Customized Skills and Special Attacks
The Saga of Ryzom combines every action a player can do within the world into one unified game mechanic, called the Modular Action System. This system holds special combat maneuvers, spells, material prospecting and harvesting, and even crafting.
Each individual Action is made up of a number of subcomponents, which are called Stanzas. These Stanzas each have different abilities and costs associated with them, and once a player learns them, they can combine them into their own custom actions. Each individual Stanzas also has a cost associated with it, which prevents seriously unbalanced actions from being created - more powerful abilities will need higher credit costs in order to balance them out.
New Stanzas are learned by receiving training in different skills. A new mage player starts with only one basic offensive magic spell, Acid Damage 1. After advancing, they can then learn Life Gift 1, which gives them additional Stanzas. The actual Stanzas for each spell are below:
Acid Damage 1 Life Gift 1
Acid Damage 1 (+3) Heal 2 (+10)
Credit Range 1 (-1) Credit Range 3 (-3)
Credit Sap 2 (-2) Credit Life 6 (-7)
By using the Modular Action System, this same player can then create their own custom spell, naming it whatever they would like:
Free Acid Bolt
Acid Damage 1 (+3)
Credit Range 3 (-3)
Although it may not be very powerful, and has a serious range penalty, it does have the advantage of being completely free to cast. This makes it great in situations when the caster is already in close and doesn't need that extra range - by far superior to the standard Acid Damage 1.
Of course, this example used only two different spell abilities. The more actions a character is trained in, the more Stanzas it has access to, and the more possibilities there are to create ones perfectly suited to your play style. And not all Stanzas and abilities can be earned from the trainer - some can only be gained by completing missions or quests. Regular game updates will include new Stanzas and abilities, adding even more possibilities into the mix.
As briefly explained above, the modular action system can allow the mage to edit this stanza. Most likely by using "Range" credits, which will limit the casting range, but reduce the amount of SAP used. Also this spell could typically have other "Options" added such as "Vamp" and "Bomb"... As the costs of the spells increases, the mage may have to use the maximum SAP credit, as well as range and health credits as well. TYPICALLY mages will not add the time credits to a spell, nobody likes a slow spell.
A fight stanza will always begin with the "Default Attack" stanza and then instead of spell blueprints, you will have your abilities. This can be any number of skills depending on the choices you purchased with your SP. They typically may include "Increased Damage", "Accurate Attack", Bleed etc etc... Those skills can be stacked similarly as discussed earlier, and your options to "Balance" your stanza are Stamina & Health.
Similarly as a harvester you will build your stanza and keep your skill choices within your focus credit range for balance and efficiency.
Remember, every "Action" purchased from a trainer will work "straight out of the box"... but editing the stanza's to make your OWN custom actions is where the versatility is this system shines. As long as your actions are at least balanced with your credits you can "Learn The Action".
[Hopefully taking some of the documentation out there and adding examples and additional info folks will have less questions about making custom bricks]
Click here to join Melinoe
Ultimate Harvesting Guide
