Spirit Beast/saved posts

Primer

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 6977
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/09/2014 11:50 PM EDT
Subject: Re: Ebon Gate Teaser: Spirit Beasts

Spirit Beasts: A Primer

Spirit Beasts are the spiritual essences of creatures that have dwelled in a given locale. Enterprising players can bind them to a talisman and make them fight for you to gain levels and become more powerful. The talismans are available off-the-shelf. The work? That's on you.

Binding

In order to bind a Spirit Beast, you'll need a talisman, purchased at my shop, Ilixil's Bestiary. (You may remember Ilixil, the extremely unfortunate scientist, from that time that he got devoured by his pet shade-skinks. He got better.) More than that, you're going to need to prepare that talisman. Preparing a talisman isn't hard if you have a bit of Magic Item Use training, but the good news is that anyone can do the preparation for you. But how do you prepare a talisman?

Blood. Lots of blood. You're going to have to go out and slaughter creatures that have blood. The stronger they are, the better the quality of their blood will be. That means that beasts from the Rift are going to provide you with some amazing quality life-liquid, and kobolds are... well, not. You can collect this blood using syringes and vials that I also sell. Noticing a trend here?

Once you have a vial full of blood, you're going to pour it on your talisman. If you're exceptionally bad with magical items, your talisman's probably going to break at this point.****** Otherwise, you'll either succeed famously or not do so well. Good news: you can try again. You won't even need to buy a new vial!

Now you're going to have to find a beast. The good news is that common beasts, the first type that you'll be able to bind, are everywhere. Most of the wilds around your various towns have a few different options. Every beast has its own strengths and weaknesses, which we'll go into soon enough. You can invoke your talisman anywhere to see if you can find a Spirit Beast there.

Once you've successfully invoked a talisman, you can attune it to a specific beast. Finally, once you're sure you've found the beast of your dreams (or at least one that's mildly acceptable) you'll offer the talisman to the beast. Only a prepared talisman can be offered. Anyone can bind a beast, but it will definitely help a bit if you have some Spiritual Lore, Summoning skill.

If you have low MIU your talisman CAN break and you'll lose it AND have to buy a new one and start over. It's best to have someone high level with high MIU do the pour for you.

Beast Statistics

Every beast has its own strengths and weaknesses, as I mentioned before. They are all competitive, but may require different tactics to be successful in battle. The traits of beasts are as follows:

Power - The strength of a beast's attacks.
Defense - The ability of a beast to defend itself.
Speed - How fast a beast is.
Insight - How well a beast can determine its opponent's tactics. This is important!
Accuracy - The likelihood a beast is going to hit with its normal attacks.
Health - A measure of the beast's life force.

All of these traits also have different growth rates. A creature may start off with a lot of Power but not grow very much, or may begin with middling Insight but have a quick growth rate!

In addition to these traits are ones that don't generally change:

Special Attack - The type of special attack that the creature does.

Elemental Attunement - The element that a creature is bound to. Attuned creatures will do and take more or less damage from other elementally attuned creatures depending on their attunement.

The elements are as follows:

Fire - weakest against Water, weak against Earth, strong against Air, strongest against Spirit
Water - weakest against Spirit, weak against Air, strong against Earth, strongest against Fire
Earth - weakest against Air, weak against Water, strong against Fire, strongest against Spirit
Air - weakest against Spirit, weak against Fire, strong against Water, strongest against Earth
Spirit - weakest against Fire, weakest against Earth, strongest against Water, strongest against Air
Wild Magic - weakest against elements, strongest against Spirit
Rift Armament - weakest against Spirit, strongest against elements

Fighting

The entire reason you want to bind a Spirit Beast is so that you can have it fight other people's Spirit Beasts, right? So you'd best get good at fighting. When you summon your beast, it's going to start attacking its opponent at will. But this isn't just a matter of strength against strength! No, sir. You need to guide your beast in order to have it do its best.

Your creature's going to settle into a stance as soon as it begins the fight: Turtle, Wolf, Serpent, Hare, or Crane.

Turtle is strong against Hare and Crane; is weak against Serpent and Wolf.
Wolf is strong against Hare and Turtle; is weak against Crane and Serpent.
Serpent is strong against Turtle and Wolf; is weak against Crane and Hare.
Hare is strong against Serpent and Crane; is weak against Wolf and Turtle.
Crane is strong against Wolf and Serpent; is weak against Hare and Turtle.

Your creature's Insight may give you a glimpse at what stance your opponent's beast is in, but otherwise you're going to have to watch the fight and try to adjust your tactics accordingly. If it seems like your beast is taking a lot of damage and doing very little, you may want to switch to an opposing stance.

Oh, but it's not as simple as that. If things are going especially bad, you can tell your creature to guard, which means that it will take much less damage at the cost of being poor at attacks. This can be a lifesaver if you're taking a pounding and need some time to figure out how to turn things around. When you're ready to go back on the offensive, tell your creature to strike.

