Table of Contents
This section will have a description of how magic works in the WOT, how it
works in Morrowind, and how it can be made to work like in WOT.
There is existing scripting out there that does this. I think we will
have no problem getting the developer to contribute to this mod.
The requirements describe how channeling and magic work in the Wheel of Time.
They may or may not be implementable in Morrowind. The following
information has been taken from the Guide.
- There are two types of channelers;
- Those with the inborn spark who will channel no matter what,
whether they wish to or not.
- And those who need to be taught to embrace the source and
channel.
- Drawing and channeling without benefit of guidance or training results
in death for four out of five women born with the ability. This death
often takes the form of a lingering sickness that saps the individual of
life energy. The first time, the sickness comes on after a few hours.
As time goes by, it comes closer and closer to the moment of channeling
until they merge. At this point, if they have not learned control,
death is inevitable.
- Male players use saidin (sigh deen). This causes bad things to
happen to the male until book 9 when it is cleansed.
- Female players use saidar (sigh dar rhymes with bar). No bad
effects.
- Players have a capacity that grows over time. Over time they can
draw more, learn more complex weaves (spells).
- Regeneration happens when the player's fatigue is restored.
- Only men can heal women fully. Only women can heal men fully.
(Recently answered on Robert Jordan's blog, by the man himself.)
Players who pick a magic class or the magic skills as their primary skills will be those who are born with the spark.
They are the type of channelers that would channel no matter what.
They will be able to learn any spell that they are taught. Going by
Morrowind, they will go up and up in strength.
The player must then join the faction suitable to the race. See the
questing sheet for Starting Quests for the player who is a magic wielder.
Quests.htm or Quests.xls.
Wilders
Wilders are those that are considered born with the spark, have passed
through the sickness stage, and haven't found a faction to train them.
- Wilders will have blocks that will inhibit their ability to embrace
the source whenever they need to. See
Checking for blocked below for
calculation of this difficulty.
- Spells are protected by the factions and wilders will have
difficulty finding any spells.
Players may play as a wilder but it will be a difficult road.
Dual class fight/mages
If a player picks both warrior and magic skills during the character
creation they will be dual classed. The difficulty in scripting
will be managing these players. Those who chose high magic/low
fighting will be considered channelers. Those who pick low magic/high
fighting skills will be considered fighters. Both must be trained by a
faction in order to use those magic skills.
We should set some type of skill balance limit that would determine
whether the faction will let them go. Aes Sedai normally let go those
who have low magic skill. A check for magic/fight/stealth skills will
be done and will determine if the player will be allowed to complete
training in a channeling group.
If the player is male, he will still be an Ash'aman. Or blocked.
There is no getting around this. Maybe the Black Tower will find other
uses for a male with little magic talent.
A low level magic user, as also a wilder, will have trouble finding any
of the higher level spells, or any spells at all. No matter how much
they develop their magic abilities, the spells will still be out of reach.
There will be ways of getting many spells that the factions hold close but
they will be difficult and dangerous.
It would be nice if any player could learn to channel. They would have
to forsake their fighting and join an association to do this. They would
be tied to this association forever after. The different factions have
different levels of control over their members.
- No potions to drink to restore mana. It just auto-restores after a
while. Might need actual rest if the player has cast all the way to
the end of their mana limit. Although Nyneave has made some
potions that helped Moraine recover fatigue. Maybe there will be some potions
that can help restore fatigue but they won't restore fully.
Need a whole big section on this. We need to list all the Morrowind
spell effects. Then decide which ones stay, which ones are removed, and any that
need to be added. Most will be renamed. Some spells might need to be
scripted spells.
-
Levitation. None in WOT except a bunch of people can levitate
another person or object a bit.
-
Mark/Recall. Replaced by the fast magical transport.
-
Heal self. Player can't heal self. Must get another to do
this. Will affect battles a lot unless there is a companion along that
can heal.
-
No potions to restore magicka. It just auto-restores after a
while. Might need actual rest if the player has cast all the way to
the end of their mana limit.
Lord Raven has been working on the
One Power mod. Below is a draft of how channeling and casting
will work in the WOT. It needs some more work and maybe the summary needs
to be ratified by some of the fnas.
As long as the player does not raise their hands for
casting, the mana bar will be set at zero. Raising the hands will trigger
the script to grasp the source. This will trigger a check of the player's
status.
If a player is found to be stilled or burnt out,
they cannot embrace the source.
If the player is found to be blocked they will have
only a 60% chance of embracing the source each time they raise their hands to
embrace the source. The check does not occur if the player switches
spells.
Once the source has been embraced, the player may
cast until they run out of mana or fatigue. See casting spells below for
that logic.
After the player has run out of mana they may
attempt to embrace the source again. The player will be able to grasp the
source as long as their fatigue does not fall to a certain level.
The more fatigued the player, the more chance of failure or burnout.
