Suggestions

[Yolan]

I have a few, so I will put them in the same thread so as to minimise spam.

Like all my suggestions, I offer this one in the knowledge that Jorb and Loftar has probably thought about it already, and will someday be getting around to it. But then, this is a way for them to know what at least one player would like to see, and if people read and respond positively, then that's some kind of useful feedback for them that might help them organise their priorities..


The first two suggestions are for new skills, which border on the magical. I am not going to suggest a 'magical system' or anything here. Rather, I think of these skills as capable of operating on the edge of whatever magical system J&L plan to set up.

NEW SKILL: WITCHCRAFT

Really, this skill could be called 'alchemy', but we already have a black cauldron implemented into the game, so I was thinking it could simply use existing code for maximum efficiency. This is something which could easily be extended come actually magic code, whatever form that takes, but for now, I think this could be added quite quickly, and be rather fun.
The witchcraft skill would allow players to use ingredients to make various potions. Some of the necessary reagents could easily be added to the butcher list of animal corpses, others, like cobwebs, could be set to load randomly in forests. Frogs and rats, which currently only exist to annoy cart-pullers, could be useful ingredients. Leeches could also be used. To get the skill in as fast as possible, you could focus on those objects that are already in the game or have been drawn. Mushrooms, which already load in forests, could be made harvestable, for example. I think two-thirds to three-quarters of ingredients would need to be found in the wild, rather than cultivated. Over time, as new beasties are added into the game, the list of potions could be expanded (perhaps even requiring a new skill level to unlock, like WITCHCRAFT II) to make use of access to the new scales/horns/hearts/eyeballs that can be taken from them.
So, all you would need is a lit and filled cauldron, the right incredients, and a new craft submenu. For extra coolness, you could add the requirement that witches brews can _only_ be made during the nighttime. Furthermore, potions made during a full moon could be doubly potent!

Suggested Potions: the possible list is endless, but here's just a few I'd like to see.

- A Drought of Healing
Kind of mandatory that I suggest this. Rather than healing HHP, like leeches and bandages, these could be used for healing SHP. I suspect J&L wouldn't want to see people running around quaffing these all the time. If fights are about 'he with the most potions wins', then something is wrong. A possible way around this could be to 1) give SHP at the cost of some HHP. You get that temporary boost you are after, but it has compromised your health. Using these droughts excessively would therefore be a bad idea. 2) make the required ingredients somewhat, if not overly, rare. This potion could be a good money spinner for the loner, who trades the goods they collect from the wilderness with more settled places.

- A Pernicious Poison
For the sneaky villain. This could be applied to food objects, causing anybody who eats them a significant amount of SHP and HHP damage over a length of time. A green health-bar could indicate poisoning, as per many games. Would you like a nice shiny apple? While great for no-gooders ,could be useful for defending your food from thieves. Put up a rune-stone that says 'half our food stocks are poisoned. Want to guess which half?' Well's could also be poisoned, lasting for many days in-game, depending on the strength of the potion.
Poisoning would have to be integrated into the thief/trespassing crime system, so that its not exploitable by alt-griefers. Similarly, I imagine Witchcraft as being a 10,000 LP skill or even more.

- A Sleeping Drought
Works like the pernicious poison, but sends the player character to sleep, with the same effect as being KO's for a length of time, except with the 'zzzzzz' animation instead of the tweety-birds. Could be useful for getting the one-up on an opponent, or providing a window of opportunity for theft.

- A Potion of Purity
Counteracts the effects of having ingested something tampered with the previous two. Can be used to clean a well. Would not be usable on poisoned food.

Note: When ranging was added, J&L also gave us some new ranger equipment. I would suggest that a witch hat is also released with this skill.

On Gender: I think it might be interesting if this skill were restricted to female characters. I like how this game is a classless system, but inventive ways to increase differentiation are important.

[Yolan]

Continuing>>>

NEW SKILL: WARLOCKRY

While Witchcraft enables the creation of various potions, Warlockry could enable the creation of magical objects.

Of course, J&L are trying to make a game that is more than just another MMO. I, for one, wouldn't like to see the game world swamped with a huge range magic items, esp. if they help make a player into an undefeatable god versus other players. However, I think that, like potions, magic objects could be incorporated in a way that fits into the lore of the world.

Again, like Witchcraft, I think of this a kind of special crafting skill, which is supplementary to whatever magic system might get added, but assumes nothing about mana, etc. whatever.

Like with crafting in general, material required for crafting magic objects could range from the mundane to the extremely rare and valuable.

I suggest that a special stone altar is required for magical item creation. More on this in later object suggestion.

A suggested Magical Object:

- Seer Stone
A 'crystal ball' that allows the player to cast their gaze over the surrounding land. This object could be restricted to one use every in-game day, and heavily drains the players stamina. Once the player runs out of stamina, or the the player clicks the left-mouse button or some such, regular game-mode resumes. While viewing the ball, the screen is not locked onto the radius of the player's avatar as per normal. Manipulating objects with the cursor would be disabled. The player can use the arrow keys or middle-mouse key to look as far away as they like. This would be interesting, yet not something which confers an unbeatable advantage. Later, when the game is more developed, I imagine this as being useful for scouting out the base of an enemy force, or for hunting for that thief who stole from you (once player identification outside of chat is avaliable.)

I'm going to move on here, but just to emphasise that I'm not suggesting 'magic blade +1', etc. kind of objects. What kind of cool objects could you guys think of that would 'fit-in' to H&H?

On Gender: I think it might be interesting if this skill was restricted to male characters.


NEW OBJECT: STONE BLOCKS

This seems to be a natural extension of the construction set-up if you ask me. Currently, we can get branches from trees, or chop them down and turn them into wooden blocks/planks. Stones, however, can only be chipped to get the equivalent of branches. Make it so that stones can be split into stone blocks, perhaps of 3x3 size. These can be used for cool object construction. (Side Note: I am guessing this is in the works already, but some kind of permanent quarry locations would be needed in the next world to prevent the complete removal of useful stone.)


NEW OBJECT: STONE ALTAR

I just love the Ring of Brodgar, but how about letting us have more of these kinds of objects? This one could be useful for a variety of purposes. For example, I see it serving as a bench surface for Warlocks to make their magic objects on. Could also be good for human sacrifice or animal sacrifice. Requires lots of stone blocks to build.

I know that J&L plan some astronomy sort of stuff, so I am guessing henge's are going to be worked into that. I am very excited by the potentials behind this.


NEW OBJECT: HUMAN SKULL
Human skulls should be collectible from human skeletons. These could be used for crafting some macabe objects/equipment.

Lastly,

'WE CAN'T BE HAPPY UNDERGROUND'

I would love to see a few changes made towards enabling player created dungeons/underground cities, etc. Currently, we cannot pave stone underground. Could we have this enabled? Similarly, how about making it so that stones can be used to turn a wall into a stone wall, or to make a wall where there wasn't one before? It could be the same as a regular underground wall, except to dig through it would take some time, perhaps similar to removing a tree stump. I'm not talking about anything indestructible, with all the complications that brings. I think that with this ability, plus underground paving, we would start to see dungeons/labyrinths/cities start to emerge beneath the earth. Having bats/rats spawn in these places (depending on hearthfire proximity) would be very atmospheric. If a place is totally uninhabited, how about some meaner beasties?