Post:Test Instance: Barrier Review Open for Testing & Tune Discussion - 07/11/2021 - 17:49
Initial Post
Test Instance: Barrier Review Open for Testing & Tune Discussion · on 07/11/2021 17:49 | 1879 |
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The long-awaited barrier review is now in Test to go through a testing and tuning phase prior to general release. In addition, to help facilitate testing the magic system is currently on global preview in Test.
What this means is that while we consider these spells ready enough to be poked at by the playerbase, we fully admit that practical testing has been limited and most of the tuning of these abilities have been based on spreadsheets rather than live fire. While the ability to see the actual numbers goes a long way, it does not fully bridge the gap between theory and practice. That's where you can come in. We are looking for input, both on the forums and in Discord, about the feel and functionality of the new scheme. To do so, please keep two things in mind.
With that, on to the details.
OVERVIEW:
This review *did not* include abilities that protect the user from spells directly, such as integrity and potency barriers. For example, Manifest Force (which directly protects from damage) was reviewed, but Lay Ward (which directly tries to stop spells from firing) was not. The guiding intention of this review was to reduce the number of damage barriers in play at any given time, but with the aim that each ability should by itself be noticeable. Further, we wished for all players to have a wide enough selection of abilities that they would have to make a choice about which ones to use based on preference. The main way we've approached this is with buffing spells and putting a limit on how many damage reactive spells can be on a player at once. There are a handful of cases where an ability was already considered well tuned, and only two cases where an ability was nerfed (the Empath spell "Iron Constitution" and the Necromancer spell "Calcified Hide"). All other abilities are new or improved. The limiter we chose to go with is the creation of "reactive slots." You may have up to two slots of reactive spells on your character at any time, and excess spells will either be displaced or stop you from casting further reactives. How many slots a spell takes is variable, but use the following guidelines.
In addition, every guild has three reactive slots worth of spells to pick from (this includes MAF for magic-using guilds, but not for NMUs). So, in summary, you can either pick two out of three abilities within your guild, or a single ability from outside it at any time. Specifically for spells and devious magical combat stuff, reactive spells can be subject to displacement. If someone else casts a reactive spell on you, it costs the full amount relative to your own guild (with one exception: the Bard spell "Naming of Tears" does not cost anything to party members). If you try to cast beyond the cap afterward, you will automatically displace the other player's spell to make room for your own. Likewise, even if you are at cap you can replace like-spells on yourself without effort. Examples:
All that said, we hope you enjoy this labor of love from the development team. While I've been the main voice of this review, it would have been impossible for me to get it done alone. In particular, I would like to thank GMs Grejuva, Haros, Javac, Koror, and Zadraes as having intergal parts to play in this project's development. Specific ability changes follow below, sorted by guild in alphabetical order.
BARBARIAN: Tenacity: Toad: Volcano: BARD: Naming of Tears: CLERIC: Minor Physical Protection: Protection from Evil: EMPATH: Iron Constitution: Perseverance of Peri'el: MOON MAGE: Telekinetic Shield: NECROMANCER: Calcified Hide (Forsaken only): Emuin's Candlelight (Redeemed only): Ghoulflesh (Forsaken only): Siphon Vitality (EBotS mod -- Redeemed only): Solace (Redeemed only): PALADIN: Glyph of Dueling: Tamsine's Kiss: RANGER: Bloodthorns: Please note this is likely going to be the hardest spell of the lot to tune correctly, so bear with us as we make adjustments over the testing period. River in the Sky: THIEF: Evanescence: Sagacity: TRADER: Trabe Chalice: WARRIOR MAGE: Gam Irnan ("Salt Wall"): Grounding Field: UNIVERSAL: Temporal Eddy: | |
This message was originally posted in Discussions with DragonRealms Staff and Players / Game Master and Official Announcements, by DR-ARMIFER on the play.net forums. |
Subsequent Updates
Necromancer
Armifer — 07/27/2021 at 9:47 AM
NECROMANCER, ROUND 2:
The following changes are now in Test:
Emunin's Candlelight:
Okay, kinda big one. Bug that allowed incoming damage to be magnified by the damage storage mechanic has been squashed. Damage is now capped based on Potency and once capped will not accept more damage until some has drained away (note: Evasion buff still works in this state). Letting the spell drop or having it dispelled no longer causes all the damage to hit immediately, instead you'll get an "enhanced" damage burst (equivalent to a few drain pulses in a row), and then after that the remainder of the damage will drain away at a normal rate.
