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I want to do this as soon as possible because (a) it opens up more options for new chars, hopefully encouraging a bit more interest in playing before our massive skill-tree revision is finished, (b) is easy to do in terms of implementation, unlike skill trees. I thought I'd throw this up here so we can keep track of discussion on a new model for race alignments.
My personal favorite is to give each race a natural alignment that it gravitates towards. This shouldn't be huge in magnitude -- probably not to exceed -450 or +450. If we use a goody-goody slayer as an example with a natural alignment of 450 for example, it will be more difficult to get more and more evil the further you get away from that. I don't want to spark a huge moral debate about whether or not certain races are drawn towards good or evil, but I think this'll let alignment still play some sort of role in gameplay.
The second and more interesting question is: what deeds can people do improve or worsen their alignment? Killing things is the obvious first answer, but it shouldn't play the only role in determining what kind of person you are. One thing we could do when we have more areas and an improved quest system is add a eeevil Questmaster which only tells you to do bad stuff (kill civilians, loot royal treasury, etc). I imagine helping people (giving them stuff, casting spells on them) should also play a role -- if you help evil people you become more evil, if you help good people you become more good, etc. Other ideas are welcome.
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Well, I've always prefered the degree of the alignment change to be dependant on the current alignment with respect to the two extreme alignments and the direction of change. The closer you are to one extreme the harder it will be to move TO that extreme, but much easier to move to the opposite.
````
if(delta_align < 0)
align += delta_align * (align - ALIGN_MIN) / ALIGN_RANGE;
else if(delta_align > 0)
align += delta_align * (ALIGN_MAX - align) / ALIGN_RANGE;
align = URANGE(align,ALIGN_MIN,ALIGN_MAX);
````
Of course, this may not be the desired affect. An extremely pious individual might be able to withstand an evil influence if their belief in the SOURCE of their alignment was strong. That could be another aspect. Rigidity to an alignment… perhaps call it Faith. A devout follower of an evil faith might resist changes in alignment to the pious even if that follower performed something that would otherwise be considered pious, such as saving the life of someone.
Faith would lend well toward deities and their abilities. Worshipping a worthy god(dess) might instill a strong Faith, leading you to retain your alignment more as an act of will than an act caused inadvertantly. But then that could lead to Loss of Faith which can cause a radical change in your alignment, or just make you more suspectible to change. A Sith having a theological and spiritual crisis having a turn of alignment from malice to pious comes to mind.
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__Posting instead of editting to increase post count again__
With regards to the second question as far as what improves or worsens your alignment…..
That is subjective. What may improve MY alignment might harm yours. If I were evil, saving the orphanage would be DISASTEROUS to my alignment.... unless all the kids were subsequently enthralled by my sinister qualities and become slaves to my dark agenda.. THAT would improve it greatly! A pious cleric casting heal on a malice warrior wouldn't necessarily change the cleric's alignment. That's what they do, heal people. Now if an article of their Faith prohibits them helping said malice warrior, perhaps that would worsen the alignment of the cleric.
What AFFECTS your alignment is highly dependant upon the situation, the character's current status, their faith, etc. Someone choosing to be oblivious to alignment would most likely gravitate to Neutrality regardless of what happens, even if their race is naturally biased one way or the other.
