Story Announcement - The Material Update

[squakhawk 7302]

 

Hey guys, Squak from the Story Administration here with an update to various Story Materials.

 

         Over time the ST have noticed a good deal of imbalance and incongruence between many of the story materials. Some shine brightly and are highly coveted, while others are held back by dated writing, mechanics, or lack of theme. The goal of our project, Materials: Reforged, was to thematically enhance and give each material a purpose. Rather than having certain catch-all materials or materials which lack a purpose or direction, our goal was to amend, add, and enhance each material. Balance kept in mind, we've worked out interactions with each material to help it find its place. 

 

 

 

     Down below we'll be explaining our view of each material, and the changes which have been made to them specifically. Be sure to check the lore pieces for each material individually for full, detailed changes rather than these summaries here. If you have an outdated item which has old mechanics, feel free to /sreq with a new item for signage for an ST to pick up. Hope you enjoy!

 

Material Changes

 

Lunarite

Lunarite has long been a material we've appreciated as something simply coveted for its design. Without changing that thematic, there have been some inconsistencies regarding its properties, and questions which frequently come to re-appear. As well, with a nice quality of life change, we've decided to implement the following.

 

-Lunarite will now have complete resistance to rust from both natural and unnatural means (ie: magic, alchemy), a trait which is lost upon alloying. The exception is with Frost Salts, in which Lunarite will double the normal durability of a Frosted item.

-An oft overlooked part of Lunarite lore is the idea that it does not cast or mold well. We’ve placed this in the lore itself and in the redlines just to make sure it is visible.

-Lunarite forging is no longer knowledge/teaching locked, due to its simpler nature.

---

 

Carbarum

Carbarum is a piece we are mostly happy with, particularly rare given it's mythical nature. We didn't see much point in changing many things, however, one thing was mentioned. There, by technicality, was a way to Sharpen Carbarum which was not written in the lore, where it very well should have been. Not wanting to exclude mechanics of a metal, from the metal's lore, we've included it within the main lorepost.

 

-Clarified the nature of Carbarum Sharpening, how it can be done, and what can be done.

 

---

 

 

Arcanium

While not commonly viewed as a noded material, Arcanium is something we threw in this project as a means to clarify some inconsistencies in its redlines. Likewise, we aimed to clean up the lore given its somewhat dated nature. I wrote the piece, and it pains me to view it. 

 

-Arcanium lore has been clarified on the nature of previous enchantments, voidal and not. We have clarified Arcanium cannot be enchanted with anything but voidal magic, and any enchantment (voidal or not), will be overridden when sent through Arcanium Forging.

-We've removed references to Arcanism in the lore, given its currently shelved nature. 

-We've added special Arcanium Forging properties, inert and active, to Voidal Feats. Voidal Eminence, Voidal Artificery, Scions, and Voidstalking all have their own aesthetics and abilities. Check out their specific lore pages for more details.

 

---

 

 

Ironwood

Similar to the above, Ironwood has not been traditionally viewed as an ST material given its mildly mundane nature. We've mostly left the lore untouched, however we’ve added some things which will increase quality of life for Ironwood crafters by removing signatures on non-combative Ironwood items. In addition to this, we have added a cost for Ironwood weaponry and armor to justify an ST Signature.

 

-Ironwood items now require an ST signature only when utilized for weaponry, armor, or shields. Trinkets or other goods are not ST Signed.

-Spelling errors in the lore have been fixed. 

-The "Chemical Mixture" is now specified to add [1] Earth Sign, [1] Air Sign, [4] Vigor Symbols, [2] Endurance Symbols, [2] Balance Symbols and [3] Agility Symbols.

 

---

 

 

Volatite and Boomsteel

Boomsteel is a material which has been neutered over the years. A lot of its thematic potential has been replaced or overridden by other lore or materials. It became apparent that the most basic voidal enchantment was better than Medium Density, Low Density lacks some oomph to its power, and High Density has been entirely thematically replaced in a superior way by Daemonsteel. Its weight/strength are outclassed by Carbarum in every way, leading to Boomsteal becoming a sort of nothing-burger of a material. Rivaling Thanhium for the most changes, Boomsteel has been significantly overhauled to add a ton of flavor and theme to the metal and to make it more versatile in its uses.