Ghoulflesh:
Ghoulflesh now accepts Risen as a valid option for transference.
Paladin
Armifer — 07/27/2021 at 9:30 AM
PALADIN, ROUND 2:
The following changes are now in Test:
Aspirant's Aegis:
AA now provides a resistance to vitality damage. Note that this starts at 0% at min prep, so prep well if you wish to see it.
Tamsine's Kiss:
Messaging redone a bit to make it more "Paladiny."
Armifer — 07/27/2021 at 9:32 AM
A number of barriers are gonna gain some vitality damage resistance, but yeah it should make AA more desirable.
Armifer — 07/27/2021 at 9:35 AM
Ranges from 0% (min prep) to 10% (max prep).
Armifer — 07/27/2021 at 9:36 AM
Might tweak those numbers after seeing it in action a bit, but wanted to start there.
Ranger
Armifer — 07/27/2021 at 12:27 PM
RANGER, ROUND 2:
The follow changes are now in Test:
Bloodthorns:
Natural attacks now have a 50% chance to proc Bloodthorns (this is a compromise position since we have no idea at the spell's end what the attack is meant to represent). In a slight nerf, the damage potential of Bloodthorns on each body part has been tuned pretty low to account for it being a thorn and not a gaping chest wound.
River in the Sky:
RITS now can be adjusted to trigger on any/low/medium/hard hits, instead of always triggering on any hit. Note that due to complications we probably have not dialed in the ranges super well yet and feedback on how to tweak them is greatly appreciated. In addition, it now provides resistance to vitality damage scaling from 0% at min prep to 10% at full prep.
Zadraes — 07/27/2021 at 1:16 PM
It should tell you the syntax when you try casting without proper syntax, but it's looking for ANY, LOW, MID, or HIGH.
Warrior Mage
Armifer — 07/27/2021 at 11:17 AM
WARRIOR MAGE, ROUND 2:
The following changes are now in Test:
Ethereal Shield:
The bug that was preventing self-cast from functioning has been fixed.
Grounding Field:
The revised version of the spell is now actually live (cough). To recap: no longer provides any damage resistance, but instead generates elemental charge based on taking damage. Elemental damage types (fire/cold/electric) are more efficient than kinetic (slice/pierce/impact) at generating charge. Does not use warding slot.
Gam Irnan:
Some significant revisions. Hitting the same damage location before the spell has fully reformed there now provides a percentage of the possible defense relative to the amount of time it had been reforming. Quick example: if it takes 10 seconds to reform completely and got hit 7 seconds in, you get 70% of the defensive value of the spell. In addition, the spell now provides resistance to vitality damage scaling from 0% at min prep to 10% at full prep.
Moon Mage
Armifer — 10/15/2021 at 2:12 PM
Cage of Light changes are now live in test:
- Messaging, including ask text, significantly rewritten.
- There is now some small defensive benefit to the spell even if you don't get the reverse-IC effect. This is not percentage as previously discussed but just a small flat amount off the top of the attack. In conjunction with #1, messaging now specifically indicates if the barrier completely absorbed the blow or only partially deflected it.
- Casting from ambient lighting is in. This results in a penalty to the duration of the spell, but that's it.
Note that with the changes to the plan, I decided reducing the range of complete negation (reverse-IC) defense was not necessary.
Miskton — 10/15/2021 at 2:21 PM
Does the damage reduction from #2 apply before or after checking if the barrier can completely absorb the blow?
Armifer — 10/15/2021 at 2:25 PM
After.
If the blow's gonna be absorbed, it's absorbed, else a fraction of its defensive value is applied instead.
Cleric
Armifer — 10/27/2021 at 10:23 AM
@Cleric
Minor Physical Protection has been updated in Test.
1) Vit damage absorption of the same scope as similar spells has been put in place.
Aaannnddd that's going to be it for now. To be honest I'm not 100% happy with Cleric wards at this moment but the longer I stare into the abyss the longer I realize the guild needs more thought on this front than this project. We can chat more about what Clerics need to look like going forward, but for now I think we're feature locked for the Barrier Review.