MD Rework 2021 - Illusions

[Chewett]

For full details of what the MD Rework 2021 project is please read the main thread.

 

Illusions are currently somewhat underused, primarily because they are buggy and have "zeroed" out people's accounts so they have lost everything. There is currently a manual process to backup accounts put into illusions but restoring it is complex and time consuming. Part of the work I plan to be doing on this is stabilising the system so it is easier to use and not likely to break an account.

The project has two halves, the first will be something I will be working on behind the scenes:

• I will be slowly pausing all illusion entering methods so I can safely "pause" illusions
• Once done, I will carefully bring out every account from an illusion (some really old accounts are stuck so we need to handle it carefully)
• Then rework the core code to properly let illusions "work"

The second half is where I will want ideas and opinions:

• I will be wanting to hear from people about how illusions "should" work and what people want from them
• In additional a discussion about what an illusion should/shouldnt be able to do will be very helpful in their re-implementation.

I can see this project being very fruitful for both those who know how they work or those who want to learn more. Illusions allow you to radically change someone's account temporarily and this can have a lot of interesting and useful side-effects.

 

If you wish to be involved with this please post here and I will contact you all when I am ready to begin. We have been having some of these discussions on Discord so if you haven't joined it, this would be a good idea to if you wish to get involved. We may  have meetings on Discord to facilitate faster replies depending on timezones.

[Nep]

Sign me up!

Edited March 29, 2021 by Nepgear

[Fang Archbane]

I'd love to be of any use in this field if im accepted. Consider my submission submitted.

[Nep]

Ok, here be the noob questions. I know next to nothing about illusions so get something to drink  

First of all, how does someone gain the ability to use illusions? Is it a wish shop thing like most spells, or do you get it as a quest reward, or maybe a reward for a role? 

Is it limited to running quests, or can you use it in day to day life too? If so, what are its limits? Does it have a set number of casts every 2 weeks like regular spells? 

Can you put them into memory stones? 

How customizable are they? Do you get a free hand between certain boundaries, or do you get a set number of options you can choose from? 

How long are illusions in duration? 

Are you limited to changing your own appearance, or can you cast them on others too? If you can, is there a way for them to get out of it? 

What happens to the items / stats / crits you gain while affected by an illusion? Do you lose them or carry them over to your normal form when the illusion is over? 

 

This is it for now... If anything else comes to mind I'll post it. 

[Chewett]

8 minutes ago, Nepgear said:

First of all, how does someone gain the ability to use illusions? Is it a wish shop thing like most spells, or do you get it as a quest reward, or maybe a reward for a role? 

Sunfire is I believe the only person who earned illusions by their good work in the game. He asked to be given the right and he has been.

Dst, myself, and maybe Grido earned them by doing various bug testing and our accounts broke to let us use them.

Back in the day a large swath of the public were allowed to go to MP2 and MP7 which granted illusion powers.

11 minutes ago, Nepgear said:

Is it limited to running quests, or can you use it in day to day life too? If so, what are its limits? Does it have a set number of casts every 2 weeks like regular spells? 

 Illusion spells are just spells. 

Illusions whereby you can enter the illusion yourself have a number of parameters, once in the illusion all your stats and other items are frozen and will be restored after you come out.

There are various rules but they primarily boil down to do not abuse them.

12 minutes ago, Nepgear said:

How customizable are they? Do you get a free hand between certain boundaries, or do you get a set number of options you can choose from? 

There are currently a fixed set of options.

12 minutes ago, Nepgear said:

How long are illusions in duration? 

It depends on the illusion options you pick.

13 minutes ago, Nepgear said:

Are you limited to changing your own appearance, or can you cast them on others too? If you can, is there a way for them to get out of it? 

Illusions you enter, are purely for your own account.

Spell illusions can be casted like normal spells. We ran various events "masked balls" etc with illusions in the past. It was pretty fun! (Would someone like that again?).

15 minutes ago, Nepgear said:

What happens to the items / stats / crits you gain while affected by an illusion? Do you lose them or carry them over to your normal form when the illusion is over? 

They are currently lost however I am wanting some discussion about what we think shouldn't be lost.

[Nep]

1 hour ago, Chewett said:

They are currently lost however I am wanting some discussion about what we think shouldn't be lost.

Daily login bonus comes to mind. Would be inconvenient to lose that (both stats and coins) just because the day rolled over as you were doing stuff in illusion form. 

And what about shared tools? What happens to the tools that a person in illusion form picks up? Or what if it's passed to them? If it simply returns to its original place then it isn't a huge issue though. 

