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What? Why?
Here it finally is, after many laborious re-iterations, re-tries, and lots of arguing and debating between Lore Staff on the right way to move forward: the Proficiency System overhaul. We at the Lore Staff believe that the Community has ever evolving needs, and each year, the players start configuring a slightly different "Meta". The current Proficiency system has been around for a while, and while we have done minor edits (like merging Proficiencies, or making categories to gain boosts from), it has not seen a major overhaul for several years now. As meta's come and go (players finding the most optimal point assignment, or discover some routes of character designs just aren't fun or viable), problems eventually arise, and continue to stack up until a major change needs to happen.
That is what this current change addresses: a terrible point-Tax that came as a result of the Progression System, Command characters basically being paper tigers with no use on in-game roleplay besides meeting roleplay, power-stacked characters with over the top Physical Stat or CRP Proficiencies, and more. This complete overhaul tackles many of these things by encouraging players to spread their points out more (this done by adding more exponential redundancy), while also vastly expanding player choice and making some Proficiencies that had very little value beyond 10 Points invested (like Perception) have a lower cap. Essentially, the motto of this Proficiency System is: To free the players from Point-Tax to be the Character they want to be (or at least to reduce the pain of Point-Tax), while also re-configuring the numbers in such a way that every player in general gets more points to spend.
This update is Massive, and as such has a very large change log, found below. As a result of this change. Every Character Application is tagged Rejected, until it can get re-Reviewed.
This is what the Players should do
Changelog
Sorcery
Here it finally is, after many laborious re-iterations, re-tries, and lots of arguing and debating between Lore Staff on the right way to move forward: the Proficiency System overhaul. We at the Lore Staff believe that the Community has ever evolving needs, and each year, the players start configuring a slightly different "Meta". The current Proficiency system has been around for a while, and while we have done minor edits (like merging Proficiencies, or making categories to gain boosts from), it has not seen a major overhaul for several years now. As meta's come and go (players finding the most optimal point assignment, or discover some routes of character designs just aren't fun or viable), problems eventually arise, and continue to stack up until a major change needs to happen.
That is what this current change addresses: a terrible point-Tax that came as a result of the Progression System, Command characters basically being paper tigers with no use on in-game roleplay besides meeting roleplay, power-stacked characters with over the top Physical Stat or CRP Proficiencies, and more. This complete overhaul tackles many of these things by encouraging players to spread their points out more (this done by adding more exponential redundancy), while also vastly expanding player choice and making some Proficiencies that had very little value beyond 10 Points invested (like Perception) have a lower cap. Essentially, the motto of this Proficiency System is: To free the players from Point-Tax to be the Character they want to be (or at least to reduce the pain of Point-Tax), while also re-configuring the numbers in such a way that every player in general gets more points to spend.
This update is Massive, and as such has a very large change log, found below. As a result of this change. Every Character Application is tagged Rejected, until it can get re-Reviewed.
This is what the Players should do
- Players should start by changing the Thread prefix to Needs Re-Review.
- Players should then bump their own thread. Bumping later/earlier won't speed up your review.
- If the Reviewer that approved your app last is still Staff, you can optionally tag them to ask them to re-review your app, but this is not mandatory. Please do not tag people who are no longer Staff.
- You may only bump once. Repeatedly bumping will result in your App being done last.
- Regardless of how many Proficiency Points you are changing, a full re-review is required.
- Please be patient with Staff. We have to do hundreds of apps. It may take a while.
Changelog
Sorcery
- All schools were split down the middle with 4 spells we considered "Ability" and 4 we considered "Aesthetic." Rather than buying them individually, they are bought in packs, with points spent on an Ability + Aesthetic combination, called a "Sorcery Level". With this, the Point Cost was decreased to 3 points per, and the Cap Limit was decreased to 4 instead of 5. Minor tweaks were made to some spells here and there, and all Abilities were re-classified as "Sorcery Spells" for the point of counters.
- Whimsy Sorcery was reduced to 1 point per, but now must be bought 2 at a time. For the purpose of the 4 Cap Limit, Whimsy spells only count for "half," meaning, 2 Whimsy spells is equal to 1 Sorcery Ability, or 1 Level. Added the forbidden 8th whimsy spell to complete this (sorry.)
- Pulling the same "Free Aesthetic for each Ability" theme from Ritualism made sense, for Sorcery, because if we didn't, Sorcery would become really weak in comparison to Ritualism. Players are neat, and we trust them more to handle these Abilities, because they've proven so in the past.
- New rules were imported to Ritualism. Essentially, you can combine Ritualism with Sorcery, but you can only split them halfway, meaning 2 Ritualism Abilities and 2 Sorcery Abilities.
