Q1 Implementation I: Proficiency Face-lift & Szabadok Culture

Implementations:

• Szabadok Culture https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Szabadok_Culture (not yet fully released, but will be posted as soon as the processing completes in less than 24 hours, probably done before I wake up again and then I can just publish it so most people won't even see this announcement until it is released.)
• Proficiency Facelift (explained further below).

Explanations of changes:

• The Szabadok have been implemented as a Cuman/Hungarian (though more tinted by Steppe Nomad/Mongol traditions) culture of horse-lord raiders with a unique extreme religious freedom and pragmatic and open family unity design.
• The https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Proficiency page itself was given a face lift to formalize some information that was either hard to find or badly presented. We also changed some data:
  • One Proficiency was changed. Previously, Marshal Knowledge covered both front-line combat leadership, as well as being a back-line general and tactician. This has been split apart. The main reason for this is that the mixing of the two skills seemed to bleed too much into creating a mary sue character, since Marshal Knowledge is primarily an intellectual skill. Essentially, Marshal Knowledge was previously: Being a Commander, Being a Tactician, Being a General and Being a Logistic Officer. Now, Marshal Knowledge is Being a Tactician, Being a General, Being a Logistic Officer, and being really good at tactical board games like Chess. The "Being a Commander" (thus a front-line leader) has been split off to the Combat Proficiency Category Front-line Combat Skill. This Skill covers: Being a Commander, Being good at wielding a battle-banner as a weapon and having good spatial awareness that allows a character to disengage/change tactics/change targets much faster than other warriors in combat-rp. In the past, the Commander skill was just sort of tacked onto the Marshal Knowledge because otherwise investing all points into Marshal Knowledge would cripple a character's usability in actual live-server RP. Still, this was before we lowered the 30 cap limit of Proficiency points, and before we added more comprehensive culture boosts to Ailor in particular, so the actual diminishing return of investing points in such a hypothetical Marshal Knowledge skill have since disappeared. We also want to create a very distinct difference between a front line warrior that leads 30 men, and a general and that positions his formations and commands over 30,000 men, they require two very different skills, regardless of the necessity to combine them to ensure that Marshal Knowledge has adequate live server-rp usability. We just tacked board game skill on top of it because it made sense, and it gives Marshals some more in-regalia usability (even though General leadership will soon return in the Imperial Court anyway).
  • The Body Stat calculations were expanded to cover multiple skills that made sense. Previously, only Athletics, Combat Skills & Metallurgy pulled into the calculation. Now the calculation is a bit more complicated, but still remains a fairly simple add and multiply add formula. Instead of just combat skills, the following factors play into Body Stat:
    • Athletic Training x2 (This is literally all about building muscle mass)
    • Extra Heavy Combat Skill x2 (This is considered a skill that requires heavy weight lifting)
    • Heavy Bow Combat Skill x2 (This is considered a skill that requires heavy weight lifting)
    • Unarmed Combat Skill x2 (This is considered a skill that requires heavy weight lifting)
    • Metallurgy Arts x1 (Striking metal is physically intensive)
    • Sailing Knowledge x1 (Rigging and pulling ropes and climbing is physically intensive)
    • All other Combat Proficiency Skills summarized x1 (part of the old calculation)
    • Bodycare Training x0.5 (Half points since Bodycare is all about personal well being and fitness)
    • Literary Arts x0.5 (Might seem a weird ducky, but Literary Arts includes dancing and stage performance which are both great workouts).
  • The Body Stat calculations essentially go along the lines of "Combat your Proficiency to the above list. Do you have any that fit? Follow the multiplication in the order dictated and then add all numbers together to get the final Body Stat. If you need help, definitely contact a Lore Staff member. It has not become any more complicated than 1+1+2+3x2 when previously it was just 2+3x2. This should hopefully all lead to fitter stage performers and artists, as well as more realistic sailors and heavy weapon specialists that otherwise were at the same level as their weaker weapon brethren.
  • Racial limitations were completely overhauled. This includes the following changes:
    • Ailor, Qadir, Songaskian and Half-Human allowed to be thinner.
    • Sihai allowed to be fatter and more muscular.
    • Dwarf allowed to have a higher minimum muscularity and more fat across the board.
    • Main Elves allowed to be fatter.
    • Avanthar allowed to be fatter and less muscular at minimum.
    • Drowdar and Kathar allowed to be fatter.
    • Ka-Maraya (not yet implemented) allowed to be more muscular and fatter.
    • El-Maraya allowed to be less fatter and less muscular.
    • Standard Allar races allowed to be fatter.
    • Big Allar Races allowed to be fatter and more Muscular and also less Muscular as their limitations have both been raised and reduced.
    • Es-Allar limitations remain the same.
    • Varran allowed to be less muscular and fatter.
    • Orc allowed to have a lower muscularity and allowed to be fatter.
    • Url remain the same.
    • Half-Varran allowed to be less muscular.
    • Half-Elf allowed to be fatter and more muscular.
    • Half-Orc given a higher minimum muscularity and allowed to be fatter.
  • Generally speaking the racial limitations on Body Shape and Body Fat have been increased up and down with the exception of the El-Maraya to prepare for their racial split, but generally for more racial diversion. Obviously the underlying rules all remain the same, the Body Stat still obeys the proficiency point calculations and Body Fat is still entirely a choice by the player. Yanar and Slizzar are obviously immune to all limitations because of ovalation and shape shifting.

Do I need to redo my Character app? Absolutely not!
Character app changes are only applicable to those who want to make use of the new Body Stat Calculations, or who want to make use of the new front-line command skill instead of Marshal Knowledge, or make use of the new limitations to raise or lower their Body Fat or Body Stat. Still, we were careful to ensure that this was for 98% a content expansion, not an alteration. No characters should have been harmed in these changes (except for those who really insisted both being a general and a front-line commander, but to our knowledge there were very few if any). If you want to make use of any of the changes, remember to make the changes and tag your reviewer for a re-review! Because of Stat calculation changes and the margin for error, these changes do require a re-review.

Last subnote:

• The Feeding Pheros Muter of the Alais Vampire Bloodline is now an activation based ability. There was some concerns about forced romance rp that made players uncomfortable. Previously this ability was a permanent enabled ability, now it is a toggle ability that needs to be emoted.
• If because of the above bodystat changes your Varran character for example can no longer fulfill the Body Stat requirement to be Ripped because the minimum was lowered, you have permission to have special dispensation not to need to redo your character app. We feel that character aesthetics should not be ruined because of a rule change, so as a consequence of this change, if your character can no longer fulfill the Body Stat that was previously a minimum but now lowered, simply don't update the application and it will be fine. If in the future you update your app again though, you will have to update the Body Stat and appropriate Body Shape to reflect these changes.

 

Thanks for the input, I wanted to message you but couldn't find you on discord anymore. If you have any more suggestions to add quirky Hungarian things and cultural notions that could enhance their interactions with others in roleplay, please do share.