Which will make it funny when we rock a none stealth Felixar so hard we change the entire species reputation.
Not trying to disparage anyone's reason for voting, just making my counter argument that this build is just as fun none stealth. Honestly wasn't expecting such an entertaining build from the vote option I was least interested in. Another win on your end for amazing quest design.
These are... hmm... some interesting collection of nodes.
Not exactly how I thought a gun archivist cat would roll, but I can roll with it.
There is still the stealth/assassination option with Natural Predator/Perception/Steel Halo/Stellar Tap, though our core nodes are pretty lacking in damage for far-ranged attacks, so we may have to ambush at close range.
The Felixar Flameheart is the really interesting one though. Our 'stealth' with this, if any, would basically be creating a huge smokescreen and ambushing the enemies while they are in the thick of the fire. Setting our self on fire with fire resistance and charging in may be a legitimate tactic.
I still want to know what those ???s are about though.
Depending on how fast wood shaping is, we may be able to essentially box in enemies and then set the box on fire with Pyromancy. That would be fun. Finding herbs using Herbalism that triggers with heat could potentially allow for poison etc as well, or we can just slather our weapon/ammo with them.
Barkblade gives a melee weapon as long as there is a tree around, though it may not be as contradictory to the gun archivist playstyle like initial impressions may suggest. If we can get a gun that is capable of firing it, this is essentially free ammo, that can be set on fire with Felixar Flameheart. Otherwise, it still a decent start with a burning blade that we can manipulate using Steel Halo from a distance.
I honestly don't even mind mining that much, it's gonna help us create weapons, and will be a huge boon if we can ever find exploding ores.
Perception wise, the best path for it is most likely Danger Sense over Farsight to be honest, Stealth and Danger Sense will likely cover a good amount of issues before the battle starts.
Overall, core nodes seem like quite a mixed bag, but one that is workable with. PyroManiacCat was not a build I was expecting with a gun archivist Felixar, but here we are, and it honestly sounds like a blast.
The world resolves into an empty starfield, with a wireframe of a Felixar in front of you… but a different one from the one on the species preview. The wireframe had a larger tail, fluffier but coming to a narrow point. Their overall form was a bit different, as well, but you didn't really know how to describe it. Somehow both sleeker and more majestic? You shrug. You're not really familiar with pets; never seemed relevant, since they didn't adapt well to zero-G.
Why does it look different, though? Maybe you got a weird Core Node?
Your eyes widen as you open the Core Nodes menu and see gold. Not just an unusual Core Node, but a Legendary one? A Felixar Flameheart, apparently, representing a rare subtype.
You glance at its abilities – looks like fire magic and more fire stuff, at least for now, but pause when you look at the Node's own unlock abilities.
What the hell? "Uh, assistant?"
A blink, and the VI assistant was next to you again. "How can I help you?"
"Is this a bug?" you ask, pointing at the question marks.
"It is not. Core Nodes of Legendary or higher rarity have hidden effects that must be discovered in-game."
"Wait, higher? What's the next rarity up? Where do those come from?" No one had found anything above Legendary gold in the beta, you were sure of that.
"The rarity tier implemented above Legendary is called Mythic." She paused momentarily. "I apologize, I cannot provide any further information on the topic."
"...huh." Well, that was interesting. Something hidden or rare that the developers wanted players to track down? Or just something not implemented yet?
Well, whatever. It was time for the really slow part of character generation… the customizer.
After an unknown period of time – you don't know, and you're not checking – you nod with satisfaction, looking over the no-longer-wireframe Felixar in front of you. Finally, your avatar was complete. You'd ended up going with a color scheme of…
[ ] [COLOR] …red with orange accents.
[ ] [COLOR] …orange with red accents.
[ ] [COLOR] …coal-black with red accents.