[Pipstickz]

I'll throw my name in

[Chewett]

9 hours ago, Nepgear said:

Daily login bonus comes to mind. Would be inconvenient to lose that (both stats and coins) just because the day rolled over as you were doing stuff in illusion form. 

That is the primary one to consider but I planned to discuss some other items with you all too.

9 hours ago, Nepgear said:

And what about shared tools? What happens to the tools that a person in illusion form picks up? Or what if it's passed to them? If it simply returns to its original place then it isn't a huge issue though. 

Its kept.

[Sunfire]

Count me in

[VertuHonagan]

I personally think anything to do with illusions and how best to use them as a group could be interesting. Using assets like illusions and resources always seemed to go over my head.
 

Maybe because I was much younger and just blowing through things back when I use to play. But I think discussions or community involvement with illusions could open more ideas and suggestions from newer players, or those that haven’t played around with them much, could give some new perspectives on them.

[Chewett]

On 3/29/2021 at 12:54 AM, Chewett said:

I will be wanting to hear from people about how illusions "should" work and what people want from them

This phase has begun.

[Demonic God]

forgot to sign up, I hope this isn't too late @@

[Muratus del Mur]

Illusions where supposed to be bubbles of gameplay, that allow extreme gameplay without the worry of unbalance, just with the benefit of intense momentary fun.

If you intend to change that, pls also let me know of the outcome.

One use i was hoping to see, was combat competitions, arena/dojo, etc. .. realm wide temporary roles that do not involve permanent overpowering one person.

[Chewett]

2 hours ago, Muratus del Mur said:

was combat competitions, arena/dojo, etc.

We actually have used illusions for combat tournaments before, I think I coded some things up for @Sunfire

[Chewett]

We did break a few characters though  

[Muratus del Mur]

All i wish to see from illusions is something like an arena/dojo, where people can grab a preset "armor/suit" that will put them in illusion, with predefined stats and avatar, then after the fight, they can return to someone that decides if they won or what, and they go out of illusion, the reward being given manually outside the illusion. 

If illusion based competitions are possible, then illusions have met their goal.

A problem of illusions, if you wish to see it as problem, is how you can/can't take someone out of that illusion..but this gets easily solved by how they are used, and by placing the reward "outside" the illusion mode.

 

Like this we can have wars, and all sort of simulations, with rewards based only on strategy not on previous grinding. I am not against grinding, i am just saying we lack a mechanism to compensate that, and illusions where made for that.

 

ps. i totally forgot how they work so their future is entirely in your hands how  good luck. Thanks for not letting them die.

[Chewett]

41 minutes ago, Muratus del Mur said:

All i wish to see from illusions is something like an arena/dojo, where people can grab a preset "armor/suit" that will put them in illusion, with predefined stats and avatar, then after the fight, they can return to someone that decides if they won or what, and they go out of illusion, the reward being given manually outside the illusion. 

We also gave them a predefined set of creatures to pick from so they could decide what to use during the combat as you can give creatures too in the illusions  

 

The original idea was to (as you suggest) have land fights where everyone gets the "same" stuff and can fight against each other as soldiers. See "Loreroot Guardian X" illusions. I imagine Torch Contests whereby everyone has the "same" stats so strategy is more important.

[Sunfire]

i would be in favour of this illusion dojo, this way the people still learn things but get no stats from fighting in illlusions (and this i would keep this way).
i do wonder if you intend to move illusions to all mindpowers then or if when you enter the training illusions you become mp2 or mp7.
if so this could also be used to help the regularly training mp3/4 that are looking for targets.
i would think the arena in GWI aside the exit option could also be used in that regard, but then the island would need to be easier accessible from the mainland perhaps.

and yes this does provide room for awesome tournaments.
i think the first one was a success (account issues aside) the only downside at the time that it was an issue to get the people into the alliance for these fights at the time (i had the spell to put them in one but im not around 24/7)
so we would need to have a mechanical way to have them enter and leave, and maybe forcibly remove them when they leave the assigned dojo scene?
And tournament ones could be tied to an item held by the participants with a recaller with the host (also forcibly removing you if you do not hold the item).

As for the soldier illusions i think there is room to tie in the land building idea there to make alternatives possible to the illusions.
this would mean bigger lands have an advantage that they can have access to more different things however it can be countered that each buff has to be made per player so in the end it is the same work for each land.

[Duskwish]

Could I be added on?

[Chewett]

All done!

[Kaya]

Chewett, could you also add me to the Illusion team? Gonna mostly focus on resources and GWI/LHO stuff, but I'm sure I could give some input here an there.

[redneck]

If you need another lab rat id be interested in helping out.

[Chewett]

All added thanks!