The problem with Magic.

Started by CAMaera, 07-11-2012

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CAMaera

Magic in Caphori as it stands now, is a total train wreck and then some. Before I type anything though, let me make this clear; It's not BAD lore, it's just...
...impractical.


Okay, so I'll start this with an analogy. Say there's a small town on the countryside, and they live off the land, farm it and such. However, there's a problem; they need tools to be able to harvest the grains. There are only two salesmen of these goods, and one is usually away on business, and the other one is usually in town. Now there's another hurdle, the fact that none of them know how to use the tools. They're idiots who lack any form of motor skill other than slapping their own faces to get themselves up in the morning and get a drink of water. So they need to spend hours and hours learning to use the tools they bought. Not only this, but some of the tools require the other salesmen to teach them, because the first one is inept at some tasks.

^Sound like a handfull? Well, it is. Our current magic lore has people being TAUGHT by two players, even when they have the weapons in their possession. Now that's not that big of a deal, if it was just weapons and items that required mana. But sadly, it goes further than that. According to Acaelius, Every item/weapon above Gold Tier is a Magic Weapon. So, this calls for a few more problems;

-What if my character hates Acaelius?/Vice Versa?

-What if I'm ever on the same time as him?

Both of these questions are answered by one word and an abbreviation, You're SOL. You'll never get above Gold. You'll never be able to use that shiny Blade of Grass IC, even though you and your friends ICly raided the Underground Jungle.

But wait, there's more! The other magic teacher, who I seem to have forgot the name of, has been on a whopping total of one time at the same time as me. She can supposedly teach Nature Magic, needed to use a Blade of Grass/Thorn Chakram.

So what I don't get is; Why the hell do we have to be so unique? Can't we just RP it as...I dunno, getting the power of Mana Stars and using it? And why do we need to RP things like a Blade of Grass as Magical? It just seems illogical to me that we are saying that items that don't use Mana are Magical, when they don't take any Mana with each swing.

Discuss.

Tom

#1
I'm not familiar with tiers in Terraria, would firearms = Magical items in this system?

Not really. Classic firearms such as the Flintlock Pistol or Musket are accepted as actual weaponry. Modern Guns and Space Gun/Laser Rifle... Not sure yet.
Quote from: TheAndyShandy on 05-12-2013
Oh boy.
Strap yourselves in, it's time for the great 'obligatory' SRP resurrection of 2013/14/15/16/22

bastidon

I don't think everything over Gold is magic. As long as you RP getting it, for instance beating a wizard/warrior/marksmen to death (bad example) Or delving deep underground and fighting for your life...then finding a blade in the dark just as yours is dull beyond usage. It dosn't have to be magic thought and getting items from mages is only one way to obtain it.
I'm not an asshole, I just play one on TV.

Put me in coach I'm ready.

Acaelius

I don't know much of the tiers so how would I have said that everything above gold is magic? That other magic teacher you were talking about is the one who said that the Chakrams and Jungle armor are magic, I did follow her example in telling you your Blade of Grass could be RP'd as magic holding the grass in shape. What I was talking about as items that could be RP'd as magic were things like meteor armor, phaseblades, flamerangs, sunfury's, you know stuff like that. And about people learning magic from only two people, the current server follows the fact that those here were shipwrecked, you're lucky two people who knew magic were even on board even luckier that the one who is an encyclopedia of magic decided to start a Guild and teach people, as for learning it however you have to think there are a few out there how knew something before they came to the island but most knew nothing, as me and Agatha teach them there will be more and more people capable of teaching people. As for those who don't like me well then they can learn from Agatha or one of my students (or if the Forbidden Kingdom event ever occurs they can RP learning from a book down in that hole)

Acaelius

#4
And to make another thing about items clear, I wear Necro, I've had it since my bit of insanity thanks to Grayzar now do I say my Necro is magic? Nope its just a pile of bones. But to go for an example, you don't need Agatha for anything when I made my character a Homunculus it was because I wanted to be able to IC know everything about magic, I told you that Agatha could teach you nature better than I could because she teaches one thing only and that is nature magic but I also said "Agatha is better than me when it comes to nature magic just not offensive magic" I meant that as either one of us could teach you the blade, we would have used different means though she might have done something like enchanting in or using a potion to chemically solidify it while my way would be to change the aura of the grass to something like that of iron making it a solid blade. When I taught Ranas to use light magic and how it could be used for more than just being able to see I taught it to him as a weapon and he used the 'beam of light' as a way for him to RP the phaseblade giving me the idea to use magic as a RP way of passing some items off.

Syndraell

Maybe it's just the land we're on.

