 Once upon a time, there was a little boy who had a dream.. a vision if you will. "When I grow up, I want to write endless paragraphs about changes in a computer game," said the boy. Little did he know how his dream would come true. "Now if only I got paid for it," exclaimed the boy with the same fervor, hoping it would come true. So one day the boy was trying to think of a way to open the TDU, and he came up with that story, and he was quite pleased with himself, despite the fact that it reveals his inner dorkitude. the boy put it aside, and continued doing what he does best.. rambling incoherantly!
This is a long one today folks, so lookout!
Are you all enjoying your seeds and bowls? Many players are finding the experience stimulating in a Chiapet-Pokemon-black-and-white kinda way. At any rate, for those of you who are out of the loop, heres the scoop on seeds:Addition info on plant growing from seed:
plant GROWING
Using special seeds harvested from slain monsters, you may grow uniquely colored plants to use as house decorations or to produce hybrid seeds and resources. As your plant grows from a seed to a full-grown plant, it will need watering and alchemical care in order to protect it from insect infestations and harmful fungi. Through the process of cross-pollination, you may even be the first person to grow a unique new hybrid plant type!
plant SEEDS
plant seeds come in many different colors. When planted in a bowl of dirt and carefully tended to over time, plant seeds will grow into full-grown plants. These plants can be used for decorative purposes only, or as a source of new hybrid plant seeds and specially grown resources. While you can tell what color of plant the seed will grow into by the color of the seed itself, the type of plant that results from a particular seed remains a mystery until the plant is fully-grown! The first step in growing a seed into a plant is planting it in a bowl of soft dirt. In order to plant a seed, simply double click the seed to use it, and then target a bowl of soft dirt. Freshly dug dirt isn't soft enough for a seed to be planted in, so you'll need to pour water into your bowl of dirt before attempting to place a seed in it.
plant BOWL
In order to plant a seed, you first need a special bowl. plant bowls can be purchased from a provisioner for a small price. Once you have an empty plant bowl, you'll need to fill it with dirt before you can plant a seed in it. To fill a plant bowl with dirt, double-click the bowl to use it, and then target a source of nice soft brown dirt. If you've targeted an appropriate patch of dirt, you'll now have a bowl full of dirt. Add in enough water to soften the dirt, and you'll have a perfect spot for planting a seed!
plant GROWTH
plants take time to grow through their various stages. A plant has nine main stages of growth, from seed, to sapling, to fully grown plant. plants will not grow in containers unless the container is in a player's backpack. If a plant is healthy and well-tended, it will grow one "stage" of its life-cycle in about a day's time. If a plant is not healthy because it has not been well taken care of, then it will not grow. You must keep your plant in a healthy state by curing it of any maladies that might be affecting it, and then letting it heal naturally or help it along through alchemical means.
plant HEALTH
plants have hit points much like your character. A plant loses hit points when it is affected by various maladies. If a plant has insects eating at it, then it will lose hit points each day. Other maladies that can affect a plant's health include under or over-watering the plant, harmful fungi, poison, and disease. Heal potions and a plant's natural healing will raise the plant's hit points back up to its maximum, but only if the plant has been cured of all maladies first. If a plant loses all its hit points, it will die. As a plant grows, its maximum health increases. Seeds and saplings are very weak, and can easily be killed if neglected for even a short while.Full-grown plants, on the other hand, could survive for several days without any help.
INFESTATION
As a plant grows, it has a chance of being infested by insects. These insects will slowly eat at a plant, causing it to lose health and eventually die. Different plants have different chances of being infested. Flowery plants, over-watered plants, and bright plants all have a greater chance of attracting hungry insects, so they'll need even more attention from their owner. You can use poison potions on your plant in order to kill off the insects that have infested it. Be sure that you do not use too much poison, however, or your plant will soak up the poison, which can cause it to wither and die! You can view your plant's current Infestation Level in the plant Health menu.
FUNGUS
As a plant grows, it has a chance of being infected with harmful fungi. Fungi sap the plant of its health, which will cause it to wither and die. It is important to remember that fungi love moist areas, so over-watering your plant increases the chance that it will become infected by harmful fungi.You may cure your plant of fungus by using cure potions. You can view your plant's current Fungus Level in the plant Health menu.
POISON (plantS)
You may apply poison potions to your plant to kill insects infecting it. If you apply too many poison potions, however, or apply poison potions when there are no insects on the plant, then your plant will soak up the poison and become sick. When you apply poison potions, they will not take effect until the next growth check your plant performs (approximately once a day). Don't worry, however, as insects only harm your plant during a growth check as well, so any insects will be killed off by your poison potions before they can harm your plant. If you accidently poison your plant, you can cure the plant of poison by using heal potions to counteract the poison. You can view your plant's current Poison Level in the plant Health menu.
CURING (plantS)
You may apply cure potions to a plant in order to cure it of harmful fungi. If you apply too many cure potions, however, or apply cure potions when the plant is not infected by fungi, you will infect your plant with a deadly disease which will cause it to wither and die. When you apply cure potions, they will not take effect until the next growth check your plant performs (approximately once a day). Don't worry, however, as fungi only harm your plant during a growth check as well, so any harmful fungi will be cured by your cure potions before they can harm your plant. If you accidently infect your plant with a disease by over-curing it, you can use heal potions to counteract the disease. You can view your plant's current Disease Level in the plant Health menu.
