Global Balance Changes

[petros]

Folks of Genesis,

Below are descriptions of some coming changes.

Introducing Global Block
========================
Global block is coming! After the Armageddon beast rears its head again, you
will find that you can head over to the Sparkle Adventurer's guild and train
your skill in blocking people from leaving the room that you are in. To
understand how to use it, you can read . Here's some answers to
common questions that are sure to be asked. If you have others, send them my
way!

Q: Great! *sarcasm* That just means one more thing for the big guys, while us
little folk suffer.
A: Actually, the purpose of introducing block for everyone is so that the
little guys can finally fight back against the big baddies that have been
abusing them for years. Gather up some of your friends and see how much bullies
want to cross you now.

Q: I'm a bully. This sucks! Why should I be blocked if I'm a big bad myth?
A: Every action has consequences. If you step on the little guy, you may find
yourself paying for it later.

Q: I'm not a pfighter, why do I care about this change?
A: You probably don't. But maybe if you fight something that likes to run away,
you can do it just for fun.

Q: I'm a Knight, and I hate that other people have block now too!
A: As a Knight, you are a master of your craft. Your ability to block is second
to none. Just because other people can do it, doesn't mean you can't do it
better!

Q: I'm a Merc. How come I can't specialize in block?
A: Well, to specialize in something, you need to find a trainer for it. Who
knows, maybe some day someone will step up and train Mercenaries in the ability
to block.

Q: ME OGRE. ME SMASH. ME NO BLOCK?
A: Yes, those of the Army of Darkness may find difficulty incorporating the
block techniques taught in the Sparkle adventurer's guild.

Magic Item Generation
=====================
Many have noticed that magic items appear very late in the Armageddon cycle. In
order to resolve some of these issue,s a change is being made so that you will
start seeing magic items closer to the beginning. This should ease some of the
pain of folks who can't seem to get any decent equipment after Armageddon.

Q: Why are we going back to the way things were?
A: We're not. The formula has been tweaked. Immediatly after Armageddon, you
still may not find magic items.

Q: I like being able to not have to do the Armageddon rush in order to get good
equipment. It's such a pleasure when I can find good eq even days after
Armageddon.
A: You still can! See previous answer. The only difference is that the time
frame for finding the magic eq starts earlier.

Item Glowing
============
Items will now glow or not based on the time to Armageddon. What that means is
that items cloned/created at the beginning of Armageddon will not glow. The
closer you get to Armageddon, the more glowing items that you will find.

Q: Why this silly change?
A: People have always complained about finding good equipment before shortly
before Armageddon, and not being able to use it. With this change, you are much
more likely to have it glow and be able to use it after Armageddon.

Feedback is always appreciated. Enjoy!
Petros

[Rhynox]

What I still don't like from the item glowing thing is that you can recycle items near the end of the week to get glowing copies, and if the items are unique or very rare (crystal axes, thorns, black-gem rings, etc) you will basically prevent the whole realms from using them. This change will increase the chances of successful recycling.

[petros]

What I still don't like from the item glowing thing is that you can recycle items near the end of the week to get glowing copies, and if the items are unique or very rare (crystal axes, thorns, black-gem rings, etc) you will basically prevent the whole realms from using them. This change will increase the chances of successful recycling.

I agree, though it does involve having to be pretty diligent about the process. What's really cool is that we have a nifty system in place where handling this can be done pretty easily. Let's see how it plays out for a couple of Armageddons. If this is seen to be an issue, we'll address it.

[Tarax the Terrible]

By "recycling" are you talking about destroying it and camping the npc to get the next one that pops, or some other more cheaty system?

[Rhynox]

By "recycling" are you talking about destroying it and camping the npc to get the next one that pops, or some other more cheaty system?

That is it. The item system (apparently) tries to boot before Armageddon all the copies of the item (say an item is limited to 7 copies, so every day has 1/7 of possibilities of booting the item, however since the first three days no copy boots, in the last four days seven copies must boot, and if by any chance no copy is claimed in the following three days--because nobody killed the NPC, for example-- then on the last day the 7 copies will pop up consecutively). So, if you destroy the item before Armageddon the system will try hard at booting it before the reboot, so it is very likely that the next NPC boot he will carry the item.

I would camp Shale, and on the last day he would boot with a cleaver, then with a war-mace and a kite shield, then with a war-mace alone, then with a cleaver and kite shield, then with a kite shield. It made all the early run a waste of time. Same with Tyberus booting with dragonscales five times in a row, or with Verminaard with nightbringer and the deep-blue armour.

[Gub]

Some guilds out there hoard weapons and armours that they don't use. Could there be a system where if an item doesn't get used it becomes "rusty" and then becomes trash?

[Sharn]

Some guilds out there hoard weapons and armours that they don't use. Could there be a system where if an item doesn't get used it becomes "rusty" and then becomes trash?

Would be hard to implement.

[Ilrahil]

Easy fix to that Gub, is for people to just wear their entire racks/wield all their weapons on trigger before they quit out for the night making them used.

Not to mention while yes people hoard things they don't need (occasionally guilty as charged), during a guild war or even toward people disliked, some tend to hoard weapons/armours that guild/person finds most beneficial so that they do not enjoy the perks of it. I personally like the idea of that as it puts the players in control of what equipment they will end up facing their enemy with, as opposed to an automated computer system that let's people decide.

[Gub]

Also easy to implement a system that checks for that sort of behavior.

Regardless, people hoarding for a reason is the bigger issue. This system is of no use if the Genesis population likes that they can hide weapons from their enemies. I know it's done but is it something we want the ability to do?

[Creed]

Perhaps everything should just degrade over time?
So.. after 6 days, an item would break and vanish in the rack, if you don't fix it or sharpen it, or whatever..

That way everything would also be recycled.
Would probably be annoying to add a timer to every item found, though.