Gems + XP = Idea!

[Menoch 335]

So I have been mulling over how to use XP in TFC. Skills and boosting them was a thought... though not necessarily a novel one, but check it out....

What if, each gem had an innate element, or essence if you will...

Say for instance Ruby was fire, Jade was poison, diamond was life, Garnet was death, etc...

Now every gem has the ability to hold XP (infused at a Geomancer's Workbench???)

Chipped holds the least amount of XP, and is the weakest of it's gems powers, and Exquisite holds the most and is the most potent of its powers.

You can craft wands out of the different woods.

Use an ore to make the wands Spiral conductor (metal filament which wraps around the wand), and then top the wand off with a gem!

Not a spell slinging sort? Add a gem to a sword pommel and you go from ranged effect to Melee.

Add a gem to armor and gain protection...

A great way to use XP. Every time the gem, wand, armor uses its effect (attack, heal, protect, etc...) it uses charges. Refill with XP orbs.

How about elemental arrows? Shoot your buddy with a Diamond arrow of Life to heal him! Shoot a Zombie with a Diamond arrow of Life to Damage it! Pick off a Mob with a Jade arrow and watch a poison cloud erupt as it dies! Ooooh! I just got goose bumps...

<< Chipped Black Bronze Ruby Helm of Fire Warding... Flawless Blue Steel Garnet sword of Life Stealing... Exquisite Sequoia Diamond wand of Healing Rain... SHAZAM!

Mix em up and get a signature look. so you stand apart from your buds on Server Play.

Just an idea.

PS: if this has already been thought of, I apologize. It's 1 am and I had to write this before I forgot!

<<<<<<And it's already been thunk'd of. Just read it. O.o>>>>>

[Sting_Auer 59]

Eh, not too fond of the wand idea. Using gems to do things is a great idea, though.

I'd love to see using gems to make modifications to the terrain, or manipulating certain aspects of the world, such as temporarily turning a patch of dirt into a soul-sand like substance, or shaping trees.

making thorny plants spring from the ground for a short time.

Lifting a stone from the ground and launching it at a target.

you know what, I'm going to go make another suggestion thread involving this kind of thing. It could drain your hunger and thirst very quickly, and even cause damage to your health if you overexert yourself with this "magic". It would require gems as a sort of focus for it, with higher quality gems lowering the energy cost, allowing you to do larger and larger manipulations without causing harm to yourself.

[LordOfWolves 514]

such as temporarily turning a patch of dirt into a soul-sand like substance, or shaping trees.

This is not Equivalent Excnahge, remember. The things must be believable here

However, the idea of the gems and the xp was popped out in the death penalities. And I support this, because it can bring us to cool things, for example a new way to enchant our tools and armors.

[ECC 508]

XP is now used to boost health, food, and thirst bar max. So, using XP breaks that.

[transcengopher 349]

XP is now used to boost health, food, and thirst bar max. So, using XP breaks that.

But maybe not. Want some magic, Teddy Jr.? Give away your life force, or borrow and adopt life force of others.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

Well, we seem to have fairly similar ideas (Yeah, i linked my enchatment thread there ) about gems and XP though i only used that combination for enchanting... For this paricular suggestion, my thoughts are:

1) ANY kind of magic should needs great amounts of XP. Magic is not a toy to mess around with, it's a powerful and dangerous art, and requires the mage-wannabe to sacrifice tiem and energy for it to even show up. Quality could define how much this costs are, but not all the gems in the same way. Some gems's effects could be quite bad when they are chipped, so the cost is low, and it gets higher as the gem quality gets higher; some others's effects, instead, would have a similar effect in all qualities, and then higher qualities would require less XP.

2) If overused, gems should have chances of breaking appart. This would mean that inexpert "mages" -let's just call them this way- would have higher chances of breaking their gems, 'cause they don't know that gem's particular resistance. Chances of breaking the gem are higher when it has low charges, but even higher if they being used continuosly -Say, spamming fire bolts to a chicken :-.

3) Unless the gem has the ability to be sticky -i don't think there will be that much gems doing that...-, if you want to place them on an item, the item should have a slot to place the gem in; a socket. The item would have to be forged so it includes the socket. This socketed tools would either work exactly as a normal one -socketed sword- or be worse -Socketed shovel, if anyone was willing to make one that is :-; that is, when not holding a gem. When holding a gem, it now depends on which gem it is.

4) XP should be renamed to better fit this purpose. More of an aesthetic touch than anything else, really :

For now, that's all :3.

nothing to see here, please move on.

[LordOfWolves 514]

nothing to see here, please move on.

That reminds me of a signature of someone. However I support your 4 ideas.

Let's add this:

If a gem is charged too much and inserted in a low tier weapon or armor, the weapon or armor explodes or loses a lot of durability.

