Re: Flying

[Orion Furmanski <thelaw@expert.cc.purdue.edu>]

On Tue, 18 Aug 1998, Wright Frazier wrote:

> > I believe that the flying skill should be between FLY and HAWKSOAR. You can't
> > just do anything but you can definitely be able to make simple actions that
> > an animal could do such as grapple ( yeah this isn't that simple but hawks
> > can swoop down on a rabbit and carry them off ). You might not be able to
> > cast since waving your arms around would throw your balence off but a
> > single round spell might be fine. According to the book though you do get
> > it all Spells, attacks and other things.
> 
> BAD idea for this to be allowed.

	Guess what, guys: it is allowed. My character Alyx has a relic of
Dessus that grants a limited Mutate 1/day that gives her bat wings with
all the flying attributes of Hawksoar. This may just be a special case,
seeing as how it IS a relic. Flying and casting doesn't seem unreasonable;
moving while Hawksoaring needs no more conscious involvement than flying
with wings and casting. The extra mutation for "flying reflexes" covers
this-- the mutation works directly on the cerebellum to grant independent
control of motor processes. 
	However, this post is all coming from a person who has been in
silent opposition to the "not even walking while casting".  THOUGHT
EXPERIMENT: Walk at a slow pace with a friend while explaining to them
(hand gestures and all) the kinematics of an object falling off a cliff
with initial velocity in the x-direction. Trust me, it can be done. This
is about the level of complextiy needed for castin a spell while moving. 

	Near as I can tell, allowing no casting while walking and allowing
casting while Hawksoaring are simply arbitrary rulings set into stone for
streamlining purposes.

Orion


  
> > How much is a mutate to get working wings? Do you just have the mutate cast
> > and then pay for the eep cost the base move? We all know the physics of putting
> > a set of wings on a human doesn't quite work but that is a blow off point
> > for sake of fantasy I think. ( We auto-assume the skeleton got lighter or
> > something ).
> 
> You get 1 change per mutate I thought?  To get the ability to fly, you'd
> need several mutates, unless you want HUGE wings.  For a normal human being
> to fly, you need like a 50-60' wing span.  That isn't including gear,
> armour, or weapons in the person's weight, just them buttass naked.
> To get the ability to fly I personally think you'd need at the very
> minimum 3 mutates. 1/wing and 1 for the automatic systems to make use of'em.
> I.e. a mutate so that you get the ingrained reflexes birds and other naturally
> 	flying creatures have on how to use the wings.
> 
> To do it without the 60 foot wing span, you'd need 1/wing, 1 for lightened
> bone structure, and 1 for the flying reflexes.  The lightened stucture
> would also drop the wing span significantly, but it would also make
> the character _MUCH_ more succeptable to broken bones.
> 
> That would get you 10'/r movement.  Then each successive mutate strengthens
> the muscles and reflexes and allows you to get 10'/r more movement.  So
> it would take either 15 or 16 mutates to get a flight movement of 120'/r,
> with a corresponding amount of xp expenditure.
> 
> This also brings into question lift capacity.  How much can a character
> carry when they are flying?
> 
> > 
> > My question is the base movement. According to the book that is based off
> > a stat which I don't think it should be. If it were that would mean that
> > a creature with a 360 flying movement has an AGI of 36 ( plus their DVs
> > all start at 9 plus appropriete STAT ) and they auto-make every AGI resist
> > spell.
> 
> *nod* I agree the movement things shouldn't be restricted to a stat.
> 
> Wright
> 
> 
> > 
> > > This brings up another question for me.  The flying with wings monster
> > > ability.  Is it like the 'fly' spell, I personally think it should be
> > > since you have to do some serious concentration and its like running,
> > > but I have heard at least one person say its like the 'hawksoar' ability.
> > > Also the ability to buy with a mutate the effect hawksoar ability just
> > > bugs the hell out of me as its prolly one of the top 5 spells in the game
> > > power wise.
> > >
> > > Greg?  Dan?
> > >
> > > Wright
> > 						Greg
> > 
> 
>