Suggestions:Skills

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Suggestions
Items | Skills | Classes | Game mechanics | Miscellaneous

Skill suggestions are made here. See Suggestions for a list of other suggestion categories.

Suggestions for Shartak are not often implemented but are always welcome. Comments on and improvements to existing suggestions are appreciated. Please don't remove suggestions you don't like.

Before adding a suggestion, please take the time to view the guidelines for advice on what suggestions are feasable, and please check existing suggestions to ensure that yours (or a very similar one) has not already been made. Please add new suggestions to the bottom of the page.

Implemented suggestions are moved to Suggestions:Implemented. Bug reports should be added to the Bugs page.

Example

To use the template, enter the following at the bottom of the page, but replace emboldened text with text appropriate to your suggestion: 

===Suggestion Name===
{{suggestion|
suggest_type=Skill, balance change, improvement, etc|
suggest_scope=Who or what it applies to|
suggest_description=Full description. Check spelling and be descriptive.|
suggest_time=~~~~~|
suggest_author=~~~|
suggest_comments=
<!-- COMMENT **BELOW** THIS LINE - DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE -->
Comment here
<!-- COMMENT **ABOVE** THIS LINE - DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE -->
}}

Skills

Planting/agriculture

Both outsiders and natives with this skill should be able to plant trees (mango, banana) on fertile land. By clearing away jungle, and applying an example of the fruit of the tree you wish to plant, you could sow the seed. A tree of that type would then sprout X days later. This would open up for plantation, and help feed the villages/settlements. --DKChannelboredom (2 March)

Comments

Interesting idea, perhaps only a chance that a tree will grow, and to ensure a tree grows you have to plant a certain number of fruit of the same kind on the same block. Of course, does this mean that existing trees should occasionally die off, say if they get surrounded by 8 blocks of highest density jungle and the tree block is also highest density jungle.. maybe explained as something to do with lack of sunlight reaching the tree because of the amount of jungle around it. --Simon 09:47, 2 March 2006 (GMT)
Why not treat existing trees and planted trees separately? My initial thought is that if I did not have this skill, I would still like the opportunity to gather resources from a dependable source. --Lint 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
There is now an extensive farm north of York, which makes me thing that players would like to engage in some sort of agricultural production. Rather than limit it to mangoes and bananas, why not have other tropical fruits (pineapples, guavas and pawpaws) and even outsider staples like potatoes and spinach? - FirstAmongstDaves
Just for the lulz, it should be allowed to plant bushes or trees which only grows poisonous fruits, one for natives and one for outsiders, unidentifiable without native/outsider knowledge respectively. Otherwise, to add a little twist, maybe for plants with real poisonous parts (potatoes anyone) might confuse the other faction (here: natives) and trick them into harvesting those unless they have outsider knowledge. --Baliame 15:44, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
There is now a farm just south of the Shipwreck Also, Maintained by ESHC that spans in all directions with Vineyards and Trails--Bloodclott 04:44, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Forum threads discussing agriculture:

--Buttercup 07:44, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Religious Devotion

Required to use "Holy Scriptures" --One of many doctors 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

Comments

Jungle Skills

The jungle environment has great potential to add significant dynamic to this game. These could be a set of skills to reflect this.

Jungle Lore: Player has x% chance of discovering item/artifact. Might work in conjunction with search skill.
Make/Detect Traps: Spikes, Pits etc... Not sure this is possible and what would be need to time degrade this.Nankilstlas
Some kind of "hiding" skill where you can spend AP to conceal yourself in fauna, so you can't be seen by passersby. Visually, it could take the form of "reforesting" a block to dark green, and someone who chops through would "uncover" you, perhaps getting some XP? --Jackel 19:34, 25 February 2006 (GMT)

Comments

A 'trapping' skill looks like it would be exploited by greifers (surrounding someone with traps, for example), but I like the 'Hiding' and 'Jungle Lore' ideas.--Grigoriy 02:26, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
The hiding skill shouldn't conceal you from animals or someone with the Sixth Sense, Exploration, or Jungle Lore skills, otherwise the player would be invincible.--Grigoriy 21:15, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
Agreed, hostile animals should be able to sniff out hidden players, and Sixth Sense makes sense as well. Hidden players have to remain motionless to stay hidden, using items, searching, etc, would "unhide" the person. I was also thinking how the "reforesting" aspect could be abused to create vast areas that needed to be chopped down, so maybe a player could only hide in an already dark green area, (getting a message like there is not enough foliage to suitable hide in when trying in a cleared area) limiting its effect somewhat, and creating a little extra tension when on the run from someone and trying to find an overgrown area to hide in. --Jackel 22:37, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
I like the hiding skill, maybe with different AP required depending on jungle density. Also, first hidden could make you invisible from 2 squares away, while hiding further would hide you from any adjacent square, and a third hide would keep you hidden on the same square unless they chopped. --Qberry 3/29/06
like the hiding thing as well, maybe it could work in that if you use it then you are only visible if they are in the same square as you? it would certainly keep you quite hidden anyway. -- fitzcarraldo|T 15:42, 28 March 2006 (BST)
i think jungle skills could be great as class specific skills, so that only some of the classes can use them like perhaps explorers. Or maybe they could made to favor native classes (due their affinity for the land and what not) more so than the outsiders, thus making gameplay more interesting.--A for anarchy 04:19, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Skinning

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Lint 21:48, 23 February 2006 (GMT) Skill addition All classes

This is a skill that does not have a pre-requisite. Upon coming across an area where a dead animal is present, the player is given an opportunity to skin the animal. The process of skinning costs 1 AP and has a chance of producing items such as Animal Hide or Animal Tooth or Animal Feathers. These items can be traded to an NPC found in villages and exchanged for Gold Coins. This skill should be available to all classes to grant them all with an equal opportunity of earning Gold.

  • Extend skinning to killed players? No, that's just wrong. We are civilized.
  • Make skinning have a pre-requisite of Exploration? Perhaps.
  • Make skinning always produce an item, rather than chance? No, I like a good challenge.
  • Perhaps it could be tied to the Meat suggestion? Possibly.

Comments

  • Good idea, perhaps natives don't have a pre-requisite, but outsiders need exploration? *cough* --Grigoriy 02:12, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
    • While that may be a more realistic way to handle it - since natives would conceivably be more experienced with such matters - I think that changing the skill tree for such a minor skill would upset the general sense of game balance between the two sides. --Lint 02:43, 26 February 2006 (GMT)

Animal Spirit

(native only) Upon gaining this skill, an animal type is associated with the player. Any attacks by the player on that animal result in negative xp, but the animal is less likely to attack the player. Additionally, if the player dons the skin of the animal (perhaps via the Skinning skill) then a bonus is given to the player, such as faster movement, hit bonus, damage bonus. Bonus could be dependant on animal. Upon player death, there is a chance the player's animal spirit will change. --frisco

Comments

  • Suggestions like this usually make me cringe. Can't really explain why. Could you elaborate, though, on the bonuses gained?--Wifey 17:06, 3 May 2006 (BST)

Build Training

(Outsiders only) They gain the ability to build walls around the outsider settlements. There would be different levels like reinforced, light, massive, etc. Whoever can attack them and destroy them. Maybe there would be a skill for building gates? --One of many doctors 03:33, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • Natives should be able to make walls too - think King Kong, plus if there are native ruins on this island, then they must still have some decent construction knowledge lingering around. However, Outsiders should have an "Advanced" skill that allows for stronger walls. --Frisco 04:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
Yes, any human should be able to build, and they should ONLY be able to build in certain areas, so as not to have some group lay claim to a section of the island with key resources (assuming there are some). Also, it should take a LOT of AP. --Jackel 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)
  • If this is implemented, would there be holes/platforms to fire from? If so, there would need to be an alteration in rifles and blowguns, as those can be fired from said platforms, or they can be fired at defenders on said platforms. Initially, at least, it would be probably be best if the stockades acted like UD barricades. Those inside can't fire without going outside, but are safe until those outside break down the barricades. --Black Joe 12:41, 11 July 2006 (GMT)

Build - BOATS

A large sandy expanse of beach with so much driftwood scattered around that you could probably build a boat from it if you had the right tools. so basically this patch of beach screams out "search for driftwood and build a boat", so that is what i hhave been doing but i do not have the tools to build a boat or the skill to do so. so yeah.

we need new skills. and pirates need boats for safe travel. i'm not saying a boat as big as the wreck. maybe a canoe, rowboat, or something that would take up a lot of inventory slots.--Badhammer 02:39, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Trap Laying

(Native only) They can place one time use traps that dmg outsiders only. This skill can only be used in the jungle. Maybe a skill to be able to detect traps? --One of many doctors 03:36, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • Again i'm thinking Outsiders could make traps too - some of them must have been hunters in the Old Country - but perhaps an Advanced skill for natives, leading to higher success rate, since they are more used to the environment. This skill seems dangerous, though, possibly leading to clans just laying traps in every single square of jungle, making it ridiculous for the other side. Perhaps a trap can only be made in certain jungle types, and only lasts until the jungle changes in level (either growing up naturally or down by the same character type chopping it). --Frisco 04:53, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
This was already proposed in the "jungle skills" section. I agree, it seem too easy to abuse by griefers.--Jackel 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)
It would be harder to abuse if it takes something like 50 AP to put down a trap. If you think about it, making traps large enough to hurt humans will take a long time. Since there aren't readymade bear traps these traps would have to be DIY traps made of the enviroment.


Revive skill

Applies to doctors and shamans, a skill to revive spirits, would require Sixth sense (obviously). It is simple enough premis: a skill that revives dead players similar to the regular shamans instead of requiring them to go to town shamans, the revive players aren't as skilled at the craft so the revived players would have only 80% of there hp when revived by other players. --Daylan 00:43, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • Does raise a risk of multi-abuse, but I agree that player shamen should have this ability. Maybe it requires a special powder or item in order to do?--Jackel 00:49, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
  • I am trying to think of some cost right now but can't decide. I do know that the xp gain rate should be comparable to fighting(and healing when there are more players) so players will want to be a revive player. --Daylan 01:41, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
  • I don't like the idea of Doctors getting the ability to revive the dead, but that's definitely within the rights of a shaman. Sixth Sense as a requirement, and you must be standing in the same area as a spirit. Give either a 100% chance to work and a relatively high AP cost (10?) or a lower chance to work and lower AP cost. Blam. There you go. Player shamans can now do their part.--Wifey 07:18, 28 March 2006 (BST)
  • Haven't been around in a bit..... anyways I was just thinking that it seems mighty easy to get levels by "camping" the "enemy" shamen and getting hordes of xp and tonnes of native/outsider kills this seems like an exploit of the current system of revives. If a player aided revive method is put into place the main shamans should be removed, or you can only be revived by your home shaman by the call shaman(or whatever it is called) button to prevent this xp farming. I thought of this because my level 3 pirate has got all his xp from doing this and it is mighty easy and with the Ubermap and stuff it is even easyer to do, though pirates will need a way to get revived by there own.....lol I just realized I put doctor instead of scientist doctor=scientist - Daylan 02:51, 4 April 2006 (BST)

Polymorph

Requires Animal Spirit. Allows character to take the form of an animal. Perhaps one skill per animal, and each transform requires the use of an (AP expensive) animal mask. Upon transforming, people around you cannot tell it is you. If you die as an animal, you turn back to human, having lost half the HP the animal lost. To allow polymorph for outsiders, maybe a skill like "Ancient Reading" with the presumption that this allows them to read the right glyphs in the ruins would give them the ability to learn this skill. --Frisco 03:52, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • I like the idea of having some kind of weird supernatural kind of skill for the natives... But, I think that if you get killed while in animal form, you should be dead and have to seek the assistance of a shaman. Because all the natives would do when logging out is morph into an elephant. That's a boat load of HP for someone to whittle down and kill, only to have the human pop out and have to be hacked away at. Granted, nobody will KNOW outright that the person has assumed the guise of an animal. Would you propose that if someone "kills" the animal form they get the XP bonus of killing an animal? -- Schmeckel 06:09, 11 March 2006 (GMT)
  • Special masks that turn you into animals? They'd need to be quite hard to make, maybe special wood from a certain type of tree, a bit of the animal and something to stick it together. It'd have to be harder to get the ones for better animals. MorkaisChosen 12:19, 11 March 2006 (GMT)

How about each time you die as an animal, there's a chance of your animal mask breaking? --Buttercup 09:37, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Will o' the Wisp

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Lint 07:53, 25 March 2006 (GMT) Skill addition Spirits (all classes)

Will o' the Wisp (can't think of another name) is a potentially simple skill to give a little more incentive to play as a spirit for a bit. It is a sub-skill of Ghostly whisper. If a player possesses this skill, then as a spirit they will have an option to "Wisp" for 30 AP. Wisping operates on a similar mechanic as the Flare guns and Feeding groans in Urban Dead. Any players posessing Sixth Sense within a 5x5 range of the spirit will be informed: A faint flicker of light catches your eye (x blocks east/west), (y blocks north/south). (timestamp).

This skill also has the potential to stack. More spirits on the same square will produce a brighter effect. Possibly in base 5. Ranging from faint flicker, slight illumination, to brilliant flash.

Fixes that I made last minute: reduced the Wisp range and upped the Wisp cost in an attempt to reduce spamming, also making Sixth Sense a prerequisite for recognizing Wisps as it would otherwise nerf the skill to a degree.

Comments

  • I like it. The AP cost might be a bit on the high side, but there may be other alternatives to reduce spamming. --Simon 10:44, 25 March 2006 (GMT)
  • What's the point of it? Or is there something I'm missing? I mean, is it just to light up for kicks? Wll o' the Wisps in folklore always attempted to lead travellers into dangerous parts of bogs, where they would find their doom. Since that isn't really an option (and since people, noticing this, would just stop paying attention to them), is there any practical use for this? Still neat, if there isn't, but better if there is.--Wifey 07:25, 28 March 2006 (BST)
    • As a Shaman with Sixth Sense, I've only come across 1 spirit. I sought a means to encourage the realm of the living and the dead to interact more. It is admitedly mostly aimed towards flavor and roleplaying than mechanics. The most practical application would be to attract people to revive points (in the possibility that they are created). In retrospect, I now see that this suggestion overlaps with the Haunting Scream description to a fair degree. --Lint 08:33, 28 March 2006 (BST)
  • Does it overlap? I haven't seen a Haunting Scream in action, yet. I'm all for flavor and RP skills, I just doubt that people woud bother with them too often without some mechanical benefit, which would be a shame. I'll admit, though, that I hadn't thought of attracting shamans to get yourself revived.--Wifey 06:48, 29 March 2006 (BST)

Construction

construction points, would be implemented and would act like exp, but players earn it by setting up camp, ex: 5exp everytime a player sets up his/her cabin, costs 10ap to set up, to keep from spamming and getting free exp.

