Upcoming System: Timequakes!

Estarra

There's been a project that's been brewing since last year that we are now going to fully focus our coding resources on called Timequakes (not to be confused with timequakes in aeonics). Though we had initially planned to keep this under wraps and release it through some events, we decided to be fully transparent and let you in on what the system in and perhaps you can even help us refine the system before its release.

In brief, since the Fall of the Celestine Empire, there's been a series of temporal disturbances up to and including the need for Ascension Events. This has had a cumulative effect of causing quakes in time, erupting as rifts that occasionally break through into the prime material plane. The current plan is for rifts to occur at least several times in a game month. There are four types of rifts:

• Distant Timequakes or rifts from the past
• Impending Timequakes or rifts from the future
• Desolate Timequakes or rifts from an alternate reality where the Soulless were never seale
• Immaculate Timequakes or rifts from an alternate reality where the Soulless were completed defeated by the Vernal Gods

When a timequake occurs, a rift opens up somewhere on the prime material plane. You must find the rifts, enter them and there you can harvest temporal anomalies. Harvesting is a similar mechanic as capturing a wild node, though the individual who succeeds in harvesting will receive the anomaly. Rifts can have multiple anomalies. Avechna cannot sense (and therefore cannot interfere) within the rifts. Also, there is no experience loss if you die within a temporal rift (since you are out of time and space). Individuals can convert anomalies to archpower (more on that later) or give them (or sell them) to guilds for research projects.

Each guild can have one and only one research project. The research project is based on the anomaly type (distant, impending, desolate or immaculate) and can be built up to five levels. A research project not only needs anomalies of its specific type but also gold and commodities as both initial costs and upkeep. Research projects can be changed to a new project, though the guild must start over from scratch and lose all the anomalies, commodities and gold invested in the outgoing project. Note that any city and commune can only ever have 3 research projects (one per guild) so there will always be a fourth anomaly type that its members can use for archpower without any guilt.

Some goals we see for timequakes:

• New method for daily credits
• Goal for guilds to work towards
• Commodity and gold drain
• System of conflict and PK on a regular basis
  

Research projects have 5 levels, each level granting a potential power to every member of the city or commune that the guild represents: (1) a power that helps with timequakes, (2) a passive power that is always active, (3) a personal benefit activated with archpower, (4) a special power activated with archpower, (5) an area wide power activated with archpower. Archpower is gained through converting anomalies directly by individuals.

Below is what we are currently looking at for research projects and is a work in progress. We definitely are open to refining the level powers through brainstorming and ideas on the forums. Capacitors are the general term of the object that guilds create for a research project. Each guild will have a unique capacitor.

DISTANT ARCHPOWER CAPACITOR (Teleport Theme)

• Level 1: Teleport to Open Rifts, long wait
• Level 2: Faster teleport, stacks with artifacts, passive, no archpower needed
• Level 3: Portals, open portals to others, 5 archpower/month
• Level 4: Teleport those who attack you up to 5 rooms away, 5 archpower/month to setup, uses 1 (normal) power to activate for 15 seconds, 15 second cooldown (can't reactivate for 15 seconds)
• Level 5: Prevent teleport out of local area except for members of your org, 10 archpower for 5 minutes (someone else doing this power will cancel the power)

IMPENDING ARCHPOWER CAPACITOR (Speed Theme)

• Level 1: Faster anomaly harvesting, 25%?
• Level 2: Celerity bonus, passive, no archpower needed
• Level 3: Faster cure recovery, 5 archpower/month
• Level 4: Speed burst, faster eq/bal recovery, 5 archpower/month to setup, uses 1 (normal) power to activate for 15 seconds, 15 second cooldown (can't reactivate for 15 seconds)
• Level 5: Slow everyone in local area except for members of your org, 10 archpower for 5 minutes (someone else doing this power will cancel the power)

DESOLATE ARCHPOWER CAPACITOR (Destruction Theme)

