BattleMaster Community
Toms Other Games => SpellMaster III => SM General Discussion => Topic started by: Tom on September 20, 2011, 10:44:22 AM
-
I'll be adding something like 1000 XP to every character. Yes, you read that right.
You see, we need to test all the power levels of the game, and right now we're pretty low. And it's given me better ideas on how to start characters. For example, if you create a new character today, he will get 100 XP to start with and there's a button to get an initial selection of spells, guaranteed to be from bases and intents that you know (i.e. learnt with your initial 100 XP).
But I need to know if all values scale up. So there will be a power boost, and probably a 2nd and 3rd one. Have fun. :-)
-
Woooo~~~~~ I wonder 1k EXP will be enough for me to try out lv50 spells.
-
Probably not, but let me know how far it got you. :-)
-
Boost done. Have fun.
-
Dumping all my points into Perceive and Mind, I hit 12 Mind and 9 Perceive. I think this would let me cast up to power level 21.
-
Dumping all my points into Perceive and Mind, I hit 12 Mind and 9 Perceive. I think this would let me cast up to power level 21.
That's pretty good. And 1000 XP is just 40 days of waiting, if you actively play and get XP through using spells, it's much less.
-
I got up to 10 harm and 10 mind. Well I spent some points in fire. That is probably why I did get up to 11 mind or 11 harm.
-
Dumping all my points into Perceive and Mind, I hit 12 Mind and 9 Perceive. I think this would let me cast up to power level 21.
Wait...What? I thought each of your Intent and Base had to be equal to or higher than the power level of the spell. That's what it is for Spontaneous Magic, though admittedly I can't find any reference for spells.
-
http://lemuria.org/SM3/welcome/skills
Paragraph 2: (Emphasis is mine.)
There is a hard limit determined by the skill level in that no magician can create an effect with a power level beyond the sum of his levels in the skills required.
There is an implicit limitation as well, in that you must have at least one skill level in both the Base and the Intent. I suggested this be clarified on the web site, but Tom did not comment on it.
-
Rather than dumping points into one thing I did what most people might do and got skills up to 4,8,4,4,4,5,5,2,4,5
Able to cast a few powerful harm spells that'll take out a group like the Ball Lightning or Fireball spells. Could probably do more than a few in a day. Also able to do some nice jack of all trades things like Walk Through Walls. Or varied base, and protect spells. In other words a little of an overpowered wizard from the original SM.
-
cool.
So remember, people, you are now at what you'd have after 4-6 weeks of playing. Play around with it a little, check out the parser feedback without committing maybe, and give feedback on what you think. Is this too easy, too fast?
-
Well at least now we can fight back against templars to a certain degree. I don't have to just blind them and run anymore :)
-
Rather than dumping points into one thing I did what most people might do and got skills up to 4,8,4,4,4,5,5,2,4,5
Able to cast a few powerful harm spells that'll take out a group like the Ball Lightning or Fireball spells. Could probably do more than a few in a day. Also able to do some nice jack of all trades things like Walk Through Walls. Or varied base, and protect spells. In other words a little of an overpowered wizard from the original SM.
I did something similar, but can't help but feel that it is actually the weaker choice compared to specializing once everything is level 2. While I am certainly able to cast things like Fireball, the things I could cast if I had specialized are *much* more powerful and versatile. The largest issue I see right now is something that was mentioned in one of the earliest threads: those who spend a significant amount of time going through all the paperwork to research spells in the beginning have a *significant* advantage of both enlarged library and a monopoly effect.
-
those who spend a significant amount of time going through all the paperwork to research spells in the beginning have a *significant* advantage of both enlarged library and a monopoly effect.
That will change in the "real" game, as everyone will start with a small starter library.
-
Can we change our names too? or we have to make a new account if we want to change our names?
-
Right now, there is no way to change your name, but I will manually change them if you really want it.
-
Right now, there is no way to change your name, but I will manually change them if you really want it.
