Ideas...

[Ender]

I was noticing a few things about our wonderful mud that I thought seemed kind of strange. They're not terrible, but they seem odd, and some of the more sneaky of us could take advantage of these basic ideas if they made a little more sense.

I often lead with a blind. The mob can't see me. However, when I backstab him, he hates me anyway. Not that I begrudge him hating me for ripping off half his back, but it seems that he shouldn't hate anyone unless he can pass a can_see check against them. This could also be helpful in certain dark areas.

I obviously don't like being hated. Along this same line, I thought a few ideas for some skills in the mud. For thief, disguise would be a cool skill. If a mob hates you, walk in disguised, and you are treated like any other player he doesn't hate. Agros would still be agro of course. If a mob hates both you and your disguised self... well, you're just screwed. That's assuming your disguise was good enough to fool it in the first place.

This skill could be used to a certain extent with the mage class as well. It would be very simple for an illusionist to disguise themselves, however, now you're dealing with magic and certain high level mobs have natural saves vs. illusions. So, it might work, or the mob might save...

Either way, these skills do little besides aid in corpse retrieval and give you a second chance to blind/curse/demon bind a mob solo.

As always, suggestions are welcome.

[impz]

Probably due to the fact that druids do have certain shapeshifts that aids them in cr (correct me if i am wrong), possibly it will be hard for immortals to make another for another class...

[Ender]

Haven't played a druid, so I'm not exactly sure what you mean, though I have considered that druids would appear to have many forms to change into.

Druids do have the advantage that equipment, or the lack of equipment, doesn't seem to have a huge effect on their character. Ironically, they seem the best equipped to get their corpse back naked.

As far as warriors, a skill like 'death cry' might be useful... This would have to be a decently high level skill... (say 15 warrior) since we wouldn't want to hear every newbie that dies. Basic premise... when you die, you let out a death cry that can be heard over a great distance... How great a distance? I don't know. I'm thinking earthquakes can be felt through an entire area, so hopefully at least that far. Over the entire continent would be nice. Doesn't help much during battle... but it might help you get back on your feet. Might want to create a toggle for this, or quests could get annoying. Also, this might would help out the Isatars on newbatia to some extent... Or perhaps this could be a skill you're born with and only works while you're on VK?

Comments welcome...

[Alberich]

A - would be ridiculously spammy, tanks especially die all the time

B - quite alot of people do not like having it gossiped when/where they die - invites pthieves to hang out near recall point. This is why there is ICQ, or sitting in channels.

C - druids and necros do get a bit of an advantage for self-cr's (druids with low-level shiftable forms, necros with undead visage) but anyone who bothers to sit and think about it can generally figure out how to get their crap back. Pretty much every class has one skill or another that is usefull for self-cr's, if you think about it - my normal tactic is to mirror up, sneak into room with my corpse, and keep disengaging enough to carve corpse, while fleeing/remirroring as needed. Obviously that won't work for a non-mage-prime, but you get the idea.

[Ender]

[quote="Alberich":38dn5mng]A - would be ridiculously spammy, tanks especially die all the time

B - quite alot of people do not like having it gossiped when/where they die - invites pthieves to hang out near recall point. This is why there is ICQ, or sitting in channels.

C - druids and necros do get a bit of an advantage for self-cr's (druids with low-level shiftable forms, necros with undead visage) but anyone who bothers to sit and think about it can generally figure out how to get their crap back. Pretty much every class has one skill or another that is usefull for self-cr's, if you think about it - my normal tactic is to mirror up, sneak into room with my corpse, and keep disengaging enough to carve corpse, while fleeing/remirroring as needed. Obviously that won't work for a non-mage-prime, but you get the idea.[/quote:38dn5mng]

Not arguing any of these points. For one, I did suggest a toggle, two I don't know the range something like this would have. Third, often when someone dies, someone will gossip for a raise. Fourth, when you drop channel, someone still has to vision you and then gossip for a raise, and even directions if they don't know where you are. I've seen this happen many times, though probably much less than there are deaths.

ICQ is the great equalizer, but shouldn't be a requirement for playing the game. I've used it myself, but as a solo, and worse, being somewhat unaffiliated with the current playerbase, this seems like an imposition.... maybe I'm wrong.

I also know how to get my corpse back, unless it's been looted, in which case most of us need some degree of help. There are basic tactics that literally ANYONE can use, much less class specific abilities. I won't insult you by listing them. However, anything that stops a mob from hating you, even temporarily, has other uses that are advantageous, if not readily apparent, especially as a solo.

As far as the resurrection aide issue, my perfect answer would be the 'dying breath report'. You may recognize the name if you've ever been in the military. Basically, it allows someone who's fallen to send a final report saying they are dead. Not sure the exact way you would implement this in MUD, but the military uses the concept so they can accurately track losses on each side during excercises. This would nicely sum up your arguments because it would allow you to:

tell impz Come raise me, I'm dead!

without alerting the entire mud. Of course, if Impz is sleeping, you're SOL

Of course, implementing it would be more difficult... this would perhaps work best as a 'bond of brotherhood' skill. You could bond with another player (hopefully you know another player), and then when you die, they get a psychic flash of your death (ie. they have a vision of you, in the room, being slain by monster x, a perfectly timed 'vision' basically) This could come across as a dream if need be, so if the person you're bonded with is asleep, they still see the vision. This answers MANY questions, and assures privacy. Also, this could perhaps help out our good friends the Isatars... or maybe it would just create too heavy of a dependance on them

Just ideas, comments still welcome.