[ ] [COLOR] …something else. (Write in, must be fire-themed in some obvious way)
Your build was an easy decision, though the fine-tuning took a while. You preferred a…
[ ] [FRAME] …lithe, slender frame. (Presentation: Nimble, agile, skillful)
[ ] [FRAME] …large, burly frame. (Presentation: Powerful, durable)
[ ] [FRAME] …large, fluffy frame. (Presentation: Attention-grabbing, soft, comforting)
[ ] [FRAME] …small, wiry frame with a few carefully-placed scars. (Presentation: Runty, scrappy)
[ ] [FRAME] …small, cute frame. (Presentation: Friendly, cute, likeable)
[ ] [FRAME] …something else (Write in, needs approval, must affect chosen/preferred social presentation)
The last thing to decide, as always, was the name, but it was fairly painless this time. The game would integrate your background if possible, and the parents Eclipsed Orphan had given you were both Hicys, so you'd just asked the assistant for Hicys names and gone through them until you found some you liked.
Saphielle va'Tisharin, you enter, and take one last look over it. Yep. This was a body you could live with for a while.
You jab the 'Enter World' button one last time, and your senses fade out.
The first thing you notice is the air, fresh and clean but rich with myriad scents you can't identify. The second is the notification window floating in front of you.
Backstory integration right away, huh? This must be the breadcrumb quest to get you started and get your first few levels.
You stand, looking around, and the first thing that strikes you as strange is how… not strange it feels. The movement was natural and easy, despite the fact that your body was nothing like your meat one.
The second thing that strikes you is the view: a grassy field and a forest on one side, and a small village behind you. Far beyond the village is some sort of white spire, though you can't see its base; it rises from somewhere below the horizon. The clouds are a fluffy white, the sun a little closer to golden than yellow. Picturesque, really.
The question was where to go. If you had to bet, you'd say that that spire was the starting hub, a city or something, and the village was part of the starter quest. Which meant the forest was probably a low-level enemy zone.
You know what you like to do – your main activity in MMOs is usually Approval voting (vote for all the ones you like). This isn't a firm vote so much as taking people's temperature on the topic. Discussion in-thread is encouraged.
[ ] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[ ] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[ ] [GAMING] player-versus-player combat. There's nothing quite like pulling out all your skills and tricks and pitting them against someone else's. Some of the most rewarding moments you've ever had were the end of a hard-fought duel. You've even won a few small tournaments!
[ ] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[ ] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[ ] [GAMING] crafting. You love crafting systems, and frequently end up providing for your guildmates and making fortunes of in-game currency. There's something really rewarding about making your own gear, and having your friends use things that you made.
[ ] [GAMING] achievement hunting. You see a bar, you want to max it out. You want to grind out faction reputation, jump through hoops in dungeons, whatever helps you fill out that achievement list.
[ ] [GAMING] content creation. You're not a huge star by any means, but you like to make things outside of the game, about the game. Art, videos, guides, streams, whatever seems relevant, you've tried all of them at least a bit.
[ ] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[ ] [GAMING] whatever your friends are doing. You honestly don't care much what part of the game it is. You'll do whatever, as long as it's working alongside someone you get along with. It's the teamwork and mutual support you want, more than a specific goal.
But you don't need to beeline right for that, either. The way you see it, you've got three options. First, you could head to the village, and presumably get introduced to the location and a starting quest. Second, you could head to the forest, try out the new body and beat up some starter mobs. Or third, you could go right to that spire – if it's the local city, you could probably find skill teachers there, some crafting stuff, actual equipment, and maybe some players who know the area. You suspect it's where your starting quest will take you eventually, though you might be breaking the intended sequence a bit.
[ ] [DESTINATION] The forest
[ ] [DESTINATION] The village
[ ] [DESTINATION] The spire
[ ] [DESTINATION] Somewhere else (write-in, needs approval)
This took a while... because a lot went into it! If you look back on the informational posts, you'll now find a full character sheet and ability writeups. Take a look! I think there's some neat stuff in there.
Note that diving into the game's mechanics isn't necessary, as there are a few levels of remove and interpretation between them and actually getting results, but at least a cursory idea is probably helpful.
I'm using a different system to resolve conflicts, which will include dice rolls when necessary. Not yet sure how much of that I want to be player-facing, though. It's a lot easier when I can just keep stuff in note form rather than writing up mechanics and character sheets to be comprehensible by other people (especially since I'm doing that already for the in-game mechanics). If you have a strong opinion, feel free to weigh in.
Lastly, I encourage some discussion about what Alisha (Saphielle) is into in MMOs, and therefore what you guys want to see more (or less) of. The vote on it is mostly just to nudge people's minds in that direction; it has no direct effect beyond letting me know your interests.
