Mage disruption adjustment thoughts... discuss

[Sarphus]

This is just a brainstorm idea of how to take us from what magery has become back to what it used to be.

Consider the following changes done all in the same publish...

Meditation reduces the likelihood of a mage being disrupted when hit.

New weapon special is added to disrupt meditation mages.

Paralysis and stun automatically interrupt spellcasting.

Magic resist skill can "parry" spells, reducing the damage of damage spells by a value that scales between 20% and 90% based on the target's magic resist skill level.

Protection spell is changed to be a toggle-on spell that costs no mana to toggle off (to avoid being stuck in protection with 0 mana). When toggled on, the spell gives a negative MR rating (drains mana) and reduces the damage done to a caster by archery attacks. The amount of damage reduction would be scaled based on the sum of magery, meditation and evaluate intelligence and then buffed by inscrption.

Arch protection spell is changed to be a toggle-on spell just as described by protection spell above, but all targets (friend or foe) gain the protection buff when standing within 3 tiles of the caster who is arch-protected.

Magic reflection is reverted back to actually reflect spells like it once did. Spells have a 10% chance to strike the caster of the reflected spell. The power of spells that can be reflected is based on the magery and eval int skill of the person who cast magic reflection vs the magery/eval or necro/ss of the caster (for magery and necro spells respectively).

Reactive armor is changed to be a melee-range damage blocking spell. When a mage with RA on is struck at melee range, the attack is blocked and a timer is set. Each time the mage re-casts RA before the timer expires, the block chance goes down by 10% and the timer is reset. So basically, a mage can't just stand there spamming RA to be immune to melee-range attacks.

Well... have at it... What do you guys think?

 

[Gildar]

Sounds like it could be good... depending on the numbers used.
It's one of those things that I'd have to see it in action though.

 

[Sarphus]

Yeah, I'm really not sure how this would play out either. What I was going for was a change to the UO combat system that creates a more interactive and fast-paced magic system.

I like the idea of people casting spells and counter spells on the fly.

I like the idea of people building anti-casters and casters throwing up spell shields to try and survive as a dexer charges in on them.

I like the idea of template diversity where every skill choice means you gain something and sacrifice something else.

 

[Ni-]

This is just a brainstorm idea of how to take us from what magery has become back to what it used to be.

Consider the following changes done all in the same publish...

Meditation reduces the likelihood of a mage being disrupted when hit.

New weapon special is added to disrupt meditation mages.

Paralysis and stun automatically interrupt spellcasting.

Magic resist skill can "parry" spells, reducing the damage of damage spells by a value that scales between 20% and 90% based on the target's magic resist skill level.

hhmmm, if someone can reduce the damage of a mage's spell by 90% then that means casting 100 30-dmg spells at someone that would be a total of 300 dmg.

If Magic Resist is changed to work like Parry, (Magic Resist skill/4 +5% if skill over 100), where it parrys the whole spell 30% of the time, the mage would see 2100 dmg from those same 100 30-dmg spells. Bushido's evasion would still increase that parry chance to what ever it is now. 60%?

Protection spell is changed to be a toggle-on spell that costs no mana to toggle off (to avoid being stuck in protection with 0 mana). When toggled on, the spell gives a negative MR rating (drains mana) and reduces the damage done to a caster by archery attacks. The amount of damage reduction would be scaled based on the sum of magery, meditation and evaluate intelligence and then buffed by inscrption.

Arch protection spell is changed to be a toggle-on spell just as described by protection spell above, but all targets (friend or foe) gain the protection buff when standing within 3 tiles of the caster who is arch-protected.

Magic reflection is reverted back to actually reflect spells like it once did. Spells have a 10% chance to strike the caster of the reflected spell. The power of spells that can be reflected is based on the magery and eval int skill of the person who cast magic reflection vs the magery/eval or necro/ss of the caster (for magery and necro spells respectively).

Reactive armor is changed to be a melee-range damage blocking spell. When a mage with RA on is struck at melee range, the attack is blocked and a timer is set. Each time the mage re-casts RA before the timer expires, the block chance goes down by 10% and the timer is reset. So basically, a mage can't just stand there spamming RA to be immune to melee-range attacks.

Well... have at it... What do you guys think?