And then there are special attacks! Every beast has a special ability. You should only tell your beast to attack when you're certain that you're in a stance stronger than your opponent's, as special attacks are much more damaging then. They won't do much, and some won't work at all, if you're in a same or inferior stance!

Customizations

You can customize a lot about your beast! There are potions for sale in my shop that allow you to improve the traits of your beast. These can help you improve already good traits (like making a beast with a lot of Power really, really strong) or shore up ones that your beast lacks (such as enhancing the Insight on a beast that's not very aware). There's a limit on how much potions can do, but I might be convinced to do a little more for you. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

I can also work on your beast's appearance. You want your twitchy giant rat to look like a snarling fanged rodent? I can do it. Want it to look like a snake? Probably not. I can change its basic appearance and the greater detail when you look at it while it's fighting for you. But that's not all! I can even change what its special attack looks like, within reason.

Onward and Upward

Once your first beast reaches its twentieth training (don't worry, that will take a bit) you'll be able to bind your first uncommon beast. Uncommon beasts are a bit harder to find, lurking in special locales. And once you've gotten one of those to its twentieth train, there are rumors abounding about legendary beasts that only exist in a single place. These will obviously take some serious hunting to find, but the good news is that you have pleeeeenty of work to do before then, now, don't you?

Instructions

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 7214
Author: PENNINGTONB1
Date: 10/18/2014 2:38 AM EDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Congratulations

>Congratulations to Sepher for binding the first ever Spirit Beast, a griffin found near Ta'Illistim!

Woo! Thanks. So far, it's been a hell of a lot of fun to play with.

Here's a little guide with some tidbits about the beasts from Ilixil (the NPC creator).

First step

So first step: get your gear and collect blood

You need a syringe and a vial for this part. Before you head out, PUT your vial on your syringe so that the blood has a repository to be drawn into. Next, you have to kill things and DRAW their blood. Creatures' blood also has a level of quality associated with it, and the higher the level of the creature you're drawing from, the better the blood will be. Leopards in the Gyldemar Forest yielded "moderate" quality blood while war griffins in OTF yielded an "incredible" quality. The process of drawing blood is thus:

Kill the creature
KNEEL
DRAW creature WITH SYRINGE (this removes the creature as if you had looted it; you don't get treasure)

It looks like this:

K>draw leo with syr

You draw some of a mastodonic leopard's blood into your syringe. The leopard shrivels and decays away
until naught but dust is left.

Roundtime: 3 secs.

Now, you'll need to repeat this process 9 more times to completely fill your vial. You need a full vial to prepare your talisman. If you LOOK at the syringe, you can tell about how much blood you've collected.

• 1-3 doses

A small crystal vial is locked into place within the syringe. A bit of sluggish war griffin blood sloshes inside, deep red in color.

• 4-6 doses

A small crystal vial is locked into place within the syringe. It is about half full of dark red war griffin blood.

• 7-9 doses

A small crystal vial is locked into place within the syringe. The syringe is mostly full of war griffin blood.

• 10 doses

A small crystal vial is locked into place within the syringe. The syringe is full to the brim with war griffin blood, which appears to be of incredible quality.

Note that you don't see the quality until you've drawn a full vial's worth.

Second step

Now that you've got a full vial, you must UNLOCK SYRINGE to remove the vial from the syringe and then prepare your talisman by POURing the vial onto the talisman. It looks like this:

Success

>unlock my syr

You carefully twist and unlock a small crystal vial from a thin silver syringe.

>pour my vial on my talis
You pour the mastodonic leopard blood in your vial over the surface of a rippled clay talisman. A faint thrum of a sensation akin to stirring awareness answers from within the blood-drenched talisman. The blood seeps into the surface of your talisman, and a feeling of faint satisfaction wells up from within.

The vial is now empty. [These can be reused.]

Failure

>pour my via on my tali
You pour the triton radical blood in your vial over the surface of a painted clay talisman. A faint thrum of a sensation akin to stirring awareness answers from within the blood-drenched talisman. As quickly as it came, it flickers out like a dying candle, and the blood beads on the surface of the the talisman as it rejects your offering.

Major Failure (Talisman breaks)

>pour my via on my tali
You pour the troll king blood in your vial over the surface of a simple red and white orb. A faint thrum of sensation akin to stirring awareness answers from within the blood-drenched orb. Cracks form all over the surface of a simple red and white orb just seconds before it crumbles away in your hands. Perhaps you just weren't skilled enough to prepare the orb, but now, you'll never know for sure. The blood on your hands commingles with the dusty remnants of the orb as if to compound your miserable failure. You get the feeling you just aren't skilled enough to prepare the vial.

Third step

Now your talisman is ready to take on a spirit beast, but first you have to find one. Go out into your local wilds and INVOKE TALISMAN. This will show you what beasts are around, if any. Note that you can INVOKE in a single room multiple times and the results may be different.

Invoking looks like this:

You focus your thoughts on a rippled clay talisman, attempting to align yourself with the spirits floes within the area, but fail to detect anything at all.
Roundtime: 15 sec.