WATERING
In order to keep your plant healthy, you must water it regularly. An under-watered plant will wither and die if left unattended. However, it is important to remember that over-watering your plant is also unhealthy. Over-watered plants become waterlogged and lose health, in addition to becoming perfect breeding grounds for insects and fungi. Each time a plant performs its growth check (approximately once a day) the plant will soak up one dose of water, so you'll need to keep a constant eye on your plant to make sure it has not dried out. You can view your plant's current Water Level in the plant Health menu.
POTIONS (plantS)
You may apply various potions to a plant in order to cure it of various maladies, help it to heal back up to maximum health, or strengthen it against infestations. Potions are applied through the Water button on the Main Menu. The following potions may be used on plants: Heal, Cure, Poison,Strength.
CROSS-POLLINATION
When a plant first reaches its full-grown state, it will sprout its full foliage, no longer contained within the plant bowl. At this stage of the plant's growth, it will begin to produce pollen. You can view your plant's current Pollination State in the plant Resources menu. The plant will eventually self-pollinate if left unattended, and the plant will begin to produce seeds. Seeds produced by a self-pollinated plant will grow up into an exact duplicate of the "parent" plant. Another method of pollination is called "cross-pollination". Once a plant reaches the pollen-producing stage, its pollen may be gathered by the owner by using the Cross-Pollination button. Gathered pollen may be used on another full-grown plant. When you pollinate one plant with pollen from another plant, the targeted plant will produce seeds that will grow into a hybrid of the two plants. The color and type of each "parent" plant are combined to produce a new type of seed that will grow from the targeted plant. While you may continue to gather pollen from a plant throughout its entire life cycle, once a plant has been pollinated (either by itself, through natural pollination, or through manual cross-pollination from another plant), no further combinations may be performed. The seed type that the plant will produce is determined the first time the plant is pollinized, and cannot be changed afterwards. In very rare circumstances, cross-pollination may result in a "mutation". If mutation occurs, the targeted plant will not produce seeds that are a combination of the two "parent" plants, but will instead produce "mutated" seeds that grow into mutant plant varieties.
SEED PRODUCTION
When a plant reaches its maximum growth level, it will no longer grow in size, but will instead produce seeds any time a growth check is performed. The type of seed that a plant produces is determined by whether it pollinated itself, or if pollen from another plant was applied to it during the cross-pollination process. A plant will produce one seed per day, up to a maximum of 8 seeds. A plant will only produce a seed if it is healthy. You may gather seeds from a plant by using the Gather Seeds button on the Resources menu. You will pick all available seeds from the plant and place them in your backpack, if there is room. The number of seeds available is displayed next to the Seed # indicator (seed image in an empty box). A red X symbol indicates that the plant has been set to decorative mode, or has produced its maximum amount.
RESOURCE PRODUCTION
Certain plant type and color combinations result in a plant that can produce unique resources. A plant will begin producing resources at the same time it produces seeds, when it reaches its maximum growth level. One resource is produced per day, up to a maximum of 8 resources A plant will only produce resources if it is health. You may gather resources from a plant by using the Gather Resources button on the Resources menu. You will pick all available resourcesom the plant and place them in your backpack, if there is room. The number of resources available is displayed next to the Resource # indicator (petal image in an empty box). A red X symbol indicates that the plant has been set to decorative mode, or has produced its maximum amount. Resources produced by unique plant combinations have special properties dependent on the resource type and color.
DECORATIVE MODE
When a plant reaches its maximum growth level, a Decorative Mode symbol will appear in the Resources Menu. This symbol is displayed as a leafy plant with a red / symbol through it. Pressing this button (and clicking Yes to apply) will set the plant to Decorative Mode. A plant set to Decorative Mode will not produce seeds or resources, and cannot be used for cross-pollination. A Decorative plant does not need upkeep, however, and is always in a healthy state. Decorative Mode should be activated if you simply want your plant to be used as a house decoration, and therefore do not want to have to water it or keep it healthy. A Decorative plant will have the tag [decorative] displayed above it when single-clicked. IMPORTANT NOTE: Once a plant is set to Decorative Mode, it cannot be set back to its normal state. A Decorative plant will never produce seeds or resources again.
EMPTYING THE BOWL
If you would like to empty your plant bowl of the plant or seed and start over again, you may use the Empty Bowl button on the Main Menu. If the plant in the bowl is in the seed or sapling stage, emptying the bowl will result in a bowl and the seed placed in your backpack. If the bowl only had dirt in it, or the plant had grown beyond the sapling phase, emptying the bowl will destroy the plant, returning only the plant bowl to your backpack.
Fascinating! You can acquire a plethora of seeds, which are avaiiable on boglings. Boglings can be found in the attacking cities. I wonder if Blackthorn knows that his nasty plant creatures are providing Britannia with purty flowers.. hmm.. Heres some additional scoop on Plants from Augur:1) If a plant is locked down, only the person that locked it down can interract with it in any way.
2) If a plant inside a player has been "logged out" for a day or more, it will still grow 1 day when the player logs back in with it. But it will only grow a maximum of 1 day, no matter how long its been logged out. So yes, you could theoretically log out with your plants in your pack to avoid losing them if you cannot log in for many days.
