There was a bug board post a while back about unholy weapons not being magical. Zulgh said by design. Questions about why, and about changing that, are therefore meant for the gameplay board.

So, staff, could someone explain to me how a mage - antipaladin is a mage, not a communer - can cast a spell, making a powerful weapon that performs magic itself, and the weapon not be flagged magic?

It just seem so obviously magical.

And, really, why is there any opposition to doing so? What's the downside of flagging an antipaladin's weapon magic?

It can't be difficult to do, code-wise.

So, please, could someone explain why? Or just go ahead and make the change, of course?

Thanks.

...the fact that yes, even though the AP is casting a spell he/she is -actually- blessing the weapon. So I'm seeing it being similar to a paladin or a healer blessing weapons in order to wield them. Therefore if it is a blessing (albeit an unholy one) then there is no reason for it to be flagged magical, right?

Now understanding this and the other fact that APs are drawing power from unnatural forces (devils/demons possibly) and not from the power of their faith/deity/beliefs it also makes sense (at least to me) why they have to cast a spell instead of communing. Another point is that it is probably easier for coding purposes to have a class either only be able to cast or only be able to commune instead of having a bunch of spells they can cast and one or two supplications to commune.

This reasoning can be used to differentiate from a ranger casting 'imbue weapon' since from what I understand, rangers are using a more natural force for their weapons.

Now this just must be my naivete of just playing (this game) for fun but please don't flame me for this post or anything. I'm just saying.

Sounds pretty simple to me. It's not magical for OOC, gameplay balance issues. No amount of justification via IC terms is ever going to change that.

Splntrd

Zulg has made it clear that he doesn't want unholies flagged magical. So this is not an argument, it's an explanation.

Part of the unholy magic is cloaking the magic used to create it. i.e the magic of unholy blessing contain a powerful concealment enchantment that prevents the weapon from appearing magical.

Just like ragers' truesight doesn't see duo-ed transmuters, they also can't see the magical aspect of an unholy weapon through the concealing enchantment.

They aren't, so that the AP rager who kills an ap with an unholy axe, can...hrm...leaching is still a spell hrm...


never mind


hehe

If you are a rager ap, and you kill another ap and take their axe can you use it? I mean, it's not flagged magical...

You can't wield anyone else's unholy weapon.

What do you know about a-ps? Name one a-p you played that would impress us! Hah! I thought so, you don't know d*ck about a-ps!
(yeah, that was sarcasm).

And Graatch, if you played an a-p you'd appreciate it not being magical, but you seem to gotten stuck in the rager box for a while, come back to the Empire!

They are infusing the weapon with a part of themself (hence the massive damage they take when they are destroyed). Part of the goal of A-P weapons is to a) use them strategically if you somehow get one from an A-P, b) have enough incentive in "a" to make you want to keep them and give the A-P a chance to get them back.

I honestly don't care that Ragers want to give these items to their magic-eating dude. If you don't want them to have it. Sac it.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

How does what you said in any way relate to whether the axe should or should not be considered "magical" in thera? I don't argue with anything you wrote (though your second paragraph is unwarrantedly mean-spirited, eh?) but don't see how any of it translates into "and therefore the axe is mundane and not magical."

Infusing the weapon with a part of themselves using a big expensive magical spell. Taking damage from a spell doesn't make it more or less magicky, obviously. Making the weapon shoot out flames, or acid, or lightning, all spells, all considered magic (they are bane'able, for example. And don't change that just because you want to be spiteful, obviously.).

Making the axe accurately reflect its magical nature would in no way alter or affect the stated goal of having it used strategically - people will barter for it or not, destroy it or not, nobody is going to change their use of an ap's weapon they've obtained based on the (magic) flag. And even if they were, how is that any less part of the stated goal to use them strategically anyway?

Is there any reason why it isn't flagged magic? It obviously is magic. The question is why isn't it properly flagged as such. Your answer (which I thank you for, at least insofar as it was prompt) doesn't discuss or relate to any of that.

Thanks.

There are better more productive and more things that people could spend their time doing with the mud (players and imms alike) instead of debating whether an item should be considered magical or not. As if Ap's don't have it ####ty enough with villagers why bother making the sacrificing of their weapons mandotory, even though it likely already is for 99.99% of villagers. And how is making it a magical weapon going to affect any part of the game other than making getting their weapon back that much more trouble and ruining that much more fun?

Uh, what? Nothing you said is either relevant, or accurate.

First, you seem to be expressing some concern that the necessary change here would be some big project. That's obviously wrong. It's adding one flag to an item in the code that already exists. So let's not make this more than it is: a simple fix for something that's been overlooked for years.

Second, fixing this oversight is not going to make it any more difficult for aps. It's not going to affect them in any way at all, really. Nobody really cares about magic flags other than villagers, and villagers already are never going to return an ap's weapon. So this will have zero negative impact on the ap.

Third, everything the staff has done for the last five years has been to make things "right", meaning they are what they should be, look how they should be, are written how they should be, reflect reality (cf reality) as best as possible, etc. That's why there is the typo command. The bug board. The re-writes of room descs. The big item revamp to make things more align with reality in weight and size and all that. This is precisely along those lines, fixing an oversight that's gone unnoticed for years.

It's obviously a magical item. It's the result of magic, it does magic, it has magic. It is magic. It should have the flag. For consistency sake if nothing else - though there is plenty else.

It would make the unholy weapon stand out from the others to those who can detect magic.

And, so? It's not like it's hidden. Lore or identify or even just trying to wield it will tell anyone that.

You're saying that despite it obviously being magic, despite the obvious rightness of making it what it should be - as all these other projects the last year or so have done with all the other items and descriptions in the game - you think the extra three seconds a looter uses by having to examine a weapon rather than see it flagged in the corpse, is important? And even were that true, that only means it will stand out as against non-magic weapons. So many weapons have the magic flag - especially weapons an ap would use - already. So you wouldn't know anyway.

I'm not seeing your point, honestly.

Quote Graatch: It's not going to affect them in any way at all, really.

I'm pointing out that this particular statement was wrong. I'm not disagreeing with you on unholies being magical, just saying that it does have an affect(although a small one) on them. For example, if your unholy is the second practice dagger in your bag, the rager looter might miss it even if he looked inside the bag for important goods. However, magic flag would make it stand out. While I don't see it as a bad thing, it does have an affect. When you use statements like any way at all, you can often end up being wrong.

Personally, I think magicality of AP's weapon should be treated the same way as imbuing a ranger's staff.

The following would also affect APs if their axes were magic:

Nexus wanting to take it to feed to the Veil
Scions wanting to take it to despoil

If I was a rager and using a weapon that cast magical spells you'd tell me that the weapon was magic, and kick me out of the cabal. "Common sense," you'd say. If it's casting magic spells it's magic. Unless there is something buggy or cheaty that can be done if they are flagged magic, I don't see why you wouldn't flag them that way?

Exactly. It's magic. It should be flagged as such.

But I agree with you. Anti-paladins wield unholy, soul-gathering magic and channel it into a weapon. You cast a SPELL on the weapon control the unholy blessing. When you get another a-ps unholy weapon you cast a SPELL to transfer the unholy blessing. Then, once you've killed enough people and gotten a control, you cast a SPELL on the weapon to use that control. I haven't seen any logical or gameplay reason yet that convinces me its not magical.

There is all this sort of talk like it's somehow cheatsy or there is some sneaky reason why Graatch wants the unholies flagged magical? If this is the case can you give a simple, "Yes." I don't need to know how it's cheatsy, I'll take your word for it.

Otherwise I honestly don't get why it isn't a (Magical) item?

nt