Illusion Progress Stage 1 of many

[Chewett]

First Stage of Illusion changes – Some comments and clarification.

In announcement https://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/5295 I have announced the first of a series of long planned illusion changes.

 

It has come to my attention that some people are concerned that this change was implemented without the knowledge of those who are currently using Mindpower 7. I would like to make it clear to everyone that these changes have been discussed with the two Mindpower 7 testers (although there is a caveat that I did not inform some GWI members below).

 

When Fang originally was given his MP7 item (for the second time:  https://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/4434 ) I spoke with him ingame about the various restrictions it had. One of these was that he should use the item for illusions and not sit in MP7 using it to fight all mindpowers. He said that it was not his intention and he wished to use the illusions to help others which is a noble goal that I believe he continues today. By using the illusions he was able to make clear to his detractors that he was gaining no stats from this and therefore continue his goal without accusation. I supported this work and offered help where I could.

At this time we discussed the idea of making MP7 more open and one of his (and my) concerns was that while he could be trusted, others may be less than noble. We talked about this and I proposed a plan which was both lore and code limited. Some of this will be kept private by myself and Fang (unless he wants to describe the future plans we discussed) but the first stage has been announced and therefore can be discussed.

Mindpower 7 Is an incredibly unstable mindpower which is only attainable after performing some set of arcane magics (Future plans, secret!). However, once you have reached this arcane stage you need to use this power before it overcomes you. This gives you a simple countdown until it overwhelms you and kills you. The simple way to stop this is to channel this power you have amassed into an illusion, and “bind” the power to your will.

There is a separate (interesting) question about how Mindpower 6 works, again it is an unnatural mindpower, but the power instead of coming from yourself, it comes from many others all donating their worship to you. I will talk about the lore implications with this later however MP6 is currently not a focus.

There are also some interesting plans about what the illusions will let you do, and also how the “Power” you attained is used up. Its an interesting area that I am sure if you bother @Fang about he can give you what he thinks of it. I am keeping secret about some of my plans. The others are being discussed by the MD Rework – Illusions team.

Sunfire, the other person who has access to Illusions, was informed about the changes he had to be aware of but I have not yet discussed the full set of plans with him. Fang is welcome to discuss them with Sunfire however as his right as one of the two primary Illusion testers.

However I did overlook something, Miq pointed out to me that a number of people also have been given the ability to move to Mindpower 7 to help with the Gateway Island. I had indeed forgotten about those people as these items have not been used in a while as far as I can tell. I will be gathering these in or contacting those who have access to this to discuss how we can change it. This change will also be discussed among the MD Rework GWI+LHO group.

In my announcement I made it clear that it my opinion no current MP7 tester should be affected by this (Having previously agreed with Fang he would not do this, and making clear to Sunfire the disadvantages of doing so, that being death) and therefore stated that in it. However just in case I wrote the announcement with the additional grey text to make it clear what would happen.

I have contacted Fang to know what went wrong and revived him with a single use revival item from my personal stock.

 

What happens next?

There are a few areas we are planning to work on next with the illusions:

·         Continuing the plans discussed by Fang and myself, following the lore of “overpowering” and making that canonical with the mechanical interface.

·         Adding more general illusions to be used with spells, items, and with the standard illusion interface. These are planned to be discussed with the illusion rework team.

·         And… a newly released secret, MagicDuel wide combat tournaments using Illusions! Everyone will be the same mindpower, have the same creatures (or maybe different ones!), and stats

 

Hopefully this somewhat verbose message clears up some confusion, if anyone has any questions relating to this I am happy to discuss it here, or privately, although there is nothing I would not say publicly on this matter.

You are welcome to ask myself, Fang, or Sunfire about the undisclosed plans, we will reply as we think necessary (although I will probably keep some of it secret!).