Radical idea about auras.

[Gytha_Ogg]

Good post, Artec,

I think to some extent, the which and the how are (or may be) more intertwined. (I can only really speak about the mage/conj auras.)

It seems to me there are at least two ways to implement the new-non-auras.
1. Effect Over Time
2. Big Ball Of Effect

Take greater healing, which heals at level 5, 40hp per second over 60 seconds.
With Effect Over Time, it could be that I light it off, and everyone in the area at the moment I cast it, gets the effect, and gets 40hp/sec for the next minute, no matter how far away from me they get. Anyone who was out of range at the moment of cast and gets close to me, gets no effect.

This means less server coordination, they don't have to check every second who is close to me to see who gets heals. It might actually might make my life easier, I can get to the injured people, cast it, and be on my way to the next place I'm needed, or hide away from the Bad Guys.

I could see any of the mage (former) auras working this way - MP or Protection Dome are given to everybody in range at the time of the cast, the effects on the individual are the same as they would have been if I kept standing next to them, no matter where they go. Protection Dome might have to change its name to Protection Phone Booths.

In this case, I don't need any auras, the knights can have 'em all.

With Big Ball of Effect, I hit the Greater Heal spell and everyone in range gets X amount of health points, all at once, whether they need it or not. End of story. With this, I have to coordinate a lot more with other conjs, to make sure I don't fire one off uselessly one seconds after Erica has fired hers off and healed everyone in sight.

In this case, I think Greater Healing and Mana Communion could work this way, but Mana Pylon and Protection Dome would make more sense remaining as auras.

From the original post, I got the idea that it was going to be Big Ball of Effect, but maybe not.

[agarn]

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to bois again."

Excellent posts bois and Gytha. I was wondering that exact same thing, will it be all at once like a mass dispell or will it be more like a barb casting ONS where every player within range gets a mini-countdown of the effect.

I have a hard time envisioning MoD being changed, since being in the right position at the right time is crucial for it to have an impact especially in open field battles.

The proposed changes for knight's auras is a big +1 in my book. I would definitely reskill to add more auras. I can easily see them all being changed to an Onslaught style of effect where if you are within the aoe, you get the benefit for the duration of the spell. Conjurer auras though should be carefully looked at when changed. It could seriously disenfranchise and entire class of players that say "Screw It!" and we end up with none out in the wz.

So to sum up after all this rambling, I say go for it. I think is will reinvigorate people to play a knight instead of a knarb. I just hope that it won't kill off the enthusiasm for people to play a conjurer.

[bois]

GythaOgg, I like your analysis. I think it is on the money. However, I am not sure which one you might favour more. From your post it seems implied that Mana pylon and protection dome might be good candidates to remain auras while the rest get changed to areas. This seems to be the case if the 'big ball of effect ' is placed on greater healing for example.

Now while I agree with you and the analysis, here is the conundrum.

Using greater healing again (a great example spell) we now have to figure out balancing this thing. There are two ways to go here.
1. nerf hard
2. leave as is

My thoughts , thinking from a melee perspective.

This change would have to be done in such a way as to make it easier or equally as easy for conjurers to mass heal as it is now. But, at the same time not make it overpowering so that as the number of conjurers increase it becomes exponentially harder to kill your target.
This is where it become difficult. If we take the big ball of effect first let us look at some possibilities. Let us say hypothetically speaking that GH gets 900 HP instant regeneration and has a mana cost of 500 with 160 second CD. The result would be that 1 conju can hit everyone in the area and either regen to the full 900 for the badly injured and top up the rest correct?

With 2 or 3 conjurers would this not be over kill? What might just happen is that heals would outpace damage (except maybe barb). This is just a possible scenario .

Take the other method. Restore over time. Problem 1 for conju is they are needed everywhere at once. This solves that. Added to this, they still stack but many classes can keep damage pace with the heals forcing the damaged player to have to think tactically to keep their reserves up. A full mass health regeneration may tip the balance too much.

Complicating this further is the fact that there will ally defensive buffs in the mix too. These would mitigate damage making the heal over time even more effective.