3) Actually you have 250 item slots you can "log out with", since you can fill your backpack with 125 and your bank with 125.
Partially grown plants (those still in their bowl, not yet "fully grown") will not block movement.
Fully grown plants will block movement, based upon the type of plant they are. That is, we have not changed the properties of the art for any of the plants, so if they block movement in the game map, they'll block movement when grown through the plant system.
An example of a blocking plant is a cactus. An example of non-blocking plants would be the various flower types.
Plants are normal items in terms of lockdowns. You carry around a bowl, say, then drop it on the ground. Then target it for lockdown with the standard "I wish to lock this down."
You can lock down a plant anywhere you can lock down anything else. It's important to remember that since plant bowls (which can be walked through) have the ability to grow into certain plants which cannot be walked through (say, a cactus), that you won't be able to lock them down near stairs or a door, just like any other blocking object.
Seeds will indeed be unstackable : but there's actually a reason for it this time.
Each seed has a variety of information stored on it that makes it different from other seeds. So, even if you had 18 red seeds, they might actually be completely different Types of seeds (that is, they produce different red plants). Since stacks of items aren't great at storing multiple pieces of information about the singular items within them, seeds will not be stackable.
We thought about allowing seeds of the exact same type (that is, same color, same type, same brightness) stack, but thought it might be confusing as to why some seeds stacked and others didn't, when there was no visible difference (plant type cannot be discerned in the seed stage).
A few ideas have been tossed around (seed bags that act much like potion kegs), but none of them worked satisfactorily enough for the first pass - so seeds will be singular for now.
Plants can do their daily growth check :
1) If they are locked down in a house (and not in a container)
2) If they are in a container, and if - and only if - that container is inside a player (so a player's backpack or their bank vault).
A caveat of this is that if the container is inside a player, the plant will only do its daily growth check if the player logs in that day.
The reason for this is based off of the way in which objects are loaded if they are inside a player (that is, they are realistically "outside the game world" when the player is logged out). It would be too server intensive to have a plant do all its days of growth at once when the player finally logs back in. (Think of running the growth check for the 8 days you were logged out, for all 200 plants inside your pack).
So while you'll be able to grow plants in your backpack and bank box, you'll need to attend them more often (by logging in each day), as opposed to plants locked down in a house, which have a chance to grow once a day, whether you're online or not.
Publish 16 still looms on the horizon, thats the publish that includes massive Taming and Bardic changes. OSI did some focus group testing with bards, heres the announcement:Last week, we began a small focus testing program regarding the Publish 16 bard changes with a number of players who frequent these boards and who are knowledgeable about barding in UO. Our intent was to solicit feedback on the full range of new bard-related rules and items in a clear, manageable format. We know that there were others who would have been great candidates to help out in this testing, but we decided to keep it small at this time for several reasons – one, the test required us to send the participants beta clients and files, as well as change permissions to allow access to a test shard that was otherwise only internal; and two, we wanted to be sure that we had time to spend with them to really get good and thorough feedback.
Harb, his wife Ish, Morgayna, Malynn, SlipperyJim, Onyx_Ironhoof, and Nadya_Modavia participated in this testing, occasionally joining Vex, Evocare, Adrick, Tajima, and Swift, a long-time bard who isn't a dev team member. They've been testing throughout the past week in solo and group formats, and have provided some excellent feedback while catching a number of bugs – in fact, we’ve already fixed several of the bugs they helped us find, and are considering some tweaks to the proposals based on that feedback as well. We're providing this thread to allow them to post their comments on the new barding changes. For now, this thread will remain locked to all but them so that their feedback doesn’t get buried or lost, but they’re welcome to post elsewhere in the forum and field any questions you may have.
Here are some of the responses.. first the response by Lady Malynn:Hail all!
First of all, let me assure ya’ll that the new bard is playable. For the most part, I found the new bard enjoyable, but I am still pushing for additional tweaks to make it more exciting for the solo bard.
Imagine yourself a bard of about 60 points again. That will be your first impression of the new barding experience. Expect to be frustrated and angry at first until you begin to learn the new techniques. Then, still expect to be frustrated about certain aspects of barding, and pleased with others.
I tested a bard similar to the one I play on Great Lakes. I wanted to test a type of bard that anyone could develop. My bard has gm magic, gm music, gm provoke, and almost gm peace. She has meditation in the 90’s, and some resist. I gave up evaluate intelligence to add gm discord. My test bard had 100/25/100 (str/dex/int), just like on Great Lakes. I did not use power scrolls or slayer weapons during my test.
Destard One: It is possible to bard here. You will fail about 2/3’s of times with high provoke. So you need to keep an eye out for what is going on around you, and have enough room/mana to escape if you fail. Barding solo was very frustrating at first. I’m used to diving into a middle of a spawn, and barding away. Now you have to plan better if you bard solo. You need to work the edges and lure targets to an isolated area. You have more chances of success if you bard a drake or two onto a dragon.
Team barding is fairly easy and enjoyable in Destard. If you miss a provoke, your partner can try to pick it up for you.
I don’t like the mana/dex drain. But, I found myself quickly going into the “mage” mindset – watching my mana and med’ing. Having a mana drain for barding slows the barding game down, but does not stop it. Just like having a mana drain for a mage does not stop a mage. The dex drain is easily countered by drinking total refresh.
