Dreamweaving

by Furien

Back to Ideas.

Furien2008-08-17 07:14:51
I already said what I needed to say (and so have several others) on how the dreamweaving report was a disappointment. I'm also told that we can't get another Dreamweaving report done because, well..that was it. We have to use the envoy system, which as nice as it is to get constant changes to the game, that's slow. I figure I'd just post the stuff here.

1. Change the positions of Dreamdrift and Narcolepsy on the skill list. They're adjacent to eachother, however the addition of Dreamdrift boosted Narcolepsy up in the skillset and made several dreamweavers forget it, because they never transed Dreamweaving (since Possess served no real purpose). Narcolepsy was probably the most powerful mote dreamweaving had, which makes the boost frustrating.

2. Revert Nightmare to its original form, and boost the damage dealt. Cut the willpower cost in half. No need to keep the phobias. The only reason this change was implemented as it was is because the original report didn't specify keeping the damage, it just offered adding phobias, which don't serve much use (except maybe robbery via vestiphobia).

3. Increase the delay for curing Puncture Aura by one second (maybe two). This would allow the dreamweaver to cast two motes before the cure fires.

4. To compensate for the above, make the blackout from memoryloss no longer stack. (It does, currently, which is how I get most of my kills out of demesne)

5. Have Mindsoothe's firing message (when embedded in a demesne) only show it effecting yourself, and not all other allies in the room. It gets really spammy, otherwise.

6. Allow Mindsoothe to be cast at an ally without first puncturing their aura.

7. Allow Dreamweave Sap to be able to take a person's health below 1 and kill them.

8. Being able to receive tells in Dreamform would be nice. Even better would be responding to them, so the dreamweaver doesn't have to back across the world to just Dreamspeak someone. First one's the most important, though.

9. Some skill to dodge chandeliers and/or move with a lower chance of Crows Feet firing! Damn that Megalith and every Blacktalon (and Xenthos) that likes to doodle feet on their face.

10. You still can't read stuff like signs while in dreamform, nor can you see various world messages or ambience/occurences related to most major world events. (And that's not just my inner event whore speaking, that's not nice :<)

11. We really need to make Dreamweaving viable for mages. Help me on this one.

12. Every possessed mob and their poodle, whether it be a child, the actual poodle, or some really old authority figure mysteriously appearing out of thin air and leading organization XYZ on a wild goose chase for an event, seems to have the ability to see Dreamweavers without spending any time studying High or Low magics. Stop that. sleep.gif

13. Because dreamweavers no long have any regeneration in dreamform, they can't use Absinthe when dreamweaving against City organizations with Telepaths. Sleeping and then dreamforming while under the effects of absinthe reduces the dreamweaver's ego to 0 while boosting their health and mana. A telepath is able to use Mindburst on out-of-phase bodies, and I'm assuming that includes ghost. It instakills anyone below half ego. Ow.

14. Being able to Dreamweave Link to a person and not have them suddenly see 'Whoa, Alianna just broke my reflection/hit my shield/broke my timeslip, she must be spying' would also be nice.

15. Possess lasting longer. Not only is it impossible to pull off on an alert person (assuming you've even transed Dreamweaving- I know I haven't, I only have trans under a Favour), it costs 10 power to pull off, lasts 6 (8?) seconds and costs 5,000 willpower.

16. Same as above, you can't use it to get into any hidden locations. I could possess someone and force them to say the password to enter their guildhall, for instance, but once possess ends I'll be kicked out of their body and transported back to where the possession took place. (Make it so that when possession ends, you end up wherever the possessed person is currently standing)

17. An ability to hear what people are saying in an adjacent rooms, blockable by Blue (let's make it have a use) and the room having a Privacy effect active.

18. Being able to shift through non-reinforced doors, a la Psychometabolism, would also enhance Dreamweaving's espionage aspect. (Not like it has much else to go on, nowadays)

19. Allow following someone into enemy territory while following them via Dreamweave Link. It makes sneaking into cities, nexus worlds, etc. impossible for several reasons. If I find a target outside their city, follow them, and they teleport- I'm left behind because Avenger won't let me follow into the city, thinking it's my fleshbody and I'll die. This also applies to following a person on offprime planes (following someone into the Megalith on earth), and in and out of a manse (I follow someone into the manse, they portal exit either Magnagora or Glomdoring, I'm left in the manse and I'm forced to bodysnap and waste 1k willpower).

20. A 1 power skill to either A. afflict with punctured aura and immediately throw a mote afterwards, all in the same move or B. fling a mote successfully regardless of whether the aura is punctured or not.