  • constructionallow players to build 1(one) single hut per GAME that is collapsable, non collapsable, players out in the jungle would have to cut down the jungle to re-construct the hut

this would give players a reason to stay out in the jungle,

simply what it says, first off, we could/should have different buildings because i find it annoying to have to look around at the same picture not knowing where the trading post is. im implying that new icons be put in for huts, like the pirate ship, have different pictures, ex: there is an armory hut, it's icon would be a hut with a silver tip/ sword on the roof and etc...

SKILLS:

  • hut maitenance

can change hut 1(one) time into another kind of hut ex: armory hut, extra chance of finding wpns etc

    • cupboard accesible inventory in hut that players can "lock" and recieve a "key" item, other players could break open the "lock" for x amount of AP
  • bed players in hut are shown the "get into bed" option which heals 2 hp every hour they arent logged in
    • fluffy bed heals and extra 1-2 hp
  • running water

if the hut is within x amount of squares to water, they can refill gourds and bottles (i think someone suggested we keep empty bottles, this would require that to be implemented)

  • fire-pit players can cook meat (as suggested, only used if implemented)
  • craftmanshipplayers can see the hut's creator, ex: Richard's Hut, if skill isnt aquired, players see the hut as "dishevelled hut" or "ragged hut" etc.
  • hut upgrade 1 hut is given one extra ring of squares
    • hut upgrade 2 hut is given extra floor
      • hut upgrade 3 hut second floor is enlarged, door locks are given
        • hut upgrade 4 hut is given a basement

the use of hut upgrades is to help people hide, when upgrade 3 is given, and locks are attained, players can "lock" their houses up, requiring a devastating amount of AP to open, suggesting around 60-70 AP

  • house trap 1 spike trap, inflicts 1 wound
    • house trap 2 heavy spike trap, 1 wound and 3 dmg
  • house trap 3 blast trap, 7 hp
    • house trap 4 heavy blast trap 14 hp

traps are triggered upon breaking into a house, players can attain a new skill:

  • lockpick breaking in only costs 30 AP

with this skill, traps are disabled

  • animal cage

if animal trapping were implemented, then this would keep them from running away when u died,

    • animal care animal care section of the house, determining your pet's status ex:

Richard clicks the button "give pet food" mr whiskers smiles and gobbles it up. it could also just be flavor text, and a way to get rid of meat.

  • attack animal

player buys skill animal now acts like trap, player types in names of people allowed to be in house, anyone not on the list is attacked by animal, animal is treated as "wild" to intruders, as per, it will follow them several blocks away from the house before returning, and can be killed, but is also agressive no matter what breed. ex: mr.parrot attack john doe for 2 dammage and returns home.

    • rabidity animal is now "rabid" and has a 20% chance of "infecting" (wound) the intruding player

other tidings can be added, ex:

  • taxidermy players can pick up dead bodies and mount them in their house ex:

in the second story of richard's hut is a grey elephant head, mounted on oak

my finale,

  • garden allows players to plant a tree/ bush 1 square away from their house, planting requires, 5 of the said fruit and the plants disappear when the hut is packed up, players also have the ability to "kill" the plant and re-grow a different one.
    • green thumb allows players to garden for only 3 fruits
    • verdant thumb allows players to change to growths around their house, ex: a house surrounded by dirt can be changed to light undergrouwth or heavy forest
    • spade allows player to dig a "cellar" 1-3 squares away from house to "hide" or store items.

skill also allows players to loacte any tunnels within 5X5 of the checked area. players can only check within a 3X3 area around the house

house experience does not raise everytime a skill is bought, but the price is set at 100-200 (your choice)

"comments Below"

Sounds like it would be a good idea if the island was bigger but otherwise a 3x3 would be gigantic if everyone had one--Slith 21:40, 29 March 2006 (BST)

  • not really, but the huts are still the same single square size on the outside, it is the inside that changes. --Richard Rose

I think it would be better to implement this skill while implementing clans - i.e. having clan camps. One way to implement this would be to establish camp/ a hut automatically when a certain number of players from a given clan stand on a single square. This would reward organization and prevent individual players from spamming. In addition, I think that having all those additions as skills is unnessacary. I just adds uneeded complexity. Again, clan based operation seems to be the best way to do this.--Gandhi 00:47, 31 March 2006 (BST)

Well, being able to go out into the jungle and making a little camp would be very interesting. With a clan feature you could set up small clan camps as Gandhi said as small towns perhaps. But one way to assure that it's not spammed is one per person not really clan needed. That way someone could have a small home if they wanted and people couldnt spam them but it would encourage clan building to have a variety of buildings. Of course the problem with a limit is dying then beiong far from your home and then a problem with replacing. But if its as an item in inventory when you die maybe that would work? Use to set up on a square. I personally am setting myself up in the jungle in an area clearing paths and what not but theres really not much for me to do. Construction would be wonderfull if a way is found ot properly manage it.--Dracul

Plunder

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Wifey 07:15, 30 March 2006 (BST) Skill Pirates

So. Pirates have been added, at long last. We all love pirates. They're swarthy, greedy people. Like mobsters, only with eyepatches, bandanas, peg legs, parrots, and the clap. There's something lacking in the pirates on Shartak, though. To get a better idea of this, let's look at the check list.

[x] 1. Pirate ship

[x] 2. Swarthy attitude

[x] 3. Pirate lingo

[x] 4. Murder

[ ] 5. Plunder

Aha! So we've identified the problem: a distinct lack of plunder. For this reason, I've come up with the idea for a plunderin' skill. Now, when you kill some poor sap, you take one coin out of his inventory per level--his level, that is. This keeps it a little balanced, in that you won't be taking away the life savings of some poor little level 1 when you kil him. Unless he happens to have only 1 coin, but that's neither here nor there. Now, of course, if you kill a level 5 who only has 4 coins, you'll only get those 4 coins. If he has 6 coins, however, you'll only get 5 of them.

Is it overpowering pirates to give them this class-restricted skill? Not really. I mean, despite being a combat class, they can't really get any good with rifles. Pretty much all of their kills are made with a cutlass. And what's the real usage of the gold coins? Typically, to buy ammunition. Obviously, the pirates won't be using it on that, as they're terrible shots. They'll just buy themselves some medical supplies, some back-up weapons, and hoard the rest. I can't say I know that many players who hold onto the coins, anyways, though I'm sure there must be some. Still, they generally tend to be spent pretty quickly. Really, I just think that this could lend pirates a little more depth; sure, they're fellow outsiders, but can you trust them? How quickly will they cut your throat for you wallet?

So... Thoughts? Agreement? Death threats?

Comments

  • Keep/Change (Yarr) I agree that this fits with theme and perhaps rightfully rewards Pirates in that they do not have a Trader NPC at the shipwreck (at least that was the case when I left it several days ago). And I'm glad that this is being presented as a purchasable skill (I believe?) rather than an inherent one.
    I do generally follow one of the basic tenets of UD - "Don't Tread On Me Mess With My Inventory!" But gold appears to have become fairly plentiful with the Trader NPC; having more gold than your current level is a fairly easy feat and losing gold won't lead to an entirely unpleasant gaming experience. However, I would like a few more mechanics set in place to minimize the avenues to zerging, griefing, and general abuse that this suggestion would open up.
    The only simple amendment I can think of may be to give Plunder a percent chance of success. Perhaps allowing for degrees of advanced plundering skills. --Lint 20:07, 30 March 2006 (BST)
    • RE: A very good point. Very good points from both of you. I had thought of a % chance when I was originally writing the suggestion, but I realized that the nwe'd be dealing with an X% chance to get Y% of the other player's coins, and I thought it might be a little more work on the server than necessary. I thought, perhaps a chence of getting only 1 coin, but that seemed just silly. Perhaps we could limit the pirate to only 1 plunder per day (or maybe a few more, if people feel that 1 is too few)? For example, if you killed John Smith the level 1 Explorer and took 1 coin from him, then killed Mr. Moneybags the level 16 with more coins than you can shake a stick at, you would get no coins from him. If you were to wait a day, though, and kill Mr. Moneybags then, you would get 16 coins--and no more from anyone else for the rest of the day. Additionally, you would not be able ot get money from the same person twice in a row. So if, after killing Mr. Moneybags and taking half of his coins, you killed him the next day, you would get none. You might as well have gone for poor little John Smith. That eliminates griefing, and all it would need to do is keep track of the ID of the last person you killed, checking it the next time you kill someone 24+ hours later..--Wifey 23:29, 30 March 2006 (BST)
  • i agree with both of them, and with you, id love to see this flavor added, and the trader NPC at the pirate camp has yet to be found, so they would have to go to another village to use it. the closest village (where my pirate is) is dalpok, which, is, as you know native. this hostility would mean pirates would REALLY have to work to hoard medical supplies and weapons, thusly this would be well balanced. i also want to discuss the % success rate. as pirates are VERY good at "plundering" the % chance success rate should start at a reasonably high %, such as 50% and above. as putting it any lower would simply be ridiculous. there could be several level ups to raise the % but if there are no advanced levels then i suggest putting the starting % at around 75%. --Richard Rose
  • Plunder could be made a search skill (concievably the second skill in the plunder grouping). Rather than having it be merely equivalent to scavenging the plunder skill could only be used in villages (it wouldn't matter if they were native or outsider villages). Scavenging could similarly be changed to a jungle-only skill. Repeatedly plundering a square would deplete it much like chopping down a square of jungle, and squares would replenish over time much the same way. Whether this affects the search odds for other players is open to debate. I'd hate for the pirate class to be burning every other class in the game by plundering all the villages to the point nobody could find a rifle.
    The odds of finding a broken item should increase while plundering. The more refined the item the greater the chance it would be broken when a pirate plunders it (GPS, first aid kits, rifles, dart guns and any other delicate manufactured items to come being more likely to be broken). It would give people on the island something to do other than filling out the map and hunting game. Since we could then expect groups of pirates moving from village to village it would also increase player interaction (violently or otherwise). Having a wider range of broken items could necessitate a repair skill for players or a similar service that could be provided by a trader adding another level to the game's economy. -Tyler Whitney
  • With the new "stuff breaks/crit hit" along with traders gold has a major use, instead of searching for that cutlass(or machete both break) you can go trade your hard earned gold coins for a weapon, why stop at just coins? pirates could get this skill and should just take away 1 random item (any item) plus a few gold coins, as we all know pirates didn't just take gold they took anything of value. Though level ones should be completly immune to this and the maximum value of the item you take(based on how many gold coins it takes to trade for the item) should be equal to there level, or some other method all I know is items should get stolen along with coins, you can only get killed once (as of right now) before going back to a village so it doesn't do too much, I mean 1 item? even if it was my machete(whom I call Mary) I wouldn't mind, sure my ghost would scream and haunt the bastard who took her away from me that would just add a new level of fun to the game. As a native(with a pirate alt) I support this skill, though it would entail a new top ten richest in the statistics page so the pirates would know who to hunt.... mwahaha -Daylan 03:09, 4 April 2006 (BST)
    • Now there's an interesting idea. Perhaps, though, there should then be a hierarchy of items in the eyes of a pirate? For instance, you take 1 item (which might be a gold coin) and one gold coin on the side. The gold coins on the side would increase with one's level. What would the item be, though? Probably first would be a gem. They're shiny and valuable--a pirate's favorite words (aside from "Arrrr!")! Next? A gold coin. Not enough coins? Probably a cutlass or machete. None of those? Rifle. No? Rifle bullet, then. None of those, either? Probably go with a first aid kit. Ah, but those are out, too? Bottle of water. And so on down the list. Bottle of water -> bottle of rum -> gourd of water/banana/berries -> knife/dagger. I doubt a pirate would bother with a blowgun or darts, nor would he yearn for his enemies' driftwood. Once again, just throwing an idea out, though.--Wifey 06:28, 4 April 2006 (BST)
      • To a Pirate, Rum would be more interesting than Water...MorkaisChosen 11:40, 28 May 2006 (BST)
    • I think plundering items crosses into making this skill much to powerful. It lessens the need for the Pirate class to spend AP searching. They may lose a cutlass or two choppping another player to bits, but then they earn a machete in the kill and can continue on their way. Gold coins can be argued to be powerful, but the lack of a Trader at the shipwreck means they have to make their way to other Villages in order to spend them. After some further thinking, I feel that there should be a plundering cap of 10 coins regardless of level (otherwise it would be unfair to classes with class-specific skills that make them a higher level than others). And it is random chance after the kill produces no coins or some coins or all coins. If the player doesn't have enough coins, the Pirate plunders what he can and is given extra flavor text to reward them on their evil little victory. "Yo ho ho! You have taken all (Player)'s booty." --Lint 07:00, 4 April 2006 (BST)
  • Plunder sounds nice. How about this formula: a pirate's chance of plundering someone equals 4 times the pirate's level minus 2 times the victim's level and always returns the lesser of half the victim's level in gold (rounded down) or all the victim's gold. In other words, if a level 10 pirate plunders a level 1 scientist with 10 gold, the pirate has a 38% chance of getting 0 gold, and if a level 10 pirate plunders a level 13 warrior with 2 gold, the pirate has a 14% chance of getting 2 gold. This simulates higher level non-pirates being more adept at hiding coin purses on their body, and prevents griefing on newbies. I agree with above comments that plunder should be a one time immediate event upon killing a character, based on a percentage chance, and limited to gold - anything else makes the skill too complex and/or powerful. --Frisco 13:39, 4 April 2006 (BST)
  • I wouldn't support this unless pirates could be plundered from, too, which kind of defeats the point. It's not like pirates are a weak class; the shipwreck has a trader now, and they start with 65 HP. I really like being able to count on having a static inventory while I'm logged out, and I think "Yarr, a pirate has killed you and plundered 1 gold coin" would get old very fast. I think it'd be quite cool if pirates were healed by 1 HP more for drinking beer or rum, but taking gold from their kills is too much. — Elembis (talk) 16:42, 28 May 2006 (BST)
  • Yarr and Keep. I say this is a good addition. I believe all the classes should have some skill specific to them. I have a pirate and a scientist, and neither of them have anywhere special go to in terms of skills, thus making the distinction of them being scientists and pirates useless. Especially the scientist... 10 gold coins? What the? --Rip Purr 10:53, 30 May 2006 (BST)
  • Would it damage game balance much to have the pirate gain gold as described, but without taking gold from the victim? That way we have the benefits of the skill, without the annoyance of losing your gold. And it wouldnt be an easier way to get money than searching in huts, so it shouldnt unbalance the game too much. --Gitboy 17:26, 3 July 2006
  • I like the idea of plunder, and given that pirates don’t have class specific skill it would only be fitting to have it as our first. Rather then trying to create overly complicated system for plunder we should just follow in the tradition of final fantasy more specifically making plunder into a 3 level skill much in the vain of steal (a small chance of taking a random item from opponent’s inventory (maybe 5%)) rob (a greater of chance than the above (10%)) and finally mug (the same chance rating as “rob” with the addition of damage if successful(something like 2 or 3).--A for anarchy 04:13, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Yarrr, I not be in favor of this one, here. I'll list me reasons why.