I was frustrated by the line-of-site (LOS) restrictions while solo’ing in Destard. When a wandering dragon attacked me, I usually had to run off screen to heal, invis to break the attack, then return. By that time, the provoke was broken and I had to start all over again. I’ve recommended that the LOS timer be extended to 10 to 15 seconds to help the solo bard play a good game.
discord is nice. A discorded dragon is definitely weaker and will die faster. I recommended that discord also reduce the skills required to provoke a beast. I think the dev team might be considering doing that. Also, I would like to see a discorded critter colored a different hue. If you have to run off the screen to heal in Destard, and return, you will likely lose track of which of the dragons you discorded. They all look alike.
Blood Dungon: Being a high-end, solo bard in Blood Dungeon was easier in many ways than it was in Destard One. Blood Dungeon offers lots of running room with a limited spawn. It is possible to live long enough to bard a deamon onto a blood elemental. Because of the isolation, you can risk attacking the barded creatures with magic or discord to speed the killing. The other choice you have is standing there watching them die, which is sloooow.
Ballies: I don’t’ believe any of the testers were able to bard balrons alone at the gm level. I understand that barding balrons will be possible at gm level with slayer instruments (I didn’t get to try the slayer instruments). It may be possible to bard balrons, but will be a definite challenge even for a small team of high-end bards working together. Although I’ll miss barding balrons solo, I think requiring a team of high-end bards with slayer instruments is fair. I didn’t want to see a requirement that a power scroll was necessary to bard balrons.
Bottom Line: Barding can still be fun. It will no longer be the “go anywhere, do anything” game style it used to be. I’ll miss being a PvM demi-god. But, the dev team listened to us, and made barding enjoyable even though different.
Please have confidence that the dev team is listening. I found them asking questions, helpful and supportive. By their questions, it is obvious that they are willing to consider additional changes during testing to make the game style fun, although more balanced.
Next, a review by Harb:A small group of players were allowed to test the new bard changes on an OSI internal test shard for several days. Of the five of us, one enjoyed the changes, two liked them with some reservations, one didn’t care much for them, and one is still feeling her way around. I’m in the middle “like/ reservations” category. Summed into one statement, I’d say think of provoking akin to the way you felt and played at about 60-70 skill points, you’ll get about the “right” overall perspective if you prefer/ enjoy playing a bard.
I’m sure everyone remembers the more exciting/ engaging/ challenging (interesting) comments, and how we felt when the statement was first made. Honestly, from a certain view it is more exciting, it is more engaging except in some circumstances, and is definitely more challenging. Vex wasn’t as far “off” as many of us believed.
Barding will not die with this publish. Newer bards will likely enjoy barding more. Older/ completed bards, such as my wife and I; once we got beyond the sense of loss and adjusted tactics, are the two mentioned earlier as “liking” the changes (with reservations). She came around a little slower than I, but now even more than myself, is ready for the change.
Not so much is lost as we expected. You’re not going to harvest shadows, that dungeon level will be a group effort, even with power scrolls. The paired ballies are not solo material any more, though manageable with a group at GM and possible solo with the scrolls (though still much more challenging than now). Dragons, Ophidians and Terathans seemed easier than Vex had originally stated, so I assume some numbers have been tweaked back in our favor. T-hunters can stop worrying, the chests all the way to level 5 were fine alone, again more of a challenge and requiring more time, but “doable” post 80 provoke with an exceptional instrument. Bard tamers are not dead either, I regret adjusting mine already. Folks enjoying the champion spawns, which definitely includes the two of us I can speak for, are in for an adjustment. I won’t spoil anything, but they are a challenge, and will see a broader range of participating character types. Bards no longer dominate, but can participate even as “mains” in what we experienced. Expect to use more than one type character there. All in all, teamwork is a benefit with barding and is required in more instances.
Peacemaking is a little awkward at first; you’ll need a good macro or need to be prepared for one extra click for area effect. It is more versatile, and a more “balanced” skill than in its current form. Again no spoilers in this report; but discordance is a very useful skill, and is likely to creep into many bard and other templates. It is far superior to enticement. There will be more four music skill bards in the future than there are today.
In summary, seasoned folks will not be satisfied unless you really give it a shot (for a couple days honestly), and some likely won’t like the changes even then, as our “power” is scaled back. It’s safe to say my wife hated the changes on day 1, she now likes them. Try it out once the public TC becomes active, we normally don’t but in this case that’s a good time to get your tactics adjusted and it will save some frustration later. Bear in mind everything gets better above 100, so there are definitely long term goals coming from the Fel risk/ rewards program. Hope this is helpful. Count us “in.”
Now Morgayna:First of all I'd like to say that I broke my personal record in dying today. My own fault I must add, because I've been to stubborn to play my bards in the past few weeks and so lost much of the necessary timing skills (yes it's a silly excuse, but I had to think of something). I think I can now consider myself properly humbled for playing like this on an internal test server under the eyes of the development team :) *Note to self: get rid of witnesses*
Ok, now for my first impressions.
Tested character (same skills as my main bard on Europa):
-Morgayna
89.1 provocation
100.0 musicianship
91.9 magery
91.9 eval int
93.0 wrestling
74.0 magic resist
100.0 meditation
90 STR
35 DEX
100 INT
Barding teammates:
-Swift, a high level bard and very nice player. He didn't seem to mind becoming world champion ressing.
