Channeler Preview and Rods


Channeler Preview

The channeler preview is now available for consumption. I debated releasing it in this state as I folded in the commentary from abjurer leadership, however I think it's worthwhile to get player input now as there are some fairly large opened ended questions that I think players would enjoy hashing out and helping the staff flesh out.

There are some caveats and they are on the design page, however, these are the biggest design questions to date:

  • What should the channeler pets be doing? Right now we will be allowable them to be improved with training and granting resists and assistance to the channeler.
  • Sheenya's ideas on the spiritual axis are good concepts. I see them as being a second dimension in terms of design. Every spirit has a type and then each spirit is also aligned to a spiritual axis. This gives us design flexibility; how can we leverage that for interesting combinations?
  • The tert paths got roughed up in the initial review. We need more ideas.
  • Sheenya made another insightful point specifically about changing all the individual bolt spells to three and having them interact with your choice of summoned pet. I think this is good and gives the player real choice about which pet to have out during combat.
  • We (staff) are having HUGE discussions on resist and PV stacking on NPCs. If there are specific nuisances or things that don't make sense please send those to me in mudmail for consideration.

Now - what you really want is to see the channeler preview.

Request document access and include your character name if you want to comment directly on the page or send your ideas in to me via mudmail.

Juggernaut Rods

We had a discussion on the public channels about the inbound changes to the Juggernaut rods. It appears there has been some hot and heavy talk among players who were not online for that discussion so let's clear the air a bit.

  • Rods could get stronger effects.
  • The rods are gaining a downside; but this means how much you are willing to sacrifice will determine how much power you gain. This benefits everyone and brings the item into alignment with how an artifact is expected to work.
  • The mechanic for power is sacrificing a magical item to set up the strength of the rod's assigned bonus and then another to give it charges.
  • A player suggested also allowing gold to add charges; this has sparked a numeric discussion on the staff mailing list around how much that should cost as well as balancing it against the notion of permanent enchants.

Hopefully this clarifies - the staff is still working on the gold cost piece and we have a mostly working data model for the sacrifices to power the rod using equipment. Expect this change to be announced by mid-May at the latest.

If you have more questions or suggestions - please mudmail me.