As Solomon mentioned, Zeyurn and I have been working on an entirely new model and messaging system for Power Perception. The system in Test is currently complete, but will inevitably see tweaking as we hear back from you and assess the numbers further. Most of the credit for this system goes to Zeyurn.

The first thing you will notice is that PERCEIVE spits out different messaging than before. Some of it, such as the color of mana, is aesthetic and varies by guild or mana frequency. More importantly, the mana ranges have been rewritten.

First, let's talk about what currently exists. With sub-100 PP, you get an inaccurate read on the mana in the room. This has never affected what you actually get if you cast a spell in the room, it simply frustrates your ability to see which rooms are good and which are bad. The way this is done is by capping the maximum amount of mana you can see, so that to a novice the game looks like it has all of one or two mana levels at all.

We have replaced that with four new ranges of messaging: weak perception, developing, improving, and normal. Weak is what someone receives with 0 ranks of Power Perception and breaks down the mana range into three distinct levels. Effectively, a novice can now accurately see whether a room is "cold" "medium" or "hot." Normal comes into affect around 100 ranks of Power Perception and is the same level of granularity you are used to now. Developing and Improving are intermediary states that grow between them.

Just like before, this does not affect the amount of mana you get from the room. The room itself provides the same amount of mana from 1 to 2000 PP. This only affects how low-rank characters perceive the room, providing them more useful and accurate information than they had before.

Here are the new ranges, in order from weakest to strongest.

Weak Developing Improving Normal
dim faint faint faint
dim faint faint/hazy dim
dim faint/muted hazy hazy
dim/glowing muted hazy/flickering dull
glowing muted/glowing flickering muted
glowing glowing flickering/shimmering dusky
glowing/bright glowing/luminous shimmering pale
bright luminous shimmering/glowing flickering
bright luminous/bright glowing/lambent shimmering
bright bright lambent pulsating
bright bright lambent/shining glowing
bright bright shining lambent
bright bright shining/fulgent shining
bright bright fulgent luminous
bright bright fulgent/glaring radiant
bright bright glaring fulgent
bright bright glaring brilliant
bright bright glaring flaring
bright bright glaring glaring
bright bright glaring blazing
bright bright glaring blinding

The mana value of the rooms have also been changed. I will go into more detail in subsequent posts, but there are some changes that the room and Lunar models hold in common:

1: Mana is stronger on the low end. Faint is worth more power, hopefully enough now that you can get something off in every room of the game, or any time of the game.

2: Mana is weaker on the highest end. Mana contribution has been capped, so it is no longer possible to get "beyond Blinding" mana. This is primarily relevant for Moon Mages, but it could be seen in rare cases among room-based casters as well.

3: The curve between bad mana and the skill needed for good mana have been rewritten with the goal to scale better and smoother. Both models should suffer less from dramatic spikes in available mana at certain skills.

-Armifer

Next, we will go into detail about changes specific to the room-based mana model, which is what everyone except Moon Mages use.

Previously, the model had three components: room mana, adjacent mana from rooms connected by cardinal directions, and a flat, abstracted "beyond adjacent" growth. The model capped out in the 400s and left further growth of PP irrelevant. The new model relies on two components instead: room mana and a flat, abstracted adjacent mana.

Room mana works pretty much like you're used to. Each room is worth a certain amount of mana, which can be boosted by various spells and supernatural abilities. Everyone, from a novice Paladin to the Grovekeeper, gets the same amount of available room mana when they cast a spell.

Adjacent mana as you know it has been removed from the model, and a component very similar to the "beyond adjacent" mechanic is now active from 1 to 2000 PP. As your Power Perception grows, you will slowly but steadily gain access to more and more mana, just by the virtue of your skill. In IC terms, you are drawing mana streams from further and further away in all directions.

We removed the old adjacent mana system for two reasons. First, we wanted a system that began working right out the gate and straight to the finish line, so that potentially every rank of PP is valuable. Second, the adjacent mana formula was placed at the mercy of the world designers, who should not be expected to design areas with tons of exits and entrances just to create nice mana. Even if you can't go East due to world mechanics, the world still theoretically keeps stretching out that way and there should still be adjacent mana to draw from.

