This makes my brain go:

Ooh I would love that as a Druid skill, though the idea of tending trees sounds like something Avaer suggested as a skillset.

I agree!

Often, brainstorming can often generate good ideas completely unrelated to the task you originally set out for. That's what makes it so much fun and that's why you should never worry about posting your ideas, whether they are outlandish or overpowered or whatever. We certainly aren't expecting fully thought-out and balanced ideas here. Those who know me know how much I love to brainstorm--sometimes I throw out a dozen ideas a minute! Even though 95% of the ideas may never see the light of day, that 5% may be a winner or inspire an idea that is.

So keep them coming!

So tempting to stick that in the next envoy report, the damage reduction would have to be altered slightly but it seems like it could be nice with some restrictions.

Here's an idea for Magnagora...

Reliquary of the Devourer: This construct holds many teeth that have been shed by Gorgulu, each imbued with his vile putrescence and left to simmer inside the horrific reliquary. Magnagorans may then take a tooth and use it against their foes, it won't give a message and the disease caused by the tooth is so foreign and sinister the people of the Basin have no idea how to identify it. The disease will lay in a state of dormancy until a time has passed and it begins cycling through until it wears off. I assume it will give damage and afflictions while it takes affect and anyone who emotes at said person during the dormancy stage will contract the dreaded disease as well. Each tooth may only be used once before it crumbles to dust.

I don't really know how to balance the times so it will still be significant but not overly ridiculous. Also, only have a certain number of teeth attainable per month. However, I just have a nice mental image of Celestians contracting the plague. If necessary, maybe give it a positive benefit so they will have a reason to keep it instead of afflicting their enemies.

EDIT: On second thought that would make a fun Geomancer power skill.

My ideas are generally vague.

They should provide a little bit to brainstorm over. Blech. That, and they could provide a bit of roleplay material. Could have caravans going from village to city, but that's another area.

Anyways, the ideas about Magnagora and Celest are just saying "Hey, you can have an area which produces x, creature z takes a route to target y which in turn upgrades y for a set amount of time." So, Magnagora could build an armoury to provide armor for the troops. The caravan leaves and travels to the troops. The city could or would not defend said caravan. With the merians, it's more like refining a certain aspect of magic or how they live giving them a bit of an edge. They would need to keep up the research to stay ahead while the armor of the troops decay over time and need replacing.

The one about Glomdoring is more or less like rats and weevils, only these are bigger and aggressive and you can't really avoid seeing them. They arrive, fine. Maybe a batch of ten. They serve as guards of a sort and are a bashing tool. However, they need to be kept under control. If they aren't cleared for so many days, Glomdoring would be overrun with the things.

Serenwilde I don't know about. I generally avoid Serenwilde save for going through the highway. Don't really talk to them either. So I was sorta at a loss save for a "Tool of the Hunt" empowering the prey so the predator needs to improve himself to get stronger or sommat.

Maybe Magnagoran's would have to knock out their tooth and stick in a new one!

What about a Magnagoran construct that releases a plague that affects the entire Basin. The only ones with immunity are the undead!

This really doesn't seem like a construct idea (maybe I'm just not understanding). If the main point is upgrading guards, certainly constructs are powerful enough to do this without caravans or researching.



I'm really not keen on the idea of constructs providing mobs to bash (guards maybe). There was an idea floated around for a commune construct providing more of their special ethereal creatures.

As will I.


What I'd like to see: Some way of showing a list of constructs a city/commune has available... I can't see them in the Nexus world (I'm assuming Celest or Glom has at least ONE in there somewhere....) and I'd really like to see what's there without needing to bother a minister or aide, 'specially as I'm usually around during off-peak hours. Reason being, the following:

And wait... FREE IMMOLATION for EVERYONE!? well gee, there's another sacraments skill that's nearly worthless (ressurect). Grrr. If I were aware of if Celest had the harmony construct or not, then I could've not wasted all that time and power and whatnot scrambling for ressurections last night. GRAGH.

So yeah.... make a list of constructs, or more simply make them visible in the nexus worlds. I mean, it'd be kinda hard to miss a gigantic black obelisk of doom as you're walking past it.

Unless there really -are- no constructs in either the Celest or Glom nexus worlds... or I might just be blind.

Now for the meat of this long and rambling post: A bunch of shotgun construct ideas!

=================
Construct fun stuff:
=================

WALLS! They sit there and block collosi from moving past them. Mweeheehee. They'd probably not be overly strong though, just enough to slow down the collosus (sp?) and it'd work both ways: Defender collosi couldn't walk past it either, but players could, because it could have little doors cut in the bottom.