  1. The pirate kills and robs you, stealing the money that would have gone to pay someone to take revenge on him.
  2. There's no limit on how often (different) pirates can steal from you. You could end up dirt broke AND having to be revived from a shaman every day just because 10 pirates thought you were the guy to steal gold from.
  3. If it isn't already, being on the list of wealthiest Shartakians will become a death sentence.
  4. I can understand a pirate killing someone for insulting his mother, but to rob some pauper's pockets? That's not being piratey, that's more like being a common thug.
  5. Pirates don't go after pennies, they go after great riches. CHESTS of gold and jewels. They plunder the king's vaults or the entire contents of a ship at sea, REAL bounty!

--Buttercup 18:26, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Diagnosis

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Lint 18:21, 6 April 2006 (BST) Skill addition, class-specific Shaman and Scientist

This is an attempt to create additional variety within the classes. Diagnosis would be a sub-skill of Triage available only to the Shaman and Scientist classes. It behaves much like Triage does, but it would detect Shark Bites and other possible future maladies and status ailments. Shark Bite victims could be identified with an asterisk next to their name.
I believe that this skill's net benefits will be minimal. It would fit with the theme of the class, while not over-powering them. I also believe that since this is a sub-skill, that there should be additional class-specific skills for Shamans and Scientist.

Comments

  • If Triage truly only does reveal one person's HP then the skill tree should be expanded for Advanced Triage as well. Where Advanced Triage would display the HP of everyone in the current area - rather than just the most wounded. --Lint 01:55, 29 April 2006 (BST)
  • Corrected usage of Doctor. I hope that this skill can still be considered in-character for Scientists. --Lint 23:11, 11 May 2006 (BST)

Alchemy

Author Timestamp Type Scope
One of many doctors 23:24, 8 April 2006 (BST) Skill addition, class-specific Scientists

Allows Scientists to convert seemingly useless items (such as driftwood) into valuables such as a gold coin. Another possibility is crabs into gems (don't ask). This would, of course, cost about 25 AP per use. This would give Scientists a key role in the game because they would be needed to convert intems.

Comments

  • While I like the basic idea of this, it should be limited a little. That said, I don't know how one would appropriately limit its use. Perhaps you could turn a bottle of rum into a more refreshing bottle of water? How, precisely, would you envision the implementation of this?--Wifey 01:18, 10 April 2006 (BST)
  • I like it! It gives us something unique to do as scientists! Would you make it so you turn a specific useless item into a specific useful item, or what?MorkaisChosen 15:24, 10 April 2006 (BST)
    • I imagine that eventually every class will have atleast one unique skill to separate it from the others and give a reason for choosing that class. --One of many doctors 01:30, 11 April 2006 (BST)
  • I could accept this if it was presented differently. As it stands, it sort of conflicts with my expectation that the Natives are the more mystically-inclined and the Outsiders are more advanced technologically. I just don't envision men and women of science practicing alchemy. I have no objection to the scientist manufacturing items, but not in this manner. --Lint 03:37, 11 April 2006 (BST)

Spirit Substantiation

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Frisco 16:40, 14 April 2006 (BST) Skill Sprits (all classes)

The spirit has learned to partially substantiate its form, becoming more physical, and can now float on the winds to move at double the normal rate (i.e. .5 AP per move), but only in the direction that the wind is blowing. Note that this requires the game element of wind, which can either be a uni-directional constant (e.g. always blows west) or changes over time (perhaps dependant on location?). If wind direction changes, the game's user interface will need a mechanism to display wind direction, either via game.cgi or added to map.html.

This could be the first in a series of new spirit skills. I see the aforementioned Will o' the Wisp being under this tree, as well as another skill to move .3 AP per move but still only in the direction of the wind. Perhaps some poltergeist type skills can be added as well - allow dead pirates to plunder, any spirit to write messages, any spirit to still map out the area, etc, etc.

Comments

  • Nice idea, what would happen to moving against the wind? Would that then require 2AP and 1 AP to move at 90 degrees to the wind direction :) --Simon 17:33, 14 April 2006 (BST)
    • I was thinking of substantiation as being a conceptual (not a user toggle switch, something the game system automatically determines) on/off capability of the ghost, so the ghost could have no form and thus no penalty for moving into the wind, then take form and move with the wind. But that's mostly because i don't like the idea of skills that negatively affect a character. I definitely think wind should adversely affect other things, like pigeons taking longer to deliver if the recipient is upwind. It's all more math for you! --Frisco 17:49, 14 April 2006 (BST)

Marksmanship

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Arminius 05:34, 13 May 2006 (BST) Skill modification and new skill Anyone who uses a ranged weapon

A few problems that I see with regard to rifle use: 1) Non-soldiers' extremely low maximum rifle accuracy making rifles useless to non-soldiers, 2) Loading rifles takes up a tremendous amount of AP since it costs one AP to load one bullet, leading to a very low damage-to-total-AP-spent ratio, 3) A closely related problem to #2 is the fact that people are carrying around 20 or 30 rifles/blowpipes, which is ridiculous and unrealistic, and a by-product of the AP cost to load. I dont know if the following idea for a solution to both of these problems can realisitically be implemented, but here goes: Change the Advanced Rifle Training skill to make loading rifle bullets cost 0 AP (advanced training would thus mean the abiliy to load rifles very easily and quickly, as opposed to untrained people who take much longer. We are in the time period when it took a long time to load rifles after all). Institute a new skill called Marksmanship in the firearms skill tree, which gives +__% rifle accuracy (I would say +30%). Let marksmanship be a skill that can be acquired by anyone, while rifle training and advanced rifle training remain soldier-exlcusive. If Marksmanship gives +30%, it will improve non-soldiers' maximum accuracy from 20% to 50%, knocking out problem #1 above. Soldiers with the entire proposed rifle skill tree would have max accuracy of 70% and would not have to waste an AP to load, knocking out problem #2. Natives would get the same changes for blowpipe note: It might be better to have two skills, Marksmanship and Expert Marksmaship, each giving +15% accuracy, and possibly make these two a seperate skill tree. If they were in the rifle training tree, they would have to come after the two rifle training skills, but non-soldiers cannot get rifle training, so it would look awkward.

NOTE: Revised proposal and statistical analysis of current vs. proposed damage-to-AP ratios, click here

Comments

  • From a gameplay point of view, i don't see that guns/blowpipes need to be any stronger. It's already possible to take someone out in one go, why the need to kill quicker? The proposed change means with one gun and a full load of bullets, one soldier in one day causes an average of 75 * .7 * 4 = 210 HP damage - that's 2.4 pirates with stamina, or 4.2 beginner shamans. It would make the game a lot less fun to be able to die that much quicker and that much more often. Maybe i wouldn't object as much if these old school guns were also subject to backfiring, causing them to blow up in the owner's hands and resulting in owner HP loss and gun destruction (similar to machete/cutlass blade snapping). By the way, elsewhere there's been debate on the timeperiod of the game since we also have GPS units. --Frisco 20:00, 13 May 2006 (BST)
You are calculating combat damage-to-AP ratio, the proposed modification of the advanced rifle training skill would not affect combat-damage-to-AP ratio very much (it would affect it not at all for people with lots of rifles), it would only affect the rifle's currently very low total overall damage-inflicted-to-AP-spent ratio. (With 28 fully-loaded rifles a soldier can already kill two 85-HP pirates in only 56 AP.) The rifle's total-damage-to-AP ratio today is 0.48 by my calculation, the machete's is 1.35. With the proposed changes, the maximum total-damage-to-AP ratio for a rifle-wielding soldier would be 0.7 (still far lower than machete). Non-soldiers max rifle total damage-to-AP ratio would improve from 0.16 (weaker than a level 0 character with a blunt machete) to 0.4. I like your suggestion of rifles possibly blowing up too, Simon should definitely consider that. Arminius 20:28, 13 May 2006 (BST)
  • I'm not sure how I feel about the skill yet, but I will correct you, Frisco, in that the GPS unit is not an adequate argument about the game's time period. Simon has already said that he doesn't like the name "GPS Unit" because it is anachronistic, and was considering another one.--Wifey 01:03, 14 May 2006 (BST)
  • I don't quite see why rebuilding the skill tree is necessary. You could accomplish the same thing by introducing two new skills - one for accuracy which builds upon the existing accuracy skills and one for reloading. Make the first accuracy skill available to all classes (adjusting to 30%), but restrict the secondary accuracy skills to Warriors and Soldiers. But even then, I'm not completely sold on the fact that these skills are necessary. I have no problem with my non-Soldier not depending on a rifle. If I wanted to use a rifle, I can easily make a Soldier character. And while reducing reloading cost might bring rifles and blowpipes more evenly with machetes, increasing the damage or introducing the ranged attack suggestion might solve the problem without providing free lunches. --Lint 02:31, 15 May 2006 (BST)
Yes of course it's fine to make them new skills. I suggested it in the way I did because learning to load quickly would fall under rifle training I would say, and we already have the two rifle-training skills in the game. One of the accuracy-improving skills would fall under Marskmanship (or marskmanship/expert marksmanship). How they are added to the game is almost immaterial, the point is to let soldiers be able to acquire a skill which gets rid of their need to waste more than half their daily AP loading their 20 rifles, and get rid of the need to carry 20+ rifles in the first place. I dont see how a skill allowing for a 0 AP cost to load is a "free lunch" at all, it just reduces the price of a ridiculously high-priced lunch, i.e. 1 AP to load 1 bullet/dart (plus I feel it improves the realism of the game, in part by eliminating the need to carry around 25 rifles or blowpipes). The point of the Marksmanship skill (available to all) is not to put non-soldiers on the par with soldiers in firearms capability at all, but to make rifles non-worthless to everyone else. Currently non-soldiers are literally far better off punching enemies than using a rifle when it comes to damage-inflicted-per-AP-spent, which is just ridiculous. Arminius 03:37, 15 May 2006 (BST)
I do like the idea of making rifle and blowpipe usage more accessible to other character classes. But I continue to have a difficult time accepting the 0 AP reload cost. Currently there is no action in the game that costs 0 AP besides rejecting a trade, speaking in empty area, healing someone at full health, and dropping an item (all non-actions). Would 0.5 AP would be an acceptable change? But before it is considered, there must be other alternatives before lowering AP cost to make the ranged weapons more balanced. --Lint 22:27, 27 May 2006 (BST)
How about this-- modify advanced rifle training skill so that instead of "Gain another 20% on firearms attacks", it says "lets soldiers load and fire faster" (0.5 AP to load and to fire with that skill), in other words a rifle version of trekking. This would cut down on the excessive AP costs of rifle usage and be an interesting skill to balance rifles rather than another "add 20% accuracy" or something like that. Then two new skills, Marksmanship (+10% accuracy), Expert Marskmanship (+20% accuracy), both of which would be available to all character classes. I would envision the two marskmanship skills as the first two skills in the firearms tree (the only two available to non-soldiers), and then the rifle training skills would come afterwards. -Arminius 20:00, 30 May 2006 (BST)
UPDATE: To see a revised version of my suggestion Click Here. I worked out the current and proposed damage-to-AP ratios, and I invite everyone to take a look. It is far too long and complicated to copy here, so I wrote it up elsewhere. -Arminius 01:44, 2 June 2006 (BST)
  • As discussed elsewhere, carrying loaded rifles as backup allows you to lock in the kill bonus on a much wider range of (remaining-AP/remaining-victim-HP) situations. Since the kill bonus is more than a third of total XP for combat, this throws the naive XP=damage comparisons way out of whack. Anecdotally at least, my Soldier has clearly done better than my other characters in jungle XP-harvesting, because kill-steals and dying while asleep are so common. So while the Rifle (and especially the Blowpipe) needs help, I think that nearly doubling combat-time damage to 2x 50% 5 damage for 1 AP (5.0) instead of 1x 60% 5 damage (3.0) is not an ideal way to proceed. I support Free Reload or Rapid Reload as a Soldier-Only Skill. I also think that an all-available accuracy upgrade for Rifle/Blowpipe (to at least better than Machete) would be great. For example: Base 20% (+General Accuracy +15%) (+Soldier-only Accuracy +15%) (+Soldier-only Accuracy +15%). Or maybe Base 10% (+General Accuracy +25%) (+Soldier-only Accuracy +25%) (+Soldier-only Rapid Reload), and increase Rifle Bullet base damage to 6. Two shots per AP just seems too big a jump to me; imho implementing true range (firing from adjacent square and/or without provoking return melee attacks) is a better way to proceed. --Tycho44 03:56, 2 June 2006 (BST)
  • Yes the blowpipe needs help even more than the rifle. That limited-AP poisoning skill, along with these proposed boosts to accuracy, would even things out there. I also like the idea of making ranged weapons truly ranged, but that seems difficult to implement and perhaps impractical (for one thing we cant see the names of people on adjacent squares). If any version of QBerry's "auto attack" is ever implemented for players, though it seems unlikely with so much opposition, the "range" of the ranged weapon could come into play by not allowing a person without ranged weapons/ammo to back. This was discussed on the forums in the "Aggressive Animals" thread. Arminius 06:01, 2 June 2006 (BST)
  • NB about Free Reload: Incidentally, Free Reload obviously solves the "realism problem" by allowing a Soldier to carry only one Rifle and a huge pile of Bullets, with no increase in Soldier combat-time damage-per-AP (still 3.0 max avg per AP) nor Soldier field-capacity damage-per-inventoryfull (still 72 shots) since 2 Bullets loose take up as much space as a Loaded Rifle. People who think that 0AP reload is imbalancing have been smoking too much of the dried herbs. As for realism of 0AP reload, the Soldier's "1AP to fire" accounts for time necessary to both reload and fire. I can discuss and reject 160 exchanges with the Trader and or attempt to heal a signpost in the same amount of time. The real-time form submission and IP hit creates a perceptible time-increment. --Tycho44 03:56, 2 June 2006 (BST)

