Instead of being just a damage amplification, I think the theme of this skill would be more neat if it could be a copy of Absolute Death's second effect. So, it'd be something like this:

Quote:All Fight
Innate, 1 Round CD.

Monks are quite adept at fighting multiple foes at once. Landing a Basic Attack or Martial Artist (and promotions) class skills that deal Blunt damage will cause you to swiftly move to strike all other enemies within 5 range of that target, dealing protection-ignoring Blunt damage equal to your Monk Class level + 10, which can be avoided. (Single Punch vfx)

If you have Ki Awoken active, you will perform a flurry of blows instead, making the attack ignore evasion and gain a chance to critically hit. (Punch Flurry vfx)

Doggy war cry isn't very good.

Let's make it a bit better.

Take it from 10% to 25%. This means at 52 sanctity you'd have level 28.5% hunted instead of  18. 

It can still do low damage, but the idea of increasing it's range with +1 per instinct level would also be cool.

Let's give it some sauce.

Spirit Shell is currently not a very useful trait since the introduction of Ghost Entertainer and the buff to make it more widely accessible to the masses, while this is ultimately a good decision as losing spirits is hell enough and I am glad to have this on other characters, it does leave Spirit Shell in a spot where it is currently not all that useful, you can effectively think of it as a trait that saves you a little bit of Talent Points since you only have to go to 4 Spiritualism and not 7.

I think that Attune Grudge should be adjusted so this request is in assumption that it would be adjusted but here goes.

Spirit Shell needs some sort of unique benefit for the Amalgama, something that makes them the definitive Spirit Race, it could be a number of things that could be added to the passive and I'd be happy, just about anything really, but one particular benefit I had in mind was:

Quote:Spirit Shell

For every White Spirit you are hosting, you may additionally host a Black Spirit as well, and vice versa.

https://imgur.com/yxcDmCF

The above image shows that Ruler and Mage together have 15 total enchant type abilities that add to your skill pool but because it's an odd number, it leaves a final .5 skill pool left over that looks rather dissapointing. One of the two needs a final enchant to even it out to 16.
Anyone got any ideas?

Adderall makes you pace around your room thinking about dice math for 70 minutes.

A while ago, there was a brief discussion in the discord about adding optional skill modifiers to dice rolls, similar to tabletop RPGs like D&D or Pathfinder. Dev even weighed in with his early thoughts on the subject. I've been ruminiating for a bit about how I'd want to handle it, and this is the first draft of what I've come up with.

Some Design Goals:
-Not everyone likes dice, so they should be an optional system with no mechanical impact. Used only at the discretion of eventmins or players.
-I want to let characters be good at many things, and hyper-competent at a few specialized niches. This should allow for fantasy heroes be multitalented but also get their own moments to really shine above their peers.
-In a game where RP is the central focus, I want to leave a character's social impact entirely to RP. So no 'Deception' or 'Intimidation' or the like. In this specific context I feel that skill modifiers are best used as a supplement to express additional characterization, not a replacement for it.
-I want to avoid redundancies with professions for the most part, so I'd personally avoid making any sort of Crafting or Performance checks either.
-I want to let a character's skill modifiers exist independently of other aspects of their build like Attributes, Talents, or Class, as these modifiers are considerably less abstract than those mechanics in what they represent. Race isn't abstract at all, so it'd be fine to use. However, as of now I haven't included any racial bonuses in this design.

With all that in mind I call this system: Knacks.

Knacks would get a new menu on the sidebar, and represent a character's specific knowledge and training in non-combat skillsets, such as their athleticism or theoretical knowledge of spellcraft. They are used to apply modifiers to dice rolls, and have no direct mechanical effect at all.

When you attempt to roll dice, you can optionally apply a particular Knack or Focus (Detailed Below) as an additive bonus to the result, rolling with this bonus is called a Check. I designed these Knacks expecting most people to use the d20, but they could be applied to any roll.

A player character recieves their first Knack point at level 3 and every 3rd level thereafter, for a total of 20 points at level 60. Each Knack can have a maximum of 3 points invested into it. Each point invested grants a stacking +2 bonus to the associated Check, for a max of +6.

Additionally, investing 3 knack points into a given Knack will grant the character a free Focus within that Knack. A Focus is a considerably more specific application of that Knack. For example, the Athletics Knack may have things like Swimming, Climbing, and Sprinting as foci. If your Focus is applicable to a Check, your Knack bonus is doubled (up to +12!). You can optionally spend 3 knack points to gain additional foci within a knack you already have a focus in.

