Gameplay: Morality System Overhaul

[Thenixon]

I think Morality is a Good alignment concept that shouldn't intrude on characters who are not involved in Goodness so much. It makes total sense for angels and neutral-class angel wannabes to have the system that exists. There is a whole Nexus full of things that are fun and possible but you SHOULD NOT DO!! Because this is what angels are all about, and no one would dare suggest we take away that core element.

I do not think that Nexus Champs should have to think so hard on what Namm's arbitrary sinlist is. I don't think the devs should have to scramble to find counterpatches every time a subversive set of Lichs start doing something that leaves Goodness in a bind. And I really don't think that Evil would adopt wholesale the Good Powers' list of THINGS YOU SHOULD DO as their own list of no-nos.

I could go on, and have. But for now I will get to the suggestion:


In the future, Good, Neutral, and Evil shall be determined not by a number mocking you at the top of the screen, but by the alignment of your class choices and faction membership.

Are you an shepherd or paladin? Congrats, you're Good!

Defiler or pariah? Bad!

Sorceror or Myrmidon? Neutral unless you pick another side.

Within angeldom, things could look much the same as now. Your list of naughty is still out there, and the Good Neutral, and evil columns of the Table are the same. You still lose access to your skills if you do too much naughty. You might even have the same ol' gauge at the top of the screen. But I see room for great improvement on that. I think the minimum threshold to use your skills is just the beginning. What if your positive mo were uncapped, or soft-capped at some higher number so that an angel who'd been REALLY GOOD were able to wield significantly more power than just a 'meh' angel? What if there were positive rewards to the system, well beyond what currently exists in the MO-spending economy? MO Prayer? Unlocked special skills at some abnormally high level? Plenty of room for class-specific rewards here.

Neutral classes in Good factions would have to play Namm's game. I do not think the rewards for excessive goodness should be nearly so great. More like small tweaks and improvements. Because lets be frank: If these so-called goods were really in it for the long haul they could have picked an angelic class. But hey, maybe an option to reforge a pet without losing it if you've been really nice. Or maybe your Deep Spellcraft becomes more like Sanctify if you keep up the good behavior.

Neutral classes in Neutral factions (or feral) would see big change. Instead of Morality, actions that your EPs like would add to Favor of Hashaa, Favor of Marquai, and Favor of Goros.

Meting these out could be a bit mysterious at first. Hashaa likes recycling so filling the void in various ways would probably please her. Marquai probably likes it when you build craft repair and so forth. Goros gets a thrill when you... move diagonally across the map? Have a prime number in his Favor bin? IDK, what's this guy's deal, anyway.

Anyway, not NC's balance is based on these, and again there could be threshold unlocks and spending of the favor. Again as with angels I think a character who had accrued a good deal of favor with one or more patron should be a palpably stronger character to play. This will differentiate the True Neutrals from the pretenders in Good and Evil factions. And hopefully lead to a resurgence in Neutrality as a real contender.

Evil and its Dark Power gauges were my inspiration for all of this, along with the fun I've had with Fallen where both accruing DP and trying to tick as many sin boxes as possible. So I think Demons all deserve a DP gauge. And I think that there ought to be an evil-perspective accounting of what those EPs see as beneficial to their cause rather than the one-dimensional feel of current DP-slaughter. Surely we will still reward the vault-clearing killers, but there are types of nasty that we now do only out of love and I think the EPs would reward those things. DO's maintenance and use of Dark Power is the template I'm envisioning here for all demons. It should be involved enough with core class skills that a DP hoarder can unleash a lot more mayhem than a character just scraping by.

And again, neutrals choosing to side with evil will get perks out of it, but they should not compare to what they would get from their natural patrons because we demons are greedy.

[Thenixon]

Take infusion. Go ahead, take it. But as it is the mechanism by which the breath winner is measured. Neutrality never had a chance. And not only for the aforementioned reasons, get this:

Neutral classes are the most popular choices so you might expect in general that it would stand a decent chance at this bean counting race. Well did you know that neutral classes don't just infuse to their patron powers? No, if they aren't paying close attention to Namms dull and unilateral sin.list and get outside the -20 to 20 guardrails, their passive and active infusion is pledged to whatever good or evil power happens to be waltzing by! The design of the morality system is tilted heavily towards the -40!end, with a decent lean to plus 40 for "that kind of player". But staying gray is a drunken stumble this way and that, except maybe for NC. It's totally unpredictable and you're always a hairs breadth from a weeklong stint of power repair. Is it any wonder poor Isabel Hasheens borderline insane dedication to infusion has paid no dividends? Her own fellow transcended can easily if they dare to be feral!

[Grakmar]

Neutral classes (as well as demons/angels) will infuse to the alignment of their faction first. For example: A good transcend character will infuse evil if they are in an evil faction. Any neutral class in an unaligned faction will infuse to Free Will, no matter what their own personal MO is.

It's feral characters that will infuse to whatever their character's MO is. And, that does technically apply to angels and demons. An evil, feral Seraph will infuse to evil.

I believe the only exception to this is vassals. Anyone that is a vassal will infuse to evil, and override both their personal and faction MO.

[sohdbrimks]

I'm a bit confused why neutral and evil classes wouldn't have MO, can't they just ignore MO right now and have the same results? Seens all your suggestions would work even with MO staying the same.

If the problem is with some classes being too reliant on MO like the NC, I suggest to just tone it down a bit instead of removing it entirely (I already made a suggestion that the NC free skill should not be tattoo of balance, they shouldn't be forced into it)

Finally I think MO is a very flavorful aspect of the game, I think it's cool that a ES or Wiz can be just as good as any angel or just as evil as any demon.