Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2018 4:19:31 GMT -5
Just curious.
|
|
|
|
Post by sessizlik on Nov 9, 2018 7:26:10 GMT -5
... It's complicated...
A warrior may consider himself a badass in 20 days, if he twinks it to hell and back. A mage can do in 5.. A warrior still needs others to accomplish incredible feats as long as that feat doesn't include killing creatures. A mage, played carefully, can do that and more, then some more, then much more.
People of power, folks who want to move stuff in game prefer mages as accomplices. All mundane classes become secondary. They get forced to watch others play. I remember an HRPT, where staff, for some reason, summoned creatures with lightning shield. And it was in Allanak, so nearly noone had 40 arrows with him. It was pointless. If mundanes attacked the creatures, they died. They were forced to hold back, awaiting the glorious mages.
Every single RPT and HRPT belonged to mages as heroes, villains and even pawns leaving no role for mundanes for quite some time.
Don't get me wrong, during those times nearly all my characters were gemmed mages. It was too easy with a huge outcome. But I still don't like it. So we either;
a) Increase the amount of distrust towards mages tenfold, limit them to Oash and each other, maybe one desert tribe in addition. Do not allow even templars to have a mage pet. Then they'll max out their spells and still do unsuitable and unrealistic stuff to "have fun". Sitting in temples isn't fun.
b) Lower their power; which's the current situation.
|
|
|
|
Post by Prime Minister Sinister on Nov 9, 2018 9:15:34 GMT -5
too many memories of playing a 'rinth-dedicated 'rinther and having entire groups of other characters and good times getting shit on by rogue mages that wanted to blow stuff up
that's a negative from me
|
|
|
|
Post by lechuck on Nov 9, 2018 9:34:53 GMT -5
There were definite problems with mages, but the game is so much poorer without them. And I say "without them" because they effectively no longer exist, someone isn't really a mage if they're just a warrior with a few buff spells or whatever. I wouldn't say their power has necessarily been lowered, because you can do some patently absurd shit now like buffing your human to mul strength and elf agility with a character that also has full-fledged combat skills; but the entire magickal aspect of Zalanthas was changed from a fundamental feature of the setting to an afterthought that barely bears mention. If someone's an elementalist now, it almost doesn't matter because they're only ever gonna use it in situations where the social ramifications of magick are irrelevant. They'll have a full suite of mundane skills to rely on at all other times, and magick has just become a kind of "+5 power when nobody is looking" thing.
I have no idea why staff never changed the ease of training spells. It should have been trivial to do. Increase timers so you can't fully branch out in a week. Put limitations on what gives skillgains so you actually have to use your spells for real instead of sitting in a temple endlessly practicing fireball; you can't increase backstab by skinning even though that makes at least as much sense as training the aim and force of your proverbial fireball by fake-casting it into thin air. Hell, even remove the temples altogether so that being a mage is no longer a government-sanctioned thing. That would have been easy to accomplish through a simple in-game plot--a gemmed uprising is a lot more interesting than 20 Years a Githslayer.
One of their reasons for the change to elementalists was that they didn't like that mages don't have many mundane skills. I never saw the problem with that. Simply say that mages manifest young, and in order for their element to fully manifest in a person, it requires that they train and hone their attunement. By the time you manifest, you might have learned a few skills (your subguild) but you can't focus on magick and simultaneously develop a full-fledged profession on the side. For those who try to suppress their elementalism, offer the magick subguilds so the whole spectrum is covered. Why is it more realistic that nobody can devote their lives to magick? Why should "side-dish magick" be the only option?
I never played mages much so I'm not speaking out of self-interest, but the game had a lot more depth back when mages were an actual thing. The problems with them (their ease of maxing out) should be easy to fix. Rampant, world-destroying magick is literally the basis of the setting, so neutering it in such an abrupt and hamfisted way is a big loss. For better or worse, the vast majority of notable events - not just RPTs but legendary characters and their actions - were possible only because of the original design of elementalists and sorcerers. This is now a thing of the past and I can't think of very many remarkable deeds or legendary characters since then. Magick was a hugely important dynamic in the game, and while there were good reasons to dislike it on an OOC level, those reasons can be addressed without slicing off a large piece of what made Armageddon what it was.
When you think about it, they really have removed or severely suppressed quite a lot of what defines Zalanthas in recent years: desert tribes, city-state warfare and magick. Some of it was removed with the right intentions, i.e. increased focus on the more populated parts of the game, but the expected results have been absent. Yeah, mages used to dominate HRPTs a bit... but now we just don't have HRPTs. Yeah, Tuluk and tribes diluted the playerbase and staff... but Allanak has not been busier or more plot-rich after the closing of Tuluk and 75% of the tribes. If they had done what they purported to do, it would have been easier to stomach; but without that payoff, this culling of content has simply diminished the game. It's like cancelling dessert with a promise of increased portion size and then not actually delivering that.
|
|