After thinking about this, it seems to me that the best thing to do is as follows: No new skill, instead simply a change in the game mechanics so that all players take 0 AP to "load" by deafult. The AP cost to fire would thereby represent the time to load and fire, as Tycho44 said above. (Load was in quotation marks there because the load button in-game would thus really represent selecting the bullet to use, the actual action of loading would be included in the 1 AP to fire). This would eliminate the 30 rifles problem straight away (and for all character classes), it would not increase the combat damage-to-AP ratio at all, and it would be an interesting way to increase the damage-to-total-AP-spent ratio (which we need) without having to add any new skill. As for the accuracy boosts, those can be worked out later (non-soldiers need a boost in that department we all agree, perhaps soldiers merit a slight one), but 0 AP to "load" is definitely a sound change to make, I see no argument against it. Arminius 23:11, 3 June 2006 (BST)

The reason why I keep pressing for alternatives is because I never saw this as a solution in other browser-based games. Shouldn't the route be to increase the damage dealt to reduce the impact of the reload cost? --Lint 18:52, 14 June 2006 (BST)

My earlier arguments notwithstanding, I strongly oppose universal 0AP reload. A 0AP reload for everyone simply destroys the reloading game mechanism in its entirety, making the 2-bullet chamber of the rifle identical to the 1-dart chamber of the blowpipe identical to the 70-bullet drum of a hypothetical gatling gun. The blowpipe is distinguished by its Poison damage, which can in turn be offset by a Reload Penalty, if we keep that game mechanic. Keeping the reload mechanic enhances the separate-but-equal factions. In my humble and uninformed speculation, tweak up the accuracy on ranged weapons (say 20% base / 35% marksmanship-universal / 50% warrior-only / 65% advanced-warrior-only) and things will work fine. --Tycho44 23:54, 17 June 2006 (BST)

Hut Construction (Simplified)

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Rip Purr 12:05, 3 June 2006 (BST) Skill, item, action Every player

This is a bit similar to the Construction suggestion, but much more simplified. I agree that we should be able to set up little camps, to have bases away from bases. I'll explain the flavour aspect after I've explained the mechanics.
A skill can be purchased called, "Construction", which allows you to erect a hut on land that has been chopped down to 0 density. The hut would have a bit of AP weight to build, say 10ap cost so that full constuction on a 10 dense jungle sq would have a total of 20ap. The hut that you build is at first a regular empty hut. Once you have bought the second skill in the set, "Stock Hut" (or something like that), the hut becomes a mini trade-post, stocking no more than 5 types of items at any one point. The first 5 items are randomized, and then as people trade, they change. Thus, it's a mixed bag of what you could get. These artificially erected huts can be sacked and destroyed. Keep in mind I'm not a coder, so if you know what I'm describing is difficult, but know how to do something similar, please say so.
Flavour: This gives people the feeling of being able to set up their own little base camp for their own clan, without making a whole new village. The fact that each hut can only stock a small number of items, and also that it can be destoryed, means things don't get out of hand and make the original villages defunct. Each hut can also be plauged with low-demand items like crabs or mangoes, making the idea even for grifers, natives, enemies, outsiders and pirates.

Comments
Building a hut could also require a certain number of driftwood pieces. --Rip Purr 12:08, 3 June 2006 (BST) I was thinking the same idea-Like full inventory of 70 driftwood, if you have a backapack,theres your cargo to trade--Bloodclott 04:48, 19 December 2007 (UTC)


Ability to create minor base camps away from settlements is good (but for what practical purpose?), but the idea that the island would be flooded with "huts" all over, with the same icon and name as huts in settlements, I dont like that. This is supposed to a wild myseterious island, having huts all over would hurt that ambiance I think (Lower-tech base camps of some sort would not hurt it though.) If hut construction is implemented it would have to be very costly to avoid littering the entire map with them that's for sure. The other thing is, We have to be clear about what the purpose of these base camps would be, what practical benfit would they have. Would they have defense value? Could the builder elect to keep people out unless they are members of clan X or unless they are natives or unless they are Derbyites, etc? Arminius 00:59, 4 June 2006 (BST)

I agree wholeheartedly with your points. It is indeed important to make it difficult to build huts. As I mentioned, the huts would have very small capabilities as a trade point, thus making them a tactical advantage in a seige. Allow me to explain; My clan wants to lay seige to Dalpok. We erect a small camp near the village and stock our huts with bullets through trading. Then we load up, attack, come back to our makeshift camp and take the bullets from our huts. As for the wild, mysterious island element, you're right, but is it not normal for humans to tame and civilise the jungle? And vice versa for humans to destroy one another's homes? With this new skill(s) we can simulate seiges and sackings, but still keep our 7 original villages/bases. I don't think you could exclude people from entering your hut. It's the luck of the draw, and if enemies infiltrate, too bad. makes it all the more exciting. I also agree that making a hut should be very costly, but that's up to Simon as to how he'd like to implement such a cost. Finally, the only variation I can see might be to make huts not a mini trade post, but maybe a small storage area of say 15 slots, to keep bullets or med kits from the main towns...? --Rip Purr 02:30, 4 June 2006 (BST)
Here are my thoughts on the matter:
  1. To encourage clustering of huts (instead of unsightly and unrealistic random scattering), hut-builders should be required to chop the hut's eventual square and all surrounding squares (that don't have huts on them) to d0. After all, construction requires some space. This would encourage players to build next to existing huts, since every adjacent hut is a square that doesn't need chopping.
  2. For realism's sake, driftwood shouldn't be required to build or repair a hut, because it'd be silly to make a player in the middle of a huge jungle travel all the way to the beach to find wood. Jungle wood could be introduced as an item, but I think it's better to require AP alone.
  3. Hut health could be managed by giving each new hut 5 HP (Hut Points =)) and removing 1 HP every 24 hours (obliterating any hut that reaches 0 HP). A hut would require 50 AP to construct (in addition to AP for chopping the surrounding jungle) and 10 AP to repair by 1 HP. Repairs wouldn't require cleared jungle; once a hut is built, jungle growth outside doesn't matter.
  4. Special features for huts, such as trade and storage abilities, should be put on hold until buildable huts are already in the game. Not only do huts provide shelter from animals, they hide players inside from anyone not willing to spend a few AP to move to the hut and enter it, so additional features shouldn't be necessary to make hut-building worthwhile.
— Elembis (talk) 04:52, 4 June 2006 (BST)


A side idea, that probably doesn't deserve a complete new suggestion. It would be interesting to have huts or lean-to shelter structures perhaps providing an extra 0.1 or 0.2 AP per an hour spent after the character has perhaps been idle for an hour or two. It would be something neat, not imbalancing, and wouldn't take away from player interaction with hp regeneration. Lexus 01:06, 26 May 2007 (UTC)


My full "hut" idea was just as some above. A simple lean to that protects you from animals over night.People can still come in and kill you, just not animals.(Why?Because i always die from an animal-rarely am i Pked) 10 pieces of driftwood makes a lean-to. Something simple NOW- CLAN LEADERS can build "guild houses,or clan houses where items can be found and traded.Items should be on a daily limit of spawning to prevent clan abuse-and once the limit is found, you can trade to the clan trader for what others didnt want that day. Clan members can then build there lean-to's around and near the Clan House-And no, HELLO-were Settlers, Lets do what we do best-Rape the land of its rescources,convert the locals and build where we see fit--Bloodclott 04:49, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Spirit Transfer

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Stcfg 11:37, 3 June 2006 (BST) Skill, action Warriors, Shamans

This suggerstion was inspired by polymorph. Warriors and Shamans can get a new skill that allows them to transfer their spirits into the bodies of a dead animal nearby. Animals won't be able to speak, use items, search, or use any human skills. The player will have the Hp and attack power of the type of animal you possessed. Other players on the map will see you as just another animal, not as a native. Transferring spirits will result in the death of their human form (if it is not already dead) but grants them access to the animal's innate abilities. Eg. Alligators can attack twice but have decreased movement through land, Monkeys can search and use some simple items, Parrots move faster throught all terrain. When the body of the animal possessed dies the player will be in spirit form but wont have a corpse. It will also be possible to leave the animal's body at any time but the trauma would be the same as having the body killed by an outside force. In order to not break the game, certain special animals can not be possessed ( like that giant squid )

Comments

I would like to suggest a skill for being able to detect possessed animals but that is for another day. --Stcfg 11:40, 3 June 2006 (BST)

Hunting Prowess

Author Timestamp Type Scope
VTBassMatt 13:17, 9 June 2006 (BST) Skill Tracking skill tree

It would be interesting for serious trackers to be constantly aware of recent tracks without spending AP. I propose adding this skill after Expert Tracking—it doesn't have to be called Hunting Prowess but that seemed like a fitting name. Players with this skill would still have to use the 'Look for tracks' button to see anything but the most recent tracks. One possible limitation is to apply this only to animal tracks, but I definitely intended to include player tracks as well.

Comments

Tracking is currently a bit weak. On the other hand, I don't mind seeing quite a few mild/weak skills, because some players are already looking for more ways to spend XP. Certainly Tracking should top out at stronger than 1AP per attempt. My suggestion was Master Tracking above Expert Tracking to reduce time to 0.5AP per attempt. I agree that it would be neat to have the skill Hunting Prowess as a 0AP ability for only the single most recent track, but I think this skill would be a prime candidate to limit to Explorer/Scout-only. (Sorry!) 1. Tracking perfectly fits the Explorer/Scout class archetype, 2. Shartak needs better class differentiation, 3. Explorer/Scout is a bit weak, 4. Explorer/Scout currently has no dedicated skills. --Tycho44 08:19, 15 June 2006 (BST)

Give explorers/scouts their own tracking skill

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 22:29, 18 July 2006 (UTC) Skill Explorers and scouts

While trailblazing has given explorers and scouts an edge over other players, they need more if they are to compete with the soldier, warrior and pirate classes for the attention of new players. I suggest that tracking mastery be combined into expert tracking, which will be restricted to explorers and scouts. Any non-explorers/scouts with one or both of those skills would be refunded enough XP for their next skill (or two, if they have both) so they aren't punished. (The refund would occur after the skills were restricted and actively taken away from any non-explorers/scouts with them. This would let their levels and next-skill costs drop before the next-skill XP awards were given so that extra XP would not be accidentally awarded.) Full disclosure: I don't have any tracking skills, and I'm not sure how advanced tracking and expert tracking differ at the moment, but I think a good 1.5 AP tracking skill for everyone and an excellent 0.5 AP tracking skill for explorers and scouts will give those two classes a notable advantage in what should be one of their fortes.

Comments

Shouldn't this be added to the "Hunting prowess" skill entry? http://wiki.shartak.com/index.php/Suggestions:Skills#Hunting_Prowess Black Joe 7:00, 19 July 2006
Yep. Tracking mastery is kind of handy, but I still think that it should be a universal skill, and that hunting prowess should be the scout/explorer-only skill. Hunting prowess, at the top of the tracking tree, would cause scouts to receive basic tracking information passively (for 0 AP) at every step. Oooo, neat. --Tycho44 17:30, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Tracking automatically for every move would add too much load on the server as the game becomes more popular. --Simon 00:11, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Melee buffs for intoxicated pirates

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 06:24, 22 July 2006 (UTC) Skill Pirates under the influence

Pirates are traditionally portrayed as rum-guzzling brawlers, so it would be fitting to encourage pirate players to drink (and drink to excess). I think imbibing a beer or rum should give a pirate a 1 HP damage bonus for all melee attacks in their next 5 AP. A machete (or cutlass) hits 2.25 times in 5 AP, on average, for a skilled user, so drinking for 1 AP would translate to around 2.25 HP of damage beyond what a machete would normally do. This is comparable to the combat damage dealt by blowpipes (2.4 HP/AP) and rifles (3 HP/AP).

Multiple drinks would extend the duration of the effect but not its intensity. To encourage actual drunkenness instead of casual beer-sipping, a drink taken by a pirate with beer already in their gut could give 7 more buffed AP instead of 5, which is effectively 6 AP (and 2.7 HP of damage) when you consider that 1 drunken AP must be wasted on taking another drink. The skill could be called brawling or drunken fist (which is the literal Chinese title of the classic Jackie Chan movie Drunken Master) and would be placed with stamina under body building (to keep melee skills together and to avoid starting another tree).

I'm proposing this cautiously because pirates are already tougher and more popular than any other class. However, considering that beer and rum are harder to find and more expensive than darts and bullets (and should probably be even more expensive if this skill is implemented), I don't think this skill would make pirates stronger than warriors and soldiers, and it would improve both the diversity of the classes and the depth of the game's theme.

