ronin_champloo

1 minute ago, Valannor said:

okay but how did running the event on your own with two accounts go? would you do it again? :P

Honestly, it was something that helped running the event a bunch. I could keep track of emotes, and play the NPCs with one account while using the other account to WE and shift around the monster, while doing environmental emotes. I'd highly recommend doing events like just to help with immersion and having an 'extra' hand to help around with stuff!

The Bold Blue: A Retrospective

Links:

Total Events of Bold Blue: 17~

There ends the second ‘Blue’ eventline. I hope all the groups that interacted with it had fun from what was an event that was conjured up primarily from other players – being a creation amidst a ritual. While the prior Big Blue eventline was done with me wanting to research how to make an enjoyable, fair – yet difficult – event, this was focused on maintaining player retention and focus during what would appear to be an unwinnable event.

These are my findings for other ST, or event-makers, to use:

- Replacing the system of Death Saves, I used a new system called ‘Heroic Actions’ where one could do an action with 100% success-rate. These, however, were limited and could either be used to defend others or deal damage in a specific area hence the ‘Heroic’ name. I found that these were primarily used for offensive action, with a few used to guide event NPCs with a few used to save themselves. A trick that I did, this time however, was that there was a limited account. And I wouldn’t tell them how many they had left. They wouldn’t be allowed to notify each other if they used it either, which turned out to be rather interesting! Some groups burned through them, others used them as little as possible which was shocking, leading to some mishaps where players almost died due to luck no longer favoring them. Nonetheless, they were free to use them to save themselves or gamble for a better chance to defeat the monster.

- I tried out a bunch of systems in this event. What I chose to do was prioritize senses, clues and whatnot for the players; allowing for everyone to have an equal chance of participation. Sometimes they’ll garner details and clues that are only shown to them, and other times, I’d emote a thought conjuring itself in their head for further inspection. What was hilarious though was that only 25% of these clues were communicated to the rest of the group, with most of the information hoarded by themselves. This, however, allowed preparation and research to flourish which I was very happy about.

- The introduction of event NPCs was something that I’ve planned for a bunch of time, with a group of Hunters stalking the monster. This is what I mainly used to maintain player retention with the others during the hunt, allowing further communication, preparation and research to develop. It was also a good way of giving information and clues to the beast. I really enjoyed this system since it allowed me to have a plot and narrative behind the Hunt as a main failure of every ‘monster event’ is that it’s so closed off. A monster dies, then what? Nothing. There’s no continuity, and it feels more like an ‘event’ rather than a broad narrative that affects the area around it. Nonetheless, it allowed for the players to garner forth an actual bond to the event rather than seeing it as just another ‘pixel-hunt’.

- As for preparation, I experienced the ‘Spikes’ to allow people to speculate and figure out the properties of The Bold Blue without dedicating hours of their time for a combative event where they could perish. These environmental set-pieces allowed for scouts, alchemists and people not inclined in CRP to shine as they figured out how The Bold Blue fought, its base abilities, etc. I really enjoyed this part of the event as it was fun to see people schizo over the properties, figuring out how to weaken and defeat it. Once again, it allowed for retention of the event to continue; with tons of ‘mini-events’ occurring as the players experienced the piece.

- As for difficulty, yet again, we're all here to have a good time and prepping  a day to be slain in 2-3 emotes is so punishing. Don't be afraid to kill, but make it fair. There's always someone behind the screen, remember that. 

- While this is something that I didn’t really use a bunch, what I wanted to experiment with was sound clues. Using the /sound plugin, I used it to deliver sound in a way to immersively give information to people, with the main one – before The Bold Blue settled in Yong Ping – being to dictate where the beast was. This worked on some ends, other times, the players couldn’t really figure it out. Another clue that I had was that the beast would roar before every attack, and the few who did figure it out, found a way to bait attacks to their advantage which I was very proud about; nonetheless, there is always something incredibly satisfying at seeing the group figure out the clues, and use it to their own advantage.

- Yet another thing that I used in the early parts of The Bold Blue was the constant ‘revolving’ event-site, with the beast constantly moving around Almaris. This kinda seemed like Where’s Waldo, and the event-site stayed in an area for [1] week at the most. While it was fun to see the players explore and delve around the map, all it regularly turned into was a guy on a horse running around Almaris for a few hours, rather than the natural stumbling on an event-site that I so wished. To help this, I decided to post a screenshot of where the Beast currently was at a time, which helped for a while but failed due to scheduling, time zones, etc.. which made the beast stay in some areas longer than others. Nonetheless, it was an interesting system that needed more refining before actually using it, hence why the beast finally stopped at Yong Ping.

Systems Used:

- Stealth (For scouting and exploring)

Every action built up a number, and as it reached a certain number, they’d be caught.

Etc, running = 2. Walking = 1

When it reached 10, they’d be caught by the Beast and battle would commence.

This was an interesting way to keep numbers down for scouting missions, with the more players, they’d be able to potentially receive more information.. however they’d also be more prone to danger.