A lot of scenarios playing out in my head suggests to me that regenerate over time would be the best way to offer this an area. The delivery method would have to be in the Evendim's Fury style. To be able to heal while having almost no risk tips the balance too much. Plus Conjurers have decent defenses.

Conclusion:
My opinion for the conjurer is that Mana pylon and protection dome remains auras and the rest become areas. Greater healing becomes an area , deliver in the same fashion as Evendim's fury and shall be a HoT (heal over time).
reasoning is that a heal over time gives the opponent a chance to kill even if the number of conjurers increase. For example a damaged warrior gets + 40 stacked for every heal area dropped on him as against getting bulk heals of say 900 each. We can see how this may tip the scales of balance. It simply will be too much health too fast.
An added bonus is that with the regen going, you as the conjurer have a visible marker of the injured and can take further steps in the form of a regenerate ally or heal ally or even a material wall. Lastly, the nerf to the spell if any will be much less that if it was a bulk heal. I am simply using NGD's formula of adjusting as little as possible to gain the greatest improvement.

Discuss.

Artec.

[bois]

MoD is a tough call. I would say leave it as an aura. If it were to become an area it would simply be too overpowered. Imagine an area darkness spell. It would be just as nasty as this.

Imagine having to run around dizzy and with -30 constitution for 40 seconds where ever you go. All this and the warlock would have escaped.

While this may require more calculations from the server , to change it to an area will require a major reduction of its effect, not what we need at the moment I think. Of course NGD may see it fit in order to squeeze in the 4th aura. We wait and see their response on this. It was really more of a question that a recommendation though. Some things just should not be changed and this is one of them. Splinter wall or whirlwind may not used enough to matter though and as such can stay as well.

Art

[_Arwen_]

@Kaixo - With my suggestions Mana Pylon and Protection dome would not be ranged, you'd need to cast it in the middle of your target group then move out. I think thats what you were describing.

@Lumi - You're right its a little bit of a nerf, but only because it delivers an instant heal. With current GH you're not guaranteed to get the full 2400 HP. Also, the CD isn't the important part of course that can be changed to balance it out what I was suggesting was mostly the delivery type.

@Lumi + Galynn - You're both right about GH needing tweaking, how about dropping it to 400 instant but trippling the duration to 30s?

[Recoil]

Originally Posted by _Arwen_

@Lumi + Galynn - You're both right about GH needing tweaking, how about dropping it to 400 instant but trippling the duration to 30s?

I think it would rather be Mass Regen Ally with maybe a very small amount healed initially (like 200-300 hp) and cooldown = (duration*2)

[veluchami]

Originally Posted by chilko

Auras are one of the distinctive features in Regnum.
but Auras are a pain...

• They cost too much processing time on the server (the 3 aura limit is in place because that's one of the reasons for the server to cry during an invasion.
  
• They are too lazy and undefined as it doesn't matter when you use it but how you move and it's difficult to understand when and if you are going to be affected (even more so considering the 3 aura limit rule)
  
• They make players pile together, making flanking and other tactical maneuvers more difficult or worse making these groups of players easy targets for area nukes such as Terror.

so...

We are looking into keeping only some of the auras that are interesting such as mana communion or some of the high end knight auras (which will be going back to a circular area)

and,

make the other auras more like instant area spells...

This means that in order to cast let's say Major heal, a counjurer would need to go and press a button instead of just being there. This decision alone makes it much more tactical in terms of where and where do the area heal.

by doing this we could be able to take the area limit to 4 (we will only have 4 assist auras in the game) and all of these new area effect spells could pile on top of those auras (opening multiple interesting group/buff dynamics)

what do you guys think?

So this is like making auras similar to 'off with their heads'. And removing aura limit?

I dunno how this will play out. More aura spammers? Where is the tactics in this? But if you MUST do this for server performance then go ahead. I dont see any improvement in game play/tactics from this. Removing aura limit might be counterproductive... esp in uneven battles against the zerg.

[Minorian]

I would say keep GH as a aura, and make all the other conju auras into areas.

This would allow knights to gain an advantage in the only possible means of support (their auras). Knights could support with 3 auras and 1 area, Conju could support with 1 aura and 3 areas, but also heal. I think this would keep an even amount of balance between these 2 support classes.

