Introducing: the Mystic

[Zwiebelchen]

So, I have been working on this nonstop over the last three days...
And I finally finished and polished a brandnew character model.

So without further delay, let me introduce you to Gaias upcoming sixth base class, which is planned to be released for betatesting in about 2 weeks.

The Mystic

Mystics are spellcasters specialized in enhancing and altering physical matter. For a Mystic, equipment and weapons are conduits for their obscure innate powers. As such, they are equally skilled in both physical combat and spellcasting.

WEAPON: Swords, Daggers, Staves
ATTACK: Melee
ARMOR: Mail
MISC: Shield
ABILITIES:
Distracting Weapon: All weapon attacks of the selected target generate additional 0.3 x AP threat for 120 seconds. Cooldown: 120 seconds.
Jolting Strikes: Your next 3 attacks will root the target for 5 seconds and deal additional lightning damage.
Twisting Metal: The target is crushed by it's own quickly expanding armor. Deals SP + Armor physical damage over 3 seconds and stuns the target afterwards for 3 seconds.
Deadly Timber: When using a staff, Weapon-SP x 2.0 is added to your Attackpower. Attacks have a 15% chance to stun the target for 1 second. Passive.
Imbue Armor: Hardens your armor, absorbing Armor x 3.0 physical damage over 15 seconds. If another absorbtion spell is active on the caster, Imbued Armor will be consumed first. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
Liquified Arms: Weakens the weapons of enemies within a small radius, reducing attackpower of the next attack by 75%, the following attack by 50% and the third attack by 25%.
Bursting Touch: Creates a burst of shrapnels out of the selected target, damaging all enemies in a cone-shaped area behind the target, dealing AP x 2.0 physical damage.

Character Model

Advanced Classes:

Hexblade (Roles: Tank, DPS, debuff)

Hexblades have acquired proficiencies way beyond the reach of ordinary Mystics. As such, they are able to not only alter and imbue equipment with their powers, but also to shape and form all physical matter around them.

WEAPON: Swords, Daggers, Staves
ATTACK: Melee
ARMOR: Mail
MISC: Shield
ABILITIES:
Blade Barrier: All enemies within melee range are slowed and take SP x 0.25 physical damage every second.
Blazing Heels: Dashes towards the target, interrupting it and dealing AP x 1.5 physical damage. Creates a high amount of threat.
Dancing Blade: Summons a dancing blade which will attack nearby enemies, dealing Weapon-AP x 3.0 physical damage with every attack. The dancing blade can not be targeted or attacked and does not create any threat. Lasts 12 seconds.
Earthern Grip: Shackles the target for 20 seconds. Effect will break from attacks.



Psion (Roles: DPS, buff/debuff, CC)

Intense training and anthropobiological studies allows Mystics to bend and subdue the mind and body of living beings - including their own - to their will. However, to maintain control over her powerful abilities, a Psion has to free herself from the shackles of physical protection.

WEAPON: Swords, Daggers, Staves
ATTACK: Melee
ARMOR: Cloth
MISC: Psionic Blade [Misc item that can only be summoned via spells]
ABILITIES:
Levitate: Causes the caster to levitate, granting 50% evasion against physical attacks and modifying standard attacks to be ranged attacks. Consumes 3 Mana per second.
Psionic Blade: Summons a Psionic Blade as your Offhand weapon. Standard attacks replenish 1 Mana per hit and create 1 charge for your Psionic Blade. Charges add passive bonuses to your Psi-Blade and can be consumed to unleash powerful AoE attacks.
Confusion: Causes all enemies in a small AoE to randomly attack nearby targets (friend or foe) while channeled. Confused enemies will not use any spells while under the effect of confusion.
Mental Feedback: Any spell or ability used while under the effect of Feedback will cause the target to take SP x 1.0 shadow damage and create 1 charge for your Psionic Blade. Lasts 30 seconds.

 

[Ihazdialup]

SWEET BABY JESUS

Also, are there going to be any items to act as a conduit for the Psionic blade, or it the points to have 2 open item slots instead of one?

 

[Im_Noob]

nc char and beautyful

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Fapfap.

This looks really cool. Will be great having another tank option!

 

[ALEXz407]

Great news! And excellent reason to install Warcraft III again.

Abilities look great and mostly unique.
Especially Distracting Weapon - good aggro boost for main tank or for trolling melee DPS .