And again for different results:

You focus your thoughts on a rippled clay talisman, attempting to align yourself with the spirits floes within the area, and a wash of foreign sensation floods your mind.

You detect the presence of a common griffin spirit.
You sense the presence of at least one spirit whose nature you cannot discern.

Roundtime: 15 sec.

Fourth step

Found something you like? Great. Now you have to ATTUNE TALISMAN to bring the spirit beast within the reach of your talisman so you can offer it.

That looks like:

You tighten your grip on a rippled clay talisman, willing it to attune to the presence of the griffin spirit lingering in the area.
Roundtime: 2 sec.

Fifth step

And finally, you OFFER TALISMAN to bind the beast to your talisman. I managed a couple failures on this and was told that one is major and one is minor, so I'll show those two as well as the success messaging. It is highly recommended to KNEEL before OFFERing.

Minor failure:

You hold out your clay talisman and reach out with your mind, calling to the kiramon spirit lingering in the area. Sudden warmth draws your attention to your hands, where beads of blood begin welling from the surface of your talisman. A stray thought causes you to lose your focus, and the blood seeps back into the talisman.
Roundtime: 14 sec.

Major failure (I had to reapply blood to the talisman after this):

You hold out your clay talisman and reach out with your mind, calling to the kiramon spirit lingering in the area. Sudden warmth draws your attention to your hands, where beads of blood begin welling from the surface of your talisman. The blood rises in a cloud of sanguine mist that evaporates into the air, and you sense that the spirit you are trying to summon is little pleased with your offering.
Roundtime: 20 sec.

Success:

You hold out your clay talisman and reach out with your mind, calling to the kiramon spirit lingering in the area. Sudden warmth draws your attention to your hands, where beads of blood begin welling from the surface of your talisman. The blood rises in a cloud of sanguine mist that illuminates a shrouded form hanging in the air before you. The spirit drifts closer to a charred clay talisman, its outline glowing as it nears. Golden light spills from the surface of the talisman, consuming the spirit. A thrill of satisfaction echoes up your arm and through your body.
Roundtime: 18 sec.

And that's it. Now you've got a spirit beast to fight with. If you look at your talisman, you should see something like this:

It's clay talisman that binds the spirits of the dead. What more do you want?

A rippled clay talisman is currently attuned to a spectral griffin of 1 train.

Its Power is moderate and will grow quickly.
Its Defense is low and will grow slowly.
Its Speed is moderate and will grow quickly.
Its Insight is moderate and will grow at a measured pace.
Its Accuracy is moderate and will grow at a measured pace.
Its Health is moderate and will grow slowly.

It is attuned to the element of air.

Enhancing and battling

At this point, you may also enhance your spirit beast with the flacons sold in the same shop you bought you talismans at. Each spirit beast can be enhanced a maximum of 20 times, and as of now there is no way to undo what you enhance, so be careful.

To make your beast fight, you have to POINT TALISMAN AT character and they must do the same to you. This initiates a match.

The commands you can give your spirit beast once the battle has started look are: ATTACK, GUARD, STRIKE, and SWITCH.

Attack: This uses your creatures special move. You must store up energy (this is automatically gained as your beast progresses through the fight) to use this move.

Guard: Basically a defensive stance. You can use it to give you extra time to figure out how you want to fight your enemy.

Strike: An offensive stance. Your beast will automatically continue it's basic attack in this mode.

Switch: You can alternate between five different stance -- Turtle, Wolf, Serpent, Hare, or Crane -- each with their own merit. I'll leave this for everyone to figure out, since I barely have it figure out myself.

Finally, Ilixil came out and battled with us as well as answered some questions. Here are some of the things he said spirit beasts (he was volunteering information based on what was happening during fights, and just in general, so there's not really any discernible order for each piece of information; I'll make notes where I think they're necessary):

Ilixil says, "I should mention that legendary beasts have unique abilities."

Re: Casilla asked how soon you can use the beasts again after you've lost/completed a match
Ilixil says, "You can use them immediately again."

Ilixil says, "You'll have to get a common to twenty trains, bind an uncommon, get it to twenty trains, and then get a legendary."

Ilixil says, "I'll probably craft a potion that will allow you to remove bad pours."

Ilixil says, "Because... it would be a shame to have to get rid of your talisman and train a whole new beast because of a poor choice."

Ilixil says, "When that time comes, I'll be customizing beasts in various ways."

Re: someone was making suggestions for beasts:
Ilixil says, "If there are beasts that the talismans cannot yet sense, I am always open to suggestions."

Re: the talismans
Ilixil says, "I will say that these are magicked to detect the spiritual floes around all of the major towns, so far."

Ilixil says, "I believe you might find a silverback near Icemule."

Casilla asks, "Do spirits switch stances on their own if their insight is high enough?"

Speaking to Casilla, Ilixil says, "They do not."

Speaking to Casilla, Ilixil says, "That is, however, an intriguing suggestion."