 

-All weight differences between the three densities have been clarified and quantified instead of gated by an arbitrary race mechanic.

-Low density boomsteel now has an explosion of flame in addition to its shrapnel/concussive explosion.

-Medium density boomsteel now no longer has a duration limit on its flame effect, meaning one may have a medium density boomsteel item aflame until it is manually quenched or doused. In addition to this, medium density boomsteel cuts or slashes may cauterize- causing an intense burning pain alongside the attack.

-High density boomsteel now has a "Thunderclap" effect, which adds a heavily concussive effect to its strikes or a rebounding-effect to armor. Both are difficult to wield or use. Eidola and Construct CAs cannot wield it given its intense vibrations, while Ologs as well cannot wield it due to the intense and sudden sound that occurs. Blows with a high-density boomsteel weapon are heavier, and blows against armor still wound the wearer- but can potentially stagger their attacker. There are a lot of working bits and pieces to this addition, so be sure to check out the lore piece.

 

---

 

Dracanium

Dracanium is a piece we did indeed look at with some curiosity. We do hold some regret that it's so difficult to get a hold of. Despite a couple Dragon events on this map and the last, the majority of what we see is still coming from duped items as well as reforges of previously signed items. While we plan on having more Dracanium later in this map, we're going to look into implementing it in other ways somehow to better allow Azdrazi to have their cultural smithing. The lore overall we don't have much problems with, and thus has remained unchanged.

 

-Dracanium is unchanged. 

 

---

 

Thanhium

Thanhium has been a hot topic as of recently and suffers the issue of being a sort of catch-all combat metal. It's highly secretive in nature, and both in use by and against mages in tandem with magic; which is antithetical to the purpose of the metal. It's effective against magic things, and non magics, while the original point of magic absorption is completely missed with the point of the lore. With this, we've applied some significant changes.

 

-Thanhium will absorb and overheat if on the person of someone using any form of magic or enchantment. If one has an enchantment in one hand, and a Thanhium item anywhere on them, the enchantment will fail and the Thanhium will count as absorbing it.

-We've clarified the nature of magic absorption (E.x. do multiple thanhium items stack, answer being no), along with how many spells can be absorbed for the raw form and the refined form.

-We've made Thanhic forges much more thematic and important as to why they are actually used, and have removed the random chance to fail Thanhic forging.

-We've added an ET-Only line regarding a radiation-like effect when in high concentration areas of Thanhium. 

-We've added a "Unless otherwise stated" weakness on Thanhium, which states it is effective against all magics, CAs, and Feats. 

-We've removed the frostbite and limb disabling effects, which have been moved to Frost Salts.

-Redlines are now red and the lore has new formatting.

-Thanhic forging ingot-counts are now standardized with the rest of forging as per the Material Compendium. 

-Clarified to look within lore when in magically-dense areas (Hearths, Tears, Hollows, Etc.) for more details.

 

---

 

Azhl

Azhl is another piece we've been interested in looking at given its somewhat underutilized nature, even though it exists as a purely combative metal with little purpose elsewise. It is one of the lesser used materials, yet one of the most common to obtain. However, with the recent Rewrite we feel that we'd like to see how it performs before applying any changes.

 

-Azhl is unchanged.

 

---

 

Frost Salts

Frost Salts are a material which has been kept highly secretive, and plays an important part in this map's founding lore. Despite its smithing technique being incredibly simple taking after mundane forging techniques- it has become increasingly gatekept- which was not the original intent of the material.

 

-Frost Salts are no longer knowledge locked, and are not required to learn in roleplay to utilize.

-We've clarified Frost Salt's interaction with Lunarite.

-The durability of a frosted weapon has been raised from 6/3 to 8/4, depending on the metal used (See the lore for more details).