It is curious how will be implemented armor class change from mail to cloth for Psion class.
This can be stressful for a player if he loses three items of equipment at once (mail helmet, mail armor, and shield until Psionic Blade ability obtained).

Also it would be interesting to see talents for new classes, but I think it will be a secret until release to keep a hype .

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Yeah the Psion has to make a lot of sacrifices on class changr. But it gains from not having to find and use a misc item so that's an advantage. The psionic blade basicly acts as a spell copycat device. You can use the summon blade spell to create a psiblade based on the targeted unit. For example if you cast it on a mage you can cast a fireball spell with it. If you use it on a cleric you will be able to cast heal. If you use it on a Squire you gain the taunt spell etc...
So a psion is basicly a versatile supporter who can help out whereever help is needed.

I had a lot of fun designing this class. I cant wait to see it in action.

The hexblade still looks a little boring compared to the awesome Psion. Maybe i'll add something else to it like a minion.
A sand or iron golem would fit the theme of the class very well.

The most troubling part about the design of the class was to create a female model based on the (male) cloth textures so that psions could wear cloth armor. But i think I nailed it.
Now the last issue is fitting the mail armor models to the unit. Maybe I need to apply some tricks to the armor models to make it work. Or play around with the scaling of the unit in general until attachments fit.


what you cant see on those pictures: I also added bones for the skirt and ponytail and even animated them. Lots of small little details on this model. I think its one of my best custom models so far.

 

[Ihazdialup]

I think in general the Psionic Blade if it doesnt, also give some stats or stat bonuses depending on what class you use it on, otherwise I feel like it could fall behind the other classes because its missing an entire items worth of stats.

Like if used on a squire you should gain some armor, thief you should gain attackspeed, ranger you should gain attackpower, magician you should gain spellpower, and cleric you should gain Hp and Mp. Maybe based off the the corresponding stats from the target you used it on.

Just my idea, but I think it'd help with not falling behind other classes with just raw stats.

 

[cheno3556]

Great news! And excellent reason to install Warcraft III again.

Abilities look great and mostly unique.
Especially Distracting Weapon - good aggro boost for main tank or for trolling melee DPS .

It is curious how will be implemented armor class change from mail to cloth for Psion class.
This can be stressful for a player if he loses three items of equipment at once (mail helmet, mail armor, and shield until Psionic Blade ability obtained).

Also it would be interesting to see talents for new classes, but I think it will be a secret until release to keep a hype .

This basically already happens when you change cleric class to monk class, you lose 2 items, and one of them is weapon, and the one you can buy there really sucks so you can't really be helpful the second you changed class.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I think in general the Psionic Blade if it doesnt, also give some stats or stat bonuses depending on what class you use it on, otherwise I feel like it could fall behind the other classes because its missing an entire items worth of stats.

Like if used on a squire you should gain some armor, thief you should gain attackspeed, ranger you should gain attackpower, magician you should gain spellpower, and cleric you should gain Hp and Mp. Maybe based off the the corresponding stats from the target you used it on.

Just my idea, but I think it'd help with not falling behind other classes with just raw stats.

That's what the charges are for. You basicly build up the power of your Psiblade with the charges, which grants passive bonuses.
When you summon a new blade (because you want a different skill), the charges will start from 0 again. I haven't decided yet which and how stats are granted by the Psiblade, but that's the general direction this will go.

You basicly pick your Blade based on the skill you want to use, then build up charges to make it more powerful. This is basicly an indirect penalty for switching the skill mid-fight; you lose your accumulated stat-boosts.

 

[ALEXz407]

Abilities guide updated with Mystic class abilities!

You basicly pick your Blade based on the skill you want to use, then build up charges to make it more powerful. This is basicly an indirect penalty for switching the skill mid-fight; you lose your accumulated stat-boosts.

Please, confirm that obtained skill will use same shortcut as Psionic Blade summon ability.
Inventory click to use summoned item can be painful for some people (like me ).
(really, standart inventory numpad shortcuts are uncomfortable as hell).

How it can look like

- Press 'X' and click on a friendly unit.
- Blade summoned and Psionic Blade skill replaced with Awesome new skill that can be activated with 'X' shortcut.
- When you drop Psionic Blade item on the ground Awesome new skill disappears and Psionic Blade summon ability returns back.

On the other hand this is not critical if Psionic Blade skill will have big cooldown or will use immideatly as AoE.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I can possibly make that happen, if it's a requested feature.

