Ok, so here is the deal.

As it is now, a number of skills and spells have illogical from RP standpoint and inconvenient from gameplay standpoint direct lag (disclaimer – no, it is not about the duration of lag, but about its nature). Here are several examples – plant growth, setsnares (ocrish version at least), circles of protection. Let’s discuss on examples.

<<<Plantgrowth>>>
As soon as you commune it successfully, the room turns into wilderness and you are lagged for something like 90 seconds unable to enter any command.

Why it is illogical from RP standpoint?
It takes some time for trees and herbs to grow, they cannot grow INSTANTLY.

Why it is inconvenient from gameplay standpoint?
As soon as you cast it, you can only stand like an idiot doing nothing for a good amount of time. If someone unexpected will come and attack you, you will die like this not able to enter a single command or escape.

How it should work? (sorry in advance for my non-native English, think of your own messages)

com ‘plant growth’

(Check if possible at all. If not – standard message and no lag, but wasted mana. Basically, same as it is now.)

(Check spell %. If lost concentration – standard message and minor standard lag on spell + half mana wasted. Basically, same as it is now.)

(If casted successfully, whole amount of needed mana is wasted)

You concentrate on the prayers to your deity attempting to stimulate the growth of trees, bushes and herbs in the area…

<Time equal to the current lag is needed to finish the prayer>
<If ANY command is entered when you are praying OR you are attacked you get>

Your concentration breaks and you fail to invoke plant life in the area.
<You are ready to roll>

(Necessary time has passed)

As you finish your prayers, you’ve noticed new trees, herbs, and bushes surrounding you.
<Only NOW the room has been turned into wilderness. Success.>

One more example.

<<<Setsnares>>>

Same reasons, see previous example

setsnares
(Insert checks, see previous example. If succesful)

You start preparation of the deadly snare...

<Time equal to the current lag is needed to finish preparation>
<If ANY command is entered when you are preparing OR you are attacked you get>

You stop your preparations.
<You are ready to roll>

(Necessary time has passed)

You’ve prepared a dangerous snare for bypassers (or whatever current message is)
<Only NOW there is a snare in the room, success>

And so on and so force. I am sure you can think of more examples yourself. Like conjie circles (why can’t you stop drawing them when started, or how in hell you finish them in the room where you group leader has moved while you STARTED in another room?) etc.

So, what do you think of it?
Of course, from PK balance standpoint there are cons and pros for these classes in this change, but I think proposed way is much more logical.

By abilities, I mostly meant REQUEST command in this case.

I think it would be nice to have the same thing applied to it as well.

Request is supposed to have a drawback to make up for the good parts of it. Guess what the drawback is?

1) Allowing you to break your own lag would require ugly infrastructure work with possible consequences on performance. I'm not convinced a project of this scale would merit it.

2) Some skills work on a time delay like you mention, such as Animate Dead or Spirit Shepherd. They can be interrupted, and they don't take effect until the end of the lag. We can retroactively alter individual skills to work like this (Plant Growth is a good candidate), but I don't think it's particularly urgent to do so. It takes a little finesse, and isn't a 5-minute dealie.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

All that said, I have no problem with you suffering for unwise timing of commands. If you start a Plant Growth ritual and someone jumps you, more power to them. IC, it presumably involves great concentration (hence the time involved), and it's logical that if someone did surprise you then, they'd get in some licks.

It's similar to why we let people die if they clog their command buffer with goofy commands. ("Lash! Lash! Lash!", or the guy bashing 10 rounds after being disarmed.)

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I think the extra lag on some spells/skills/actions is more for game balance then for realism. So the idea that plant growth lags you for x amount of time is not because the plants need this time to grow or whatever but because it provides a balancing effect, that is you lose the ability to enter commands during the lag period. By negating the lag because of a hostile action towards the player using the lagging action would remove this balancing aspect of these skills/spells etc. While it might be neat from a realism aspect if say the plants did not finish growing in your example till the commune was finished it is another aspect of balance, you are going to be lagged but at least you got of the positive effect of the commune.

Just my thoughts, oh and it would suck if request was changed like this, it would take all the risk away from requesting an item.