Re: beast enhancive potions
Laelithonel asks, "So common spirit only needs one dose of a certain potion?"

Speaking to Laelithonel, Ilixil says, "The potions are not necessary. They merely allow you more control over your beast's strengths and weaknesses."

Japhrimel asks, "If we get a spirit can we remove it? or would we need a new talisman?"

Speaking to Japhrimel, Ilixil says, "There is no way to remove a spirit currently, I'm afraid. Some of my future plans..."

Ilixil says, "Well."

Ilixil says, "Future plans are future plans."

Ilixil chuckles.

Ilixil says, "At any rate, I would rather enjoy it if there were a way to reimburse people for putting effort into training a spirit they decide they do not want."

Re: someone sancted
Ilixil says, "They will not, by the way, fight in places that are sanctuaries."

Speaking quietly to Ilixil, Demyse says, "Have thoughts turned inward for future experimentings? As in some of the most powerful creatures in this world aren't beasts or animal.. but those which stand as adventurers of Elanthia."

Speaking to Demyse, Ilixil says, "Some of the creatures are not beasts."

Speaking to Ilixil, Riend says, "You can customize the look of your creature, if I recall correctly. Is this option fairly open or must it remain the same type of creature it was to begin with?"

Ilixil says, "It'll have to remain roughly similar to that creature."

Ilixil says, "A rat will have to remain some sort of rodent."

Ilixil says, "I'm more likely to be all right with it if it's merely a cosmetic change."

Ilixil says, "There is a Sheruvian legendary beast, I know."

Ilixil says, "She..."

Ilixil says, "...is unpleasant."

Ilixil says, "Now, in addition to standard tactics..."

Ilixil says, "...elemental attunement can definitely change a fight."

Ilixil says, "That's not something that you can change about your beast, mind."

Casilla asks, "Do I have to attune it? Does it find an element on its own?"

Speaking to Casilla, Ilixil says, "Attunements are indelible."

You say, "They're innate to the creatures, if they have one."

Casilla says, "So this guy [kiramon] is just neutral."

Ilixil nods at Casilla.

Ilixil says, "So, it's worth noting that again, it can be a hindrance or a help."

And done! Someone post this stuff on kp.org, would ya? Thanks! (editor's note: you're welcome, subheadings added by me)

>The commands you can give your spirit beast once the battle has started look are: ATTACK, GUARD, STRIKE, and SWITCH. -Me

Oh, and you TELL it to do these things.

Kind of important.

~Brian, Sepher's player

Q&A 1

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 6991
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/10/2014 2:13 PM EDT
Subject: Re: Ebon Gate Teaser: Spirit Beasts

How many different spirit beasts are there totally; including common, uncommon and legendary? We need to know how many pokeba... erm talismans to buy to collect them all.

There are currently 107 Spirit Beasts. Of those, 39 are common, 16 are uncommon, and 52 are legendary. If you want to be a Pokem--er, Battle Pet--er, Spirit Beast master, well... that would take quite a bit of time. Each talisman holds three Spirit Beasts: one common, one uncommon, and one rare. You have to reach max level with the common to bind an uncommon, and max level with the uncommon to bind a rare. Yeah, I know the numbers are a little skewed if legendary beasts make up a plurality of the system. This is because legendary beasts are found in individual rooms. Uncommon beasts are found in parts of areas (and no, not giving hints!) Common beasts are realm-wide except in towns.

Are there kobolds with katanas?

No, but if you're clever, you can use the system to find out exactly what happens when a kobold attempts to use advanced armor and weaponry. It's... not pretty. I'm only half-joking here.

What is the benefit of having high quality blood?

It makes offering a talisman to a beast a bit easier.

Off the shelf. Since there will be possibly some folks who cannot take all their characters to EG, is it possible to pick up talismans at EG to give to another character?

Yup!

Creature types. Does the talisman picked up affect the creature that can be summoned with it? So far, I've seen rat and roa'ter - will there be a list of creatures (common/uncommon) that we can find, or is that now an in-game puzzle and left to discovery?

As an immediate next project, I'm thinking about doing some sort of enchiridion (let's not call it a Pokedex) for people who'd like to collect information on beast locations. Finding all the common beasts should be relatively easy, as you can step outside a town and start attuning. Common beasts are available in the surroundings of Wehnimer's, Kharam Dzu, Solhaven, River's Rest, Icemule Trace, Zul Logoth, Pinefar, Ta'Vaalor, and Ta'Illistim.

Or, will this merchant come back in a month or so after we've had time to tinker?

I intend to make customization for the talismans broadly available. I'll probably restrict modification of the beasts themselves (i.e. special attacks, custom look descriptions) to me for a bit, as they're a little tough to do at the moment.

How will one know relative statistics of spirit creature, in order to best make use of stances and/or strategies?

This is a good question. In testing, I found that a high-power, low-intuition creature like a roa'ter could definitely get its butt kicked by even a low-health, speedy creature like a rat if played well. Insight is kind of a fun stat. But yeah, currently you can look at your talisman to get a readout of relative stats. Like this:

look talis
A simple clay talisman is currently attuned to a spectral thrak of 1 train.