Comments

  • RE: Beer and Rum becoming more expensive if the skill is implemented- I completely agree, and the increase in price would also represent supplies of booze at the pirate camp running out, which I guess would then lead to outsiders trading beer and rum with the pirates, and adding another dimension to gameplay- Peg-Hand Grimm
  • Nice idea. In general I like the idea of making items have some specific use rather than generic AP-insreasers. But how about making it a gamble to take a drink instead of a definite combat-booster. If a pirate were to drink a bottle of rum, his next 5 or 10 AP would either give him +1 damage for every hit (with "flavor text" to let him know he is getting a boost, e.g. "In a drunken rage you inflict more damage on your target"), or it would make him too disoriented and out of it to do anything, and every time he attacks it would give him flavor text telling him he is too uncoordinated to attack, and he stumbles around unable to do anything (he would stay in place, not respond to comannds to attack but waste an AP anyway) till the intoxication wears off in 5 or 10 AP. Arminius 00:16, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
    • The goal is simply to encourage pirates to drink in combat. A chance of uncoordinated failure would be realistic, but it would also make things a little more complicated, so I'd let Simon make that decision if he decides to implement this suggestion. The effect of my original suggestion would be about the same (for fully skilled pirates) if drunk pirates had a damage bonus of +2 (instead of +1) and 10% less accuracy. — Elembis (talk) 05:01, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
  • This doesn't make sense to me. When your drunk, your hand eye coordination GETS WORSE, not better! The only way I could see the idea working is if accuracy decreased as damage increased. Rewarding pirates for getting sloshed makes about as much sense as drunk driving. Another way to implement this would be to temporarily increase HP with rum ingestion, as this is at least slightly similar to the actual affects of alcohol (kind of like drunken boxing.) Otherwise, I don't see this working. Gandhi 04:20, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
    • The idea is to encourage pirates to drink like a pirate would (and in the situations a pirate would), even if doing so is a bad idea in real life. I'd be fine with lowering accuracy even while damage is increased, so long as the overall effect is the same, but that may be an unnecessary complication (my suggestion doesn't increase accuracy, only damage). Your point (that drinking impairs in real life) is a good one, but I think this is a case where the game would be more fun if it diverged slightly from real life. — Elembis (talk) 05:01, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Cross References:

--Buttercup 12:03, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Technical “spell” skills

Author Timestamp Type Scope
A for anarchy 09:33, 22 July 2006 (UTC) Skill Scientist/Shaman

I would like to see the introduction of “tech spells” to the “magician class” of Shartak (scientist/shaman) much like the blue magic of final fantasy XII which rather than doing out right damage produces technical effects like haste, poison or blind. An illustration of this would be giving the shaman class an AP cost skill (let’s call it curse) that produces the same effect as wounded/bleeding (1HP loss per action) on their opponent. But given the nature of such spells the percentage chance of success should be inversely proportional to the strength of the spell or have their effects tuned down, so to retain fairness. As side note I like to see this skill given to NPC shamans to discourage people from attacking them.

Comments
"curse" might be confused with what the ancestors spirits do to zergers. This causes actions to cost more AP than normal. I would imagine that this would be a shaman only skill as scientists don't have magical powers! --Simon 22:35, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

  • i agree with the statement that scientist don't and shouldn't have magic powers, so how about this instead; give them "tech" skills but have them named within a scientific context, for instance the above "wounding" spell could be named "drug" or "poison" instead of say "curse" or whatever. --A for anarchy 04:01, 24 July 2006 (UTC)


FAK/Healing Herb Manufacturing Skills

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Black Joe 14:28 31 July 2006 (GMT) Skill Scientists and Shamans

Perhaps the most in-demand items are healing herbs and first aid kits. They can only be used once, but they're used quite freely. This means that a lot of people must spend a lot of time searching medical huts for FAKs (for the duration of this suggestion, assume that FAK refers to both first aid kits and healing herbs). Meanwhile, we have two classes that don't have much of an advantage: the scientist and the shaman. Perhaps these two classes could learn a skill allowing them to produce their culture's version of the FAK. This would make these classes useful while also increasing the supply of FAKs. Additionally, these two classes are the most likely to know how to do this.

As for how the skill would work, I would recommend having a "Make FAK" button. They would then have a chance of successfully producing an FAK. These FAKs could then either be used (providing a source of XP besides killing things) or could be sold to the trader (since FAKs are always in demand). This would encourage the development of a "healer" class in Shartak, while also giving shamans and scientists useful special skills. I suppose scientists/shamans could be required to find raw materials before manufacturing, but that would just force people to continue the rather tedious and hit-or-miss tactic of farming huts/jungles.

Comments

  • Oppose. I agree that shamans and scientists should be best at healing and should have useful special skills, but I don't like this specific suggestion (as well-thought-out as it is) for two reasons: First, I think the jungle should be inhospitable, and turning shamans and scientists into herb farms and kit factories (yes, I'm exaggerating) would work against that. Second, I think the ability to make items is a complication that should be avoided if we can accomplish the same goal in other ways, which we can. I recommend three of the suggestions for shaman/scientist healing on Talk:Game design: (1) give shamans access to first aid and scientists access to natural medicine, (2) let shamans/scientists see the health of all wounded players on their side, not just the most wounded one, and (3) let shamans/scientists see whether players on their side are suffering from shark bites or poison. (I'd actually make 3 apply to all players, not just those on the player's side, because it wouldn't really be advantageous in combat to notice shark bites and the effects of poison.) 2 and 3 could be smoothly combined into one "Diagnosis" skill that would give these two classes a useful (if minor) healing edge over the others. — Elembis (talk) 06:10, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
    • First, let me thank you for responding. I appreciate any and all input. I've taken some time to think about your objections and prepare my responses. May I propose an alteration? Perhaps, instead of my original suggestion, this "Make FAK" button would (as far as the programming is concerned) serve as a second "search area" button, but one that only produces FAK's, and has a significantly higher chance of producing one than a regular search. Additionally, it would only function in areas where an FAK can be found, as that is where the scientist/shaman would find the raw materials in the first place. This would be similar to UD's "shopping" and "bargain hunting" skills, in that it lets you search for a specific item and gives a boost to the probability of success. Additionally, it would only work in certain areas, like the shopping skill. The difference would be that it only produce FAK's. This would ensure that FAK's aren't simply produced out of mid-air (which is rather unrealistic, now that I think about it) while also giving scientists and shamans a dedicated and valuable healing-related skill. Black Joe 10:44, 1 August 2006 (GMT) Edited: 16:44, 1 August 2006 (GMT)
    • How about having the skill function in a similar manner to the "Manufacture Syringe" skill on UD, thus powering-down the effect by requiring that the healer be in a Medical Hut and use multiple AP? --Less Than Lethal 17:03, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
      • I haven't played UD since that was added; that being said, it certainly sounds good to me. Requiring that the healer be in the medical hut was essentially what I had in mind when I proposed it only work for certain locations. As for requiring multiple AP, I suppose that would have the same long-term effect as searching, while simultaneously being less tedious for the healer. Tell me, would this always produce an FAK or would it just offer a chance of doing so? I certainly like the sound of this suggestion. Black Joe 18:03, 1 August 2006 (GMT)
        • What we have now, then, is a skill which would essentially give scientists better search odds for kits in medical huts (and likewise for shamans). Limiting this skill to players in villages is a step in the right direction, and giving it the form of greater search odds makes some sense, too: healers would look especially hard for healing items. But I'm still not persuaded, mainly because the skill's effects seem inconsistent to me. If healers have better search odds (in effect) for healing items, shouldn't fighters have better search odds for weapons and ammunition, and likewise for pirates finding rum and gold? The implications of the original idea could become very messy in practice. Also, wouldn't a pirate bleeding from a shark bite with just 10 HP remaining look even harder for a kit than a healer merely stocking up on supplies? The goal is allow healers to spend more time in the field and less in the hut, but I think we still lack a solution which makes sense. Here's a more realistic and less far-reaching idea which might work: shamans and scientists are given a skill which lets them heal 5 extra HP with a kit or herb if they're healing someone else. Anyone who's ever tried to remove a bullet from their back, bandage their gaping head wound, set their broken bone, or frantically stop their own bleeding will attest to the fact that medical care is most effective when someone else is administering it. This would let scientists use fewer kits in the field without making them better at healing themselves (which I think would be too useful). As a result, they wouldn't need to spend as much time in medical huts, which I think is the whole idea. — Elembis (talk) 00:28, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

This should be indented, since it's a response to Elembis's post. However, it would be rather crowded if I did that, so here you go. With that out of the way, on to business. You're correct that part of the reason for this suggestion is to reduce the amount of time spent in healing huts. It's also intended to boost the supply of FAK's. Your suggestion would somewhat reduce the demand, which would have essentially the same effect.

As for the inconsistency, that's part of why I suggested calling it "Make FAK." If you've ever spent the night in a healing hut while wounded, you know that SOMEBODY is going to heal you up while you're gone. However, the way I see it, they aren't going to use everything in that kit. Cutlass wounds require different treatment than poison dart wounds, for instance. That means there's going to be a lot of unused medical material around. Realistically speaking, there's probably also going to be some medical supplies that aren't part of a kit. By calling it "make FAK," you can get a message saying, "Using spare supplies, you cobble together a first aid kit." Now, the shaman is slightly different but the result is the same. The medical hut message says there are many herbs hanging up to dry. The shaman could get a message saying, "After looking through the herbs in the hut, you find a healing herb that is ready for use."

Also, I don't want you to think I'm ignoring your suggestion about the extra five HP healing. I definitely agree that it's more realistic to have a healer be better at healing others than themselves. I'd be happy to see it as one of the skills (maybe split that into a seperate discussion?). However, I'm not sure that's enough of a bonus by itself to tempt people to play the rather underplayed scientist class. Warriors and soldiers have extremely helpful skill; I think the other classes should as well. And as always, I appreciate your input, Elembis and LtL. Black Joe 6:11 2 August 2006


Require Help

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Ownslaught 17:17, 8 September 2006 (UTC) Skill All players

Allow you to scream to require help when you are in danger.

Cost 5APs to prevent your "race" (Outsiders, Natives or Pirates) you are in danger at 5 cases in all directions

Comments
Comment here

Forensic Analysis/Advanced Seance

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Frisco 16:50, 11 September 2006 (UTC) Skill Scientists, Shamans, Warriors, Soldiers, Pirates

Allows the character to determine whose body is lying on the ground and the cause of death. Would require 1 or .5 AP to use, similar to tracking, and would say something like "It looks like Dim Mak is lying on the ground, clawed to death by a parrot." or "Barbarossa is dead on the ground, seems he ate the wrong berries."

Soldiers, Warriors and Pirates would understand forensics as they are used to seeing dead bodies, Scientists because they can think critically to determine the cause of death, and Shamans would hold an advanced seance with the spirits in the area to ask what happened (and perhaps get different flavour text).

There may also be an advanced form of this skill (Advanced Forensic Analysis/Expert Seance) which would indicate approximate time as well as the direction the culprit left, if a PC/NPC did the killing and the character also has the tracking skill - "frisco is shot dead on the ground, his body dead for a while. Tracks show the shooter went southwest recently."

A further advanced form (Expert Forensic Analysis/Seance Mastery) would provide info about who did other actions, like note writing/signposting - "Scribbled in the sand is 'Arrrgh!!!'. It looks like Barbarossa's handwriting."

This skill may help bounty hunters, pk hunters, clan warfare, provide warning information for everyone, and help combat note spamming.

Comments
Good suggestion! I support this idea, I think the skill would be a good addition to the game. I can't really see anything wrong with this skill unless theres a technical reason why it can't be implemented. Seems like a good way to combat spammers as well... Zeff 10:06, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I support this idea to ! Ownslaught 00:30, 13 September 2006 (Paris)

I always wanted to know how those people died. Perhaps this should be part of the tracking skill tree.Darkferret 11:02, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this would be ultimate scout explorer skill. I like it a lot Lama

Fishing

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Che 01:54, 24 September 2006 (UTC) New skills Evreyone

With the Fishing skill, you can catch fish and use them to heal yourself. There are thee types of fish you can catch: Minnows, Bass, and Large Catfish, each with diffrent dificulty levels and skills required to catch them. Here are the skills:

  • Basic Fishing- Able to catch Minnows
    • Intermediate Fishing- Able to catch Bass
      • Advanced Fishing- Able to catch Large Catfish
  • Fisherman's Luck- Better chance of cating a fish
  • Fisherman's Lure- EXP gained is doubled while catching fish

(also see belong for precentages on catcing fish)

If you wanted to fish, you would have to have a fishing pole (new item) that could easily be bought at the trading post for 1-5 gold. You would then head out to a body of water (river, lake, ocean) and cast your line. Depending on if you have "Patience" or not and what Fishing skill you had, you'll have the chance of catching a fish. If you've only got Basic Fishing, you can catch Minnows, if you have Internediate Fishing you have an equal shot at catching Bass or Minnows, and if you have Advanced Fishing you have an equal chance of catching Minnows, Bass, or L. Catfish.

The fish will also be able to heal a certain number of HP. Here is what the fish will heal:

  • Minnows- 2 HP
    • Bass- 5 HP
      • Large Catfish- 7 HP

Also, when you catch a fish, you will gain EXP. Here is what each fish will earn EXP-wise:

  • Minnows- 2 EXP
    • Bass- 5 EXP
      • Large Catfish- 12 EXP

As with evreything in Shartak, when you do something, the action has a description. Here are the discriptions for catching fish:

  • You cast your line... but don't get even a nibble.
  • You cast your line... and catch a Minnow!
  • You cast your line... and catch a Bass!
  • You cast your line... and catch a Large Catfish!

Percentages to catch fish:

  • With Beginner Fishing- 10% chance to catch fish
    • With Intermediate Fishing- 25% to catch fish
      • With Expert Fishing- 40% to catch fish
        • With Fisherman's Luck- +25% to catch fish

Comments

  • How about the "patience" aspect being the maximum number of AP you're willing to 'wait' after casting your line... eg [Fish for] <1/2/5/10> minutes. where each minute is the number of AP that you expend. The number of minutes would be a dropdown list, just like targets for attacks. Every minute that you fish for is a separate roll of the dice so you might fish for 10 minutes and not catch anything, or you could fish for 10 minutes and catch something after just 3 minutes. I'm not into fishing so perhaps someone who is can say if those times are wildly inaccurate or not. --Simon 10:21, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

I really don't know myself. I've fished once before in my life. All the ideas I got from the Wikipedia article on fishing. -Che 06:46, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

I think this is a brilliant idea. Perhaps some parts of the ocean or sections of rivers and lakes have a higher yield rate. - FirstAmongstDaves

Whenever I go fishing it takes a while to get something. On good days I can get a fish once every 30 minutes. It should take AP to cast your line and reel in the fish but it shouldn't cost AP to wait for a bite.

