Witch light

Ninde · Post by **Ninde** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:55 pm

This spell can be learn by wizards and priests both. But, for evil aligned priests/wizards, they get bright ball of light still, which I dont believe suit very well to the roleplay.
Is it possible to change the spell for evil aligned chars, like, "A ball of darkness" or something like that will be used as a light source, just coloring and naming will be changed?
Thank you

Zach · Post by **Zach** » Thu May 04, 2006 1:57 pm

could we have the color change based on the char's alignment?

Algon · Post by **Algon** » Thu May 04, 2006 2:11 pm

I dont see why you cannot change the spell to make a few different colors of light. Use certain components to make different colors....say like whatever the base component is plus something like an emerald for a green one or a ruby or something for a red one.

Could be c 'witch light' red
Just a thought.
Jeff

Ninde · Post by **Ninde** » Thu May 04, 2006 3:18 pm

Along with the color change, it would not glow, but can be used as light source still.
Sharrans, for example, hates any kind of light, but it is clear that you cannot travel without light nighttime in the game. For that reason, it can be like;
*in grey* "Ball of darkness floating around"
And not glowing object, of course, but used as a light source anyway.
Or as Algon said, you can cast it in different colors, with an addition to spell components.

Algon · Post by **Algon** » Thu May 04, 2006 3:42 pm

I agree with that about the non glowing ones. You could have like say grey ones and black ones not glow. But a ball of bright white light is still going to have to glow. Just would not make much sense otherwise.
I think there is an item in the game already if you look at it it says it seems to draw in the darkness around you into it...the dark balls could do something like that, suck the darkness away leaving it light enough to see during travel.

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Thu May 04, 2006 6:24 pm

Technically, it's certainly possible. Actually, it's pretty easy and wouldn't take much more than 10 minutes.

But... why should a spell like witch light give out the caster's alignment?

Algon · Post by **Algon** » Thu May 04, 2006 6:41 pm

I dont think it should, especially since there are spells that can tell such things. Which is why I think being able to create different colors of lights would be best way to go, that way not everyone walking around with a black light would always be evil. Some people just like black.

Nysan · Post by **Nysan** » Thu May 04, 2006 7:24 pm

The alignment angle I do not agree with. But the different color idea, I do like. I think back to the various colored light balls already in game and I was wondering how difficult would it be to code it so the caster picked the color upon casting.

example:

cast 'witch light' green

Much like 'change sex' allows you to pick which sex you turn your target into, 'witch light' can allow the caster to pick which color they wish. I remember in one of the FR books where two Drow were tossing a light ball to each other and they changed the color. Same line of thought.

Zach · Post by **Zach** » Thu May 04, 2006 8:59 pm

It was just an idea as to how to change the color of the light... i like the idea of different color gems to make the colors... what about the fire opal... would the light be able to change colors?

Glim · Post by **Glim** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:14 pm

Something similar was discussed here:

http://www.forgottenkingdoms.com/board/ ... php?t=2061

Though I think the spells continual light and witch light got a big mixed up in places (namely by me

).

Telk · Post by **Telk** » Thu May 04, 2006 11:37 pm

I think it's a good idea to have, but don't agree with it being alignment. Some people just like certain colors more than others, some also want the ball of light to match with the colors they're wearing so they aren't mismatched. Deciding the color you get seems to be the best route.

Ninde · Post by **Ninde** » Fri May 05, 2006 12:22 am

Yes, choosing the color by the caster is a good idea as well, as I told before. I was just trying to say, there should not be a glow flag in every ball, or it shall be appear as "bright ball of light", I was trying to say. It can be depend on caster's choice as well, or the alignment.

Tortus · Post by **Tortus** » Sat May 06, 2006 12:00 pm

Isn't darkness kind of the opposite of light?

I mean, if one wants to light ones way, don't you agree that one needs to just bite the bullet and get a light? How does darkness enlighten things?

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Sat May 06, 2006 12:23 pm

Same way the glob/aura/etc of darkness in game do? *shrug*

Light is not just light, there are varying degrees of it. Just as there are visible and invisible spectra of light for different creatures. Many creatures who have infravision also only need the faintest glimmer of light in their visible spectrum for their vision to work. This degree of light could be the "dark" light.