21. Sleepmist, the demesne effect, currently doesn't expire when the demesner dies and will continue to hit enemies in a demesne. It should be made to expire on death like all other demesne effects. Likewise, it fires even when the demesne user is out of the area (unlike other demesne effects) and should not do so.

22. *Need an idea to remove Sleepmist's attrition and replace it with something useful but not annoying.

23. Edit: I remembered! Allow DAMPEN to be used across all mage/druid professions to dampen embedded motes and runes in the room of their choice.

In compensation for the above changes, there needs to be modifications to methods used to combat dreamweavers. Suggestions made in this thread include:

1. A carcer-like skill (Could just be added as another way to cast Violet/Geburah (unsure of Highmagic equiv.)) that has a 33-50% chance of stopping a dreamweaver from exiting the room. When a failed attempt is made to enter the room, the dreamweaver's equilibrium is disrupted for 4 seconds.

2. Violet/Highmagic Equiv. could have a stacking effect on a dreamweaver. The more a dreambody is hit by those spells, the more damage consecutive hits will do. The hits can fade after three minutes, effectively giving breaks between the activity of dreamweavers harassing a territory.
Unknown2008-08-17 07:27:17
I like them however...

<- is pessimistic whether this forum thread will lead to anything.

Technically the report was sent, how do you expect these suggestions to be considered?
Shiri2008-08-17 07:28:48
Some parts of the report weren't sent because Mariello was hiding and didn't read the letter she sent them on in time.
Furien2008-08-17 07:30:55
QUOTE(Shiri @ Aug 17 2008, 12:28 AM) 547164
Some parts of the report weren't sent because Mariello was hiding and didn't read the letter she sent them on in time.


Which isn't his fault at all, I just got told he was leading it and I should have probably double checked to make sure he got them.

And, hey, the pessimism is shared somewhat, but there's always SOME hope.
Xenthos2008-08-17 07:56:03
9. Some skill to dodge chandeliers and/or move with a lower chance of Crows Feet firing! Damn that Megalith and every Blacktalon (and Xenthos) that likes to doodle feet on their face.

These things have no real purpose EXCEPT for that. Further, if you're using Crowsfeet, you can't use Spiderweb (the facepaint that burns off vinings every so often). It's one or the other. Why would you nerf the things when there's already no way to keep a Dreamweaver from... walking away? :/

And Mindsoothe was specifically created this way. It's a mote, so it needs to go through the aura-- but you can toss it at your allies in dreamform (though it shouldn't be aggressive in dreamform. Is it?).

I don't know, a number of these things are "Should not happen unless Dreambody is able to actually be trapped and/or killed" (one idea was a carcer-like skill in the High/Low magics that has a 33% chance of stopping a dreambody from moving with a 4s eq loss). The Blackout mote is also in need of a serious nerf-stick (both in duration and stacking) if the puncture-length is increased.

Things like 8 and 10 should've definitely been in the report though. Inconvenience things that don't really make a whole lot of sense.
Unknown2008-08-17 08:55:18
I agree with Alianna on many things here, but more on enhancing the ability to espionage.

This has roots even in Roleplaying. Some Mages and Wizards are able to use Divination spells of many kind to see their enemies. Dreamweaving should be our way to see and keep tabs on our enemies. Shifting would also be nice.
Xiel2008-08-17 09:24:42
As much of an optimist that I am, I highly doubt that these changes would even be poked at by admin unless they were either manually spammed through IDEA's in the game every day or you get an envoy to sacrifice all of their selections for the next RL year and a half. :/

Mostly good ideas though. Pity that the people who do head the reports don't take them seriously enough to maximize their potential.
Furien2008-08-17 10:09:18
QUOTE(Xenthos @ Aug 17 2008, 12:56 AM) 547172
9. Some skill to dodge chandeliers and/or move with a lower chance of Crows Feet firing! Damn that Megalith and every Blacktalon (and Xenthos) that likes to doodle feet on their face.

These things have no real purpose EXCEPT for that. Further, if you're using Crowsfeet, you can't use Spiderweb (the facepaint that burns off vinings every so often). It's one or the other. Why would you nerf the things when there's already no way to keep a Dreamweaver from... walking away? :/

And Mindsoothe was specifically created this way. It's a mote, so it needs to go through the aura-- but you can toss it at your allies in dreamform (though it shouldn't be aggressive in dreamform. Is it?).