-Several dev team members that were so kind to res and provide aid when both me and Swift were 'indisposed'.
Items used:
-1 newbified tambourine
-1 exceptional tambourine
-4 trapped pouches
-10 potions of greater cure/healing/refresh
-regs, lots of them
Protection:
-newbified clothing
-magic reflect spell
Areas:
-Meer area near sacrifice, Ilshenar
-Forest lord evil-in-a-can spawn, Ilshenar
-a new type of evil-in-a-can spawn
-Terrathan keep, Trammel
-area between gargoyle city and honesty shrine, Ilshenar
Monsters:
-earth elementals
-different types of new champion spawn monsters
-forest lord champion spawn
-meer eternal/captain/warrior
-all types of terrathans
-several types of ophidians
-balron
Tested:
-breaking line of sight
-mana drain
-stamina drain
-gains
-difficulty of monsters
-testing environment
-enjoyment
Testresults:
-breaking line of sight:
Breaking line of sight through leaving the area or casting an invisibility spell stops provocation after about 5 seconds. However, I didn't find this in any way an interruption to gameplay. It's slightly annoying only when having to fight back through thick spawn to get your belongings back from your corpse, but I don't mind a penalty for dying.
-mana drain:
Didn't notice much of this. I played a mage/bard and never had noticeable less mana than before the changes. I did play a GM stoic though.
-stamina drain:
Didn't notice anything of this either. Didn't need any refresh potions.
-gains:
The provocation gains I got were in my opinion too fast and too high. I started out with 89.1 provocation and after about 1.5 hours I reached 95.0. I couldn't follow the gains after that, because then I switched from the 2D test client to the regular 3D client (a bug in the skillmenu of the 3D client showed all skills frozen at 0.0). Getting from 88.0 to 89.1 took me weeks on a regular shard.
-difficulty of monsters:
I've used both newbified and exceptional instruments. I didn't notice much difference in successes, mainly
because I hardly failed with the newbified instrument to begin with. I even had no problems provoking the
balron on several avengers, which really surprised me. Have the difficulty tables been tweaked or are the
120.0 skill limits not implemented yet on test? Hmm I'm not sure but I really didn't expect to be able to provoke a balron this easily.
-testing environment:
Some things I found slightly lacking in the testing environment. Part of the difficulty consists of having to
resurrect your teammates while fending of spawn. This was made a bit easy for testing sometimes, partly because of time limits which is understandable. Also for testing there should be more other players around to interact with (lag, trouble, ressing). It'll offer a more realistic testing environment. But that's my personal opinion. On a more positive note: I liked the new champion area very very much...
-enjoyment:
I have to admit that I had serious doubts about the playability of the barding class after publish 16. Now that I've done some playing with the new skill properties, I'm pleasantly surprised. (No, you still can't say "I told you so"). The mage/bard will be very much playable and enjoyable. I'm not sure about peacemaking/discordance and the t-hunter template because I haven't tried those yet, but considering that I have a mage/bard as my main character I'm quite happy. I hope you will allow me to test these other changes a bit more later on.
Conclusion:
The first impressions I have are that the new barding rules are still a pleasure to play. I didn't notice any overly forced restraints on my playstyle. Keeping line of sight is something I had to get used to but undoubtedly will offer no major problems after a bit of practice. The only thing I'm still very much worried about right now is the easy skill gains of provocation. Ok, it's 1.30am so I'll call it a night. If there is anything I forgot to mention and you'd be interested in, please let me know.
Now you can say "I told you so"...
Kind regards,
Morgayna
A response by Nadya_Modavia:General Likes:
1. Difficulty based. Bard skills will now improve through normal and logical play. For example, no longer will a bard have to provoke sheep for hours to achieve GM status in provocation. Moreover, 50 skill provocation bards will no longer be able to provoke the most powerful creatures in the game with 50% effectiveness. These bards will have to aspire and excel to higher skill levels in order to battle such foes through song.
2. Line of sight restriction. There appears to be a 10 second threshold for line of sight. This seems reasonable and should give enough time to briefly runaway, hide, become invisible, etc. without terminating any active bard songs. This restriction will prevent bards from provoking everything in the entire dungeon. They will have to stay within a range scaled by their barding skill levels.
3. Skill Scrolls. I really like the concept of having scrolls that allow a bard – or any UO profession in general – to excel beyond GM status in her skills. As long as the bard doesn’t have to completely depend upon the scrolls in order to be effective in her profession, then I’m in favor of them.
4. Discordance and Targeted Peacemaking. Both of these skills proved to be extremely useful for a bard. I especially enjoyed targeted peacemaking. This will make taming aggressive creatures easier, but not too easy, for tamers who have a bard friend and for bard/tamers. I see discordance being more useful vs. higher end creatures rather than lower end creatures since it takes off a percentage of stats and skills from them. Offhand, I don’t know of any one attack that can do 200 hit points in 5 seconds to a dragon. (i.e., an 800 hit point dragon losing 25% of its stats and skills would be reduced to 600 hit points if the bard had 100 discordance. Likewise, the same dragon losing 30% of its stats and skills would be reduced to 560 hit points if the bard had 120 discordance.)