- Heroic Actions

Actions with a 100% success-rate. These are limited, and players do not know when their luck ran out.

- Information and Hints

Information and clues would be given to players in #w and #q, depending on their current position and direction (where they’d be looking at.)

- Active Events

Events within the area that continued for a day, before finishing out, allowed players to interact with the event if they had the time, stumbling on it naturally rather than being provoked by a discord ping. I really liked this!

- Event NPCs

Allowed for more interactions and focus on the Event, rather than allow interest to fade, it made players interact with it amidst hunts and during off time. What was super interesting was the players didn't treat them as NPCs, but rather actual people. Glad to see : )

Bloopers and everything behind the scenes:

If anyone’s curious, here is how The Bold Blue operated, and every weakness that it had!

Closing Thoughts:

While I did get burnt out in the middle of it for doing a bunch of events, I found that I actually really enjoyed this eventline. It was interesting and allowed me to gather information like before. If there was anything that I’d fix, I reckon I’d.. focus more on the ‘moving event-site’ idea that I had which is already in the works : )

The spawn of the Shredder began to prepare, train and grow in abominable hatred of the Beast that took their father.

Accepted.

"This has to be an assassination attempt of some kind, I swore Manon was a lesbian.." Wees muttered, planning to send a body-double.

A good man. He deserves to be given a chance back

I so glad you were able to have a career as an admin without anyone finding out about this xDD

"My student invented a new smithing technique, to say that I'm impressed is an understatement."

The dark man commented, dipping his head in respect.

"May you find some students, and it seems that I've a trip to make.."

2 hours ago, MeteorDragon said:

 

Blood Magic does have proper tells you should to and they get less obvious the high your tier is. For example, at T1 you might have to stay completely still, not blink for the whole duration, only be able to talk minimally and stare at your target. At T5 it's less obvious as you no longer need to stare directly at your target and can do small actions like flipping through a book, but the blood mage still has to have signs of casting, like looking focused and being unable to blink. The magic is meant to be a bit more secretive and cult-like, other spells do have tells, like red mist flowing, but they do more than just aesthetics 

Allow me to be serious for once when talking about this but stuff like standing completely still, not blinking or staring at your target is not a tell lmao -- the latter is a necessity for most casting and is incredibly hidden.

Standing still is not a tell, as it's something completely normal that can easily be hidden IRP, especially as this isn't stated to be a combative spell.

Emoting not blinking twice is not a tell either, that's something that can be easily hidden IRP. It can be chalked up as a character being weird or whatever.

Staring at a target is something already required of most magics as you need to see where you're going to cast.

None of these are tells. A tell is used to indicate or showcase that something is happening, and hidden tells used to be abused heavily to charge up spells and blast some unfortunate human before he could reasonably react to it IRP. However, this is the case for combat.  A tell is something used to indicate casting, like glowing eyes for Voidal Magics, fire and smoke for Nephilim, etc. They're something different that isn't the norm and they're used to indicate when something is amiss.

That's not to say that the spell is genuinely harmful, I'd say it's something used to affect RP rather than CRP. Looking through all of this, I don't really believe the spell SHOULD be removed entirely, as it's a vital part of Blood Magic, but rather an increase on noticeable tells while perhaps buffing its range and the amount of people it can affect.

I tend to balance spells, in my and other Lore, by seeing the counterplay against it. For this spell, there's little-to-no counterplay against it at all. There's no ways to prevent it. No way to go detect or deter it from happening to one's self, which is FINE. Genuinely. But when it's used to disrupt or mess with events, it just tends to feel like someone's trolling a playerbase or group just for the sake of it. If you're in the middle of an event, using magic to affect others around you, there should be some method to know that something's amiss -- or even something to force it to be more cultlike and secretive, forcing them to cast and do these spells from a safe distance.

Just my thoughts!

1 hour ago, rukio said:

Purposed change:

Removal of the spell

This is so powerful that I'm unable to do anything but upvote.

I don't care if it's right or wrong, right now, her balls far dwarf anyones on ST

Accepted. 

Pending. For your casting emote -- please list out the mechanics and effects of the smoky whispers potion (How big the radius is, how far it goes, and what they're able to see). Furthermore, you cannot double-emote in the last emote as throwing the potion and connecting to the void counts as two actions in the same emote.

Please amend this, and I'll review it whenever I'm able to.

Accepted.

MC Name:

toopixy

Character's Name:

Rel de Wees

Character's Age:

Old Enough

Character's Race:

Elf

Link to your accepted MA:

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/214790-further-alchemy-animii-crafting-fa-shartings/

What magic(s) will you be teaching?

Further Alchemy - Animii Crafting

Describe this magic or a creature as a whole:

Animii Crafting is the process of combining both Alchemy, Smithing and Clockwork to create faux life in the form of automation creations -- coming in various shapes, sizes and built for different purposes. They are constructed out of gears and gearboxes to mimic organs, and leather tubing that acts in place of the vessels that allow the gearheart to funnel and flow life-fluid throughout its body, thus granting it life. Protecting this vital and important frame often tends to be an outer casing, often made out of plating.