Protection reduces archery dmg and Reactive Armor negates melee dmg? How about both using the same mechanics? Either both reduce dmg or both negate dmg? I always though Reactive Armor could have worked like Mage Armor, where it absorbes a number of attacks before wearing out, or maybe absorbing an amount of dmg before wearing out.

These ideas might work really well in a revertion to the old school AR/-dex calculations...

 

[Sarphus]

You're right... something would need to be done to prevent bushi mages from being invulnerable. I just kinda threw numbers out there to help people visualize what I was thinking. Any sweeping changes like this would need to go through rigorous testing of a focus group.

About RA...
If I remember right, RA used to reflect back a certain amount of damage that was done to you at point blank range. This often resulted in dexers and mages killing themselves by nailing you when they were too close to you. My memory could be faulty. That was 10+ yrs ago. I'm ok with RA just being a dmg shield for physical damage.

What if protection increased DCI against archery, but drained mana pretty fast. I think it would allow a mage to standoff against an archer, but eventually run out of mana.

One of my goals here is to make pvp more about decision making and less about running around and chasing people.

 

[Chad Sexington]

I vote no.

The trade off has always been:

Magery spells hit 100% of the time, but they can be disrupted.
Melee attacks have a chance to miss, but they attack at a constant rate.

The trade off got wonky when they added Bushido. It doesn't need to get more wonky.

 

[Erekose]

Give it a random chance, reduced by high levels of Magery, to fizzle when hit or taking damage over time (bleed, etc.). Then get rid of LRC.

Before people jump on me for the LRC comment yes, I have a mage that I enjoy playing and it would 'hurt' him as well. The tipping point for me was a comment on Vent recently that someone made about regs being only for new players. LRC is the single worst property for game balance that's ever been put into the game on items.

 

[Sarphus]

What if protection served as a shield against dragon breath?

 

[o2bavr6]

The trade off has always been

Magery spells hit 100% of the time, but they can be disrupted.
Melee attacks have a chance to miss, but they attack at a constant rate.

Actually you are wrong, they have not "always been". Maybe if you played before the introduction of Tram you would know that.

 

[Llewen]

Give it a random chance, reduced by high levels of Magery, to fizzle when hit or taking damage over time (bleed, etc.). Then get rid of LRC.

Before people jump on me for the LRC comment yes, I have a mage that I enjoy playing and it would 'hurt' him as well. The tipping point for me was a comment on Vent recently that someone made about regs being only for new players. LRC is the single worst property for game balance that's ever been put into the game on items.

Hmmm, the one I despise is "use best weapon skill". To me that property is just ridiculous. I understand there are drawbacks to ubws weapons, but to me UO should be about choices, and if you choose to use a certain weapon class, you should be limited to that class - never mind that it is completely ridiculous from an ethos perspective.

 

[Chad Sexington]

Actually you are wrong, they have not "always been". Maybe if you played before the introduction of Tram you would know that.

Your new nickname is Angry U.Hall Poster. Occasionally, Angry Spiels 'n Rants Poster.

 

[Lady_Mina]

I think it's insane that i'm fizzling on gate travel with 100.0 magery.

And fizzling on resurrection...and trying to cast an EV seems to be hopeless..
I seem to fizzle more then succesful casts.

 

[Sarphus]

I think it's insane that i'm fizzling on gate travel with 100.0 magery.

And fizzling on resurrection...and trying to cast an EV seems to be hopeless..
I seem to fizzle more then succesful casts.

When they made magery go up to 120 (probably 8 or 9 yrs ago), they nerfed success rates on the higher lvl magery spells to give us a reason to go up to 120 in magery.

You need 106 magery to stop fizzling 7th circle.
You need 120 magery to stop fizzling 8th circle.

At GM magery you should have an 85% chance to cast 7th circle and a 50% chance to cast 8th circle.

 

[Lady_Mina]

they made those silly scrolls since 2003 when AoS was released.

Before AoS..i could cast all circles perfectly.

Right now i look like a fizzle noob...Sometimes i fizzle 3 times in a row on ressurection.

I think they should change it...i should be rewarded for having 100.0 magery and being able to ress people.

These days when i die...and ask for a ress i often get the answer 'sorry not enough magery'.