Doesn't really matter, just one mob, really.



About the same.

1) Hmm. I just thought of something: what if they were dependant on your skill in influence, BUT under the condition that you rotate the abilities? Meaning, you get a better chance for a critical if you beg > supplication > wheedling > beg > etc rather than just randomly beg > beg > supplication > beg > etc. If that's possible, of course

2) Yes, it would be nice to affect the revolts as well. Sometimes there are just too many people in the room trying to influence one person. And with all the debating/diverting/influencing, they often get shattered.

3) Huh?

Simply put, influencing is too easy to justify critical. Furthermore, it would be absurd in villages if it came down to who had the level 90+ influencers who could pop off mobs in a lucky 1-2 attacks.

While influencing may be easy, it is just... bleh, too simple! One of the reasons I was attracted to Lusternia was the concept of 'ego battles' that I read in the description. It's something greatly emphasized as an element of the game that it would be a shame to leave it so 'poorly' developed (relative to PvP or even bashing)

And I already said that Influence Criticals wouldn't be dependant on level. So 90+ would mean jack if you were an Inept in influence. Oh, and to avoid confusion, I think I meant the criticals would be dependant on cycling the attacks AND your level in influence. So... yeah.

Make infulence more complicated, interesting and fun. Then add in criticals and make villiage mobs immune to criticals?

I agree it is under developed and that is the exact reason why this is a bad idea. Bashing is far harder and more involved and as such the system has more additional bonuses such as criticals.

As a good example, consider Lindwyrms. They hit with a fatal poisons that requires a specific, one-of-a-kind cure. If you lack this cure, you are dead... there is nothing of this nature in influencing.

Of course if it was more developed, it would be a good thing - but not until then.

Maybe it would be the first step into developping influencing out of the under-developped state?

And I know that bashing is more complicated, but that's entirely the point. Some people may not have 5k+ health and a billion credits to spend on everything that makes life so easy, so high level bashing is a bit off-limits. However, even the people without 5k+ health and a billion credits think that influence is simple and easy. Make it more complex!

- add criticals
- add afflictions - like when some hard mobs demand "So what do you want?" and you shake your head in confusion, how about you -actually get confused-? It's their strong personaily that simply baffles you.
- oh, and make them so they STAND STILL WHEN THEY INFLUENCE. It always annoys me trying to chase after the mobs like I was boring or something
- add more usefulness to it - like when you charm a low-level mob (like a farmer or something) they should actually follow you like it says they do, but actually don't
- add other stuff I can't think of right now, but I probably will in the future

EDIT - oh, and you could make them knock you off your feet easily too - either their argument was so good, it just swept you away OR when you try to influence them and they're intimidating, they just shove you away, since you annoy them.

No one else wanna ponder out loud on this?

Seems like a good idea, start comming up with a few more solid ideas to flesh it out.

Mob's never ever hit me while influencing. That is, unless I decide to ignore the mob debating me and start talking on some channel without bothering to leave the room.



That'd be nice



Yeah, thats just what we need, newbs seducing all the villagers and wandering off with them where they could be killed in the middle of no where. Especially after pilgrims were made non-seducable so you wouldn't have an army of mobiles that would attack your enemies.

Mobs sometimes do hit me. Because I am unlucky enough not to be merian and have an equilibrium advantage So, because the Fates have cursed you with such speed you will be forever trapped in the monotony and dullness of influencing, without needing to eat pennyroyal while taking the mickey out of a mob. However, I might like to be confused sometimes, just for the fun of it



Make it so we can only seduce one low-level denizen at a time. Like so: if you try to seduce someone else while they're following you, they would get jealous and attack you. You could have a command to tell them to stay put and stop following before the seduction wears off. You could then go seduce someone else, but if the two seduced denizens meet, they will attack eachother/you. Also, make the chance of making seduced denizens follow you random and pretty small.