• Level 1: Universal damage buff in rifts, 10/10
• Level 2: Universal damage buff, 3/10, passive, no archpower needed
• Level 3: Faster insanity recovery, stacks with artifacts, 5 archpower/month
• Level 4: Backlash, retributive damage on any aggressive action, 5 archpower/month to setup, uses 1 (normal) power to activate for 15 seconds, 15 second cooldown (can't reactivate for 15 seconds)
• Level 5: Prevent all health regeneration in local area except for members of your org, 10 archpower for 5 minutes (someone else doing this power will cancel the power)

IMMACULATE ARCHPOWER CAPACITOR (Magic Theme)

• Level 1: Less mana cost in rifts
• Level 2: Mana regeneration, passive, no archpower needed
• Level 3: Less mana cost, stacks with artifacts, 5 archpower/month
• Level 4: Spellblast, person casts takes damage and is frozen for 5 seconds, 5 archpower/month to setup, uses 1 (normal) power to fire, 15 second cooldown (can't reactivate for 15 seconds)
• Level 5: Increase magic damage in local area except for members of your org, 10 archpower for 5 minutes (someone else doing this power will cancel the power)

Kalnid

So this seems neat. I'm a little concerned about rich-get-richer but it's not like you could just not reward people. Regular gold/comm sinks are good, even if I still want to shill rental artifacts for gold as a system. Giving out faster eqbal and healing balance is... potentially troublesome, I think, but if it's relatively cheap then at least everyone has to deal with it equally.

For 4s, cooldown starts at ability end, right? Otherwise 15s cd on teleport 4 isn't super meaningful. Also, I hope magic 4 doesn't actually mean a 5 second stun for 1p.

For 5s, is it 'if anyone else uses this power' or 'if anyone in a different org uses this power'?

Estarra

Kalnid said:

So this seems neat. I'm a little concerned about rich-get-richer but it's not like you could just not reward people. Regular gold/comm sinks are good, even if I still want to shill rental artifacts for gold as a system. Giving out faster eqbal and healing balance is... potentially troublesome, I think, but if it's relatively cheap then at least everyone has to deal with it equally.

For 4s, cooldown starts at ability end, right? Otherwise 15s cd on teleport 4 isn't super meaningful. Also, I hope magic 4 doesn't actually mean a 5 second stun for 1p.

For 5s, is it 'if anyone else uses this power' or 'if anyone in a different org uses this power'?

For 4s, cooldown would start at the end.

For 5s, if anyone from same org uses the power, it would restart the timer, not cancel it.

Anyway, I'm not committed with any of the powers or the specifics (its all a WIP) so any brainstorming that goes on in this thread will be useful.

Nelras

Is there any plan for the research projects to run out in any way, or will it be a case of get 5(or however many to get to level 5) anomalies and then everything goes to archpower as long as the upkeep is paid?

I will leave someone better versed in combat to make specific comments about balance, but I will say that some of those sets look stronger than others. Furthermore, I would worry that this is going to become a case of just making the larger orgs (who already have an advantage because of numbers) even harder to fight against while smaller orgs are unable to claim anomalies. Will there be something in place to make sure that small orgs are able to access this, both in terms of any pvp required and in terms of even being able to gather 5 archpower per month per guild(or is it per person using each power with an upkeep)?

Shango

I honestly am not fond of yet another PK mechanic...that and would just want to focus solely on the Immaculate one to remove the Souless for good in the proper timeline >_>

I hope the Mage rework is getting focused on before this, yes?

Shango

But for the PK potential of this suggestion itself....overly strong, particularly for orgs that are A) well more populated than others, and that's very much a problem, and B ) orgs whose skills are skewered way too much in their favor mechanically speaking, which caused the population drop in the first place to happen. So...unless these skills are available ONLY in the time anomaly rifts, it's going to make it a pain for literally everyone else more than anything fun or engaging. Would turn more into "Well they're firing their powers, time to leave" rather than engage at all.