I'm not really interested in pvp politics unless this is a high-immersion MMO with mandatory vetting of character names, to avoid shit like "xXx_WeedLuvr69420_xXx" being someone we're expected to be taking seriously.
That said, I think having crafting as a focus would be a good adjunct to npc faction politics.
The character sheet also shows upgrades for our abilities. Barkblade has an upgrade that makes us more accurate with floral projectiles for example. Seems flammable!
Somewhere between mandatory vetting and very strong discouragement; that kind of name isnt allowed, but something silly like Mr Fluffykins would just get some "...really? You know this joke will get old fast right?"
Names also affect npc opinion to various extents too, as if it were a real place.
One of my favorite pass times, that I'm already considering doing again this year, is too play New California and Ceaser's legion from fallout new Vegas against each other, weakening both step by step until the climactic showdown, without either realizing I'm the bad guy do to my super stealth build. The idea of using this quest to do so with far more appreciable narrative impact makes me feel all warm inside.
I'm not really interested in pvp politics unless this is a high-immersion MMO with mandatory vetting of character names, to avoid shit like "xXx_WeedLuvr69420_xXx" being someone we're expected to be taking seriously.
That said, I think having crafting as a focus would be a good adjunct to npc faction politics.
I will be abstracting crafting to a fairly large extent when it comes to votes. Characters will go into more depth but I'm not gonna get hugely into the weeds as far as what I make you guys decide. It's really about whether you want to do exploration and possibly material gathering and recipe stuff, provide things to other players or npcs, and possibly do some money making stuff. The narrative of being a crafter, not the nitty gritty of it.
Edit: note that you have crafting skills suited to larger scale things as well, not just equipment.
Wow, all the info in the character sheet is actually gonna hurt my brain. I don't wanna go too in-depth into them until later when we can actually choose something to upgrade, so just a quick summary:
A rather high number of skills and upgrades scales off FCS (Focus), which Alisha isn't particular good at, we will need to do something about that.
MP Skills cost a lot of MP, and most even require more MP for prolonged usage. Alisha only have 68 MP, so we will not be able to keep the spells up in prolonged battles unless we up our MP. This isn't so bad, since Alisha don't actually have that many MP skills to choose from in the near future, [Fire Shape] being the only one I can tell that we might want to maintain, but [Stellar Tap] increasing MP cost by 15% at night makes the big spells a bit hairy to use.
The more concerning one is FP. Alisha also only has 68 FP. But nearly everything that a Gun Archivist do requires FP. They don't cost as much as the MP spells do, thankfully, but will chip away at our low pool of FP each time we do use it. We are going to have an issue in any form of prolong fights right now.
Color: I really like black with red. The thought of being inconspicuous until Alisha lights herself on fire like a cat torch is amusing too.
[X] [COLOR] …coal-black with red accents.
Frame: As funny as it is to have a hulking cat sneaking around, I think a smaller build would make more sense.
A cute frame would be more approachable for others, and I really like the gap of Alisha looking all cute and cuddly until she is pouncing you while on fire.
Destination: Not much of a preference. I think it makes sense to test out the body more first though.
[X] [DESTINATION] The forest
Just up to individual preferences. It's gonna be hard to please everyone but I guess we can see what the overall preferences is. It all seems to be good as long as there isn't an overwhelming lean to any one of them though.
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[X] [GAMING] player-versus-player combat. There's nothing quite like pulling out all your skills and tricks and pitting them against someone else's. Some of the most rewarding moments you've ever had were the end of a hard-fought duel. You've even won a few small tournaments!
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[X] [COLOR] …bright blue with a powder blue undercoat. (Color of pure ignition of propane)
Literally my first thought when I saw the something else option, complete with some inherent misdirection, but I don't understand why more fire creatures don't use the myriad colors that flame can be under the right conditions. Here's a goddamn chart of what colors flame can be with the right additives, and that doesn't even include the most awesome flame, magnesium, which burns pure white.
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
I deeply vibe with exploring lore and content, discovering new places and new opponents, as an extension of the in universe plot, and that includes NPC drama. Raiding is sort of a vibe too, but only insofar as it comes to exploring the content and context, not for the combat itself.