[transcengopher 349]

4) XP should be renamed to better fit this purpose. More of an aesthetic touch than anything else, really :

Well, XP->Essence. Sounds about right. And there could be means to sacrifice mage's own Essence (from health bar, maybe even hunger and thirst bars) and let's say that it is more valuable than mob's Essence. Mage's Essence could be also used up if there's not enough mob Es... let's call this one XP for now, but in case you aren't willing to sacrifice it, backfire is much harder. Like, say, 10 XP for tenth of your health worth of Essence if you are willing and fifth of your health for 1 XP if you don't.

[achartran 465]

But maybe not. Want some magic, Teddy Jr.? Give away your life force, or borrow and adopt life force of others.

I actually kinda like that idea, I've always thought magic never had enough consequences (a mana bar that regens is NOT a consequence, only a limitation) in most cases. If any magic were to make its way into TFC, I would want it to be dark(ish) magic with consequences, as TFC has always felt "gritty" to me, and I like that about it. Dark magic would only make it better

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

I actually kinda like that idea, I've always thought magic never had enough consequences (a mana bar that regens is NOT a consequence, only a limitation) in most cases. If any magic were to make its way into TFC, I would want it to be dark(ish) magic with consequences, as TFC has always felt "gritty" to me, and I like that about it. Dark magic would only make it better

If we were to make magic just like TFC, it wouldn't be dark magic but "neutral" magic -supposing it exists, and if it doesn't, let's just invent it -; it just would go by there, freely, making the world work; it would be an untouchable, powerful entity which won't either help or harm you unless you provoke it, and you could only observe, collect and manipulate a few aspects of the sorrounding magic to try and get more control of it, in order to get advantage of it. The gems would be your tools to channel that magic in a useful way, and you would obtain it from the living beings which are alive because of it.

Success would be rewarded with... well, being able to use f+cking magic : and the punishment would be the lose of your gems, your tools -or the item it was in-, and your statistics -in this case, hunger, thrist, XP and ultimately, your life-.

*Taking too much with it could even end up in the environment suffering changes -crops and trees could grow slower if at all, animals could run away looking for fertile grounds, the nights could become longer, water could froze, lava could become basalt, forges, firepits and bloomeries wouldn't work-, the same would happen if returning too much of it at once -A jungle in your face, spamming wildlife, the sun just above you most of the time, water evaporating, rocks around you turning to lava, fire related blocks cooking and smelting WAY too fast-. The best you can do is take magic around you slowly, just use what you need, store carged gems as they won't uncharge if not given any use, basically you would have to think before you harvest the magic, let it grow back, and be conservative on your spell casting. If they were used in a war, the battlefield would probably become a barren zone, and there would be casualties 'caused by the environment itself instead of other warriors.

*From here is just me wishing things that are probably pretty hard to make in MC, not actually asking for this 'cause i think it's a bit too much... and pretty unbalanced as well

EDIT: lol, 1234 posts :3

[Guest Blue_Beluga]

Perhaps gems could contain XP? Like smashing a gem open with a hammer would release an inherent amount of XP based on quality and rarity?

I'm not fond of doing wibbly-wobbly magicky stuff, but getting an XP bonus from mining or finding gems i'd like. A bit like experience bottles, but with more smashing.

[achartran 465]

Perhaps gems could contain XP? Like smashing a gem open with a hammer would release an inherent amount of XP based on quality and rarity?

I'm not fond of doing wibbly-wobbly magicky stuff, but getting an XP bonus from mining or finding gems i'd like. A bit like experience bottles, but with more smashing.

Eh, that seems a little like something that would be in vanilla, and it's very farm-able. Not to mention TFC (Bioxx) could do much, much, much, much, much better than having the only use for gems be to smashing them for a few glowing orbs.

The magic JAG just talked about, and that I agree with, is not "wibbly-wobbly" it is a magic that if used in anything but moderation, there are consequences. We wouldn't have wizards in pointy hats running around with wands, it would be a more primal, raw kind of magic that would fit the atmosphere of TFC like a glove, like a fucking glove I say!

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

Eh, that seems a little like something that would be in vanilla, and it's very farm-able. Not to mention TFC (Bioxx) could do much, much, much, much, much better than having the only use for gems be to smashing them for a few glowing orbs.

The magic JAG just talked about, and that I agree with, is not "wibbly-wobbly" it is a magic that if used in anything but moderation, there are consequences. We wouldn't have wizards in pointy hats running around with wands, it would be a more primal, raw kind of magic that would fit the atmosphere of TFC like a glove, like a fucking glove I say!

