Since there have been numerous complaints about demesnes lately, I brainstormed on a couple of ideas for revamping the use of demesnes, but not the individual skills. So, demesne summoning, sap, etc. all stay in place. The method of placing a demesne is just changed. Feel free to comment on my first two ideas, or add any of your own...

IDEA 1:
>Demesnes have a 30 room limit.
>A mage/druid enters a room, and begins their demesne there by naming the room as their starting point for several power, and EQ off. This is going to be refered to as the "origin" as opposed to the center
>Leaving the origin causes the demesne to break. IE tackling a mage or somesuch will break their demesne, as will them voluntarily leaving the room
>From the origin, the mage can "extend" the demesne in a particular direction from the rooms already under control. This expansion cones out, so if multiple rooms in the demesne have NE exits, and the mage EXTENDs NE, then all rooms to these NE exits are taken
>Extending a demesne into a friendly terrain (IE druidic into forest) takes little mana and no EQ
>Extending into neutral or hostile terrain type takes lots of mana but still no EQ, and changes the terrain to the corresponding type for the demesne
>Extending into an enemy demesne takes lots of mana, a small quantity of power, and EQ. The terrain is changed, and control of the room switches demesnes. This is possible for multiple rooms at a time
>Demesne effects are random and automatic. Damage on damage based effects is heavily increased. The rate of effects occuring is proportional to the number of rooms in the demesne. IE, a mage with a single room demesne see demesne effects every 2 seconds, while one with a thirty room demesne sees them roughly every 10 seconds

Think of this as more of a giant board game, allowing demesne owners to "duel" with effectiveness based on superior mana, EQ, and the person's knowledge of the local terrain/room layout. No more massive demesnes, a bit better timing on demesne summoning, more offensive capability for demesne users, and the ability for several mages to all work in the same area.



IDEA 2:
>Demesnes all have a certain "radius" depending on the skill level of the mage/druid. A Master mage would have a three room radius, a Transcendent one would have a nine room radius. Something like that
>A demesne user simply picks a room, and "centers" his demesne there, costing a good bit of power, mana and EQ. All rooms in the designated radius from that room (of the proper terrain type) become part of the demesne, even in small, remote, island partitions where there is no connection to the central part of the demesne
>Demesne effects can only go off while the demesne owner has EQ, but doesn't take EQ
>When the demense user moves to a different room (assuming it is "friendly" terrain type) the demesne re centers itself, recalculating the radius, and taking the user off EQ
>Breaking single rooms works in the same manner as it currently does, though if the demesne user is disabled in any significant way, he automatically loses the demesne

This is more "grove" like, but with a better area of effect. It allows more mobility and several limits on the defensive advantages of the current demesne system. In this scenario, it would take multiple demesners to effectively control a full area. No more off that Astral BS.

Anyway, those are the massive reweave ideas I had. Questions, comments?

I don't like this idea
1- all druids are instantly screwed, because the moment they go up against oppsing dancer guild, they get wipsed away and lose their demesne, plus, this means unless druids want to lose a lot of power, they have to be sitting ducks.
2- for what the demesne is limited to, on random effects every ten seconds is bad. In other words, not only make it so they can't move, make it so they really can't do anything to hinder anyways. Whoopee, a little extra damage, if that effect works
3- this could also leave the person holding the demesne at dangerously low mana levels so that low mana instakills would be easier to do to said person, especially if the person holding the demesne is combating another person's demesne

in short, weakened sitting ducks. Now how does that sound if you are a druid/mage?


I also don't like this idea for multiple reasons...
1- what happens if two opposing demesnes come in contact or try to overlap?
2- What happens to terrain?
3- I don't like the idea that any time a person doesnt have eq, their demesne does nothing. In otherwords, they would have to sacrifice either being able to do something to directly attack anyone attacking them or not being able to use their demesne
4- moving taking eq, BAD IDEA. this means any mage/druid with a demesne would not be able to flee if they are being attacked, plus their demesne wouldn't do anything to hinder anyone trying to harm them while they try to escape
5- If terrain is not what is needed for a demesne in the area, what happens? I mean it would suck to lose power creating the initial demesne if it can't go anywhere
6- I don't think making the demesne move with the person is a good thing...
7- how often do the effects hit, when the person has eq?

Demesne moves with you, but it's really hard to escape, and running away is impossible

As discussed at the envoy summit, changes are being made to demesne size and wisp/demesne summon. I really think everyone just needs to be more patient.