Plotting out a character direction isn't going to be easy. Right now, as far as I can tell, we're an ambush melee fighter.
Things I've noticed:
- Haven't quite worked out which stat is the god stat, but it definitely seems like AGI is the most useful of the STR/AGI/INT trio. STR in particular seems like a dump stat.
- Woodshaping from Druidic Training grants stealth, not sure if that's correct.
- We have a lot of magic, but our Attack(MAG) is actually the lowest of the three. Our highest is Attack(AGI), second is Attack(STR). This is actually because AGI improves both Attack(AGI) and Attack(STR), and because our INT is bad.
- We don't actually own a gun, as far as I can tell. We can have barkblade on iron halo, plus natural attacks.
- I noticed that stellar tap doesn't seem to increase magic ability at night.
- Does having Pyromancy, Floramancy and Herbalism do anything?
Yeah, when I was laying out the numbers it sort of jumped out at me that it was dumb to have the local star not be the strongest influence - I already had the stellar aspect as important, but for some reason decided magic would be better when the sun wasn't out? Not sure what I was thinking. So yeah that one's just a change.
Grants access to fire and plant magics. Without it you wouldn't be able to use them at all.
Herbalism is a gathering and crafting skill, and thus governs its, well, gathering and crafting. Gathering without the appropriate skill either sucks or outright doesn't work, depending. Crafting either doesn't need the skill or requires it, no middle ground there; this is why Gun Archivist lets you ignore the Gunsmithing requirement to work on, well, guns.
- Haven't quite worked out which stat is the god stat, but it definitely seems like AGI is the most useful of the STR/AGI/INT trio. STR in particular seems like a dump stat.
From what I have seen, END and FCS have insane scaling for stats and certain skills. We also want AGI since that is likely going to be our main source of gun damage.
[X] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[X] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[X] [COLOR] …coal-black with red accents.
[X] [FRAME] …lithe, slender frame. (Presentation: Nimble, agile, skillful)
[X] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[X] [GAMING] raiding. You like working together with other players to beat the biggest bosses, learning mechanics and putting together strategies. You were never a bleeding-edge type, but you think you handle yourself pretty well.
[X] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[x] [COLOR] Orange accents under smoke black fur
[x] [FRAME] …large, fluffy frame. (Presentation: Attention-grabbing, soft, comforting)
[x] [GAMING] lore-hunting and questing. You like digging into the setting, learning its secrets, its history. Something Eclipse Arc seems to have in near-unlimited amounts.
[x] [GAMING] exploration. You like just… exploring the world. Finding all the little nooks and crannies no one goes to, just for its own sake. And maybe a bit of smug pride when you find something no one's ever found before.
[x] [GAMING] world content. You like exploring… so you can find new baddies to fight, world bosses, and hidden dungeons. The exploration is fun enough, but it's a means to an end, and the end is new, fresh content outside the carefully curated bounds of a raid.
[x] [GAMING] getting involved in NPC politics and factions. Getting attached to a given faction, nudging them in a given direction, helping them out… it was fun even when it wasn't a fully living world. Eclipse Arc was supposed to have really developed systems to let you genuinely change things, and you had to get a piece of that.
[x] [GAMING] whatever your friends are doing. You honestly don't care much what part of the game it is. You'll do whatever, as long as it's working alongside someone you get along with. It's the teamwork and mutual support you want, more than a specific goal.
I'm still thinking through the other options and will update or edit a post later, but I wish to emphasize that we be the absolute fluffiest that we can be. Think of where we could hide guns in all that surprising floof.
Want to point out that the big core node graphics have been updated to show skill trees. Skill colours are blue, purple and green.
Since we do have a gun, our fighting style is now looking like ambush gunnery as long as we can maintain stealth, followed by gun-melee when we lose it. But there's an option to skill into artillery if we can find an equipable artillery piece.
For now let's do the introductory quest. Potentially finding and knowing a Bhomon alchemist is too interesting to pass up. I'm interested in questlines for as long as it takes to get back to our adoptive parents. Not only are they Eclipsed, which might be rare, but one of them is even noble, hopefully with connections. Plus they are both Astral Mages, and I still have hopes of opening up some void-magic core nodes.
