What if there was a special influence type (like the village influence styles) that you gain for being in a commune that allowed you to influence carved totems?

There are two small problems with communes in general (true for both Glomdoring and Serenwilde):
1) Bashing areas are more limited, and
2) Totem power generation is huge, unstoppable and contributes nothing to a player's game experience.

Here is my suggestion for a change:


This would be accompanied by a few other changes:
1) Totems and elder trees would have a defined lifetime that you will be able to see when you PROBE it. "A living totem has about 12 months of growth remaining." These would tick down pretty quickly, although for every, say, 4 empowerments, you would gain an extra month of time. Once the time runs out, the totem dies and the process of growing Moonhart/Ravenwood trees has to be started from scratch.
2) The passive power generation of a totem would decrease slightly, requiring the active collection of blossoms/fruit to equate to the same power generation it is now.
3) Cities would gain skills to cause a location without the protection of an active totem to become less dense and more barren, preventing growth of more totems for a while. (Or something, I can't think of a nice idea that isn't going to let individuals rape communes. Something that actively increases the rate totems decay would be nice, but it can't be whoreable or easy.)

The strength of sacred trees would be dependent on their size - young Moonhart trees might be unafraid, mature trees strong and confident, elder trees quite powerful and totems extraordinarily strong. Unlike ordinary mobs, the time for them to reset for new influencing would have to be fairly long, maybe a couple of hours.

Thus not only does this give a huge influencing area for commune people to use, it gives us something to do with them other than bond and forget.


Edit: Oh, the other thing that would be nice to have changed at the same time is that the two city sewers be upgraded so that the creatures inside both are worth hunting at higher levels. Then the communes would have their own influencing opportunities, and the cities would have their own bashing opportunities.

I agree that the passive power doesn't add anything to a person's experience in a commune but I'm not sure these changes would be for the better. It seems like adding unnecessary busy work. I think you're on the right track with influence and the trees but I wouldn't be happy with the suggestions so far.

P.S. - It nearly kills me to say that there is anything wrong with passive power generation like the trees bring in just because I hate it when power intake drops for any reason.

My problem with this is that it makes no sense to have it as a general commune ability. Even influencing animals takes a special skill, let alone trees, which I would imagine are even farther removed from a human mind. They also only understand empowerment and weakening.

If you want to influence the trees, you should also be required to have Totems, so you can communicate with the spirits properly.

That was my thought as well.

I think the idea itself sounds nifty though, even if I don't see it being coded.

Do tell. How exactly does Glomdoring, which has its own bashing ground viable from level 1 to around 50-60, have less bashing areas than Celest or Magnagora? And how exactly do Celest and Magnagora have better lower level bashing than Serenwilde?

Cities have much, much, much easier access to Astral. Magnagora has the Catacombs.

I think it's a neat idea, the way it is.

I personally think that it would be a pain in the rear, especially given that the bloody things ALREADY unbond every 12 days. You grow it, you bond it, you influence it and add a few months over the next 12 days... whoops, your bond goes, you rebond. Four days later, your totem decays, and you have to plant and grow again. During that time, there is *no protection* in that area and you can't use *any* of your Nest Skills, including rebirth, unless you plop another 18 power down on another totem for the four days it takes to regrow your own, then sever the bond and plop ANOTHER 18 power down on your own... (refilling the nest with 175 carrion each time, of course).

It also leaves places like the Moonhart and the Ravenwood with NO totem protection quite frequently, which is even more of a hastle.

It's basically, "Do a huge amount of extra work, spend a lot of extra power, all for less than what you've got now," which seems pointless to me.

How don't they?


Anyway, the idea is fairly flawed because of balance issues, and I know that it couldn't work in its current form. I would just FAR prefer an active duty that generates power, like the cities, so that we don't have individual character and commune disadvantages because of a stale, permanent handicap like totems.

low-level, you can get past 20 in a few hours, in America! Celest.

55-65-ish (what I consider the krokani-aslaran-merian period), is pretty difficult, only krokani allowed, but they're probably the most bashed-out of the three. I believe that Celest has the most hunting restrictions - yes, RP, but still a pain. Low level, Isle and Water are the two viable options.

Celest AND Magnagora have them. It kind of switches around every few days.

That's because Celest currently has most of the fighters and trying to throw their weight around while they can.