In practical terms, this means that a lot of rooms that were previously mana starved due to their layout may be viable now. Rooms that were classically known as high-mana areas due to having many adjacent rooms are going to have their values crash. The only room that matters for determining your mana contribution now is the one you're standing in.

Messaging for adjacent mana still exists, but is now simply an FYI. At the same skill break as before, you can get a sense of whether the mana in a room over is hotter or colder than your current room. When before you would start drawing beyond adjacent mana, you will instead see the absolute mana value of the adjacent rooms (so instead of "it's better" you'd get "it's lambent").

The new adjacent mana system is considered a skillset perk. Magic Primes (excluding Moon Mages) see more mana from the adjacent area faster than Secondaries, who get it faster than Tertiaries.

-Armifer

Finally, let's talk Moonie. The Lunar mana model saw substantial changes. In addition to the goals listed in the overview post, we designed the new Lunar mana model to continue to emphasize the variability over time that is the selling point of the system, which unfortunately gets lost due to the scaling of the planetary contribution to mana.

Formerly, the Lunar model had two components: variable moon-based mana and largely static planetary mana. The new model has three components: moon mana, solar mana, and planetary mana.

Moon Mana:
The three moons are the primary contributors to Lunar mana. Compared to other magic users, the moons define your "room mana" and operate under the same rules (everyone gets its total value, regardless of PP). In addition to the obvious differences, the value of the moons is greater than a room. The worst possible moon provides more mana than the worst possible room, and the best possible moon provides more mana than the best rooms in the game. The price, of course, is that you don't get to choose your room or go somewhere else when the moons decide to not play nice.

A moon's mana contribution comes from three attributes. The phase of the moon is the strongest factor and the single most important one in the entire system. Full moons provide max contribution for this factor, new moons the minimum. There is no difference between waxing and waning moons, beyond giving you an idea how the moon is trending.

The second strongest factor is whether the moon is above the horizon. Simple, binary check here.

The final factor is the distance of the moon from Elanthia. Distant moons provide less mana than when they're up and personal.

These three factors combine to create the base "room value" of the moon. Oppositions and conjunctions are then applied on top of this, due to their rarity. Oppositions influence both moons, conjunctions influence the closer of the two. These provide a rare and significant spike in available mana, usually beyond normal room limits.

Solar Mana:
A new concept in the Lunar mana system, Solar mana is the Moon Mage version of the new drawing adjacent mana system. It gives you a slow but steady mana growth over skill that is completely removed from the rest of the solar system hijinks. However, it has two significant differences from the room-based model.

First, Solar mana kicks in at 100 ranks of Power Perception (when you can reach the sun). Thereafter you will see the sun when you use the PERCEIVE PLANETS command. Below 100 PP, you get no benefit.

Second, Solar mana is heinously inefficient. Moon Mages gain less from Solar mana than even Magic Tertiaries draw from adjacent areas. It provides you with a small, steadily growing baseline supply that is immune from the whim of the solar system, but is not meant to be relied on as a primary supply. For that we have...

Planetary Mana:
The third component to Lunar mana has no analog in the room-based system, it is the Moon Mage ace in the hole.

Planets provide a percentage bonus to your Moon and Solar mana, depending on how far within your perceivable range the planet is. There are four ranges: barely within, within, well within, deep within. This bonus is cumulative, increasing with each planet you can perceive. The size and mass of the planet do not matter.

Due to this, Planetary mana will increase your available mana over skill, but respect the relative power of the moons. Let's use a fictional example.

Xibar is providing 100 units of mana.
Katamba is providing 200 units of mana.
You have a Planetary bonus of 2x mana.

Your mana has gone up compared to when you were a novice (not even considering Solar mana), but the relative difference between the moons has not changed. No matter what your Power Perception skill is, Psychic Projection (Xibar dominant) is going to be noticeably weaker than Moonlight Manipulation (Katamba dominant).

Spellbooks and Misc.:

Lunar mana changes from spellbook to spellbook, based on different weighted averages of the moons. For example, Psychic Projection relies heavily on Xibar's "room value" and a little bit of Yavash's. This overall system has not changed.

The only spellbook that has changed is the Stellar Magic book, which has been nerfed. Stellar Magic values will now fall into the same general range as the rest of the spellbooks. All other spellbooks use the same moons and weights that they previously had.

-Armifer

See also the new power perceive levels