Report 899

Report #899
Skillset: Stealth Skill: Ghostwalk
 Org: Ninjakari Status: Completed Jan 2013
Furies' Decision:
Solution 3.
Problem: Ghostwalk is currently a 15-room limited teleport. It takes balance,
time and power, making it worse than anyone who has reflexes and a pig nose or
mystery map - or even a scry enchant - allowing people to simply walk to the
location (within 15 rooms) and being just as stealthy if shrouded. It isn't a
viable option when compared with more common and widely-available methods. To
make the skill more ideal, either change the limitations/power usage, or rework
the ability into a more interesting chase mechanic.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Make Ghostwalk an actual walk. Activating ghostwalk
 on a target within 15 rooms will cause you to start
 moving towards them, at a rate of three rooms per
 second, until you are interrupted (blockage or being
 unable to walk), you enter the target's room, or the
 target is more than 15 rooms away when you go to
 move. Cut the power cost to 1 power as it is still
 relatively easy to block (i.e. cows, carcer, etc).
 Requires balance/eq to initiate but takes none while
 walking.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Reduce or remove the time it takes to teleport.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Increase or remove the limitation on distance.
Player Comments:
---[Enyalida on 12/22 @ 18:20 writes]:
Solution 1 is fine.
---[Shuyin on 1/2 @ 19:51 writes]:
Solution 1
---[Aeden on 1/3 @ 08:21 writes]:
Solution one
---[Leolamins on 1/3 @ 10:02 writes]:
Solution 1
---[Naralis on 1/7 @ 18:59 writes]:
I agree with the others. Solution 1.
---[Tacita on 1/9 @ 15:52 writes]:
Solution 1 supported.
---[Ushaara on 1/10 @ 17:17 writes]:
Solution 1 supported.
---[Janalon on 1/16 @ 02:34 writes]:
In the modern age of Maps/Nose combined with Mudlet mapper, autowalk can be
enacted within the click of a hyperlink and move at the greatest speed possible.
This report seeks to replicate this particular dingbat & scripting setup, but
falls quite short. First, Ghostwalk moves past traps, gravity, shrines, cows,
enemy territory (but not doors) as a silent, short-ranged teleport. The current
proposal moves much slower than Mudlet mapper autowalk, and is susceptible to
every movement obstacle between the stealth monk and target. As such, this
report would greatly weaken Ghostwalk and would make the skill even more
unusable. Solutions 2 & 3 don't offer much of a fix to Ghostwalk either. I
vigorously object to this report and would love to see the problem rerun with
ammended solutions.
---[Kaikazu on 1/18 @ 04:23 writes]:
Maybe it is slower than Mudlet mapper autowalker for some particular players who
live right next to Lusternia's servers, but for most, I feel that three rooms a
second is a decent average. This could be increased if it is truly felt that
this speed is too slow. In addition, if people auto walking is so fast, how do
you expect to be able to have them stay within 15 rooms of you while you cast
the teleport? At least this version starts tracking right away. It's not meant
to catch people autowalking from area to area, it's meant to catch people in
combat in one area who are moving around manually, and do it faster than waiting
for map balance several times during tracking. This is still a significant
upgrade that could become quite useful.
---[Janalon on 1/18 @ 04:55 writes]:
It's not the speed to which I am outright opposed, it's the liability of no-
brain walking through hostile territory and stumbling upon obstacles that
concerns me. As-is, Ghostwalk currently bypasses soft obstacles. This report
would give up one aspect that makes Ghostwalk useful for providing an in-game
workaround to the Dingbat / Mudlet Mapper walk-to. I'd rather see this report
more directly address this concern. For example, WHAT IF you were to move out of
phase-- bypassed soft obstacles like cows, shrines, statues, etc (not walls &
doors)-- until you reached the target? This aspect would put the GHOST into a
Ghostwalk and directly address my main concern.
---[Kaikazu on 1/22 @ 10:12 writes]:
So I understand your issue is with its counterability (that is, how easy it is
to stop this skill from being useful). I feel like perhaps if we were to
decrease this factor we would have to increase the power cost. The reason I have
suggested the power cost be reduced to 1 is so that this can be initiated up to
two or three times without impacting the ability of the Stealth user to
effectively engage their target with powered attacks, giving them extremely
effective chase across long distances. Honestly I would rather increase the
room/sec rate than try and decrease the counterability - but how exactly would
you change Sol 1 to suit, regarding your concerns?
---[Janalon on 1/24 @ 11:34 writes]:
Again, my major objections to this report were 1) GhostWalk serves a purpose of
bypassing obstacles & traps, 2) Solution 1 "nerfs" this intent of GhostWalk
because you can walk into harms way/fail walk at cost of power, 3) the FREE! and
open source Mudlet Mapper autowalk-- esp combined with scry, map, nose, etc.--
supersedes GhostWalk and ingame autowalk. The acceptance of Report 946 puts a
new spin on this report. Basically new Hyper would address some concerns about
your solution 1. However, I would prefer the skill cost 0 power. I more strongly
favour solution 3 by increasing room limit in the 25 - 40 range. This would be
quick & easy to implement.
---[Kaikazu on 1/24 @ 18:32 writes]:
I might favour a compromise between sol 3 and a cost reduction but I would still
prefer to see sol 1 work out somehow, perhaps by removing the cost or raising
the cost and adding some kind of phasing. The reason I like sol 1 so much is
that while scent-tracking is not always reliable and map-tracking takes too long
to start walking in most cases to actually catch your target in their room, sol
1 would really shine as a utility and standout ability of stealth users. And I
still don't agree with your point 3) - autowalk is NOT what you're talking it up
to be for most players including myself (with a decent connection), having an
ingame autowalk would be far better, even at 3 room/sec. Like I said, that
particular number could be balanced around the average walking speed better by
using data I don't have available. Even as-is sol 1 would be a skill I
personally would use constantly, as opposed to never in its current state.
---[Janalon on 1/25 @ 02:43 writes]:
Scent/Scry is mainly unreliable with repeating room names like in the seas.
Let's drop the argument about Mudlet Mapper Goto (not Lusternia Auto Walk)
speed. The main point is you can have a walker free of cost or skill. Your
solution 1 would be ideal if it out of phased temporarily to bypass obstacles at
cost of power. Also, it should have perpetual tracking until arrival. That is...
it should not just walk to where the person WAS when used, it should keep
walking till it meets them.
---[Janalon on 1/25 @ 11:55 writes]:
For consistency and clarity, when I say "Mudlet Mapper Script", this is the
product to which I refer --> http://wiki.mudlet.org/w/IRE_mapping_script
---[Vadi on 1/30 @ 20:25 writes]:
I side with Janalon here, it's not that useful to have a worse version of a
map+autowalk. Perhaps replace ghostwalk with a skill that allows you to scry a
person for their room ID without aethersight ticking, free if it's local area OR
another skill variation, with a power cost if it's out of area?