Would yield some issues with hotkeys, though.


And you probably wasted your time updating the skill guide, because the skills might still be subject to change anyway.

 

[Ihazdialup]

though idk how the animations would work, maybe adding 2h and gem to hexblade wouldn't be a terrible idea, well it could be because it would add tons of dps, but at the cost of tankliness so... yeah. I think it'd have to just come down to beta testing

 

[Zwiebelchen]

though idk how the animations would work, maybe adding 2h and gem to hexblade wouldn't be a terrible idea, well it could be because it would add tons of dps, but at the cost of tankliness so... yeah. I think it'd have to just come down to beta testing

Staves are the 2H weapon in that case. But I have to see how that works out. After all, that would mean another class that uses staves and we already have two. Maybe I'll change it to twohand weapons and change the deadly timber skill to something that does the opposite - awarding SP for AP.


I started to implement the class now and the model and animations kick ass. However, I ran into a problem I totally forgot about: that the Squire model - for whatever reason - uses the shield in his right hand, not in the left hand.
Which means that all shields are on the wrong side. I wonder if there is a quick and dirty way to mirror a character model...

 

[Ihazdialup]

Well Staff could still work, I was just meaning for Hexblade, give it the ability to use 2h weapons and gems or maybe one of the other offhands for a more dps build, I think totems or relics would also work fine.

 

[ALEXz407]

I wonder what kind of backstory Mystic will have?
According to the skills I guess that Mystics live in desert and reach perfection in willpower. Thus, they are capable to change the material world ( rocks, sand, metal, etc) and can affect creatures that have less willpower.

Based on this I want to throw a couple of skill ideas:

Petrification - Mystic adds SP x 2 (3?) Armor to selected target for 5 (7?) seconds. If the target is an enemy, it will gain armor and also will be stunned for 3 (4?) seconds (1.5 (2?) for bosses). Cooldown: moderate (long?).
Versatile ability for boosting friends (good to chain with Imbue Armor) or controlling foes (good to chain with Twisting Metal).
Possibly replacement for Bursting Touch.

Sandstorm - Hexblade creates dense sandstorm in selected small (medium?) area for 10 seconds. Enemies in this area have fixed 30% (40%?) chance to miss with attacks (calculated before Evasion roll). Cooldown: moderate (long?).
Save ability for surviving packs of adds on bosses.
Possibly replacement for Earthern Grip.

Twisting Metal - will this damage ignore armor? Because it looks like armor itself causes damage directly to a body.

Sand golem - as you mentioned earlier, this will fit better for Hexblade. Replacement for Dancing Blade.

Boulder Dash - well, just renamed Blazing Heels, but with some "Boulder transform" for Hexblade (also, reference to a nice old game )

 

[Jumbo]

Nice new class Zwieb, but hoping 1.2b wont be delayed by it. Some great ideas there too, Alex. Petrification is a genious idea, so cool with spells that have multiple results based on their target. The whole idea of petrification is so great, reminiscent of Baldur's Gate 1 basilisks , and the idea that it can also be used as a buff, hardening one's skin, is unique as far as I know.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I wonder what kind of backstory Mystic will have?
According to the skills I guess that Mystics live in desert and reach perfection in willpower. Thus, they are capable to change the material world ( rocks, sand, metal, etc) and can affect creatures that have less willpower.

They are not sand people. Obviously, you wouldn't wear metal armor in desert areas.
When I designed the Mystic/Hexblade class (and Hexblade is basicly the continuation of the baseclass), I was thinking of metal-benders in the avatar franchise. I thought that was a cool theme that fits well with a mail armored melee/caster hybrid class.
The Psion more or less derived directly from the D&D class.
I initially had the idea of a dwarven mountaineer or scout, but discarded the idea for several reasons:
1) I couldn't come up with a cool enough set of abilities (that wouldn't also fit one of the other classes).
2) I was trying out multiple dwarven character models and none I've found fit my criteria and quality standards
3) It would be nice if the sixth class was female, as we currently have 3 male and 2 female class options.

I ended up with this model:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...-149668/?prev=search=woman&r=20&d=list&page=2
I found the idea of a female dwarf pretty cool and I liked the idea of the model, but I couldn't fix all it's deficiencies.
So I scrapped the initial concept and went straight for a vertex modification of an existing WC3 unit: the Bandit. I gave him a female figure, rewrapped the mesh, adjusted the arms and legs, added a skirt, replaced the head and changed the bulky walk animation cycle to look more gracile and feminine.
Then I added all extra animations and rigged the hair and skirt and voila. The new model was born.

