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I've just re-released Breath of Storms. For all intent and purpose it's a new spell. I apologize for the delay on this one, you all know how December can be. I was hoping to have my review of Elemental Invocations done long ago - but only CARE and DEMA to go, so we're close.
"With a whispered word Breath of Storms creates a lighting strike to assault your target."
Notable changes:
It now has a description (See above).
It now works with Will of Winter (That's what the delay was, writing all the messaging for that...)
It is no longer castable when in deep water.
It can now target eyes.
I rewrote the bulk of the messaging and fixed a double handful of typos while I was at it.
It will now ignite naphtha (Though NOT if you have Will of Winter up).
Oh, and I hid an Easter Egg in it too.
-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
> The bolt incinerates it chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
> The bolt incinerates it left eye, leaving the side of its face a ruin of blood and bone.
Should be "its".
Something weird with eye targeting. It was working on louts, but on gryphons I'm just getting no feedback:
>prep bos
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
That won't affect your current attunement very much.
You trace a careful sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
>target gryphon right eye
>poke
Poke what?
> The bolt incinerates it left eye, leaving the side of its face a ruin of blood and bone.
Should be "its".
Something weird with eye targeting. It was working on louts, but on gryphons I'm just getting no feedback:
>prep bos
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
That won't affect your current attunement very much.
You trace a careful sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
>target gryphon right eye
>poke
Poke what?
Not sure if this is a problem with BoS or naphtha, but two things seemed weird. First, the naphtha never pulsed after the initial ignition. Second, I got no response from the game when I tried to throw it the second time. Both of these bugs were reproducible.
>get naph
You get a vial of naphtha from inside your leather backpack.
>throw
You throw a vial of naphtha at a baby forest gryphon! The naphtha shatters in an explosion of tiny glass shards and smelly, sticky mixture against a baby forest gryphon!
Roundtime: 1 second.
>target bos
cast
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
That won't affect your current attunement very much.
You trace a careful sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a baby forest gryphon.
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response crackling with untamed energies as a bolt of lightning strikes at a baby forest gryphon!
The bolt grounds itself through its chest, instantly cauterizing the flesh leaving behind an angry red patch around a dead, white wound.
The naphtha soaking a baby forest gryphon bursts into flame with an explosive WHOOOMPH!
The baby forest gryphon is stunned!
Roundtime: 1 sec.
>wait
Time drags on by...
(No pulses from the naphtha.)
>get nap
You get a vial of naphtha from inside your leather backpack.
>throw
>wait
Time drags on by...
(No response from the game to my "throw" command.)
>throw
You throw a vial of naphtha at a baby forest gryphon! The naphtha shatters in an explosion of tiny glass shards and smelly, sticky mixture against a baby forest gryphon!
Roundtime: 1 second.
>get naph
You get a vial of naphtha from inside your leather backpack.
>throw
You throw a vial of naphtha at a baby forest gryphon! The naphtha shatters in an explosion of tiny glass shards and smelly, sticky mixture against a baby forest gryphon!
Roundtime: 1 second.
>target bos
cast
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
That won't affect your current attunement very much.
You trace a careful sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a baby forest gryphon.
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response crackling with untamed energies as a bolt of lightning strikes at a baby forest gryphon!
The bolt grounds itself through its chest, instantly cauterizing the flesh leaving behind an angry red patch around a dead, white wound.
The naphtha soaking a baby forest gryphon bursts into flame with an explosive WHOOOMPH!
The baby forest gryphon is stunned!
Roundtime: 1 sec.
>wait
Time drags on by...
(No pulses from the naphtha.)
>get nap
You get a vial of naphtha from inside your leather backpack.
>throw
>wait
Time drags on by...
(No response from the game to my "throw" command.)
>throw
You throw a vial of naphtha at a baby forest gryphon! The naphtha shatters in an explosion of tiny glass shards and smelly, sticky mixture against a baby forest gryphon!
Roundtime: 1 second.
>>I noticed that if you attempt to "target area"
That seems to be standard for TM spells?
>>"cast <your character name>"
This should be fixed.
>>The bolt incinerates it chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
Fixed, along with a few others.
>>target gryphon right eye
The target verb is funky, fairly sure this isn't a BoS specific issue.
-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
That seems to be standard for TM spells?
>>"cast <your character name>"
This should be fixed.
>>The bolt incinerates it chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
Fixed, along with a few others.
>>target gryphon right eye
The target verb is funky, fairly sure this isn't a BoS specific issue.