-The frostbite & limb disabling effect from Thanhium has been moved to Frost Salts, and wounds from Frost Salt weapons are now more painful and brutal. 

 

---

 

Aurum

Aurum through the years has received poor treatment given many CAs unrightfully have written out an Aurum weakness: where it now lays as a metal exclusive to work against one CA- Ghosts. Realistically, Aurum should work on any manner of creature with its soul altered. Thus, we've decided to add into Aurum another catch-all weakness clause, and to address which CAs may need changing in the future for those with specific anti-aurum weaknesses in lore.

 

-Aurum now has an "Unless otherwise stated" weakness clause to clarify Aurum is an effective counter to any non mundane CA-Creature, unless otherwise specified within that specific creature's lore.

-Aurum is now stated as non-effective unless puncturing or otherwise wounding one of the listed above. Increasing searing pain is relative to size, thus, pin-prick tests are ineffective. 

 

 

 

Wrap-Up

 

     In short, we're looking forward to seeing these changes in action and to what they may change moving forward. Personally I'm excited to see some of these new effects at work and a new variety at play where depending on your situation, or your culture, or your preference- there is no wrong choice in any of these. Most metals are fairly effective against one thing or another, and there's a lot of options as to how a situation can be approached. 

 

--Squak & The Materials: Reforged Team

 

[wowj 2744]

Nub wae

[Qctho 170]

Just now, wowj said:

Nub wae

Dang it, beat me by ten seconds

[Tabby64 1295]

I like the post a lot and i am glad frost salts got a small buff. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Tabby64

[Sorcerio 4594]

Me when I can shank void mages with aurumn (non-mundane BTW).

 

Just my one qualm with this is how aurumn just applies to everything now. It becomes the ultimate CRP meta when really it doesn't make sense for a ton of creatures. As of our current lore it really only works for lifeforce/undead creatures. IMO it could use a bit more specification, at least in terms of how (and why) it interacts with everything on such a broad scale. 

 

Everything else seems alright though. 

[MayRndz 1128]

Finally Published

 

[ReveredOwl 5314]

Yay, finally. Literally all 'dark creature' CA's come with the inherent disguise spell which allows them to linger and mix with any population, not every single dark magic ca should have a disguise spell and its dumb, perhaps this could be fixed next. Nobody rps the drawbacks of using their disguises either :( 

[Orlanth 3525]

Is thanhium still slightly above the durability of steel?

 

  

4 minutes ago, Sorcerio said:

Me when I can shank void mages with aurumn (non-mundane BTW).

 

Just my one qualm with this is how aurumn just applies to everything now. It becomes the ultimate CRP meta when really it doesn't make sense for a ton of creatures. Of our current lore it really only works for lifeforce/undead creatures. IMO it could use a bit more specification, at least in terms of how (and why) it interacts with everything on such a broad scale. 

 

Everything else seems alright though. 

Also, this is based. Aurum should just be a catch all on CAs specifically, if anything.

[Sorcerio 4594]

56 minutes ago, ReveredOwl said:

Yay, finally. Literally all 'dark creature' CA's come with the inherent disguise spell which allows them to linger and mix with any population, not every single dark magic ca should have a disguise spell and its dumb, perhaps this could be fixed next. Nobody rps the drawbacks of using their disguises either :( 

 

Disguises are lame I agree. 

[creamynoteblock 2409]

where is the carbarum section

[ronin_champloo 5951]

Feels good, it feels like yesterday when I had done my Thanhic discussion post

[Nikachu132 50]

Just now, creamynoteblock said:

where is the carbarum section

 

wow good eyes, I'm glad you noticed that all by yourself

:|

[squakhawk 7302]

1 minute ago, creamynoteblock said:

where is the carbarum section

I FORGOT CARBARUM HOLD ON

[creamynoteblock 2409]

1 minute ago, SquakHawk said:

I FORGOT CARBARUM HOLD ON

i'll be lenient this time because it's your birthday

[ronin_champloo 5951]

Give me rep btw