has had lots of attention lately (As a pve only player even). I wouldn't complain if devs focused on a PvP/Epic fix at the moment

 

What I'd love to see if tougher mobs (lava fiends, etc) having a tiny chance to drop these spells, rather than just gaining access to them or unique killing. I think 100 karma per use would be a good range to look at for these little things, although if they came with titles that'd be the huge draw really.

[Lycanthropic 523]

Yup, we indeed get much love feature wise.

 

But Rolf promised back in the day, when he released sorcery on epic, that there would be a freedom adaptation coming out in the future.

We seem to have an almost exact copy now of the epic code, and you have to admit its not for the entire premium community that it is ingame.

 

 

 

I know we get lots of respawns now, and most likely 3 years from now many of us will have sorcery titles/abilities from the Valrei items. But it will still either cost allot of silver (buying a valrei charge/item from a player who was lucky getting one) or allot of luck winning the random roll.

 

 

 

I can understand that, but as a developer you should never make stuff that always hangs out of reach for a part of the paying playerbase.

 

Keep the strong Sorcery like it is now for players capable of slaying the uniques, but give newbie players, hermits, crafters, ... a small part of the fun to, thats what I suggest, some kind of "Sorcery for Kids" thingy.

 

It will not really be THE Sorcery, but it will give you a taste of it and gives players some spells to play around with. (and if it is made as hard to skill in as meditating, then it will be something to work towards to)

 

 

 

It could be an expansion on the karma system we have now. Admitted "teleport home", "teleport corpse", are usefull, but lack some fun, thats why I threw out those suggestion, small stuff, that doesnt tip the balance, but keeps gameplay fresh and versatile.

A bit like Raamkozijn says.

 

 

What Sevenless says about tougher mobs having a chance, could be a solution to: slay 100 (or whatever number) of trolls to get a 1 charge valrei item (maybe with weaker buffs/debuffs). This is an example to get Valrei items for people who cant join a hunting party for the uniques (be it because the have low skills, low luck or just arent into big events).

 

 

 

What I want to say, and where it all comes down to:

Sorcery is a feature Rolf spend some good amount of time on to develop and is very fun to play around with. But it isnt accesable for all of the paying playerbase.

Thats why I suggest something similar to Sorcery, weaker in effect, but reachable for every prem player out there, can't hurt to add more fun to a game I presume

Edited June 8, 2014 by Lycanthropic

[Sevenless 385]

It's accessible to all, eventually. Once the richies get their titles, sorc charges are gonna drop massively in price. Bigger issue is that it's useless to pve XD

[Lycanthropic 523]

64 uniques combined per server at once, respawning once a month, 192 possible charges given out per month

 

I don't think freedom needs more of epic, light version or not

 

Todays update has greatly reduced that number by the looks of it now, current sorcery will be even more for the RNG-lucky fellas

[iboughtenthat 519]

-1 they are intended to be difficult to get

[Lycanthropic 523]

-1 they are intended to be difficult to get

 

 

Yep, and the current sorcery should stay, unchanged in difficulty to get.

 

 

I hope you read my entire post, because then you would have seen that I suggested a seperate, more easy to get for every newb/non-high fighter/hermit variant on Sorcery, with spells that unlock in a certain way like meditating does.

Spells that dont give any advantage in pvp, but are fun to have to do small interactions with the environment or with agros.

[Ecrir 887]

I'd propose to focus on something a bit more mundane. So less spell like and maybe more alchemy like. I think your alchemy table example goes in the right direction. An example of how it could work with alchemy:

 

For example a mixture which you could drink, giving you reduced aggro range for some time.

Or a mixture which you could spread around over the ground (use it on a tile), creating flowers on that tile and all adjacent tiles.

A mixture which you could use on a water tile, possibly some kind of fish bait, turning it into a special fishing spot for some time.

A mixture which can turn some dirt into clay (a form of transmutation). Another kind of mixture could instead create tar.

etc.

 

Alchemy and natural substances is so limited right now, I feel it would be a waste to implement your given examples as sorcery instead of alchemy. Especially if the recipes are diverse, interesting and overall require many (5+?) different ingredients (exactly what cooking is missing at the moment). Thus I'd propose we focus less on these right click and press a button and stuff happens powers and more on utilizing the game's crafting system, especially in areas, like alchemy, where it is still vastly underdeveloped.

[Kagrenac 812]

Todays update has greatly reduced that number by the looks of it now, current sorcery will be even more for the RNG-lucky fellas

Not by that much, freedom is still getting ~20x the charges epic does a month.

[Lycanthropic 523]

I'd propose to focus on something a bit more mundane. So less spell like and maybe more alchemy like. I think your alchemy table example goes in the right direction. An example of how it could work with alchemy:

 

For example a mixture which you could drink, giving you reduced aggro range for some time.

Or a mixture which you could spread around over the ground (use it on a tile), creating flowers on that tile and all adjacent tiles.

A mixture which you could use on a water tile, possibly some kind of fish bait, turning it into a special fishing spot for some time.

A mixture which can turn some dirt into clay (a form of transmutation). Another kind of mixture could instead create tar.

etc.

 

Alchemy and natural substances is so limited right now, I feel it would be a waste to implement your given examples as sorcery instead of alchemy. Especially if the recipes are diverse, interesting and overall require many (5+?) different ingredients (exactly what cooking is missing at the moment). Thus I'd propose we focus less on these right click and press a button and stuff happens powers and more on utilizing the game's crafting system, especially in areas, like alchemy, where it is still vastly underdeveloped.

 

Now this is a nice way to implement it indeed, I like it allot, worthy of its own seperate thread

 

 

 

@Kagrenac: Aha, I wasnt really aware how Epic players got those Valrei items, did some research and I know now. But yeah, this could still work on Epic to offcourse, altho Ecrir's idea how to implement it makes it very smooth and will probably anger the current Sorcery-practicers less.