I don't know, a number of these things are "Should not happen unless Dreambody is able to actually be trapped and/or killed" (one idea was a carcer-like skill in the High/Low magics that has a 33% chance of stopping a dreambody from moving with a 4s eq loss). The Blackout mote is also in need of a serious nerf-stick (both in duration and stacking) if the puncture-length is increased.

Things like 8 and 10 should've definitely been in the report though. Inconvenience things that don't really make a whole lot of sense.


That carcer idea was retarded. Drop an eye sigil and then do that. If you haven't killed them in 4 seconds (and you're hunting them dedicatedly) you're pretty much doing it wrong, since they can't bodysnap out.

I don't really agree with that "trap/kill" logic because Dreambodies can't really -do- anything to you. They'll listen in, sure, until you violet them out and then close the door. I'm not going to be able to kill Xenthos with nightmares (prenerf or otherwise). If they're really a hastle..install a chandelier like everyone seems to be doing nowadays. They last for, what, 360 IRL days? An IRL year? It's one of the Artisan and Jewler's primary complaints, how long their stuff lasts.

I'm not exactly sure what the Privacy room effect does, but it might help with some of this stuff. Dunno.
Ashteru2008-08-17 13:18:30
QUOTE(Furien @ Aug 17 2008, 07:14 AM) 547160
7. Allow Dreamweave Sap to be able to take a person's health below 1 and kill them.

That seems a bit much, the rest looks good except that Crowsfeet/chandelier thing Xenthos pointed out.
Moiraine2008-08-17 14:33:00
Meh. Delete Dreamweaving altogether. Basketweaving ftw.
Ashai2008-08-17 15:37:24
One of my ideas that I recommended to Mariello was an ability to combine a puncture and a mote afflict. Because, with the loss of mugwump speed and against anyone who has some potential to stun/hinder, it's fairly likely to only get in one mote per puncture, and not a lot of easy ways to stick puncture (except in sap, but you're probably screwed that way with or without punctures and motes). Anyway, something like a one power skill to puncture and hit with the mote. Mostly, motes are just hard to use actively without mugwump speed. (Motes themselves are fine, though.)

Also, while we're talking about upgrades, let's look at the other side of the spectrum and factor in some removal of attrition with these proposed buffs.
Gregori2008-08-17 16:03:08
QUOTE(Furien @ Aug 17 2008, 01:14 AM) 547160
Cool, 18 suggestions in 15 minutes versus the 11 suggestions that came out of a month-long report. Okay, I'm just being bitter, there. Comments welcome.


So you had 18 suggestions that you knew there was a month for this report on and you complain -after- the report is sent in and comes out with little on it. When you could have been giving suggestions for a month, including these 18. Ah yes, I can see how the fault must lay with the envoys on this. How awful of them to not read your mind.
Jigan2008-08-17 16:22:07
Regarding Dreamweave Sap killing, the only, the only person I've ever brought to one health from sapping them was a novice. Everyone else literally heals the damage, especially Celestians, naturally.

I had an idea awhile back, can't remember where the post is though, where the dreamweaver can force their body to talk for them. They still can't hear you (or maybe their body can hear for them). So during a raid you can transmit information, but only to your body.

dazed.gif
Kaalak2008-08-17 18:45:43
QUOTE(Furien @ Aug 17 2008, 12:14 AM) 547160
1. Change the positions of Dreamdrift and Narcolepsy on the skill list. They're adjacent to eachother, however the addition of Dreamdrift boosted Narcolepsy up in the skillset and made several dreamweavers forget it, because they never transed Dreamweaving (since Possess served no real purpose). Narcolepsy was probably the most powerful mote dreamweaving had, which makes the boost frustrating.

Sure

2. Revert Nightmare to its original form, and boost the damage dealt. Cut the willpower cost in half. No need to keep the phobias. The only reason this change was implemented as it was is because the original report didn't specify keeping the damage, it just offered adding phobias, which don't serve much use (except maybe robbery via vestiphobia).

Return it to its original form.

8. Being able to receive tells in Dreamform would be nice. Even better would be responding to them, so the dreamweaver doesn't have to back across the world to just Dreamspeak someone. First one's the most important, though.

Should be able to receive tells in dreamform. I don't mind not being able to send tells. Perhaps make that ability a skill.

13. Because dreamweavers no longer have any regeneration in dreamform, they can't use Absinthe when dreamweaving against City organizations with Telepaths. Sleeping and then dreamforming while under the effects of absinthe reduces the dreamweaver's ego to 0 while boosting their health and mana. A telepath is able to use Mindburst on out-of-phase bodies, and I'm assuming that includes ghost. It instakills anyone below half ego. Ow.

