Birthdays and Jazz (in Changelog)

So, it's my birthday. And a rather lousy birthday, at that. So, I decided to release the change I've been working on for a while somewhat early (as in, it's not done.)

Now, let's clarify what this means.

First, it's early. That means it isn't done. That means there's going to be a lot of flux in how things work. Things are going to be unfair to some, too helpful to others, things are going to break. But, that's what happens.

Now, about the change.

I mentioned earlier (here) that there was a change coming that would make clans a lot more integral to the game. It's here. For the most part. See above.

We now have (for the most part) a system in place to enact Clan Rituals. A ritual is going to be a new thing in CB where it conveys certain effects to the battle on a clan-wide basis. So, for instance, one particular ritual might grant extra HP to all clan members, while another one might inhibit the rituals of the people your clan fights. There are a lot of things that go on that are bog standard CB, and plenty that are the kinds of "modifiers" we've not seen yet.

Clans pay for rituals using CP, and they only last for a short duration. So the tradeoff is to reduce your CP (and possibly your rank) to get something else to help you fight that wretched target clan.

Now here's the other neat feature of this whole shebang. Not everyone can choose from the same set of rituals. Each clan can choose to follow one of the four gods, or no god. Depending on whom you follow, you will have different rituals available to you in accordance with the personality of that god (based on Tolkien lore).

Choosing a god will have its cost, as will forsaking a god. (Not implemented yet).

Forsaking a god will cancel all active rituals.


I think that's it. Many many many thanks to Natasha and all the council for helping get this setup and going.


In case it's not obvious, the effects of the rituals are going to change drastically as we try to wage the delicate balancing act that this will require. Don't complain. You got a big new change, after all. Just learn from Hatch and plan on getting screwed.

ToDo:
Make duration automatically appear in description
Have current ritual and time remaining appear on clan page
Have ritual display with other prefight spells

• You can no longer activate rituals from sunday 4am through monday 4am (ie, during the clan rest period).
• Any rituals active at 4am Sunday will now be automatically cancelled.
• Clan god added to the view clan page (public)

Happy birthday first of all. And then wow and thanks!

Happy birthday dude, and you've done an awesome job. Thanks! :)

Happy Birthday boss man!

Happy Bday NS!!!

Happy Birthday NS! I hope you got some nice presents, and a fat cake. ;)

I'll head the complaints, if anyone wants to QQ about this!

Big change is big change! :D

Let's get some constructive discussions going!

Happy B-Day NS!

On the Change glad to have helped and will continue to do so :-D

Happy birthday NS!

This change will be incredible!

Too tired to read change now, happy birthday!

Happy crappy birthday!

And thank you for the change. I'm sure it will take some time to work out the kinks, but it'll make an interesting ride. And thanks to the CPC for whatever role they played.

Happy Birthday NS!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Happy Birthday! Hope it ends better than it began.

Happy birthday! :3

Thanks a bunch, NS! Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday NS!

Happy Bday, but I have never been to a Bday bash where everyone else gets the surprise CL.

well if Hatch gets screwed, I hope you get cake, the awesome kind :P

Have a happy birthday! Thanks for taking the time to work on the game and improve things for us!

i hope your day gets better...ours just did! ; )

It's lil bro's 21st b-day today and he went bridezilla. -.- Children are our future, eat a baby now.

Happy birthday NS, it will only get better from here!!! thanks for the change bro and council i know this change will shake things up.

I was waiting for something to get me back into CB, cheers and happy birthday Nightstrike.

Ok, so I forgot to turn this thing on. Doing that now. Clan owners will see a whole new interface. (This is why I redesigned it earlier).

That's an odd thing to forget. It must be part of getting old... speaking of which, how many awkward birthday spankings is Gun supposed to give you?

Awesome.

Clan Seer: (Cost: 600 CP) (DONE) Prefight: 5% bonus to Spells

Rough and Ready: (Cost: 600 CP) (DONE) Prefight: 5% increased intrinsics

Mandos:

Unworthy: (Cost: 1500 CP) (DONE) Prefight: Cancels opponents rituals during the fight

Ulmo:

Leviathan Scales: (Cost: 100 CP) (DONE) Prefight: 5 AC bonus

Tulkas:

Strength of Tulkas: (Cost: 1000 CP) (DONE) Prefight: 10% increased intrinsics

Varda:

Blessed: (Cost: 1000 CP) (DONE)Prefight: 10% bonus to spells

There you go, everyone. That's everything possible right now.

it do suck to get old! ; )

And the duration is... how long ? Universally the same (and how much) or varies depending on chosen ritual ?

