Sorcery

How is sorcery going to work in the game, in relation to becoming a shade?

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If a decision was made, please post it.

Becoming a Shade... how does that practically alter your character? If it is some sort of transformation with different abilities, cool! Although it would require quite some effort on behalf of the developers to get it right. As with the aerial combat idea, becoming a Shade does not translate into something very different from what you do as a normal character. Lets say you pick a melee class. If becoming a Shade enhances your abilities, then why not just add enchantments? They are easier to code and it's not a big fuss about it anymore. If Shades can cast spells, then they will need some sort of balancing, and if they are too close to a wizard class, then you basically become a wizard, which is again not the intended concept.

While it's an interesting idea, it can only come to light in a future patch, maybe.

Well, becoming a Shade will take nearly or just as long to become as a rider, so implementing it as a later update isn't a bad idea. It would also give more time to finish any fine-tuning that needs to be done on Shades, while giving people the chance to actually play the game.

Becoming a Shade enhances your ability, but actual power is something you need to train for. You don't just become a Shade and are granted with extreme power. You have to work for it.

Some of the things Shades could do are teleporting, reanimating, and if you're a Beast Master and a Shade, you can further morph your creature and increase it's power.

Now, there are going to be drawbacks to becoming a Shade. One of the ones decided was that your character sorta takes control when you're offline, and travels around on their own. Not necessarily an extreme distance, but that may vary with the amount of time that has passed since you have been online.

And also, there was talk on the previous sorcery thread that there are going to be two types of Shades:- one type who is created accidentally when he/she summons spirits stronger than himself/herself & the other type is when another group of sorcerers summon spirits to convert a person to a Shade, after both parties (that is, the person who wants to be converted & the other group of sorcerers) agree to it.

P.S:- What's reanimating, FE??

So, we know there will be sorcery, but how will it be done. I know I have talked about this with people, but not sure where. It does not matter, It needs it's own topic.

Okay, so, my idea for sorcery and become a shade is this. After a certain magic level, you can do a quest to learn Sorcery. So, you learn spells, etc. The higher the level, the greater the chance you will summon spirit(s) that are too powerful. A low level spell would have say a 5% chance, while a High level Spell would have over 60% chance.

This way, it makes it hard to become a shade. You can NOT Just go out and do it at level 1. It takes work and skill to become one. It also allows sorcerers who are not always worried about becoming a shade, they have the chance, but if the are careful, it will take a lot for it to happen. The chance it would happen is that percentage each time it is cast.

I think we should stick with this. Remember, it will be a quest at a higher level to begin to learn sorcery.

@Fallen Elf: That's good, and I completely agree. It's just that it needs to remain different and actually alter your character instead of only enhancing your abilities and defense.

Now, there are going to be drawbacks to becoming a Shade. One of the ones decided was that your character sorta takes control when you're offline, and travels around on their own. Not necessarily an extreme distance, but that may vary with the amount of time that has passed since you have been online.

So that means your character remains online? Someone is surely going to take advantage of that and kill defenseless Shades in order to loot them, and if they keep leaving the town(the safe zone), you can even farm players And when you wake up in the morning and want to play: Hey, where are my potions? Where are some of my items?

@Thorn: That is a good idea, but since there is going to be a quest for Shades, I think there is a way to escape a hassle and have this happening: people who have already completed the quest, at the cost of some reagents and items which cost you, can turn you into a Shade, giving you the possibility to skip the whole quest chain. Not really sure who would take the second option, but people might always be in a hurry Also, don't think we can have them both in the quest chain. Maybe only mention the second one, because everybody will want to turn into a shade on its own.

Also, reanimating means resurrecting the dead, such as skellies and zombies, and maybe even resurrect an ally for a short while as a spirit. In this state, that player can only cast some good healing spells and buffs, and have a weak magical attack to target enemy creatures/players.

@Mindrop: Sounds good

No, when you log off, you are off. Then, your character is just placed at a random location after a time. It would probably update every so often with a wider target area.

Your character would not be seen until you log in.

@Thorn: That is a good idea, but since there is going to be a quest for Shades, I think there is a way to escape a hassle and have this happening: people who have already completed the quest, at the cost of some reagents and items which cost you, can turn you into a Shade, giving you the possibility to skip the whole quest chain. Not really sure who would take the second option, but people might always be in a hurry Also, don't think we can have them both in the quest chain. Maybe only mention the second one, because everybody will want to turn into a shade on its own.

I don't know where you're getting your information but I don't recall anything about getting shade via quest. We decided, as far as I know, that you get it when you master sorcery AND have the spirits take over your body.

This process will take a pretty solid amount of time, I WILL NOT MAKE IT EASY TO BECOME THE TOP CLASSES. Period. Shade and Dragon Rider will be the top two classes for now, and you WILL NOT be able to just skip the process by learning it from someone in game. Other normal classes maybe, but not these

Lock, from the man himself.