[Amendment] Paleknight CRP overhaul.

[Eurielle 1189]

 

Eidola has been subject to the cancer of liberal democratic incrementalist ideology for far too long. No longer shall western capitalist neoliberalism steal our labor, comrades. Today we seize the means of amendment!
 

The real biggest problem with Eidola is that it's doing some dark legion mierda instead of cool esoteric ghost rock RP. To explain that to all the lore writers that don't actually play on the server, Paleknight roleplay is actually just F tier road banditry where norlander road bandits that take my iron and horses have given me far greater experiences, and I've had my paleknight since early Axios. (This is also true of the majority of modern dark lore)
 

The product of this (which I'm here to address) is the incrementalist tweaks that get pushed every time paleknights road bandit. They keep causing further issues and lead to forced bad faith power gamey roleplay. Biggest example I can currently give is per limb health currently puts all eidola in a bleed out state after two hits, so to actually do the dark legion BS and kill TWENTY PEOPLE to advance to your endgame you have to bad faith every hit with some mierda “Hits the other leg, actually.” “I put my arm in the way.” Type s to spread the damage out across limbs so your golem doesn't get instant killed. 

 

The lack of a PLAN or cohesive idea has currently turned the creature into a forced powergaming mess so I'm pushing a full rebalance with A PLAN and an IDEA to A: return good faith roleplay to the CA and B: Create a unique and distinctive identity for wet ghost golems CRP.
 

(Also btw I already had the notes sitting on my desk, its only recent events that have motivated me to finish it)

BIG NOTE: The lore post has "Wrote the mechanics as redlines" syndrome. Many of these proposed changes are to the same paragraph long redline. Be wary of this.
 

Amendment 1: FIXED HEALTH

 

Spoiler

The blatant “actually it hits here or there” shit has got to go. All hits shall pull from a total health pool because ectoplasm or some shit.
I shall also include a more comprehensive list of all ways to damage a paleknight, that includes long bows.

 

Old:
- Due to an Eidola’s stone-like nature, slashing and piercing attacks will not often do much against their forms. Blunt, shattering attacks from pickaxes or hammers, however, prove to be far more effective in breaking or chipping away at their forms, breaking through them with [2] direct strikes from blunt weapons. Boomsteel counts as [2] direct strikes if blunt, and [1] direct strike if bladed. The phantom waters of an eidola will gradually leak from the wound in [7] emotes.

- An Eidola's stone exterior will melt if met by 3 emotes of malflame or dragonsflame and 5 emotes from fire evocation's flames. This will create a hole where the fire has made contact, and although the same spot must be contacted by the flame to become weakened, the emote timer does not reset should the flames not be constant.

 

New:
-Due to an Eidola’s stone-like nature, slashing and piercing attacks will not often do much against their forms. Blunt, shattering attacks from pickaxes or hammers, however, prove to be far more effective in breaking or chipping away at their forms. [8] direct strikes anywhere on the Eidola will have their body fractured and rapidly leaking. 
- A blunt boomsteel weapon counts as delivering [2] direct strikes while a bladed boomsteel weapon counts as delivering [1] direct strikes. Blasting potions, Longbow/Arbelist shots, and any ranged attack or spell that cleanly pierces through heavy plate armor or delivers a warhammer-like/concussive strike counts as delivering [1] direct strike.

- An Eidola's stone exterior begins to melt when heated. Direct exposure to flame is equivalent to [1] direct strike of damage, while malflame, dragonsflame and flame evocations blue flame counts as [2] direct strikes. White Fire counts as [4].

 

(Mention of 7 emote phantom water bleedout should be returned should Amendment 2 not pass)
 

 

Amendment 2: BLEEDOUT 
 

Spoiler

Lower all bleedouts. This has an issue of taking too long. If the dude you're fighting can't figure out how to kite you while you're on death timer you can hit the punish in less then N I N E emotes. Also if you can't do a full CRP in less than an hour you need to learn to looc less and type faster.
Patches: Basically, I don't see a clear way to help a PK while they're in bleedout. This has led me to avoiding all event roleplay because a single injury will actually just force PK you while everyone else gets to put a bandage on. Stops bleeding while being applied, resets bleeding and restores 4 hits once applied.
Universal bleed out: There is no “It's from the shoulder so it's fine.” Bleedout is bleedout.

 

Old: 
-Due to an Eidola’s stone-like nature, slashing and piercing attacks will not often do much against their forms. Blunt, shattering attacks from pickaxes or hammers, however, prove to be far more effective in breaking or chipping away at their forms, breaking through them with [2] direct strikes from blunt weapons. Boomsteel counts as [2] direct strikes if blunt, and [1] direct strike if bladed. The phantom waters of an eidola will gradually leak from the wound in [7] emotes.

