[Amendment] Soundproof Earplugs

[Tide1 4535]

Suggestion: Redline the concept of soundproof earplugs, or make them an alchemical craft like was recently done with Solomon's Salts.

Reasoning:

Spoiler

I recently participated in some pre-arranged CRP where both parties went into it with what I'd describe as dubious amounts of goodwill - spooks vs "good guys". That aside, some big Azdrazi shout-spell was dropped, the kind that interrupts spell-connections and stuns you for a turn. All the spooks instantly replied with, ''We put in earplugs before we got here.''
Out of this 13-player rally, only one player actually had earplugs as an item.
When called out on how their characters even knew whether they would need earplugs for this chance encounter, they said they always emote putting in earplugs before raiding.

Which begs the question. If these spells and abilities were designed to be countered by free-to-run pre-rp checklist emotes, why do they exist? I personally refuse to partake in this gamey behavior, and do not wish to handicap myself by doing so. If someone wishes to have their Witcher moment of "I've come prepared", then let it be an alchemical craft they must carry on them, and not a checklist to run before heading out.

Before it is pointed out by some wiseguy that the Greeks had rudimentary earplugs, these were not designed to stop magical spells made to instill a soul-deep fear in both the mortal and the unliving. Spells like these exist for both sides of the cosmic coin of good and bad, and they should work when they are cast. People also do not, and will not, accurately roleplay the downsides of being completely deaf.

 

[PrimnyaQuorum 3998]

The azdrazi and their allies/heralds have done this before, as have bards and others while mysteriously maintaining full awareness and communication. While a fair point, the black church began to do this in response to drazi raids where they did it repeatedly without any real consequence.
 

it’s cheese when the azdrazi do it, and it’s cheese when other people do it. Earplugs should not counter abilities in the same vein that someone should not be able to go to CT and /edit a stack of sugar into salt items.

 

id suggest just requiring some form of action of covering your ears or bracing where you cannot attack or sprint if you want to avoid the spells effects. It makes the choice to try to defend against it fairer and of actual consequence, not just adding the word “earplug” into an emote and continuing as normal 

[Tide1 4535]

6 minutes ago, PrimnyaQuorum said:

it’s cheese when the azdrazi do it, and it’s cheese when other people do it.

Absolutely. This isn't really meant to be a callout post for XYZ group, but rather a look at what is objectively problematic behavior. I'd be as pissed, if not more, should this ever happen to the Wail of a Wight.

[Mestvin 947]

22 minutes ago, Tide1 said:

I'd be as pissed, if not more, should this ever happen to the Wail of a Wight.

That already did happen 😣

 

[King_Kunuk 3022]

Perhaps magical spells which trigger on audio ques should just ignore earplugs and ear coverings. 

 

It is magic after all, and takes away from the aura and uniqueness of these spells.

 

I do think of all the audible spell effects which exists, Wights Wail is actually one of the most balanced. Sure it blasts you with a one emote stun/disconnect, but it also effects all of the wights allies, undead or mortal, mystic or not.

 

So perhaps the solution to this problem should be to address how these spells function and should function. Because as much as it sucks to be hit by these spells, it also kinda sucks to have your spell be completely ignored.

[Anbennar 2349]

If you're wearing earplugs that are strong enough to resist magical blasts specifically designed to deafen you then you should be so deaf wearing those earplugs that you can't hear anyone speaking more than 2 blocks away from you anyway to begin with.

 

I hate earplug slop.

[ClassyDryad 2366]

Lotc has a general lore concept in Squak's stuff that preparing for an enemy should be rewarded, and being able to counteract a powerful ability like that seems in line with this. It's already a very formidable CA without this ability.

 

Keep in mind this is a shout range disconnection spell that doesn't impact other azdrazi, with no usage cooldown or anti cc spam redlines. I'm not seeing anything that prevents an azdrazi from standing outside the range of all of these low range modern magics spamming this spell over and over to effectively lock their opponents out of doing anything.

 

If it was made to be more difficult to counter either by the removal or change of earplugs, it should also be made more akin to wight wail (renders the targets immune to it for the rest of the crp and also hits other azdrazi.)

[Tide1 4535]

9 minutes ago, ClassyDryad said:

If it was made to be more difficult to counter either by the removal or change of earplugs, it should also be made more akin to wight wail

The problem is that these already counter Wailing, the signature ability of an already weak capstone CA. Now that might be a Wight issue, or a Dragon issue, but it shouldn't be an earplug issue.