Its Power is high.
Its Defense is low.
Its Speed is low.
Its Insight is moderate.
Its Accuracy is moderate.
Its Health is moderate.

Its Power will grow slowly.
Its Defense will grow quickly.
Its Speed will grow at a moderate pace.
Its Insight will grow at a moderate pace.
Its Accuracy will grow at a moderate pace.
Its Health will grow at a moderate pace.

Its Insight has been enhanced by 1 points.

5) Potions for the spirit beast are temporary or permanent additions to creature's statistics?

Permanent. There's not currently a potion for clearing stat additions, but I'm thinking that'll be useful to have.

6) Binding common/uncommon. If I have a 20th level common rat spirit, that will enable my talisman to attract an uncommon creature (which, I assume, will be as powerful as a 20th level common rat spirit?). So.. the talisman can store multiple creatures.. or do the spirit creatures trade places?

The talismans hold three creatures, one of each tier. It's an unlock system, basically. And yeah, it's automatic.

Homelands

Darn, I missed a tick in not making this system like M:TG. Think of all the silver it would have brought in if your beast choice was random on purchase? I didn't do that because I'm not a jerk. Well, I am, but not on that level. Right?

Spirit Beasts 2.1

Category: Game Design Discussions
Topic: Spirit Beasts
Message #: 56
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 03/14/2015 03:23 PM EDT
Subject: Spirit Beasts 2.1: Arenas!

Editor's note: Talondown Arena information appears on that page. Only Spirit Beast system info here.

Armaments, beast experience potions, and common and uncommon Spirit Beast enhancements are all available for purchase or winning at the Talondown Arena!

Max Speed bonus now allows your beast to attack once every 7 seconds, up from 5. This was to compensate for the overwhelming speed of high-level fights, which were becoming a hindrance to strategizing even for experienced players. Speed ranks have been adjusted accordingly.

To positively readjust the value of Speed, extremely high levels of Speed now qualify beasts for the "Blinding Speed" buff, which begins as a passive 3% boost to attack avoidance and climbs from there.

Accuracy has now been considerably improved. Base special attack damage has been reduced slightly, but it is now boosted by Accuracy. Beasts with average levels of Accuracy should see no noticeable damage change, but those with high Accuracy will see more damage out of their special attacks. Furthermore, Accuracy now provides a chance to do more--but still reduced--damage while guarding.

Experience 'til next is now shown on Spirit Beast talismans!

Spirit Beasts 2.0

Category: Game Design Discussions
Topic: Spirit Beasts
Message #: 15
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 03/06/2015 07:16 PM EST
Subject: Spirit Beasts 2.0 Release

Some avid players of Spirit Beasts have noticed changes to their talismans today. There are quite a few updates as part of the 2.0 release, but the most pertinent one's you'll be seeing right now are:

• Clearer Info - Numerical values now exist for all Spirit Beast stats, accompanied by rough values appropriate for in-character discussion.

• Combat - It's been rebalanced around recent fight tracking to even out the gaps between certain overperforming and underperforming spirit beasts.

• Spirit Beast Armaments - You'll now be able to collect and use armaments for your Spirit Beasts. These come in three different levels: Lesser, Sturdy, and Potent armaments. More powerful armaments can do things like allow your beast access to new skills; all armaments will modify its stats in new and interesting ways. PUT armaments in your talisman to add them, DISARM the talisman to remove them.

• Level-matching - You can now FLIP your talisman and it will level match for lower-level beasts. Beasts will gain experience according to their actual levels, meaning that experienced Spirit Beast gladiators can help their friends gain experience more quickly.

• Fight Notifications - RUBbing your talisman while it's worn will now tune you in to receive fight notifications as they happen across Elanthia.

• New Spirit Beast Elements - Wild Magic (strong against spirit, weak against elements) and Rift Armament (strong against elements, weak against spirit).

• New Spirit Beast Special Abilities - Frailty (weak against criticals), Troll's Tenacity (has a chance to struggle for life), and Leech (has a chance to drain health on normal attacks), all acquired through equipment.

• Replacement Potions - Tired of your Spirit Beast? No problem! They can now be modified with replacement potions, which will trade out your existing beast with another of the same rarity level. All mechanical enhancements will be maintained. All physical customizations are removed by these.

• Classes - Beasts are now sorted into classes: Humanoids, Beasts, Elementals, Arthropods, and Aberrations. This is ultra-important for armaments!

Auchand

Oct 2014 Updates

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 6969
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/19/2014 12:29 AM EDT
Subject: Spirit Beasts Updates

I'm starting a running thread for any improvements to the Spirit Beasts system that will be coming out over the next few days, as players find bugs and quirks.

