Report 123

Report #123
Skillset: Tracking Skill: Conceal
 Org: Paladins Status: Completed Jan 2009
Furies' Decision:
Will reduce equilibrium time on conceal and add a new power-costing skill to
conceal every trap in the room.
Problem: One of tracking's major drawbacks is the incredible tedium in
maintaining traps in an area and having to reconceal each time one is tripped to
prepare for a second use. This becomes exponentially more tedious in larger
fights where multiple traps are set off at one time in multiple locations
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Allow a CONCEAL ALL syntax that conceals all traps in
 the local area for 7-8p
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Change conceal to reconceal all of the owner's traps
 in a given room, in addition, lower the
 balance/equilibrium loss slightly.
Player Comments:
---[Synl on 1/11 @ 16:38 writes]:
Definite no to solution 1. This would make pits incredibly powerful, as one
could simply keep reconcealing any number of pits in the area while sitting
safetly in one room. Solution 2, however, sounds alright to me - that is, if a
change is even needed, which I'm not convinced it is
---[Romero on 1/11 @ 16:46 writes]:
Once again, solution 1 is beyond OP even for the cost of power as stated. To
reconceal all traps in a given area (villages, plane, sphere) would be beyond
anything else in terms of group combat/defense/raiding. For someone to sit in a
saferoom (greatpent or even at a nexus) and just continually reset traps when
ordered to from afar with no risk to them while people are picked off in pits
just hardly makes sense at all. Also, solution 2 doesn't make sense to reset
more traps in a room for -less- time? I can understand a reset all here, command
that resets the traps all at once for a longer balance time (so you don't have
to spam it and it would take less time than spamming it, so if it is 8 seconds
to do 4 traps, it could be 6 to do the 4 traps with reconceal all here) but if
this were to happen. 1. people should not be affected by traps they witness are
reconcealed, a problem that happens too often, and I am not sure if this is
evident already but 2. There should be a line given that Soandso hastily runs
about the area, resetting all their traps in this spot. So that balance
afflictions can be done in effort to slow this ability
---[Nydekion on 1/11 @ 17:46 writes]:
Pits only hit a single person before needing to be reconcealed for the effect to
be active, compare this with other room-based effects that hit entire groups.
The high power cost for resetting traps is absolutely no different from a mage
or druid recasting effects from afar, except that solution 1 requires a large
expenditure of power. The traps can also only be reset once in this manner until
the user regains power, so it would not allow continuous reconcealing of traps
as is suggested. Also, I think you are misunderstanding Suggestion 2, Romero, I
am asking for a general balance loss reduction on as well as the ability to
reconceal all traps in the room at the same time. It would be an alteration of
the skill itself, which currently only allows a trapper to reconceal one
direction at a time, I'll update that to be more clear.
---[Nydekion on 1/11 @ 18:00 writes]:
Just as a note, I'm not deadset on the power cost of suggestion 1, I'd be fine
with it costing 10p (which would mean that each reset is, at fastest, once every
80 seconds). That would address the issue of a trapper just sitting around
continually resetting traps in a safe area, as it would not be logistically
possible to do it in a continuous manner without putting themselves in harm's
way. That being said, it would go a long way to alleviate the tedium behind
being a trapper.
---[Synl on 1/11 @ 21:34 writes]:
Solution 1 allows a Tracker to trap a plane and continually reset it while
sitting at the nexus. A Tracker -should- have to put himself in harm's way to
reset traps, especially traps as powerful as proper pits. As such, solution 2
remains the acceptable solution.
---[Nydekion on 1/11 @ 23:34 writes]:
I've a feeling you may not understand how conceal or pits work. Conceal only
works for pits (pit traps, spiked pit traps, and snake pit traps), and nothing
else. Spiked pit traps also cannot be easily reconcealed in this manner because
they require re-envenoming to be effective. Pit traps only hinder the target,
they have no killing potential on their own. In addition, they are expensive,
only hit a -single- target before needing to be reset, and are easily removed by
an opposing tracker. An 8 power cost to reconceal all the pits in a local area
would mean that a -bare minimum- of 48 seconds is needed in between each area-
wide reconceal attempt if we assume an 8p cost to reconceal and then a wait to
recover 6 prompt power to reconceal again (or 80 seconds if it costs 10p). This
entirely negates your claim that Suggestion 1 would allow for continual
reconcealment in a safe area, it is just entirely impossible given how prompt
power works.
---[Synl on 1/12 @ 00:15 writes]:
I know how pits work, I was a Tracker for a long time, hehe. Snakepits concealed
will also hide the snakes again. My issue is not that it can be done -quickly-,
it is that it can be in complete safety (as you will note in my last comment).
The fact is, suggestion 1 allows trackers to conceal any numbers of pits in the
area while sitting safetly at their nexus. This means that raiders have to
continually deal with pits while the tracker never has to put themselves in
harms way. Furthermore, I think it's foolish to compare pits to demesnes at all
as the number of mages vs. trackers is, well, uncomparable!
---[Synl on 1/12 @ 16:21 writes]:
---[Nydekion on 1/13 @ 04:06 writes]:
Hm, if that is your main objection, I'm not sure why it is an issue. The only
time a tracker would be sitting safely at the nexus is if they are defending
during a raid. In such a situation, if they are simply sitting there and just
resetting traps, said trapper really is not contributing to a kill, just causing
minor annoyance for the raiding party, and even then it could not be done in
rapid succession. Great pentagram only lasts 1 minute as well, you'd be hard-
pressed to convince me that a skill that has a duration of 60 seconds can be
considered a "safe room" at all.
---[Synl on 1/13 @ 15:06 writes]:
Pits and snakepits are hardly a 'minor annoyance' for a raiding party. They can
outright several smaller raiders, and hinder stronger raiders enough for the
rest of the defending party to simply walk in. Also consider the large amount of
standoffs that occur, wherein a raiding party stands around in a single
fortified room/area - being able to reset previous traps without having the
danger of actually going there is simply not acceptable. In any case, as the
main issue seems to be that resetting traps takes too long, why is solution 2 so
unlikeable to you?
---[Nydekion on 1/14 @ 05:30 writes]:
Upon further consideration, I'm fine with going for suggestion 2.
---[Xenthos on 1/14 @ 23:34 writes]:
Think it might be better to do this in two steps. Leave conceal itself only
doing 1 pit at a time, but with a reduced Equilibrium time. Then a new skill
higher up in Tracking which lets you conceal everything in the room for a modest
power cost and the normal EQ recovery. The current suggestion 2 (reduced time
to do it, get every pit, AND no power cost) seems a bit over the top.