5. The Fire Horn. This is a new bard item that may be found in the game after publish 16. It uses sulphorous ash. I confess that I haven’t tested this yet, but I will tonight. I’m posting this as a ‘general like’ anyway because I’m definitely in favor of adding new and cool instruments for bards.
General Dislikes:
1. Area Effect Peacemaking skill delay. It appears that the peacemaking skill delay for area effect peacemaking has went up from 5 seconds to 10 seconds. Currently, peacemaking only has a 10 second delay upon failure. After Publish 16, the bard – by targeting herself - can cause an area effect peace song to affect everything within a radius scaled by her peacemaking skill level. While the effect itself remains unchanged, I dislike the new skill delay for it. I understand the reason it was changed. Peacemaking can now be targeted on an individual or creature. More on this later under suggestions.
2. Meditation and stamina drain. While I really didn’t notice much of a restriction with meditation and stamina drain, I feel that neither is needed. Making barding difficulty based and incorporating line of sight restrictions seem to balance barding.
3. Skill Scrolls. I like and dislike these. My dislike is I’m concerned on the difficulty of achieving these scrolls for bards since bards are not generally PvP effective characters. Unlike other professions, it appears that bards will have to acquire the scrolls in order to have reasonable skill effectiveness against higher end monsters
Suggestions:
1. I would prefer to see a boost in barding effectiveness up to GM level and only a gradual increase in barding effectiveness for bard skill levels over 100. For example: Provoking two dragons – overall average difficulty of 99.6 - with an exceptional instrument and 100 provocation and 100 musicianship calculated to be about a 50.8%. (i.e., 50 + 2 (100 – 99.6) = 50.8%). Using the same example: if the bard had 120 in provocation, then the difficulty percentage would be 90.8. (i.e., 50 + 2 (120 – 99.6) = 90.8%.) This is a +40% improvement from 100 to 120 provocation. I would like to see this halved (+20% improvement). In this case, 100 provocation and 100 musicianship would have a 70.8% chance of effectiveness while the 120 provocation percentage chance (90.8%) would remain the same.
2. I would like to see all the bard skills with a consistent skill delay (5 seconds being the most preferable). Given the difficulty based and line of sight restrictions, I feel this would be a fair compromise.
3. Remove the meditation and stamina restrictions. As I stated earlier, I don’t feel they are needed given the difficulty based and line of sight restrictions.
A big thank you to the Dev Team for allowing us to help in the bard testing. Lastly, I would like to thank Harb for helping me to be settled on the Test Center :-)
Addendum:
Discordance rocks! At 120 discordance, I used discord on a balron (The Slayer to be exact), and one blood elemental was able to take it out! This was tested in illshenar and both were at full health before the discord.
Slipperyjim threw in his thoughts:I'll try to cover only what hasn't been said or what I see differently.
My primary impression is that any player with 90 or below provocation won't feel much was taken away. The top players will notice the difference, but I'll let the others' comments in this thread speak to that.
Sosario and its Facets:
I tried a variety of places, in Trammel, Ilshenar, and Felluca. In Trammel and Ilshenar, the initiation cost of Mana and Stamina are present but not intrusive. The only time I had to manage it was in Blood Dungeon, after I had provoked the Bally onto the Succubus. Dancing around all the hell cats, provoking them, and keeping it all within range took some doing, as my Mana was constantly dropping into the single digits as I ran/med/ran around. After it would have made a big difference, it occurred to me that a para wall would have been perfect.
Low Dex templates in Fel were a problem. With push-through drains, curse-casting critters, and the initiation cost, Stamina was a constant factor. A Dex of 25 is workable, but still causes concern. I tried lower Dex values (more on that under Templates), but anything below 25 didn't work. Add in the Fel Factor of Reds/PKs/Griefers, and a Dex below 50 is probably suicide under the current 10% initiation costs.
The new Fel ruleset was apparently in place, so deaths were annoying there but that's all. Getting to places like Khaldun and Tera swamp are a pain, but not impossible (more on Barding in Terra Keep below, but getting mares out of there will be, IMO, not worth it). The extra hides (and I assume scales – the TC didn't have the scenario) are in place on the drags, and I can see Fel Destard becoming more populated.
Templates:
I used a variety of templates, at below-GM, GM, and LG (120), and with various stat configurations, at both 225 and 250 stat max. I mostly stayed with Magery templates, as that's what I play, but I did spend some time as a warrior bard. In some ways, I think the hybrid templates will be the least affected.
Bard/T-Hunters are effective with current templates and won't need to change a thing except maybe train their Provoke up. With GM Music and 80 Provoke or higher, Level 4 chests aren't much different than before and easily "soloable". The Lich Lords make anything below 80 tough, but the rest of the spawn can be handled with provoke in the 70's. Level 5 chests were straightforward for the solo Bard at GM music/90 Provoke. You could do it at 80 Provoke, assuming better than average conditions (open terrain, no snakes, and access to healers/inst-rez), but it would take a while. A long while.
Bard/Tamers have lots of options and I think many new techniques will emerge for taming. I didn't spend a lot of time assessing these, figuring the Taming changes will make a big difference.