The following fixes and updates have been rolled out for Spirit Beasts:

• Blood vials should now be POURable without a target to remove any blood that's in them
• Last names should no longer be appearing as part of the stance checks
• Potions to clear enhancements are now available in Ilixil's Bestiary
• Improved the granularity of stat descriptions in the LOOK of talismans
• Level-based stat growth is now reflected in the LOOK of talismans
• Fixed a typo in air elemental vs. elemental messaging

A note on creature stats:

I've gotten a few questions emailed to me about how Spirit Beasts are statted. For the most part, the stat descriptions available from your creatures' talismans should be sufficient to determine its strengths and weaknesses, but in the interest of satisfying hungry minds, I'll spill the following. All Spirit Beasts begin with base level 1 stats ranging from 90 to 140 points, and can have stat growth levels from 1 to 4 points per level. In a talisman's LOOK, the (base stat + (stat growth * level)) is presented as a rough estimate of the stat, using the following criteria:

Pathetic: Under 100

Low: 100 to 115

Moderate: 115 to 130

Above Average: 130 to 145

High: 145 to 160

Very High: 160 to 175

Extraordinary: 175 to 190

Monumental: 190 to 210

Godlike: 210+

Common Spirit Beasts have base level 1 stats ranging from 90 to 130 and have a growth potential from 1 to 3 points per level. This means that, at maximum, a common spirit beast with a fully potion-enhanced stat, maximum stat growth, and with a 130 base stat can achieve a 170, or "very high" rating for that stat. They have a stat pool of 635 points and a growth pool of 12 points. This means that when I was statting them out, I had that number of points to play with, with the stipulations that the stat numbers did not go above 130 or under 90, and the stat growth did not go over 3 or under 1.

Uncommon Spirit Beasts have a stat pool of 645 points and a growth pool of 14 points. They have a stat range from 90-140 and a growth range of 1-4 points. In addition, some (but not all) of them have access to unique abilities instead of the common ones.

Legendary Spirit Beasts have a stat pool of 655 points and a growth pool of 16 points. They have a stat range from 90-140 and a growth range of 1-4 points, but they all have unique special abilities like Sympathy, Bleed, Airwall, Bone Shield, and more cool stuff. Doing the math, a legendary beast's maximum enhanced stat could reach 220 provided that they started at 140 and had a growth potential of 4.

Enhanced stats are not counted in the LOOK of your Spirit Beast talisman.

A note on leveling beasts:

There are diminishing experience returns for playing the same player multiple times in a row in order to discourage scripting. Spreading the wealth is a good idea.

Auchand

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 7323
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/20/2014 5:37 AM EDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Updates

Some more updates:

• Fixed a problem with stance information getting unset (this was causing people to see their last names or garbage information in place of stances; please email me at gs4-auchand@play.net if this persists!)
• Insight now provides a chance to auto-switch to counter your opponent
• Slightly raised the value of Defense
• Slightly increased penalty for being in the wrong stance when attacking
• Horses can now be bound in the Shadow Lands
• Two beasts can now be bound in Cysaegir
• Roltons now use the 'Stampede' special attack instead of 'False Security'
• Cinder Wasps now have access to the 'Stinging Swarm' special attack instead of 'Sky Rend'
• Foxes can now be bound in Pinefar
• Hounds can now be bound in Solhaven

Auchand

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 7356
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/20/2014 8:40 PM EDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Updates

• Adjustments have been made to how both Insight and Speed benefits are calculated, improving both stats because they were undervalued versus creatures of corresponding Defense or Power.
• Ebon Gate creatures added! Swamp witches, mire wights, giant mantises, and skeletal warriors are now available on the Ebon Gate grounds.
• Owls have been added to Pinefar.
• Manticores have been added to Wehnimer's Landing.

Auchand

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 7356
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/20/2014 8:40 PM EDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Updates

• Wolves are now Timber Wolves.
• Timber Wolves and Wolfshades have access to the new "We Are Pack" special ability instead of "Bestial Fury."
• Hyenas and Jackals added to the Broken Lands.
• Spirit Beasts can now be bound on Four Winds Isle: snapping turtles, great tortoises, capuchin monkeys, and seagulls.

Auchand

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 7444
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/22/2014 12:30 AM EDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Updates

>do we need more blood for each tier as we go along (tier being common to uncommon to legendary) (the one I dont mind finding out on my own)

Nope. Same amount of blood. Don't let someone unskilled with MIU handle the pour, though, as they can still break!

>do they all share the same original enhancements since we just pour the flacons on the talisman itself? (The main question I have since I want to be sure I buy more flacons if that is the case)

Enhancements are stored separately. The ones for sale at EG only work on common spirit beasts.

>The potions sound like an excellent general alchemy item to me.

I agree. I don't have any sway over the alchemy system, but I'll suggest it.

>Are the talismans destroyed sometimes on failure? Should I grab a few for the future?

>No, they aren't destroyed.

The only time a talisman can be destroyed is if someone with insufficient MIU pours blood on it.

>1. Does losing still progress them? If not, can it, at least a little?

