Also, what kind of nightmare would it be to make hp, mana and moves regenerate at oh say, 1 point per second (outside of combat) instead of using a system that makes you wait for more or less a minute to regenerate anything?

I've played three different priests, all ranging from level 46-50, mastered trance/meditation, and the regeneration situation has been the same every time. Holding NO spells, I have regained 5% mana, repeatedly. Sure, it doesn't happen a lot, but it DOES happen. It's random - that's the main aspect of the current system that I don't like. On all of these priests, however, I had very few mana trains - a GM priest with maxed mana will VERY often see 5-10% regens, even while sleeping, in an inn.

It's not about lag. I never said this would decrease lag, but that it would decrease the number of things occurring on any given tick. I don't like the thought and feel of having so many events happening during one giant lag spike, especially when they're as random as they are. I doubt the lag spike would be any less giant, and that's not what I'm trying to address here. As for the potential of an overall increase in lag, that's pretty hypothetical, and it's not something you or I can make speculation on, because we don't know how the code is set up and what causes the system the most strain. That said, I really doubt regeneration would be that intensive at all.

To shorten it up, my main concerns are:

The randomness of the current system, a lack of predictability. I feel HP/MP/PE regeneration should be linear and static across all levels and classes, modified only by specific skills, spells, resting states, and inns. Even if regeneration isn't tied to fast affects, this is possible with the current system.

Excessive downtimes. If you max out hp or mana trains, you're looking at pretty slow regeneration times - on the low end, four or five minutes, sometimes over ten minutes on the high end. It's all random, though. Much of this problem is solved in the correction of the first. It's also quite possible that my numbers are overpowered, but they're completely open to change, they just happen to be what I prefer. Even if the times are lengthened to match the current situation, we'd be better off.

These are both issues that can be addressed without using fast affects, so why do I think they should be tied?

Firstly, to reduce the supremacy of the tick in the feel of the game. I hate basing my IC actions around the very OOC nature of the tick - a lot of what you do revolves on when the tick is coming, and I always feel like I'm in a lurch when I'm waiting for it to arrive, especially with the somewhat random nature of its timing (which is good thing, as it means we can't know exactly when it comes). In the same way that the fast affects system reduced that lame chance for a tick to arrive in the second or third round of combat to remove your dirt kick or taunt, placing regeneration on the same timer means there's less chance involved in every encounter, but also makes the whole game feel that much more streamlined. Essentially, you get to stop worrying about when the tick is coming, and there is nothing not awesome about that.

Secondly (and of a much less significant nature), to enable true in-combat mana regeneration through meditation. Casters currently have no way of regenerating mana in combat beyond the slight bonus from meditation, while warriors, whom rely on HP, have myriad ways to regenerate health through potions, herbs, and spells. Allowing meditation to regenerate mana on a consistent basis throughout combat gives casters more ability to improvise and more strength over longer battles, but also reduces downtime.

Decreases the negative effects of randomness in the system, increasing the predictability in behavior of our characters, and making the game feel more streamlined. That's what it's about.

1 point per second? That's way too fast. So, outside of combat, after a big fight when everyone is all spent, they'll go at it again in a minute in a half?

As is, you can have a range of anywhere from 5-40% for what you'll regen on the tick, and there's no way to influence that number, it's just plain luck. IMO, this isn't an aspect of the game we should leave to chance.

What character do you play, and when do you plan on deleting him?Mastered fast healing/meditation/trance will never leave you up only 5% on a tick if you're sleeping or resting, and yes, if it isn't mastered, you can't control it. That's because it isn't mastered yet.

As I see it, there are two gripes here: Tick lag, and downtime. The downtime won't get changed dramatically if you ask me, and shouldn't be changed too dramatically. Just making the game all around -that- much easier will just make it ridiculous. The numbers that you are throwing around seem very overpowered.