Meridian59/Meridian59 — pull request #131 by M59Gar (2013-03-17 23:07:23+00:00)
Title: Jala overhaul

Per the Umbrella fix, I extended that radius / enchant list technique to
completely overhaul the entire school of Jala. All the songs are now
radius spells, with radii and effects based on spellpower. The songs
will appear as a AE icons to those affected; those unaffected will not
see the icons, even if they are in the same room. A custom message for
each song is given when entering or leaving the radius of effect.

The songs also now follow safety rules; if a song is harmful, it cannot be
abused by mules or non-combatants - it will only harm people the caster
can hit. The caster can go outlaw and use his songs on innocents.

Multiple songs can be played and overlap, but only the highest power
song of any given type affecting a player will do its effect.

Most importantly, this setup gives us more balancing tools for Jala
songs. In testing, I found that Range was a great way to adjust things -
powerful songs can have a very short radius of effect and therefore
become more interesting/balanced. Positional tactics will play quite a
bit into using the songs correctly.

Finally, this new setup currently has no 'counters' or removal.
Discordance does not affect the songs, and I made Jala Necklaces 100%
effective at blocking disruptions. This can be a temporary measure, but
I believe radius, mana drain, and spellpower are balance tools enough.
This setup has the potential to have Discord only work if the Discorder
is affected, thereby removing muling from the equation.

This also sets up the school for further additions. Jala is currently very underpopulated, and I think this will give us the tools (radius, mana drain, draintime, IsHarmful, AffectsOthers) to create very powerful new song effects that people might actually want to use on main characters.