Gem and Veil (and Hood) Changes

As posted in Achaea proper!

Okay folks, we're super excited to be posting this today, Makarios, myself, and others have been mulling this over for a number of years trying to find the perfect solution and today is the reveal! (Is that enough hype?)

Before I give in and reveal the changes, I'd like to mention a little something about the direction of Achaea and the quality of the game that's important to so many of us.

Players, yep you, every single one of you, are the core of Achaea! Without you, we'd not be able to sit up here in the Garden doing what we love to do every day. And we don't discriminate in that love, whether you've bought thousands of credits over the years or whether you've bought none at all, you're all aces in our eyes. But we're not total dreamers, and we understand that MUDs are a very niche genre, so whilst we think you're all tops, it's important to us to be building a vibrant and exciting world for the new players. The first change that I get to reveal now is all about that.

The Gem of Cloaking has been an artefact of contention for a number of years. It's a no-fail world-shrinker, where players log in and divorce themselves from Achaea for whatever reason. For our new players who learn how to check QW from Romeo or Juliet, the game looks very underpopulated.

But before you cry out in defence, we also understand that infiltration is an exciting and necessary part of life in Achaea for many of you, and so the Gem of Cloaking now has a charge aspect.

The Gem of Cloaking can be activated with TULAHUAR and will apply normal gem concealment for ten minutes. After this duration the gem will go on cooldown for an hour before it can be reactivated again. This turns the artefact into a more interesting tool for use.

The restriction and cooldown will not apply on Dangerous Planes, the gem will function innately in these locations.

The Gem of Cloaking will always hide the owner's location from Thirdeye boosted WHO.


The second big change we're excited to announce is more momentous even than the gem of cloaking change!

It has long been a pay race to locate people in Achaea, with the upper echelons shelling out 2000 credits to get a veil, and then more beyond that to get shrouds to further boost their veils in order to find people who had veils and shrouds atop (or Profit).

We've never liked this apparent "need" and we don't believe that being unlocatable is good for Achaea. Combat is a part of daily life in Achaea and simply being able to hide from consequence or action at all is not something we think breathes life into the world. Actions should have consequences, risks should be risky, ballsy moves require... well, you get the gist.

With that said Veils (and Hoods) of the Sphinx are seeing a massive repurpose. No longer are they for hiding yourself, but are now powerful locating tools!

The Veil wearer will get cross-planar and cross continent FARSEE.
 
The Veil wearer will also gain access to FULLSENSE! This allows you to detect the presences of all adventurers in the same area as you. If you are a class that has Fullsense already, the balance cost for using this ability will be reduced.

Because this item is now much more powerful, the Veil and Hood of the Sphinx are now sold in the Artefact shops for 2500 credits. Existing Veils and Hoods will be switched to this new functionality, but any tradein will return 2/3rds of the price the veil was originally purchased for.

Ethereal shrouds respect the changes made to Veils and offer this same, new functionality, in a decaying format.

The instigation of conflict and the real nature of consequence for actions in Achaea is very important to us. Achaea is a living and breathing world and we do not believe that being able to entirely separate one's self whilst still being able to reap the benefits of the game at large is good for the game or the playerbase.

If you purchased a Veil/Hood of the Sphinx or a Gem of Concealment in the last 30 days and wish to have the item refunded, please file an ISSUE ME. Purchases of these items prior to December 13th 2017 are not subject to a full refund.

               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summmary!

Gem of Cloaking remains activatable with TULAHUAR, but this gives:
 - Activation removes owner from Who lists.
 - 10 minutes concealment and an hour on cooldown.
 - This is a per person cooldown and does not stack.
 - Gem ownership will always remove the owner's location from Thirdeye.
 - The gem functions innately and always when on Treacherous Planes.

Veil/Hood of the Sphinx is now a location tool:
 - Grants FULLSENSE.
   Monks or Blademasters who own veils will have a balance reduction on their innate fullsense ability.
 - Can FARSEE across planes and continents, these will give the room and area of the target.
 - Now costs 2500 credits.