This is just a draft. Other variables might be
found to be needed.
| Global Variable |
Short WOT_MagicBlocked |
0=false, not blocked
1=true, blocked |
| Global Variable |
Short WOT_MagicBurntOut |
0=false, not burnt out
1=true, burnt out or stilled |
|
Global Variable |
Short WOT_Shielded |
Alternate 1: True/False
check
0=false, not shielded
1=true, shielded
Alternate 2: Number shielding
0=not shielded
1=shielded by 1
2=shielded by 2
3=shielded by 3
...
13=shielded by 13
We can also have another
variable that indicates if the shield is tied off or not. That
could also have 0-13 to determine the number tied and number being held
actively. Need some brainstorming on how a person could break out
of a shield. A special spell or talent or something? How
would the individual points be associated to specific NCP's? |
| Global Variable |
Short WOT_Gender |
0=male
1=female |
| Global Variable |
Short WOT_NoMagicArea |
0=location that allows magic
1=location that disallows
magic area |
| Global Variable |
Short_WOT_NoMagicOverride |
0=no override
1=magic area block override -
player activates a ter'angreal. |
| Local Variable? |
Float MaxFatigue |
Contains the player's fatigue
level if they were fully rested. |
| Local Variable |
Float CurrentFatigue |
Contatins the player's
current fatigue level |
| Local Variable |
Float ResetFatigue |
Contains the difference
between the max and current |
| Local Variable |
Float SpellFatigue |
Contains the amount of
fatigue to be deducted for spell.
May not be needed. |
| Local Variable? |
Float MaxMagicka |
Contains the player's mana
level if they were fully rested. |
| Local Variable |
Float CurrentMagicka |
Contatins the player's
current mana level |
| Local Variable |
Float ResetMagicka |
Contains the difference
between the max and current |
| Local Variable |
Float SpellMagicka |
Contains the amount of mana
to be deducted for spell.
May not be needed. |
If the player is an area that does not allow magic,
the WOT_NoMagicArea will be set to 1. This includes Far Madding cells.
If the area allows magic, this variable will be set to 0 (zero).
When the WOT_NoMagicArea is set to 1, the
Short_WOT_NoMagicOverride will be checked. When the player activates a
ter'angreal that is set as a well, the well will contain only a specific amount
of mana. Each ter'angreal well has a set amount. While it is in an
area set as WOT_NoMagicArea it will set the mana level to the maximum.
When the player goes to a non-magic area, it will not continue to reset and stay
the maximum unless spells are cast. Then it will start to drain.
WOT_MagicBurntOut is then checked, if block check
results in false. 0 = false, not burnt out. 1 = true, burnt out.
If burnt out check results in true, the player cannot grasp the source. If
burnt out check results in false, the player will then proceed to the fatigue
check.
WOT_Shielded is then checked to see if the player is
shielded. If so, they will fail to grasp the source.
Also see alternate for variable domains. 0-13
could indicate the number of channelers shielding the player.
Question: Do we have the ability to break a
shield?
WOT_MagicBlocked is checked. If it is set to 0
(false), the player is not blocked and next check is done. If it is set to
1 (true), the script will do a random number check. This should result in
60% of the time the player is successful in embracing the source. 40%
failure.
This code is from Kiriel's Enchanted Paintings mod.
It will find out the maximum and current fatigue for the player. There is
no way to find the true maximum so the current fatigue is recorded, then the
maximum is found by modifying the current fatigue by 10000 - this will only
raise it to whatever is the player's maximum. It won't add 10000.
Then the difference is found and the fatigue is reset back to the recorded
level.
Set CurrentFatigue to ( Player ->GetFatigue )
Player->ModCurrentFatigue 10000
Set MaxFatigue to ( Player -> GetFatigue )
Set ResetFatigue to ( MaxMagicka - CurrentFatigue )
Player->ModCurrentFatigue ResetFatigue
This code is from Kiriel's Enchanted Paintings mod.
It uses the same method as fatigue. It may not be the method used for WOT.
It depends on how mana will be used and drained.
Set CurrentMagicka to ( Player ->GetMagicka )
Player->ModCurrentMagicka 10000
Set MaxMagicka to ( Player -> GetMagicka )
Set ResetMagicka to ( MaxMagicka - CurrentMagicka )
Player->ModCurrentMagicka ResetMagicka
Assuming the above checks are passed if the player's
fatigue level is 45% or more the player will have 100% chance of embracing the
source. As fatigue goes down, their chance of success will go down and the
chance of burnout will increase.
Once the player hits 8% fatigue, they will have 0%
chance of gaining the source.
Once the player hits 20% fatigue, a chance of
burnout will begin. This chance will go up as fatigue goes down until the
player hits 9% fatigue. At that point, the chance of burnout will be at
its max - 20%
Between 45% and 8% there will be increasing chances
of failure and burnout.