For the lore fetishists out there:
Mystics are basicly a twist on the "witch of the swamp" trope. They are innate spellcasters, so instead of studying arcane magic (mages) or getting their powers by praying to the gods (priests), they are pretty much born with it, which kind of makes them outcasts aswell.

But I don't want to spoil the class change quest too much at this place.

Based on this I want to throw a couple of skill ideas:

Petrification - Mystic adds SP x 2 (3?) Armor to selected target for 5 (7?) seconds. If the target is an enemy, it will gain armor and also will be stunned for 3 (4?) seconds (1.5 (2?) for bosses). Cooldown: moderate (long?).
Versatile ability for boosting friends (good to chain with Imbue Armor) or controlling foes (good to chain with Twisting Metal).
Possibly replacement for Bursting Touch.

I like the idea of a petrification spell. I think it fits the theme of the class. But the execution is lacking. Imbue armor is a self-buff only, so there's no possible synergy here.
Having petrification as an "unbreakable" CC spell would be a unique spell in Gaias (all other CCs either break on attacks or just immobilize the target), so I'm all for it. I like the idea of the boosted armor so that you have a penalty for using it on currently attacked targets, but again, falls behind in execution because then you can just cheese your way with spells.
Rather, I'd add something like 75% damage resistance that applies to all attacks and spells in general.
I'll use this concept as a replacement for earthern grip, because it's pretty much the same theme.

Sandstorm - Hexblade creates dense sandstorm in selected small (medium?) area for 10 seconds. Enemies in this area have fixed 30% (40%?) chance to miss with attacks (calculated before Evasion roll). Cooldown: moderate (long?).
Save ability for surviving packs of adds on bosses.
Possibly replacement for Earthern Grip.

I think this is too similar to the Liquid Blades spell.
I'd rather make sandstorm a stationary AoE damage spell instead. The Hexblade lacks some offensive spells anyway.

Twisting Metal - will this damage ignore armor? Because it looks like armor itself causes damage directly to a body.

Yes, for obvious reasons. It's basicly your go-to single-target nuke in boss encounters.

Sand golem - as you mentioned earlier, this will fit better for Hexblade. Replacement for Dancing Blade.

I think this is the direction the Hexblade will go; not neccesarily the sand golem part (Hexblades are more like metalbenders than earthbenders ), but the summonable minion part.
I think this could be the missing central theme of the class.
The golem/minion (I haven't decided what exactly it will be) could be part of several of other Hexblade abilities, like the ability to switch positions with the minion or applying your threat to the minion temporarily, so that you can "switch tanks" with your minion mid-fight to get out and recover/get healed or just avoid some deadly spells.
Could create a cool dynamic. Hard to balance, though.

Other idea: The minion is based on an "item". So instead of summoning it out of nowhere, you have to drop an item on the ground and can then raise a minion based on that item. The minion directly inherits the stats of said item.
So the more powerful the item, the stronger the minion. If you base it on a weapon, you have a more offensively orientated minion; if you base it on an armor, you get a tanky one, etc.

Nice new class Zwieb, but hoping 1.2b wont be delayed by it.

It will. But only by a week or so. Designing a new class ended up not being as much work as I thought it would be.
And it will give you guys something to do until I can finish 1.2b.
The biggest worksaver here is that the new class doesn't use any new items. So it's just about coding the spells, talents and the class change quest and that's it.

Boss beta will be released shortly after the Mystic update.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Out of curiosity..

Can we scrap the use of Daggers? Currently daggers are the definite go-to for the thief class. Swords are somewhat underused actually. In the next version I specifically forced a bard only sword to kind of ensure a sword could be used regardless. I think having a sword as the main melee DPS option of the Mystic would be better than throwing more daggers at it.

Onto the Hexblade.. Can these use books as well as shields? If they're meant to fit into a DPS type role I think it would be useless to have a shield unless they're main tanking. Having a role of a Melee-caster type class would theme well with a book misc would be pretty cool. I think Alex suggested this for Crusader before, but I think it would fit better with the Hexblade actually.

