Projected Images & Divination

[magistrasa]

I don't know whether this is a bug or a wiki correction or something, so I'm going to split the difference and post this in Feedback. What brings me here today is, I read this in the wiki regarding the -project_image clone, and it's contradicted to what I tested in-game:

Additionally, epic diviners can recognize projected illusions when examining, if their caster level is above that of the illusionist.

That would be very interesting and entertaining, if it were the case - but the reality is, even a low-level caster with only the regular spell focus in divination can tell a clone from the real thing. Which means anyone with an amulet of Savras can tell the real from the fake! The reason for this is, the clone counts as an NPC... Which means they don't have an attunement (air, water, fire, etc), which is immediately discernible compared to every other player character.

I guess I'm saying this partly in hopes that the ESF:I clone gets some goodies beyond a fix to what appears (?) to be an oversight on the developers' part. It's really hard to find the right circumstances where the thing would be useful in the first place, and it comes out to mostly just be an amusing little gimmick, or an accidental misfire when you're really trying to send a message to someone and your finger slipped and hit enter before you typed a name. When you want to bluff that the clone is the real deal, the fact that it can't even speak different languages or can't cast spells or turn on its heel without moonwalking already makes it a hard sell. Fun when it works, but extremely difficult - and thus, rarely utilized. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[Tomato]

I feel like it's a little lackluster as well, I did ask about the option to have a "familiar" type that's controlled by domination, but heard there's problems with it. Maybe the real familiar could be reskinned as a clone for ESF illusion?

[magistrasa]

I have more thoughts and observations regarding -project_image, and rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd revive this one.

Most people have probably seen a fun feature of -project_image being blended with disguises, and I'm thinking at least parts of this aren't working as intended - and, if the spirit of this intent holds true, it could be improved upon somehow. When you disguise yourself before making your copy, the illusion will take on your name and description, without the description tag. Like with any disguise, it makes a disguise check against spotters all the same, but no matter if the person examining them has broken the disguise, it shows the illusion's owner's real name. So if you break the disguise for someone who's changed their name to, I dunno, Jimmy Neutron, you'll be notified at the end of the description, "You have broken magistrasa's disguise. This character is magistrasa!" No mention of the name Jimmy Neutron at all. And if you haven't broken the disguise - which is a fact confirmed by the red text of the combat log - the description just says, "You examine magistrasa." Or whatever the specific wording is, you get the idea.

It's a fact that really only serves as another strain on an illusionist's ability to be clever with their clone, since it's a dead giveaway that someone's looking at a clone. A giveaway anyone can see without any investment into any skills. Granted, I suppose it reaches into the territory of simply surrendering oneself to the game's mechanical limitations and trusting your fellow RPers to collaborate with you - which is something I personally have no issue with - but as someone ardently hoping for a future in which -project_image behaves more intuitively, this feedback is made towards that effort.

[-XXX-]

IMHO, illusion doesn't need a fix, but the Savras amulets need to be removed ASAP.