Obviously there is an overabundance of Mana in the general area, seeing as it could cause the dead to rise, summon horrible appearations, and create masses of gelatinous goo.

That being said...

Mana, being the fickle power that it is; has no beginning or end.
A man could dedicate his life to researching it just to be able to create a small puff of fire, whereas a child could summon a torrent of fire out of fear for his/her life. It really has no explanation, no logic attuned to it.

I'm just waiting to mess up your day. Honest.

bastidon

Quote from: James Almasy on 07-11-2012
Maybe it's just the land we're on.

Obviously there is an overabundance of Mana in the general area, seeing as it could cause the dead to rise, summon horrible appearations, and create masses of gelatinous goo.

That being said...

Mana, being the fickle power that it is; has no beginning or end.
A man could dedicate his life to researching it just to be able to create a small puff of fire, whereas a child could summon a torrent of fire out of fear for his/her life. It really has no explanation, no logic attuned to it.


I truly like that explanation. If you want to RP a blade of grass as magic, go ahead. If you want it to just be a blade, I'd say that's fine. The only thing that I think is much more likely to be magic is magic items. But Redbark rp'd the mirror as science. That's my opinion.
I'm not an asshole, I just play one on TV.

Put me in coach I'm ready.

CAMaera

Yeah, I get what you're saying, Acaelius. But where do we draw the line with that? How is Meteor Armor magic? Is it because it bestows Magic benefits? Then wouldn't Jungle Armor be 'Magic' too?

Also, how the heck do two characters basically claim a craft, and a tier of weapons all for themselves and who they teach? Also, you never answered my other question, what if my character hates the teachers/vice versa and wants to learn magic? They're SOL, right?

To me, it seems that Claiming a Biome(Which I did not by the way, I made it look better and it was all public) is a lesser offense than claiming an entire way of fighting to themselves and who they want to teach.

Also, a problem with the Phaseblade is that it can't be RPed as anything but Magic, therefore being a weapon type completely owned by you and Agatha.

All in all, I think James has the best idea here; Do what you want.

Acaelius

I will, I always do. But I do what to help, the reason jungle is magic is because it protects more than iron, go get a leaf and a bit of metal what is harder? Iron so how else but magic could you say nature was harder (well you could RP the nature of this island being really tough and solid) and I did answer what to do if you hate me, learn from one of my students or RP finding a book or something I mean really the dungeon is a big scary necronomic place full of books and the Forbidden Kingdom event in the desert if it ever happens is supposed to be magic related. My point being yes James is right I even said that some people knew about magic when they came but no one really RP's learning their magic without just asking someone to help them. Hopefully now after people have read this they will know they can RP learning it themselves although hopefully they do it better that something like "goes to shoot at a bat and instead giant omegadeathbeam fries half the planet" that is not okay but other than that yeah like James said and like I said... if Agatha played more this would be less of an issue but meh it matters not.

CAMaera

IRL, Gold<Iron.
In Caphori/Terraria, Gold>Iron.

Normal logic doesn't work in Terraria or Caphori, Acaelius. So yes;

Jungle>Iron in Caphori.

But IRL, Iron would be better than anything up to Shadow.(Necro, Jungle, Gold.)

And what you say might be true, but the first thing you said when I swung my Blade of Grass was something to the tune of "Oh you need someone to teach you magic so you can legally use that".

LimitedIllusion

I've had someone tell me I'm doing things wrong with most weapons/items I've used. Almost always that I needed to rp to use it(which generally was me and max delving into an area duo). The other part is that my character is a scientist of sorts, I don't see why I can't claim that I combined some of the star energy into a catalyst that holds it into the shape of a sword for phaseblade, and thats just one example. I was told I can't use jungle even though I LIVE IN THE JUNGLE/UNDERGROUND JUNGLE.

Ragolution

#11
Magic is for tossers and poofters liek meh

aroniea

#12
I kind of (maybe) broke the rules. I was thinking of magic as "manipulation", like... Elves could malipulate magic naturally, and some humans(in special circumstances) can also manipulate magic, volcano people cound manipulate fire and lava, jungle people could manipulate nature, and(where I think I kinda cheated) Corrupt people could manipulate Corruption.
That's my idea, and now I need ice for my fingers bec7se thay hert from typijn.)

Ragolution


aroniea

And that, mien fruinds, was the most mature person you will ever meet.

Syndraell

Lol'd.

I want to read more of stuff like this, if there is any.

I'm just waiting to mess up your day. Honest.

aroniea

I do agree with mr. Almasy, we should do what we want, without the "wtfijustkilledeveryoneaccidentallyforeveralone" shit. Maybe manipulation could be a form of magic? Maybe? FUCKING ANSWER ME BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!