Holy gick. Four gick guilds = subguilds, 3 gick guilds gone

I think this is going to lead to basically two things.

First: All the real power of a magicker is going to be placed behind a higher karma barrier, meaning that to really enjoy the 'oomph' of what being a magicker in the world of Zalanthas is, you're going to wait even longer, if you're EVER going to enjoy it at all really. Six Karma now for the power of a Whiran and Krathi.

Second: While the idea is to promote reliance upon each other, and versatility in the magicker playerbase, this doesn't do that in truth. They claim this would make them 'people' first, and magickers second, with a not so hidden reference to people keeping in mind a magicker's skillset to choose how to tackle them, or how to interact with them for their usefulness. Their limitations, as well. This is stupid. It's going to basically lead to more easy guild snooping, and guessing at what people are capable of. Oh, see that spell there, definitely a 'weak' krathi. Don't worry about him. We'll roflstomp him. He's not a 6 karma one. In other words, it's going to lead to more OOC limitations upon magickers, further the gap between 'low karma' players and 'high karma' players, and make it where you're either ridiculously powerful oldkarma, or you're weak as shit with the ability for staff to say, 'Look! But you got to play a gicker! That's what you wanted!'

Sorry all you low karma people, or people with dreams. They've just been pretty much flushed. Look for new games. If you need a suggestion, I know one.

this. i'd argue that this is the primary way arm's staff deals with hiccups or problems. something not going smoothly? fuck it, just nix it instead of trying to find a solution.

and as much as they want to argue the technicalities of it, this is a pretty major retcon. it's hard to take Arm as a seriously RPI and story-driven environment when every major change is either 'THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN ICLY' or a literal deus ex machina that has a near-godlike being stepping down and saying 'THIS IS HOW IT IS NOW I AM YOUR GOD DEAL WITH IT'.

Why!? Why is this change what's good for the game?

I get the motivation. I really do. I've been looking at how to implement spellcasters for AthasMUD and have been throwing around something similar (emphasis on similar) ideas in my head. Allowing people to start out as something other than a spellcaster and then grow into the role of spellcaster is definitely tempting. But this feels like just yet another element of the game that's been removed. Armageddon elementalists are unique in that they are born with the ability to cast magic. If there is one setting where starting out as a magicker should be acceptable: it's Armageddon.

But hey, let's say they do want to make it so the mechanics reflect the story and they decide the story must always be people learn a trade other than magic. That's fair enough. I love the idea of having "mini-magicker" subguilds. We can't do this in AthasMUD (or at least, I don't think it's appropriate) due to the story differences between our elemental spellcasters. But if Armageddon wanted to offer the ability to have an undeveloped or minor connection to an element then I think that would be a great addition to the game.

Except it's not an addition. This feels completely subtractive. Now if I play Armageddon I can't play a magicker. I can never be a magicker again. What I'm left with is a merchant or a warrior who happens to know some spells. I can't be a shit cleaner who one day reveals himself to have the ability to channel fire and specialise in channeling that elemental maick.

Looking at the aspects themselves: I'm uninspired. Aspect of healing? Seriously? Because what Vivaduans needed more was to be pigeon holed into the healer role? How is that thematic or enabling the game's themes of murder, corruption and betrayal? I've been working hard at making it so our water spellcasters aren't seen as the healbots on tap whenever you need a cure wounds cast. Something I think Armageddon could have benefited from. And now they've built a subguild where that's all they do? Give me a break.

Also this announcement was the perfect excuse to remove the karma barrier or at least reduce it. The potential for any magicker to be game breaking has now reduced significantly. But instead of seeing the karma classes made more easy to access, we've seen the opposite. Rukkians: formerly a karma 1 guild are now a karma 1/karma 2 guild depending on the aspect you wanted to take. What the hell?

As for Shadow/Void/Lightning mages: What the friggen hell is going on? Drovians, Nilazi and Elkrosian are pure Aramgeddon. They are the unique elements of Armageddon that other MUDs steal from! Even AthasMUD was going to steal them for a brief moment in it's infancy. I understand the mistakes that have happened in the past with the removal of halflings and kanks. Genuine mistakes were made. But it's 8 years later and they're still making the same mistake by removing those parts that make Armageddon unique.

If I've ruffled any feathers, I apologize. This post is clearly an emotional response from me. I have no interest in tearing down Armageddon in order to try to build up AthasMUD in contrast. I do not want AthasMUD's success to be at the expense of Armageddon. Never have and I never will.

That said, this announcement has removed any doubt I might have had about working on AthasMUD. If we do somehow manage to go against the odds and make a MUD that's successful, it will do so regardless of what's going on over at Armageddon.

On a note from the perspective of an AthasMUD developer: They're making it really hard for us to differentiate ourselves. If Arm keeps removing more and more unique elements of the setting by the time AthasMUD launches there might not be enough of Armageddon left to differentiate the two settings beyond geography.

Here's a thought, those elements were Armageddon done right. If they don't want them, maybe you /could/ pick them up, M.

So is the Arm of the Dragon just going to become a bunch of combat mundane + brawling elementalist secondary gem'd dudes?

Or maybe rogue mage warriors will take over the Byn and operate out of the fortress, and anyone who tries to stop them will be met with a sick ass-pounding.

cast sleep elf
ooc Consent for filthy things?

EDIT: Hot merc on merc action, cantrips... you know what they say about stone mages.