Varies, I've now added the duration to the descriptions

TY NS!! Happy Birthday and great changelog!

So, if you spend the CPs it will affect your clan ranging and possibly decrease your bonus?

Yes, you can essentially trade reward bonuses (or the possibility of them) for temporary boosts to fighting ability (and more if some of the other rituals get activated)

Happy birthday! (why did I miss this thread? :$)

Will the bonuses extend into Sunday. In other words, could you blow as many clan points as you can late Saturday night, knowing your points are going to expire anyway.

Good question, I guess we'll get to test that tomorrow.

What I'm wondering is how using clan points effects long term stats...

I'm Seeing a New Clan Standings Section coming into being here.

God>Followers/Allegiance>CPs Sacrificed/Pledged etc etc....

So right now, choosing and forsaking a god carries no cost at all, correct ?
Also, 6 hours sounds like an awfully short time interval, I would have expected one full day or so.

No idea about you, but none of the current ritual costs seem to be beneficial enough to actually use considering their limitations.
Yes, yes, I know they're all "pending changes", but still.

Let me start by saying I love this change. And certainly the spirit behind it. On that note, take the rest of this post for what it is. Not complaining at the system, but a post designed to highlight what I believe to be the flaws of it so that they can be fixed and enjoyed even more.

(I'm also quite aware that everything is in motion to change. My point focus less on balance issues and more of the base ideas)

First, I'm not sure about the bonuses COSTING CP. At least, not in the current incarnation. Losing MPR to gain a bonus for a small period of time? The game is based around Fight Lists, not getting your team to be able to beat another team occasionally.

And while the costs may be changed, it would take a HUGE decrease to cost or huge increase to duration to make it worth the MPR lost.

Secondly, the design (By intent, I imagine) would force people to play with other's of similar Time Zones, play availability and with similar strategy (For instance, Novice and I could never really be in a Clan together because we would both want totally different rituals and benefit almost very little, if at all, from one not similar). This makes the system useful to very hardcore style players (Players willing to dedicate a period of the week/day to coincide with other clan members to get the most of of Rituals) but almost useless to regular players who aren't Admin of their clan.

Most of the above problem (If it's seen as a problem) could be fixed with durations of no less than 12 hours on the rituals.

If this is all determined to stay as is, is there no way that the "cost" could instead be rental fee? As in, The Cost becomes subtracted from your clan score but once the ritual ends, added back on?

I'd just like to say I'm really excited about this change

I believe I see a reasonable solution to Manipulated's criticisms: Make clan rituals toggle-able instead of castable and have them change the number of CPs gained per fight (i.e. instead of 6 per fight, 5 per fight, etc) instead of charging straight CP costs. This means that it's perfectly possible to rely on having 1-2 rituals up continuously, so you don't have to tune your fightlist according to what rituals are up and are not up. Gaining less CP per fight, but being able to fight higher/get less farmed seems like a much more intuitive, fluid balancing system than the one in place.
Either way, the change is awesome, good job to all involved.

Idea nice in theory, implementation not so much due to nasty constrains.
I'd say +1 vote for permanent rituals (with both toggle on/off cooldowns to prevent abuse) and constant CP gain penalty instead of current version of one-time cost and limited duration.

/me likes.

You can no longer activate rituals from sunday 4am through monday 4am (ie, during the clan rest period).

Any rituals active at 4am Sunday will now be automatically cancelled.

Clan god added to the view clan page (public)

It'd be nice if a kind (read: bored) admin could consolidate my updates into an edit of the first post, maybe in a nice bulletted list.

Heyoooooo

Clan view page updated

I am getting an error when trying to view the Clan page

Server Error
The requested URL cannot be accessed due to a system error on this server.

Same!

Server Error
The requested URL cannot be accessed due to a system error on this server.
AOLserver/4.5.1 on http://www.carnageblender.com/

Trifecta

Well it worked fine until cache flush :(

Works now.

And the clan view for rituals looks good.

Where's the 'fixed better'. ;)

This made me smile almost as much as seeing a fairly big change in the works :D

Hahah... good, I'm glad :)