-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
Naphtha in 3.0 has some issues. I'm working to get them resolved but it's not a system I'm terrifically familiar with. These are related to why you're not seeing Pyre stir up naphtha properly either.
-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
-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
Ahh this looks awesome, thanks for this Raesh! Can't wait to play with it in test :D
Quick question,
>>It can now target eyes.
Was it just a bug that you couldn't target eyes with this spell before, or is there something unique about targeting eyes with this spell now?
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Quick question,
>>It can now target eyes.
Was it just a bug that you couldn't target eyes with this spell before, or is there something unique about targeting eyes with this spell now?
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Hmm, I can't seem to target Breath of Storms at body parts now. This is with Will of Winter up. Log below!
> target bos at hog head
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
You trace a curving sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a musk hog.
> release
You aren't harnessing any mana.
You let your concentration lapse and feel the spell's energies dissipate.
You have no cyclic spell active to release.
>
A musk hog hisses viciously and lunges at you!
* A musk hog claws, swiping with its hooves at you. You block solidly with a forearm-sized aegis crafted with metal-edged scales.
[You're solidly balanced and opponent has slight advantage.]
> target bos at hog chest
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
You trace a curving sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a musk hog.
> release
You aren't harnessing any mana.
You let your concentration lapse and feel the spell's energies dissipate.
You have no cyclic spell active to release.
> target bos chest
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
You trace a curving sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You turn to face a musk hog.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a musk hog.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
> target bos at hog head
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
You trace a curving sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a musk hog.
> release
You aren't harnessing any mana.
You let your concentration lapse and feel the spell's energies dissipate.
You have no cyclic spell active to release.
>
A musk hog hisses viciously and lunges at you!
* A musk hog claws, swiping with its hooves at you. You block solidly with a forearm-sized aegis crafted with metal-edged scales.
[You're solidly balanced and opponent has slight advantage.]
> target bos at hog chest
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
You trace a curving sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a musk hog.
> release
You aren't harnessing any mana.
You let your concentration lapse and feel the spell's energies dissipate.
You have no cyclic spell active to release.
> target bos chest
Since you're not feeding enough power into the spell pattern to make it coherent, you quickly work your way to the minimum required.
You trace a curving sigil in the air, shaping the pattern of the Breath of Storms spell.
You turn to face a musk hog.
You begin to weave mana lines into a target pattern around a musk hog.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
And OMG I love this spell's messaging lol
Serious kudos Raesh, this spell just gained +10 sexy points.
Targeting body parts doesn't seem to be working with the regular electrical version either. I've tried TARGET BOS HEAD, TARGET BOS AT HEAD, TARGET BOS AT HOG HEAD. Always hits random body parts :P
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Serious kudos Raesh, this spell just gained +10 sexy points.
Targeting body parts doesn't seem to be working with the regular electrical version either. I've tried TARGET BOS HEAD, TARGET BOS AT HEAD, TARGET BOS AT HOG HEAD. Always hits random body parts :P
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
>>Mind sharing some messaging, Leilond?
Sure thing! All of this imagery is like word candy to me :3
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response as snowflakes and hail form around you. The wind whips the wintery slurry into a spiral focused at a musk hog!
The slurry splatters about its head snap-freezing it under a thick layer of clear ice. The frigid winds pummel at the frozen flesh until it gives way in a spectacular plume of crystallized blood, ice and bone.
The musk hog falls to the ground and lies still.
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response crackling with untamed energies as a bolt of lightning strikes at a musk hog!
The torrent incinerates its hip, causing its right hindleg and body to undergo a messy divorce.
The musk hog falls to the ground and lies still.
You relax your eyes in order to focus on the trace amounts of Fire that warm you and the world around you. Your skin glows faintly to your relaxed vision and your breath puffs forth like luminescent steam.
The mental strain of this pattern is considerably eased by your ritual focus.
The very air around you grows chill as you draw in the requisite spark to ignite Fire within you. As the wild element burns through your body the Water already residing there is consumed in an angry flurry of frost. Discipline is shattered as the Fire flares your passion and melts away your control. Anger and lust seethe in your soul and all before you are simply kindling waiting for your touch. The abrupt transition leaves you stunned!
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response as serpentine lighting envelops you as the electrical storm grows into a slender dragon. The beast gives off a thunderous roar as it spews fourth a gout of lightning at a musk hog!
The bolt incinerates its chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
The lighting dragon fades away leaving only a faint electrical hum in its wake.
