Now do not get me wrong, I love them and I mean that in a fighting alongside and fighting against them kind of way but one thing struck me about them and I could be wrong in my thinking; so here goes...

Shifters have a major focus (easy to maintain in terms of mana)

Shifters have a minor focus (less easy to maintain in terms of mana without the edge)

Some lucky shifters *green eyed monster* get a special form that is often not part of their major or minor focus so should these forms, regardless of how confident the shifter is in using them, cost significantly more mana per tick so that the shifters who have them will have to be more tactical in when they use them instead of using them the majority of the time?

If they already do cost significantly more to maintain then fine but I just thought it would be in keeping with the idea of foci/costs etc in the form design.

So, request is to have an increase in the cost of maintaining 'special' shapeshifter forms to make them more of a tactical choice than the proverbial.

Santa Zulg already abided, so it's not about anything there.
I just want to know your* personal view of a special form that
IS within one of the foci.
(And no I've never had a quest form so I'm not reaching for
any sort of advantage)

I'd figure a touch more mana cost, but not significant as with
something outside of both foci.

Or maybe power related. I'm sure some 'quest forms' are pretty
close to copies of existing forms and it is more a cosmetic
change for the 'cool factor'. So maybe those don't cost as much
extra mana. Just my two dollars** there.

*Your=anybody 'your'
**Inflation you know.

Technically there is no question here...so I'll just toss out some of my viewpoints.

>Santa Zulg already abided, so it's not about anything there.
>I just want to know your* personal view of a special form
>that IS within one of the foci.
>(And no I've never had a quest form so I'm not reaching for
>any sort of advantage)

I'm not quite sure what you mean. None of the quest forms are technically within one of the foci. They are modeled after rules of one of the foci, but they are technically quest forms which is enitrely different than an offense form.

If you're given tiger, or sand lizard, or some other existing form as a reward, the cost is the same as if it was one of your normal forms.

>Or maybe power related. I'm sure some 'quest forms' are
>pretty close to copies of existing forms and it is more a cosmetic
>change for the 'cool factor'. So maybe those don't cost as
>much extra mana. Just my two dollars** there.

An offensive quest form tends to be better across the board than an equivalent normal offensive form. They have better offensive capabilities, defensive capabilities, and tend to have more skills (utilitarian and not).

Personally, I'd love if more quest forms were along the lines of Gargoyle, Bulette and Nightmare.

Ergo, that they give an ability/skillset that just isn't in the existing shifter lexicon. Gargoyle allows shifters to remain "hidden" and undetectable, Bulette is like an armadillo crossed with a shark (on LAND!) and Nightmare allows for a limited form of gate.

I was also a big fan of forms like Griffon (fly + rake) and Giant Clam (I just love teh clam hyuk hyuk).

Finally, why don't you guys throw more third tier forms as rewards for Role Contests (instead of quest forms). IE, if I was an Air/Offense shifter who won the role contest, I'd be given tortoise or sand lizard instead of displacer beast.

I really feel like quest forms should ONLY go to the best of the best, not someone who wrote a decent story and found his wands. Or just to Lightmage (I'd totally be cool with that FWIW).

>Finally, why don't you guys throw more third tier forms as
>rewards for Role Contests (instead of quest forms). IE, if I
>was an Air/Offense shifter who won the role contest, I'd be
>given tortoise or sand lizard instead of displacer beast.
>
>I really feel like quest forms should ONLY go to the best of
>the best, not someone who wrote a decent story and found his
>wands. Or just to Lightmage (I'd totally be cool with that
>FWIW).

It's something we've been discussing.

The cry will be "SUPER OVER-REWARDED"

And if you did the natural opposite, i.e. 3rd tier forms from RC wins no longer make you eligible for quest forms no matter how awesome you are, the problem goes in the opposite direction. Shifters will probably just stop entering role contests entirely.

You may want to test out Chimera compared to Lion on the test server before giving it out again ;)

If you want more feedback I will gladly email you a constructive breakdown of the form, but I didn't want to post it here for everyone to see (as it is a quest form).

Let me know!

>You may want to test out Chimera compared to Lion on the test
>server before giving it out again ;)

I don't even know what this means. You are probably making assumptions that I was not when I created the form.

>If you want more feedback I will gladly email you a
>constructive breakdown of the form, but I didn't want to post
>it here for everyone to see (as it is a quest form).

Feel free to mail me.

I was unaware of the mechanics there.

n/t