This change was really stupid. Again, unlike EVERY OTHER SKILL, dreamweavers have a timelimit (willpower) on their actions. Dreambodies should get racial regeneration, passive regeneration from leaving their body in the appropriate location (tainted land for viscanti), and mercy regeneration. Sure, if you want to take out sleeping hp regeneration, while in dreambody I can see that. I remember some poor widdle demigods complaining about not being able to stroke their egos because the dreambody got away. Thats the point though, dreamweaving is all about the dreamweaver's PREPARATION and element of surprise. If you can't kill the dreambody, just wait a few moments. The dreamweaver will be out of the fight for an hour or so in minutes!

14. Being able to Dreamweave Link to a person and not have them suddenly see 'Whoa, Alianna just broke my reflection/hit my shield/broke my timeslip, she must be spying' would also be nice.

I could go either way on this. Maybe if it said 'A dreambody broke your whatever.' The number of suspects is very small.

15. Possess lasting longer. Not only is it impossible to pull off on an alert person (assuming you've even transed Dreamweaving- I know I haven't, I only have trans under a Favour), it costs 10 power to pull off, lasts 6 (8?) seconds and costs 5,000 willpower.

I'd reduce the willpower.

16. Same as above, you can't use it to get into any hidden locations. I could possess someone and force them to say the password to enter their guildhall, for instance, but once possess ends I'll be kicked out of their body and transported back to where the possession took place. (Make it so that when possession ends, you end up wherever the possessed person is currently standing)

I agree.

17. An ability to hear what people are saying in an adjacent rooms, blockable by Blue (let's make it have a use) and the room having a Privacy effect active.

*shrug*


Ok. So which divine/active envoy do we send this too?
Kaalak2008-08-17 18:47:01
QUOTE(Gregori @ Aug 17 2008, 09:03 AM) 547295
So you had 18 suggestions that you knew there was a month for this report on and you complain -after- the report is sent in and comes out with little on it. When you could have been giving suggestions for a month, including these 18. Ah yes, I can see how the fault must lay with the envoys on this. How awful of them to not read your mind.


Its going to be fixed now! kiss.gif
Saran2008-08-18 03:15:38
QUOTE(Furien @ Aug 17 2008, 05:14 PM) 547160
I already said what I needed to say (and so have several others) on how the dreamweaving report was a disappointment. I'm also told that we can't get another Dreamweaving report done because, well..that was it. We have to use the envoy system, which as nice as it is to get constant changes to the game, that's slow. I figure I'd just post the stuff here.

1. Change the positions of Dreamdrift and Narcolepsy on the skill list. They're adjacent to eachother, however the addition of Dreamdrift boosted Narcolepsy up in the skillset and made several dreamweavers forget it, because they never transed Dreamweaving (since Possess served no real purpose). Narcolepsy was probably the most powerful mote dreamweaving had, which makes the boost frustrating.

Am trans(longer sleepmist), but I see your point

8. Being able to receive tells in Dreamform would be nice. Even better would be responding to them, so the dreamweaver doesn't have to back across the world to just Dreamspeak someone. First one's the most important, though.

wasn't something like this vetoed before?

10. You still can't read stuff like signs while in dreamform, nor can you see various world messages or ambience/occurences related to most major world events. (And that's not just my inner event whore speaking, that's not nice :<)

yes plz

12. Every possessed mob and their poodle, whether it be a child, the actual poodle, or some really old authority figure mysteriously appearing out of thin air and leading organization XYZ on a wild goose chase for an event, seems to have the ability to see Dreamweavers without spending any time studying High or Low magics. Stop that. sleep.gif

yes plz

15. Possess lasting longer. Not only is it impossible to pull off on an alert person (assuming you've even transed Dreamweaving- I know I haven't, I only have trans under a Favour), it costs 10 power to pull off, lasts 6 (8?) seconds and costs 5,000 willpower.

It's a pain in the rear, aeoned, you can just stop them from acting for a few seconds in battle but if they die you are gone aswell. The only times i've used it recently is when I'm really bored and playing in glomdoring

17. An ability to hear what people are saying in an adjacent rooms, blockable by Blue (let's make it have a use) and the room having a Privacy effect active.

yes plz

18. Being able to shift through non-reinforced doors, a la Psychometabolism, would also enhance Dreamweaving's espionage aspect. (Not like it has much else to go on, nowadays)

Can't we just walk straight through them?(if not currently then just as a fact of being noncorporeal


I think it was mentioned earlier that dreamweaving isn't actually intended to be a spying skill (which is strange but hey I lack the thread finding abilities of shiri)

But it would be awesome to see,

Turning in his sleep, Saran mumbles "OMG you guys are going to get pwned"
Kaalak2008-08-18 03:59:57
Furien, did you submit each point with an IDEA so we know they are officially recorded?
Furien2008-08-18 04:27:35
No, I hadn't done that yet. I was hoping a Divine would come along and read the thread. I did, in fact, send all these suggestions in as a letter that unfortunately didn't reach its target, which is why this isn't on the report.

