Today was the day of the lumps. It only lasted a little while, but it was briefly amusing:
You take off your large amethyst-set silver anklet.
You take off your lump of white plate helm.
You take off your lump of white plate left boot.
You take off your lump of white plate right boot.
This is a spartan cell with bare walls and nothing in the way of
amenities. The light cast through the bars of the cell door throws shifting
shadows across the walls. The area is brightly lit. A lump of reddish brown
male eagle thing is here.
and...
The lump of Dark Young thing has been mortally wounded and will die soon
if not aided.
It made me chuckle.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Bonds and Bands
Finally! The new bonding code and the Ranger/verynvelyrae rewrite was released. It came during the week so I was at work, trying to get what I could and teach a class of elementary level adult students who noticed I was a bit preoccupied. 'Prof, what is the meaning of...' SSSSSSSSSH! I'm reading here...
The FIRST thing I noticed was my nice fieldcraft skills were gone. Which was a bit disheartening. They're passive, but they're oh so nice. They're almost like a tactical advantage in most situations. Now my sky fieldcraft has gone up, as suits a pegasus but the fieldcraft skills were for me the embodiment of all that was left of the old Rangers in easy little passive skills. C'est la vie. Ranger skinning has also gone and as far as I'm aware there's no real bonus to the basic ranger. Now don't take this as fact and I'd welcome some new rangers or Twi setting me straight on this. But it seems the current incarnation there are only benefits from your familiar.
Only from your familiar I say. Now I can't actually compare the new rangers with the old. As it seems to me that would be unfair, I need to compare the new rangers with the rangers post the original rewrite which led to familiars in the first place. Since last year Twi has been tweaking and fiddling with how the bond works and what we get from it. The addition of tame and dominion seems to have spiralled off into this new rewrite and I think this is the culmination of what he was trying to do since then. The first thing is the bond now scales your benefits, something previously only seen in the attribute bonus but now applies to ALL your powers and skill bonuses. Now I know some of the older rangers will be a little miffed by this, but this is how it should work. Slowly unlocking your powers and abilities as the bond increases gives great motivation to work on that bond. There are hints that you're getting more from the bond too. I've already seen some of this in the new spy power. We can now see through our familiar's eyes. The other abilities I automagically have from having an older familiar would have been slowly unlocked over time with the new system. Which would have led to some pleasant surprises. Wow! I can now inspire! Wow I can now tame other pegasi etc. Which is very cool.
On to the War Band. Since my return I've been working on recruiting a new War Band. It's where my heart is really. There's been some triumphs and disasters. I was messing with that fool deck again and got another Templar, but... he fell shortly after in Ryleh when I ran into Yog by accident. Damned Elder was already summoned when we moosied on in. The rest of the band was wiped out last night except for Ruby of course, my squire who I'd already gotten a stone for and Auremius one of the yeomen. He had to die this morning though to a Dark Young. Shortly after I went and got another stone for Trije, headed to Kentaur Isle, found myself three pegasi and recruited three more yeomen. Leek, Animus and Rylamon. Here's a hint for recruiting yeomen, choose those whose names are easy to use. "kunontitil, mount pegasus gets cumbersome, I know I know about nicknames but they feel odd on yeomen for some reason.
Now I did donate again (first time since LAST christmas) and I've used that to improve the Band. Ruby is taking advantage of the new Bond code, and there's a couple of followers on the way... What's that Mordred, someone's looking for me?
The FIRST thing I noticed was my nice fieldcraft skills were gone. Which was a bit disheartening. They're passive, but they're oh so nice. They're almost like a tactical advantage in most situations. Now my sky fieldcraft has gone up, as suits a pegasus but the fieldcraft skills were for me the embodiment of all that was left of the old Rangers in easy little passive skills. C'est la vie. Ranger skinning has also gone and as far as I'm aware there's no real bonus to the basic ranger. Now don't take this as fact and I'd welcome some new rangers or Twi setting me straight on this. But it seems the current incarnation there are only benefits from your familiar.
Only from your familiar I say. Now I can't actually compare the new rangers with the old. As it seems to me that would be unfair, I need to compare the new rangers with the rangers post the original rewrite which led to familiars in the first place. Since last year Twi has been tweaking and fiddling with how the bond works and what we get from it. The addition of tame and dominion seems to have spiralled off into this new rewrite and I think this is the culmination of what he was trying to do since then. The first thing is the bond now scales your benefits, something previously only seen in the attribute bonus but now applies to ALL your powers and skill bonuses. Now I know some of the older rangers will be a little miffed by this, but this is how it should work. Slowly unlocking your powers and abilities as the bond increases gives great motivation to work on that bond. There are hints that you're getting more from the bond too. I've already seen some of this in the new spy power. We can now see through our familiar's eyes. The other abilities I automagically have from having an older familiar would have been slowly unlocked over time with the new system. Which would have led to some pleasant surprises. Wow! I can now inspire! Wow I can now tame other pegasi etc. Which is very cool.
On to the War Band. Since my return I've been working on recruiting a new War Band. It's where my heart is really. There's been some triumphs and disasters. I was messing with that fool deck again and got another Templar, but... he fell shortly after in Ryleh when I ran into Yog by accident. Damned Elder was already summoned when we moosied on in. The rest of the band was wiped out last night except for Ruby of course, my squire who I'd already gotten a stone for and Auremius one of the yeomen. He had to die this morning though to a Dark Young. Shortly after I went and got another stone for Trije, headed to Kentaur Isle, found myself three pegasi and recruited three more yeomen. Leek, Animus and Rylamon. Here's a hint for recruiting yeomen, choose those whose names are easy to use. "kunontitil, mount pegasus gets cumbersome, I know I know about nicknames but they feel odd on yeomen for some reason.
Now I did donate again (first time since LAST christmas) and I've used that to improve the Band. Ruby is taking advantage of the new Bond code, and there's a couple of followers on the way... What's that Mordred, someone's looking for me?
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