Welcome Board Archive - Arcane Mastery and Spell updated

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PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AS WE HAVE MADE SOME CHANGES FROM THE PREVIEW 
POST. 

I've tried to mark those with ** 

Also note that this is probably just a first attempt at making pure 
mages a thing. I'm almost sure we went a little low on the power 
curve and we'll look at areas that need to be boosted. 

General
** Regeneration (mana/hp/mv) maximum increased to 15 from 13. Also 
  you can have up to 5 effective regen from equipment at level 1 
  instead of 2.
  
* The number of attackers for any given mob in the game defaults to
  10 instead of 5. Mobs can still set their defaults upward or downward
  depending on how the mob is created.
  
* Changing to and from the NOAUTOATTACK configuration option now imparts 
  a 3-round skill lag

* Empty flasks are now 0 wt and 1 size, to match full ones

* New 'Attributes' display now displays parry bonus, dodge bonus, 
  spell damage roll (see below), spell crit, mana reduction, 
  resistances, etc. Many of these have been moved from status to 
  attributes
  ** Right now, I believe spells will show up in attributes instead of 
     Status -- this is a bug and will be fixed soon.

* Hitroll and Damroll are no longer gradual. When you put an item on, 
  you get the stats

* Regen items are no longer gradual as well

* We will be slightly expanding the skills refundable in the OOC

** Sitting doesn't increase damage as much as previously, though it still 
  prevents most actions and such. 
  
** Axioms for Limans will be fixed when entering game if, through mad 
  sorcery, your axioms were ever mucked up.

SKILLS
* MAJOR BEHIND THE SCENES CHANGE
  * The way, behind the scenes in the code, that you qualify for skills 
    has been completely rewritten. Please keep an eye out for any errant 
    behavior.
  * We are now able to easily specify that one skill excludes another from 
    a design perspective, and we're also able to specify multiple ways 
    to qualify for a skill (if we want, we could make a skill learnable 
    from klein at level 2 and ireland at level 41, for instance).
  * The most obvious will be that mobs for a while may not be entirely 
    accurate or as informative as they once were when you try to learn a 
    skill and don't qualify for it. We'll correct those as they come up.
  * We can now specify skill dependencies explicitly, not just through the 
    acts code. (I call this one 'why hello there another part of skilltrees
    resurrected') - mobs should no longer ever accidentally teach you 
    something you can't use.

* NEW SKILL: Dual Wield
  * Primary weapon must be <= 9kg
  * 'held' weapon must be able to be held (staff of brahman is one example)
  * Secondary weapon must be <= weight of the primary weapon
  * You get 75% of the # of attacks you'd get were the secondary
    weapon your primary weapon
  * Spells/etc can proc off of the secondary weapon
  * If you are dual weilding, SECONDARY_ATTACK type weapons 
    will not fire (hook, etc)
  * Dual wield is available to all hometowns, but is exclusive of 
    augment, field surgery and Arcane Mastery

* Rage confers a 25% bonus regardless of your current strength. If you can 
  rage, or you're inspired, you get the bonus. Furious rage retains its 
  33% bonus.
  
* Meditate and Root are more effective at regenerating mana. Meditate is 
  more effective for chant casters than those who don't know chant.

* NEW SKILL: Arcane Mastery

  * Arcane mastery is a skill that, if you are not wielding a weapon or you
    have configured autoattacking off, you gain a 25% reduction on mana cost 
    of spells that cost over 10 mana and are able to cast 1 spell per round. 
    
  * Arcane Mastery is exclusive of augment, dual wield, and weapon mastery  
  
  * Arcane Mastery is learnable at level 9, for both second and third circle
    mages

* Topple's direct damage has been reduced. Not only does it have a higher 
  success rate than bash, it's got a lower critical failure rate, and was 
  also doing consistently nearly twice the damage of kick. 

** Field Surgery's healing amount formula has changed. The minimum and 
  average amount of damage healed have increased (the maximum amount of 
  heal has not). 