Though yes, I realize from the wording, this is apparently just gonna barrel its way down on us regardless of being desired/welcome or not. But there are some obvious issues just from the description alone, given the current situation with the game as it stands.

Niwynne

When you say 'more about that later' for archpower, did you mean, there is more info still to come with more stuff to spend it on? Or is archpower only spent on the abilities granted by research projects?

That 3/10 universal damage buff seems a really large boost (though I'm not quite sure how much % damage increase that translates into).

Shango

Niwynne said:

When you say 'more about that later' for archpower, did you mean, there is more info still to come with more stuff to spend it on? Or is archpower only spent on the abilities granted by research projects?

That 3/10 universal damage buff seems a really large boost (though I'm not quite sure how much % damage increase that translates into).

+3% per point, so that's +9% more damage according to HELP BUFFS.

Dys

Sounds cool! I like the concept with PK opportunities that fire several times a month and hopefully these could different enough to justify inter-alliance conflict (what happens in the rift stays in the rift).

3/10 universal damage buff is 3* 3% = 9%. Arti'd out people are probably capped anyway so it's not ridiculous for them.

Xenthos

The 3/10 isn't a huge deal, because the outliers are already capped and it provides no effect to them at all.  If anything, it just helps make the people who aren't maxed catch up a bit; it's not a good incentive otherwise.

I like the concept in general just because if gives people who want to fight an outlet for it that is opt-in, and that's what we've been asking for for... years, really.  Admittedly, this is as a person who is not super into the PvP side of things, but when the only thing we've had is raiding it will be really interesting to see what this does for us!

Some comments / concerns:

Faster curing, faster eq/balance, seem to be the strongest of the powers and potentially the most combat skewing.  Technically available to everyone (assuming every org has a guild which picks that path), but that's a bit concerning at first glance on the balance end of things.  It will be a required part of combat (assuming a noticeable boost at least, otherwise why would you waste the time on it?).  I don't have ideas right now for replacements, but it's something I'll think about.

Daily credits?  Will these count as a tick?

How about org-points?

Edit: I missed this one.  Level 4: Spellblast, person casts takes damage and is frozen for 5 seconds, 5 archpower/month to setup, uses 1 (normal) power to fire, 15 second cooldown (can't reactivate for 15 seconds)

What does "frozen" mean?  Like the aff frozen, or a stun (locked)?  Because if so, a 5s stun is very strong and being able to keep doing it repeatedly is also very strong.

Lycidas

In reply to the smaller orgs having access to this, ask the bigger org you're allied too. I'm already aware that Glom/Gaudi/Celest pass things around as is, so they're not concerned with making sure people get what they need. That being said, Mag/Halli/Seren would be doing the same thing, but I understand the desire to want to get it on your own, and not just handed to you.

Personally, I dislike that these strong, necessary, powers are being put in open PK. It is already blatantly obvious most of the playerbase doesn't care for combat, because can say what they will but the vocal minority is that, minority. We'll have to see how it goes, but I think Shango hit it on the head, its going to be the first person to activate these powers and the rest will just leave because of how things are balanced right now.

I'm looking at these powers and I see Immaculate being the one that gets left ouf of the guilds, because the other three just offer better benefits over all, passives and actives.

Estarra

Timequakes are going to be the priority project and mages will be next.

Regarding powers, if you think they are too PK oriented or too strong or too whatever, please give us alternatives! We are open to suggestions. In fact, if someone were to design a spiffy set that looks nothing like what we have down, I'd be game to consider it.

Right now, we are looking only at daily credit rewards for players in timequakes (could be by a tic). I'm not sure if they should count for org credits. Maybe the research projects could count for org credits? We'll see!

There has been some discussion of alternate ways to get for anomalies (quests or something else), but the focus is just on getting the timequake feature in and see how it plays out.

