Dragonarmy revisited

[Amberlee]

One REALLY HUGE problem with the BDA change.

DRAGON'S DONT WORK INSIDE!
So basically you're killing the guild unless you re-work that too and make them able to summon dragons inside.
Which would make no sense at all...
Many of the places combat happen actually have inside locations so this would basically kill their efficiency.
While it's a good thematic idea, it may just kill the guild unless done properly.

Also..
Would the swoop and breath be affected by weapon you wield?
If not, it could very well end up being MUCH weaker than the main special of other guilds.
So there is that..

[Tarax the Terrible]

it's cool ur working on this.

Here is a few suggestions and comments.
Remove dragonsteed's from players and give them to areas. fast travel to certain areas. Sanction, Pax, Neraka Icewall And Flots always others over all of Krynn linked to warfare system. zero dust cost, others get bigger perks for free I bet

BDA aren't the poor over dust costed branch, the utility and choice of weapons that comes with two handed combat and swords was always worth it.
Historically RDA soldiers thrived by being huge stated (and mainly jerks) lol

Make the VK keep attack type event more global. Stunty npcs attacking Sanction, Knights in Pax, DA hit Kalaman. One a month of more, maybe not sound like it deserves to be on guild changes list. but the event only being for niggets plus pals pissed me off when I was a DA

MAGIC IS ALL OVER KRYNN, Ariakas has a forcefield, dracs have spells, drags everywhere. Thoughts on give reds a defense spell? like clerics of takhisis
give all The ability to coat weapons with draconian acid. red making flaming weapons, or did Morgul patent that? lightning speed for blues, a haste spell.. allow them to get the blessing for all followers of takhisis in the team.
Tricky to do it without stealing PoT s place in the wonder team?

Knights get warhorses, kill the horse u reduce their effectiveness.

Inside maybe DA could summon dracs, that cast buffs and offensive spells. Enemy can turn and kill them if wants to, about. same hp. and armours as a war horse..

summoning drac.instead of dragons when indoors. most logical idea ever lol

If u. got low resistances just an Auraks currently existing spells can really screw u up. "Where did my weapon go?" lol stealing Rangers skill now too



PS no wonder ppl. didnt want AI changed #bestFarmingSpecial

[Arman]

One REALLY HUGE problem with the BDA change.

DRAGON'S DONT WORK INSIDE!
So basically you're killing the guild unless you re-work that too and make them able to summon dragons inside.
Which would make no sense at all...
Many of the places combat happen actually have inside locations so this would basically kill their efficiency.
While it's a good thematic idea, it may just kill the guild unless done properly.

That isn't a problem, its a feature.

The Dragonarmy member is undoubtedly going to be better outdoors. Just like a knight is better mounted, or a calian in team. Conditional boosts to damage output, justifying them being considerably better than other melee combat guilds.

Also..
Would the swoop and breath be affected by weapon you wield?
If not, it could very well end up being MUCH weaker than the main special of other guilds.
So there is that..

I understand your point. Would the output scale based on equipment? No. Stats and guild level? Yes. Also worth noting the damage type is elemental damage for the breath attack, which can be advantageous.

Anyway, changes will be beta tested before being finalised to make sure the abilities align with expectations (at least mine ).

As an FYI progress update, no work has begun on any of the proposed changes.

[Cerin]

Now I'm not an RDA so me saying this is cool and should be left in is just an opinion worth a grain of salt. You spoke about removing the bleed feature from the RDA arsenal but I actually found that to be a pretty neat special considering I dont think there is an actual DoT from any other guild, none that I know of anyways.

But if the BDA get a very strong single damage attack, maybe transform the DOT they have into a better version of it to keep the one of a kind feel. Perhaps a stacking DoT that gives increased damage for normal hits based on if you can continually renew the stacks. For instance:

2% - 1 stack
4% - 2 stacks
7% - 3 stacks
10% - 4 stacks
15% - 5 stacks
(Just random example numbers)

If your special misses, they dodge, parry, armour soaks it or its not a clean hit then the stacks reset.

[Tarax the Terrible]

Had an idea for some nice fluff, relating to Dragons.
Basically things to make them seem more real to the members and not just a flying special attack.

When you get to a dragon rank you then have to acquire a dragon its not automatic.
Hunt them out in a lair or go the dragons den, ones that don't accept you will attack. Till you find a good match.