Probably the big winner in all of this will be Fighter/Bards. I took a 7xGM Swords template into Destard and had a Drag, Drake, and Wyvern on the floor in a few minutes. I did find that using Bandies and healing potions wasn't always enough, eventually settling on a 6xGM (Swords/ Tactics/ Anatomy/ Healing/ Music/ Provoke) with 60 Magery and 40 Med template as a more versatile hybrid. It really comes into its own under the 250 stat max (100str/100dex/50int).
As for Barding skills, I primarily used provoke, followed by peace and discord in about equal measure. While area peacemaking is scaled back somewhat, the targeted effect is useful in a variety of situations. Discord is powerful and has lots of uses. A discorded Bally was not a happy Bally, but getting a Bally discorded is another thing.
At GM levels, effectiveness is lessened but still there. It took, on average, 2-3 provokes to get a Bally stuck on a Blood. By the time I got the Bally to the Succubus it was down to about 1/3 health so no real problem there in dancing around them until a successful provoke. Tera Keep swamp wasn't a problem at GM, so Tamer/Bards can breathe easy, although the Fel location looses much of its appeal with no Recall/Gate. I was able to handle Destard Level 1 fairly well with Provoke as low as 80.
Overall:
There do seem to be some differences in "Dragon-AI", but they are subtle and hard to pin down in any quantifiable way, so I'll hold of on specifics. Not even sure they are intentional, but as they are, more movement is possible around such critters: they seem "less distractable".
While the LOS, visibility, and proximity restrictions require some re-thinking and re-learning of techniques, they also allow some new approaches. We all found a few and thought of a few more. In particular, I think being able to intentionally end a provoke will have its uses. It helps to think of it as a sort of instant, monster-oriented peacemake.
There's always more to say, but I'll leave it at that.
Words from Onyx_Ironhoof:News flash to all Bards—the sky is NOT falling! Having spent about 10 hours testing the upcoming barding changes, I can affirm that to the contrary, the sun is out, the birds are singing and it’s going to be a beautiful day!
First, my test character’s template: GM music, provoke, peacemaking, discord (still called enticement on the test center), magery, evaluating intelligence and meditation. In addition, I only used the newbie instrument that came with my character, so I never had the extra 10% bonus chance granted by using a GM instrument, much less the really nifty 20% bonus given by the new “slayer” instruments. I started slowly and tested the waters in Shame levels 2 and 3. The elementals, serpents and krakens proved to be of little difficulty. It was there I uncovered a stellar tactic when the changes are published. I first provoked a pair of beasties. If another beastie attacked me, I peaced it (remember, you will be able to single target peacemaking), and because it could not fight back while peaced, I calmly obliterated it with e-bolts. I would do the same to any and all other beasties that approached me while my provoked pair was still fighting. Once the other beasties in the area were taken care of, I would turn my attention back to the fighting pair and discord both of them. With their stats reduced by a quarter, any evenly matched pair of beasties would take less than two minutes to end the fight, leaving a tattered, bloody “victor” who was easily dispatched.
I moved on to the lich lords and liches in Ilshenar up from the Honor Shrine and tried the same tactics there. Of course, the lich lords proved more difficult to provoke than the beasties I encountered in Shame, but then that’s why God invented running off-screen . . . . Once the lords were provoked, I easily dispatched the liches and other, lesser undead spawn in the area using my new favorite tactic of peacing, then e-bolting. In fact, I discorded a few regular liches first, then peaced them, and found that I could slaughter them with just three e-bolts. Once one of the lich lords fell, I peaced the other and then obliterated it with a couple of e-bolts or explosions. I killed ten lich lords (and at least fifteen regular liches) before I decided it was time for the ultimate bard tests . . . .
Ah, Destard . . . the adventurous bard’s paradise. And now it will take an even braver heart for a bard to test his mettle there. Make no mistake, it is all but IMPOSSIBLE to provoke multiple pairs of dragons. You will need to use tactics—barding, moving, teleporting, invising—and just plain old common sense. If you do, you won’t just survive there, you will actually do quite well. Four testers joined for that hunt, and only one died in over an hour of play there. We found that a pair of bards coordinating their actions and watching over each other’s health bars made one heckuva devastating machine. I lost count of the slain dragons, drakes and wyverns after twenty. Soloing Destard as a bard will be more dangerous, to be sure, but teamed with another bard, mage or warrior and using a bit of tactics and common sense, bards will have little problem staying healthy (and rich).
As a final test, I went after one of the new champion spawns in Felucca—solo. Those spawns are every bit as advertised, equally if not tougher than the Ilshenar champion spawns. Though I never came close to “controlling” the spawn, I nevertheless took out a number of those nasty beasties. And no, I’m not even going to hint what they are and spoil that surprise . . . .
A couple of notes to be aware of . . . . Discord seems to last forever, as every beastie I discorded remained discorded regardless if I ran offscreen, invised or even left it alone for a few minutes. I’m not sure if this is a design feature or a bug, but I’m certainly hoping the former. It’s difficult to determine whether a beastie has been previously discorded without attempting to discord it (possibly for a second or third time . . . .). If it had already been discorded, I received the message that “the creature is already in discordance.” The suggestion has been made that in Publish 16, discorded critters change to a slightly different hue to indicate their status.
We have also suggested that discorded critters be easier to provoke or peace, as it stands to reason that a beastie that has had its intelligence reduced by a quarter should stand less of a chance to “resist” a bard song than a similar beastie at full health.
