Player Input to Development

Questions and suggestions for additions or changes to these topics

Moderators: Stormbringer, Ehlanna

Player Input to Development

Postby Stormbringer on Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:20 pm

We get a lot of criticism that Dev spend a long time working on a subject and then throw it out as a finished article without giving players a chance to add their own ideas. So as part of the ongoing improvements intended to make players feel more involved, this is what will happen in the future.

As a rule, Dev considers one major topic at a time and works it through until it is finished. So we're going to tell you what the next topic will be ahead of time. That gives everyone the opportunity to throw in ideas and chat about them before the development process starts. Your ideas will be taken into consideration when dev gets underway and they will influence the final output. Obviously we won't be able to take every idea from every player on board, because not all of them will fit. But you often know a subject better than we do, so your input will help shape that phase of development and should result in a better finished product.

The major topic Dev is working through is races - their description, mindset, classes and AC's, advantages and disadvantages, history, tribes, pantheon, etc. The object is to balance all races and to make sure each race has an adequate amount of background to give a player a clear idea of how they are perceived in Belariath, as well as a firm grounding for their own roleplay. To do this, Dev is working on one race at a time.

The next project for development, due to start in a couple of weeks, is Elves - all three branches. So as a player in TLI, if you want to get involved, throw out your ideas, criticisms and suggestions relating to Elves in this thread. Dev isn't going to get heavily involved in this discussion - it's a time for you, the players, to discuss the race amongst yourselves. But once we do start the development work on this subject, we'll be taking the contents of this thread very seriously and adding it into the mix.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby lyllamarie on Tue Oct 11, 2011 4:51 pm

lyllamarie wrote:Next Up and now Open for Player input:

Nymph

Mage


If you have any input, stories, additions, subtractions, grief, etc, please reply to this thread with your thoughts.


Thank you!
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby Varisanna on Wed Oct 19, 2011 12:20 am

One thing I am thinking is with the diversity of advanced magics now, maybe we could consider splitting the mage itself a bit, maybe dark and light mages or something just kinda setting precursors for where a person wants the mage to go.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby miyuka on Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:47 pm

that's what all the elemental stuff is for. There is no dark and light magic for the most part. There's a few shadow stuff (shadow bolt) but as far as mage goes, either you plan to be elemental, war-mage, or pure arcane.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby Vysanth on Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:26 pm

Some of the Illusions are pretty powerful and Mages already have one of the largest spheres (Arcana) and they are a basic magical class. Being the base for Magic users, it also means that any character that has Mage as a base class can have access to up to 3 spheres at once...

Perhaps Illusion could be retained for an Illusionist advanced class or some such, which I gather was the original purpose of Illusion but I could simply just be silly.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby Varisanna on Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:07 pm

I see the point on mages so withdraw my idea from that

As for nymphs

Thinking a fun idea type thing would be to give them bonuses in their element and weaknesses out of it

For example a a dryad could have a stamina boost in the woods but lose twice the stamina if in the mountains

Or a naiad could have half res in a desert but double res in a water filled area.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby lyllamarie on Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:06 pm

lyllamarie wrote:Next Up and now Open for Player input:

Nymph - Naiad
Shaman



If you have any input, stories, additions, subtractions, grief, etc, please reply to this thread with your thoughts.


Thank you!
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby DorianPrice on Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:15 pm

I would really like to see a reason for a MAGE to go pure, and not specialize...
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby RedRaven on Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:48 pm

A grief I have, as a Shaman the Spirit world is not defined... Like at all. It is known that Shaman's are the only ones who can see/hear spirits.... but there is very little info beyond that. And they are the spirits of "the never born".

Does that mean like they are Plant/Animal/Rock spirits? Are they spirits of emotions Anger, Lust, Sorrow, Pain, Pleasure? Can the spirits impact the physical world over time? Say that a shaman convinces a large number of water spirits and some tree spirits to inhabit an area in the middle of a desert. And he stays there and makes sure that they stay there. Then would an oasis form over time? And is the reverse true? If there is a huge forest in the physical world, one would assume that there would be many "tree spirits" in the Spirit world. If say L burns the forest to Ash, does that chase away many/most of the tree Spirits? And if there are emotion spirits, could a shaman effect the basic emotion of an area. For instance, making a grove of trees exude a sense of calm, or fear to keep someone away from a place.

Also doing a bit of reading it says that the Shaman's deal with the afterlife with a wave of their hands.

A seemingly mystical being, one steeped in a richness of vast misunderstandings, one that sways within a realm we can't understand and unweaves the afterlife with a wave of hand and perhaps words few would wish to grasp.


Then in their advantage it rather plainly disputes that.

Probably the most basic Shaman ability, this ability allows a shaman the ability to be able to sense the ebb and flow of the spirits that inhabit the world around them - spirits tied to objects and things and creatures. The shaman will always know a familiar for what it is for the tie of spirit within. This does not let them sense the spirits of the dead, which were once the consciousness of living creatures. That is the realm of the necromancer. This allows the shaman to sense the myriad spirits present in all things.


My question is, how are Shaman able to unweave the afterlife if they are unable to sense the spirits of the dead?