I'd forgot one other point, added it on.

Edit, re Ashai: Yes, I personally find Sleepmist to be a very annoying demesne effect. Unlike others it DOESN'T go away on the demesner's death. I can juggle multiple in my demesne alone because of how slippery I am, and they'll eventually be passing out so badly I'll be able to saplock one and run while that sapped person bleeds out.

@Saran- The main idea behind that suggestion was to make it last longer. 6 seconds isn't much time to actually do what you want to do. Since you adopt EVERYTHING of the victim's (I'm not even lying here, even their CONFIG COLOUR settings), you adopt their crappy 2-room movement rate. It's not so much something I want to use for combat (ignoring that time with Morshoth and Rowena, cough) as it is for espionage.
Xenthos2008-08-18 05:21:58
QUOTE(Furien @ Aug 17 2008, 06:09 AM) 547209
That carcer idea was retarded. Drop an eye sigil and then do that. If you haven't killed them in 4 seconds (and you're hunting them dedicatedly) you're pretty much doing it wrong, since they can't bodysnap out.

I don't really agree with that "trap/kill" logic because Dreambodies can't really -do- anything to you. They'll listen in, sure, until you violet them out and then close the door. I'm not going to be able to kill Xenthos with nightmares (prenerf or otherwise). If they're really a hastle..install a chandelier like everyone seems to be doing nowadays. They last for, what, 360 IRL days? An IRL year? It's one of the Artisan and Jewler's primary complaints, how long their stuff lasts.

I'm not exactly sure what the Privacy room effect does, but it might help with some of this stuff. Dunno.

What? Eye sigil does not stop a dreambody from moving, and a 33% chance of stopping a Dreambody from leaving the room is nothing near a "100% stop". However, if you want to upgrade Dreambody's ability to attack, you need to accept some downgrade to the ability to escape. Dreamweavers are nearly invulnerable if they don't want to die in dreambody, but the tradeoff for that is that they cannot really do a lot of actual damage.

If: I find a Dreamweaver (4s with Indigo), you have 4s to keep attacking / move away. I then drop the carcer thing, and you have 4s to... either move away, or keep attacking. And even if you move (and fail) the moment the carcer thing is dropped, you'll still get EQ back to actually leave long before the second violet hits you. It seems like you're looking at it as a "no-eq action" or some such.

There are some bug-things that we were trying to fix (like the Pacifism-bit), and I actually thought that the emotes bit had already been rectified as a bug. confused.gif
Furien2008-08-18 05:31:07
QUOTE(Xenthos @ Aug 17 2008, 10:21 PM) 547537
What? Eye sigil does not stop a dreambody from moving, and a 33% chance of stopping a Dreambody from leaving the room is nothing near a "100% stop". However, if you want to upgrade Dreambody's ability to attack, you need to accept some downgrade to the ability to escape. Dreamweavers are nearly invulnerable if they don't want to die in dreambody, but the tradeoff for that is that they cannot really do a lot of actual damage.

If: I find a Dreamweaver (4s with Indigo), you have 4s to keep attacking / move away. I then drop the carcer thing, and you have 4s to... either move away, or keep attacking. And even if you move (and fail) the moment the carcer thing is dropped, you'll still get EQ back to actually leave long before the second violet hits you. It seems like you're looking at it as a "no-eq action" or some such.

There are some bug-things that we were trying to fix (like the Pacifism-bit), and I actually thought that the emotes bit had already been rectified as a bug. confused.gif


I know it doesn't stop them moving, but it'll stop them from bodysnapping (which would be the easiest escape route if that carcer thing was active, rather than risk a 4s eq. with possibly multiple violets incoming).

You have a point with Indigo, though, I'd forgotten is was 4s equilibrium. There's also the risk behind weaving in enemy territory, especially on prime, and the fact that..face it, I'm the only person who actually uses dreamweaving for spying so it's not hard to guess who'll be bothering you.

A possible tradeoff could be distortion or some other effect (construct?) slowing the movement of dreamweavers inside the territory, or making Bodysnap not work instantly.