Report 254

Report #254
Skillset: Illusions Skill: Programmed
 Org: Moondancers Status: Completed Sept 2009
Furies' Decision:
Solution 1
Problem: At current, programmed illusions have a fair bit of use, however, the
length these illusions can reach can be quite long, especially with the default
80 wrapwidth. Even with current limitations on adding new lines, these illusions
have reached, and some may have exceeded, 12 lines of writing on entrance, and
this will happen every time someone enters the room until the illusion is
dispelled, or fades after time.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Increase the power cost of creating new lines to 3
 power. This would reduce the amount of different
 illusions that could be placed in one programmed
 illusion.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Have programmed illusions fade after firing 5 times.
 Number of times is negotiable.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Impose a limit on how many characters one line of a
 programmed illusion could have, preventing someone
 from putting a small paragraph into one line.
Player Comments:
---[Sarrasri on 9/11 @ 21:21 writes]:
I'd prefer solution 1 or 2, since I feel it's not as much of a downgrade as the
third solution.
---[Sarrasri on 9/13 @ 08:08 writes]:
Here is a link to an example of somewhat long programmed illusions, though
definitely not the longest I've seen.
http://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?showtopic=16335&view=findpost&p=688911
---[Llandros on 9/14 @ 14:21 writes]:
If the true goal of this report is to tackle spam, why not just limit the number
of lines available and leaving the power and character limits the same
---[Nienla on 9/16 @ 00:11 writes]:
Agree with Sarrasri.
---[Desitrus on 9/16 @ 06:02 writes]:
I'd like to point out that in the link Sarrasri provides, the second paragraph
is a full programmed illusion set in one room that will fire once each and every
single time any single person enters. These things need a cooldown on firing or
a flag that says you've seen it once and you shouldn't see it again unless YOU
move into it, or just show it only on YOUR entry/exit. While it botches "alarm"
programmed illusions, that can't really be helped if people are going to put up
a potential 200 lines of text.
---[Llandros on 9/16 @ 15:47 writes]:
Actually i think a cooldown on programmed illusions could be something to look
into or changing if from a room wide msg to one that each person only sees once,
if you want an alarm you could do something like magic mouth
---[Ilyarin on 9/18 @ 17:58 writes]:
Haven't given it serious thought yet, but what if programmed illusions give
first person messages rather than third person? (Ie, the only person to see the
illusion is the person who triggers it.) I don't immediately think this would be
OP, and as said if someone wants an alarm, magicmouth. It would cut down on the
spam, that's for sure.
---[Ceren on 9/19 @ 22:37 writes]:
I'm pretty hard line on illusions. An illusion does nothing to harm you except
what you allow it to do by your own external triggers and not any game mechanic.
Plus, a progammed illusion is totally unbiased and will hit both your allies and
yourself, and of everyone in that pot, only the people who are exploitable will
be harmed by the illusion. In light of that, I feel that any sort of argument
against the power of illusions themselves is unconvincing. I know that's not the
issue your problem is addressed to, but it seems like all 3 of your solutions
are. If there's an issue with raw illusion spam (and I agree, there truly is
when a 15 man group walks into a 5 line illusion), just make it so that when a
group enters the room, only the -last- person in the group will cause the
programmed illusion to fire.
---[Xenthos on 9/22 @ 02:05 writes]:
I think it's better to just make it so only the person who enters the room sees
the illusion, personally (with the comment preceding yours, Ceren). You have
magicmouth for warnings, and then programmed is used to screw with the balance /
system of people as they come in. Without getting pages of spam as others come
in, or whenever elevation changes fire / people climb up and down (which can
happen without groups, if 4 people are pulled up via raise cudgel and climb down
on their own). Your solution only affects if everyone is in a group, Ceren.