Playing peace or discord does NOT break an ongoing provocation. Nor does playing discord break the effects of a peaced single critter or area. Vex advised that this is as designed so that bards can play multiple songs with effect.
Let me make this clear in summation—the reports of the death of the solo bard have been greatly exaggerated. He won’t be Superman anymore, but this kryptonite won’t kill him. Instead, the changes will simply make bards think, to use tactics, to use common sense to survive and do well against the toughest beasties in the Land. Or to team up with another player or two, whether other bards, mages or warriors. After all, folks, the second “M” in “MMORPG” stands for “multiplayer” . . . .
So, "Discordance" is the word of the day. Looks like good news for you bards out there!
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As you may recall, uncovered evidence from the assassination of the 3 heirs led to the discovery of a conspiracy within the Provisional Government to have Jorus become ruler of Britannia. This evidence is known collectively as "The Moran Reports", and it is several hundred pages of transcribed records, bank notes, sketches, and signed confessions. It is so named for the leader of the conspiracy, an the leader of the Provisonal Government.. Lord Moran. Because of its prolific bulk, we've boiled the report down into a concise summary for your perusal.
** This story is only a fictional Epilouge to scenario 4 and does not herald the arrival of more in game content. ** 
Loren gave what seemed a difficult task. Rath Stonesoul would not be king. 
The end finally came to the Cult of the Black Dragon in the year 368. Nero, General of the Order of the Silver Serpent, finally broke the camel's back. After almost thirty years, the General's campaign to destroy the Cult came to an end.
Name: Boromir
Name: Jacop
Name: Shaleen
Name: Kandalor
Name: Anna
Name: Eli
Name: Infestus
Name: Ryth
Name: Raistlin
A few days ago, Lord Rath Stonesoul and Brother Marcus went to Britain to see if they could help the Order of the Silver Serpent and the long dead Edguardo.
Marcus and Rath found him at Castle British and escorted him to the upper levels of the castle. Marcus asked Anton if he would mind being hypnotized to see if anymore information could be uncovered. Anton had his memory wiped clean of the mess involving Edguardo not too long ago by a doctor in Moonglow.
He said strange things, "together we are binded", "if you see me fall, I am not dead, in Basil I am", and "You must ressurect me, don't forget, you must tell Nero."
The night had come for the attack. The horde assembled within the Krenbluk shrine. Xegugg and Grool both stood before the orcs waiting. Only six orcs including themselves had come to the shrine. No mage was with them. One orc was sent out to see if any other orcs straggling behind. He found Gruch sleeping. Throwing off the covers the orc woke up Gruch, and the two ran to the shrine. Gruch yawned and grunted. The decision was made to attack Serpent’s Hold and not to wait any longer. Gruch opened a magical gate, and the orcs charged through. Gruch stayed behind, and he went back to sleep. 
The defenders of the city saw the orc invasion, and called for reinforcements. Soon the orcs had defeated all the humans on the western island. The force pushed forward, and crossed the bridge to the eastern island with little resistance. The force was flanked. Humans had approach from behind killing Lug’gor, and there was a large army of defenders on the eastern island. Without any tactic, Grool shouted to charge inward. The orcish army, found themselves surrounded. The rest of the orcs were destroyed. The invasion was thwarted off. The orcs had not killed anyone on the eastern island.
The orcs continued to the Belok shrine. No follower of Belok was with the orcs. The orcs did not know how Belok felt with the clan. Xorakk then suggested going to Krull’nuk’s shrine. Xorakk led the orcs in a solemn ceremony. He sensed Krull’nuk missing. The orcs had never felt lost before. They had no guiding force without the gods.
he approached.
He introduced himself as Z'gukjja of the Zu'ur-tiis Clan. Not taking any chances with the new orc, the Bloodrock orcs tied him up,and dragged him inside the fort. After a few moments of silence, the orc began to question the orcs. Z’gukjja wanted to know what the clan did, and what lands they owned.
When you pull into the main entrance at Origin, there is a message that says, “We Create Worlds,” in huge letters. Though disappointment in the company and/or its products has spurred many a parody on that phrase, it will always be special to me and I regard it with a bit of reverence. For me, Origin did create a world, a bigger better place for me to be. 
This article was submitted to us by Dr. Jerred Ghyss...........
Last eve, in the candlelight of Kazola's patrons were gathered to hear a speech. A Speech from Lady Manna, one of 5 heirs to the Throne of Britannia. The Speech, which centered on educational reform, was cut short tragically by two assassins who had been waiting in the crowd.
The two are part of a mercenary organization, so authorities suspect that they did not act of their own accord, but rather were paid for their services, there are only a few in Britannia who could afford such an endeavor. Authorities are searching for clues as to where the gold would come from.
From Solomon:
I must confess to a certain amount of pride, as this particular piece of art was created for one of my own characters. I hope it meets with your own approval, as I am certainly impressed by Carde's ability on this one. If you would like to get one of these handsome works of art done for your own character, check out 
Nait Dew.
Its not the east or the west side! No it's not!
We prepared ourselves for battle as quickly as possible. We were encouraged to hear that our allies were coming into Minoc to help drive out the Juka and Blackthorn invaders. 
From Gem: