Balancing Light & Dark Magics

[Smaw 2376]

Balancing Light & Dark

Rule Proposal

 

 

It is of interest to me as part of the Villain Team to look into and address the disparity between the conflicts of Light and Dark, and the complaints and comments I have heard and have personally bore witness to at one time or another.

 

With that said, I’m looking into a system that will allow the progression of Tier to be far more rewarding than it currently appears to be, and will set in a clear precedent for boundaries so that no power-gaming can be achieved, or unfair stances set upon opposing sides.

 

This is the general outline for what I’m working with, and I’d like to get opinions from the community in regards to what you like, what you dislike, and what you think could be added or taken away in order to help improve upon this system. It is by no means intended to be complex, and so I have provided a relatively simple example below.

 

Effectively, it begins by stating that when users of Light & Dark Magic clash, if their Tier is of equal value, they will negate one another and will have to resort to physical confrontation. Tiers must exceed the opposing Tier in order to cause substantial influence.

 

For instance:

 

-One Tier 1 Cleric would be unable to harm a Tier 4 Lich, and must resort to physical confrontation.

-Two Tier 2 Clerics would be unable to harm a Tier 4 Lich; and likewise as the 4 - 4 combo would cancel one another out; therefore, both parties would require physical confrontation.

 

-Three Tier 2 Clerics amounts to Tier 6, and would be able to overwhelm a Tier 5 Lich.

 

This would also apply to healing or corrupting land:

 

-Five T5 Liches may plague a land with the Tier of 25, and to heal this land, the opposing side must equal or go beyond T25, meaning that a combination of Three T4 Clerics, Two T5 Clerics and a Tier 3 Cleric may come together to heal the corruption.

 

-Artefacts may be created using this same line of thought, and all those that influence its creation will add to the total Tier of the item. However, this will only apply to Totems, Wards and static objects that protect towns or settlements rather than individuals.

 

Personally, I believe this is the most fair way in which to proceed with matters of confrontation, especially when taking into account my personal experience. It allows communities at either spectrum to work in order to influence the world and I think will add more to a sense of RP progression than it currently does.

 

This system would apply to all Magics that follow the theme of Light and Dark, and would additionally apply to other healing and corrupting systems, such as Shamanism and Druidism. For obvious reasons, this does not apply to Voidal Magics.

[Sky 0]

It would be interesting, however you seem to forget- Tiers don't exist anymore, unless this is confirmation as to say they are back? Then maybe, though what if someone has been tier 5 for quite somtime? Do they just stop growing in power? Cause that's odd, why would holy mage of tier 5 who has been around for centuries, be on par with someone who just recently reached mastery of their dark arts?

[Babehab 386]

I don't think relying on arbitrary numbers is a very good idea, and inevitably just leads to contests of who can recruit the most.

EDIT: That's not to say a similar system shouldn't be implemented, I just think the manner in which this attempts to remedy the situation is flawed

[The King Of The Moon 7016]

You want light and dark to be balanced? Get Holy Orders to take recruitment and dark mage hunting (their purpose besides healing) more seriously.

For far too long have interactions between light and dark RP'ers (at least from my experience) been reliant on dark RPers going out of their way to find them (as can be clearly seen with the Lord March RP line) or on chance encounters in which a light RPer will have the support of a city guard to back them up.

We need Clerics, Ascended, Paladins on the hunt with their numbers actively growing - not on the defensive with a stagnant playerbase. As someone who has played a dark character in one way or another at effectively all times this past 18 months I can affirm that less than 10% of my character's combat encounters or deaths have been at the hands of holy mages, the majority of the time dying to neutral mages or men with yellow swords (excluding PVP deaths, too). To be frank, I find it frustrating to then see Holy groups complaining about others (such as Anti Mages or Nephillim) doing their job for them when their own efforts seem so absent. 

Whilst at present you're right to say Holy Mages have a huge advantage in most forms of RP conflict, that's of no importance if they're consistently inactive or avoiding their roles on the server; as a result I'd say this system isn't necessary, Smawton. This response isn't so say that no holy mages do anything, though for a long time there has been a steep decline in their numbers and willingness to do much beyond healing their friends and acting as specialist guards in their favoured nations.

