Ability Ideas and Discussion

Xith

Something I thought of a long while back and never brought up was altering Hocuspocus to use a channel name instead of a colour number, since people change their channel colours and figure out your pranks and stuff.
Something like: HOCUSPOCUS 5 CHANNEL TELLS <text>. So it would send via the tell channel instead of the colour. Could be a coding headache I guess but it would be neat.

Ernam

Would also be pretty OOC I think.

Hocuspocus is meant to be a visual illusion, thus illusioning channels in any way (built in or not) is probably either bad gameplay or illegal, or both.

Blujixapug

This would be an awesome ability with unrivalled potential. But I think jesters are too stupid to deserve it.

I could see it as a Subterfuge ability that can only be used while hypnotising, since it'd be a potent intelligence tool and serpents are the spy class. Or just don't give it to anyone.

Is this thread meant to be for brainstorming other ideas? Or just feedback on that one?

Iocun

Ernam said:

Hocuspocus is meant to be a visual illusion

On what do you base that claim?

Xith

Blujixapug said:

This would be an awesome ability with unrivalled potential. But I think jesters are too stupid to deserve it.

I could see it as a Subterfuge ability that can only be used while hypnotising, since it'd be a potent intelligence tool and serpents are the spy class. Or just don't give it to anyone.

Is this thread meant to be for brainstorming other ideas? Or just feedback on that one?

Feedback for everything.
It's possible that Hocus should be moved up higher in the skill, as well as graffiti, just for the alt abuse.

Nim

Ernam said:

Would also be pretty OOC I think.

Hocuspocus is meant to be a visual illusion, thus illusioning channels in any way (built in or not) is probably either bad gameplay or illegal, or both.

HOCUSPOCUS You hear a loud clanging noise to the east, followed by a cry of "I'm okay!" Which is itself naturally followed by even more clanging, and no further suggestions that anyone to the east is still okay.

Are you sure it's meant to be visual illusions?

(pretend I got the syntax right)

Ernam

I suppose my wording could have been better, but in general, my opinion is that illusions with OOC elements [ like (Party): ] are not and have never been allowed.  They're certainly not in-character, but again, I suppose people (generally those who want to use it) don't agree.

Sena

Whether or not they're socially acceptable is debatable (it's perfectly fine and just as IC as anything else, in my opinion), but when it comes to legality, they're definitely allowed.

Nim

Ernam said:

I suppose my wording could have been better, but in general, my opinion is that illusions with OOC elements [ like (Party): ] are not and have never been allowed.  They're certainly not in-character, but again, I suppose people (generally those who want to use it) don't agree.

(Party): is really just shorthand to make chat commands easier to read. For example,

(Party): Ernam says, "Target Sena."

Could also be written as

Through your temporary telepathic network, Ernam says, "Target Sena."

The fact that in order for your illusion to be convincing it would have to use the same syntax that the game itself provides is nothing new. For example, if you want to convince people that Ernam left the room to the south-east, although you may be able to convince them with semantically similar but ultimately different string (particularly if they're new), the best approach is to use the same exact writeup that the game itself would use.

As far as whether illusions are limited to a particular sense, consider that some of the afflictions a serpent might have, in the past (and even still now against opponents who don't make use of server-side curing), tricked people into thinking they had includes clinically impatient enough to potentially make them react in some combat-significant manner. And even if they aren't tricked, it's not because the illusion failed to work but because they saw it as it is, a mere illusion and not actual reality. What sense, exactly, do you use to trick someone into thinking that?

Xith

Ernam said:

I suppose my wording could have been better, but in general, my opinion is that illusions with OOC elements [ like (Party): ] are not and have never been allowed.  They're certainly not in-character, but again, I suppose people (generally those who want to use it) don't agree.

You also misunderstand. The colour of the channel is mimicked on the receiver's end, instead of specifying a certain colour to everyone. So clans would be inherently exempt, especially since many are OOC and referring IC to a channel that doesn't really exist would be bad. But for says and tells and such it has performance merit. It's hard for an illusioned scene of people talking to work when people are seeing CYAN (14) when their says are config'd to MAGENTA (13). So in this way instead of COLOUR 14, you'd use CHANNEL SAYS.

Renoir

I like this, mostly because I do change my says, and it would make for my conversation performances I'm so fond of to feel more... involved? Something like that.