Not a huge fan of another summoner type class . I do however like the idea of a channeler-melee-spellcaster type class. Thats something we certainly don't have right now. Everything with physical damage instant casts all of its abilities. Having haste be meaningful for a physical class could be interesting.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Out of curiosity..

Can we scrap the use of Daggers? Currently daggers are the definite go-to for the thief class. Swords are somewhat underused actually. In the next version I specifically forced a bard only sword to kind of ensure a sword could be used regardless. I think having a sword as the main melee DPS option of the Mystic would be better than throwing more daggers at it.

The dagger option is there to ensure that Mystics have a one-hand weapon available on all tiers (also, it looks great on the character model). Current itemization involves axes and maces/hammers in the 1H repertoire für Squires. Restricting Mystics to swords only will basicly cut the available 1H options in half. And granting Mystics the same repertoire as Squires including Axes felt boring and unoriginal to me.
Also, there are some (very few) spellcaster-designed daggers.

And seriously: Thieves already have it the easiest to get new weapons and offhands through the steal ability. They can afford losing a few daggers to Mystics...

EDIT: Wow, now that I set up the item tables, I noticed that the weapon group for Mystics is probably too large for the save/load code to handle. Mystics have choices from 3 primary groups (Swords, Daggers, Staves), whereas other characters have access to 2 at most.
So I more or less had to exclude Daggers from the list of available weapons. I added 1H-Axes and Hammers instead.

Onto the Hexblade.. Can these use books as well as shields? If they're meant to fit into a DPS type role I think it would be useless to have a shield unless they're main tanking. Having a role of a Melee-caster type class would theme well with a book misc would be pretty cool. I think Alex suggested this for Crusader before, but I think it would fit better with the Hexblade actually.

None of the existing offhands except for shields really fit the theme of the class.
As staves are meant to be the 2H DPS option, it doesn't make much sense to give them an offhand item anyway when using staves. That is what the "Deadly Timber" passive is for ... and it's borderline OP, considering that now staves grant a huge chunk of AP on top of their SP bonuses (also, lol, remember the frost staff from The Shade I implemented as a joke item...?). Remember that most Hexblade and Mystic spells are based on SP and AP. The whole Mystic class was meant as a AP/SP hybrid right from the beginning.
You could say that it's one of the unique advantages of the mystic class that they don't have to carry an offhand item to get extra stats, but get all those stat bonuses for free via the "Deadly Timber" passive and have an additional slot for potions/consumables.

Not a huge fan of another summoner type class . I do however like the idea of a channeler-melee-spellcaster type class. Thats something we certainly don't have right now. Everything with physical damage instant casts all of its abilities. Having haste be meaningful for a physical class could be interesting.

Summoning was one of the ideas to make the class more unique. I actually like the idea of being able to switch positions with a summon and basicly also exchange aggro tables between yourself and your minion with the press of a button...

In comparison, I don't find channeling spells compelling or even fun. Combat feels so static and same-y if you aren't allowed to move around freely, which is why I add more and more instant cast spells to the game.
But maybe I could add a new mechanic that is unique to the Hexblade class, that allows them to move around and attack while channeling a spell (possibly moving at reduced speed).

So what do you think of this ability set for Hexblades?

Swords and Witchcraft: When channeling or casting a spell, the caster is allowed to attack or move at reduced speed. Passive.
Blazing Dash: Charges towards the target, interrupting it and dealing AP x 1.5 physical damage. Creates a high amount of threat.
Sand Storm: Channels a stationary sandstorm in the target area, dealing SP x 3.0 physical damage over 5 seconds in a medium area of effect. Enemies hit by the sandstorm will also have their movement slowed.
Petrify: Stuns the target while channeling, but also grants the target 75% resistance against all damage types. Duration: 10 seconds.

Basicly, Swords and Witchcraft will affect 3 spells in this design: Petrify, Sand Storm and Twisting Metal.

 

[Ihazdialup]

I think I prefer Blade Barrier to the sand storm ability from mostly a somewhat lore stand point since its supposed to be based more around metal than the actual earth. It seems like the same spell in the end just with slightly different animations, and targetable or not. Maybe change it to Bladestorm or something and have it be a targetable area with same affects.

Also I noticed that these skills are probably all going to be for this current version, with 4 advanced skills per class. So, use your golem idea for the next batch of skills to come out, I do like the idea of fighting next to that Iron Golem model and being able to switch places and even aggro with it.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I think I prefer Blade Barrier to the sand storm ability from mostly a somewhat lore stand point since its supposed to be based more around metal than the actual earth. It seems like the same spell in the end just with slightly different animations, and targetable or not. Maybe change it to Bladestorm or something and have it be a targetable area with same affects.

