Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Buffing Stone


I'm working on a new update that includes a Buffing Stone. The stone is functioning well and has been installed into the current game module for testing. It is available only in the Beta Room (black crate) and may given away as gifts for now. I have not yet decided if I will sell them in a store or have them as a Boss Drop.

What this is and how it works:
  • There are two Buffing Stones, one for "self" and one for "others".
  • Both work the same except for who you may buff.
  • You may own and use as many of each as you wish.
  • To load the stone: Open your inventory and cast your spells into the stone one at a time.
  • To clear the stone of spells: Use the stone on it's self.
  • To buff with the stone: Rest, then use the stone to buff your self and/or others.
  • This will NOT give you extra spells nor allow you access to spells or meta magic you don't already have.
  • If you cast an extended spell into the stone, an extended spell will be cast out of it later.
  • This is to be used as an extension of your Quick Bar, freeing it up for more useful combat stuff and things.
  • You can not charge the stone with hostile spell.
  • Charging the "others" stone with "personal only" spells will result in you being buffed.
  • If you don't have the spell in memory, that one spell will be ignored.
  • There is no limit to how many spells can be stored in a Buffing Stone.
  • The stones may be "charged" and given away, but, if the user does not have a spell in their spell book AND in memory, that one spell will be ignored.
  • If the Buffing Stone was charged with a Meat Magic Spell (extended spell...) and you no longer have that Meta Feat, that spell will be cast as a normal spell.
  • THIS IS NOT A SEQUENCER
  • Ultimately, it is you who is casting each spell.
  • The Buffing Stone is loading your actions list with the spells to cast.
  • Trying to do another action before the spells are finished will usually break the buffing cycle.

In the above picture, Wiggles the Wizard has used the Buffing Stone to buff self with all the spells you see. Roughly 30, or three full Quick Bars worth.


On a side note: I have recently changed how a few buffing spells target and probably did not document that change. So, read on . . .

  • Weapon buffing spells will now seek out the next equipped weapon.
  • That means you no longer need to switch weapons in order to dual wield and buff up.
  • You can now target self and/or others twice with the same spell to buff the second weapon.
  • Melee spells include: Magic Weapon, Greater Magic Weapon, Flame Blade, Darkfire, Bless Weapon, Holy Avenger.... hmm and a few others.
  • I think I changed every weapon buffing spell actually.
  • * This can also buff Creature Weapons such as claws and beaks.
  • * If you are testing one of the Player Monsters, you can buff your claws.
  • * If you are in party with a Shifter, you can buff their claws after they shift.
  • * This works by testing each weapon for the spell being cast, and buffing or moving on to the next weapon.
  • ** The order is: Right Sword, Left Sword, Right Claw, Left Claw and finally Teeth.
  • **** Note to all: A Player Monster gets ONLY three (3) main attacks even if he has five (5) weapons. As near as I can tell, the order of importance is: Right Sword, Left Sword, Left Claw.
  • Arrows and other ranged weapons can now be buffed as well.
  • To buff ranged ammo, first equip the weapon (bow...) then target self.
  • All ammo (arrows...) of that type in the the targets possession will be buffed.
  • Ranged spells include: Flame Blade, Darkfire, Bless Weapon.... hmm and a few more.
  • I excluded Magic Weapon, Greater Magic Weapon and a few others.

So, this means that if you dual wield and can buff self, you can load your Buffing Stone with all the Weapon Buffing spells that you would normally cast on your self, and then buff up with a single click.

As always, play with it and let me know what you find. I want to hear the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Qwildurn Bluemoon

6 comments:

Blade said...

Hiya Blade here,

I tested one of my Clerics to see how it would perform with his assortment of Divine Spells.

All his extended buffs worked except 3 of the spells that it said it had stored would not work when it came to cast on him. These were all extended spells.....
Magic Circle vs Alignment (Evil)
Stoneskin, & Improved Invisibility.

I have not tested Cleric extensively for all spells that he can use, just my regular ones.

I cleared the Stone, rested and tried again with just the 3 above spells mentioned .

Nothing Happened when i tried to buff, not even the white light area under his feet.

All the Best .....Blade

Qwildurn said...

Those are Arcane spells. My Mage can use those with a Buffing Stone but my Cleric can't. Cat's Grace and a few others that the Cleric gets as part of his Domain seem to be a problem. I'll find a work-around in a few days. Need some sleep right now.

Q

Qwildurn said...

I built a work-around so that Clerics can use their Arcane based Domain Spells. I tested it as good and reset the server. Let me know if I missed anything else.

My Bard was able to cast a scroll into the Buffing Stone, but since it's not in memory it can't be cast back out. Even if it could, it wouldn't be extended.

If you can't cast it from memory, the Buffing Stone can't cast it for you.

Q

Blade said...

Stoneskin was from my Strength Domain, and Improved Invisibility from my Trickery Domain. These 2 are both sorted now ty.

I think we have a different sort of problem with Magic Circle against Evil{104}, as that is not a spell that only affects yourself.

The important thing to remember is to rest after you have cast your spells on the buffing stone.

If you fail to rest, then only some of your spells will work when you come to buff yourself with the stone, and you will get a list of other spells quoted as "Not Memorized".

However, whatever i do, i can not get the stone to buff me with spell "Magic Circle vs Evil"{104}

All the best .....Blade :)

Qwildurn said...

Blade said:
"However, whatever i do, i can not get the stone to buff me with spell "Magic Circle vs Evil"{104}"

I will look into that.

For the purpose of "personal" spells, the Buffing Stone is getting it's information from Bioware's list in "spells.2da". If you've targeted a player with the stone and a "personal" spell is cast, it will cast on you as it is supposed to. That's why I made a stone called "(self)" so you won't waste your personal spells.

Qwildurn said...

In the "spells.2da" file that all servers read from, spell 104 (Magic Circle from Evil) is listed as a Touch spell and as a Universal spell. This means that it is both Arcane and Divine and that all caster classes get it at their 3rd level spell list.

This spell is not a Domain spell. I checked my scripts to see if I did something that might effect this spell and I did not find anything.

I have tested this spell with many different toons including different clerics. Without exception, they all have used it correctly with the Buffing Stone.