Edit; It also isn't preparing for an enemy. It's preparing for all enemies, by running *puts in earplugs, before raiding. If that is what constitutes "preparation roleplay" on Lotc, the whole concept sucks.

[Spoopy_Duck 3217]

Sounds like people are just powergaming.

[Gallent 43]

I have no horse in this race, and I have not witnessed this happening, but I am certainly familiar with ear plugs, and just reading this thread has brought up one big thought in my mind: even with modern day technology, it's difficult to get good earplugs that completely deafen. I've tried using ear plugs at multiple times in my life, and never once have I encountered a pair that completely canceled out loud noise, it just made it bearable. Most ear plugs are designed to muffle enough for hearing protection, but if someone's doing a magically powered scream, something that has effects based on more than just how loud or shrill it is, it really doesn't make sense for mundane earplugs- especially those made with medieval technology- to be able to completely block that out at all ranges.

I'd personally agree with the idea that if you want something to prevent magic from happening, it needs to be an item in your inventory, needs to be specially made, and needs to carry a drawback with it. If it's strong enough to block magic, it's strong enough to prevent any communication that's not by sight. If you're talking to each other, they aren't strong enough. And at bare minimum, you need to do a prefix or something to indicate that you've put them in so you can't retroactively powergame them.

[Islamadon 9158]

In my experience, Lectors used botany to make Paddfoot Earmuffs since it muffled out sound. This, of course, necessitates an item and the sacrifice of herbs. Not against an actual recipe or some kind of invention though.

[Borin 7645]

Put ur earplugs in so u can't hear their screams while you pugsy them for their insolence

[Iulius 206]

I don't know the specific case, but I concurr with Spoopy said. To my knowledge, you cannot really prep for a CRP before said CRP begins. 

I'd see how those could be implemented in one's helm, but I don't see how one could do that without cutting off comms permanently from their other allies

[Sonybut7 530]

3 hours ago, PrimnyaQuorum said:

The azdrazi and their allies/heralds have done this before, as have bards and others while mysteriously maintaining full awareness and communication. While a fair point, the black church began to do this in response to drazi raids where they did it repeatedly without any real consequence.
 

it’s cheese when the azdrazi do it, and it’s cheese when other people do it. Earplugs should not counter abilities in the same vein that someone should not be able to go to CT and /edit a stack of sugar into salt items.

 

id suggest just requiring some form of action of covering your ears or bracing where you cannot attack or sprint if you want to avoid the spells effects. It makes the choice to try to defend against it fairer and of actual consequence, not just adding the word “earplug” into an emote and continuing as normal 

This is blatantly incorrect and a lie.

During that encounter not a single one of us spoke, instead we used motions of our hands to convey meaning to one another.

Equally every single player had an earplug item, I had made 13, and equally /use'd 13 Paddfoot for its creation.

I understand you got mad, but at least do not lie about the truth of the situation.

[Venomous_Pup 2978]

What makes the Earplug meta effective is the fact you can simply have them lodged in your ears free, and I do believe as it currently is you can prepare them, while I think gameplay wise, it is cheese, I don't think anyone should argue you can't prepare before combat, because if that is the case, on the extreme end of it, no one should be wearing armour before combat and we all have to spend our start emotes equipping it.

 

I was gonna write something when I had the time, as I think a better solution is to define a Earplug item and Earmuff item, Earplugs requiring an emote to 'activate' them, whereas Earmuffs don't, however, either you can use them with light armored helms or cannot be wearing a helmet, hadn't decided. Feel like there is alot more to consider to making it so they remain useful, but not outright cancel abilities, at least in close quarters.

 

Something else to mention, Earplugs I am pretty sure is something somewhat uncommonly deployed, even if you remove the fact of Azdrazi or Wight abilities, you have an alchemical that emits a piercing sound that disrupts focus and disorient, and following that, as an individual if a loud enough sound does go off and you are a Mage you would lose focus and have to reset casting. This is just simply a result of LotC 'arm races', when you sufficiently deal with enough problems, in the case of Black Church, being raided by Azdrazi plenty and learning their abilities and looking for ways to counter it (or the min maxers who look at every lore piece who scan every ability to work out how to counter it before they even know it exists). People are gonna prepare what they can before they go into battle to ensure they win, doesn't really matter whom.