I can more or less freely exchange that as I see fit; yeah, they are pretty similar anyway, except for the method of targeting.

Also I noticed that these skills are probably all going to be for this current version, with 4 advanced skills per class. So, use your golem idea for the next batch of skills to come out, I do like the idea of fighting next to that Iron Golem model and being able to switch places and even aggro with it.

Fair enough. I actually like that "attack while casting" idea more than the golem anyway.

EDIT: Wow, now that I set up the item tables, I noticed that the weapon group for Mystics is probably too large for the save/load code to handle. Mystics have choices from 3 primary groups (Swords, Daggers, Staves), whereas other characters have access to 2 at most.
So I more or less had to exclude Daggers from the list of available weapons. I added 1H-Axes and Hammers instead.

 

[Ihazdialup]

More I think about it, you can use talents to make blade barrier a targetting skill if you decide to keep it, and you can use talents to implement swords and witchcraft rather than a skill because passives are boring

 

[ALEXz407]

I like the idea of a petrification spell. I think it fits the theme of the class. But the execution is lacking. Imbue armor is a self-buff only, so there's no possible synergy here.

Possible synergy was planned as: selfbuff armor and cast better selfshield, buff armor on main tank to reduce incoming damage, instantly stun target to break casting, stunlock target for 7 seconds and high damage with Twisting Metal.
But yes - spells will break all balance.

I like idea with channeling stun with 75% damage reduction.
Well, this require some balancing to prevent perma-stun bosses with 5-ppl Hexblade party.

I think this is the direction the Hexblade will go; not neccesarily the sand golem part (Hexblades are more like metalbenders than earthbenders ), but the summonable minion part.

So, looks like this will be planned for future updates: at least 3 places for abilities still free for advanced classes.

As staves are meant to be the 2H DPS option, it doesn't make much sense to give them an offhand item anyway when using staves. That is what the "Deadly Timber" passive is for ...

Maybe change this passive a bit to make it more suitable for low levels? Also, after little tweaking with STR you can make nice STR builds with staff for Hexblade. ( also this will not affect Psion, because cloth doesn't increase STR )
Deadly Timber - When using a staff, ( Weapon-SP + Weapon-INT ) is added to your Attackpower and ( round up (bonus STR / 2) ) is added to your Spellpower. Passive. ( stun chance can be added with talents )

Interesting. Class combines melee and magic, but SP used only for Twisting Metal and probably for Jolting Strikes. And advanced classes use SP only in one skill each (Blade Barrier, Mental Feedback and probably Psion Blade class-based skills).

Maybe make Bursting Touch combined ability? Dealing AP x 1.5 physical damage and SP x 1.5 magical damage.
Idk about advanced class abilities with SP usage, maybe something for summoned golem for Hexblade, and 1-2 damage abilities for Psion.

But maybe I could add a new mechanic that is unique to the Hexblade class, that allows them to move around and attack while channeling a spell (possibly moving at reduced speed).

Sounds good.

... and you can use talents to implement swords and witchcraft rather than a skill because passives are boring

+1

Freed ability slot can be used for tanking ability, maybe something based on shield use? Like:
Charged Shield - slams enemy for AP x 1 physical damage and SP x 1 lightning damage. Creates a high amount of threat. (just simple skill with low cooldown for aggro rotation)

 

[Zwiebelchen]

A Mystic on the road to Riversdale...

Those staff melee fighting animations are AWESOME!

Just wished the lowlevel armors would fit her better. Those are so incredibly low poly that they stick out like a sore thumb from the highpoly awesomeness of the character model.

 

[satoshikid]

ooo looks great so far!

 

[Ihazdialup]

Looks AMAZING, the armor doesnt look that bad at all.

And I realized that its good your thinking about getting rid of the Dancing Blade ability because Bard's are getting a skill called that I believe in the next version.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Looks AMAZING, the armor doesnt look that bad at all.

That's because you are viewing it from a picture; it looks very blockish and is way too large for the model. I scaled the attachment point based on a midlevel armor that fit perfectly. Looks like there are huge differences in the scales of the armors I never noticed.

