What do we do with Veilwatching?

[PrimnyaQuorum 3999]

2 minutes ago, BrandNewKitten said:

 

This is a good point. Imagine if we gave the ability to instantly find spook lairs the moment they were built or anything in that same vein. That isn’t counter-play. It’s sabotage.

Counter-counter point, every spook lair this map is sort of openly evil. Im not saying that every spook lair houses every tear, but its also not really fair to say its hard to find the spook lairs this map

 

I can't recall in my time tear hunting [except w/ zontys where I used an old MArt that im most sure pre-dates current void lore] where a tear either wasnt in the open when it was found or was so obviously somewhere it just took a giant amount of brute forcing to access it, since there was a clear general idea where it was [lurin tear end of lurin/vortice tear]. Veilwatching only lets you know that a tear exists, somewhere, if a player chooses to write a post for it. Equally, with zonty's tear in cnor we only got hints up to someone in their capital; someone in that family snitched irply

[Ardory 2978]

OK NOW THAT I AM HOME I CAN FINALLY SPEAK ON THIS.

 

Veilwatching in of itself is not a bad theme at all. Mages who serve to keep the veil intact so that no power hungry nerds who open a tear for fun. HOWEVER, it severely lacks is a “fun” factor other than watch sky and anime glowing eyes RP which has drawn people away from the feat other than feat collectors. As previously mentioned, it can just be used to "heh, you posted on the forums that you opened a void tear. I got my epic void horror buddy (Pocket ST) to tell me where it is and I can see it with my epic mana sight. Watch your back, bud."

 

Veil watching relies far too much on OTHER things or magics happening rather than moving the RP THEMSELVES. If anyone were to rewrite the feat (or it gets shelved, idc), it should focus on making it more fun to interact with the feat in a self-sufficient way rather than just sitting in your tea time room and watching if anything gets posted that relates to their feat.

[PrimnyaQuorum 3999]

4 minutes ago, Astrophysical said:

OK NOW THAT I AM HOME I CAN FINALLY SPEAK ON THIS.

 

Veilwatching in of itself is not a bad theme at all. Mages who serve to keep the veil intact so that no power hungry nerds who open a tear for fun. HOWEVER, it severely lacks is a “fun” factor other than watch sky and anime glowing eyes RP which has drawn people away from the feat other than feat collectors. As previously mentioned, it can just be used to "heh, you posted on the forums that you opened a void tear. I got my epic void horror buddy (Pocket ST) to tell me where it is and I can see it with my epic mana sight. Watch your back, bud."

 

Veil watching relies far too much on OTHER things or magics happening rather than moving the RP THEMSELVES. If anyone were to rewrite the feat (or it gets shelved, idc), it should focus on making it more fun to interact with the feat in a self-sufficient way rather than just sitting in your tea time room and watching if anything gets posted that relates to their feat.

another astro L [not relaly]

 

mana sight requires LoS, it cannot go through walls or whatever. if VWers are doing this then LOL thats an insane amount of gaslighting

[Stag 3229]

16 minutes ago, PrimnyaQuorum said:

Counter-counter point, every spook lair this map is sort of openly evil. Im not saying that every spook lair houses every tear, but its also not really fair to say its hard to find the spook lairs this map

 

I can't recall in my time tear hunting [except w/ zontys where I used an old MArt that im most sure pre-dates current void lore] where a tear either wasnt in the open when it was found or was so obviously somewhere it just took a giant amount of brute forcing to access it, since there was a clear general idea where it was [lurin tear end of lurin/vortice tear]. Veilwatching only lets you know that a tear exists, somewhere, if a player chooses to write a post for it. Equally, with zonty's tear in cnor we only got hints up to someone in their capital; someone in that family snitched irply

Fair points. I don’t have the lived experience you do with veilwatching so I think it’s important to read this side of it.
 

Maybe it doesn’t auto-pin a location for veilwatchers but because of the alert it gives them is it possible that it could be hindering the consequential roleplay that comes with a tear being present?
 

