I liked having to be lead into research as a mage because not all the elemental spells were available.
For instance in the 20's to 40's merchants sold 3 of the 4 elements, but the 4th needed to be researched, sometimes, bootstrapped from a lower reserarched spell. I recall a fire elemental at one stage needed a lower fire elemental spell, which was not sold, so it had to be researched, and then to make it a current level you needed to combine it with a halas heater- which needed brewing, but not at an unusually high level of brewing. It was nice to be lead into research paths and secondary skill paths appropriate for the class in that way. Of course you could buy it from another player that had better skill and the price varied if you provided the mats. Ring of flight was another that was only researched but was so awesome at 39 that it was worth the time. I only wish the available lore on how to craft them was plainly expressed in game- instead of having to go to an outside site to learn how it was made.
The obscure and strange spells I would like to see dropped, or as someone mentioned have it determined by faction with ones god or people if it will be granted But if dropped, make it class specific and not a general rune for turn ins.
I really like the idea of discovering abilities, but then having to train them.
Like, for example, once you reach a certain level, your perception skill might give you a hint that, maybe, you could use your weapon a bit more efficiently, and that would lead you to start looking for the NPC of your class that has this particular skill and could teach it to you. Of course that would be for higher level skills and spells.
At lower level, having to go to a trainer to get your skills is probably the best way to go.
I would like to see quests that would require a lot of subquests that ultimately allows the player to craft a spell with the effects he wanted that existed from what he could already do - combined into a siongle a spell.
Say for instance, Ox is a healer. He can Rezz. He can buff you with spells that protect from undead. He can also summon a light source. And he can summon a magic shield you can wield that would provide bonus prtection from Sklelletons. Let;s say he gets the opprtunity to start a quest that will max out his rezzing. Levels later he can do the same for his summon abilities. Eventually, Ox has mastered these spells and then discovers an unknown quest that tells him of a way to combine those. He is the first to complete this epic level quest and as a reward, it becomes a new spell henceforth known throughout the game as Ox's Rousing Rezz. Other players may follow the same pattern and get the same spell but it will still be Ox's Rousing Rezz. Or maybe they follow a different patter and it becomes something they get to have named after them.
Just a thought....
I share the opinion of most of you about the acquiring spells and abilities.
1. All general spells 1 thru 50 merchant.
2. Various quest spells that define your character. You would get them from quests at like levels 13...17..23..27 and so on...
3. Level 20...30..40..50 class epic quests...this will be the path you take your character on...for example if you are a cleric you can take resist path or heal path...
4. Have a rare spell drop in each level their off a rare elite mob for that level...15...25..35..45...
5. Raid spells..ultra rare..had to get....strongest spells you can get....
6. Through crafting you can slightly broaden your character or modify your base spells or pick it up new ones...
Exception to this...a warrior can't learn wiz basic spells...casters can't learn melee ones..
Any method that has some logic to it and has in-game information as to how to acquire them. If not directly, then a hint, even if the Perseption skill is needed. Somebody has to be able to receive a hint as to where this spell or skill can be acquired if uncommon.
My bigger concern is that the cost of leveling any class be on-par with any other class. It would be nice if it didn't turn into a world of rich casters and poor melee type because one type has almost no cost for spells and the other is plat poor due to constant upgrading of equipment. This could also be the subject of another post if it hasn't been discussed already.
Mob drops both common and rare depending on the power of the spell, trainer for basic spells, and some crafting too. No automatic updates at all. The trainers/spell merchants should be ideally scatterd around the world making it require some searching and exploration to find them, perhaps even handing in some artifacts from dungeons in exchange for spells. Melee classes should have a similar experience not just casters, they too can explore dungeons and seek out masters and ancient wisdom in fighting techniques to advance their fighting skills.
Xbachs said:I would love to see an epic spell quest in addition to the epic weapon quest they mentioned in one of the streams.