** Fixes the occurance where, if someone was fighting a stunned mob with 
   noauttoattack set, the stunned mob could still dodge out of the way of
   a backstab.

   
   Append 1 of 4 from Rufus  on Sunday, December 10 2017, 12:19PM
     RE: Rufus          Title: Code/Areas Update 12/10/2017             
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Spells
* The effects from Blind and Blinding Flash spells now last 5 fight rounds
  (mobs who set blind times on you may blind you for way, way, way longer)

* The chantable 'poison' spell has been replaced by 'deadly poison' -- your 
  casting levels carry over to the new spell

* The chantable 'plague' spell has been replaced by 'deadly plague' -- your
  casting levels carry over to the new spell

* Spells now have a consistent 2-round wait on success (unless you're under 
  arcane mastery) 
  
* Direct damage spells and the direct damage component of spells is now 
  modified for the position of the victim as melee attacks are. That 
  means flamestriking a stunned thing will do more damage.

* Damage spells can now Crit. Spell crits are analogous to melee crits in 
  terms of frequency but the frequency can be improved with both high mind, 
  spirit and perception. A crit gives you 15 spell damroll (see below)
  
* Spell damroll: Casting spells now has its own version of damroll 
  based on mind. Eventually you'll be able to acquire equipment to 
  improve that as well. One point of damroll is a 1% gain in damage 
  on spells.
  
* Mana Reduction: Mana reduction items (and spells eventually) can be 
  created (by builders) and obtained (by players). 
  
* On the above -- as a pure mage with arcane mastery, maximizing the 
  stats of spell damroll, crit chance and mana reduction improve 
  efficacy of that pure-caster build to within striking distance of a 
  like-equipped pure hitter. You still have a mana resource that will 
  dwindle and you need to rest after a while so you can't sustain 
  as long an offensive spree.

* Offensive spells can now be resisted and 'bounce'. This check happens 
  before magic sink. You will pay the full cost for the spell, but it 
  will have no effect. As a side note, resistance and damage modifications
  no longer adjust the duration of debuff spells, but rather they 
  are calculated into the bounce/resistance check.
  
  De-prep spells that bounce can and will cause the mob to become angry
  
* Two spells: Malaise and Wither, cannot bounce and now always penetrate
  magic sink.
 
* All damage spells have been rewritten
  * Spells are no longer 1-to-1 ratio for mana to damage
  * All damage spells have a fixed mana cost
  * All damage spells have a fixed base damage amount 
    * A mage's mana efficiency and ability to do larger amounts of damage 
      is now tied to spell damroll, arcane mastery, and (in the future)
      items and buffs
  * There are now three types of of damage spells and the red-headed 
    step-child that is chain lighting.
    * Direct Damage: These take 1 target and do damage
    * Damage Over Time: These can be single target or AOE, and 
      do damage over time like boil_blood.
    * AOE: These affect everything in a room. Some require an initial 
      target and some do not.

** Wall of thorns, wall of Winds, ring of Fire all travel with you 
  now instead of not doing that. Because oh what a waste of mana before

** wall of winds will now prevent any adverse effects (damage or otherwise)
  if you're attacked by Wind Gust
  
* New Damage Spell: meteor
  ** Cause spell, costing 225 mana for a base 225 damage that cannot 
    bounce, nor is subject to magic sink
  ** puts a 4-round timer on the caster so they can't recast it. If 
    you attempt to recast it before the timer is out, it should not 
    charge you mana.
  * Cannot be cast in PKE (but mobs can cast on players)

* New Damage Over Time: Raze Dead
  * Create spell that works only on undead (woah)
  * Does 200 damage over 5 fight round

* Damage Over Time spells (be it hit points, mana, or Move damage) 
  require the caster to be in the same room as the victim. The 
  exception to this is the natural poison affect of poison and 
  poison cloud, but not their damage-over-time damage. 

