Forum Home Lusternia.com Lore Wiki Vote! Forum Rules VOTE ON TMS!
Home› Life in Lusternia› Common Grounds› Combat Overhaul

Zap

VersaleanVersalean
in Combat Overhaul
Curious as to how people feel about zap. I think I used it twice after getting mine approved because WOWAWESOME! Now I can't even remember the syntax. I'd really love it if zap either did more damage or did something else useful. I'm just gonna throw out a bunch of ideas, none of which I'm particularly precious about:

  1. Increase the damage of zap
  2. Add a qualifier that allows you to scale the damage by increasing the essence cost (ZAP VERSALEAN 100000)
  3. Zap slows the target's movement speed for 3 seconds, but divine fire protects from this effect
  4. Zap reveals the location of the zappee
  5. Zap gives the target a -1/-1 universal resistance malus

Comments

  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    I'm currently boycotting zap on any and all characters due to my zap being rejected for being "too long" after having the same zap for irl years. 
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • SaranSaran
    The only times I ever really used zap was as a like... "Hello, yes, I see you 'raiding' etherwilde, are you going to run or do I need to meld?"

    Maybe rather than trying to make it work, and given a theme of some demipowers is customisation, making the "choice" option a customisation of the bashing attacks could be neat.
    (Imagining a HS one where a bunch of ancestral druids turn up to club the target with their cudgels)
  • SylphasSylphas
    Unless they changed it, isn't the syntax just ZAP <target>? It used to be pretty cool, but now that basically everyone who seriously plays is a demigod, it's not even that anymore, and given that we have so many demis, it's tricky to buff without having the issue of "everyone write a trigger to zap the target on my command" being problematic.
  • NochtNocht Glomdoring
    Shaddus said:
    I'm currently boycotting zap on any and all characters due to my zap being rejected for being "too long" after having the same zap for irl years. 
    Some zaps were incorrectly approved in the past. If yours is too long it should have been rejected years back. I hope you understand we can't let people keep zaps that fall outside of the guidelines just because of how long they've had them. I can however understand your frustration of getting something taken away you have had for so long.
  • MaligornMaligorn Windborne
    edited September 2018
    Zap isn't totally awful. It can be used to snipe lower level players from several rooms away, and if you're a class that naturally builds electricity damage, it's a nice tool to have in your toolkit. More than that, the biggest thing I think is dropping enemy masochism from far away, especially if they're doing prime shenanigans, so they can't get away (as easily) and get their auto-declaration. Useful for any enemy territory, though. Also, if you know an enemy is being focused but can't get there right away, etc etc etc. My most zap kills during one bout came from Falmiis's Ascension, but I've zapkilled a few in domoths as well.

    If I had to change something, I'd provide a few more options for damage typing.

    image
  • LuceLuce Fox Populi
    I like the idea of it being turned into a bashing attack/attack skin too. Not usable on mobs who aren't in the rooms, but otherwise does function against them as a bashing attack. Maybe with a 50% electric/(Divinus|excorporeal) split that can be retyped as a choice/custom option.  As it stands it seems like it's a niche skill that is a perk, but might feel hard to weigh against other options.
  • KalnidKalnid
    I have strong opinions regarding retroactively denying things, but that's secondary to this.

    Agree that additional damage typings would be nice, fire/cold/poison/magic. Might prefer to keep exco/div not available. Making it able to scale with essence spent is probably a really bad idea unless it either a: scales absolutely terribly in which case what's the point or b: has a hard cap on how high it can push. In either case I'm not sure it's worthwhile.
  • SaranSaran
    Maybe rather than a free-ish choice, would it be cleaner to base it on your class?

    It'd fit with the buffs you'd have for your other stuff, it wouldn't open up damage types to everyone. If it's kept otherwise the same, in a zapping group scenario, wouldn't you switch around which one you're hitting with based on the target so you hit their most likely weakness?

    If it's a bashing attack then it could provide another attack without replicating the bashing artifacts that currently exist.

    Could even do both, if you target a player it works as current zap, if you target a denizen it becomes a bashing attack?
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    edited September 2018
    Nocht said:
    Shaddus said:
    I'm currently boycotting zap on any and all characters due to my zap being rejected for being "too long" after having the same zap for irl years. 
    Some zaps were incorrectly approved in the past. If yours is too long it should have been rejected years back. I hope you understand we can't let people keep zaps that fall outside of the guidelines just because of how long they've had them. I can however understand your frustration of getting something taken away you have had for so long.
    It's incredibly easy to let people keep zaps that were "wrongfully approved". To quote from someone from Discord, "Step one is to not do anything". If it's not hurting anything, is thematically pleasing, isn't game breaking, and isn't Eventruesque in nature, leave it alone. With Lusternia's population going the way it is, I think the last thing the admin need to do is start being heavy-handed in following the letter of the law, but not the spirit.
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • NochtNocht Glomdoring
    Shaddus said:
    Nocht said:
    Shaddus said:
    I'm currently boycotting zap on any and all characters due to my zap being rejected for being "too long" after having the same zap for irl years. 
    Some zaps were incorrectly approved in the past. If yours is too long it should have been rejected years back. I hope you understand we can't let people keep zaps that fall outside of the guidelines just because of how long they've had them. I can however understand your frustration of getting something taken away you have had for so long.
    It's incredibly easy to let people keep zaps that were "wrongfully approved". To quote from someone from Discord, "Step one is to not do anything". If it's not hurting anything, is thematically pleasing, isn't game breaking, and isn't Eventruesque in nature, leave it alone. With Lusternia's population going the way it is, I think the last thing the admin need to do is start being heavy-handed in following the letter of the law, but not the spirit.
    Of course it is easy. But that isn't the point. What I wanted to explain to you is that we have guidelines and we've chosen to apply those to everyone. If we had chosen otherwise, we'd have upset other players who would feel wronged by the rules not applying to others because of seniority. At such times we make a call which we believe is the best one. Unfortunately we cannot please everyone in these situations. But we are convinced that high standards for writing are what adds to what makes this game great. I understand your concern about population but we don't feel zap guidelines or the enforcing thereof are driving people away. If that were the problem it'd be an easy fix which we would certainly address. Alas, things are far more complex than that.
  • KagatoKagato Auckland, New Zealand
    Maligorn said:
    I'd rather have a close scrutiny of the Scroll of Laurels. Seriously, some of them are completely out of line and awful. /2c
    THIS.  Personally, I'd love to see Scroll of Laurels lines being subject to Admin approval, but they have enough on their plates already.
    Never put passion before principle.  Even if you win, you lose.

    If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?

    If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
  • SaranSaran
    Now I'm imagining how to get something like... "Enfys, I choose you. Cast lighting!" as my zap.


    @Nocht As far as it being a reason to leave, small things add up? Also sometimes there's a disconnect between the complaint and the reason, so it's super easy for the complaint to be "my zap got bounced".
  • NochtNocht Glomdoring
    This has unfortunately gotten quite off topic, so I'm going to suggest discussion about guidelines, content and quality of writing goes into either another thread or onto the Discord feedback channel.
Sign In or Register to comment.