Removing potions and wands isn't exactly top of the menu right now, it hasn't been fully discussed and would require a lot of builder work to do. It's mainly something people that want a 'balanced' mud complain about, because we like complaining. Sure, it might happen in the future, but I wouldn't start stressing about losing potions in the future.. Although I do thnk you should try and be independent of potions, fighting with a kajillion opas is extremely inefficient.. If you want to get more 'game savvy' as you call it, learn some tricks so you become less dependent on potions.
As for explaining why I want fewer potions/buffs/wands:
Currently spells like sanctuary are made completely redundant by how easy they are to obtain. Sanctuary is the easiest example, but there are loads. Now, yes without sanctuary it is hard to fight mobs - that's kinda why sanctuary is a good spell, but don't you think it's a bit ridiculous that everyone that can get sanctuary so easily? I find that it kinda just renders the spell pointless. When it's so easily obtainable, it just becomes a de facto player strength. Now, the thing is, it never used to be such a big problem, because there were always the top end spell ups that weren't so readily available, but with the addition of a few new zones, suddenly the hard to find spells have become instantly available as well. And by complaining about those spells, it kinda lead me onto wondering what's the point in spells like sanctuary at all, when they're pretty much innate on players because they're so easy to get. And then on to thinking about why melee classes get to fully spellup with every buff available, whereas caster classes can't.
And the caster can automatically get defensive and healing spells, whereas the melee class has to find them….even again.
Uhh.. A caster can auto get the spells, a melee class has to go find the spells. How is that even? But, that's not the point.
The caster gets those spells because they're a 'casting' class, spells are the unique features to casters. By allowing melee classes to find the potions and stuff for those spells, it takes away a bit of that uniqueness.
If you're going for even, it should be: Casters can automatically get defensive and healing spells, and have to go out to find potions with 'dodge' or whatever (it sounds dumb, I know) - Melee classes automatically get defensive skills like dodge, and have to go out and find potions of sanctuary.. That sounds more even to me.
If took me over four hours to fight greenie the dragon and that was with the help of Tor bringing me probably over 200+ opas. It took me hours to fight the hag with tons of potions and wands. So, under the new system, would I be able to just kill greenie or the hag on my own, using dodge and trample and kick? How would I ever be able to kill that bull? Or is the idea that I would have to ask a caster to keep healing me? If so, makes it hard to be independent. On the other hand, one of my clan members (Grish, don’t know how to spell his alias) was generously offering to spell us up and he didn’t get any takers probably because we could do it ourselves with potions. So I guess that is an example of something that goes towards your idea of removing potions and wands.
Four hours to beat greenie, I seriously suggest you rework your fighting style, and rely less on 200+ opas.
On point: I have no complaint against healing potions, they've been around a heck of a lot longer than I have, they deserve their right to 'be'. However, I do wonder if you actually LIKE sitting there for 4 hours quaffing potions. Wouldn't you rather a slightly more in depth system? That depth and extra gameplay is what I sit around complaining about, and then try and help design.
What will happen to all the stores in the game that sell potions? Or finding things on the ground that are potions or wands? Will they just be turned into bread? I’ve found it fun to find special potions and wands. Sometimes they were in easy to get back to locations, but often they were in places that were work to get back to or hard to find locations, so you couldn’t stock up too much. Should people planning new areas, just stop making potions and wands?
I want some stores potions removed yes, some are just too stupid. Yes, it is fun to find special potions and wands, but it's kinda boring when you've done all the work finding a whole lot of cool potions and wands, and then you find one shop that's easier to get to than all the rest of the shops you've found, and sells every single potion you actually wanted in the first place. See where I'm going with this?
Many of you post things and talk at such a high level, and it would be nice if you would post reasons for things so the people with not as much game savvy could understand and possibly buy into the reasons and goals of changes….rather than just saying things like yah, let’s remove all potions and wands. It just seems to me, that without such explanations that it appears that everything is being taken away, whereas in reality things are probably being added to and made better.
Most of the things you read on the 'suggestions' forum are just that - suggestions. There's no need to stress over the possibility of every new suggestion becoming a reality. And yes, I complain a lot, and talk about a lot of different gameplay ideas, but I know some of them arn't feasible, or no one else agrees with them. I just put ideas out there and hope for the best. And then sometimes they catch on, and I go about helping to design the idea and fending off any real workloads being placed on me. (I've got it down to an artform.)
To sum up: this 'idea' isn't ever going to be a drastic change, basically it'd be fixed by removing about 2 or 3 shops from the game that you've probly not even found yet Iwku. So don't stress.
And as for other ideas I rave on about: skills/spells distribution is in and is just being touched up a bit. The clan idea Mord came up with is a big change, and isn't even underway yet, nor even decided on whether it'll continue, so the likelihood of that being in before next year is kinda small. The only other changes I can think of that need doing atm are some bug fixes, and balance changes.
Hope that helps.
