[DoM4] Elemental Burst

[Scorched Druid]

Though much momentum with what comes next in regards to DoM has stalled in recent months. The main problem area that’s come up is “All right, so we’re thinking to open up the full matrix to players, but then what incentive is there for them to stick around”? With that in mind I began working on an idea that is middle ground between new spells and new strategy for everyone.

For each of the Original Towers there is an aligning “school”. When duelists achieve the rank of Enchanter they can align themselves with one of the 4 towers. This gives them access to their first Elemental Burst. However these are very specialized spells. Upon making the rank of Mage, the duelists lose access to the Burst Spell as it is replaced with either Immolation or Nether Ray. In effect the Bursts are small components of those two spells. Fire and Air Burst creates Immolation. Earth and Water makes Nether Ray. This means that for duelists under Mage, their Elemental Burst or EB, would take up that spell slot on the matrix.

Since the bursts are half as strong, that means the values are half as much. Where the corresponding mage spell is 1-0, the burst is only .5-0, where the Mage spell scores a .5 advantage, the Burst is a null or tie. So Fire Burst vs Mage Bolt would be .5-.5. Not hot enough to overwhelm it as Immolation would, but not enough to completely negate the Bolt either.

However, there are some inherent dangers that come with these Bursts. Since Immolation replaces Fire and Air Burst, should duelists of either school face each other and in the same round use their appropriate Burst, the Mage Spell is created damaging both duelists for half points. Thus Fire Burst vs Air Burst = Immolation, the two spells collide and explode. This is called Spell Miscibility. The same carries with Earth Burst and Water Burst creating an explosive Nether Ray.

Rough description:
Fire Burst A focused concussive blast shy of an M80
Earth Burst The ground erupts at a duelists feet spraying dirt and sand skyward
Air Burst A heavy gust of wind pushes the duelist back
Water Burst Moisture in the air is gathered and expelled to distract the opponent.

Personally I think this would add a fun element to any MegaCast.

To add, a duelist can change their Alignment at anytime with advance notice so it can be reflected on the boards. For ease of tracking my thoughts are along color coding. Highlight the character in Red for Fire, Blue for Water, Green for Earth, and Cyan or Yellow for Air.

Previously I said that at Enchanter the duelist is alotted their First Burst. This is because that is all allowed at Enchanter. Sorceror is given 2 Bursts, Magician 3, Wizard 4.

Notes on the Matter:
There were some parts of this I have left out because they complicate matters too much. So I’m leaving a portion here where I’m remarking on notes I had.

I thought with the fact that each Burst is aligned with a Tower that their potency should reflect the Duelist currently holding Keepership. Higher their rank the more effective the spell, as if that Character influences the spells granted by his or her Tower.

This could go one of 2 ways.

A) That Character/Player gets to decide how strong their Tower’s Burst is. I.e. the player assigns point value. Either a Full point or a Half.
B) My other was that Rank influences it. A mage or wizard in the tower makes the Burst worth Full Point where it’s only half. While Magician and under is as described in the final proposal above.

These turn the Towers into schools of focus, and bring dueling back to the characters more actively.

[Neo Eternity]

Okay, I think I have a sense for what this idea is, which is to create weaker versions of NR and IM. It's an idea that was on a good track, that track being trying to create elementally-associated actions, but I see many flaws in the final product.

1. Halving the point potentials for NR and IM significantly devalues them. Why would you want to use a move that can only possibly ever score half, when you could choose another move that's only a little less likely to connect and could score full?

1a. Your suggested fixes for this crippling weakness... well, one of them isn't too bad; that is, to allow rank to influence strength, though it does leave elements with lower-ranked Keepers kinda screwed, which would in turn influence move selection. The other one, to just let a player decide how strong a move is, is way way way too broken.

2. Creating more moves will make DoM look even more complex than it already is. We already have more moves than even DoF. And then the fact that they'll just be nerfed versions of NR and IM will just be confusing.

3. I don't think there's any point to creating two moves that would differ only in description; in other words Fire/Earth and Air/Water. It defies the adaptable nature of DoM's moveset, and will either restrict some characters, or be ignored by others. Though the majority would play along.

4. The interaction of two bursts against each other also creates more perceived complexity because of the way it's presented. The other way to present this would turn the bursts more into separate moves.

To be honest, I'm not sold on this at all. But I am glad you submitted it; it was a good try.

[MurOllavan]

I had a talk with Neo about a similar thing, except there would be two elements light and dark. Basically the keepers could light symbols on the light or dark towers, aligning themselves one way or the other. The light and dark would be mage-only titles and if they got all four they could challenge the AM out of the tournament, providing their dark/light aligned group with a bonus.

The only thing about these ideas is they increase complexity. I think there were more issues with my idea than this though. It is nice to have a bunch of ideas for modifiers/etc as opening the 12x12 leaves a blank as to what the ranks are based around. I didn't expect there to be so much difficulty with the mods as there has been.

[Scorched Druid]

Honestly there's no way to get around adding complexity to DoM. There isn't. Any changes add to the possibility of increasing it. Like I said before, and is pretty well understood by the majority of us, by opening the full 12x12 a vacuum is created. We're all trying to generate ideas to fill that vacuum but modifiers just aren't good enough. I forget which thread it's in, but someone made a good point. This isn't like Swords or Fists where we all can go out and learn how to do it. This is Magic, it requires the ability to use an abstract thought process. Think outside the rings so to speak.

As for my proposal. They're not weaker versions of those spells. They're components of them. Think along the lines of Chemistry. Two parts make the whole. Plus it lets duelists under Mage get a feel for the 13x13 Matrix.

1. Halving the point potentials for NR and IM significantly devalues them. Why would you want to use a move that can only possibly ever score half, when you could choose another move that's only a little less likely to connect and could score full?

Then why would you use Armor or Shield over Reflect? If we only duel for points why role play the moves? Just send in the move and let the caller announce the score without any flavor text.

[MurOllavan]

Have you thought of simplifying in this fashion - making wizards mage and having a 1,2,3 burst setup where they actually match the matrix of the mage powers?

[Scorched Druid]

Have you thought of simplifying in this fashion - making wizards mage and having a 1,2,3 burst setup where they actually match the matrix of the mage powers?

Care to elaborate what you mean by the 1,2,3?

[MurOllavan]

Instead of weaker mage powers, I meant something where they got 1,2,3 per duel. Then unlimited afterwards.