Transmogrification chamber: Allows you to temporarially take on the aspect of another race (perhaps for about 10 minutes, maybe less) usable only once per lusternian year else you risk loss of bodily structural integrety (a la death and disintegration: no body to ressurect/immolate).

The Planar Elevator: Provide access to the corresponding upper planes for the org. Similar to Gate (the one where you can use the nexus to poof up to the elemental or cosmic plane), but slower, takes more mana, longer eq loss.

Training simulator: Put a corpse in, and it'll spawn a "holographic" copy of that monster, which you can then fight for exp. No gold drops though. Usable until the corpse decays. (perhaps a 10% chance per "scan"). Yes, the monsters can still kill you, thus "holographic". Maybe aetheric? Could also add a small power cost to activating it, drawn from reserves. It'd certainly solve a lot of the bashing area availability issues, and it would also avoid causing a gold glut since the "training simulations" would not drop gold.

Railgun Ship Launcher Tube Thing: Load an aethership into it and aim for an aetherbubble. Have fun! Small chance of suffering 50 to 75% hull damage. Also, will only get you in the general area of said bubble. WHEEEEEEeeeeSPLAT!

The Universal Translator: Everyone at the nexus can understand all languages.

The Hallowed Forging Archives: The org's smiths can all forge 10-20% faster (minus 10 to 20% time to rebalance when forging)

A Pentagonal power amplifier: The org's enchanters can all enchant 10-20% faster

The Gigantic Encyclopedia Compendium-thing of Plants: The org's herbalists all harvest 10-20% faster. Stacks with gloves.

Similar constructs to increase the effectiveness of the org's tradeskills.

Hospital Orb: Full heal AT THE CONSTRUCT ONLY and ONLY WHEN THE AETHER IS NOT WEAK. Long eq rebalance.

A magical fax machine: Makes a copy of yourself that looks exactly like you when people LOOK around. Cannot attack, but is your loyal, and can thus be ordered to move around and stuff. Useful for being silly or perhaps running away from being jumped (drop doppelganger, run away or even better, drop doppelganger, order doppelganger move).

And a personal favourite:

Giant Orca of Fluffiness: Makes all orgs immune to me, regardless of who controlls the construct. (this one's for Ytraelux)

I'm also very sad about anything that'd reduce power costs for teleporting. If they exist, then why did I get a 330 cr artifact to let me do it free? Certainly not just to look pretty (incidentaly, it -is- very pretty, but that's beside the point.)

From what I am understanding, the idea is to Beef up the mobs of the territories that the cities like to claim as thier own. Magnagora has a policy that says Shallach is thiers, and they protect it, same with Celest and the Merians on the islands. The idea would be to have this construct make them harder to bash.

As will I.


What I'd like to see: Some way of showing a list of constructs a city/commune has available... I can't see them in the Nexus world (I'm assuming Celest or Glom has at least ONE in there somewhere....) and I'd really like to see what's there without needing to bother a minister or aide, 'specially as I'm usually around during off-peak hours. Reason being, the following:

And wait... FREE IMMOLATION for EVERYONE!? well gee, there's another sacraments skill that's nearly worthless (ressurect). Grrr. If I were aware of if Celest had the harmony construct or not, then I could've not wasted all that time and power and whatnot scrambling for ressurections last night. GRAGH.

So yeah.... make a list of constructs, or more simply make them visible in the nexus worlds. I mean, it'd be kinda hard to miss a gigantic black obelisk of doom as you're walking past it.

Unless there really -are- no constructs in either the Celest or Glom nexus worlds... or I might just be blind.

Now for the meat of this long and rambling post: A bunch of shotgun construct ideas!

=================
Construct fun stuff:
=================

WALLS! They sit there and block collosi from moving past them. Mweeheehee. They'd probably not be overly strong though, just enough to slow down the collosus (sp?) and it'd work both ways: Defender collosi couldn't walk past it either, but players could, because it could have little doors cut in the bottom.

Transmogrification chamber: Allows you to temporarially take on the aspect of another race (perhaps for about 10 minutes, maybe less) usable only once per lusternian year else you risk loss of bodily structural integrety (a la death and disintegration: no body to ressurect/immolate).

The Planar Elevator: Provide access to the corresponding upper planes for the org. Similar to Gate (the one where you can use the nexus to poof up to the elemental or cosmic plane), but slower, takes more mana, longer eq loss.