- Palelords contain more phantom waters than paleknights, with them taking [9] emotes to fully drain.

 

New:
[Bleedout is separated into new redlines]
-The phantom waters of an eidola will gradually leak from the wound in [4] emotes.
-In combat leaking may be staunched by holding rubble over a damaged area with [1] dedicated action over an uninterrupted emote staunching their leaking and halting its progression. While this is done the eidola may only move [4] blocks at a time and may not attack or defend themselves.
-Out of combat the paleknight may repair themselves with rubble, mending stone into their menhir bodies, over the course of [4] emotes. This will only heal [4] hits to the Eidola. Leaking is staunched during this.

 

- Palelords contain more phantom waters than paleknights, with them taking [6] emotes to fully drain.
 

 

Amendment 3: WEAPON WEIGHT 
 

Spoiler

Balancing materials off “Actually it weighs 3.14159265359 times more than a normal sword so it's 13,000lbs” is downright stupid first because people can't just Google a wiki page then slap a number into a calculator (7 x 4 = 28, not 500) the second is because people are split between those who don't touch grass and have no clue about weight and those who work 3 blue collar jobs compressing their spine loading a truck with 150 80lb bags of concrete being like “30LBS AINT NOTHING YOU GOT SOFT HANDS BROTHER” because they've unlocked irl farmer strength and use it as their default.
Techlock exists, it's right there. So I'm making all menhir weapons count as blunt even if it's a dragon slayer great sword. No math, makes all things seem like big heavy go thunk thunk.
Also put 4 hit shield break into redlines because its already in the lore.

 

Old:
- Menhir craft are four times as heavy as their regular, steel counterparts. As a result, they cannot travel more than [6] blocks when thrown.

 

New: 
(These are mostly new redlines, however I'm scrubbing mentions of weight.)
-Menhir cannot travel more than [6] blocks when thrown.
-Due to the mass of Menhir weapons they are always considered to deliver a blunt strike.
-Additional blunt damage is the only mass related damage dealt by Menhir weapons. In all other regards damage dealt is akin to their mundane counterparts. 
-Menhir weapons and crafts break in [4] direct hits from a blunt weapon. The effects of High Density Boomsteel and Resonatium count as [2] hits.

-Due to the mass of Menhir weapons only Paleknights and Palelords may make effectively utilize these armaments.

 

 

Amendment 4: Strength and height.

 

Spoiler

All paleknight get flat orcish strength.
Tying height to strength has always been incorrect, you gotta see what 5’7” tall dudes are doing in the UFC dude. Anyways this is more about adding variety to create more memorable personas instead of copy paste max height slop.
 

Old:
- Eidola may only possess strength akin to the descendant they are most closely to in height, including orcs. A dwarf sized Eidola would have dwarven strength, while an orc sized Eidola would have the strength of an orc, though never reaching the strength of a golem or olog passively. These constructs may only move at a light jogging pace unless boosted, regardless of size.

 

New:
- Eidola may only possess strength akin to orcs. These constructs may only move, at most, [6] blocks when sprinting and [4] blocks when walking.

 

Amendment 5: Augments 
 

Spoiler

Changing them into physical and tangible objects. Their modifications to the eidola, whoever changed them into being signed items is dupid and illiterate. Should have been marked on CA instead but now we have people interchanging them out like call of duty perks so might as well just lean into it and make them canonically call of duty perks.

 

Old:
As Mysticism is the foundation of an Eidola’s existence, and while they may not directly draw upon any of its powers, should such a construct choose to serve the Synod, its congregation may opt to grant the Paleknight abilities which they could not possess otherwise, namely in the form of bodily augments crafted from a Menhir similar to that of the Eidola’s own form. Oftentimes, this may motivate the Eidola further to seek the company of Mystics. To be exact, augments are modifications made by Mystics that may be gifted to the Eidola in order to enhance their capability. Each Eidola may have up to two of these at once.

 

- Augments are only able to be applied in non-combat scenarios, and once they are implemented, act as inherent parts of the Eidola. They may be removed forcibly from the construct, though with some difficulty.

 

New:
As Mysticism is the foundation of an Eidola’s existence, and while they may not directly draw upon any of its powers, should such a construct choose to serve the Synod, its congregation may opt to grant the Paleknight abilities which they could not possess otherwise, namely in the form of small trinkets crafted from a Menhir similar to that of the Eidola’s own form. Oftentimes, this may motivate the Eidola further to seek the company of Mystics. To be exact, augments are trinkets made by Mystics that may be gifted to the Eidola in order to enhance their capability. Each Eidola may have up to two of these at once.