Technically there could be wizards running around and casting 'til they get out of gems to use, but they would leave a trail of destruction behind them. Now that i think about it, though, instead of night/days lasting longer, it should be: take too much and day cycles will last longer; give too much and it will go WAY too fast. But as i said, the environment effects i mentioned sounded way too hard to do, at least without editing minecraft jar. Now, if it was really hard as i thought but you did it anyways, you shall become my new god.

And my first one also...

[LordOfWolves 514]

Technically there could be wizards running around and casting 'til they get out of gems to use, but they would leave a trail of destruction behind them.

I don't agree with this. Too RPG, too.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

I don't agree with this. Too RPG, too.

... I never said wizards would be npc's, just noobish players getting way too excited about magic without thinking what they do.

Magic abilities wouldn't level up either, 'cause the way to get to use magic is not in your ability, but in you finding the gems to use it. And in gems, is all about luck; you can get them with sand and sluicing, that's true, but most of the times they won't be good ones, and will break up easier.

While most RPGs will let you use magic with no consecuences, here it's overuse -or overcollection, as well- would end up destroying all that sorrounds you, and it may not be enough if you just try to run from there, as some effects could directly affect you from the inside.

When i said they would leave a trail of destruction, i wasn't meaning an intended one; a healer could try to cure a hundred soldiers at a time, and the environment would end up killing him and the soldiers all at once, due to him trying to push that magic ahead of it's limits.

So, yeah, this isn't RPGish magic from what i can tell. It's a more natural magic, which needs a balance to keep things running smoothly, for the nature to success on it's own. And your interferance can easily break that delicate balance, so you better be really careful when using this magic.

[Sting_Auer 59]

Necromancy after defeating one of the planned crypts would be cool. Obviously, it should cause physical harm to the user.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

Necromancy after defeating one of the planned crypts would be cool. Obviously, it should cause physical harm to the user.

Sounds good :3 how 'bout, you can find Onyx crystals there, which are otherwise unobtainable and grant you the ability to do necromancy when charged.

[transcengopher 349]

you can find Onyx crystals there, which are otherwise unobtainable

This doesn't make a lot of sense. If it's a crystal, then it should've been growing somewhere else as well.

[LordOfWolves 514]

This doesn't make a lot of sense. If it's a crystal, then it should've been growing somewhere else as well.

Very deep below all the known world. And sometimes you can find it with a stalactite like form that you can harvest. The better is the tool you use, the better is the crystal that you gain.

[redundantusage 330]

I had a long an in depth response to all of this, and halfway through googling information and formulating concepts, I found a random web comic and here I am 3 hours later.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

This doesn't make a lot of sense. If it's a crystal, then it should've been growing somewhere else as well.

Unless it's not a crystal that can naturally form, but a synthetic crystal. Onyx crystals require some special conditions to be created, conditions only achievable by a lot of gem casting. The Onyx forms when 13 equal-quality spells are casted at once in a single spot, and only if there aren't 2 equal spells (which means, you mean a charged gem of every obtainable kind). These different kinds of magic will impact each other, nulify each other, and mix with each other 'till they become normal magic. This magic, due to it's concentration and quantity, instead of spreading in the environment and destroying it will take a solid form. This solid form is the Onyx crystal, and it's quality will depend on the quality of the original gems. Be careful, though, 'cause if the spells don't reach the chosen spot at the same time, the process won't be completed, the gem won't form and the casters could easily die if they didn't already.

[transcengopher 349]

-snip-

Then we can create our own crystals. What I'm saying is that the whole "unobtainium" thing is not growing on me. There should be at least two ways of getting something. Preferably even more.

[LordOfWolves 514]

And which ways do you mean? Not too many however.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

Then we can create our own crystals. What I'm saying is that the whole "unobtainium" thing is not growing on me. There should be at least two ways of getting something. Preferably even more.

On one hand, i never said you wouldn't be able to find them in crypts as well, so there you have, two ways to get onyx.

On the other hand, a powerful resource such as a tool for necromancy should be a rare founding, as well as worth a hundred kingdoms. It has the potential to create you a personal army in the matter of seconds, so getting them in the way you would get any other normal gem sounds a little unbalanced to me. It should only be achievable when in the end game, unless you are really lucky.

[achartran 465]

On one hand, i never said you wouldn't be able to find them in crypts as well, so there you have, two ways to get onyx.

On the other hand, a powerful resource such as a tool for necromancy should be a rare founding, as well as worth a hundred kingdoms. It has the potential to create you a personal army in the matter of seconds, so getting them in the way you would get any other normal gem sounds a little unbalanced to me. It should only be achievable when in the end game, unless you are really lucky.

JAG is right, necromancy is an extremely powerful form of magic, thus it should be something very rare, and very, very valuable.

Also, getting into specifics, what form(s) do we think necromancy should take? How should it be implemented? what consequences will it have on the necromancer and the environment?