Looks like they are already planning on that :) See 01:10:50 Epic quests and epic ability quests
I would prefer that all abilities are meaningful enough to be worth a trainer given quest. This would mean you only get one version of Fireball that grows as you level rather than Fireball I, II, III, IV and so on and there would be only one or two abilities gained a level and some levels nothing. The quest itself can involve drops, crafted items and various tasks with the more powerful abilities requiring more significant quests.
Top end "mythical" abilities should combine a combination of luck in finding a reclusive teacher who gives you an obnoxious quest and difficult rare drops as well as a choice. The drop items should be shared between multiple classes to help balance out drop rates vs class server populations. For bonus points I would have trainer rewarded abilities scale to lvl 50 then "mythical" versions of all abilities are available but a given character can only learn a small handful of "mythical" abilities so they need to choose which they want. Their Progeny/Reincarnations can retain one of those mythical abilities above the previous cap and so on.
This would give a distinct versatility value to Progeny without it being a magnitude difference between a first lifer and a 10th lifer. How I see this working is something like warriors have 4 defensive abilities and 4 offensive abilities. A raid tank really wants all 4 defensive abilities as mythic but with 4 offensive abilities a warrior makes a solid DPS and still as good as a fresh level 50 without mythic skills tank. A 5th cycle Progeny would have the ability to be an incredible off tank as she is able to use all 8 mythic abilities at the same time.
Trasak
Dalinsia said:I would like to see ancient spells that would be perception based. The player has to use clues from lore books dropped from the world to find ancient battle sites, ruins, natural landmarks, locations, cities etc. They search the areas for these lore book clues. They discover parts and pieces that they have to assemble in a Lore library by turning them into a lore master of their home town or other race lore libraries if they are not KOS.
Exploration based spell rewards. These wouldn't have to be spells that you need to kill anything for......but more exploration searching the world of Terminus finding hidden passages, under rocks, Secret rooms, cubby, city sewers passages, treasure chest underwater, tops of spires,.....neat places that you would not think to look in the world of Terminus..... Almost like an Epic spell quest.
I like a lot of the suggestions already.
Lower tiers: Merchants
Middle tiers: Crafted
Higher tiers: Crafted from rare drops or dropped themselves
Epic Spells: Exploration using lore books, guides, traveling.
I like this idea!!
-Rint
Beside everything that has been said
What about using observation and perception on an NPC (Mob) or trainer/professor with the quest for discovering spells
You fight an NPC and when he cast a spell and if you are ready to learn it and capable of launching it yourself (class based assumption)
You can learn part of it, maybe need a to see and Professor/trainer to help you to get to understand the next part and you can either go back to the NPC or another one.
It can be integrated in a class related saga quest
VG has something similar but with perception we can imagine something specific for each class
I kinda feel like this is a place lore could come into play nicely, since we have such a fragmented world populated by so many subgroups of various species that were torn from their worlds with (likely) no regard to what skillsets existed within their populations
Sure, each race has been on Terminus for some time now, but how likely would it be that each race already had masters of the classes available to them, or even people capable of mastery?
What if my human cleric could only progress so far among his own kind and then had to travel to the home of the dwarves to achieve higher levels of skill, then ultimately gain faction with the Dark Myr to complete his training?
True Mastery could then be sought among legendary clerics rumored to exist out in the world and by seeking out powerful artifacts in dangerous places
I would hope that if I have to gain a skill from a drop, it would be appropriate to my class... Learning to Rez from killing a kangaroo won't sit well
Gathering knowlege from each race that had experts in a class would be more difficult for classes with a lot of availability, especially Warrior and Rogue (available to 8 and 7 races respectively) but I think I prefer the idea of linking class progression to rep rather than leaving it as a standalone grind to unlock various cities just to get inside
Maybe when the Dwarven Cleric has taught me all he knows he could give me some advice or some token that would help me gain access to my Dark Myr teacher a bit easier?