I don't plan on incentivizing losing at this time. I might eventually. They seem to be gaining levels fast enough already.

>2. Is it weighted by level? So if my level 10 rolton beats a level 1 mantis, do I get much less progression for it, and vice versa?

It is weighted by level. The good news is that reverse weighting is true as well, so if you defeat a beast that's much higher in level, you'll get more exp.

>Also could we PLEASE declare the locations of the legendary spirit beasts an in game puzzle/secret and keep it off the boards?

I would like that as well. Due to the incredible difficulty of finding them, I think I may release a compendium that gives rough clues, but we'll see how hard finding the Uncommon Beasts is for more people.

>I am guessing that Rift beasts would fall in the uncommon or rare type categories

There aren't any beasts in the Rift, but I imagine there will be.

Auchand

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 7461
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/22/2014 12:17 PM EDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Updates

• Spirit Battles are now allowed in sanctuaries, but not sanctuaries that are in town.
• Spirit Battles are now allowed in town.
• Fixed an issue that was causing artificially long levels. Like, really long. All experience gained will still count toward your leveling progress.
• Updated the LOOK on talismans to include customization information about Spirit Beasts.
• To make the Guard and Strike duality more useful, Guard and Strike commands are no longer visible to one's opponents. In addition, guarding will now restore a small percentage of your beast's health per attacking turn. The bonus for defending and penalty to attacking while guarding have both been increased slightly. As a note, Guard and Strike only affect standard attacks.
• Added a check to POURing vials and potions that requires that the recipient item be held in your other hand.

Auchand

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 7602
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/25/2014 2:10 AM EDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Updates

Catscratch Fever Update!

• The new "Catscratch Fever" special ability is applied to all common and uncommon cats.
• Added alleycats around Solhaven, snowcats around Icemule, bobcats in Ta'Vaalor.
• Added two uncommon cats--a warcat and a tomcat.
• Added one legendary cat, a very special warcat.
• Added seven new uncommon beasts.
• Adjusted the look of talismans, especially when customized.
• Made it easier to find common beasts using INVOKE. Uncommon and legendaries still have a significant chance not to show and may require a multiple checks in the same room or area.
• A few beasts have gained/lost/changed elemental alignment to be more in-line with original guidelines (i.e. most (but not all) flying creatures are attuned to air.)

Auchand

Teaser

Category: Quests/Sagas/Events
Topic: Ebon Gate Festival
Message #: 6969
Author: GS4-AUCHAND
Date: 10/09/2014 10:11 PM EDT
Subject: Ebon Gate Teaser: Spirit Beasts

>invoke talisman
You focus your thoughts on a small glass talisman, attempting to align yourself with the spirits floes within the area, and a wash of foreign sensation floods your mind.
You detect the presence of a common rat spirit.
Roundtime: 15 sec.

>attune talisman
You tighten your grip on a small glass talisman, willing it to attune to the presence of the rat spirit lingering in the area.
Roundtime: 2 sec.

>offer talisman
You hold out your clay talisman and reach out with your mind, calling to the rat spirit lingering in the area. Sudden warmth draws your attention to your hands, where beads of blood begin welling from the surface of your talisman. The blood rises in a cloud of sanguine mist that illuminates a shrouded form hanging in the air before you. The spirit drifts closer to a simple clay talisman, its outline glowing as it nears. Golden light spills from the surface of the talisman, consuming the spirit. A thrill of satisfaction echoes up your arm and through your body.
Roundtime: 17 sec.

Why, it's almost like I should try and challenge someone else with one of these spirits!

>point talisman at paidreg
You challenge Paidreg to a Spirit Battle, offering your 1st train rat up against his 1st train roa'ter! (Paidreg has 45 seconds to respond by POINTing his clay talisman back at you.)

Paidreg accepts your challenge to a Spirit Battle!

You raise your clay talisman skyward and call out to the spirit dwelling within. The ephemeral spirit of a twitchy giant rat erupts forth in a blaze of energy and begins advancing on Paidreg, who counters a moment later by thrusting his clay talisman toward you. The spectral form of a plump red roa'ter crackles into existence, rising to defend him!
The battle will begin in 10 seconds.

The spirits begin to clash with one another!

Your giant rat snaps at Paidreg's red roa'ter!
A weak strike!
...13 damage!
A twitchy giant rat gathers a bit of energy from fighting.

What do you folks think? Want to know more?

2020

Category: General GemStoneIV Discussion
Topic: Game Systems
Message #: 628
Author: GameMaster Auchand
Date: 07/11/2020 03:00 AM CDT
Subject: Spirit Beasts Unleashed

Spirit Beasts 3.0 is here.

Tonight, I rolled out some pretty significant changes to the Spirit Beasts system that should make it more fun and rewarding. A few things that you should be aware of:

- The BEAST verb is your one-stop shop for managing your Spirit Beasts. It comes with a walkthrough of the new system in BEAST HELP.

- Capturing a Spirit Beast is much easier than before. Just grab a talisman, head out of town, and use BEAST SENSE, BEAST ATTUNE {beast}, and BEAST CAPTURE.