1. Wisping working in opposing terrain should be considered an oversight anyway.
2. Summon, staff, thorn, do whatever you want while sitting there. Hopefully you'll be fighting another mage for control of the demesne and that should take up plenty of your "sitting still" time.



1. They can't. Demesne only takes effect in friendly terrain, as I said, so two opposing users can't overlap. As for allied ones, whoever gets there first has priority.
2. Same as it is now.
3. What, are you thinking a demesne soloing other combatants? No, this is assuming someone else is supporting the demesne user and he can focus on the use of that demesne, and any ecology/telekinetic skills he wishes.
4. Lose your demesne, then move, if you need to run.
5. Yah, it would.
6. Any demesne user who isn't a timerwhore or summonwhore needs to move.
7. Same as it is now.

My idea: Let's just be quiet about it and let Lisaera, Roark, and others code and we'll reassess the issue once its fixed?

I mean seriously, does anyone honestly expect these convoluted threads (all 500 of them) to accomplish anything besides: Zomg, demesne are evil -or- Zomg, I hate demeses -or- Zomg, nerf -or- Zomg, that's retarded -or- Zomg, I hate this idea -or- Zomg, I want to be an earth elemental and pound stuff?

We're getting nowhere fast

Well, here's the thing. There are too many damn nerfings.

Combat used to be wonderful, and now the quantity of nerfs we have gone through makes it a grueling hours long process, wherefrom people suddenly derive new arguments for nerfing the opposing class because "OMGWTFBBQ HE KILLED ME IN TWO HITS WAAAHHHH NERF OVERPOWERED"

...not to turn this into an idiots thread, but I was just saying that maybe instead of nerfing the current demesne effects, we keep them, and instead change the demesne system itself.

You know how fast a Geomancer could wtfpwn someone with their effects hitting every two seconds, at heavily increased damage?

it would be sweet....

i agree with narsrim, although a nice fun fix would be to nerf demesne summon and all that, but in addition give mages a specialistion that's not aquamancy/geomancy (in skillchoice select) call it battlemancy or some other cool name and let it be comprised of skills not related to demesnes.

It would also be overpowered.

I know such concepts are foreign to you, but perhaps people would like to discuss and play around with ideas amongst themselves for the sake of discussion because they are waiting for envoys?

Does not compute. Please try again.

To put it in simple terms:
Non-envoys may want to discuss it as well, on an open forum where they can bandy around ideas and see if there's anything that the envoys / admins like, instead of waiting silently for the reports to go through.

no you must wait silently like good boys and girls, who wants a gold star












WELL YOU CANT HAVE ONE BECAUSE YOU ARE WORHTLESS STUPID CHILDREN

erm, I ment that since its known that envoy reports are going in, the subject is on people's minds and they just may want to discuss it for the sake of discussing it. Knowing that nothing is going to happen now, but maybe an idea would come up that could be usefull down the road, or maybe they will just enjoy themselves while discussing it.

I like the part about effects hitting faster in smaller demesnes and slower in larger demesnes. Damage shouldn't be increased, for (hopefully) obvious reasons.

Another idea might be to limit the number of effects that can be used based on the size of the demesne. If it's tiny, maybe you only get 3-5 effects started (I have no idea how many there are total), medium, you get 5-7, and if it's large, you get all your effects.

The problem with the original two ideas, Folkien, is that you are making the demesne a Mage's only weapon, with either him having to say in the center without moving in order to get results, or simply being stuck in the center because the demesne moves alongside them. That would be a major problem because a demesne is not a 'death zone' where a mage kills anything inside. A demesne is a home-field advantage where a mage sets up defenses and effects to wear down opponents, so that upon facing someone within their demesne, they would have the upper hand when it does finally come to pitched combat if they can sense whoever is inside.

Already it is shown that people generally stay out of a hostile demesne whenever possible, until there is a strike force ready to destroy the mage controlling it or a group of mages ready to break its hold on the land. Mages/druids are at severe disadvantage in an opposing demesne, where they do not regenerate health or mana , can't attack from afar, or escape from someone they cannot defeat head-on. The current system of demesne-ing is already well-balanced and made, so long as the one controlling the demesne isn't picking off anyone who walks in to a non-hostile area or if someone attempts to waltz alone into the demesne of an opposing mage/druid actively trying to kill him.