We've heard complaints before about how there's no skill required for debating. We hope we've added a few small twists to make it more interesting with Dramatics, but it was hard to get a feel on just how interesting we've made it.

For those who have learned some Dramatics and tested debating, your comments and perspective would be welcome!

It's very awsome.

I find the changes very interesting indeed. It adds a lot more complexity to debating, which I have found very fun to experiment with. Personally, I think it would be nice to see if your FastTalk has cracked their attitude. A suffix of something like '&target frowns and his composure fails him.' I find the afflictions interesting, however, it still seems too random because you cannot tell easily what mindset the other person is in, and thus you still have to randomly choose what to fasttalk them with. Perhaps a high-level Dramatics skill could be added to show their mindset on a low-eq cost.

I'd just like that the afflictions you can get go away at least after death....I am now running around since two days with the afflictions Daev gave me. And I refuse to buy an enchantment!
<---thickheadedly trying to stay out of debating.

The Attitudes in Dramatics throw off the afflictions, as well as provide a one-off defence against them.

I love the new tricks Dramatics gives us influencers. Last night, I founded a new personal record of 11 wins in a row.

I love it!...too bad that people avoid debating me even more now

As much as I love it, I get the feeling we're going to get complaints pretty soon, i.e. the next village revolt.

First, you can fasttalk afflictions no matter what mindset the opponent is in, which may be a bug, I'm uncertain. Second, you can fasttalk afflictions without debating people and with a shattered ego... which means we're going to be seeing teams running around, mass-afflicting with all three at once, while a member pummels the hell out of the opponent. Assuming they have the right attitude to go along with things, and well, BAM, three hit ego battles. But, I'm no psychic, and only time will tell! I hope things go well, and I'm super eager to give the skillset some good working in the next revolt.

Yay Dramatics!


Now, if only people would stop fussing about Val randomly being female...

I don't like that the issue of people simply running from you was not addressed. In a peaced revolt, someone can simply use FLY to become 100% immune to me, or SLEEP.

That aside, I love the new changes. I think they will make debating FAR more interesting. I have yet to have a chance to try them out, as I missed the revolt and am still trying to peice together a strategy (and copious #echos to know what the heck is going on). It *seems* like they will force people to think about what they are doing much more, and it will punish people who simply act at random much more. Thank you so much for giving this to us, despite our excessive whining.

I am curious how the fact that debates are no longer one-on-one will effect the debating dynamic...

Yes, maybe add a skill that makes whomever leaves the room in a debate automatically lose.

There are absurd numbers of inherent issues with that, such as skills that move you, getting hit by that while moving before you notice, etc.

I'm not sure about the whether it can be coded that way, but it doesn't have to work with involuntary movement.

How else do you propose we fix the issue with people moving?

So then people use poison and gust themselves out of the room

Maybe put a skill in dramatics that captivates your target to stay in the room for X amount of time? Or makes it harder for them to willingly leave?

That's unfortunately exploitable as written, as it can be used to keep someone still while another kills them. Unless it can only hit someone that YOU are debating, is broken by an aggressive action taken against the person, and ends when the debate does? Maybe also lasting only a short amount of time and taking ego, forcing you to "upkeep" it as the debate progresses, causing the attacker further penalties. However, this doesn't help it if they run the moment you debate, before you can fixiate them.

If a person is flying or sleeping then they arn't influencing mobs, so why does it matter?

Holy hell, I agree with Daganev.

Because the whole point of debating isn't to get them to stop influencing for a moment, it's to get them to stop influencing for the next ten minutes sho you don't have to worry about them for that long. I really don't want to have to follow people around 24/7 just to make sure they aren't influencing, and debate them once every time they start. That isn't how it's supposed to be... or so I think.

Seconded. The point of debating is to keep people from influencing certain mobs. If they run, mission accomplished. Same strategy's available to you. Prevent running, and a single person with massive ego and a little competence can take out all the competition in a village revolt.

Umm, I can't fly.