Now, granted I have taken a part in this, but it is the integral part of Lusternia that makes it more interesting than other games, however..

We go through the same basic drill every day, almost out of necessity. Magnagora moves to raise Emperor Ladantine. Celest moves to kill him. Magnagorans defend. Either we succeed or fail. In either case, the scenario sets to repeat itself once more.. with us raiding and them defending, or raiding villages to divert our forces. Good tactics, mind you.. but the constant raids and battle make it very difficult for the casual player to be able to really enjoy him/herself.

I like battle.. but not constant battle that never ceases for hardly a moment in order to give you a small break from the campaigns. That was a good thing about Achaea.. during 11 months of the Achaean year, you didn't have to worry about any form of major power struggle, except on rare occasions. The other month was Landmarking, when the power struggle was in full effect. So.. between these times, you could actually sit back and ENJOY the game, or explore, or do something besides fight.

Here, it's not quite the same. Villages constantly open for influencing, spawning battles sometimes. The battle between Celest and Magnagora continues month after month, with either one of the two citiies being caught in a redundant grind (such as when we were slaying Gorgulu, and now with us trying to keep the Emperor down). It never ends, and leaves very little time for someone to actually take a moment just to relax.

I don't know what can be done about this.. the Taint Wars (as I suppose is as good a term as any) are a key part of the history of the Realm, and are something that just won't stop. Even if WE get the upper-hand, we still have to maintain it. If they get the upper hand, we have to fight it. Vice versa from their perspective. I just think that it has a somewhat detrimental effect on the game play.. as having to do the same old thing day in and day out, regardless of which side is having to do it, gets tedious and uninteresting eventually, even to the most patient of people.


Lazul

I believe you are slightly mistaken

I've seen quite a few posts from "casual gamers" that really enjoy the fact that they can come on for an hour or two and actually feel usefull to the larger story.

Its a problem for the people who play constantly, and much of the reason you see Magnagoran's whining the most. they get the most of it. Magnagora has not gone a day without conflict vs another city that I know of, even when they tried, it lasted maybe 8 hours.

I have to agree with some of Lazul's points. Much of it is unavoidable due to the nature of villages.

Many of the people who just want to hunt and do their own thing can do so, however. Becoming a rogue was the easiest solution for many who did not care to be involved in it all- e.g. many of the highest ranked people.

Of course they'd (Casual games) say that. It's like being able to come home from work and lay down - very relaxing and possibly not something you could do everyday = fun.

Player who actually enjoys Lusternia, like Lazul, has reason to complain, since they deal with it moreso than the "casual gamer."

A person shouldn't have to go "rogue" in order to be able to sit back, relax, and just.. take a vacation from time to time.

Like me. I love playing these games. I spend a lot of my free time here, because I enjoy it. But after so much, it all wears thin.

Magnagora felt it when we were at our peak a while ago, with Gorgulu down the citienry could not muster enough strength to be able to 1) Gather the essence required to restore Gorgulu. 2) Raise the Empror to try to help empower the Necromentate against Gorgaliel's hourly attacks. 3) Remove Princess Marylinth 4) Defend their villages that were being raided..

Even here we witnessed the effect. People would work for hours on end only to see the cumulation of all of that hard work evaporate in a few scant minutes when a single key objective was brought down.. but what could be done to resist it? If you guarded Ladantine, then you didn't have enough people gathering essence to bring Gorgulu back to stop the attacks, and if you didn't then you couldn't work on the power quest for the Necromentate (pardon if I misunderstand the quest, but I think the Emperor has to be up for the spectres on Specter Isle to be huntable, which you need for spikes for the Necromentate). Was it not frustrating?

This happens on both sides of the Realm. I know it is a part of the way the game works.. but.. it just gets old after so long, and that makes people lose interest. It's like, "Why should I bother gathering essence when they are just going to kill Gorgulu again anyway?" or "Why worry about the devil fish? Ladantine is just going to die when they bring the army to kill him."

It is refreshing at times. Good to see the balance of power rise and fall, and to know that you are being a part of history as it unfolds. Still.. eventually.. it just wears thin.


Lazul

The main reason Achaea had 11 months of rest and only one month of conflict with five times the player base of Lusternia is because 99% of Achaea is neutral ground the areas having been put together with no buildt in claims by the cities or organizations so nobody feels the need to march out everyday to push a particular quest or defend an arbitrary piece of land.

In Lusternia everything you want to do automaticaly slots you either as helping or hurting a cause and everything from minor quests to killing mobs results in guild and city enemy status which people use as the precursor to PK.

The tainted fae dropping from the sky event is an excellent example. By participating in a two day event 90% of all non-magnagorans were enemied to Nil. The vast majority of which hadnt even been to Nil and the process of getting to Nil, dogging Geomancers, the tainted creatures and THEN asking for a pardon for a demon lord with 100k in gold on you isnt something anybody is going to do.