I really do like the idea of varying colors of witch light though, just add the argument after the cast syntax to make "red ball of light," "green ball of light," "black ball of light" etc. While, granted, light balls/globs, etc are rewards in some quests, you have them for one duration and they're gone, and they're still appreciable by the non-caster classes, and casting multi-color witch lights offers an IC explanation for the multi-color ones offered by NPCs

Ellian · Post by **Ellian** » Sat May 06, 2006 2:36 pm

Kregor wrote:Many creatures who have infravision also only need the faintest glimmer of light in their visible spectrum for their vision to work.

I was under the impression that infravision was the ability to see different degrees of heat, cold being violet and hot being red and so on for everything in between. Is this correct?

Ninde · Post by **Ninde** » Sat May 06, 2006 4:19 pm

Tortus wrote:Isn't darkness kind of the opposite of light?

I mean, if one wants to light ones way, don't you agree that one needs to just bite the bullet and get a light? How does darkness enlighten things?

As Kregor mentioned as well, there are some kind of light sources in game, sucking the darkness around the item to give out light to bearer.
My point is over glow flag, actually, and bright ball of lights that you can have with the spell of witch light. I was merely proposing that the light source you get with that spell would be better ICly for evil alignments, or good alignments who would prefer to bear different colors of light, instead of white. I suggested that because there are light sources uses the darkness, not light actually.
Thank you.

Paskry · Post by **Paskry** » Sat May 06, 2006 4:25 pm

Infravision, based off of the word, infared, is the ability to see heat. You are correct.
But it is also true that it is merely a spectrum of light:

Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of microwave radiation. The name means "below red" (from the Latin infra, "below"), red being the color of visible light of longest wavelength. Infrared radiation spans three orders of magnitude and has wavelengths between approximately 750 nm and 1 mm.

If you wish to read more, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infared is a great source.

Now as for needing very little light, I believe that is darkvision, not IR vision. Granted they are the same thing in basically all aspects but that is how DnD splits it up.

Paskry

<edit>Darkness is merely a lack of inablility to percive the light wavelengths outside of your particular spectrum, and so light and dark are the same thing. Therefore, the source of light with either ball is the same thing, since it is the same spell, the dark one should not pull lightwaves from other spectrums into yours as that would be a different spell- maybe that is what is needed. Alright, I am done postulating.

Gwain · Post by **Gwain** » Sat May 06, 2006 5:47 pm

I've always liked the explanation that there were two kinds of light, anti-light, and light. Anti-light was a pronounced darkness so immense and rich in quality that it could not exist and therefore actually removed darkness and in the absense of darkness allowed light.

But that is very very obscure in practice and scope.

An infrasion spell allowing one to see in the dark would be nice, it could be called globe of infravision that was not a light but allowed those that did business in the dark to see. It would be also interesting if they wielded it during the day or in a well lit area they would not be able to see until they removed it because of all the light around them already. That would be interesting.

Edit: because the game was currently down I could not verify the existense of certain spells though thank you for pointing out they exist, I will be sure to post the helpfile here.

Boe · Post by **Boe** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:42 pm

A spell called "Infravision" does exist in the game..Maybe I'm missing the point but it is in the game and does work just fine.

-Kyle

Gwain · Post by **Gwain** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:34 pm

Actually, and these helpfiles are from the site so they might be out of date.

Here's one for infravision:

Syntax: c infravision
Syntax: c infravision <character>

This spell enables the character to detect the heat signatures of other
players and creatures in the room with them. This spell will also allow
you to find items in corpses, containers, etc. but will not allow you to
view the actual contents.

You must have a light source to actually see items, room descriptions,
the contents of corpses or containers, room exits and the like inside
a darkened area.

Infravision is not the same as "night vision".

So this spell lets you see but you see without the frills meaning you see without detail as you would with a light. So maybe a spell that created an anti light would work interestingly but would need to be hammered out in detail to 1) how much you could see 2)what would you not be able to do with the spell that you could with witch light already and 3)What reasons other than for rp purposes could this spell be used, there are lights in the game, it is just that for some it is not proper for their rp.

Remember something might be wonderous in the game but it never hurts to suggest new ideas and help hammer them out in full to either support your idea. I hope I have provided tangible solutions and ideas.

Plus I will place the revised helpfile for infravision in the forum when time allows and the mud is up for others to read. I think what is being sought here is different and the already existing spell might be a starting point towards new ideas and ideals.