A further question... It says that the Shaman can see over to the Spirit side, and it seems to suggest that the spirits can see over to ours, but does not say so outright. Can they?
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby RedRaven on Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:08 pm

Another thought/question about spirits. How does Magic relate to spirits? Are the fire spells that Mages and Fire Mages cast actually subconscious manipulation of fire spirits? The Clean Spell... Does it get rid of grime/dirt spirits?

Do the emotional manipulation of the Sexual sphere draw and enforce different emotional spirits?
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby L`aquera on Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:21 pm

I'm not sure fire/water/air/earth spirit applies in elemental magics.

Think of it as 'energy' everyone has it, everyone and thing has a different type. Mages learn how to manipulate, separate and use that energy.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby Augustus on Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:57 pm

Red ,

The best way I can out it in terms of real life is Chinese cultures version of 'qi' it very closely resembles the idea of the spirit in tli. So think of a realm where , a shaman is in touch with that realm very closely and can more or less 'see' . And not necessarily with his eyes.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby RedRaven on Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:09 am

L`aquera wrote:I'm not sure fire/water/air/earth spirit applies in elemental magics.

Think of it as 'energy' everyone has it, everyone and thing has a different type. Mages learn how to manipulate, separate and use that energy.


So what ARE the Spirits? What can they do? Or are they really honestly just one giant hallucination of Shaman? Do they have any impact on the real world? How do they effect Magic? How are they effected by magic? Does "regular" magic leave a trace/ripple/something in the spirit world?

I ask questions because I want a good base idea of how Spirits work, how "Magic" works, and how the two inter-relate.

I am basically looking for a sort of "Unified Theory" for Magic in TLI.
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby RedRaven on Thu Jul 05, 2012 4:41 am

Actually... The Shaman IS the next up. And I have a view fairly similar to your own. If not as well written and put together. Though I see them interacting a bit more. My thought/question is though... Do changes in the real world effect the spirit world? Can effects in the spirit world carry over some to the real world, even without using spells... changing the "feel" of an area.... These are questions I would have answered. Personally. I am inclined to think that one affects the other and vice versa, to an extent. If L torches all the trees in a large section of the forest, then all/most of the tree spirits in that area go/leave.

If Red Raven summons a huge number of sadness spirits to an area, he might be able to get people to become depressed enough that they kill themselves.

lyllamarie wrote:
lyllamarie wrote:Next Up and now Open for Player input:

Nymph - Naiad
Shaman



If you have any input, stories, additions, subtractions, grief, etc, please reply to this thread with your thoughts.


Thank you!
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Re: Player Input to Development

Postby Vladimir on Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:22 am

Yar, Shaman is -next-, but we haven't started, which is why there's nothing too coherent explaining shamanism yet aside from whats already there, which is why now's a great time to put ideas forward. So I'll answer your questions as I see em, but keep in mind this just my own opinions.

Do changes in the real world effect the spirit world?

Yes, to an extent... especially major magical changes. However, there is no way to 'harm' or 'destroy' a Spirit, at least no way that isn't exceedingly complicated and requiring mondo-mighty-magics, no matter what happens in the real world.

Can effects in the spirit world carry over some to the real world, even without using spells... changing the "feel" of an area....
Sortof, but not really. In the absolute absence of spirits the 'feel' of an area would definitely change, but I don't see Spirits as being too 'location' bound. Being in a certain place is more a physical-world deal, I envision the 'work' of spirits doesn't assign specific ones to specific areas. Shaman can use spirits to alter their surroundings in the physical world definitely, but that's a specific spell.

RedRaven wrote:If L torches all the trees in a large section of the forest, then all/most of the tree spirits in that area go/leave.
Again, I don't view spirits as being 'area' based myself. If there -are- tree-spirits, they're not 'living inside' each tree, forced to vacate or vanish when the tree is gone. They aren't the 'souls' of simple forms of life. They'd simply be managing the subtleties of how those trees function in reality... ensuring their leaves produce oxygen instead of poison, ensuring their roots spread in the dirt and not through, say, time. If L` burned down a bunch of trees, it wouldn't leave those Spirits 'unemployed', it would just be trees doing what trees do, which is what they're there to help along. The fires L`aq starts would be managed subtly by fire spirits, but they aren't 'residing' in the fire. They're just making sure it acts as fire should, no more or less destructive.

If Red Raven summons a huge number of sadness spirits to an area, he might be able to get people to become depressed enough that they kill themselves.

As per the above write-up, Shaman can -commune- in a limited way with most all spirits, but cannot control or summon those who still perform their worldly tasks. Raven wouldn't be able to summon 'sadness' spirits, because if there is such a thing, they'd be too busy making sure sadness works like its supposed too to bother with being summoned. The only spirits Shaman can -control- are the spirits who've given up their worldly tasks... those who are no longer spirits 'of' anything, and now spend all their time and focus on watching mortals, alive or dead. There's a whole lot of these 'rogue' spirits out there to work with, some nasty, some nice, but all hungry for mortal interaction... the Shaman using the nastier ones for their more dangerous spells, the more loyal/kindly ones for their other magics/even as familiars.
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