- Ritualism follows the same style as Sorcery in that you can buy a Ritualist Ability for 3 Proficiency Points, and you get an Aesthetic Ritualism for free along with it. We put all Abilities and all Aesthetics in two separate pools. So instead of choosing Abilities based on religion, you can custom-create your own Ritualism now from one massive pool of Abilities and Aesthetics.
- That being said, the religious component has been reinforced. You cannot be an Atheist or Agnostic Ritualist, your character must have some form of higher power or divine being that they find spiritual satisfaction from, but players are allowed to choose their own-made religions outside of the canon list of religions, and can even create their own "take" or "version" of pre-existing religions by applying different types of Abilities. For example, while previously you could not use Monster-tier Abilities for Shambala or Dragon Worship, now you can, in case your character has a specific alternate view of Dragon Worship that includes monsters somehow.
- Custom "choose from a pool" ritualism is just way cooler than being forced to have a specific religion for a specific Ability.
- Rebuilt all rules from the ground up. There is an acknowledgement of the old system, but it is best to review this system without trying to compare it to the old one, because they are inherently incomparable.
- All Ranged and Melee Combat were split into two different categories.
- Unarmed Combat is renamed to Fist Combat.
- Fan Combat was added.
- Blades was split into Sword Combat and Greatsword combat to create a distinction between one-handed blades and two-handed blades. Glaive Combat was added. Bardiche Combat was added. Warlash Combat was added. Javelin Combat was added. Crossbow Combat was added. Sling Combat was added.
- Shielding, Puretek moved to its own category.
- Puretek is disabled for the time being (as in, it cannot be used in roleplay, period). We are reworking it soon, and are using the current rare usage as an excuse to disable it for the time being with as little harm to the players as possible. The only exception here is that anyone with a Special Permission relating to Puretek may continue to use the old mechanics for as far as they remember (which if I recall, is a single player).
- Bola Combat was added, it's basically a Mundane Ability for snaring enemies.
- Mundane Ability category was added for people who want Abilities, but don't want to be Aberrants or Fantasy or Magical. Mundane Abilities are just really simple non-Magical techniques turned into Ability language for the sake of gameplay fairness. Bola Combat is the first test of such mechanics.
- Weapon Enchantments are now classified as Object Enhancement, which prevents multiple effects being stacked on the same weapon(s).
- All Science Category stuff was moved to Core Grouping. Surgery & Medical Science were merged together (because Light Magic healing does both as well).
- Marine and Squad Command were removed. They were kind of pointless Proficiencies, and whether someone leads should be up to their individual Charisma.
- Command Tactic Skills were all lowered to 10 max Proficiency to reduce how they feel like a "Tax" because of the Progression System.
- Rogue Skills were all lowered to 10 to make criminal RP cheaper, and hopefully encourage more petty crime on the server with more advantageous rolls.
- Dextrous Rogue has new rules associated with it.
- Stealth Rogue has new rules associated with it, including a saving grace.
- Burgling Rogue System has been redone to remove a lot of the risky stuff, and add more fun looting from actual looting tables. The actual process of Burgling was also simplified.
- Conning Rogue rules were simplified.
- Labor Training was changed to Strength Training. To just represent getting swole.
- Bodycare Training had its tattoo and piercing element removed and switched to Body Art.
- Perception Training and the above two had their max flattened to 10, since they were basically zero sum Proficiency sinks after 10 points were invested.
- Visual Arts were split to Drawing, Painting and Body Art.
- Craft Arts were split to Sculpting, Pottery, Wooden Art and Glass Art.
- Threads Arts were split to Needlework, Fabric, Leatherwork and Fineweave, the latter which represents magical and unusual fabric crafting.
- Architecture was split to Gardening, Architecture and Fortification.
- Musical Art had all of its group instruments split so a single man orchestra can't outcompete specialized artists anymore. Musical Composition was added to all Instruments however, so that each artist can actually compose their own music. Musical Arts have also been made a Talent Skill, to make each individual Proficiency in it cheaper.
- Performance Arts were split to Writing, Theatre, Dancing and Circus.
- Culinary Arts were split to Cooking, Brewing, Winemaking, Baking and Mixology.
- Nature Art was made with Sailing, Hunting, Horticulture, Pathfinding and Husbandry.
- Sailing now gives a Sailing Yacht at 10 points. Husbandry now grants a Mundane Animal Familiar at 5, and Progression Mount at 10.
- Athletic Proficiency is now gone. The Acrobatic Component is in Circus Art, but all Athletic mechanics, counters and mentions are removed.