The musk hog falls to the ground and lies still.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Sure thing! All of this imagery is like word candy to me :3
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response as snowflakes and hail form around you. The wind whips the wintery slurry into a spiral focused at a musk hog!
The slurry splatters about its head snap-freezing it under a thick layer of clear ice. The frigid winds pummel at the frozen flesh until it gives way in a spectacular plume of crystallized blood, ice and bone.
The musk hog falls to the ground and lies still.
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response crackling with untamed energies as a bolt of lightning strikes at a musk hog!
The torrent incinerates its hip, causing its right hindleg and body to undergo a messy divorce.
The musk hog falls to the ground and lies still.
You relax your eyes in order to focus on the trace amounts of Fire that warm you and the world around you. Your skin glows faintly to your relaxed vision and your breath puffs forth like luminescent steam.
The mental strain of this pattern is considerably eased by your ritual focus.
The very air around you grows chill as you draw in the requisite spark to ignite Fire within you. As the wild element burns through your body the Water already residing there is consumed in an angry flurry of frost. Discipline is shattered as the Fire flares your passion and melts away your control. Anger and lust seethe in your soul and all before you are simply kindling waiting for your touch. The abrupt transition leaves you stunned!
You listen intently to the air about you before voicelessly calling the ever-changing storm.
The air around you stirs in response as serpentine lighting envelops you as the electrical storm grows into a slender dragon. The beast gives off a thunderous roar as it spews fourth a gout of lightning at a musk hog!
The bolt incinerates its chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
The lighting dragon fades away leaving only a faint electrical hum in its wake.
The musk hog falls to the ground and lies still.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
> prep spell
> target <body part>
Ahh, this worked. For some reason I thought you could target body parts with the new TARGET verb. Guess not :P
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
> target <body part>
Ahh, this worked. For some reason I thought you could target body parts with the new TARGET verb. Guess not :P
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
The new target verb is not nearly as robust as I'd like (Frankly I always forget it exists and do all my testing with the classic prep/target combo). Those aren't BoS issues.
It couldn't target eyes before because it was set not to, I assume for the same reason you couldn't target eyes with DO, LB, Burn etc for a long time (Most of those still can't I believe) - just thematic reasons.
-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
It couldn't target eyes before because it was set not to, I assume for the same reason you couldn't target eyes with DO, LB, Burn etc for a long time (Most of those still can't I believe) - just thematic reasons.
-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
> The air around you stirs in response as serpentine lighting envelops you as the electrical storm grows into a slender dragon. The beast gives off a thunderous roar as it spews fourth a gout of lightning at a musk hog!
>The bolt incinerates its chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
>The lighting dragon fades away leaving only a faint electrical hum in its wake.
Guessing those should be "lightning".
>The bolt incinerates its chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
>The lighting dragon fades away leaving only a faint electrical hum in its wake.
Guessing those should be "lightning".
For future spell ideas, it would be pretty neat if certain TM spells interacted with positioning of the attacker in relationship to the target. Like for this one, if I were grappling the hog at the time of cast it would be sweet if the Dragon just took a huge bite out of the hog or something :P
Not sure if stuff like that is even possible though.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Not sure if stuff like that is even possible though.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Almost anything is possible, it's a matter of if it's worth the complexity and particularly messaging overhead to support something like that.
As it is TM spells are one of the most message intensive things we do, so anything that starts to double that or triple that or worse...
-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
As it is TM spells are one of the most message intensive things we do, so anything that starts to double that or triple that or worse...
-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
>The air around you stirs in response as serpentine lighting envelops you as the electrical storm grows into a slender dragon. The beast gives off a thunderous roar as it spews fourth a gout of lightning at a musk hog!
>The bolt incinerates its chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
>The lighting dragon fades away leaving only a faint electrical hum in its wake.
Fixed.
-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
>The bolt incinerates its chest, leaving its torso a ruin of blood and bone.
>The lighting dragon fades away leaving only a faint electrical hum in its wake.
Fixed.
-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
Have GMs ever done like a spell messaging contest or anything similar?
Basically you would give the theme of a spell and what it's supposed to do, then list all of the case scenarios you need different messaging for and then let the players run with it. Then you could just go and cherry pick different messages you like similar to a great big text buffet :D
At the very least it might be interesting and could spark some creativity :)
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Basically you would give the theme of a spell and what it's supposed to do, then list all of the case scenarios you need different messaging for and then let the players run with it. Then you could just go and cherry pick different messages you like similar to a great big text buffet :D
At the very least it might be interesting and could spark some creativity :)
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
I'm sure it's been done, though I don't have any actual evidence of it beyond my gut.
