View Single Post
Old 07-13-2018, 10:20 PM   #39
Rick_Smith
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Coquitlam B.C.
Default Concerns about the Gate spell.

Hi all,
Perhaps the most abused spell by industrial magicians is the Gate spell. There were several threads about abuses of this spell on the Brianiac forums. Most involved perpetual motion machines or high energy weapons.

An example: Two gates mounted directly above and below each other. A bolder is placed on the bottom, the gate is completed and it starts dropping thru the gates (bottom is linked to top), picking up more and more energy as it falls. When it is at terminal velocity a NEW gate is cast on the lower surface which connects it to a gate pointing at an enemy city wall. Directed meteor spell.

Other things I found problematic about gates was the infinite range (which damages long distance trade), they can be cast on empty air, and to a lesser extent their invisibility.

I would suggest some changes:
-- Add an IQ 14 Lesser Gate is smaller and has a limited range (say 10 km or less). They would have less trade destroying properties on the economy. It would still have a high casting cost.

-- Make the Full Gate spell a higher IQ (say 16 or 17) and make it cost 2 mIQ to learn. This will make it significantly rarer which I think would be a good thing.

-- Make the gates spells malfunction every time 100 kg go thru it. So a massive rock falling faster and faster would trigger a failure much more quickly. In fact, multiple uses of a gate in under a second could have a higher chance of failure. This would help stop junior physicists from turning gates into perpetual motion machines. Gates that fail when tonnes of material travels thru them will also harm trade less. It would reduce the effectiveness of attacks by casting a gate spell in front of a lava flow.

-- Gates have to be built against roughly flat, solid surfaces. This would prevent gates from being hung, high in the air.

-- I would prefer if gates glowed. Perhaps by doubling the casting cost an end could be made invisible. If Gates could be spotted by strange glowing on the wall, they would be less abusive.

-- A few more rules about connecting different worlds or planes would be welcome. How difficult is this? Are such gates less stable? Is there a chance that they won't work sometimes, or need time to recharge?

Comments are welcome.

Warm regards, Rick.
Rick_Smith is offline   Reply With Quote