Early on, you said there'd be a reboot/reset before things kicked off for real and we'd have to remake accounts anyway? I think that's all he's asking.
-
I'll probably not wipe the characters, because that would mean all those spells are without inventors. But I'll allow name changes before we go "for real".
-
In that case, I'd like to request a change to Moridin. Account name is bannable@gmail.com, character is "Teutch the Silent".
-
For what it's worth, I didn't get a chance to jump in right away when the testing thread opened up (lacking time and no spells) so I decided to test the system another way. Without casting any spells or using the parser, I'm looking at 4,4,1,6,1,14 in various skills as of today. I don't have any opinion on the matter, but compare this (with no casting XP) to what others are posting after a week or two of having extra casting XP.
1) Is there a noticeable difference?
2) If so, is the difference suitably large/small enough to serve our intention?
3) If not, what, if anything, should be done?
-
For what it's worth, I didn't get a chance to jump in right away when the testing thread opened up (lacking time and no spells) so I decided to test the system another way. Without casting any spells or using the parser, I'm looking at 4,4,1,6,1,14 in various skills as of today. I don't have any opinion on the matter, but compare this (with no casting XP) to what others are posting after a week or two of having extra casting XP.
1) Is there a noticeable difference?
2) If so, is the difference suitably large/small enough to serve our intention?
3) If not, what, if anything, should be done?
Mine is 4,4,4,4,4,4,12 with 112 XP spare (still deciding where to put it). So that seems like quite a large difference, but I've not really done much casting. When did you sign up? Because it seems like it might be the amount of time you've played (not necessarily cast spells for) that is the bigger difference. I signed up on 25th August at 1:39pm (I kept the email), I don't think XP gain was working then but it came in shortly after.
-
1) Is there a noticeable difference?
2) If so, is the difference suitably large/small enough to serve our intention?
3) If not, what, if anything, should be done?
1) I haven't been casting a lot of spells and most aren't very challenging (so generally low XP). In addition, I've been kind of scattershot in choosing skills instead of specializing much. I have skills at 12,5,5,4,3,3,2,2,2,2 - and at least one in every other base/intent.
2) The impact of casting experience has been relatively small as compared to the hourly accrual from what I've seen. But that may be because I'm not firing off a lot of high-powered spells.
3) I feel it might be better to either increase the XP gain from spellcasting or reduce the time-based accrual (or both?). Sitting around and waiting gets you more than doing stuff, from what I've seen. By the time you have enough XP to cast a spell, your skill levels are high enough that actually casting it doesn't get you much additional XP. It's a struggle to find a spell that can gain me more than 4-5 XP total, while I gain 24 XP a day. That seems to me a little out of balance.
-
It's a struggle to find a spell that can gain me more than 4-5 XP total, while I gain 24 XP a day. That seems to me a little out of balance.
It's intentional. To be casual-player friendly, activity should not dominate time-in-game.
-
Any chance one of the GMs can create a simulation character, start him with the estimated XP we've gained so far (what, 1000 + 24[days live] ? ) and then add an estimated daily casting bonus for the same time period so we can compare against my baseline and make sure it'll truly look the way we want? Like Tom said, things almost always work well at startup but you have to test them at higher levels to make sure it still works too.
-
Any chance one of the GMs can create a simulation character, start him with the estimated XP we've gained so far (what, 1000 + 24[days live] ? ) and then add an estimated daily casting bonus for the same time period so we can compare against my baseline and make sure it'll truly look the way we want? Like Tom said, things almost always work well at startup but you have to test them at higher levels to make sure it still works too.
That's how we switched to Concentration/Mana used for gains. I did some quick calculations and showed that the decay in the usage of energy/concentration as you skill up caused a large acceleration in skill advancement. We did the same sort of envelope calculation to show that you gain a boost to skills, but not something that is earth shattering. The real trick was the assumption that you'd have spells that would advance your skills. If you haven't noticed it rounds down, which slows gains even more.