Dragons have a Name. Can communicate with them a bit.
The power of the dragon rises with experience of you using them in combat not guild stat.
More powerful get descriptions showing it.
You can also feed the dragon corpses on the war plains.
Imagining <dfeed skie> and he comes down and frys the corpses with lightning leaving custom corpses. Reds turning everything into BBQ. Maybe if there is a lone war horse or war boar in the room they will insta kill it and fly off with it.

If more than one soldier feeding dragon at same time it risks a fight.
Fighting dragons is mainly just a spectacle but stands a small chance of injuring the dragon which lasts for a few hours in game time and reduces their effectiveness greatly.

In the books I remember it mentioning a big green killing another dragon in a fight in Neraka.
Why not make Dragon Fighting a sport.

Another way to lvl up your dragon.
Can arrange fights with lists of npc dragons picking the level. Costs coins. If you win get exp for dragon leveling and more coins back, if you loose you loose the coin and 50/50 chance of dragon being injured.

Officers can fight their dragons vs each other.
Mainly just bragging rights, looser is guaranteed to be injured.

Maintain a fight record for the dragon and the number of times its fed in battles.

Maybe have areas in the guild where dragons live and you can see those stats. But they will pretty quickly and very aggressively chase away any lower ranking soldiers. But they can get a peek of what could be theirs one day.

The dragon stays with the officer through their career.
A lower ranked officer could have a well fed more powerful dragon than a higher ranked officer who hasn't put in the same work.

[Arman]

Re: Cerin - thanks, and you are right... there really aren't any DoT damage specials at the moment for other guilds that i can think of! I think the original intent for the RDA was that the bleed would be a better ability than what the reality actually is. For what the RDA sacrifice, they definitely don't get the same bang for buck. While some of the RDA i've spoken to kind of like it, the reality is the BDA stomp all over them... and its largely due to dilution through too many specials that aren't necessarily complimentary. So the player base have gravitated to the guild that does the stomping . And that is something i plan on balancing out by removing the bleed.

Re: Tarak - welcome back! (I think . ). Some good ideas... some of those i'd like to implement, although i'll have to look at how much work some of that would take. I didn't want to spend a lot of time on the Dragonarmies, and some of the suggestions would require some quite fundamental recodes. But I do want the dragons of the armies to be key elements of the guild members experience. I remember at one point i wanted to implement aerial combat for dragonarmies against good dragons when they enter the war... and i may still when we recode the warfare system. I think that could be fun . But that side of things is still very conceptual and I have no real timeframe for when i may do that.

For me, 2017 is focusing on finalising the Wizards of High Sorcery (currently in beta testing.. opening date still slated post Dec 17), finalising the new area Tharkadan mountain range, opening the Holy Order of the Stars layman cleric guild, the implementation of the new kender occ guild code (watch this space!!!), and then re-working the DAs.

Once i've done all that i'll probably take a break from coding. Genesis is a creative outlet for me, but not my only outlet . So 2018 is likely to be maintenance only. How much time in 2017 i have for the DA really depends on how the other projects go .

But keep the ideas coming! They do influence what I code!

[Kitriana]

Could you share some more information on what this is :

Holy Order of the Stars layman cleric guild

[Arman]

Could you share some more information on what this is :

Holy Order of the Stars layman cleric guild

I think I touched on it in the Krynn 2017 roadmap... with the recovery of the Disks of Mishakal, the teachings of the Old Gods of Light from the pantheon of the Holy Order of the Stars are inspiring some to convert to those gods. Being a fledgling faith with no structures and much still about the gods unknown and untranslated, it is considered a lay profession. Without going into specifics, prayer (spell) focus is pretty D&D stereotypical cleric-y, with some tailoring of spells to the followers of specific gods. Some racial restrictions, and alignment restrictions. One interesting guild restriction. Codewise the guild is pretty developed, but not intended for opening until the latter part of the year around the time of the WoHS opening.

[Amberlee]

Holy Order of the Stars seem VERY interesting.

Back to the DA though.
By imposing that "feature" as heavily as you do, you know you may in effect be killing the efficiency of the guild to the point that for the "power players" of the donut being a gladiator or mercenary may in fact become more appealing?
Which basically also means that evil will have NO desireable melee guilds.
So there is that.

As for bleeding attacks.
Just see how good that worked out for RDA, the arguably weakest melee guild in genesis now.
It kinda didn't work out at all.

[Tarax the Terrible]

AA isn't desireable?