TriadCity Message of the Day
2004-08-09

Alignment drift is now included when Skill values are dynamically calculated.

Alignment drift is what happens when characters perform actions that make them less or more Evil or Good. Positive drift is drift toward Good, negative is drift toward Evil. These values fluctuate constantly as characters maneuver through the world.

This may or may not change your strategy. Certainly most characters will find that they'll want to stay closer to perfect alignment, to maximize their Skill values. The greater their drift, the greater the impact on their Skills. They'll want to prepare for challenges requiring maximum Skill values by first achieving as close to perfect alignment as possible.

One dramatic consequence is that Conversion is now more difficult. Casual Conversion is less likely; characters are gonna have to want that new alignment.

Another is that longer campaigns through areas such as the sewage plant are going to be more difficult for characters of one or another alignment. Evil characters are going to tend to drift positive in the sewage plant, diminishing their Skills as they progress. This might become critical at lower levels. Adventuring teams should adopt new strategies which take this into account.

Note that drift impact on Skill values begins immediately -- not just when the drift bar in the GUI turns white or black. A Good character with any quantity of negative drift will be impacted immediately. The larger the drift the greater the impact.

Alignment affects such as this are traditional in previous MUDs. It's been implemented at this time in TriadCity as a way of balancing the impact of new Skills which have recently become available.

Should there be more ways to undo the drift? The Sacrifice command is one traditional approach. Please post your ideas in the Suggestions BBS.

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