EDIT: Oh, and make is so the denizens you seduced and are following you to kiss you in public or stroke you tenderly or something like that. Just for laughs. *sagenod*

Meh, you'd need to totally redo influencing to be like bashing if that were the case. Mobiles on totally different timers that didn't depend on you hitting them, rescale the damage done when rotating your three skills, etc.

Village influencing wouldn't be affected by this much, but if we were adding a new difficulty to it I'd boost the town leader's influence level or give them each a special attack that came with village influence, the severity depending on how the village feels for you at the time.

Even then I'd exclude criticals from village influencing, but it'd be fine under other circumstances.

Edit: Oh, and make aggressive influencing mobs like Elryn suggested awhile ago.

I'm not saying "Do it! Do it NOW or DIEEEEEEE!"

I'm saying it would be fun to make influencing more interesting. I'm soooo tired of just doing the same things over and over again. And it so happens there are ways of doing this.

Agressive influencing mobs sound fun

You just log in:
The Pool of Stars
Blah blah blah description. X is here.

Meleris, Keeper of the Pool of Stars demands of you, "So who are you anyway?"
Your ego drains as you consider your response.

"Eep!", you scream in fright.

Go east - The center of Nautilus Pompilus at Voluta Diadema
Blah blah description. A kinsman of New Celest is here.

A kinsman of New Celest demands of you, "So what do you want?"
Your ego drains as you consider your response.

etc

I think it would be neat if there were special effects of afflictions influencing and as such, some more powerful creatures may give them. For example, mental afflictions like paranoia, confusion, reckless, etc.

Oh, no. I'm not bashing the idea at all. It wouldn't take as long as developing something from scratch if the bashing code can be altered and subbed into influencing, but I could be wrong with that.

Elryn really should pop into this topic if he still floats around the forums. I think fleshing out influencing like this would be interesting, but in return we'd really need some more high level influencing places. Tosha is good, but.. you need something that would scare off the regular bashers too for the sake of influencers.

I can't think of any other proper add-ons, but if I do I'll post here.

Precisely my point. It would make not only sense, but the experience of influencing a lot more rewarding and satisfying.

Denizens in intimidating demeneaours could give: shyness, fear, knockdown, weakness, stupidity.
Denizens in s sensuous dispositions could give: lover's curse and disloyalty afflictions, diziness, loneliness.
Denizens who are greedy buggers could give: generosity, addiction, vestiphobia, reckless.
Denizens who are in a friendly disposition could give: lover's curse, pacifism, disloyalty afflictions, impatience.
Brave denizens could give: confusion, hallucinations, sensitivity, clumsiness, agoraphobia/claustrophobia.

And of course etc.

Not all afflictions would directly influence the influencing, but they could be a pain after you're done and not notice them.

I really like these ideas!

But I've been thinking, and all you guys who keep saying how much better bashing is than influencing are wrong in some ways. With bashing, you can only do attacks that just directly do damage, and maybe a couple of other attacks. With influencing, almost every skill in the set can be used on mobs, so you have quite a bit more to choose from with influencing.

A few points with no argument, just points.

Influence uses ego to attack, and you lose ego when you get hit.
apparently some people never get hit.. which is odd.

You HAVE to cycle through your 3 attacks to get the best results anyway, because each attack gets a resistance to it, unless a certain amount of time has passed. approx the time of your third attack on normal balance. So making that the condition for crits is kind of silly. (fine one argument)

Influencing is too different from bashing to say if its easier or harder, it depends on many factors. I think the fact that few people influence save for RP reasons or for the uniquness of it, is telling. (especially since there are limited amount of mobs you can bash compare to non-influence) For example, when your whacking at a gorgog with swords, they never randomly leave the room, although some mobs are known to leave the room after every hit, the certainty is a big factor.

Influence/debate speed is determined by charisma, so if you have high enough charisma, you always attack before they do, and you never get hit by the mob if you're paying attention to what you're doing.

I know why you never get hit, I just find it odd that its true. I understand the need for them to not hit on a constant basis (if they did you would never be able to sip fast enough even with sparkle) but to -never- hit seems odd.