I've designed ten Knacks here, each with various Foci presented in paranthesis. I've designed it so that every Check I could think of could reasonably fall under a certain focus. But there might be some I've missed, so let me know if you have any more ideas.

Athletics (Sprint, Climb, Swim, Drag/Lift, Break)
Agility (Acrobatics, Escape, Balance)
Thievery (Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Disguise, Devices)
Perception (Spot, Listen, Smell, Investigation)
Survival (Track, Endure, Forage)

Magecraft (Nerifian, Sylphid, Isespian, Aquarian, Runecraft)
Occultism (Spiritualism, Mercalan, Huggessoan, Galdr)
Nature (Plants, Animals, Nature Magic)
Lore (Engineering, History, Monsters)
Medicine (First Aid, Surgery, Poison, Disease)

Finally, I'd want to let players freely take penalties in whatever and however many Knacks or Foci they wanted, purely for the character expression. Anywhere from -1 to -6 or so, probably. If you have a penalty in both a Knack and a relevant Focus, only the highest penalty applies. Taking penalties would have no benefit elsewhere, it's purely for characterization.

Swapping weapons while an ally is KD'd will cause them to stand up, then get KD'd again when its their turn.

This is purely visual, and means the player spends their entire time rotated 90 degrees.

Now that we have experienced Part 2 for the first time on live, here are my thoughts on it:

The Mechanics

The most major change was the introduction of the now complete Crescendo phase. Featuring a mini-boss fight accompanied by the Wall being subject to the new mechanic introduced, Dark Snakeheads. Thus creating an effective resource sink in the siege shields required to prevent damage to the wall from either the opening salvo of 4 or any potential mechanic failures in the mini-boss fights.

While we did get an increase of 1 round spawn delay for the Pariahs in the mini-boss fight, I believe there could afford to be another round delay to clearly signal the Pariah being spawned into the circle to make it more obvious and perhaps list the effect of its sacrifice as a skill if nothing else. It's a very punishing mechanic that's effectively trial and error to figure out, and actively punishes everyone in firing another Dark Snakehead at the wall for players figuring this out the hard way, so it could afford to be more transparent.

The construction of siege shields makes for a good resource sink but it is effectively left in the hands of a few players to foot the bill without much room for others to contribute bar finding said player to fork over their resources to. With how the shields are meant to only ever be put into specific spots I don't see why they couldn't instead be constructed on the spot with multiple others being able to contribute to the resource cost. That way it's easier for there to be more diverse contributions. There's a lot of ways it could be handled to allow others to provide resources as needed if not specifically for the shields. Perhaps a wall specific resource pool to donate to? Who knows. The repair feature being fixed/functioning on shields could make this a moot point.

That's about it for the specific mechanics of the raid. The out-of-combat interactions are fine even if the horn's are all so specific in their requirements we tend to only ever see Tone of Battle. I have no further complaints aside from wishing that the merits, rather than rolling over at the end of the month, rolled over at the start of the next Preparation phase so we can actually see everyone's contributions for the current cycle rather than having merits wiped mid-raid. It's happened 2 out of 3 times now.


The Enemies

Sneak mine.

Seriously, Sneak Mine alone warps fights around it due to how much damage it does and the fact there is no answer to it other than killing the Caimic responsible through its 50% extra DR or actively moving away from it repeatedly as it chases you down slowly. The other enemies barely even register compared to how absurd Sneak Mine is. Something needs to change about it, and I along with many others have already spoken to death on it.

While hilarious to some it was very clearly targeted at my setup utilizing Divine Shower to give Caimics light reflect, then give Manscorpions dark absorb to counter Blackened Faith being able to alter Divine Shower to dark damage, on top of causing Sneak Mines to travel per damage tick so attacks like Divine Shower cause the mine to move 8+ tiles toward you. Making it so my setup now has to begin each fight moving as far as possible away whilst not being able to damage the Manscorpions.

I can't say I appreciate bringing my character to these raids and having said raid adjusted to counter me. It put me off participating at all. What's the point of building a character to succeed if when you do, the game is changed so you cannot succeed? Some argue that you 'shouldn't be able to solo easily'. The price I pay for being able to solo easily is that the build drops off after that burst of damage. I'd still have to party for the boss fights. Even prior to these changes if I did not move in certain spawn combos I could die before I could act again.

I'm glad I can at least play the character still but the main thing I set them up to do ICly now tries to hard counter them. Doesn't feel great.

The Prince/Darkmage and Manscorpion are all fine, I already listed the issues for the Darkmage fight above. Manscorpions are a bit loaded on eHP and I don't know why it's become normal to slap 50% unlisted resists on newer mobs.


