I got this thought when viewing TheoryForge with Joppa.
Summoned items by players will most likely be destroyable or possibly usable to some degree by NPC's. but..
Should players be able to interact with summoned items. Such things as ropes, walls, bridges, (banners?).
1) Should only the one doing the summoning be able to place and remove the summoned item?
2) Should only groupmembers of that caster be able to see the summoned item? And obviously interact with it.
Or should other players be able to see what's being summoned by others outside their group or not at all.
About the summoned item; we understand from Joppa's reply that certain summoned items will have degrees of quality/condition.
Should the items have a timer and dissappear after that timer, if not destroyed by npc's? Or are other players able to destroy items placed by others?
Would distance between summoned item and the caster be a thing? Where X amount of distance between the two would result into the dissappearance if an item?
Or would the summoned item start to decay..where using the item becomes less reliable as time goes on and breaks down at the end?
What are your thoughts on this?
I would say, let everyone see the summoned items. Others can use the item, but the item has a decay timer on it. So, ropes can snap or bridges can collaps. The timer of the items can not be seen by other players other then the caster themself. This allows players to understand that someone has summoned a type of item in this situation, but not trust to use it due to not knowing how long it will still last. Either that player has someone in group who can cast the same thing, or they'll have to strategize differently if they want to go the same way as previous group. It can be a tease of the mind, to think "I hope, I can be here again and use that type of item here myself one day. I'm curious about how the experience using that item here."
I like the idea of everyone using summoned items because it fosters love between strangers. With mounts we won't have as many options for doing that, so every opportunity is precious.
I'd like a pretty fast decay for anything that doesn't go in your inventory just to reduce clutter.
I don't think distance should be an issue. Imagine if there's a teleporter on the opposite side of the bridge you summoned for your group, and you use that teleporter.
Other players destroying summoned items has too much troll potential IMO, so it depends on how closely VR wants to police us.
Summoned items that are not explicitely "self only" should be fully usable by everyone. That's also how it worked for magicians in EQ: Items that were intended for the mage only were "NO DROP". Any other summoned item could be traded, dropped on the ground, or in some cases directly summoned onto other players (mass mod rod). And those items lasted until the player who picked them up logged out, their duration never depended on the magician.
For Pantheon, we know already that some summoned "in world" items will be able to be used by others (at least the group), like the summoned raft, or the bridge created by druids. I could imagine that these are implemented as objects with a number of hitpoints, and maybe a duration buff. I don't think they will remain forever, and I also don't believe they would be tied to the summoner being online.
There probably must be some new flags for those items. I think the summoned bridge should not be moveable. But the summoned raft, or the summoned walls? Definitely should be moveable, to avoid abuse. I could also imagine that you can only have one of those summoned at a time, so maybe these will be tied directly to the summoner (in form of a buff?).
All non-self summoned items should be usable by everyone and everything (i.e. mobs). I think that depending on the type of item summoned that they should either be timed or the summoner is in local vacinity or indeed be baished. All players should see the summoned item.
Examples:
a summoned lift should only be available while the summoner is in the local area - this could make for some uncomfortable moments if you are using it and the summoner move out of range, but those are the chances you take for using something that was not intended for you.
a summoned wall or bridge should be timed unless it is destroyed or banished.
a summoned bubble of air should be kept until it is used, then timed (or banished?).
I think anyone (or npc) who can summon should be able to banish, but it should be a skill and measured against the level of the summoned item against the level of the banisher. If banisher is higher than the summoner, then they should find it easier to banish an item and if the banisher is below the caster, then it should be more difficult. An adjustment could then be made to represent the banisher's skill at banishment.