- The system is also considerably less inventory-intensive.

- Spirit Battles now offer experience rewards for your first 10 matches of a given day.

- Completing the weekly arena challenge on the Firebird awards a significant amount of experience and some treasure.

- Scoring in the top three places for the Listed Fights (PvP in the arena) now awards a significant amount of experience and some treasure.

- You can now capture up to 100 unique Spirit Beasts, and more than that with the aid of enchiridions or soul cages to hold your extra beasts or duplicates.

- Spirit Beasts' unique currency, redsteel marks, can be used to purchase system-related items in the Talondown if you INQUIRE with the right people, or it can be blown on gem pouches five times a day.

Although a number of players did wonderful, in-depth testing on the Test server, I'll be around with an eagle eye to assist with any bugs or issues throughout this weekend.

I've compiled some additional notes on the system in this document until the GSWiki page is updated: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w0fw64CMWcaTgWgLSBnnmlYW4enko-LGAMT4jiChYDI

You can start your beast-hunting journey by visiting Marks of the Beast, the Spirit Beast shop on the Firebird. The ship is currently docked in Icemule in Prime and the Landing in other instances.

Enjoy!

Auchand

Category: General GemStoneIV Discussion
Topic: Game Systems
Message #: 653
Author: GameMaster Auchand
Date: 07/12/2020 11:19 PM CDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Unleashed

Redsteel Marks should have carried over.

The new requirements are that you bind 10 commons to get to uncommons, and then 15 common or uncommon to get to legendaries.

Auchand

Category: General GemStoneIV Discussion
Topic: Game Systems
Message #: 662
Author: GameMaster Auchand
Date: 07/15/2020 12:20 PM CDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Unleashed

I did notice one thing though...why did you choose to use INQUIRE instead of ORDER (like almost all other merchants I'm familiar with) when wanting to see options for things to buy.

Its a small pet peeve of mine that certain functions in the game are not standardized as I don't think they add any fun/flavor and is (albeit a small one) minor unnecessary hurdle. Everyone should know to just walk in to a place and use ORDER to see what is for sale. I have the same problems where things are on tables or listed on menus too but that is neither here nor there. - JASON13828

This is a really good question. I'll add ORDER in where possible.

Auchand

Category: General GemStoneIV Discussion
Topic: Game Systems
Message #: 663
Author: GameMaster Auchand
Date: 07/15/2020 12:26 PM CDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Unleashed

So each spirit beast has a degree of rarity among its kind. Kinda like how pokemon have varying stats. So how do I see what kind of specimen my spirit beast is after I capture it? BEAST INFO doesn't have a field that gives the above information. - MWESTERBECK1

This has been added in.

Auchand

Category: General GemStoneIV Discussion
Topic: Game Systems
Message #: 664
Author: GameMaster Auchand
Date: 07/15/2020 12:29 PM CDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Unleashed

Their first beast was a snowcat and would not respond to any commands given from them the first two times we battled. We did some looking and found the loyalty was very low and assumed that may have been the root cause. - TANDL

Can you or your friend post a log? Loyalty won't prevent beasts from acting if they engage in a Spirit Battle. 0 Loyalty will prevent the beast from being summoned in the first place.

Auchand

Category: General GemStoneIV Discussion
Topic: Game Systems
Message #: 677
Author: GameMaster Auchand
Date: 07/20/2020 01:27 AM CDT
Subject: Spirit Beasts Update - 7/19/20

A few updates to the system:

- Listed Fights are now PvE only. While partially to prevent abuse, this will better allow solo players to partake.

- Blood Matches should no longer kill players prematurely.

- Armament Leech has been buffed.

- Experience gains should now be timed off of ET instead of GMT.

- Upon reaching max level in the Talondown, you will now be able to bank up to 9 wins beyond level 7. This means you will not be immediately demoted upon a loss if you have banked wins.

- Talondown lockboxes will now reward redsteel mark stacks in addition to other prizes.

- Animal Companions no longer interfere with beast commands.

- Bestial soulstones can now be BEAST OFFERed to infuse a beast with extraordinary quality.

- Aliasing: ORDER can be used at the Talondown cashier to view wares; INQUIRE WEEKLY can be used in place of INQUIRE CHALLENGE

- TURN and FLIP should no longer provide weird messaging on some cases with enchiridions.

Auchand

Category: General GemStoneIV Discussion
Topic: Game Systems
Message #: 678
Author: GameMaster Auchand
Date: 07/20/2020 10:36 PM CDT
Subject: Re: Spirit Beasts Update - 7/19/20

Some more updates:

- New Spirit Beasts have been spotted in the Rift.

- Mother Superior's special ability cost and damage has been reduced.

- Hanged Man's special ability has been made less punishing to the caster.

- Special costs that deal less than standard ability damage have been adjusted to compensate. I'll be continuing to monitor for balance passes.

- Special costs now appear in BEAST INFO.

Auchand