 

- Augments are only able to be applied in non-combat scenarios, and once they are implemented, act as inherent parts of the Eidola. They may be removed forcibly from the construct, though with some difficulty.
 

 

Amendment 6: Water Buff
 

Spoiler

This is to add relevance to the water traits of Eidola and to skew their traits, adding a level of uniqueness and strategy to paleknight encounters.

Old:
- Eidola may only possess strength akin to the descendant they are most closely to in height, including orcs. A dwarf sized Eidola would have dwarven strength, while an orc sized Eidola would have the strength of an orc, though never reaching the strength of a golem or olog passively. These constructs may only move at a light jogging pace unless boosted, regardless of size.

 

New:
- [...] These constructs may only move, at most, [6] blocks. Unless boosted.

 

Add to main body paragraph under physical state
Eidola are emboldened while submerged, the natural currents of water mixing with their own. Not weighed down by their waters, submerged Eidola move with the intimidating grace of a sea monster and are highly resilient as their waters are refilled. 

 

Add to redlines under physical state and mental effects
-Eidola are considered “wetted” when standing in water at least [2] entire blocks deep.
-When wetted, Eidola have access to a full [8] blocks of movement while sprinting and [4] blocks of movement while walking.
-While wetted, Eidola do not take damage from fire. A single flame attack will remove the wetted status.
-Once the wetted status has been removed via flame, it may not return for [2] emotes.
-Being wetted or submerged provides no protection against malflame.
-Wetted status expires [3] emotes after exiting water.
-While riding a mechanical minecraft boat Eidola are considered to be walking across the bottom of a body of water, or swimming.
-Eidola do not take fall damage when falling into waters at least [3] blocks deep.
-Eidola do not leak or “bleedout” while submerged in water at least [3] blocks deep.
-While Eidola are more resilient while submerged, dealing heavy damage will completely dismantle an Eidola. [12] total hits across an entire encounter will reduce an Eidola to rubble.
 

 

Amend slop aside I think Eidola needs a rewrite, or at least a reformat. It genuinely drives me up a wall every time I want to verify I'm emoting correctly and I have to decipher a 21 line mega block paragraph that takes up my entire screen, much less the lore direction pushing people to be low tier road bandits.
 

[sprtn 3340]

honestly just remove it

[Ardory 2978]

I can hear the wails even now.

[spaazmatism 1017]

honestly i think paleknights just need shelving...

[Helmet 1454]

1 hour ago, Eurielle said:

-While riding a mechanical minecraft boat Eidola are considered to be walking across the bottom of a body of water, or swimming.

 

how do living giant stone statues swim

I dunno paleknight lore and shenanigans but I'll give it a +1 for the changes regardless since they all seem pretty reasonable/up to date with other lore mechanics

[tasty_cheesecake 2298]

 

-1 delete paleknights 0 buffs to paleknights 0 grace to paleknights

 

in all seriousness one of the worst CAs on the server, pass the nerfs only or shelve this CA, basically its only for ganking noobs to become an even more epic 15ft tall stone ganklord (did i tell u im 15ft tall btw?) yes they got nerfed in height but did you know im 15ft tall? thats how every palelord is even the good ones.

 

how does paleknight still have its 2016 era endgame ca unnerfed unadjusted when every other "endgame CA" akin to it has either been relegated to an event only creature or obliterated? ts does not make sense at all how does mysticism keep getting away with it bro.

[PrimnyaQuorum 3999]

Please please please don’t give the rock larp ca immunity to fall damage if they water bucket clutch. I already have seen human players actually mald and rage when they weren’t allowed to use boats to fly down and pretend they took no fall damage I don’t think undead CAs need another excuse to powergame something else in their 5am trollings 

[Werew0lf 24179]

Remove pale knights lol

[Tentoa 3160]

Strongly prefer they and palelords get the axe, and bound ghosts be reworked. You can't even templar trophy them - they exist for the sole purpose of farming kills which is a method of RP that went the way of the dinosaur circa 2016. 

[Eurielle 1189]

it's not a euri sub until the comments are toxic

@Werew0lfwhen we shelfing 

[Samson Option 9652]

22 hours ago, Eurielle said:

Amendment 6: Water Buff
 

  Hide contents

This is to add relevance to the water traits of Eidola and to skew their traits, adding a level of uniqueness and strategy to paleknight encounters.

