I just think a lot of the stuff in environment, which thankfully I didn't invest in, is REALLY poor, given that it's not a miniskill. Compared to most of the others, arts etc., it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot worth getting (with the exception of that windtalk thing). I mean, take treading. I can't think of a SINGLE class that DOESN'T have an equivalent/better ability within like 60 lessons of its main guildskill. (Trout, Waterwalk, Waterbreathing.) Even the seemingly more useful skills (that woodhacking one) barely ever get to be used. Environment could probably use some upgrades, compared to things like Planar. Any thoughts?

Magic Transcendent Arcana
Planar Transcendent Mysticism
Discipline Transcendent Willpower
Environment Inept Communion

Squint/observe should be in discernment- environment is a baaad skillset without these low-level abilities. It should be extended to have some general advantage like discipline has faster focus body.

I love sewers... what can I say?

Paladins + Ur'Guard don't have a swimming skill, but otherwise all guilds do.

Oh whoops, I thought waterwalk was in rituals for some reason. All the same, though.

They can get an enchantment, Hiriako.

Granted, but it still defeats my point, since I'd said it was in the basic novice training. Which it, uh, isn't.

Still, it's SO easy to get, most of environment isn't worth it at all. Windtalk, maybe.

Environment lets you make snowballs.
Nothing more to add.

I know. And they're the only guilds that would need one.

How about adding skills that use the Environment or modify it? Like: Pit, dig a vast pit and cover it up with grass so your enemies fall onto And other things like that. Hm... Camouflage: hide yourself within your surroundings. Track: Perceive the scent of those who have entered a place and to what direction they are heading. Trench: burrow underground and use the healing powers of the earth to comfort you. Somehow, I got dry out of ideas... I'll update later.

Right now, Environment does have many useful skills other than windtalk, though.

EDIT: Um, here is another idea: Submerge: briefly go underwater. (Basically you go underwater for 3-5 seconds, to make someone else believe you are not there)
Decoy: Create a decoy of you out of mud. To counter track: LoseTrail: syntax: sweep, you have a 50% chance of creating a misleading trail for anyone tracking you.

OOohh, here is another: Arson: You need a tinderbox to do this: Syntax: BURN. With malicious intent you cause a fire. So, basically you light up things on fire... a spreading fire. Could be quite threatening. And skills that enable you to remove the furs from animals.

Skinning would be good, for dead animals. And Arson would probably need to be Trans skill. Even then, Seren would be in trouble.

Arson could be harmful anywhere. Especially if it became hard to control and spreadout. Imagine 5-8 people trying to put down the fire just to constantly find themselves set ablaze. Cities could also suffer if... city rooms could somehow quantify anykind of damage like: the walls of this rooms collapsed disabling entry to the nw. You perceive the small scent of characoal obviosuly signs of someone being consumed by the inferno. And wood structures turn to ash That way, cities would also suffer, not only good old Serenwilde.

Huh. Those are cool. I did wonder how the power of the air healed you in trenches, but I see you fixed that.

Having a couple of neat skills in environment might be cool - arson sounds neat, and actually makes Nature Rain and Dousing not suck. (Although I assumed that'd be a pyromancy thing when it came around.) Track would also be a GREAT skill. Pit, I don't know, but trench, anything that goes underground is fine by me.

Well, then I am sure Pit would have to be of your likening... once you fall into one

I am not sure if Arson should be considered as a pyromancer skill, entirely, don't boyscouts and other people who learn surviving skills learn how to start a fire? Now, how about if that fire was made with malicious intent? Our little boyscout becomes an arsonist.

Another skill: Domesticate: Syntax: Tame (thing) Basically you enter sessions where you can partially obtain a creatures loyalty (one Lusternian month or day?). Perhaps depending on how powerful the creature you are trying to tame is, the longer it will take to tame or it would be impossible to. You already have the disloyalty affliction to counter this, no?

By the way, seeing how we can make snowballs... why not mudballs?

Ohh, no, I misphrased myself. I meant, it would make dousing and rain not-useless, so one might be given to think this was already intended to be added but They hadn't got around to it yet (like Stag and Moon, but less urgent), but the burny stuff that Rain was designed to counter was going to come around in Pyromancy. Basically I was just rambling on and more or less invalidating my own points again. *cough*

Actually, during initial development, Estarra really pushed for us to have a pit and "roof" elevation for skills like this and also running on the rooftops doing sneaky things. Problem is that due to the sucky way elevations are coded and baked into about every core piece of everything in the code, Sarapis and I had to talk her out of it as being infeasible without an extremely massive effort that just isn't worth the time.

Rooftops... great. Wouldn't rooftops work quite similar as treetops do? Of course, only working on cities, though. Anyway. IF we had rooftops how about these following skills:

MUDSNIPE: Syntax: From the rooftops snipe at someone up to five rooms away with your deadly mudballs.

That's it for the roof ideas... I actually thought I was going to come up with more.

darn... Estarra, be more stubborn next time. *nod me* pleeeeeeaaaaaaassse?

ah HA. Got ya, the word should be unfeasable. I know i'm picking here but Roark talks so eloquntly and seems to know so much its nice to see him slip up. While you're at it, Fix necromancy.

On another note, still related to Environment *cough* How complex would be to actually implement belical machinations in Lusternia? I remember in Achaea during the Jaru incident, when Jaru was sealed... I thought to myself how fantastic it would be if Mhaldor had besieging contraptions like turrets, ballistas, catapults... and the ability to tunnel under walls, or at the very least make a battering ram to knock down the gates I imagine it would be very very complex to make this kind of things in realms?

Maybe we could cut down trees to make the battering rams, and other things. This could be using an enviroment. So perhaps to make a ram you would have something like this

EDIT: Syntax: RamCreate: You need 50 lumber, 50 silver, 50 leater. No less than 4 people can manipulate the ram. To use the ram syntax is: Grab Ram, and to slam the ram against something Syntax: Ram (direction).



EDIT: Another Environment skill: SmokeScreen: Syntax: SMOKEM. By lifting a heavy cloud of smoke, no one will be able to discern whatever room they are in nor whom they are with by any means, until the cloud dissipates. So basically you have this huge grey miasma surrounding you that can't be removed until it decides to banish into air (probably 15-20 seconds after being created).