But I'll try out all existing armors in the game this evening and see if they all look bad or if this is the exception.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Just wrote the dialogue and questline for the class change quest.

If any native english speaker wants to volunteer for correcting/proofreading the texts, write me a quick message.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

I can do so!

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Phew, some of those abilities are really tough to code.

I'm currently thinking about implementing http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/submissions-414/system-buffhandler-242121/

I always wanted to implement this, but this is the first time I couldn't simply workaround a mechanical problem with some easy tricks... so I will implement that now.
And my inner perfectionist wants me to recode all dispellable spells to use this system instead of the terrible hardcoded crime I commited earlier.

... which means that I can not continue working on the new content until all that is done. Might take a day or two.

However, I think the benefits will by far outweight the cons:

Pro:
- easier maintenance, better structured code = less bugs
- new possibilities: buff/debuff stealing, offensive dispel magic
- much faster spell creation in the future
- slightly better game performance

Con:
- all major buffs/debuffs in the game have to be recoded into the system syntax


On the bright side... Gaias doesn't have all that much custom buffs/debuffs. Because they were complicated to make. With this, it will eventually break even in work load, especially with all the new boss spells and Mystic abilities being buff/debuff heavy.

 

[Ihazdialup]

Sounds good, even with the delay it doesn't sound huge for the pros. I think its worth implementing, and whats a couple extra days at this point

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Sounds good, even with the delay it doesn't sound huge for the pros. I think its worth implementing, and whats a couple extra days at this point

I already started anyway.

Wow, it's astonishing how this immediately cleans up lots of code. And also gets rid of a lot of other redundant stuff in the process.

I just replaced all the stuns by now (and in the process also set flags for which stuns will be dispellable now... ) and almost all spells or abilities that used stuns have been shortened by roughly 50%.

This is really amazing... I wonder why I haven't made that switch earlier.

Really looking forward to offensive dispel spells and buff stealing abilities...

 

[Ihazdialup]

Sweet! With the new system and redoing the stuns can we actually break our own stuns now, as in if I get stunned I can use something to break it, or does this new system still not allow that and someone else still has to dispel my stun?

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Sweet! With the new system and redoing the stuns can we actually break our own stuns now, as in if I get stunned I can use something to break it, or does this new system still not allow that and someone else still has to dispel my stun?

This is not possible from a mechanical perspective, as I think there are no abilities in WC3 that can be used while stunned that I could use as a dummy.
Maybe Defend... but I haven't checked.

 

[ALEXz407]

This is not possible from a mechanical perspective, as I think there are no abilities in WC3 that can be used while stunned that I could use as a dummy.
Maybe Defend... but I haven't checked.

You can catch issued order from Berserker ability, it fires even if unit is stunned. Moreover, this order issued only if ability doesn't on the cooldown.
I use code from [thread=153305]this thread[/thread] to check it.

Update: Defend/Undefend, Manashield On/Off, Magic Defence On/Off, Immolation On/Off work perfectly too.

Proof in attachments:

 

[Zwiebelchen]

You can catch issued order from Berserker ability, it fires even if unit is stunned. Moreover, this order issued only if ability doesn't on the cooldown.
I use code from [thread=153305]this thread[/thread] to check it.

Update: Defend/Undefend, Manashield On/Off, Magic Defence On/Off, Immolation On/Off work perfectly too.

Proof in attachments:

Yeah I figured that. Those are all abilities that don't interrupt other orders. I'm using for example berserk for the "Feline Reflexes" spell.

Good thing you can change the behaviour Defend/Manashield/Magic Defense and Immolation to be non-modal abilities in gameplay constants to use them as instant dummy spells.

So, yes, I will think about an ability that allows "breaking free" from a stun. Possibly on the Monk or Crusader.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Just a small update:
The conversion of most spells to the new buff system is almost done; the list is getting shorter with every day.
Due to the changes, these things will be possible and a thing in the new Gaias version:

"Dispel Magic" can now also be used offensively to dispel buffs from enemies.
It can be used to dispel spell effects like:
Mend, Divine Protection, Roar, Feline Reflexes, Fire Shield, etc.

"Dispel Magic" can now also dispel most stun and slow effects in the game.

I think this will add much more utility to this currently under-used ability.


Also, "break free" spells that allow to free yourself from CC, stun and slow effects will be a thing in the future. I currently think about, for example, adding such a mechanic to the "Blurred Motions" spell.

