Twilight Forums

I'm going to be making some changes to the way summon wolf, summon buffalo, and wind warrior function, as part of an expansion of that companion slot.

I wanted to mention this before hand, because there is one potential detriment to players: wind warrior will become mutually exclusive with the wolf and buffalo. There's probably a couple of days yet before I make any changes, but when things are updated players with both companions will lose one of them (likely whichever has fewer minutes). I didn't want anyone to be surprised by this, or waste any money buffing both in the near future. Also, if you prefer to keep one or the other, make sure the one you want to keep has the most minutes left.

I don't want to say too much more until things are actually ready, but there will be more companion choices in the future, not all of them skills. All will have a temporal duration. Some will do things other than deal combat damage. And, to the appreciation of many, I'm sure, that slot will be protected to prevent intentional or accidental interference from other players.

Yay?

So this means we can only have only one of those three? Wind Warrior will need a buff up then, I think, to compare to Water Buffalo.

_________________

Vote for TH on global rankings!

Hm. Wind Warrior will definitely need something. I think it would be nice if WW could maybe get a blocking mechanic, as opposed to just being "the Psion version of Buffalo". There's already some difference between wolf and buffalo (static vs scaling). Giving the Warrior a different kind of love would be nice. Especially since non-Psions can't use it in the Space Station.

_________________

The churches are empty / The priest has gone home / And we are left standing / Together alone
--October Project: "Dark Time"

Is this change going to also fix the issue of, say, having buffalo running and another player buffs you with wolf, screwing buffalo up?

I second the idea that wind warrior should have a blocking function rather than being an attack. It's inferior to buffalo for attacking and would add strategy in allowing for a choice where/when to use it instead of buffalo.

Sounds good ryme, that should stop me from being evil and buffing cris with wolf

_________________
I am Whuknose, all your steak bow before me.

http://www.coolavatars.net/avatars/24/commentgasm.gif

Oh, wow! I thought I read that entire first post completely twice. I'm guessing I had the question in my head while reading along and it shut down the processes which normally warn me that my question is already being answered. Sorry about that... embarrassingly so.

No worries. But that's a big affirmative. No more griefing of other players, intentional or otherwise.

I'm curious if it will bear a similarity to how accordian thief buffs work on KoL, blocking when you already have the maximum limit?

We will see.

_________________

Vote for TH on global rankings!

Haha, I know... Just wanted to see if I could get Ryme to teaser it a bit more while he was knowingly online.

More importantly, will the change in buff coding to provide for protection allow auras to be buffs now? >.>

_________________

Read your post again, neo. Doesn't really make sense.

And I doubt Ryme is changing auras to buffs. Psions don't have any self-buffs without auras. Psions need the auras, too.

_________________

Vote for TH on global rankings!

Interesting.

And I second, third, fourth, ect those that have said Wind Warrior will need some sort of increase or something with this change.

And no neo, we don't want auras to be buffs.

_________________

I umpteenth that WW could do with some changes. E.g. he (or she, I'm not discriminating) could level up with you, doing more damage and/or getting a new skill every 4 levels or so. Skills could be having a chance to block or lessen the damage you take, causing elemental damage, deleveling you opponent or something else spiffy. I guess it depends on what other new companions we might be seeing and if there's a place for the WW it could fill

_________________
Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

Auras were originally intended to be buffs. Remember? And my post made plenty of sense, you just phail at comprehending it.

_________________

Oh funny because Psions don't have any self-buffs then. Just about. Ignore Naturalists.

_________________

Vote for TH on global rankings!

Elementals have only one self-buff.

_________________

They still have one, regardless. And a crazy heal skill, so no complaining.

_________________

Vote for TH on global rankings!

Okay:

1) Wolf, buffalo, and wind warrior are now classified as a sidekick-type of effect.

2) You can only have one of any sidekick at a time.

3) Right now you can't dismiss a sidekick, but very soon you will be able to.

4) Sidekicks still have a duration like other effects. However, this duration only decreases while patrolling (combat or noncombat), not by resting or the VR center or whatever.

5) Using a summon skill on yourself works as usual. Using a summon spell on someone else now gives them an item which they can use for summoning their own sidekick, at their leisure. No more being able to overwrite someone's sidekick!

6) There will be more sidekicks, and of more types, very soon.

7) Sidekicks always come with a little icon at the top of your left-hand character sheet, by your name, and they're always listed above other active effects in the lower left.

I think that's it for now.

Old buffalo is borked...

Doesn't do anything (no text in combat), is down in the active effects list, and doesn't give the picture.

_________________

The churches are empty / The priest has gone home / And we are left standing / Together alone
--October Project: "Dark Time"

Old buffalo really isn't supposed to exist. In theory everything should have converted to the new one. It seems a few things snuck through. Perhaps if someone had cast a buff that was "waiting" for you to log in to get it? Maybe a couple of other quirks are out there - let me know if you've got a ton of the old buff sitting around and aren't getting anything.

Simply awesome.

_________________

Vote for TH on global rankings!

There was an error with the buffalo conversion. Should be fixed now, with minimal collateral damage. Let me know if there's anything really off.

Perhaps you could take a look at Wind Warrior? I've got no icon in the left pane where I assume the companion icon would be (beside the name). Just above "Active Effects" I've got "Sidekick/companion" with ", 39020.37 min" (yes, a comma at the start).

I've not had any companion buffs waiting for when I logged in and attempting to cast Wind Warrior again gives me the message "You want to summon a wind warrior, but you can't because you've got a sidekick already."

Wind Warrior has not made any appearance in the combat text either.

Hm. Just used a hologram on a multi and got the image. Looks like WW has a similar problem Buffalo did :/

_________________

The churches are empty / The priest has gone home / And we are left standing / Together alone
--October Project: "Dark Time"

my buffalo sidekick is also shown only as a comma, no picture, and I cant add to the time, because "I already have a sidekick" other than that, great add, can't wait to see the other sidekicks

The database doesn't seem to have any messed up entries in it. Maybe logout/login might fix? I'm guessing there's a page or function somewhere that isn't handling the new code quite right yet--if anyone can tell me what they're going when things go wonky, that might help.

Noncombats seem to affect them still. Are they supposed to count?

Yes, sorry. "combats" meant patrolling, noncombat or combat.

There were some quirks for a few people, which I think I've mostly cleaned up. Let me know if anything remains quirky.

Me likes it very much!