Cutlass mastery

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Michael edwards 23:56, 12 November 2006 (UTC) a skill to add 10% to any player who uses a cutlass Pirates mostly but any native or outsider group.

at the end of the close quarters combat tree this skill would appear. Buy it and the character gains an extra 10% when attackin with a cutlass, Short simple and sweet. Helps out all non-marksman classes have an edge in dishing out damage.

Comments
I think it's brilliant, because we could (i know i keep going on about them) still get flintlocks and nobody would be able to complain because they can master cutlasses too. We'd have nobody whining that pirates could now 'own' anyone. Rozen

  • I'm all for it, except it should be something more piratey- like Bellyslitting or Gutwrenching or something. Perhaps apply the bonus to knives too (but not other swords). --Odysseus 22:14, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

First Aid tweak

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Aco 00:50, 04 December 2006 (EST) A tweak to First Aid, the skill that follows from Triage All classes

When you have the First Aid skill and you hover your curser over a guy in the distance (to see their name) you will also see a summary of their HP. Either healthy, injured, or dying. This would save you some AP whilst looking for people to patch up.

Comments
Make it for Advanced Triage. Good, though. -Mark D. Stroyer 03:14, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

What Mark said.--Skull Face 22:50, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Mining.

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Grey 14:51, 26 January 2007 (UTC) Skill Mining for multiple resources depending upon skill and location. Ie: Stone for walls, roads. Metal ore for weapons and equipment. Gold is also possible, but might make more sense in panning on the rivers.

I first thought of this when I saw the mountain and was getting tired of the jungle growing back in areas. I wondered if it might be possible to mine for rock to build roads in the jungle. These roads would naturally last longer than ordinarily cleared jungle but would eventually be reclaimed by it if not maintained. Mining could be its own skill tree with multiple types of mining yielding different resources. Similarly, only certain areas on the map could be mined and not all types of mining could be done at the same location. Tools of various sorts would probably also be required which would eventually break and need to be replaced.

Comments
Comment here

Yelling

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Mark D. Stroyer 16:09, 21 May 2007 (UTC) New skill All Classes

This was a random idea, but it might work. This skill allows a person to project their voice over several squares, at the expense of additional AP. Now, for specifics.

This skill creates a new button next to the Talk button, labeled "Yell". For 3 AP, a person can yell something with a length equivalent to normal speech, with a range of seven squares. However, as distance increases, so does difficulty hearing it.

1 block away has hearing similar to normal. 2-3 blocks away has hearing similar to having Advanced Language. 4-5 blocks away has hearing similar to Basic Language. 6-7 blocks away has hearing similar to having no language skills. Also, each block away adds a 5% chance for a word not to be heard.

The hearer would receive a message similar to this: You hear a voice coming from 1 block to the East, "This is Mark D. Stroyer. Can you hear ... now? Good!" The ... indicates a word that isn't heard.

Also, if you're inside a building, you would simply see, "You hear someone yelling off to the (insert compass direction here, such as East)." Also, if you are between 7-9 squares away, there is a 40% chance that "You hear someone yelling off to the (compass direction)."

Comments


Taxidermy

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Jenerix 01:35, 9 June 2007 (UTC) Skill All classes

The taxidermy skill could possibly be followed by advanced taxidermy. The skill involves taking corpses (animal, human, etc) and stuffing them. This may require some form of filling and would create stuffed corpse items, which could be used for decoration. Obviously, larger animals such as elephants would take more AP to stuff than a parrot. Small items could be carried and added to the description but larger animals would not be easy to carry and therefore would be set up at a location and the head could be cut off as a trophy which might be placed in an empty hut. All of the animals could be decapitated, with a knife or dagger for small ones and a machete or cutlass for larger ones. Removing the head would create two items: Head of a/n <animal> and Headless <animal>. In areas with a corpse there could be an option reading "stuff corpse" and a dropdown menu with "place on floor", "mount on wall"(only available in locations inside or directly outside a hut) and "seperate head" could appear once it is in the inventory.

Comments

  • I'd like to see this implemented, we often stuff corpses in York, it'd be nice to see it added properly, maybe with some XP given for successful completion? --Htkl 02:34, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Skills for Pirates

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Crazy Ian 0:17 EST July 5, 2007 Skill Pirate

Piratesare the hack and slash characters of Shartak. Pirates need to reinforce this image. I propose three ideas.

1. Pirates love their melee weapons so they must always be cleaning them and keeping them battle ready. So why not include a skill to decrease the chance of their weapons breaking or becoming blunt. Skill name: Weapon Upkeep. Re: Weapon maintenance ( thanks Johan Crichton)

2. Pirates are fueled by rum and that makes them unpredictable. Adding a temporary 5%- 10% attack increase whan a pirate has consumed a bottle of beer or rum. After 10 to 15 attacks the effects wears off and attack goes back to normal. This could also increase the chance of dealing an extra point damage. Skill name: Battle Craze (or Bottle Craze).

3. Pirates are . They could duel wield melee weapons dealing one point less damage with the off hand. Of course you need Also you would have to decrease both weapons chance to hit. 10% with average hand and 20% with the other hand. You could add another skill that lets you increase the chance to hit with both hands. 5% on average hand and 10% on the off hand. This would only be used with a machete or cutlass just to keep things clear. Skill name: Duel wield and Advance Duel Wield.

These skills could make pirates more interesting, without destroying fair gameplay or filling the land with pirates. Of course you could just make a skill that gives pirates a 10% increase in attack.

Comments
As a long-time campaigner for new pirate skills or bonuses, I'm interested in these. Dual wielding and rum, not so much, but weapon upkeep is great, and historically accurate. --Rozen 23:41, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the input and maybe we should look into the history of pirates for inspiration. --Crazy Ian 00:57, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

A couple of comments:

  • Could you provide an argument for pirates being the 'hack and slash' characters of Shartak?
  • I'd suggest 'Weapon maintenance' might be a better name that 'Weapon upkeep' - and it should be a skill open to Warriors and Soldiers as well
  • Alcohol isn't likely to make you hit things more accurately - it's more likely to allow you to take more damage (you don't notice it due to the inebriation) or do more (the sugar gets burnt to energy) - I don't like the idea of alcohol giving a % increase in this way.
  • Dual wielding - again, this is a skill that should be available (if introduced) to all martial characters (and it's dual wield, not duel wield). Can you provide the maths on expected damage from having this as an option/skill?

--Johan Crichton 01:22, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah good point about the alcohol I should have though that through a bit more. Also Thanks for pointing out that grammatical error. I don't have the formula on the ratio, I'll add it in once I get the formula and figure it out. Pirates are the hack and slash characters because they don't have any special skill just for them. It's pretty much grab a cutlass or a machete and get at it. Of you could also look at like there beginners class for people to get a hold of game and learn it's mechanics (of course experienced players can be pirates too). --Crazy Ian 04:01, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

I think pirates need something that's just for pirates, Johan. Currently, they're unbalanced. Everyone's got a skill of thier own, soldiers have the rifle and warriors have a blowpipe, but pirates only have 5 more HP. Some minor skill that benefits them, even if it benefits other people, but benefits pirates more...i just forgot what i was going to say. Screw it. --Rozen 08:36, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Brute strength

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Darkferret 00:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC) Skill Pirates

An offshoot of Body building, Brute strength adds 1 extra damage for attacks under 3HP. This eliminates the need for cutlasses (other than deforestation) except when combined with Balanced stance for a 2HP glancing blow.

Comments

This does seem a little excessive, effectively doubling the effect of blows via Balanced Stance. Why would this apply only to Pirates? Wouldn't it also be appropriate for well-fed Warriors and hulking Soldiers? --Skull Face 16:05, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Iron Constitution

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face 22:33, 13 September 2007 (UTC) Skill / balance change Pirate Class

Why do pirates have access to the First Aid skill? Medicine of the pirate era was notoriously dodgy and ship's carpenters, cooks and barbers often doubled as the ship's surgeon. This is why pirates are so often depicted as scarred and missing limbs, teeth, eyes et al.

This suggestion is for a unique skill called Iron Constitution which allows pirates to gain extra HP from all sources (beer, rum, water, fruit, herbs and FAKs) over and above the base HP gain rate for the item. A pirate with Iron Constitution will gain +1 HP for consuming fruit, water, and fruit juices, +2 HP for consuming rum and beer, and +2 HP for using FAKs or Herbs on himself. The skill does not affect FAKs or Herbs applied to others.

This skill is intended to provide a touch of character and make things a little easier around the resource-scarce shipwreck. My suggestion (possibly controversial) is that pirates be allowed to choose either Iron Constitution or First Aid but not both. Hard men would take Iron Constitution as their defining skill whilst wussy gentrified pirates would take First Aid. If implemented, existing players of pirates would be given a one-time opportunity to trade their First Aid skill for Iron Constitution.

Comments
Man, for a second there I thought you said Iron Construction. Holds promise methinks. --Wulla-mullung 23:39, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Woops! Edited to categorize beer and rum together, originally had beer in the +1 HP category with water! --Skull Face 10:29, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
the FAK/herb effect should work for FAKs and Herbs used on others, but based on the person healed and not on the healer, and it should only give the healer one additional XP instead of two. --AlexanderRM 01:58, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Spirit Usage Skills

This suggestion has several skills that are usable by natives that use spirits in some way. Some are benign and do not effect the spirits in any way others exorcise the spirit as well as the skills other effects.

War Prayer {Warrior Only}
Requires sixth sense. When used on a tile with spirits present gives a 5% bonus to hit with blowpipe attacks, the duration is 1 attack per native spirit present. This skill does not effect the spirits in any way. It costs 5 ap to use. This skill can only be used again one its effects are exhausted.

Ancestral Chant {Warrior Only}
Requires War Prayer. Increases the duration to 2 attacks per native spirit and reduces the ap cost to 3. This skill does not effect the spirits in any way. This skill can only be used again one its effects are exhausted.

Spirit Strike {Shaman Only}
Requires Exorcism. When used on a tile with spirits present uses a spirit as a weapon, dealing 6 damage with a 40% accuracy. This skill costs 3 ap to use and exorcises the spirit but the spirit also gains exp for the damage done. Can only use native spirits

Necromancy/Voodoo {Shaman Only}
Requires Spirit Strike. Increases the accuracy by 20% (so overall the accuracy is 60%) and increases the damage done by 2 (so 8 damage). Can use all spirits

Fertility Ritual {Villager Only}
When used on a tile with spirits present this skill gives a 10% bonus to finding any food item for 3 searches per native spirit present. Does not harm the spirits in any way. Costs 3 ap to use. This skill can only be used again one its effects are exhausted.

Spirit Guide {Scout Only}
When used on a tile with spirits present the scout gains 3 free moves per native spirit present. This skill can only be used again one its effects are exhausted.

That's about it really. What do you think?--Etherdrifter 14:02, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Comments

No. Some are overpowered, others are useless. And also, there's not very much reasoning or sense for them. And furthermore, it's unbalanced. Outsiders get absolutely nothing concerned with spirits. -Mark D. Stroyer 16:12, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Stick to established chronology? Older suggestions at top, new suggestions to the bottom? I've corrected that for you. Regards the actual skills I think they are unbalancing as they affect only natives and give nothing to outsiders. Don't get me wrong, killing outsiders makes me happy but there has to be something for everyone. Sadly I don't think they fit with outsiders. And as per previous comments some seem overpowered (e.g. Spirit Guide) whilst others seem underpowered (e.g. Fertility Ritual)--Skull Face 16:58, 20 September 2007 (UTC).
Well originally only the shaman skills were presant but I thought that would overpower the shaman class by quite alot. Still I can see what you mean by overpowered, why if for some odd reason tribal shamans did not exorcise spirits on sight and there was a build up of spirits in one location the amount of power available would be phenominal...--Etherdrifter 20:22, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Shallow Diving

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face 12:47, 14 September 2007 (UTC) Skill / additional mechanic All classes

The new ability to shallow dive in Water locations would be made available to all classes for free. It would permit characters to dive to seabed (Water) or riverbed (River, Lake, Pool or Waterfall) locations only. This ability would not apply to Deep Water, that would require a separate skill.

Diving in Water locations would require 1 APs to get down, 1 APs to surface and 1 APs per 10 second search conducted. When in the appropriate location a button labelled 'Dive' with a pull-down menu of dive times (10 secs to 120 secs) would be made available to those with this skill. Maximum total expenditure for one dive is 14 APs. Shallow diving in Water carries no risks at this time.

Searches during a dive would be conducted in the same manner as those in land-based locations and would have an YY% chance of finding something as determined by the actual location (e.g. oyster bed, sunken wreck) and Scavenging would increase the chance of a successful search. In the event that the character maxes out their inventory partway through a diving search, the dive is finished early and the character is forced to the surface; no APs are spent on searches that would be futile but the costs and risks associated with dive and surface are still incurred.

Comments
I don't quite get the dive time idea tbh. Maybe underwater search should take more ap (similar to searching in the swamps) and if you ap-out underwater, you simply drown? Apart from that I love both your diving skills suggestions. Support! --Lama 21:16, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

I'll try to clarify dive times. Before diving you decide how many searches you want to conduct i.e. how many APs you will spend on the dive. If you want to do 10 searches you have to dive for 10 x 10 = 100 seconds. And a 100 second dive will require 12 APs (1 to dive, 10 to search, 1 to surface). The idea of 1 search per 1 AP = 10 seconds is descriptive only, based on real world breath-holding being around 2 minutes maximum for most people. After you press 'Dive' you are presented with the results of your searches, you are not moved into an underwater realm. This mechanism of selecting dive times is based on Simon's suggestion of simplifing diving into APs spent underwater rather than programming a whole new underwater environment. --Skull Face 12:15, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
...which would be truly awesome; anyway, I think it could be achieved by hitting "dive" button and then "search". After each search you would get the info - you can hold up your breath for some time more, where some time would be a measure similar to the one you get using saved map locations. To surface, simply hit the button "surface" (it could be the same one with changed text or maybe just marked "dive/surface"). The point I am trying to make is that we don't have time in Shartak, and these seconds things are a bit out of place in my opinion.--Lama 12:29, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
I'm not proposing that the player actually sits at the keyboard waiting for 100 seconds if he does a 100 second / 10 search dive. How about if the button said 'Dive for' and then had a pull-down menu of dive times expressed in number of searches (1 search to 12 searches)? --Skull Face 22:14, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
that sounds totally reasonable --Lama 00:00, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Free Diving

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face 12:47, 14 September 2007 (UTC) Skill All classes

The new Free Diving skill would be a sub-skill of Swimming. It would permit characters to dive to seabed locations in Deep Water as well as increasing maximum bottom time for shallow dives.

