Actually I am more sick of hearing we won't get bind. You are right it
won't happen until people start leaving EQ in droves because they are either
A, a melee class that is sick of running to their bodies on Kunark from
Freeport, or B, they are a caster who is sick of constantly dying because
all the tanks have either quit or are an hour away in Freeport because the
lizard race is evil and they can't bind there. Verant needs to realize that
bind is not a class balance issue it is a game fun issue. I frankly
wouldn't care if we got bind if either everyone could be bound everywhere by
a caster, and or there were npc's to bind you in cities.
I have quit playing 5 times in the last 2 weeks because I found myself in a
city waiting for over an hour trying to get bound. Adventuring on faydwyr
while bound in Freeport is pointless, as is adventuring on erud while bound
in Qeynos. I have never been able to get bound on Erud unless I brought my
own binder with me. I have sat in Kaladim for 2 hours waiting to get bound
after having been sent tells by three different casters in Butcherblock
saying hold on they would come bind me. None of them showed and they are
all on my ignore list now.
The only 3 places I have been able to bind in regularly are Freeport,
Qeynos, and Rivervale and even in those places its nigh on impossible after
11pm mst. I hae been bound in Halas for over a week without being able to
get a bind after trying in Kaladim, Freeport and Rivervale. last nite,
after 13 hours of play over the last week I was able to get bound in
Rivervale. For those of us who can't play in prime time and don't have a
regular group that gets online together on a consistent basis, binding is
currently a ridiculous situation.
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Gillan [mailto:
GGillan@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 10:28 AM
To: '
eqbards@onelist.com'
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Hey this sounded interesting..
From: Greg Gillan <
GGillan@...>
We are not getting bind. We will never get bind and we have less need for
bind than any other class, considering the rate at which we run.
Talies, please KABONG this before this whole arguement starts up yet again.
I think most people are sick of hearing it by now
Elwyn Heartstring
Level 44 Bard
Erollisi Marr
-----Original Message-----
From: Lange, Stephen [mailto:
SLANGE@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 12:21 PM
To: Eqbards (E-mail)
Subject: [eqbards] Hey this sounded interesting..
From: "Lange, Stephen" <
SLANGE@...>
This is a posting that was on alt.games.everquest that I think is
logical and something that may be considered for a petition.
Let me know what you think.
This is a suggestion for a bardic form of Bind Affinity. Bards are amongst
Norath's primary travellers, so it seems a little odd that, somewhere
amongst the song set, there is no bind song.
In an effort to avoid the "Give us bind" syndrome, I have applied some
thought. If you are already thinking "No way, bind for casters only", please
read on - you might actually be pleasantly surprised.
The great Songmistress Alenia discovered a song, sung by a bard in South
Karana, which strangely and uniquely affected her. She aquired the
instructions for the singing of the song, and returned with it to Freeport,
thinking nothing further of it until her arrival.
During her travel, she was accosted by a creature which, when she came to
loot it, produced a lump of ore. She placed this in her backpack, and
continued to freeport.
The following morning, she dug out her notes, and decided to rehearse this
new song, before bringing it before her guildmaster for review. As she sang,
she noticed that the strange sensation she had experienced previously was
lacking, infact, she was most of the way through the song before that
sensation returned. Then the unexpected happened.
The lump of ore, which she had not yet sold, began to resonate with the
chords and notes. Her mind was filled with a passion for the rocks and
stones, the earth and grass that had been hewn, cut, shaped and grown into
the town of Freeport. Her soul filled with a passion for Freeport, and she
realised she had bonded with Freeport.
Feeling suddenly drained, she ceased the song and sat. She had discovered
it! She recognised the drained sensation from tales her mother had told her,
and with a clap of joy she cried out "Mana!".
--- The practical explanation ---
Bard's Bind would have a lengthy casting time instead of the usual "3.0".
And it would use mana, and a component (a piece of ore, or maybe some other
item which would fuel a bit of economy).
The mana would be, say, 200 units. However; bard's bind would ALSO be a
group effect, requiring, say, 100 or 150 units of mana per extra person
bound. During the bind, each of the targets must be seated.
That means: Bard sings bind, 1 member of party (within radius) is not
sitting for the entire casting duration, bind fails.
If the bard is grouped with, say, 4 people, he would need 200 + 4 x 100 =
600 units of mana.
The numbers might need juggling so that a bard can bind a full party of 6 by
level 30.
I would suggest that the song be implemented as level 20 or 21, and that the
songs be shuffled so that it effectively replaces the level 14 song (the
cataloging libretto).
Implementing level 21 makes most sense, since you could then move Melanie's
Melifluous motion down to level 14.
I don't, however, think that we bards should get bind early (e.g. level 14).
I think prior to that point, making sure you can get bound is a good
encouragement for people to learn to *play* their character *as* a bard, to
socialise and such.
Kayfess,
34th Bard of Bertoxxulous,
Servant of Bristlebane
------------------------
My Comments:
Wow, I have to say that you really did think that out. I like the fact that
you have couples the song with mana and with a reagent. I go back and forth
with the group based bind. One one hand, it would provide the melee classes
with a way to avoid a 5 zone run back to their body, on the other hand it
would probally cause an influx of people playing bards just to get that
ability. On the plus side, the bard would be even more important to a
group. I think by giving this abilitiy later in life, at say 21 as you say
is a great idea. Its far enough in that the casual player wont play for 21
levels if they really dont like it. But not too far that its out of the
range of the committed bard.
One addendum to that idea of yours, would be to put a singing restriction on
the bard bind similar or greater to the paladin lay of hands.
If a restriction like that was put on it, I would have NO problem with it
being group based bind. In addition you might make getting the song be a
hard involved quest that someone who is 21 could do solo, but would take a
lot of time.
So, to summarize:
Song: Bardic Binding Bellow
Level: 21
Casting Req's: Mana, 200 (Self) + 100 Per group member, 800 Mana for full
group + Reagent (Enchanted electrum or something like that),
ore, etc. Possibly make a Zone Specific Reagent
Stipulations: Can only be sung once per day, similar to Lay of Hands
Acquired: By multi-part quest, forcing the bard to travel to many zones
(thus preventing us from becoming Bind whores)
Possible addendum to this.. make two spells.. the first being
a Self-Only Bind that is bought at a merchant. Still
would use reagents, but would not have a casting restriction.
The Second Bind spell would be a Quest. It would be group
bind, but would difficult AND have a casting delay built in
like lay of Hands, etc. If you did it this way, you could
even make the delay greater, say 2 days. This would enable
the
bard to be able to self-bind at any time, but only group bind
on a limited basis.
I think this is an excellent idea.