Knowledge, even unto Magical Knowledge

[septembervirgin]

What role will knowledge skills have in the game and what will be the functionality of knowledge skills, Contact Other Plane, Speak with Dead, and Divination?

Knowledge can be useful in an easily coded manner. Each knowledge skill should provide bonuses to a community but only with one character per knowledge skill (the character assigned by the community leader).

Arcana might assist in a cost reduction for creating magical items at its very basic use. Should the item be very powerful and require rare components, the Arcana knowledge skill would be needed to know these components at all.

Dungeoneering might help in avoiding diseases, could help combat a movement rate reduction (with higher skill necessary for higher level dungeons), and even to identify hard to notice creatures (like oozes, rot grubs, and dangerous molds) that are "hiding in plain sight". Without dungeoneering, a character might stumble across green slime thinking it's just unsafe water or assume that rot grubs are just large maggots.

Geography can present a bonus to mapped area size of wilderness regions including caverns but not dungeons.

History might permit a potential chance at learning a very high level character's most recent adventures and rewards and also an increase to mapped area size of civic regions and ruins and dungeons (but not caverns).

Local might provide a history of a player or NPC community, its longest term and most powerful (in terms of level) residents, and also give a brief description of any powerful or high ranking resident if the skill is used on their home. However, it might be that a character would have to acquire the Local skill for specific areas in which communities are built or might be built. This local knowledge skill could span several communities if they're built in the same "hex".

Nature can help in agarian efforts, providing basic bonuses to collection in a community (for both herds and plants), and also help indicate where some sorts of monsters might be coming from.

Nobility might be very useful in interacting with nobility, such as to gain land grant and title from nobles. This would further the power of local governments in extension of existing protected lands. Knowledge Nobility might work in tandem with a title grant and (maybe) Leadership to allow access to chivalric men-at-arms to protect ones land. Leadership might not be necessary to access these special granted henchmen.

Planes would of course help in identifying the names of individual demons, devils, and other outsiders, which might help in using the spell Gate to gather more powerful beings. Also it might help in identifying the source and dwelling of an Outsider presence.

Religion might help in identifying undead presence and origin and also provide a bonus for community blessings from the divinities.

The spells that seek knowledge aren't always difficult to include. Also, each should be helpful in learning more about communities and individuals, even information these entities are trying to hide. It should not reveal private information about players nor their accounts, OF COURSE, even unto "last login".

Contact Other Plane might access a large amount of census, community, or individual information to assist a spellcaster in making decisions for themselves or for a community.

Divination might be difficult except as a summarized potential. "How many resources will <group> likely have in one week?" could work. Also, "What monster attacks will be likely on my community in one week?" These sorts of questions, which could be selected from a menu, might be offered and answered and if they give inaccurate summation, it's only because there was unpredictable behavior or action upon the information which precluded the predicted result.

Speak with Dead might help identify *where* a character is in relation to their corpse, might also help in finding out what or who killed that corpse. If cast in a cemetery, it might assist in finding out where the necromancer is that summoned undead to disturb a community.

[Nihimon]

That's a really interesting idea to have Divination spells reveal information about what existing groups have done. In essence, Divination becomes a way of gaining in-game intelligence on your enemies.

[septembervirgin]

Nihimon wrote:

That's a really interesting idea to have Divination spells reveal information about what existing groups have done. In essence, Divination becomes a way of gaining in-game intelligence on your enemies.

Even more interesting, it could gain information on trade, resource location, and investment suggestions! Gates and Trump would love these spells.

I keep thinking maybe armed forces movements should be revealed by some spells, maybe even strategic plans should such things be actual in-game objects, crafted via Strategy skill.

[DarkLightHitomi]

Don't forget the spell that reveals the closest item you describe. Add the arcane mark and you can track people by giving them an item that you marked and then following that item (the fact that you marked it makes it distinct)

Edit: The spell is, Locate Object.

[Nihimon]

septembervirgin wrote:

Even more interesting, it could gain information on trade, resource location, and investment suggestions!

I agree, that is even more interesting :)

septembervirgin wrote:

I keep thinking maybe armed forces movements should be revealed by some spells, maybe even strategic plans should such things be actual in-game objects, crafted via Strategy skill.

I really, really like this idea. It ties into what I've suggested elsewhere about making in-game objects that represent intelligence you've gathered on your enemies that can be used to counter your enemies' plans. Giving players the ability to craft "Strategies" that they can use in preparation for combat, with Divination spells to reveal them, is a fantastic evolution of that.

[xDialtone]

DarkLightHitomi wrote:

Don't forget the spell that reveals the closest item you describe. Add the arcane mark and you can track people by giving them an item that you marked and then following that item (the fact that you marked it makes it distinct)

Edit: The spell is, Locate Object.

I love this spell mainly because I want to become a Bounty Hunter type character later on, and being able to track your bounty or something else (maybe even slipping it into their inventory if you can get a skill high enough, or even a magical 'tracker' that can be identified by your target if they have certain skills higher).

It would help with being able to keep track of your target in a world where fast traveling and teleporting are available, and of course all forms of tracking are identifiable through some sort of skill, if you notice it of course.

If your skill in, per say, 'identifying' (ability to identify magical items or rare items you find), you could see an item in your inventory that is 'marked' as being tracked (or could have your inventory checked by another player perhaps). It could provide some type of counter against this as well.

I was always concerned on how players would be able to track Bounties or Assassin contracts besides a wide player intelligence network, and this sort of idea could make things very interesting.

I do kinda hope that there will be some sort of number limit for abilities, so that others can be more important to what you are trying to do in the game, but that's my own opinion on a different subject.

[DarkLightHitomi]

Well you would use arcane mark to mark something, the same as most arcane crafters would use. Since it's your personal rune, it simply appears to an observer that someone "wrote their name" on it with no clue as to why or how you will make use of it.

Identify does nothing and reveals nothing about an arcane mark since the mark does nothing but be a mark. Identify just tells you what something can do if it's magical. Detect magic would reveal it as being a mark.

Locate object doesn't track things because they are marked, it tracks the nearest thing that fits your description, so if you mark something you can describe the mark and differentiate between that specific item and others like. Assuming they keep the spells even remotely like PF.

As for the importance of others, I prefer solo play, generally avoiding PvP if only because too many PvPers optimize characters for combat vs me who makes a character for fun.