Xenthos

I am wondering if we can review how some of this stuff works as the underlying concept.  One of the biggest issues that I see is that we are making always-active powers that will change how combat in general works.  If you do not participate (or do so at a less than stellar rate) you are left behind and it just gets harder to compete in other events.

What if we make it so that we set up a bunch of powers that are only in effect as long as you do not have masochism, or when within a timequake?  You could even set it up so that some timequakes allow for these "reality-bending" powers to take effect and others do not (using the standard pvp ruleset).

Doing that would let you make powers like:

Passive healing tick (one each for h/m/e), passive affliction blocking, passive affliction curing, % chance to not lose power reserves as it drains into active power, power recovery speedup, even faster linking, or really all kinds of things.  But in order to do this you would need to commit to keeping these from impacting the regular PvP activities.

If you have powers that adjust all PvP then you are going to have a bunch of extra balance headaches imo.

Lycidas

I thought about things and here are just some of my suggestions, as there are only 3 powers I truly have issue with. I don't partake in combat, but I know the system well enough. Impending tree is going to cause a lot of problems, so my suggestion is as follows:

Impending -

  Level 3 - Speed attunement, 2/4 eq/bal recovery speed for 5 archpower/month.

  Level 4 - Faster cure recovery, 5 archpower/month to setup, uses 3 (normal) power to activate for 15 seconds, 15 second cooldown at end of effect.

Justification: Granting an overall speed boost isn't a bad thing, 2/4 is a placeholder number for suggestion sake, it could be 1/2 for all I care, as it is a passive and not meant to be overly strong or game changing, but helpful to the players over all. Making the cure recovery as the active power alleviates the power of it by limiting it to a time frame of 'invulnerability'. The quotes are to denote using the word lightly, as cure recovery speed can mostly keep up with things as is, boosting it will make it near impossible to take someone out, unless a large group focuses the individual, in which case, the boost wouldn't even be bothered activating.

Destruction -

  Level 5 - Activate a Divine War shrine power at no essence cost, 10 archpower.

Justification: Outright negating health regeneration is absolutely brutal and would become a MUST HAVE in any combat scenario, and only benefits the side that has the numbers to support that level of damage killing. War shrines are already  commonplace where PK happens as is, so being allowed to usage of powers for archpower instead of essence cost would still give it a valid use, but not be so strong that there's no point in engaging.

Xenthos

Um.  You cannot raise war shrines outside of org territory any more.  When you say they are commonplace, I am left confused because they haven't been common for years.

There is a reason why Astral shrines are healing or shields and not wars.

Estarra

Xenthos said:

I am wondering if we can review how some of this stuff works as the underlying concept.  One of the biggest issues that I see is that we are making always-active powers that will change how combat in general works.  If you do not participate (or do so at a less than stellar rate) you are left behind and it just gets harder to compete in other events.

What if we make it so that we set up a bunch of powers that are only in effect as long as you do not have masochism, or when within a timequake?  You could even set it up so that some timequakes allow for these "reality-bending" powers to take effect and others do not (using the standard pvp ruleset).

Doing that would let you make powers like:

Passive healing tick (one each for h/m/e), passive affliction blocking, passive affliction curing, % chance to not lose power reserves as it drains into active power, power recovery speedup, even faster linking, or really all kinds of things.  But in order to do this you would need to commit to keeping these from impacting the regular PvP activities.

If you have powers that adjust all PvP then you are going to have a bunch of extra balance headaches imo.

Sure, again, we're open to any suggestions. My only thought is the powers need to be good enough for orgs to want to spend the time and resources to maintain.

Xenthos

Estarra said:

Xenthos said:

I am wondering if we can review how some of this stuff works as the underlying concept.  One of the biggest issues that I see is that we are making always-active powers that will change how combat in general works.  If you do not participate (or do so at a less than stellar rate) you are left behind and it just gets harder to compete in other events.

