Cabal ranks/skills.

[Arishel]

This is a little something I thought about maybe you guys can use it, maybe not.
Either way, I think it’s a pretty cool idea. Why? It adds diversity among ranks, what?
Kind of like a rank tree within the three cabals we have so far. Good Idea? Tell me
what you all think.

Upon highest titles, the class retains all powers it has acquired over the ranks.

Legend = W (Warrior, Berserker, Ranger, Paladin, Dark-Knight)
M (Invoker, Illusionist, Shaman, Necromancer, Healer)
R (Ninja, Thief)

Example- W ranks are Footman, Knight, General, Executioner
M ranks are Apprentice, Visionary, Wizard.
R ranks are Pupil, Sensei, Maharishi.
Sorry for misunderstanding.

Knight
W M R
Rank Footman Apprentice Pupil

Skill Mount Mount Mount

Rank Knight Visionary Sensei

Skill Mounted Charge Divine Blessing Blessed Shuriken

Rank General Wizard Maharishi

Skill Holy Weapon Runic Insight Holy Ikuzachi

Rank Executioner

Skill Glorified Sacrifice

Skill Descriptions
W Skills List
Mount- Can ride stallions to use for transportation and battle.
Mounted Charge- Charge while on horseback.
Holy Weapon- Blesses a weapon that heals in battle.

M Skills List
Mount- Can ride stallions to use for transportation and battle.
Divine Blessing- Random affects (Song of Unicorn?)
Runic Insight- Ability to use runes like Mystics of old.

R Skills List
Mount- Can ride stallions to use for transportation and battle.
Blessed Shuriken- Shuriken does increased damage vs. evil.
Holy Ikuzachi- A holy spirit spell that inflicts holy damage.

Executioner Skills List

Glorified Sacrifice- Like updated Tainted sacrifice.

Justice

W M

Rank Deputy Counselor

Skill Want/Guard/Apprehend Want/Guard/Apprehend


Rank Protector Chancellor

Skill Investigate Investigate

Rank Enforcer Judge

Skill Ensnare Ensnare

Rank High Inquisitor

Skill Elite Guard/Ensnare

Skills List is explainatory.


Legion
W M R

Rank Re-born Adept Thug

Skill Shadow-Blend Sinful Blessing Bluff

Rank Minion Fire-lord Shadow

Skill Vile Strike Hell-Fire Unholy Craft

Rank Dread-lord Arch-mage Specter

Skill Wicked Weapon Runic Insight Interrogate


Rank Forsaken

Skill Tainted Sacrifice


W Skills List
Shadow-Blend- Auto sneak.
Cleave- Old DK skill.
Wicked Strike- Ability to cut with precision.
Causes continual wounds?

M Skills List
Sinful Blessing- Like unicorn blessing (Bard song)
Hellfire- Adds unholy flame attack to weapon.
Runic Insight- Ability to use runes, much like the old Mystic Skill.

R Skills List
Bluff- Intimidate opponent (Like Old Roar skill)
Unholy Craft- Craft edged unholy weapons.
Interrogate- Like Assassin Spy skill.

Forsaken Skills List
Tainted Sacrifice- Altar of corpse, loot good items from sacrifice.

If anyone has any other ideas for justice, feel free to list and explain.
I couldn't see any relevant reason to discontinue their old skills. I may
not have the maximum # of rank/skills right, but just a rough draft.

Just tried to preview this to where it would be in outline form, but I can't
seem to get it right. If you can't see what i'm saying, sorry for the inconvenience.

[Davairus]

This does offer a lot more options, instead of just signing up for the same old skills all over again. However.... it'd be better to allow people to pick which direction to go in. For instance, suppose I'm a dark-knight or necro, so I'll never use "shield of Justice" and therefore don't want it. And I end up with it because I'm in group "W". See what I'm saying?

