Now that Magic 3.1 is starting to stabilize I've updated Light based creatures to properly interact with magic as was always intended. Currently these are just nimbuses, but assuming all goes well this is the first step to restoring shadow creatures to their once and future glory.
1) TKT/TKS aren't currently hooked in while we decide some other things about them.
2) Shadow creatures (if you can find them) are not changed at all and are likely very broken.
3) There's been a minor revision to the lore, specifically restricting the weakness/strengths to lunar magic based light and shadow. This prevents us from going down the rabbit hole of trying to make sure every spell that mentions light (How bright of light?) or some sort of shadow from every guild is hooked in. Keeping in mind many of these spells require custom mechanics to interact properly. It is my intention at this time that Traders will likely have spells that interact with them and Moon Mages may get more.
4) Generally speaking spells should grant exp when interacting with them as opposed to the old shadow creatures which skipped the exp routines. Generally their handling should be much more robust and include things like skill checks and actually being able to hit the creature (Sorry, no one shotting them with a caster of shadows and no skill check).
5) At this time the following spells are hooked in: Dazzle, Burn, Starlight Sphere, Dinazen Olkar, Moonblade and Shadows (cosmetic only).
-Raesh
"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose
DR-RAESH
MOCKERJB
Re: Light Creature Update
02/10/2014 02:24 PM CST
These interactions are really cool and I saw nothing buggy about any of the spells. I have not been able to test katamba moonblade yet; hopefully, it acts as the opposite of the xibar one!
DR-RAESH
Re: Light Creature Update
02/10/2014 04:37 PM CST
>>These interactions are really cool and I saw nothing buggy about any of the spells. I have not been able to test katamba moonblade yet; hopefully, it acts as the opposite of the xibar one!
Hahaha. Not really the opposite... but, yes, a Katamba moonblade is a much better idea for these guys. That's also the interaction I'd like tested the most - it uses the most mechanics I've never dabbled with before that have the most potential to go wonky.
As some trivia for people who might be interested the initial version of these mechanics I wrote (Back in 5/10, even before I was a cleared staff member) were notably more extensive. I'd literally tapped into every spell I could find that mentioned shadow or light, warrior mage spells, cleric devotional spells - you name it, it was in there. And they almost all had custom interactions too that were, let's say, not terribly well thought out or balanced. You could buff or nerf almost every possible stat on the poor things. It was absolute the correct call to make me pull them from the initial release :)
Nimbuses, including the core light creature mechanics, started off as "Hey, would you like to write a creature?" as a training project (Which is usually 90% filling messaging into a template) and turned into one of the most complex creatures in the game (The current version of the code is x8 longer rock trolls, the older version closer to x10, and over x3 the next next 'normal' creature I wrote, Cabalists, which are also stuffed with unique mechanics.) Scope creep is my ever present companion.
-Raesh
"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose
Hahaha. Not really the opposite... but, yes, a Katamba moonblade is a much better idea for these guys. That's also the interaction I'd like tested the most - it uses the most mechanics I've never dabbled with before that have the most potential to go wonky.
As some trivia for people who might be interested the initial version of these mechanics I wrote (Back in 5/10, even before I was a cleared staff member) were notably more extensive. I'd literally tapped into every spell I could find that mentioned shadow or light, warrior mage spells, cleric devotional spells - you name it, it was in there. And they almost all had custom interactions too that were, let's say, not terribly well thought out or balanced. You could buff or nerf almost every possible stat on the poor things. It was absolute the correct call to make me pull them from the initial release :)
Nimbuses, including the core light creature mechanics, started off as "Hey, would you like to write a creature?" as a training project (Which is usually 90% filling messaging into a template) and turned into one of the most complex creatures in the game (The current version of the code is x8 longer rock trolls, the older version closer to x10, and over x3 the next next 'normal' creature I wrote, Cabalists, which are also stuffed with unique mechanics.) Scope creep is my ever present companion.
-Raesh
"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose
MOCKERJB
Re: Light Creature Update
02/10/2014 04:52 PM CST
I liked how dinazen olkar made them blink out of existence as it hit; the messaging is more than "hurts them more!" It had some lore on it. And the moonblade stuff is particularly funny and perfectly MM. Not only does it not hurt them, but...boom?
One additional idea I had, and it should be like, the bottom of your list, is some COL interaction. I don't exactly how that would play out, but it could be a cool additional option for spell reaction.
One additional idea I had, and it should be like, the bottom of your list, is some COL interaction. I don't exactly how that would play out, but it could be a cool additional option for spell reaction.