What if we make it so that we set up a bunch of powers that are only in effect as long as you do not have masochism, or when within a timequake?  You could even set it up so that some timequakes allow for these "reality-bending" powers to take effect and others do not (using the standard pvp ruleset).

Doing that would let you make powers like:

Passive healing tick (one each for h/m/e), passive affliction blocking, passive affliction curing, % chance to not lose power reserves as it drains into active power, power recovery speedup, even faster linking, or really all kinds of things.  But in order to do this you would need to commit to keeping these from impacting the regular PvP activities.

If you have powers that adjust all PvP then you are going to have a bunch of extra balance headaches imo.

Sure, again, we're open to any suggestions. My only thought is the powers need to be good enough for orgs to want to spend the time and resources to maintain.

Yeah, I get that.  And maybe there can be a mix of things, where the most powerful are gated behind maso / being in a timequake area.  Doing that does let you make unique / interesting powers for people to play with that does not break PvP (and I am just super leery of adding more in that regard for standard gameplay).

Lycidas

Then can simply edit to any Divine shrine honestly

Shaddus

Is there any way we can change the name to something besides timequake?

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to this.

Lycidas

Shaddus said:

Is there any way we can change the name to something besides timequake?

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to this.

I vote temporal rifts! Basically the same thing, and not confused with Aeonics.

Vatul

This sounds eerily similar to the shardfall mechanics in Imperian. For me it just doesn’t seem unique until you add the flavor over it, and I’m wondering how they are different. Lusternia is supposed to be differing from other F2P games, and maybe it’s just a bit too similar. New players might think - “Well, what’s different?” You could list off a few things, but overall it would be a hard sell. If implemented they would both have research projects, etc. Are the powers the defining difference? I am not familiar with things over there, but I do recall they had some sort of arms race with it. 

As with others I am concerned about org balance for these new research powers. And the powers should be balanced accordingly. I like Xenthos’ idea about having them in the rifts only simply because we have enough to tinker with to balance wonder items. 

I love the flavor the timequakes, don’t get me wrong- it looks like an overall step forward to some more consistent plot arcs. It might even advance the plot of Lusternia forward a bit if more rifts were unique and added in over time.

With the implementation the daily credit system which is fantastic, and the quest rankings, I understand you want to up the chances to reward for participation in PK. I am looking forward to seeing some focus in non-PK conquest systems as well. 

Maligorn

I won't lie, this sounds cool, but I've always opposed introducing new PvP mechanics in. Why?

Well, mainly it's the rich get richer phenomenon. The reason people don't fight isn't because of low PK opportunities. It's because there's still an annoying imbalance of skills (but mostly artifacts). I really hope you are exaggerating when you say you're devoting all your coding resources towards timequakes because if you're not fixing your artifacts (lol Wonderbrazier Purify/Illuself still existing) then you're only going to see an anemic bump to PvP, until people realize they can't fight the artifact pile that is Glomdoring, and then they leave and go do something else while Glomdoring + allies reap the archpower rewards. That is the future I foresee for this project.

Also, speaking of Purify, RIP mage rework.

Estarra

The various IRE games inspire each other. Imperian's system was inspired by a system in Aetolia and there's no doubt that their systems have inspired us. I believe Lusternia's take is unique in terms of storyline and mechanics and powers, but it's up to you to decide for yourselves if it is 'worth' it or not. The goal isn't to try and draw Imperian and Aetolia players away from their worlds (if they're happy there, they should stay!); rather, the goals are as-stated (daily credits, guild goals, resource drains, etc.).

I like the term 'timequakes' becuase it is one word that encapsulates the RP. I'd be more inclined to change the Aeonic skill name if it's a big issue, but nothing is written in stone.

Anyway, I'd like again to welcome any ideas for the research project powers. As said, they are what we are least committed to and we're very open to changing them based on new ideas presented.

Niwynne

I'm mostly worried about yet another currency being added to the game. Trying to keep an open mind though, and I'm glad that the damage buff is overall pretty small, unlike I was thinking.

