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Announce News Post #2341

Class System Revamp, pt. 3 -- Vampires

Written by: Oleis, the Infused
Date: Thursday, December 4th, 2014
Addressed to: Everyone


While vampirism is undeniably one of Aetolia's most identifiable
features, the system is very old and plagued by a number of confusing or
unwieldy mechanics, both in the code and in player-facing features.
These changes, in conjunction with the much-needed multiclass changes,
are aimed at making vampire culture more accessible for new players and
more streamlined for vamp veterans. While much of this was guided by
administrative desires and planning, this patch also fulfills approved
Liaison reports 1849 and 1850.

Vampirism
---------
Most notably, the Bloodborn class has been effectively absorbed, now
serving as a fourth "Path" for Praenomen to follow. While the Insidiae,
Sapivi, and Phreneses paths will still use Sanguis, followers of the
Rituos path will gain Hematurgy and all its benefits (including MANY
important changes detailed below). To make life easier, the two skills
will use a shared pool of lessons. What this means is that Praenomen
will be able to switch to the Rituos path (and Hematurgy) and
immediately operate at the same skill level they held in Sanguis with no
lesson loss.

Because of this condensing, anyone who held both Praenomen and Bloodborn
has received a full lesson refund of their Bloodborn skills. Vampires
who held ONLY Bloodborn have been given the Praenomen class at their
existing skill levels. There is now a 4 hour cooldown on path switching,
independent of the usual class change cooldown.

Other important notes about the Vampire life:
- The ritual methods of siring and embracing have been removed, and
siring and embracing have been moved to Corpus so that all vampires may
access them.
- Kelende will now ONLY serve newbies.
- Vinessa, in the Alcazar, can now help you switch paths. ASK VINESSA
BECOME <SAPIVI/PHRENESES/INSIDIAE/RITUOS/PUROS> PRAENOMEN.
- Vinessa is now capable of turning ANYONE with a free class slot into a
Nightstalker. These Nightstalkers must still be sired by a full Vampire
to gain access to Sanguis.
- Bloodborn guild assets (gold, credits, etc.) have been folded into the
Dominion. We can discuss plans for the Bloodborn guildhall in the near
future.
- GMCP.Char.Status will now send a "spec" field. Shapeshifters will see
their Shapeshifter type and Praenomen will see their Path (Phreneses,
Rituos, etc.)

Corpus
------
- Corpus has received a bit of tweaking and general code cleanup. You
should not notice dramatic changes.

Sanguis
-------
- Sanguis has also earned some rewrites and combat messages.

Mentis
------
- As Keroc recently completely rewrote Mentis, it needed very few
changes.

Reports 1849 and 1850
---------------------
- WISP INVOKE has been removed.
- Ritual code has been completely rewritten.
- All rituals are now ONE or TWO steps:
+ Self-cast and long-range targeted rituals are chant-only, which is to
say that they take effect immediately after chanting.
+ Targetted/offensive rituals require both a chant and a rune to be
painted on the TARGET using his/her blood.
+ Room-effect rituals require a rune drawn on the ground. Painting will
automatically use your blood.
+ EQ costs have been adjusted to match.
+ Ritual failure is still possible.
- There is now a special scythe attack in Hematurgy: Bloody. This
ability will make it easier to perform offensive rituals. See AB file
for details.
- The tablet and athame are no longer required ritual materials. I
understand that this may upset the traditionalists among you. I'm happy
to chat any time. Vinessa in the Alcazar will sell them for all your
roleplaying needs.
+ Artifact tablets have been refunded.

Other Ritual Changes
--------------------
- RITUAL LIST and the like have been removed. Each ritual now has a
listing in Hematurgy's AB and an individual AB file. Since the rituals
were made available to all class members anyway, this just seemed like a
much less frustrating option.
- The "Sylvan Emnity" ritual has been removed.
- The Shiftsoul ritual now requires the target to be in-room to apply
it. Activation remains unchanged.
- Unnatural Thirst lasts 60 seconds and grants the target a six-minute
immunity to the ability.

Penned by my hand on the 15th of Severin, in the year 436 MA.


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