View source for Post:Warpaint - 12/23/2008 - 7:40:35

{{Post
|t=Warpaint
|d=12/23/2008 7:40:35 AM
|n=401  
|f=The Barbarians - Warpaint
|a=DWARB-POWER
|c=m
|p=Hey Team Barbarian,

Ok, first off. I want to point out that I've only tinkered with the system and haven't gotten into it hardcore as I have with other systems in the game. However, I want to bring up some points that I've noticed with the system and also some opinions.

I've read a few stuff in this folder to keep me semi up to date. People are pointing out that {{skill|Mechanical Lore|mechanical lore}} seems to be the primary factor to applying {{PRel|warpaint}}. Why? It seems like {{stat|agility}} and maybe even {{stat|reflex}}es can affect how you properly apply your warpaint correctly - perhaps even more than mechanical lore. Agility pretty much helps every skill or ability that is used with your character's hands. Reflexes can affect the fact you don't want to flinch when applying them. I wouldn't be surprised if circle affects applying warpaint to some degree as a more experienced may know more about warpaint than others (or at least should know more).

It seems that there is a cap on the roundtime when applying, but it varies based on the difficulty of the location.

For all who are not sure about the warpaint system, there are 48 patterns and 10 locations.

It would not surprise me at all if each of these locations and patterns had a numerical value attached to them.

As an example:

Face - 0<br />
Forehead - 1<br />
Right cheek - 2<br />
Left cheek - 3<br />
Cheek - 4<br />
Face and neck - 5<br />
Face and torso - 6<br />
Face and arms - 7<br />
Face and legs - 8<br />
Face, arm and legs - 9<br />

From the locations 0 through 4 (those are all one spot locations. Face, forehead, right cheek, left cheek, cheek), where the RT seems to be capped at 3 to 4 seconds usually.

Locations 5 through 8 are all two spot locations. This includes face and neck, face and torso, face and arms, face and legs. The RT here seems to be capped at 7 to 8 seconds usually.

As an example:

The warpaint location fires you with confidence!<br />
You smear your face and neck with warpaint.<br />
Roundtime: 7 sec.

Location 9 is for face, arms and legs. You'd think this would be the longest roundtime to apply and the warpaint system doesn't disappoint us with that. It seems to be around 11 seconds for applying with the face, arms and legs area.

Each character has an appropriate location and symbol for them. Phii did get this correct while I was gone. However, I think she may be a little off on a few points.

There are two positive messagings to indicate you seem to get a bigger boost from your subsequent usings of the warpaint - i.e.: activate usage like {{com|SCREAM}}, {{com|CONCENTRATE}}, {{com|STARE}}, {{com|MEDITATE}}.

These don't seem to just vary based on your location, but the paint you used.

In terms of best to worst for the increase in the active verb for warpaint: Plunderer, Berserker, Savage

Better paint = better results. I'm told that custom warpaint has better duration than normal warpaint, but cannot verify as I do not have my custom warpaint yet, only a voucher for custom warpaint. Besides duration, I wonder if custom warpaint would have better results (at least slightly better) in terms of effect than normal paint?

When [[Aurdun]] wrote: "the effects of warpaint are going to be better if someone else applies it to you than if you apply it to yourself." My guess as to what he means is that the percentage of you getting a negative result goes down if someone else applies the warpaint to your character. A negative result means that you will see negative impact to your stat such as charisma and/or discipline or intimidation/fear resistance, depending depending on which warpaint verb you activate.

There are two positive messagings that I've noticed with [[Grungy]] in relation to warpaint:

The warpaint pattern fires you with confidence!

This is when I use the stylized wild centaurs pattern.

The warpaint location fires you with confidence!

This is when I apply the warpaint on the face and neck area.

I have not been able to get those two messagings of the warpaint pattern/location fires me with confidence at the same time, however.

The results are not always the same and this is something I thought about for a while: why is there so much randomness within the warpaint system?

A GM's point of view would be that there needs to be downsides to counteract the positive aspects the system brings and that there is always a chance for success or possibly failure based on the random number generator.

Then I thought about it from a player's point of view that this system already has negative aspects to it such as the ability to potentially get a negative skill/stat when activating a warpaint verb. It also costs coins already and is offered in one location and based on if that tent is open. It is not renewable and wears off eventually anyway and when you do use a warpaint verb, the warpaint goes away even further.

By the way, the warpaint has levels (basically, it's own Health Points):

fresh war paint - 10<br />
vivid war paint - 9<br />
deep war paint - 8<br />
matte war paint - 7<br />
dull war paint - 6<br />
muted war paint - 5<br />
faded war paint - 4<br />
dim war paint - 3<br />
faint war paint - 2<br />
ghostly war paint - 1<br />

Than it's gone and you can reapply another stick of warpaint. You cannot apply a warpaint stick until the location you are applying it to is available.

It goes down one level after you've used an active warpaint verb with it.

If you {{com|CLEAN}} warpaint, it goes down 4 to 5 levels per using CLEAN warpaint.

One thing I can suggest that I would LOVE to see is more messaging about the boost/penalty we get along with messaging when we can use our active boost again to get the full effect/duration of it. It is really hard to be immersed in the game when I have to watch my clock and wait around 4 minutes and 15 seconds approximately for me to reuse my warpaint to its full effect/duration. Messaging in both respects would be GREATLY appreciated!

The system has always intended on being a side ability, so the boosts to stats (charisma/discipline) are not intended to be too big. But, they are decent. The intimidation and fear resistance boost is pretty noticeable even with lesser quality paint such as Savage warpaint.

For those who have found out their location and pattern best suited for best effects using warpaint, could you list it to me? I'm trying to find a pattern, but I need data.

For those who have not found out their location and pattern best suited for the best effects using warpaint, understand that it differs for every character and if you do figure it out for your character, I would love to see it so I can gather more information.

Sorry this was long and I hope this helps at least a little.

- Simon
}}