 

[SaikoDeMoN]

Sweet. That is super strong though, we'll probably need an average cooldown on dispel magic.

Break free would also make sense on monk's Stone Skin.

 

[Jumbo]

I second what Demon is writing. The stone skin is another, currently less important, skill which could use a buff.

 

[ALEXz407]

Will new class change item registry and lead to code wipe?
If this is true, you can also [thread=261795]add books for crusaders[/thread] to make two-handed builds more viable, like two-handed zerk with trophy.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

You can catch issued order from Berserker ability, it fires even if unit is stunned. Moreover, this order issued only if ability doesn't on the cooldown.
I use code from [thread=153305]this thread[/thread] to check it.

Update: Defend/Undefend, Manashield On/Off, Magic Defence On/Off, Immolation On/Off work perfectly too.

Proof in attachments:

Btw, I just tried that with Berserk and it doesn't even work. Can you tell me how you tested that?

 

[ALEXz407]

Btw, I just tried that with Berserk and it doesn't even work. Can you tell me how you tested that?

Here is a working example (removing stun with berserk ability): View attachment abil_orders.w3x

It's pretty simple:
- Event: unit is issued an order with no target [all this abilities counted as no target orders]
- Condition: issued order equal to order(berserk) [better use integer comparison here, but i didn't find it in gui]
- Actions:
-- remove all buffs from triggering unit [pretty overkill here, you can fine tune this with your buff system]
-- unpause triggering unit [I guess it handled by your buff system too]

Also you must start ability cooldown with triggers, because player can override issued order with fast clicking and unit will not activate ability (i.e. 'B' and right click on the ground, so unit is unpaused by trigger, but doesn't activate ability yet). Didn't implemented in the example map, I hope there are some workarounds to implements this.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Here is a working example (removing stun with berserk ability): View attachment 146240

It's pretty simple:
- Event: unit is issued an order with no target [all this abilities counted as no target orders]
- Condition: issued order equal to order(berserk) [better use integer comparison here, but i didn't find it in gui]
- Actions:
-- remove all buffs from triggering unit [pretty overkill here, you can fine tune this with your buff system]
-- unpause triggering unit [I guess it handled by your buff system too]

Also you must start ability cooldown with triggers, because player can override issued order with fast clicking and unit will not activate ability (i.e. 'B' and right click on the ground, so unit is unpaused by trigger, but doesn't activate ability yet). Didn't implemented in the example map, I hope there are some workarounds to implements this.

Wait, you are using PauseUnit, not actual stuns?

 

[ALEXz407]

Wait, you are using PauseUnit, not actual stuns?

No, I just add Unpause as extra check, it could be removed of course.

Here is v2 of unstuck ability: View attachment abil_orders2.w3x

Logic changed in this way (event and condition unchanged):
- Remove stun debuff from triggered unit
- Wait 0 [You can use timers, but this works too]
- Triggered unit order without target "berserk" [I guess order id here will work faster]

So it works how intended and prevents player from abusing order ovveride with fast clicks.
However, if unit will catch stun in "Wait 0" interval, ability will not fire and cooldown will not start.
Could be a feature, because this is really small time interval, and wasting stun escape just to catch new stun in few milliseconds is really annoying .

Also keep in mind that trigger based on order id, so you must select most useless base ability [guess immolation] and convert it to unstun . ( so we can hope for at least 1 unstun abilities for every class )

P.S. Interesting. This solution lies on the surface, but I can't find any stun escape spells in the spells section of the Hive.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Never mind, I just made a mistake in the code. It works now.

PS: Alright, finished converting all existing spells and abilities to the new format. Looks like I can continue with the Hero and boss spells now.

 

[Ihazdialup]

how's progress coming along?

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Yeah with the changes to the buff system, making new spells is a breeze. Hehe.

Making the talents is still a shitton of work, though, mainly because there are so many of them

 

[ALEXz407]

Yeah with the changes to the buff system, making new spells is a breeze. Hehe.

Just wondering.
How you will add Mystic ability scrolls for d1/d2/ogres/world bosses, I guess loot tables are full now?

Maybe take a look at [thread=256896]guaranteed class drop[/thread] system?
It will free some slots in loot tables, so you can add a bit of beginners items for new class, and will add some meta fun like beating bosses with party consisting only of one-two classes.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

The loot tables for world bosses aren't full, so no real problem here.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Testing some sexy new Mystic abilities...