Divination

[Stoned]

Why do we call it Divination? Divination pretty much has to do with tarot cards and seeing the future, not holy magic.

 

[Thothie]

Cuz Dogg hath spoken, and His word is Divine.

The definition is not traditionally so narrow, especially in RPGs. D&D 3.0-3.5, for instance, considers any spell that a druid, paladin, ranger, or cleric can cast to be "Divine".

Granted, I'd probably call Affliction "Entropy" and Divination "Order", if I wanted to simplify things myself, but alas, I must work with the tablets handed down from the mountain.

 

[Stoned]

Cuz Dogg hath spoken, and His word is Divine.

The definition is not traditionally so narrow, especially in RPGs. D&D 3.0-3.5, for instance, considers any spell that a druid, paladin, ranger, or cleric can cast to be "Divine".

Granted, I'd probably call Affliction "Death" and Divination "Life", if I wanted to simplify things myself, but alas, I must work with the tablets handed down from the mountain.

Well, thats "Divine" not "Divination". And I always thought Affliction would be poison spells :S In the MSC wiki the circle of fear is classified as an affliction spell but theres nothing but poison spells currently, perhaps the divination cards for see more "darker" affliction spells?

 

[Thothie]

Divine, as in the root of Divination. To use it in a sentence, "My WotC D&D paladin/cleric/ranger/druid can only use divination spells, not arcane."

Yeah, there's a whole series of unholy/vampyric/necromantic/entropy spells in line to be assembled under Affliction under the pending spell system remake and title system. It's the catch-all for, "Bad magic they say."

 

[Stoned]

Cant wait to see the new title and magic system, has anyone been working on either?

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

Granted, I'd probably call Affliction "Entropy"

Fucking do it.

Seriously. That is a way better category title. Although, I much prefer 'Divination' to 'Order'. It only makes sense that Divine magic would heal and combat the undead. Plus, 'Order' isn't as flashy sounding.

 

[Stoned]

I would just prefer Divine rather than Divination.

 

[Sabre]

Divinity?

 

[Shadeska]

The Good Stuff?

 

[PBarnum]

I would much rather have the new system in rather than talking about the old system.

 

[jon50559]

I would much rather have the new system in rather than talking about the old system.

QFT

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

I would much rather have the new system in rather than talking about the old system.

One thing I really am hoping will happen with the new system is that some of the categories will get name changes. Both for the sake of aesthetics and for the sake of variety. You can have alot more 'Dark' magic spells than you can with affliction, for example. Although, Thothies 'Entropy' is cooler than both names.

 

[Stoned]

I would also like some NEW categories. WE have yet to use elements like Earth.

 

[Thothie]

You will probably see an Earth catagory.

Should warn ye though, even under the new system, "Divination" is likely to stay. It seems likely, that even in MSS, "Divination" is likely to stay.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

You will probably see an Earth catagory.

Care to elaborate on how many/which categories are being considered?
Personally, I'd like to see SC have exactly as many categories as we have melee categories.

 

[Thothie]

You will probably see an Earth catagory.

Care to elaborate on how many/which categories are being considered?
Personally, I'd like to see SC have exactly as many categories as we have melee categories.

No logical reason for that. If we were on a point-buy system that'd be just cruel (pretty much be forced to choose one or the other), but as we're on a training system, it'd just add to training time and mess up the SC rating / max mana, further stretching the player power divides. If anything, there should be fewer catagories, but an elemental system kinda sets you up for this sort of pain.

Earth's the only one I've been considering adding ATM. Adding more than that would likely force us to either have everything nerfed the hell out of or use the old unintuitive divisor trick.

 

[Tentadrilus]

Most games just call what we would call Divination stuff like Holy or Divine. It doesn't have to make sense in a sentence; Dragon Age: Origins had a magic school called Primal, it just avoided ever using it in a sentence.

Affliction could stay as it is, because affliction is a synonym for disease.

 

[Orochi]

Also, Divination does not mean the same thing as Divine. Look it up. The wikipeda article explicitly calls it a method of scrying past and future events, and the entire first page of Google results for divination is fortune telling. Bottom line: It should be Divine, not Divination.

Second, I don't know why everyone thinks of Affliction as the "Chaos" magic. It's not, it's poison. It's not "Chaos" magic or anything of the sort. Likewise, Divine magic is not "Order", Divine magic encompasses ALL of the Triad's powers; Order, Neutrality, and Chaos. Unholy magic is anything that goes against the natural order, like the foul creatures animated by the power of the Lost.

 

[Stoned]

Also, Divination does not mean the same thing as Divine. Look it up. The wikipeda article explicitly calls it a method of scrying past and future events, and the entire first page of Google results for divination is fortune telling. Bottom line: It should be Divine, not Divination.

Second, I don't know why everyone thinks of Affliction as the "Chaos" magic. It's not, it's poison. It's not "Chaos" magic or anything of the sort. Likewise, Divine magic is not "Order", Divine magic encompasses ALL of the Triad's powers; Order, Neutrality, and Chaos. Unholy magic is anything that goes against the natural order, like the foul creatures animated by the power of the Lost.

Orochi's post has made the most sense for me. I totally agree Orochi, every bit of it.

 

[Orochi]

If he doesn't want to rename it due to technical reasons, I can understand that totally.

 

[Stoned]

Indeed. But let me ask you this, if your worried about FUBARing another thing in the game's code why not just do trial and fix it that way?

 

[Thothie]

Divination covers life oriented magic in MSC, Affliction, in MSC, covers death magic. It's just coincidence that the only death magic we have in the field are various poison spells at the moment. Name sticks for most RPG's so good enough for me.

Ya still call "Divine" magic "Divination" when you are referring to its application, in any magic system. But RPG's have twisted the term to the point where there don't have to be any gods or divining involved, rather it can simply be indicative of a state of harmony. Similar to divination magic as applied by D&D druid/rangers, I suppose.

 

[Orochi]

Fair enough, but why not call it Unholy then?

 

[Thothie]

*shrug* Ask Dogg. Don't make a difference to me, but don't see the point of changing it after a half dozen years either. I suppose most unholy magics tend to be afflictions of various sorts, so maybe that's where they were going.

More logical thing to do would be "Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Life, Death" - but I guess it's been done to many times.

 

[Orochi]

Thothie, you have no aesthetic sense!

But joking aside, it's mostly an aesthetics thing. I (and others apparently) get bothered by that kind of stuff. It may not seem important to you, but to people like me it makes it look unpolished somewhat. Granted, given the quality of most of MS:C's graphical assets it's certainly a drop in the bucket, but it's a start.