Old:
- Eidola may only possess strength akin to the descendant they are most closely to in height, including orcs. A dwarf sized Eidola would have dwarven strength, while an orc sized Eidola would have the strength of an orc, though never reaching the strength of a golem or olog passively. These constructs may only move at a light jogging pace unless boosted, regardless of size.

 

New:
- [...] These constructs may only move, at most, [6] blocks. Unless boosted.

 

Add to main body paragraph under physical state
Eidola are emboldened while submerged, the natural currents of water mixing with their own. Not weighed down by their waters, submerged Eidola move with the intimidating grace of a sea monster and are highly resilient as their waters are refilled. 

 

Add to redlines under physical state and mental effects
-Eidola are considered “wetted” when standing in water at least 1 entire block deep.
-When wetted, Eidola have access to a full [8] blocks of movement.
-While wetted, Eidola do not take damage from fire. A single flame attack will remove the wetted status.
-Wetted status expires [4] emotes after exiting water.
-While riding a mechanical minecraft boat Eidola are considered to be walking across the bottom of a body of water, or swimming.
-Eidola do not take fall damage when falling into waters at least [3] blocks deep.
-Eidola do not leak or “bleedout” while submerged in water at least [3] blocks deep.
 

 

You are an absolute chad for including this. I am assuming another pale knight had RPed this in addition to myself, but if this was inspired by what I was doing, thank you for the nod.

 

In general, agree with your amendment. If amended, I will pin the amendments mentally to keep in mind post-acceptance. Cheers!

 

Edit :Test

[DizzyGrey 1229]

I think these are some pretty fun and well thought out changes.

[VolcanicGoat 299]

One powergaming please 😊- Pale Lord player

[BoneChive 365]

I appreciate you working to fix Paleknights.

Its been a while since I've been active on the forums, but I play a decently old paleknight and have gotten back into it in the past couple months.

 

As someone who plays one, I can concede that they need a decent rewrite. As it stands, both Paleknight/Palelord lore and Mysticism are formatted in confusing ways with various inconsistencies. For example, "Spirit Core" draining is intended to function like Mysticism's draining, as stated in its redline. However, Mysticism makes no reference to Eidola gaining strength from it and Eidola makes no (mechanical) reference to them gaining speed.

Beyond the inconsistencies, it seems like the current state of the lore isn't super conducive to the roleplay experience. For instance, Devour is a really cool ability but it takes an insanely long time. It could instead just be locked behind things like full restraint, incapacitation, consent, etc. like other similar lorepieces. Further, the issue of Eidola durability insinuating that you must hit on the same spot repeatedly to "pop" their shells is very abusable and not good for the experience (i.e if an Eidola REALLY wants the win ooc, they can make a hit not collide with the same spot and just eat it). 

All in all, this overhaul has some mixed ideas.

Positively, it:

1. Offers a decent solution to the problem of weapon weight (just problem players powergaming) by removing weight and adding the blunt quality among the weapon's other effects. 

2. Enhances the watery theme of Eidola by making them more of a phenom in their element

3. Fixes the problem of "Actually that hit the forearm and not the elbow!!11!" by adding a total health-pool
4. Fixes the copy-paste 8ft Eidola in order to receive max strength
5. Fixes Eidola powergaming a trip allllll the way across the world to their lair to heal while bleeding

 

Problematically, it:

1. Enables Eidola to skydive off any height into water (concerningly easy to escape combat in many cases. Already easy to walk into a deep pond, and this makes it even less satisfying of an encounter for enemy players)

2. Doesn't specify what "trinkets" entails for augments. I am a proponent of marking on one's CA, AND having physical characteristics on the Eidola (not necessarily signed items).
3. Doesn't play well with some other lore, such as not allowing Templar trophies

4. Doesn't specify that lords move at 3 blocks while holding wounds shut, implying that they, too, move 4. (semantics)

5. Doesn't specify whether wetted status is immediately returned to Eidola who are struck with flames if they are standing in water or return to water. (mechanics can be fixed easily)

OVERALL, I think the direction we need to be going is:
- Less of a "Boomsteel check" experience
- More thematics (Eidola SHOULD be powerful in water or in their Keeps, and less so in arid deserts and such)
- Spectral siege engine (Aura buffs, ectoplasm-heavy, conduit feeding)
- Less of "More tanky version of mystic minus spells" and more "Unique entity that Mystics can work with"

[ClassyDryad 2367]

The universal 8 over specific area 2 change seems geared too much towards melee combat. Most "Warhammer" esk voidal spells are also massive and takes a billion emote. If I spend 6 turns summoning a 5 meter wide sphere of water does that only count as 1 hit despite striking their entire body? Why does it take 25 turns for an archer to kill a 8 foot rock man?