- Instead of different Racial boosts, all races have a flat choice between 3 Proficiencies to gain a boost in. The way this boost works now is not by raising the cap by 5, but if you invest at least 5, you gain 5 points invested for free. Every race has the same mechanic here, because Ailor privilege is no longer a thing, and so we don't need to create Proficiency boosts to help other races catch up. All boosts were also changed to create clear Core-Talent-Art splits, except where some races were more Art, or more Talent, or more Core.
- All Proficiency Categories were rewritten.
- Magical Knowledge has been changed to Arcanology and been shipped off the Proficiency page to kind of see it more as an "expansion". We released ability identification to free players from lame "You are a Vampire!" exposition as soon as someone uses an ability with a tell. Each Arcanology pack is now also 3 Proficiency Points instead of 5, and usually has a scholar function, and some sort of Mundane Ability micro function to give it some more rounded usage besides the once-a-month magic exposition event.
- Ritualism and Sorcery are also off-page to act as "expansions", thus being optional additions to the Proficiency system that players are not mandated to read.
- There is a very clear explanation for Knowledge, that hopefully opens up more scholar characters without making Knowledge Proficiencies feel like a point tax to be safe from metagaming accusations. Some rules are also in place now to protect ability exposure.
- All done to reduce Prof Tax, and reduce power Min-Maxing.
- Physical Stat boosts changes for Orcon +20 from 30, +10 for every other subrace from +20, +5 for Gorak from +10.
- Just basic balance to keep up with Phys Stat reduction.
- Fused Form gives +10 Phys Stat instead of +20.
- Gore Form gives +20 Phys Stat and an increased Stat cap by +10.
- Shatter Form gives +30 Phys Stat and an increased Stat cap by +20.
- Just basic balance to keep up with Phys Stat reduction.
- +10 Proficiency Points for free are removed.
- +10 Proficiency total cap is removed.
- Mechanics to change age-appearance is defined as an Ability now.
- Altalar were super over-tuned, made worse by this Proficiency update. Altalar already have the eternal beauty aspect about them that no other race has, which is basically their Racial special.
- Slizzar Colluding has been removed. With the point crunch, it has become too heavy of a free point bonus for little RP engagement.
- Mageblooded Racial Ability changed with respect to the new Sorcery Rules. No longer allows them to break the cap on "Spells," but does allow them to break the limitations on having Ritualism with Sorcery, as long as they only have Sorcery spells from the racial.
- This was done to accommodate the Sorcery changes.
- Lightblooded Racial Ability changed, same as the Kathar Racial above.
- This was done to accommodate the Sorcery changes.
- Physical Stat now 15.
- Crimson power now gives +5 Theatre and Dancing instead of +10.
- All Perception/Body/Theatre counters properly set to 10.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- Drahl +10 Perception boost is reduced to +5. Double bird attack is still a thing.
- Physical Stat now 30.
- All Perception/Body/Theatre counters properly set to 10.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- Barghest Physical Stat now is 20.
- All Perception/Body/Theatre counters properly set to 10.
- Shilôt Physical Stat now 15.
- Doughal Physical Stat now 20.
- Mivver Physical Stat now 15.
- Crimson Witch Physical Stat now 20.
- Abyssal Crown Ability for Crimson Witches now sets Physical Stat to 25.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- Physical Stat is now 5.
- Sorcery Spells can now only be 5, instead of 6.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- Physical Stat is now 20.
- Tech Venting now has a knock-down counter of 35 instead of 50.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- Physical Stat is now 25.
- Varlord now gains +5 Phys Stat instead of +10.
- Auld Beastlording only gives +10 Physical Stat instead of +20, and can no longer break Physical Stat limit.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- Prowling Shifts now grant +5 Strength Training that does not break the Proficiency Cap.
- Hungering Shift now grant +5 Physical Stat instead of +10, and cannot break Cap.
- Ravaging Shift now grants +10 Physical Stat instead of +20, and cannot break Cap.
- Ursarr Physical Stat is now 35.
- Ursarr Solitary Hunter now gives +2 Phys Stat per combatant for a max of 10 instead of +5 for a max of 20.
- Ursarr Werebeast Bane now gives +5 Phys Stat instead of +10.
- Raprann Physical Stat is now 15.
- Raprann's Falcon Call now gives +5 Perception instead of +10.
- Scorrico Physical Stat is now 30.
- Scorrico Creeping Crawlies no longer grants camouflage. Instead, the ability is now a rapid pounce used to knock over a single target and pounce on top of them for further Combat or Conflict.
- Scorrico Hungering Shift now grants +5 Perception instead of +10
- Uthurenn Physical Stat is now 25.