Does this lore diminish the value of voidal tears and the effort being put into them? Is there is a way to balance those interactions so that both can exist and feel important? Can both have poignant moments in roleplay? 
 

Personally I see veilwatching as a consequence of voidal tears existing in the first place. You have years of roleplay supporting the idea that some characters would hunt them down like some guilds hunt down monsters.

 

So how do you balance it to keep the tension? What can we change to achieve that balance? 

[PrimnyaQuorum 3999]

20 minutes ago, BrandNewKitten said:

Fair points. I don’t have the lived experience you do with veilwatching so I think it’s important to read this side of it.
 

Maybe it doesn’t auto-pin a location for veilwatchers but because of the alert it gives them is it possible that it could be hindering the consequential roleplay that comes with a tear being present?
 

Does this lore diminish the value of voidal tears and the effort being put into them? Is there is a way to balance those interactions so that both can exist and feel important? Can both have poignant moments in roleplay? 
 

Personally I see veilwatching as a consequence of voidal tears existing in the first place. You have years of roleplay supporting the idea that some characters would hunt them down like some guilds hunt down monsters.

 

So how do you balance it to keep the tension? What can we change to achieve that balance? 

 Voidal Tears right now are extremely one-sided
- They do not display any corruption at the surface if buried deeply underground [contrary to most land alteration structures currently]

- After 1 week, it provides half off casting, easier arcanium production, and an optional -2/-1 emotes to combative spellcasting emote counts for 2x mana cost [negated by being a voidstalker for 2 weeks]

- After 37 days [or 5 weeks?] breaking the frame [the only means of destroying the tear at all] incurs a negative side effect. After 67 Days [or 9 weeks] destroying it becomes a PKable thing for anyone nearby. Tear-Bombing is still a possible thing to do since tears up to a certain size do not require RO/PRO consent, and no notification/obvious signs of a tear existing are required until the 9 Weeks stage.

 

 

Veilwatchers can

- Optionally, if the tearmakers choose, be notified a tear exists somewhere

- If they have normal LoS upon a tear and arent just reading the ST Sign, determine its a voidal tear [not what stage, just that it is a tear]

 

That's really it. Veilwatchers, if the tearmakers choose, can offset the chance of a tear bomb getting matured before anyone knows it exists. Making a tear takes 2 mages, and when that tear is destroyed they can immediately make another with no consequence or downside. I really have to emphasis that notifying veilwatchers is not mandatory in the slighest, as most tearmakers dont bother writing a post, and it gives us pretty much no information beyond what the tearmaker wants to convey. Otherwise, there is no possible way beyond metagaming or hearing it from the min. 2 tearmakers that it exists. The smallest tear has a greater radius of 30m, while the largest you can make without RO consent has a greater radius of 60m. It's not hard to build down below 60m, redstone to hell, put a tear down, forget it for 9 weeks, and then make an atronach to blow it up. Its effect is marginal, but no other lore currently exists that allows that level of oomphs [ST do not do spiritspells, and no BM does them anyway LOL, which even then spiritspells require explict RO consent if theyre being made with an intent to be destroyed and thus be weaponized]

 

Personally, I think both lores are in a bad, non-modern state. They could be updated, but imo why just update 2 pages when most voidal pages [save johann rewrites] are in the same shape?

[Slorbin 2932]

I'm not familiar with it very much, but from what I read and understand, wouldn't the ability to see things... OTHER than 'veil breaks' also be a nice thing? Like. Working up security cameras in the inside of homes. Turn it into a sort of 'divination' school, losing the future aspect in exchange for being able to see far-away things. Think https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2028-clairvoyance Clairvoyance, https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2001-arcane-eye Arcane eyes and even Astral Projection for inspiration?

[xo31 3979]

On 11/20/2025 at 7:04 PM, PrimnyaQuorum said:

After 67 Days