Append 2 of 4 from Rufus  on Sunday, December 10 2017, 12:20PM
     RE: Rufus          Title: Code/Areas Update 12/10/2017             
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DESIGN NOTES
This is a huge change and the driver behind it was 'we want the option 
for pure mages to be a thing.' That being said, things will probably 
have to change here and there as a big rollout will not likely be free 
of issues.

Cause mages are better at direct damage spells in both terms of options
as well as mana efficiency and high damage output. Some spells reach 
a 2-1 efficiency and even their bigger 'boom' spells hitting a 1.5 mana 
efficiency ratio. 

Create mages are better at damage over time spells, with the ability to 
stack up to 5 damage over time spells on living targets, with mana 
efficiencies between 2/1 and 6/1 damage/mana range. Also, create mages 
can be effective at lower overall stats as spell damroll isn't as crucial 
for damage over time spells.

Overall, lower damage spells are more mana efficient. If you want 
sustained damage output over time, you have lower output spells. If you 
want faster damage output but more of a strain on your mana resource, 
use the higher damage spells. 

The 'newbie' damage spells (wither and malaise) are both very efficient 
(3/1 dam/mana) ratio and effective but their damage output caps very low.

Spells that are situational (requires a water room, etc) are more mana 
efficient and overall 'better' than others.

* Spell Information -- Direct Damage Spells

CAUSE SPELL         Type        Mana    Base Damage        Ratio        
Beam of Pain        Single      16      28                 1.75 / 1            
        
Cause Light Wound   Single      8       14                 1.75 / 1
Chain Lightning     *           40      60                 1.5  / 1
Drown               Single      37      74                 2.0  / 1
Evil Thoughts       Single      22      33                 1.5  / 1
Firestorm           AoE         108     81                 0.75 / 1
Gust of Wind        Single      44      55                 1.25 / 1
Harm                single      15      24                 1.6  / 1
Immolation          Single      52      78                 1.5  / 1
lava flow           Single      48      72                 1.5  / 1
Meteor              Single      225     225                1.0  / 1
Noise               AoE         60      60                 1.0  / 1
Turn Undead         AoE         50      80                 1.6  / 1
Watery Death        Single      50      100                2.0  / 1
Wither              Single      3       9                  3.0  / 1

CREATE SPELL        Type        Mana    Base Damage        Ratio        
Earthquake          AoE         100     75                 0.75/ 1
Lightning Bolt      Single      65      65                 1.0 / 1
Whirlpool           AoE         100     100                1.0 / 1
Frost Bolt          Single      65      65                 1.0 / 1
Flamestrike         Single      48      48                 1.0 / 1
Etheric Void        Single      28      20                 1.4 / 1             
        
Malaise             Single      3       9                  3.0 / 1

* Spell Information -- Damage Over Time Spells

CAUSE SPELL         Type    Mana    Base     Dam     Duration    Ratio
Contagious Cough    Single  48      0        8       9           1.5 / 1
Deadly Plague       Single  32      0        4       16          2.0 / 1

CREATE SPELL        Type    Mana    Base     Dam     Duration    Ratio
Corrosive Death     Single  50      50       5       5           1.5 / 1
Poison Cloud+       AoE     54      0        6       18          2.0 / 1
Fever               Single  40      0        10      12          3.0 / 1
Boil Blood          Single  36      12       22      6           4.0 / 1
Raze Dead           Single  50      0        40      5           4.0 / 1
Wave of Nausea      Single  20      16       16      4           4.0 / 1
Deadly Poison+      Single  24      0        6       24          6.0 / 1

+Both Poison and Poison Cloud impart the POISONED condition, which does
 extra damage outside the Damage over Time calculation and this are
 slightly more efficient than stated

Append 4 of 4 from Rufus  on Sunday, December 10 2017, 02:10PM
     RE: Rufus          Title: Code/Areas Update 12/10/2017             
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It appears the the changes to damage shield spells didn't make it in as hoped.