I can see a selection that goes like this instead (lifted from enlist):
1) skirmisher
2) guardian
3) support

In otherwords, you'd have to declare what type of cabal role you want to play after induction (undeclared = guardian of course), then your powers will be geared towards that choice.

e.g.
Justice skirmisher = guard call (1), ensnare (2), etc, pvp stuff
Justice guardian = guard call, shield of Justice, etc, pvm stuff
Justice support = guard call, vigilence, etc, helpful stuff

Legion might go something like, all get tainted sac, and then split abduct (pvp), shadow blend (pvm), spy (support)

That way people have a choice, do they want to play a guardian warrior, a skirmisher necro?


This and your idea both share the same problem of not knowing what they're signing up for if they dont know all the cabal skills. In the latter's case though, they know they'd be getting pvp ones... you'd also be getting it sooner instead of sitting on your ass hoping for promotions.


There's potential here..

[Arishel]

I thought that you may find it interesting. I just thought of the opinion and talked over the idea with my brother who also plays. He said I should post it, although, I was looking for more ideas. I see what you're saying and I agree. Something else that may make things easier for cabal/promotions. I was thinking if they're was some way you could mobprog a guardian/priest of your cabal to make notation of an Immortal who wishes to promote a specific player. Making promotions more obtainable over long periods of time where there is either not an Immortal or Mortal leader of the cabal around.

[Vertas]

I like it. Much more potential for diversity, much like the forge to make your own armors.

[Burzuk]

A few things:

* Mounted combat has already been slated for future release. There will be tradeoffs involved for mounted/unmounted (see dive charge, for example) just like with combat styles and weapon types. All discussion on mounted combat should be done later.

* You suggested a lot of overlaps, such as a "good version of X", "evil version of X", etc. Cabal skills should be unique, and also should avoid reproducing existing class-based skills where possible.

* A lot of your proposed cabal skills involve giving outright bonuses to direct combat (sneak, continual wounds, unholy fire damtype, etc), which we strive to minimize. The original AR imps came from a mud where cabal skills were so strong that you basically NEEDED to be in a cabal to be competitive (for example, 'transform' which gave mages doubled hp outright). Compare that to Burzuk, who as an AR mortal was uncaballed and yet still carved out a quite respectable career for himself. Point being, we try to cut down on direct combat cabal skills to avoid the "have to be in a cabal to be competitive" angle. Off the top of my head the only cabal skills that do have a direct-combat bent are Knights having holy weapons that heal, and Justices having Justice shield with good stats. The rest are more indirect things like abduct/imprison (forces one-on-one fight), extort/tainted sacrifice (expedited equipment acquisition since Legions lack direct combat skills), etc. The only special case is Justices having stronger powers vs wanted criminals (guards, ensnare, etc) but that's because being a criminal is something that people opt into by willfully breaking the laws. You don't want to give Justices stronger direct combat powers to help them PK outside of town, for instance, or to Knights/Legions to make non-caballeds uncompetitive against them. Cabal dominance should be a matter of politics (numbers, organization, etc) rather than "I got this pwnz0rz cabal power".

[Elaedon]

Maybe keep the rank 1 powers the same as they are, just for simplicity...

[Davairus]

I was looking at it as a form of specialization. i.e. we can split cabals into several key duties,

(1) regaining the item/capturing another item,
(2) taking care of flags/enemy cabals, and
(3) helping other people in the cabal achieve that.

Obviously, everyone needs some tools to help them do all 3 things. But when they're specializing, what they're communicating is stuff like "hey, I don't think I need ensnare as well since I'm a rend life necro and kill so fast, but that "siege" skill will be really handy with my golems involved on a cabal guardian..since I can retrieve after I get pked then". Or maybe they'd actually rather stack ensnares with rend life for a scary pvp. Or just bring an occasional group healing spell to the cabal and miss out on both those skills. Strong support skills would be interesting to consider with sacrifices like ensnare involved for them.