Shaddus

Estarra said:

The various IRE games inspire each other. Imperian's system was inspired by a system in Aetolia and there's no doubt that their systems have inspired us. I believe Lusternia's take is unique in terms of storyline and mechanics and powers, but it's up to you to decide for yourselves if it is 'worth' it or not. The goal isn't to try and draw Imperian and Aetolia players away from their worlds (if they're happy there, they should stay!); rather, the goals are as-stated (daily credits, guild goals, resource drains, etc.).

I like the term 'timequakes' becuase it is one word that encapsulates the RP. I'd be more inclined to change the Aeonic skill name if it's a big issue, but nothing is written in stone.

Anyway, I'd like again to welcome any ideas for the research project powers. As said, they are what we are least committed to and we're very open to changing them based on new ideas presented.

Here's a question. What do we do once we complete all of our projects?

Maligorn

Estarra said:

 but it's up to you to decide for yourselves if it is 'worth' it or not.

I don't think that's fair to say; you decide how powerful these archpowers are. If you see people opting not to chase them, it's likely because they know they'll be stifled out by a stronger force.

Any words on artifact imbalance?

Vatul

Estarra said:

The various IRE games inspire each other. Imperian's system was inspired by a system in Aetolia and there's no doubt that their systems have inspired us. I believe Lusternia's take is unique in terms of storyline and mechanics and powers, but it's up to you to decide for yourselves if it is 'worth' it or not. The goal isn't to try and draw Imperian and Aetolia players away from their worlds (if they're happy there, they should stay!); rather, the goals are as-stated (daily credits, guild goals, resource drains, etc.).

I like the term 'timequakes' becuase it is one word that encapsulates the RP. I'd be more inclined to change the Aeonic skill name if it's a big issue, but nothing is written in stone.

Anyway, I'd like again to welcome any ideas for the research project powers. As said, they are what we are least committed to and we're very open to changing them based on new ideas presented.

I was praising the RP mechanics of it. I love the flavor of it.  And think they are quite clever. I wasn’t suggesting drawing anyone who was happy away from their chosen IRE.

Being inspired is great, and this project sounds super cool but I am concerned that another PK mechanic should wait until other aspects and reworks are fixed. 

I am sure many others have concerns about adding another currency. Resource drain is a good goal for this, new things for guilds to do while they focus more on development and all that. But I’m still scrambling to learn how to do commquests that weren’t viable until now!

Deichtine

Overall concept sounds pretty good. Does sound inspired by the ylem/shardfall research stuff which is pretty good and this really does fill a hole in Lusternia's conflict system by giving small short and frequent skirmishes with low end rewards.

I know its all concept stage right now for the powers but could you fill in numbers ideas for some of the suggestions so we can go get an idea on it.

Like:

• Level 1: Less mana cost in rifts = 10% ?? less mana useage etc.

Estarra

The projects decay so there will always be a need to upkeep them.

We're committed with finishing Timequakes before anything else is done (it was started months ago). Our new stated policy is not to start new projects or veer off on other projects until the current project is done. We'll aim to keep you updated (as we are here) on what it is we're working on. I understand there will never be an agreement on what the main focus should be, but we have to take the bull by the horns at some point and not flail away on multiple projects or keep changing direction whenever the mood changes.

Anyway, I'm still hoping for alternate ideas on the powers! They can be anything really if you don't want a PK focus, crafting, travel, etc.

Shango

Well, Immaculate would fit with non PK perks the most. Whole world that succeeded in being saved? Arts and the like ought to flourish nicely.

Crafted items last twice as long, or can generate more comms on being destructed at the max rank might help as a start there.

Estarra

We haven't decided on numbers for anything yet, so you're welcome to make suggestions. Right now we're working on the mechanics of the timequakes themselves so this is a perfect opportunity to give suggestions on the powers.