While steel is objectively more durable than flesh, there are caveats to their health. Most importantly, the Automaton's gearheart is an essential component to it and should it be damaged or destroyed, harm affects the construct, perhaps even permanent death along with their sentient mind being lost forever. Furthermore, the automaton has no blood like normal life, thus should they be injured, their leather tubing would rupture and they'd leak the life-fluid. If unable to fix this wound, the construct would perish.

However, there is a special ability to the Automaton known as overclocking -- split up to either minor or major affects where the construct can bolster themselves beyond their base strength and speed by putting more strain on their gear heart as more life-fluid flows through them. The cost to this, however, is that the construct is temporarily put out of commission due to the effects on its inner parts, with any attempts to bypass it leading to failure.

Are there different sections or subsections of magic? Can those be elaborated upon?

There are three sections of Animii Crafting; Prosthetics, Automatons and Machine Spirits.

Automatons were mentioned before, so I'll be proceeding with both explanations of Prosthetics and Machine Spirits. I'll start with Prosthetics. They are made to aid those who lack limbs, either by birth or injuries. Limbs are made by first creating a simple frame that fits the missing body part, soon filled with vessels for the main fluid, attached with a smaller heart. After that, the wearer don their limb once more after having it strapped onto the body, though they'll find that their sense of touch will be off compared to what was lost. While the prosthetic is durable and steady, further modifications can be made to make its purpose more specific, though it has a toll on the body. Etc, someone large will require the user to have enough strength to support it.

Another is Machine Spirits, where through methods similar to Kloning, the crafter may make a body to escape to during their death. Their soul skips past the soulstream, instead venturing back to reality in the form of an Automaton. The aforementioned effects are prevalent here, and should they die, the creator would die lest they'd have more copies of itself -- several empty bodies to escape to should they perish and die.

Can you give an example of a casting emote, of a spell of your choice?

[Emote Example]: Major Over-Clocking

[1] The Construct moved onward, heart churning and working beyond its limits. It broke its vessels, plating dented in several places, though its strength and dexterity was boosted by a half atop of what it already had. At that, Freddy Fazbear surged onward. . . and instead of traversing only [4] blocks, it found itself able to run [6] meters, away from the man that was running away from him!

[2] Alas. . . Fazbear's heart began to slow down, and the overclock ended. For the next [4] OOC hours, it found itself unable of functioning.

Can you give an example of a teaching-emote (interacting with another) of a spell of your choice?

[Emote Example]: Creation of a Prosthetic Leg

Rel moved to remove the several metallic pieces from their casts, endeavoring to make sure that each and every single part had their desired measurements perfectly. He turned to his student, speaking afterward with a bow of his head. "Attach them all together, I made you study anatomy, so this should be simple for you. Make sure that it forms the shape of a leg."

With that, his student soon moved to attach the metal bones and plating together, forming it in the shape of a leg. Though it had some errors, Rel worked on fixing these along with whomever he was teaching.

The elf turned to him once more, decreeing to him another request; "And now, I'd like for you to run the leather tubing and wire all around the leg's skeleton. Life-Blood is meant to flow through it so make sure you do it right."

Rel's student soon moved to do as requested, taking extra care to make sure that it's done to the standard listed.

Rel soon opened a hatch within the leg, allowing him to place the mechanism's heart within it while his student worked to attach all the required wires and tubing through to the heart. Afterward, the elf attached it to the human who was missing her leg, working on the complete prosthetic afterward.

With that, the man worked on pouring lifeblood into the heart which soon flowed throughout the nearby vessels. "Turn it on, it's awaiting the key." He gestured for his student to operate it, and with that, he used a key to start it -- allowing it to come to life.

Say your student powergames during or after teaching, how do you reprimand that?

Do you have a magic(s) you are dropping due to this app? If so, link it:

Nope

Do you agree to keep the ST updated on the status of your magic app?:

Yup

Have you applied to teach this magic on this character before, and had it denied? If so, link the app.

Yup

Accepted. 

Accepted. 

Pending. Please post a screenshot of yourself and the self-teaching book, otherwise you can PM me whenever you're online to verify the Self-Teaching book.

Pending. For 'Can you give an example of a teaching-emote (interacting with another) of a spell of your choice?', may you give an example for the creation of a potion? Likewise for 'Can you give an example of a casting emote, of a spell of your choice?'

Pending. Put more detail into everything please, this is lackluster at best.

Describe Water Evo and it's abilities, how it works, etc.

Explain in detail the subtypes of Water Evo, and the offensive/defensive spells associated with it.

Have an example of a casting emote, preferably one delving into combat.

Have an example of a teaching emote, and the listed spell with it.

Accepted.

Please allow your Teacher to comment with their FA/TA

Accepted. 

Accepted.