Ethereal shrouds respect the changes made to Veils and offer this same, new functionality, in a decaying format.

Enjoy!


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Comments

  • Finally, the day of reckoning comes, I proudly post this as a way to beat my chest out in inspired awe...

    And Nicola does it and deletes mine instead. Y do u do things that hurt me?
  • KryptonKrypton shi-Khurena
    You see that Tahquil is located at Ensnared quarterdeck of Drowning Grace in .
    o_0
  • I'm most excited about the gem changes personally. QWHO is like, twice as big now :O


    Tecton-Today at 6:17 PM

    teehee b.u.t.t. pirates
  • edited January 2018
    Happy with veil change, though it working to see people's locations on their ships, presumably through commscreen (and beds? I don't have either of these so I can't test) is pretty creepy, imo.

    Gem changes I'm meh on, still useful for infiltration but I'll personally just spend a whole lot more time with tellsoff or phased.
  • Kiet said:
    Happy with veil change, though it working to see people's locations on their ships, presumably through commscreen (and beds? I don't have either of these so I can't test) is pretty creepy, imo.

    Gem changes I'm meh on, still useful for infiltration but I'll personally just spend a whole lot more time with tellsoff or phased.

    Beds still function as you would expect, no changes there.


    Also wanting to echo how awesome I think this is.  I would absolutely have traded veils for fullsense. This is a really great change. Thank you so much.
  • edited January 2018
    Is gem getting its price lowered? It's pretty worthless to anyone except serpents/necros/occies or people who frequently bash annwyn right now. The 10 minute power is useless since people will notice when you suddenly disappear off qw anyway. It's at most a 100-200cr artefact as is unless it gets some kind of compensation like veil did.

    Actually, it's pretty worthless for serpents too, now that I think about it. Can we have it at least hide you from qw when you're phased to other phased serpents?
  • edited January 2018
    Look, I agree 100% with these changes. But, I just bought my hood/gem no more than a couple weeks ago and got very little use out of them. Since I already have fullsense, I have no use for either of these items, and I'm out 2400 credits. That's a LOT of damn money, and I'd like a full refund. I'm not like some players who have gotten years worth of use out of them.

    Looks like we can get refunds. Carry on!
    Give us -real- shop logs! Not another misinterpretation of features we ask for, turned into something that either doesn't help at all, or doesn't remotely resemble what we wanted to begin with.

    Thanks!

    Current position of some of the playerbase, instead of expressing a desire to fix problems:

    Vhaynna: "Honest question - if you don't like Achaea or the current admin, why do you even bother playing?"


  • edited January 2018
    They said they'd refund up to December 13th...


  • edited January 2018
    I love the change 200%, is awesome change! Great work!

    But how about scrying bowl? I used to use it to locate people away from the same area when my class doesn't have locate ability. But now farsee works better and scrying bowl becomes useless...

    Suggest upgrade farsee balance with scrying bowl? or allow scrying bowl to locate soul (I think there's another arty for that?), or let scrying bowl see the room a person burrowed under, and tell coordinate if they are in wilderness?
  • If you purchased a Veil/Hood of the Sphinx or a Gem of Concealment in the last 30 days and wish to have the item refunded, please file an ISSUE ME. Purchases of these items prior to December 13th 2017 are not subject to a full refund.
  • Oh does farsee show room/area on continent too with veil now? Damn. Any refund on scrying bowls? @Makarios @Nicola


  • KryptonKrypton shi-Khurena
    Ship commscreen is now "permanently on" Gem, but you can be farsee'n.
  • edited January 2018
    Krypton said:
    Ship commscreen is now "permanently on" Gem, but you can be farsee'n.
    Defeats the purpose then! Not sure why veil should know more than 'person is on a ship' (with no details) tbh
  • Kiet said:
    Is gem getting its price lowered? It's pretty worthless to anyone except serpents/necros/occies or people who frequently bash annwyn right now. The 10 minute power is useless since people will notice when you suddenly disappear off qw anyway. It's at most a 100-200cr artefact as is unless it gets some kind of compensation like veil did.

