I sent Atrathien a couple of batches of questions and comments from you all, and this is what he said.

In general, he's been holding mini-meetings to talk to a lot of you about MOF, to see what you think, get your opinions and suggestions and complaints. As a result of your input he's decided that you should be able to increase the duration of the spell's light source function more easily, since that's the main purpose of the spell. :)

About the difficulty of getting longer periods of brawling and theft effects, this was designed this way deliberately. He'd gotten a lot of complaints in the past about how the spells are too static, that they aren't set up to let you "grow into" them, that they start out doing one thing and then always do it no matter how much more skillful you get. MOF was set up to reward hard work and achievement by giving you several graded functions within one spell, so there'd be something to work toward to mark the results of your effort as you grow in your abilities. This kind of spell set-up was requested by a lot of Warmages, and so he built one that way. He's sounding rather puzzled and confused now by the complaints about this very feature; I guess he thought you'd be pleased. <wry smile> At any rate, he still thinks the original request was valid and plans to leave the brawling and theft effects at their current mana levels, so the spell is primarily a light source. If you don't feel the mana expenditure is worthwhile for the benefit you'd currently get from it, there's always the option of leaving the spell for later.


BUGS AND SUCH:

>> cast
You gesture.
You are surrounded by a mantle of crackling reddish-gold flames!
The flames flare with faint blue highlights.

look at blacklark
Blacklark is surrounded by a mantle of reddish-blue flames!<<

The second line after "You gesture" says the flames have blue highlights. That's where the reddish-blue comes in. :)

>>2) While rain definately effects the duration of the mantle, I went
swiming in waters of various depths while the mantle was up, and it seemed to make no changes whatsoever.<<

Should be fixed now. :)

>> 3) Recasting the mantle at a lower mana will diminish the duration of the mantle. This seems to defeat the purpose of removing the <RELEASE MANTLE> command.<<

Fixed.

>>5) If it's raining, the mantle takes that into consideration when you are both indoors and outdoors.<<

Fixed. :)

>>Is there supposed to be some sort of messaging when people are using MOF in brawling?<<

The current brawling system isn't set up to support added messaging with MoF. It's on my list of things to ask combat people about.

>>Can't tell when someone else preps it<<

That's just while it's in scroll spells. Once it's a "regular" spell you'll be able to see it being prepped if you know it.

>>Perceiving gives 0 minutes<<

Fixed. :)

>>Being unable to hide when MOF is snuffed out by being in deep water<<

Fixed. :)


Brandewynne