I think it would be acceptable if you had to demonstrate a form once before being able to use it, just so people don't define forms in the middle of combat.

ETA: With no possibility of failure, or anything like that. One reason I hated playing a monk in other IRE games was doing the stupid katas over and over and over.

You don't have infinite number of limbs. Each form immediately consumes the balance of whichever limbs were used. The next form begins when all limbs return on balance.

Is there any restriction on the sequence of forms that can be used? Or do you just define them and use them as you wish?

Ah, I see, it's all starting to make sense. Monks are sounding more and more fun!

Sweet. Forms become just like genes except with much more than just four bases to work off. That means potentially hundreds or thousands of unique forms.

@Roark: Thanks for explaining that to me.




I keep thinking they are going to have org specific weapons, meaning that like aqua/geo staffs, cudgels, etc. They won't be forged weapons. Which sounds kind of nice.

They could be forged weapons with org specializations. I think of it sort of like if Blademaster could only be chosen in Serenwilde...they still have forged weapons, but they are only widely used in Seren.

They could be summoned weapons or something, but I would prefer to see them as forged weapons.

summoned weapons are bad, it removes an entire level of a forging market.

Summoned weapons can have gripping runes and shield runes placed on them. Which is good.

Forged weapons, I think may be a little strong, especially if I end up with a bo stick with 200 501 180 stats, which I would promptly rune and artie up. I know forgers need work, trust me I know.... but not sure if monk weapons is where you are going to get the work.

Weaponparry and grip are perfectly fine skills to have within the specializations which you need to use the weapons anyway, don't need to waste credits on grip and shield runes.

Perhaps the stats on the weapon won't affect much.

In other IRE games, classes that use weapons other than warriors generally don't care about the weapon's actual stats.

I just really would like for those weapons to be customisable through a trade skill, instead of identical to everyone else's.

And thats why Lusternia is better than all the other IRE games.

I don't know if Bards count as warriors, but in Achaea, rapier stats were very important to them.

In other news, these comments about weapons are making me want to change my motto to: "I'm pretty good with a bo staff."

Eh?

All the classes in Imperian that use weapons of some form for something (hunters, saboteurs, wardancers, wardens, predators) care about weapon stats even though they aren't knights.

Been a while since I played Imperian. I was under the impression predators at least didn't care about the stats on the knives.

Knife stats do matter for predators, especially damage. The main reason people buy the artifact sitara is for its damage stat. It's the dirks for the assassin class where it doesn't really matter, the skill doublestab has a base speed unassociated with the dirk.

EDIT: Although the assassin whip stats do matter, not to a ultra great degree though.

I remember trying to get a Ssaralar sitara.

Didn't really end well.

OK... If I'm getting this right...

Form = a convination of probably 3 moves

Sequence = a convination of forms with the probability of chance-to-stun

Alright... so.. How long would this form of 3 moves take? like, one move every .5 seconds or all of them done at the same time?

Also... if I can put up a sequence.. would it matter how long the sequence of forms would be?

How many Sequence are we going to be aloud to have?

basically what I'm thinking is that in order to catch the target all off balance I could figure out a way to randomize strings of sequences in order to keep the opponent guessing, but it would be hard if we get a limited amount of sequences...

From the last I heard, the current plan is that the first move of a form will take 4 seconds. Each following move in the same form will take only 2 seconds. So, a right arm punch (4sec), left arm puch (2sec), and then a kick(2sec) will take a total of 8 seconds. I don't know for sure yet whether they'll all fire at once and then you wait 8 seconds to get your balance back, or whether you will punch, wait 4 seconds, punch again, wait 2 seconds, kick, wait 2 seconds, but I'm guessing it's the former (they fire all at once, then you wait 8 seconds to recover).

Sequences are a string of forms, but they don't necessarily have a chance to stun. You can 'imbue' sequences with different effects (IC-ly, focusing on attacking the right area of the body to cause the effects) like stun, stupidity, maybe higher accuracy, etc.. The effects you can imbue will depend on your skill in katas, I believe.

For a sequence, my understanding is that you will have to define the forms for that sequence all at once. So, for example, once you start a sequence of form X then form Y then form Z, you can't suddenly change it to do X then Y then A - the sequence has to continue the way you started it, unless you pay the balance penalty to break out of the sequence and start over. I don't think sequences have to be predefined or that there is any limit to them, I believe you can just make them up on the fly, so there would be any number of combinations, but when you make up a sequence you take a risk in that you have to complete (or break out of) that sequence before you can change it or do any other attacks.

Based off the pieces that Roark has been saying, that doesn't make much sense. If using the standard attacks (which presumably you would do like Achaea monk combos punch/punch/kick as separate commands but they hit pretty much at the same time) is 2 seconds for the first, 4 for the second, and 6 for the third, then it doesn't follow that the "upside is speed" if it takes 8 seconds instead of 6.

My understanding is that the form itself takes 4 seconds and any subsequent form in the sequence is 2 seconds. I think this disadvantage it supposed to be the inability to switch forms midway without losing the speed. Granted, as I'm understanding this attacking every 2 seconds seems a little overpowered, but that's my interpretation of Roark's descriptions.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I would bet that that's probably not exactly how it works. I just can't imagine that using a form would be 8 seconds in exchange for synchronizing your balances, instead of 6 seconds with your balances chasing like Psionic channels.