As for Knight auras my priorities are as follows.

1. Heroic Prescence - this is great for being amongst other warriors, because the +armor% is more affective for them. This is the only aura I currently use.

2. Shield Wall - If this became 360 degrees again It would be great for also helping the warriors, but because of being an aura the rangers wouldn't gain too much defence.

3. Stars Shield - Same as shield wall.

4. Deflecting Barrier - This one should be an area because a knight can't just stand around with the archers all day, It would be good to prebuff on the ranged and then charge forward supporting the barbs with above spells.

[Kaixo]

Originally Posted by bois

This is a radical idea and the discussion is just beginning. Actually, what I expected rather than pre emptive speculations was the analysis of ALL the auras and which might actually be best to be changed as an area.

What are all the auras in the game?

Mage : Note this very carefully . Note I did not say conjurer.

Splinter Wall (yes actually designated an aura)
Mana Pylon
Static Field
Protection Dome
Mana Communion

Warlock:

Master Of Doom (aura yes)

Conjurer:

Greater healing

Barbarian:

Whirlwind

Knight:

Heroic Presence
Shield wall
Stars shield
Deflecting barrier

Good . Now NGD has suggested that there will be only 4 assist auras that will remain. The question here is should the offensive auras remain as well? It is quite possible that they put the server under strain as well and may actually help in the head room that NGD wants. I leave that one for them to answer.

Moving on, we have our assist auras. NGD suggests that they only intend to keep 4. Logically this should mean 2 for the Mage/Conjurer and 2 for the Knight.

This is where the discussion has reached in my view. Which 4 to keep? Until we answer this question every other discussion on specific questions (in my view) would remain much less relevant.

There should be 4 ways:
1- Don't change.
2- Change to area of instantaneous effect.
3- Change to area with effect over time.
4- Mix 2&3

Splinter Wall
Whirlwind
Offensive auras should be converted to areas, they are practically useless as auras. The would remain useless but a bit better, to improve them they could reduce the casting time and the damage, and turn the last one to net damage.
In my opinion but this is a different discussion areas should have damage OR effect, and whirlwind should be the most damaging area. I don't get the actual idea of super areas coexisting with stupid areas.

Static Field
If this changes to area then it's a negative onslaught, that kind of power should be available for knights in my opinion and not for mages.

Greater healing
Protection Dome
Mana Communion
I would change those to areas, greater healing and mana communion with instant effect, and all without range.

Mana Pylon
I don't know how it could be changed to an area without changing too much the power and its effect.

Shield wall
Stars shield
I think these should remain as auras, rg6 in circle. If not they would make obsolete material wall and magic barrier.
Perhaps let them affect also the knight and reduce army of one to Acrobatic.
I would reduce stars shield to 30%, since armor points are also improving.

Heroic Presence
Deflecting barrier
I like them like auras but the purpose is to reduce lag...I don't know.
Deflecting barrier seems to me a bit superfluous if you have shield wall and star shield, i would change it for static field (area) because knights needs ways to maintain range and tank.

[ieti]

Static Field is perfectly fine as mage aura. It works very good, BUT area 6 is too small. Negative speed mallus take some time to trigger, and often you end at spear range which is bad. This can be fixed with bigger area 10 maybe or some fix so this type of effect triggers faster.

I think NGD problem with taking too much processing power is mainly with auras that display positive or negative numbers on player's heads i.e. Greater Healing, Mana Comm, Splinter Wall, Whirwind. Some of them can be converted to areas and will be actually better - Mana Comm. Some can be hybrid as Arwen proposed for GH.

I really really do not see point of seing DoT damages over heads in case of positive or negative auras. You get the icons, you get effect on your mana, hp why you need your fps lower and your log spammed?

I will be really glad to see aura limit raised and if it is possible to see buff icons of selected ally and hp mana values as in many other games. That way we really will not need to see that positive / negative stuff on player's heads. Conjus will be even more productive and informed what happens.



Image is from WoW. But if we get some elements it will be great improvement for everyone.