Diving in Deep Water would require 2 APs to get down, 2 APs to surface and 1 APs per 10 second search conducted. When in the appropriate location a button labelled 'Dive' with a pull-down menu of dive times (10 secs to 160 secs) would be made available to those with this skill. Maximum total expenditure for one dive is 20 APs. Diving in Deep Water carries a similar risk of shark attacks as swimming there i.e. XX% chance of a bite assessed per AP spent on a dive.

Improved diving in Water locations would require 1 APs to get down, 1 APs to surface and 1 APs per 10 second search conducted. When in the appropriate location a button labelled 'Dive' with a pull-down menu of dive times (10 secs to 180 secs) would be made available to those with this skill. Maximum total expenditure for one dive is 20 APs. Shallow diving in Water carries no risks at this time.

Searches during a dive would be conducted in the same manner as those in land-based locations and would have an YY% chance of finding something as determined by the actual location (e.g. oyster bed, sunken wreck, submerged ruins) and Scavenging would increase the chance of a successful search. In the event that the character maxes out their inventory partway through a diving search, the dive is finished early and the character is forced to the surface; no APs are spent on searches that would be futile but the costs and risks associated with dive and surface are still incurred.

Comments
Comment here

Hide in Like, You Know, Trees and Stuff

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Zeek 22:30, 29 September 2007 (UTC) Skill Most non combat centric classes
  • basic camouflage (scouts, explorers, villagers, settlers, scientists, shaman, pirates):
    • allows player to 'hide' in jungle squares such that they cannot be seen from two squares away.
  • advanced camouflage (scouts, explorers, villagers, settlers):
    • allows player to 'hide' in jungle squares such that they cannot be seen from adjacent squares or farther.
  • masterful camouflage (scouts, explorers):
    • allows player to 'hide' in jungle squares such that they cannot be seen at all until their 'hidden' status is revoked

notes:

  • chance of successful 'hiding' is based on jungle density: d0=0%, d10=10%, d20=20%, ect.
  • character's 'hidden' status is revoked if they preform any action or are attacked. and may be revoked if the jungle is cleared, or searched.
  • character has a chance of remaining 'hidden' if the jungle is searched, based on it's level: d10=100%, d9=90%, d8=80%, ect.
  • character has a chance of remaining 'hidden' if the jungle is cleared, based on how much is left: d9=90%, d8=80%, d7=70%, ect.
  • character can be seen/smelled by animals regardless of 'hidden' status.

Comments
Comment here

Psychic Link

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face 21:41, 1 October 2007 (UTC) Skill All classes (spirits)

This suggestion is for a new ability that aids a spirit in haunting the last person who murderered him or her. With this ability the spirit of the recently deceased gets a compass that points in the direction of the person who killed them. The compass would work in the same manner as the current Exploration and Cartography locations ability that points a traveller towards a target location. Spirits with this ability also get a 'Haunt' button which teleports them to the current location of their murderer at a cost of 25 APs.

The haunting ability remains in effect until either the spirit chooses to be revived by a shaman (the ability does not carry over into life) or the spirit is exorcised by a shaman (exorcism breaks the bond between murderer and victim). If a character dies at the hands of an NPC (e.g. squid, shark, wandering shaman) or by suicide then the haunting features remain inactive when the dead character assumes spirit form.

Relative placement on the spirit skill tree is suggested at the same level as Shocking shriek (i.e. Haunting scream is a prerequisite). This placement is open for debate, as is the actal name of the ability e.g. psychic link, haunt, curse etc.

I make this suggestion even though my main character is a confirmed headhunter. This skill is intended to improve roleplaying / gameplay by giving spirits a reason (a slim one granted) to be in places other than the medical hut. And it would result in killers being haunted by their victims. Those who police the settlements against murderers might themselves be haunted in turn but other innocents would be safe from the murderers... for a while at least... --Skull Face 21:41, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Comments
Don't destory the naturally occouring necromantic system that is the spirit hut! On a less self centered note it is a good idea though I would say death should remove the haunting status, you got your vengence now leave the poor git alone.--Etherdrifter 14:31, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Fireball casting

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Lama 00:05, 4 October 2007 (UTC) Shamanic offensive skill Shamans

Idea of fireball is simple. You cast a hot fiery projectile at your enemy, doing some damage. At doubled attack AP cost fireball would do from 1 to 10 damage, with the highest chance in the mid range (4-6 dmg), diminishing when going to the both ends of the scale (for example, 5% for 1 or 10 dmg, 10% for 2 or 9 dmg, 15% for 3 or 6 dmg, 25% for 5 dmg and 45% for 4 dmg). If you feel the idea of fireballs is out of place on Shartak, name it "using tiny little blowpipes with shamanic mixture of poisonous powder made of berries and herbs" or anything more fitting the game set-up. I mean - this mechanics for ranged attack is serious. Not as serious as Sam, but still serious. I would love to see some comments on this.

Comments
OK I'll go first. I dislike the idea of fireballs as it sounds too much like D&D. I have questions. Is the range the same range as a blowpipe or rifle? If so, what would the %age hit chances be and what makes this different from using a blowgun or rifle (or even better than whacking someone with a machete)? Do we want shamen to replace warriors? What is the ammunition for a fireaball? As suggested on the forums, I do like the idea of a shamanic curse and the voodoo dolls idea seems to fit the character class. Maybe I'll work something up... --Skull Face 14:01, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

  • Here go answers:

- let's call it touch of curse then.

- range is the same as with any other weapon in-game.

- for percentages, read it once again :) the difference is you can wield 10 dmg for 2 AP if you are lucky. Which, in terms of statistics is not really useful (most chances are you get 1 dmg for 1 AP spent), but it adds nice offensive skill for not so offensive class, definitely not replacing warriors or soldiers.

- Shamans would be much better to role-play, if they could use some sort of magic to hurt peoples (refer to any kind of literature, I visualized this myself after last reading R.E.Howard's short novels about Conan.)

- there's no ammunition for psychic-power skills other than AP.

- and thanks for commenting, I hope I made it clearer --Lama 09:17, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I'll add my comments on this suggestion that I have made on the forum. This suggestion could be utilized in a Staff. A Staff of Firebolts that has a limited amount of charges, similar to how the current GPS has a limited amount of battery life. Let's say, each Staff has 20 charges and takes up more room in your inventory than what a rifle or a blowpipe would. This suggestion doesn't change anything you've already suggested lama, just the delivery via a Staff. Other classes can use the Staff as a melee weapon, but not the Firebolts feature. Lets see, Shaman would initially hit on 45% and then the percentages that you suggested lama, kick in for damage amounts.

So...

Shaman Firebolt Staff

  • 45% to Hit[br]
  • Staff contains limited charge (10-20 charges)
  • Staff takes up a lot more inventory space than rifle and blowpipe (Double?)
  • Only Shamans can utilize Firebolts, whereas other classes can wield it as a melee weapon
  • Damage variance (See lama's figures)

That's it for now :D --Cthulhu

Bodyguard

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face 14:58, 9 October 2007 (UTC) Skull Face New Skill All classes

This suggestion is for a new skill called Bodyguard, to be placed on the Close Quarter Combat skill tree at the same level as Balanced Stance. When in the presence of another player or an NPC, characters with his skill would have access to a 'Guard' button with two adjacent pull-down menus. The first would be a pull-down menu of APs to be used, minimum of 1, maximum of 10. The second would be a pull-down menu of the current characters (AKA victims) at the location (c.f. the 'Attack' menu). The player would thus spend 1 to 10 APs to act as a bodyguard for a chosen victim. For each AP thus spent the player would automatically be the target of one attack directed at the victim.


If the attack would have been a hit with a ranged weapon, i.e. blowpipe or rifle, the bodyguard takes the hit instead of the victim only 50% of the time (the other 50% of the time the victim is still hit). Bullets and blowpipes fired by trained soldiers and warriors are much harder to defend against than melee attacks. Flavour text would be as follows:

Attacker text - You attack Blue Hummingbird. Raffles interposes himself. You hit Raffles for 4 HP damage.
Bodyguard text - A Rat attacks Blue Hummingbird. You interpose yourself. You take 4 HP damage.
Victim text - A Rat attacks you. Raffles bravely interposes himself. He is hit for 4 HP damage.


If the attack would have been a hit, the bodyguard takes the hit instead of the victim. Flavour text would be as follows:

Attacker text - You attack Blue Hummingbird. Raffles interposes himself. You hit Raffles for 3 HP damage.
Bodyguard text - A Rat attacks Blue Hummingbird. You interpose yourself. You take 3 HP damage.
Victim text - A Rat attacks you. Raffles bravely interposes himself. He is hit for 3 HP damage.


If the attack would have resulted in a glancing blow with a melee weapon, the target is hit as normal. Flavour text would be as follows:

Attacker text - You attack Blue Hummingbird. Raffles interposes himself. You recover your balance and hit Blue Hummingbird for 3 HP damage.
Bodyguard text - A Rat attacks Blue Hummingbird. You interpose yourself. The attacker slips past your guard and hits Blue Hummingbird for 3 HP damage.
Victim text - A Rat attacks you. Raffles bravely interposes himself. The attacker slips past Raffles and you take 3 HP damage.


If the attack would have been a miss, the bodyguard is missed rather than the target. Flavour text would be as follows:

Attacker text - You attack Blue Hummingbird. Raffles interposes himself. Your attack misses.
Bodyguard text - A Rat attacks Blue Hummingbird. You interpose yourself. The attack misses.
Victim text - A Rat attacks you. Raffles bravely interposes himself. The attack misses.


Players using the Bodyguard ability must have sufficient unused APs to allocate towards the defence of the target i.e. they cannot deliberately go into negative APs when setting out to bodyguard. In the event that multiple players choose to bodyguard the same victim at a location, one of the bodyguards is selected randomly for each attack before the results are calculated. In the event that the nominated victim leaves the location before bodyguard APs are used up, any unused APs are lost and not returned to the bodyguard.

This skill would permit a group of players to defend a potential victim. Examples would be villagers defending a shaman who is exorcising a healer's hut, or an SPF activist attempting to save an elephant from a hunter's rifle.

Comments
Comment:

Zergers could abuse this horribly. Beyond that, I think it's overpowered. It would make it impossible to kill someone being bodyguarded. Maybe instead of an automatic success it would only have like a 10-15% chance, and a character can only be bodyguarded by 1 player at a time.

I assume while bodyguarding it would be impossible to perform any other actions (since all your focus would have to be on who you're bodyguarding).

But I like the idea! It would open up a lot of new avenues for play (Bodygaurd companies/clans, loyal friends, your example in the Court of Raktam, etc.) Blahmicho 19:05, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure that we could do anything against zergers that the game engine doesn't already do. Bodyguarding your own alt should theoretically have the same result as attacking or healing your alt i.e. the Curse of Shartak gets you. It wouldn't be impossible to kill someone unless multiple people were bodyguarding the intended victim. The maximum spend of 10 AP means that a bodyguard can only get in the way of 10 attacks, everything thereafter automatically targets the victim as normal unless there are more bodyguards. That figure of 10 could be altered. I guess that a limit could also be placed on the number of active bodyguards for one character. Any bodyguard who took an action before his 10 APs were used would automatically cancel the bodyguard effect and lose any APs spent. --Skull Face 22:04, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
First, why is the bodyguard spending the AP before he does anything? The AP should be spent when you block an attack, so if the guarded person moves or dies or you die or decide to do something else, the AP aren't wasted. Second, there should be a skill like "assassin" that both increases chance to get past a bodyguard and means that you can avoid being noticed... until you attack the bodyguard or the person they're guarding, of course. Maybe make a "hiding" skill and have assassin as a sub-skill, letting you attack while hidden though you'd have a chance to be found out and be prevented from hiding again while the person you attacked is still alive and being bodyguarded in that square. --AlexanderRM 00:06, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
The server has no way to tell if you are logged out, asleep or simply inactive for a few moments. Requiring the bodyguard to actively spend APs gets around this problem (and prevents some exploits), provides a potential AP cap on the ability and provides a mechanism for checking for zerging. I dislike the idea of attacking from hiding but if you think that it has merit then write it up for discussion. --Skull Face 10:41, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

This looks good, assuming there was a limit to the number of bodyguards that can guard any one character at one time. Maybe two or three at most, and anyone who tries to guard after that gets a "XXX already has enough bodyguards at this time you notice." --Johan Crichton 03:27, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Curse

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face Skull Face 14:46, 18 October 2007 (UTC) New skill/mechanic Shaman

This suggestion is for a new shaman skill called Curse placed on the psychic skills tree at the same level as Exorcism. A curse would be called down upon a specific map square (indoor or outdoor) via a blood ritual costing 5 AP and 5 HP. Cursing a location requires a dagger or knife to draw blood but grants no XP. Spirits in a cursed area would benefit from a reduced AP cost for Shrieking, Wailing and Possession (-1 AP) and would deliver 50% more damage (and thus gain 50% more XP) when Shrieking and Wailing. Furthermore, it is suggested that spirits in a cursed area would be YY% more resistant to Exorcism.

Cursed locations would be detected by anyone with Sixth Sense. For those people the location description would include text along the lines of:

This place makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
You feel an otherworldy chill in this area.
You sense an inimical presence nearby.

Temporarily cursed areas may be cleansed by any Shaman who performs an Exorcism once the area is free of spirits. Successfully exorcising the spirits grants XP as normal and cleansing the area would grant a further 5 XP. It is suggested that permanently cursed locations (e.g. battlefields, ruins) also be created.