Generally speaking though it saves less time than you might think - they all have to be read, reviewed, edited (sometimes heavily), QC'ed, reformatted for our messaging system and actually entered into the system.
Using Breath of Storms as an example there's maybe two dozen (depending on how exactly you count) messages just for intro/outro messaging, plus the various forms of misses, deflections etc. The hit table itself is 6x7 with some complex tokens and each message needs two versions (1st person and 3rd person), and in the case of BoS all of that is doubled for the cold message variants.
If you really want to do it right (and frequently this isn't done just due to the massive increase in messaging overhead) you can write additional hit tables to account for noncorporeal undead, corporeal undead, amorphous creatures and exoskeletal creatures. That's how we make sure when you blast a ghost it doesn't bleed or have rotting flesh or make the carapace of a creature crack when you smash it etc. I didn't do that for BoS at this time, it was just turning into too time consuming of a process compared to what I need to do for 3.0, but it's something I'd like to go back to do at some point.
Either way you're looking at around 100 different fairly complex messages (Many of which are close variants but need to be set up just right with grammar, tokens, etc) as the bare minimum for a TM spell and that can easily grow to a much larger sum.
On the flip side something like Pyre was much faster to write since it uses simple hit messaging which is bland, but effect (And tends to get used mostly for multishot spells to cut down on the scroll).
-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
Generally speaking though it saves less time than you might think - they all have to be read, reviewed, edited (sometimes heavily), QC'ed, reformatted for our messaging system and actually entered into the system.
Using Breath of Storms as an example there's maybe two dozen (depending on how exactly you count) messages just for intro/outro messaging, plus the various forms of misses, deflections etc. The hit table itself is 6x7 with some complex tokens and each message needs two versions (1st person and 3rd person), and in the case of BoS all of that is doubled for the cold message variants.
If you really want to do it right (and frequently this isn't done just due to the massive increase in messaging overhead) you can write additional hit tables to account for noncorporeal undead, corporeal undead, amorphous creatures and exoskeletal creatures. That's how we make sure when you blast a ghost it doesn't bleed or have rotting flesh or make the carapace of a creature crack when you smash it etc. I didn't do that for BoS at this time, it was just turning into too time consuming of a process compared to what I need to do for 3.0, but it's something I'd like to go back to do at some point.
Either way you're looking at around 100 different fairly complex messages (Many of which are close variants but need to be set up just right with grammar, tokens, etc) as the bare minimum for a TM spell and that can easily grow to a much larger sum.
On the flip side something like Pyre was much faster to write since it uses simple hit messaging which is bland, but effect (And tends to get used mostly for multishot spells to cut down on the scroll).
-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
Woooah, sounds pretty intense. I had no idea. Makes me appreciate the spell even more :)
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
... and that's why TM spells take so long to write.
Technically a TM spell isn't much more complex than, say, a skill booster (And most of us fluent in 3.0 could bang out a skill booster like CV, complete with messaging, in under an hour) they just require an order of magnitude or two more messaging.
-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
Technically a TM spell isn't much more complex than, say, a skill booster (And most of us fluent in 3.0 could bang out a skill booster like CV, complete with messaging, in under an hour) they just require an order of magnitude or two more messaging.
-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
>>...they just require an order of magnitude or two more messaging.
Just want to say I really appreciate it. From the player side, cool messaging is what I live for, and the new Pyre and BOS are right up there, making me giddy.
>>The air around you stirs in response as serpentine lighting envelops you as the electrical storm grows into a slender dragon.
The two "as" lines here seem confusing to me. Is that intended?
-- Player of Eyuve
Just want to say I really appreciate it. From the player side, cool messaging is what I live for, and the new Pyre and BOS are right up there, making me giddy.
>>The air around you stirs in response as serpentine lighting envelops you as the electrical storm grows into a slender dragon.
The two "as" lines here seem confusing to me. Is that intended?
-- Player of Eyuve
I am thinking one of those 'as's should be an 'and'.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Are undead supposed to be immune to elemental damage?
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
>>fail-cast like 'needs more skill or mana' immune?
This. It doesn't even get to casting the spell really, it's like auto-fail even at 100 mana. This was against my spirit reaper.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
This. It doesn't even get to casting the spell really, it's like auto-fail even at 100 mana. This was against my spirit reaper.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
Gonna be another day before I can get you a log since the medallion is tapped out and has a 24 hour refresh.
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
~ Leilond
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/Leilond_Progression.jpg