Why dont you see if you can brainstorm things to fall into those 3 categories. e.g. a Legion support skill might be a "vampiric aura" that allows everyone in the group to heal as they attack stuff. Sorta like holy weapon, the general skill for Knights. Etc.. You dont need everyone in Legion to have that to enjoy the effect, same way you only need 1 ensnare.

[Arishel]

Interesting enough, Dav. I have been busy for quite some time, but I've often thought about that selection you suggested. For example, thought about Justice. This could cause trouble with the way guards loot the corpses of criminals, perhaps something could be coded for the apprehension of items, etc. Here's a suggestion, tell me if i'm on the right track.

Justice-

(1) Skirmisher
(1)- Ensnare-Confine the criminal to the area ensnared in.
(2)- Hunt- Tracking the Ensnared enemy becomes more relentless than before. Causing the criminal to heal at a slower rate than normal. Must be affected by ensnare, affect from hunt ranging from 2 to 4 hours.
(3)- Disorder- In affect from the Hunt, ones movement becomes greatly constricted, meaning that more moves will be used when affected by Disorder. Those with higher dexterity may find it less appalling than those with a lower dexterity.

(2) Guardian
(1) Shield of Justice- Creates a shield that provides a substantial amount of hitroll and damage to the owner.
(2) Draft- Guardians are bestowed the power to maintain order upon the highest means. This allows the guardian to gain the help of lawful mobs within the realms, Tir, Diana, Thain, Etc. Instead of calling a guard to battle. However, one can only Draft those that are at the rank or lower of the Guardian requesting assistance.
(3) Protection from Chaos- Over the years Order has found a way to maintain chaos, but not destroy it. With this knowledge the guardians of justice have created a spell to protect themselves from chaos. It allows them to battle chaos on equal terms.

(3) Support- (1) Guard call- Allows the justice to call the Guards of Seringale. They help provide aid for the Support officer on the field.
(2) Vigilence- *As much as I would like to say, I don't know what it does. You who do though, know it.*
(3) Aura of Order- Through chaos flows an unatural flow of energies that react as two magnets, causing one energy to repel from the other. Through this Aura, those within the group of the support officer become affected by Order. Which enables the energies to be maintained, preventing wild attacks from ever forming.


I'm still thinking on the others, but let me know what you guys think about this. If i'm on the right track at all. Hope their isn't too many "good versions of x", "evil versions of x" I tried to steer clear from them, but with all these changes its hard to think. You guys totally have my kudos, Heh. One thing I know will come up, The special guards, I think that support should have the guards, while the other two classes have their own respectable skills. Anyway, alot of faults in this i'm sure, but I just want to know if i'm going the right way. Later.

[Vertas]

Going off of what burzuk was saying. There are penalties for being in a cabal, sort of. If someone attacks, you HAVE to defend no matter what, so ranking can be difficult. There are sometimes restrictions of who you can rank with. cabal duties come before doing whatever you want. So you have power, but your being told how to use it basically.

[Soldier]

Yeah but there is the fact of being not knowing what skills that guy has or if its got a special title than you know what that guy is about so it helps alittle. PK cabals which is pretty much most of them you just need to know key points before attacking such as class, rank and cabal abilities you have no idea about the retarded chars I have made just to be an asshole.

[Phostan]

Soldier is hard to understand if you don't speak down syndrome.

[crazyhorse]

Aiey spek duwn an aiey steel kent unnerstan da phfuker.

[Arishel]

You're missing the picture here, Vertas and Soldier. Look at the post that Davairus posted before me, he said a form of specialization. I know what Burzuk said, and I take that into consideration. I'm trying to see if i'm on the right track of what Davairus was talking about. It goes into his format of lists 1-3, atleast I tried to make it that. Burzuk, I'll try to keep thinking of ways to get around "good version of x", "evil version of x". Hope this helped you understand something Vertas and Soldier, about what I'm trying to do.

[Vertas]

Actually I did get that part, thats what I liked about it. Sorta like not everyone drives a tank in the army...

[Soldier]

I'm too dam tanked to know wtf is going on ang keep that linght on you mother fucker.