Comments
Not a bad idea but I would suggest giving outsiders a skill to negate curses as outsiders already have a hard time with ghosts as it is.--Etherdrifter 19:14, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Possibly a scientist-based skill called "Skepticism"?--Black Joe 00:15, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
Joking aside, yes, I agree that there is a need for an additional Scientist skill of some sort.--Skull Face 12:34, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

I should check the wiki more often :D Anyways, I like this suggestion a lot, especially the blood sacrifice ritual. Really adds flavour that one. I've nothing to add to it though as I think you guys have covered it really. Actually, maybe the curse is embedded within a item (Voodoo Fetish, Gris Gris Bag...) and then placed at a location that is to be cursed. Scientists then get a skill enabling them to recognize these cursed items and destroy them. Cal the skill "Understanding The Black Arts" or such. Hmmmmmm... this could be extended further by enabling Shamans to give cursed items to players, cursing them. Scientists, once again can cure this by destroying the item and thus, lifting the curse. --Cthulhu

Black Powder Proficiency

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face Skull Face 12:23, 9 November 2007 (UTC) New Skill Pirate

This suggestion is for a new skill, Black Powder Proficiency, that would be available only to pirates. The skill would cover both the preparation and firing of black powder weapons using Flintlock, Blunderbuss. Powder Flask and Lead Ball items. This skill would confer a +25% hit chance for black powder weapons only and would also reduce the by 1 the APs required to prime such weapons with a charge of powder.

Comments
Comment here

Dowsing/Treasure Hunting

Author Timestamp Type Scope
[Spookey] [Spookey] 18:12, 10 November, 2007 (GMT) New Skill and items All

Since we have digging, I am aware that there are buried treasures over much of the island. Dowsing would be available to natives - they would need two sticks in their inventory to be able to dowse a square. Treasure Hunting would be available to outsiders - they would need some sort of equipment - suggestions please. Basic dowsing/treasure hunting (for 2AP) would give a 20% chance of showing if anything was buried in that square, but not the depth - Advanced (2AP) would give 40% but no depth - Expert would give 60% and depth. No skill would show what items were, just that there were things buried.

Comments
Not a bad idea, though an alteration you might consider is to have dowsing cover the surrounding squares and tell you the direction if it picks up anything. --Zeek 18:20, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Bounty Placing

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Edwardel Edwardel 19:50, 24 November 2007 (UTC) New Skill All players

There is a bounty placing skill in jailriot so I said to myself "Self, you should suggest this for shartak."

This skill would allow players to place bounties on players in their enemy contact list. The reward for killing the hunted player would be a small award like twenty experience or less or a small amount of gold coins like four and any player with this skill could collect it. If someone without the skill kills the target then the bounty still goes away but nobody gets the award. I thought about any amount of gold but that would basically be a mailing system for zergers. Each character can only set one bounty out at a time and it never expires until the target dies. The bounty would appear next to the targets name whenever any player would be able to identify them. Bounties can stack and everyone will be able to see who placed which bounty if they go to the target's character page. It would require a payment of twice the reward to place the bounty. I haven't thought of a reason why anyone's place of origin would have any affect on this skill but if someone has an idea then by all means.

Comments
Comment here

Weapon Upkeep

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Broderick 15:32, 28 November 2007 (UTC) Skill Everyone

Weapon upkeep, put simply, means that whoever takes the skill knows how to look after the weapons they carry and get the best out of them. It would be part of the Combat Skill tree, on the same level as Balanced Combat, and would halve the chance of your machete/cutlass/dagger/knife breaking whilst you're attacking with it. Heavy swords take a bit more work to look after them, so a further skill branched out from this one (Advanced Weapon Upkeep or something) would halve the chance of the Heavy Sword breaking.

Comments
I frankly don't think that weapons break often enough. It's already .1% chance. If it were a .05% chance, that would be insane in the longevity of weapons. Besides, weapons are both cheap and small, so it's not hard to just keep a small cache. -Mark D. Stroyer 18:17, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

I believe they break quite often even with the .1% chance. My pirate is level 4 and had already broken 4-5 cutlasses and a machete. (No, not bluntened) --Baliame 15:47, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
Cutlasses are notorious for breaking frequently. But really, considering most weapons are about 1 GC each, and only take up 1/100 of your inventory (okay, 70 for some, but who doesn't have a backpack nowadays?), and everyone carries multiples anyway. Plus, it's still .1%. Which is tiny. -Mark D. Stroyer 15:25, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Life Sense

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face Skull Face 00:01, 21 December 2008 (UTC) New skill/mechanic All classes

This suggestion is for a new spirit skill called Life Sense. This skill would allow a spirit in an occupied area to see the HP and name(s) of the living person(s) closest to death. It does act a little like Triage but it does not require that skill nor does it require that the spirit be of the same origin (outsider / native) to reveal the name / profile.

Comments
I'd sooner not see it indicate the exact HP - perhaps a 'near death' label instead for those nearing death, and the spirit world? --Johan Crichton 01:19, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

(NEGATIVE VOTE) And actually, thinking about it, no. This will simply encourage people to grind their characters XP by XP farming in medical huts with spirits who don't kill anyone. --Johan Crichton 01:20, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
This doesn't happen already Johan? I really would like to see spirits be able to identify those who are about ready to "cross over" to the other side. --Skull Face 10:14, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
I'd sooner see suggestions that modify the game to discourage or reduce the reward of xp farming as a solution to the problem. This... opens up possibilities for some who've openly xp farmed, and don't seem at all embarrassed about it. I'd accept something where it flagged those 'near death' with a 'near death' flag - but the spirits shouldn't know the exact HP. --Johan Crichton 21:37, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
I agree with Johan on this one, XP farming should have its risks. But I like the idea of a "Near Death" description. Perhaps when characters are on low hp it should reduce the AP cost for possession and this skill could indicate if this bonus is applicable?.--Etherdrifter 01:48, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
As of June 2008 this suggestion is redundant. Spirits who have the Triage skill can now see wounded characters just as they would when alive. --Skull Face 16:05, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Ghostly Touch

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face Skull Face 00:01, 21 December 2008 (UTC) New skill/mechanic All classes

This suggestion is for a new spirit skill called Ghostly Touch. This skill would allow a spirit in an occupied area to touch a living person and thus reveal the person's name and profile.

Comments
Would it reveal the profile to the spirit only, or to everyone in the room/square? --Buttercup 01:43, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Who's information is it revealing? If its the ghost's then there is a non-damage wail in place already. If you mean the person touched I like the idea, sort of IFF for spirits.--Etherdrifter 01:49, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

This would reveal the living person's profile and it would only reveal it to the spirit. --Skull Face 10:06, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
I like it, enough said really--Etherdrifter 10:32, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't see that this needs to be a skill - perhaps a simple game modification to allow spirits to 'ghostly touch' a target and find out who they are? --Johan Crichton 21:38, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Poltergeist

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face Skull Face 00:01, 21 December 2008 (UTC) New skill/mechanic All classes

This suggestion is for a new spirit skill called Poltergeist. The new skill Ghostly Touch would be a prerequisite. This skill would allow a spirit in an occupied area to attack a living person using the spirit character's fist %age hit chance and delivering 1 HP damage on a successful attack.

Comments
Doesn't poltergeist mean noisy ghost? Edward Grey 01:34, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Why not make it an item damage skill, (the number of items in the characters inventory/2) rounded down is the chance for the damage to occur or/and increase the damage by 1 for every 20 items? Makes it a little less redundant and a whole lot more sinister. (so it maxes out at 50% chance for 6 damage if the person is carrying 100 items)--Etherdrifter 01:55, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Maxed version seems too much Etherdrifter. Fixing this at 1 HP damage seems more suitable in terms of power. You could argue for a more damaging skill further up the skill tree but I'm not going to suggest that. --Skull Face 10:14, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
The idea behind the items is you can't actually see what a person is carrying, its a risk reward factor. Should you just wail or should you try out a few poltergeist activities first in the hope of finding the right victim? Otherwise the idea seems a little too weak (wail will easily do more damage)--Etherdrifter 10:31, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Dowsing (Original Version)

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face 22:12, 13 September 2007 (UTC) Skill (new) Classes as listed

Dowsing would be a skill placed on the Sixth Sense tree at the same level as Psychic Recognition i.e. Sixth Sense as a prerequisite. With this skill a character would have a 'Dowse' button available with a drop-down menu offering a choice of 'for water' or 'for treasure', at a cost of 3 APs per use. Dowsing would also require a new item (forked stick, 1 inventory space, found searching in Jungle squares above level 5 density). Dowsing would not benefit standard searches e.g. in the ammo hut or searching trees for fruit.

Dowsing for water, success rate XX%, will add additional flavour text to the location description thus...

Your forked stick has led you to a small spring gurgling from beneath a rock.

...and will also activate the 'Fill' drop-down menu option for empty bottles and gourds. As soon as APs are spent on any option other than 'Fill', the flavour text and 'Fill' options are removed, simulating the character losing sight of the small spring.

Dowsing for treasure, success rate YY%, will add additional flavour text to the location description thus...

Your forked stick points downwards towards the ground. There is something buried here!

...and will indicate if there is a cache of buried items at the present location. Dowsing will not indicate what these items are i.e. it could theoretically be a cache of mangoes or a cache of gems. As soon as APs are spent the flavour text is removed.

Dowsing skill would be available to all classes (with the possible exceptions of the Soldier, Warrior and Scientist). The skill is a natural for the Villager, Settler, Explorer and Scout (they need to find water). Similarly the skill fits the Shaman very well. The Pirate, being a superstitious creature prone to burying treasure and then forgetting the location, would also seem an appropriate recipient of this skill. That part is up for discussion as finding water in the jungle would be useful to all.

Comments
Comment here

Deadly Wail

Author Timestamp Type Scope
0000FF Beard 18:08, 9 March 2008 (UTC) Skill Ghosts

Banshee wail is needed to be able to obtain this skill.
It gives a spirit a 5% chance to cause a "deadly wail" when wailing.
When a spirit generates a deadly wail, one person on the same location of the spirit instantly dies, no matter what their class, home camp or HP is.
When someone dies from a deadly wail, the responsible spirit only gets the XP from the victim's death (0 if the victim is a low level player), but not the XP from the HP the victim had.
Because there's only a 5% chance of this to happen, not too many people should die.
For example: if there are two ghosts in the same hut who both wail ten times each, only one person would normally die.

The reasons why I'd like to see this implemented are simple:
-People with healing supplies get a lot of XP by healing the victims of wailing, but almost never get inconvenienced by ghosts, so they actually like them.
This situation in some cases leads those same people to killing shamans because they cause ghosts to leave.
If people died because of spirits, this situation might change.
-It can be very hard for a ghost alone to kill someone.
With this skill, a ghost who wails alone would finally be able to kill someone, even if everyone is healthy at the place where the ghost wails.

If people don't want to be killed by ghosts, they should leave crowded huts.
If ghosts don't want to kill people, they should not buy this skill.

Comments
Well as a dedicated necromancer I must say this would kill our art and make spirits pariahs permanently. Maybe a skill to increase wail damage but nothing instantly deadly. --Etherdrifter 20:50, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

I really like this idea, but worry that large groups of Spirits would then kill of entire huts with no problem. A single Shaman with Malevolence could decimate a town. Maybe the chance should go down the more spirits are in one place? Or maybe it could also blast away the other spirits in the area (like some kind of powered-down exorcism)

Enlightenment

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Grey 04:27, 22 June 2008 (UTC) Skill Everyone, but must achieve the rest of the spiritual skill tree first.

A character who achieves 'enlightenment' is more easily reunited with his body after death because the shock of death and rebirth are much less. The individual recognizes that while the flesh is dross, it is also nescesary and both life and death are part of a cycle..blah, blah, ect. Insert spitual knowledge here.

I recognize that this might cause problems by increasing the turn-around times when players die, but the difference is not excessive. 

 A reduction in the APs required to be reincorporated by 5 APs.

Comments
I'd buy this idea only if people were required to renounce violence to become enlightened. Give up all combat skills and you can be revived at a reduction. The RP rationale is tenuous and really all it will do is put people back into the fray faster. No. --Skull Face 21:06, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd be worried, too, that this would be abused by PKers Blahmicho 02:16, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Reincarnation / Vortex Of Life

Player shaman should be able to revive.

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Skull Face 13:36, 23 June 2008 (UTC) New skill/mechanic Shaman

This suggestion is for a new PC shaman skill called Reincarnation that only becomes available for purchase when the player reaches level 30.

It is well known that the NPC shamen use stationary 'wells of life' to enable the revive process. PC shamen would use a 'vortex of life', one of an unspecified number of invisible storms of psychic energy that move randomly across the island. A vortex can only be detected by someone with Psychic Recognition and would leave a trail that is visible only to those with both Psychic Recognition and Tracking Mastery. The proposed vortices would move at a rate of 1 square per 60 minute server tick in much the same manner as a roaming shaman.

An additional 'Request Revive From' button would be available to a spirit, with drop-down menu box listing all the PC shamen on the spirit's contact list. It would cost the spirit 1 AP to request a revive from a shaman. Multiple requests would be allowed, costing 1 AP each. Successfully obtaining a revive from a PC shaman will cost the spirit 25 APs.

A PC shaman with the Reincarnation skill will have requesters' names added to a list next to a drop down 'Revive/Decline' button (c.f. the trading or juicing mechanics). Requests will remain active on the list until the spirit receives a revive or the shaman declines the request. Declining a request costs the shaman 0 AP. To grant a revive the shaman must be standing at the centre of a vortex of life; each revive costs the shaman 5 APs and 5 HP, and rewards the shaman with 10 XP. A shaman must be alive to revive or to decline revive requests.

Comments
ANOTHER Exclusive Shaman skill? The Shamen already have 4 skills, most classes only have 2... the scout/explorers don't even have that much. --AlexanderRM 22:48, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

I have to agree with AlexanderRM here, though the idea is interesting and I did become a shaman SOLELY because I wanted to revive people. Shaman already have too many advantages, I'd rather see some other classes get buffed up first Blahmicho 01:27, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
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