Equal Duration

Hviti · Post by **Hviti** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:43 am

They wouldn't have to last the average time (which with persistent spell affecting the castable-on-self spells could be kind of long), just something reasonable so that wizards don't have to pause 3 min into OSoW or anything like that.

Hviti · Post by **Hviti** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:50 am

I have to ask the help of a coder here, would such a feat be even codeable? That is, one that would bypass durations and impose a set duration, or average durations together.

And, so long as I'm posting, is there any likelihood of this, or is this the sort of thing that may/may not come depending on how the spell system is hashed out over time?

Boe · Post by **Boe** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:05 am

Perhaps allow for a permanancy spell that would bind certain spells to the player? Adepted to FK of course. I would say that stat raising spells, or resistance spells should not be things that can be given permanency but perhaps more things like comprehend languages, levitate, detect magic spells etc could be. Then if the spell caster would like to remove that affect all they would have to do is dispel it themselves. In addition to this I think the spell should have a high cost, component and possibly some exp if that were possible.

I am in agreement here that I think the duration of spells needs to be looked at and taken into consideration. I remember before persistent spell was put into the game I wouldn't even bother casting my resistance spells especially if I were going somewhere in a group because I knew by the time I was done casting them all on everyone the first person I casted on would say, "Oh yeah, by the way, your resist fire just wore off, thought I'd let you know..thanks."

Just my thoughts,

-Kyle

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:03 am

Hviti wrote:I have to ask the help of a coder here, would such a feat be even codeable? That is, one that would bypass durations and impose a set duration, or average durations together.

And, so long as I'm posting, is there any likelihood of this, or is this the sort of thing that may/may not come depending on how the spell system is hashed out over time?

Whether its codeable or not, the chances of extending the default durations of a spell in a future revision, should the current durations prove unuseable, would be more likely than the coding of a non-D20 metamagic feat, since the point of the FKMud 3.0 revision was to bring the spell system to D20 specs.

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:34 am

What might be a good idea would be to

- make spells with durations expressed in rounds last "real-life" rounds (i.e. 6 seconds),

- spells with durations expressed in minutes last "real-life" minutes

- spells with durations in turns (1 turn = 10 minutes in DnD) last perhaps the equivalent of 2 "real-life" minutes,

and keep spells with durations in hours last mud hours (i.e. 5 real life minutes).

The reasoning behind it would be that short-duration spells would have a "real-life" duration, since you have to actually move, attack mobs, and do all that kind of things as in "normal life": casters would not be penalized by the fact that time passes more quickly on FK than in real life. Spells with longer duration would remain as is.

Argentia · Post by **Argentia** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:57 pm

I don't really get how that would make the durations any longer or better. It seems to me that it would only make them shorter. I'm sorry if I'm missing something here, but would you mind explaining it a bit more by comparing spell durations with this system as opposed to the system we currently use? Thanks.

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:31 pm

Unless I'm deeply mistaken, that should make spells with a duration in rounds, minutes, or turns last for a longer time, and shouldn't change the duration of spells that already last for a long time.

Argentia · Post by **Argentia** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:29 am

I'm sorry, what I meant was, how long in real life does a spell, say detect magic, last as compared to with this system? As in the difference between now and what you suggest? Because a spell like, say, detect magic does not last very long, maybe 2 minutes tops if unfeated unless it was changed since last I casted it... But with what you were suggesting, I don't really see how it will change the time? I'm sorry, I must just be missing something here. Thanks for humoring my foolishness.

Boe · Post by **Boe** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:31 am

Detect magic, for 3.0 lasts 1 minute per level, so I think what that would mean is that durations for spells like detect magic would last longer depending on what level you are. So if you are level 50 and you were to cast detect magic then by what Dalvyn is saying, correct me if I am wrong here, your spell will last 50 minutes in the game, which would turn to just under 5 minutes RL time.

That's just how I'm interpreting it. I may be wrong.

-Kyle

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:45 am

It would last longer, because right now, when the duration is set for the various durations, they are in game time so, if the spell is coded to last turns, it lasts ten GAME minutes (ie, 1/6 of 5 minutes) a minute is a GAME minute (1/60 of 5 minutes) since a game hour is 5 minutes long.

Taking the shorter durations up to real time would allow more time for RP, casting, combat and etc before they fizzle.

Argentia · Post by **Argentia** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:19 pm

Ah, that makes a lot more sense now, thanks.

But if you want to change the duration of the spells like this, why not include spells with durations in hours?

Dalvyn wrote:and keep spells with durations in hours last mud hours (i.e. 5 real life minutes).

Why not make them last real life hours, too, and keep it uniform?

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:45 pm

Because that would be making spells with hour durations last for up to a week in game time at GM

The thought of the sliding scale would be to compensate for the fact that such short term spells, in rounds and game minutes, do not allow for the dialog associated with RPing, and the last thing we would want, my opinion, is for spell durations to be an incentive to bull rush.

Another possibility to allow for more duration would be to revert back to the old 10min/game hr. scale that we used to have. This would double the durations across the board, as well as lengthen the time for things like ship departures, scheduled events, etc. Perhaps a combination of the two, so that we have a workable time for short duration spells to coexist happily with RP.

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:20 pm

Note that durations in DnD are generally based directly of the spellcaster's level, while this is not the case here. Levels can go from 1 to 20 in DnD and from 1 to 50 in FK.

Durations are generally based on the skill (generic for skill or spell) level, though that too might be changed if we ever get to discussing that.

Isolrem · Post by **Isolrem** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:24 am

Straying from struggling to translate DND into FK, we could stray a bit from those rules.
Some spells function very well as they are now (detect magic, for example, which is as often used as an instant spell as a durational one)
Others less balanced may be adjusted gradually over time to best balance the game?