The Timing

Perhaps the biggest issue in all honesty.

The raid now has a runtime of approximately 7 real life hours. It has historically started at roughly 7PM EST, 10PM EST, and now 7AM EST. With no control over when the raid begins OOCly participation can be bordering on the impossible for some people. Having the option for nation leaders if not GMs to adjust the start time would be a step in the right direction. I think it could afford to have a shorter total runtime as at least to me it feels awkward to be unable to reasonably participate for the full length of the raid, especially now that there's the Crescendo phase to catch midway through, which ended this time at around 11AM EST.

Compare this to say, the Black Beast raid on G6. That lasts half an hour, and occurs roughly every 3-4~ hours. Obviously the Wall Raid should not happen that often but combine being able to dictate when it happens on the day of and cutting the runtime, it'd be less OOCly daunting to have your character participate in the raid to its fullest.

For something as integral to the nation as the Wall's defense it feels very strange to have to dip out midway through an attack because of how egregiously long the event is right now, and the inconvenient times it can start at.

Removing the Rest Phase (90 minutes) would be the easiest and quickest way to cut the raid's runtime down by a significant chunk that I don't believe would cause many if any issues.

Final Thoughts

The raid system has a lot of potential and I appreciate all the work put into it, especially the out of combat skill system introduced alongside it. More difficult and engaging content helps keep the game alive and interesting. This feedback/suggestion is made in hopes of seeing it improve as it slowly makes its way to being introduced to the other three nations.

I did not touch upon the rewards as comparatively underwhelming as they are to what you could get farming outside the raid, as Dev himself said if I recall correctly, that more specific rewards would likely only be when similar systems reach the other nations, so it's a bit early to give a verdict on the reward quality with that in mind.

I can only hope in the future changes are not made to spite player's efforts to clear said content without anything being given to said players to work around those changes without compromising their setup entirely. It only discourages players from participating if they have to fear their characters being nerfed or countered because they were observed by Dev performing well.

AoEs from the Wall are, very much uh...

Misleading in their size? Unless it can be shifted by one-or-two tiles. Something that should have hit a group of 4 enemies. Only hit 1, because the others were on the 'outer edge'.

The condensed damage for divine shower doesn't display a Weak! when enemies are weak to the damage, even though it still gives you the +1 momentum. I'm not sure if resist shows, but I can't remember any enemies resistant to light to easily try it out.

It would be nice if there was a way to engage in pvp that isn't just random spars in an arena. I don't like the fact that 99% of pvp that happens in this game is completely inconsequential. I love pvp and I wish I could engage in it in a more regular, rewarding fashion.

Playing a "bad guy", aka antagonist, isn't really a great way to engage in pvp

First of all, many people you engage with don't enjoy pvp. I don't want to force people into playing pvp.

Secondly, getting into a fight must happen through rp. It's not reliable, unless you're playing some psychopath that just attacks literally everyone. But even if you do, finding a person who isn't in the safety of a town isn't as easy as it sounds.

And thirdly, if you lose as a bad guy, it makes sense that you would get arrested or killed. Thus you need to make a whole new character again if you wanna do more.

Fourthly, people can take losses very personally. It can cause ooc bad feelings.

What's the solution?

I've made many suggestions on this subject in the past, but I think this is a more simple version.

I would like a zone, gamemode, or mechanic, that has people engage in pvp organically and gain rewards for winning. This would ideally take the form of an area, with a sort of safe hub that acts as a bandit town. Anyone fighting in the area would get loot when they win a fight, and those who lose don't actually lose any of their precious items, they just lose like a normal pvp match.

This would mean that characters are aware this is a dangerous area, but they can go there to fight "bad guys" or other people. Essentially it would be like a bandit dungeon but instead of bandit mobs it would be me, I'd be the bandit mob. High risk moderate reward! There could be some lore justification for this, like having a "bounty" on people, and it goes both ways. So the bandits give you loot if you beat a bounty hunter kind of deal? I dunno. It could also be magic, or a god, or something like that. Or alternatively, just don't make reference to that mechanic, just make it so the loot you get is purely a gameplay thing. After all, it doesn't make much sense already to get 30 gold out of a creature made of pure fire.

Then just have a way to check if there's people in the area so ppl know when it's active and can go there and look for a fight. We would roleplay as normal and have a serious fight and the winner gets loot. The loser gets to escape if they want, or they can die if they consent. It's a win-win.

This would mean pvp enjoyers get to fight each other, instead of getting in conflict with people who aren't into pvp. And it would make pvp actually rewarding, making it actually fun.