The world has either been intentionaly set up for total conflict 24/7 at which point you just have to deal with it or leave the game, or its just a temporary imbalance that will be corrected with the addition of new areas.

If any new areas that go in are carbon copies of the areas that are currently installed. IE quests that help or hurt a particular city or mobs that enemy you for doing certain quests or killing certain mobs. Then Id have to say the game is going total warfare. If more neutral areas go in where the things you do within that area have no global affect on your char then its an attempt to get back to the center.

That's the problem, though.

Like I said.. I -like- combat. I like testing myself. I can tell thus far that I still have a lot of work to do on my reflexes and such.. but that is a part of the thrill of it is making better reflexes and getting better in combat. Being able to take on more of an opposing force, etc. The problem is.. I also like being able to "coast" from time to time without having to worry about battle.

With the current state of the game, ie. total war, it becomes difficult to be able to get that time away, unless you are a rogue and can claim indifference to the struggle.


Lazul

Not in Tosha! That's why I don't leave that place unless I need to keep my charisma blessing from running out, refill my bromide, or forage.

I'm going to have to agree. In the long term, all this action in the inner sea, the villages, ect. really isn't going to advance into anything bigger. I'd like to see a city just say 'screw it' and lose all their villages, quests, ect. on purpose. They wouldn't have much power, but would have very little use for it anyway, and they could just buy their commodities from other cities because without the conflict they wouldn't be enemied.

That's what it boils down into: Grab the power, hoard the power, grab the commodities, hoard the commodities. Why? Who knows.

Anyway, if you get bored, just come chill with Guido. There's always something odd going on with him, and he'd be more than glad to sit down and have a nice 'conversation', or something.

Ooh, this should help things.

ANNOUNCE NEWS #222
Date: 3/1/2005 at 5:44
From: Estarra, the Eternal
To : Everyone
Subj: Sea Battle

The length of time between the sea battles of the dragon turtles and
seawolves has been extended to a longer, more random interval (ranging
from 3-6 game months).

Penned by my hand on the 25th of Avechary, in the year 111 CE.

Lazul makes a good point in this, I myself am not a fighter, proably never will be, but the deathsight spam alone I see in any waking moment is enough to make me cringe. Seriously, if you combined all the exp you people lose and give it all to me, i'd titan in a day! Hell, even we rogues are a little paranoid. You can be PKed on astral for being on the wrong area when a defiliment goes down, and they KNOW that you hunt alot so everyone runs to you for corpses so you have to pick and choose who to assist based on who's more likely to get aggressive if you turn em down *eyeshift* and thats just from a hunters perspective, I shudder to know how bad hard core fighters have it. mmm, back to astarl with me!

The Grey Moors will help a bit.

I was just correcting a small point in Lazul's post. I should have said I mostly agree with you but your mistaken on one issue.

Its an aspect of the game that makes it REALLY enjoyabel when you don't have much time to be around, but still want to be able to feel usefull when you are there.


However, I would dissagree that its impossible for someone to 'take a break' and not be a rogue. In trying to deal with Daganev's wedding, I've been able to 'take a break' that people can understand. well some people.

But it is true that you need that 'excuse' of some sort otherwise people get mad at you.

Once again the admin shows they are quick to respond.

Why? Because that's human nature. Why do people try to get better paying jobs, when they can live off what they already have?

'oooh, look, shiny!'

I think that sums it up.

Sometimes you just have to ignore the whole conflict and go back to your own business. I remember when Celest was practically in ruins, and Cuber just sat on the city walls, not caring about it all. At the moment, I was fed up of the conflict (and constant dying), so I just took care of my own personal matters.
Of course, there was also a time when the conflict made me so mad that I suicided him, but that's another story.

Unless your government/guild forces you to 'work for the glory of your city' - but in that case, it's a player issue.

It's not as bad as it was before - like, Ladantine quest not being next to impossible anymore, for one, or the new turtle additions, or even the new lil area which I've only mapped and not really had time to explore, yet.

I'd still like to see more reason to be on the planes- one idea I had is cross-planar CTF's (excluding Astral, and it would need tweaking so people can't hurt the denizens of planes during then, or sneak into enemy territory, blah blah), where everyone can let loose, but the world is one giant arena so you lose no exp. Something to let everyone relax a bit. Or even just a normal CTF, those have always been huge amounts of fun, win or lose.

I'm sure the 'casual gamers' actually enjoy Lusternia too. They just don't have the same kind of time to put into it that some other people do.

I think this is currently a problem, but one which is being slowly worked on and improved on by the Immortals. It should balance itself out over time.