    Actually, it's pretty worthless for serpents too, now that I think about it. Can we have it at least hide you from qw when you're phased to other phased serpents?
    I assume its value is going to go up as more dangerous planes get added.  We know the Underworld is coming back, and I sincerely hope they have many more dangerous planes planned.  I think that makes gem retain its value, and the added bonus of hiding yourself for 10m is pretty handy I think.

    Astounded at the veil change though, it's amazing and I love it.  Fantastic choice for it.  I'm curious, does it drop the balance cost of SHADOW PREEMINENCE too? If not, at least it's an alternative to extinguish/preeminence I suppose.  Great change either way.
  • We'll think of options for scrying bowl to make it retain its value.
  • Makarios said:
    We'll think of options for scrying bowl to make it retain its value.
    Maybe make it also alert you if your scryed target moves rooms for the next few seconds?
  • Could we get the chameleon tattoo utility added to the gem, they both performed the same role of obfuscating you specifically are around, and given the tattoo wasn't touched it indicates this change only cares about visible numbers. I just don't have any spare slots to be fitting yet another tattoo into.
  • Penwize said:
    Kiet said:
    Is gem getting its price lowered? It's pretty worthless to anyone except serpents/necros/occies or people who frequently bash annwyn right now. The 10 minute power is useless since people will notice when you suddenly disappear off qw anyway. It's at most a 100-200cr artefact as is unless it gets some kind of compensation like veil did.

    Actually, it's pretty worthless for serpents too, now that I think about it. Can we have it at least hide you from qw when you're phased to other phased serpents?
    I assume its value is going to go up as more dangerous planes get added.  We know the Underworld is coming back, and I sincerely hope they have many more dangerous planes planned.  I think that makes gem retain its value, and the added bonus of hiding yourself for 10m is pretty handy I think.

    Astounded at the veil change though, it's amazing and I love it.  Fantastic choice for it.  I'm curious, does it drop the balance cost of SHADOW PREEMINENCE too? If not, at least it's an alternative to extinguish/preeminence I suppose.  Great change either way.
    There are maybe a handful of people that spend any kind of significant % of their playtime on treacherous planes, and even if you spend half your logged in time there, that's a drop from 100% uptime on gem before. It's not worth nearly the same.

    That said, @Mindshell 's idea of giving it chameleon function is pretty cool
  • JonathinJonathin Retired in a hole.
    I am conflicted about this.

    Having fullsense as not-a-monk seems weird to me.

    Also

    Having fullsense as not-a-monk seems awesome to me.

    I am retired and log into the forums maybe once every 2 months. It was a good 20 years, live your best lives, friends.
  • All my love.




    Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
  • Plus another 47 whose presence you cannot fully sense (204 total).

    Where are these folks hanging out? Journals?
  • Nishnotoba, beds, ships, treacherous planes

  • There's a Crusade right now so they're probably all on Nishnatoba.
  • The change is good but, I would like to point out that these are not the items that I paid for and I would like to be offered a FULL refund for purchased items. I was lead to believe that they were something else when I bought them. This is the classic bait and switch and with 2k credits on the line I think it would only be fair to offer a refund for my money since the items are not what I had clearly paid for.
  • I don't know how long you've had those items, but assuming it was longer than the period that they're offering a full refund for them 1. you got use out of them and 2. from HELP CREDITS Thus, it is possible that the perceived or real value of the things you purchase with credits, or your ability to use those things, may both rise and decline during the course of play.

    Dunn tells you, "I hate you."
    (Party): You say, "Bad plan coming right up."
  • MelodieMelodie Port Saint Lucie, Florida
    I'm a littttle bit iffy on being able to see into ships, especially because commscreen exists. I feel like there is some kind of middle ground between what was and what now is. Kiet's suggestion is one thought, might be some other decent ones.

    Otherwise I 100% love this change and am pretty excited about it, even if things panned out very differently to how I expected it to!
    And I love too                                                                          Be still, my indelible friend
    That love soon might end                                                         You are unbreaking
    And be known in its aching                                                      Though quaking
    Shown in this shaking                                                             Though crazy
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