- Uthurenn Sanguine Bane now grants +5 Physical Stat instead of +10, and cannot break Physical Stat Cap.
- Caopradeim Physical Stat is now 20.
- Raprann can now only take 4 Sorcery Spells instead of 5.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- We also removed Camouflage Abilities since they are lame and basically asking for metagaming.
- Kaam and Keel Allar are removed from Lore. The aesthetics (salamander/monitor lizard) are being folded into Al-Allar, and most of their niche mechanics will be inherited by the Al-Allar.
- The Allar rewrite is postponed for a little as the Proficiency update turned out more work than originally anticipated. We will however announce that Allar are being re-folded into Al-Allar (previously Al, Zu, Es, Kaam & Keel), Mu-Allar (Previously Mu), Cro-Allar (Previously Cro, Sa) and Mai-Allar (Previously standalone Maiar Race). The point here is to shorten the amount of subraces, but widen their aesthetics (basically, for example, a Mu-Allar must always have a raptor claw on their feet, but the rest of their body can be based off whatever real-life lizard or combination there-of). While also adding Maiar, it should hopefully simplify their racial design and open up for more creative control.
- Allar are demisexual, meaning they are not attracted to genders, but form sexual attraction based on close emotional connections regardless of gender, either in or outside of the Allar community. Those who aren't comfortable with this can largely just ignore it.
- Additionally, Allar have sequential hermaphroditism, and sequential gender dimorphism (if such a term can even apply), because they can change gender based on their preferred romantic partner (so changing reproductive sex can actually also result in same-sex changes, it doesn't have to always happen from a strictly reproductive standpoint of view), but their body can also change from male coded to female coded or andro and back, depending on that romantic partner's preferred, or their own.
- Changes yet to come in an attempt to streamline the race and give more player freedom.
- Green Belt no longer gives Perception. Instead, it lights up the nearest path out of Ability Darkness.
- Green Visor no longer gives Perception. Instead, it radiates an Emote Distance -5 Perception field for anyone caught in it, except the user, and others with Green Visors.
- Costs for Proficiencies over 10 were dropped to 10. Basically, the costs are not ideal yet, but the people managing Clockwork were in bed by the time we got to it, so a small balancing update will follow soon where the numbers get moved around a bit.
- Needs more work soon(tm).
- +10 Perception Proficiency Boost removed, replaced with a 1x use per day Ability to auto-detect whether something was made with Conning Rogue Proficiency. It's not an ideal solution, but it will have to be for the time being until we can take a more consistent look at Qadir Abilities overall.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- All Metals that require Physical Stat to use have been moved to 20 instead of whatever they were before.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
- Physical Stat now takes the average between both parents, and no boosts are gained.
- Proficiency boosts are now 1 from each parent, instead of 1 chosen from both parents.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes. We also wanted to give Half-Races a bit more of an "edge" since they don't get Racial Abilities.
- Physical Stat Boosts flattened a bit. Doesn't really matter, there are basically 2 Manathar left, and they don't really use the relevant Abilities. Manathar will be completely redone during an event line in-game anyway in the near future.
- Manathar lore is kinda dead right now. It will be revived again.
- Aging mechanic changed from 3x slowed to 2x slowed. Instead of aging proportionally, Noreans now age at half the speed between 0-200, and then when they are 200, their age-appearance is locked until they become 300 and die.
- Physical Stat received a nerf. Before it was from 50 to 40, now while all Physical Stats were re-balanced, it has dropped to 20 (other Ailor are 30).
- Sorcery and Ritualism have also become mutually exclusive with Combat Proficiencies. Essentially, when it comes to their "Only one Combat Proficiency" rule, Sorcery and Ritualism are both separately counted as Combat Proficiencies, so they become mutually exclusive with all others. A Norean can only have 1 Combat Prof, Sorcery, or Ritualism, but not any of these combined.
- Norean Ailor were a bit over-tuned, and we essentially suffered from a case of pointy-ear-less-Altalar. These minor tunings keep the Noreans still Ailor-positive, while also preventing over-stacked characters.
- Physical Stat has been rebuilt from the ground up. New descriptions, comparative language and usable in-game reference. Each race gained a new Stat. Generally speaking, all Physical Stats were halved across the board. The idea here was that players shouldn't try to game the Phys Stat from the average 30 to try and reach 70. For now, you can reach most max Phys Stat with +20 Combat and +10 Strength Training Proficiency investments. This should make Physical Stat less of a must-have statistic, and more a background-number that allows combat characters to diversify more and be less focused on hungering after that magical 60 Physical Stat.
- Adapting to changes in Proficiency cost / Physical Stat Changes
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