Training simulator: Put a corpse in, and it'll spawn a "holographic" copy of that monster, which you can then fight for exp. No gold drops though. Usable until the corpse decays. (perhaps a 10% chance per "scan"). Yes, the monsters can still kill you, thus "holographic". Maybe aetheric? Could also add a small power cost to activating it, drawn from reserves. It'd certainly solve a lot of the bashing area availability issues, and it would also avoid causing a gold glut since the "training simulations" would not drop gold.

Railgun Ship Launcher Tube Thing: Load an aethership into it and aim for an aetherbubble. Have fun! Small chance of suffering 50 to 75% hull damage. Also, will only get you in the general area of said bubble. WHEEEEEEeeeeSPLAT!

The Universal Translator: Everyone at the nexus can understand all languages.

The Hallowed Forging Archives: The org's smiths can all forge 10-20% faster (minus 10 to 20% time to rebalance when forging)

A Pentagonal power amplifier: The org's enchanters can all enchant 10-20% faster

The Gigantic Encyclopedia Compendium-thing of Plants: The org's herbalists all harvest 10-20% faster. Stacks with gloves.

Similar constructs to increase the effectiveness of the org's tradeskills.

Hospital Orb: Full heal AT THE CONSTRUCT ONLY and ONLY WHEN THE AETHER IS NOT WEAK. Long eq rebalance.

A magical fax machine: Makes a copy of yourself that looks exactly like you when people LOOK around. Cannot attack, but is your loyal, and can thus be ordered to move around and stuff. Useful for being silly or perhaps running away from being jumped (drop doppelganger, run away or even better, drop doppelganger, order doppelganger move).

And a personal favourite:

Giant Orca of Fluffiness: Makes all orgs immune to me, regardless of who controlls the construct. (this one's for Ytraelux)

I'm also very sad about anything that'd reduce power costs for teleporting. If they exist, then why did I get a 330 cr artifact to let me do it free? Certainly not just to look pretty (incidentaly, it -is- very pretty, but that's beside the point.)

Someone's been playing to much Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Neither Celest nor Glomdoring has a construct built. That is why you are not seeing them.

When built, you will see them in the "items here" part of the room description.

Is it still that only the city leaders plus aides and some other various peoples can see what constructs are up and what they do?

Don't like this. We want the collosi to get to the constructs easily. That shouldn't be the hard part.



Not sure I get this.



We've been tossing around plays on this idea.



Am not keen on creating bashing mobs.







Seems weak.



These are all good ideas.



Seems weak. Maybe a side effect for another construct (celest?) power?



Fine, that means if this construct doesn't exist, you immediately die to a newbie kick.

Timebender: any spells with a limit on how often they can be cast (fortuna, autumn, changeling) or when they can be cast (sun/moon/night totems, drawdown/nightkiss) may be cast without limitation.

Great Wyrding Memorial (Glomdoring specific): Only Blacktalon demesnes and melds can be raised in Glomdoring territories. Discretionary power costs are reduced by 75%.

Gasp! how did you know!?

Anyhow, the railgun ship launcher would be a very nerfed version of flashpoints. Inaccurate, costs more power, potential for damaging the ship. The transmogrification chamber would be a very not good cameo-like effect. In retrospect, a bad idea.

The Giant Orca of Fluffiness is something of an inside joke on the IRC channel, in which I have described a giant fluffy orca that my brother got me for my birthday and the effects its presence has on me, which can be summarized in the following:

SQUEEEEE!!!

inlineEDIT: You can blame all my insanities on the giant fluffy orca.

Not sure what you mean by if the construct doesn't exist I die to newbie kicks though... why do I get my face separated from my body and jumped on by another bodiless face-thing?

And I do not condone this "smiley" in any way shape or form.... Grr...

EDIT: Nor this one:

A construct that let bard songs (maybe only certain ones) affect adjacent rooms would kick ass. Some kind of magical artifact that makes me sing VERY LOUDLY.

As a general construct I assume? Some of these (like fortuna) may be overpowered. Changeling artifact too? I'm not to keen on this idea (especially since each and every skill would have to be recoded). That said, I do like the name a lot!



Maybe. Note this wouldn't effect Ethereal Glomdoring being is its not considered a Glomdoring territory but only villages and the forest proper. (Well, the nexus on Ethereal Glomdoring would count too.)

I'm not sure about a construct that does that. Even if it was a bard artifact, there are coding challenges in this suggestion that may make it prohibitive (not to mention if this is balanced for bards who don't have such an artifact).