[Smaw 2376]

6 minutes ago, Sky said:

It would be interesting, however you seem to forget- Tiers don't exist anymore, unless this is confirmation as to say they are back? Then maybe, though what if someone has been tier 5 for quite somtime? Do they just stop growing in power? Cause that's odd, why would holy mage of tier 5 who has been around for centuries, be on par with someone who just recently reached mastery of their dark arts?

0

 

 

Personally, I think it should be for the same reason the Human body can only grow stronger to a certain extent. We have to assume there's a cut off point somewhere, otherwise it can get out of hand very quickly.

[ScreamingDingo 20568]

Both playerbases are absolutely ******* atrocious and you cannot balance them no matter what you do. Focus on actual issues of villainy instead of the pointless stupid squabbles of light and dark. As it's been said, tiers don't exist and there's no legit way to balance it. Let it fester how it is and be a fest of OOC hatred from both sides how its always been.

[Smaw 2376]

5 minutes ago, GrimReaper98 said:

Both playerbases are absolutely ******* atrocious and you cannot balance them no matter what you do. Focus on actual issues of villainy instead of the pointless stupid squabbles of light and dark. As it's been said, tiers don't exist and there's no legit way to balance it. Let it fester how it is and be a fest of OOC hatred from both sides how its always been.

0

 

 

Personally, I'm not of the mindset of letting something fester and grow worse. Something is always better than nothing.

 

 Following a strict guideline like this would balance it to the best of our ability, don't you think? I'm also interested in what you consider to be the actual issues of Villainy as well, if you wouldn't mind posting them so I can look into it at some point.

[ScreamingDingo 20568]

Just now, Smaw said:

 

Personally, I'm not of the mindset of letting something fester and grow worse. Something is always better than nothing.

 

 Following a strict guideline like this would balance it to the best of our ability, don't you think? I'm also interested in what you consider to be the actual issues of Villainy as well, if you wouldn't mind posting them so I can look into it at some point.

0

 

Being part of both sides at one point. I've literally been driven to nearly leave the server through playing a villain. The fault is not the systems, I'll be completely honest. It's the players. Both strive for complete OOC annihilation of one another and are just impossible to deal with. The actual issues with villainy would be fixing up the blacklist system at the current moment. Other than that, I do not think villainy should be focused on anymore. The server has evolved from VA's and the main problems of edgy **** villains are long gone from behind us. It's a noble cause but trying to fix and determine a system for holy and dark mages is like throwing a giant piece of **** into an industrial fan. It's messy and just sprays back at you.

[ToodIes 1575]

Liches don't have tiers.

And what, would holy mages become immune or resistant to dark magic?

[Babehab 386]

1 minute ago, GrimReaper98 said:

 It's a noble cause but trying to fix and determine a system for holy and dark mages is like throwing a giant piece of **** into an industrial fan. It's messy and just sprays back at you.

LotC fully transforms into an arbitrary number-based MMO when?

[Smaw 2376]

15 minutes ago, Babehab said:

I don't think relying on arbitrary numbers is a very good idea, and inevitably just leads to contests of who can recruit the most.

EDIT: That's not to say a similar system shouldn't be implemented, I just think the manner in which this attempts to remedy the situation is flawed

0

 

 

Can you provide examples? It's still in the works so issues and flaws can be rectified.

[ScreamingDingo 20568]

Just now, Babehab said:

LotC fully transforms into an arbitrary number-based MMO when?

1

 

when nexus introduces sword skills

[Babehab 386]

1 minute ago, GrimReaper98 said:

when nexus introduces sword skills

0

 

I dunno man. I'm a level 100 bloodmage right now I think I could beat those level 95 clerics

[Smaw 2376]

8 minutes ago, Toodles78 said:

Liches don't have tiers.

And what, would holy mages become immune or resistant to dark magic?

0

 

 

Which is an issue in and of itself really. How are things such as capabilities and power-gaming supposed to be moderated without some form of basis? I'm unsure why Tiers seems to exist for some Magics but don't apply to others.

 

Arguably their abilities would be sufficient enough to hold at bay whatever was trying to antagonise them, if the two opposing sides were to match equally. 

[Babehab 386]

1 minute ago, Smaw said:

I'm unsure why Tiers seems to exist for some Magics but don't apply to others.

Liches aren't a magic