At the shield check, we can give the player an
opportunity to break the shield.
Requirements:
-
Player has acquired/learned the spell of
breaking a shield.
-
Shield can be broken if number of channelers
participating in the shield < 13
-
And number of participants is less ???
-
And percent of hard points is ???
-
And the player level is ???? as related to the
above...
-
I will come up with some logic here. Or
others can take a stab at it as well. Just need to fiddle around a bit
in a spreadsheet and come up with something that looks right. A level
20 who is shielded by 4 and 2 are hard points should be able to break the
shield, if they have learned how......That is my baseline I will work on.
Maybe change that too.
Short BreakShieldMsg ;0=No, 1=Yes
Short BreakShieldAns
If ( WOT_Shielded > 0 )
If ( WOT_PlayerShieldBreakSpell
== 1 )
MessageBox "You are shielded by %WOT_Shielded channelers. %WOT_ShieldedHard
shields are tied off.
Do you want to try to break the shield?" "Yes" "No"
set BreakShieldMsg to 1
Else
MessageBox "You are shielded. You cannot embrace the source."
EndIf
If ( BreakShieldMsg == 1)
SET BreakShieldAnsto
GetButtonPressed
If ( BreakShieldAns > 0 )
Set
BreakShieldMsg to 0
StartScript WOT_BreakShield
EndIf
EndIf
This part is open. Should we use the normal
Morrowind way of having each spell cost a certain amount and that is it?
Or should mana/fatigue drain constantly while the person is embracing the source
and have additional drops when a spell is cast? A channeler can shield
another for hours. Many times people embrace the source and do nothing;
they aren't worried they won't be able to cast the spell if they hold it too
long. They mainly worry about drawing too much.
We could also script this to do the following:
1) Each time the player uses up their mana and
tries again, the chance of burnout and failure go up. This would require
us to track the number of times the player attempts to embrace the source, their
fatigue levels, etc. At first I was thinking this was the way to go but
basing everything on fatigue seems faster and will essentially do the same thing
with less code.
2) Test for shielded, do we need one?
How will a shield spell be implemented?
3) Should we tie mana and fatigue more
closely? Mana determines the level of the caster and the rate that fatigue
will reduce. The more maximum mana, the slower fatigue lowers. Then,
make the player have a continuous supply of mana until the fatigue brings it
down.
4) Or go even further and have the current
fatigue also tied to the mana level. Whatever percent fatigue a player has
will be the percent mana a player has. Then use that mana level to
determine the drain rate of fatigue?
There are many types of magical
objects in the Wheel of Time. Most are left over from the Age of Legends.
Both Angreal and Sa'angreal
are items that allow the channeler to channel more power than they normally
can. They also buffer the channeler from pulling too much. The
difference is in strength. Sa'angreal allow much more power to be
drawn than angreal although individual items have a wide range of the amount
of power that can be pulled.
Sa'angreal are much rarer than
angreal.
There are several known caches
of these items. Most notably in the White Tower, who believes that all
angreal, sa'angreal, and ter'angreal are property of the White Tower,
whether or not the Tower currently has possession of the object. There
was another cache in Ebu Dar but that was cleared out.
For our game purpose, I am
sure there are other undiscovered caches, maybe in caves, maybe in cellars,
maybe in private collections in houses. These objects are also found
in palace collections such as Tanchicho and Tear. I would bet that
objects are occasionally found in homes of those that can afford some
trinkets, the owners not knowing what they are. Junk stores, luxury
item stores, peddlers may occasionally also come across them not knowing
what they are.
Ter'angreal are object that
have specific purposes. Thousands of ter'angreal are stored at the
White Tower. Very little have known purposes. It is very
dangerous to study them. Most scholars will channel a little spirit
into them to try to determine what they do. If spirit is the power
that kicks off the ter'angreal, very unpleasant results can occur.
The table below contains know
properties of ter'angreals. We may make ter'angreals to do many other
things as well. I believe we will implement ter'angreals as enchanted
items. There may be a few other enchanted items such as the heron
marked swords.
Some ter'angreals can be
accessed by anyone, not just a channeler. Most need someone to channel
the correct power into them.
Purpose
|
| Enter Tel'aran'rhiod. There are several of these
known. Some require channeling, others do not. |
| Bind oaths. We know there are at least two of
these. One says 111 and the other says ??? So, there are
probably hundreds of them. |
Doorways or rings that take the person to another
world/level of reality.
- Known ones take the person to the foxes. This one used
to be in Rhoudian. It was taken away and then
destroyed.
- Another to the snakes. This is located in the basement
of the Stone of Tear.
- Another in the White Tower is used for testing accepted.
Those rings will allow the person to experience, as real, their
greatest fears - from the past, present and future.
|
| a'dams. These all one person to control
another with the power. The person leashed must do what the
person in control wants or suffer what the handler can think up. |
| |
| |
| |
|