Hi,

This is part two of the special report process.

Given that a good amount of time has passed for people to bring up topics and no new proposals have been brought forth, I'm going to assume that everyone is content with the number and/or topics of the suggestions brought forth.

Here they are again:

Suggested Imbalances:
1. Construct Inequality by Xenthos
2. Revolt/Aetherflare Capture Speed by Viynain
3. Choke by Akui
4. Org Momentum by Akui
5. Shrines by Viynain
6. Monks by Janalon
7. Druids by PM
8. Races (not all) by Sylphas
9. DMP Inequalities (PVE/PVP) by Janalon
10. Demigods by Ssaliss
11. Warriors by Rivius
12. XP loss by Ryleth
13. Raid Mechanics by Malarious
14. Devalued Gold by foolsofsound

These suggestions were put up because the forum posters feel that they are major imbalances that exist in Lusternia, and therefore need correcting.

Please note that I've combined some topics, so this list may be a bit different from the one previously discussed.

A major imbalance, by my definition, fulfills most, if not all of these requirements:
1. It has existed for a reasonably long amount of time.
2. It is generally acknowledged, if not agreed, by players from most/all player orgs to be an issue.
3. It has the potential to discourage people from further playing/supporting Lusternia.
4. It has the potential to prevent new players from joining/staying in Lusternia.

Given the number of suggestions, I would like to initially cut this report in half to begin with, so please, forumgoers, name your top seven, preferably with a reason why you chose those topics, and at the end of the week (and some change), I'll tally things up, discuss the choices with my peers/admin, then go from there.

The next post will contain a brief summary of each suggested issue, so you can be best informed.

A Summary of Each Issue:

1. Construct Inequality by Xenthos

-Some org constructs are pretty mediocre, while others are obviously superior.

2. Revolt/Aetherflare Capture Speed by Viynain

-With the right setup, a village or aetherbubble may be captured within 1 round of bombarding/influencing, which takes about 10 minutes, due to bombards/village feelings.

3. Choke by Akui

-Thick shadows drag against your every action.

(But really, Night choke is unbalancing to group combat, given that it forces the victim to immediately leave or else die, but it's very difficult to do so given that it's group combat. Being able to "choke chase" does not help)

4. Org Momentum by Akui

-A org with a strong population of fighters are better able/equipped to secure resources which enable them to continue winning said resources and trampling their enemies, leading to a near-endless and stale loop.

5. Shrines by Viynain

-War shrines have excellent offensive effects for a relatively cheap cost, enough to overpower a superior force, makes raiding too difficult.

6. Monks by Janalon

-Monks as a whole are considered to be slightly overpowered given the reliability of their offense in giving high level warrior afflictions at a fast rate. However, they also suffer from disproportional ka costs and the limitations of the momentum system.

7. Druids by PM

-Druids are not as viable as mages when fighting outside their meld and rely too much on sap, an affliction that swings from overpowered to not that great. They also share their abilities with other classes, making it awkward to buff them up without unnecessarily buffing another class.

8. Races (not all) by Sylphas

-Many races are still considered to be not viable for general Lusternian life, even after numerous revamps. Balance races (plus or minus), in particular, have the most issues.

9. DMP Inequalities (PVE/PVP) by Janalon

-With the recent advent of mob resistances and new damage type attacks by classes, some classes are worse off than others when it comes to bashing. Specifically, the addition of excorable and divinus damage types with regards to high end bashing which makes divinus superior. Furthermore, the increased availability of the rarer damage types have an effect on PVP, given that few classes have resistances to them.

10. Demigods by Ssaliss

-The powers system is unnecessarily stifling towards demigods (a large population of the playerbase at this point), who have less options (RP/PVP) available to them compared to ascendants. For endgame content, their choices are limited and maybe even discouraging. Vernal demigods suffer the same issue, to a lesser degree.

11. Warriors by Rivius

-Warriors suffer from a variety of issues related to the RNG of their swings, their inability to hurt other warriors, and the ease of robewearers to reach the same amount of protection as other warriors (for specific body parts). Furthermore, it is near impossible for a warrior to pursue damage kills.

12. XP loss by Ryleth

-Dying still costs a lot of experience, especially when you have to pray.

13. Raid Mechanics by Malarious

-Discretionary powers give too much of a benefit for the defenders, especially when combined with shrines. The layout of certain org planes, along with their guardian mobs, are superior to others.

14. Devalued Gold by foolsofsound

-The economy suffers from a lack of available gold sinks, leaving people with far too much gold. This hoarding then gives them the power to buy out the credit market as whenever they feel up for it (dingbats/curios/etc), thereby making the rest suffer.

---------------------------------------------------------

Let me know if any description of the issues is misrepresented or unclear.

Without fanfare or particular order:

-Org momentum
-Choke
-Revolt/Aetherflare capture speed
-Demigods
-Races

3. Choke by Akui - This topic will not die, so lets see what can be done and hopefully it will end the angst.
4. Org Momentum by Akui - I'd like to see how this would go, I realize that there are some things that are rather entrenched but who knows!
7. Druids vs. Mages by PM - I'm not sure how to go about this right now, but I do feel strongly that this needs to be looked at.
8. Races (not all) by Sylphas - There are some raises that could use some work, there always is.
9. Sap by Raeri - Sap's just another of those topics that ends Druid talks.
11. Demigods by Ssaliss - Feels a bit limited.
12. Warriors by Rivius - Missed attacks, cost, etc. I'm sure more things can be brought up.
13. Bashing vs. Influencing by Kiradawea - I got a bit torn between what next so this and the next were just.. well lets pick nine.
16. Bashing Disparity by Malarious

My two cents:
Choke - Ongoing problem that has never been solved through envoys despite multiple attempts.
Monks - Need regularizing. monks are under-performing unless they make use of a limited number of overpowered strategies.
Druids - Totally hopeless outside of a meld, and overall less effective than mages inside of one.
Races - Seeing some variety in combatanat races would be nice. I want to revisit y Tae'dae alt.
Warriors - Seeing (high strength) warriors gain a method of damage kill would be wonderful; buff warriors as a whole, then make very high end weapon and character stats give diminishing returns.
DMP/Damage Types - Less of a big deal. Mostly I would like to see Excoro made into a viable bashing damage type.
Org Momentum - Make aetherflares/village revolts more common for orgs controlling greater numbers of them, in addition to increasing capture time.

Hmm. Given that I'm a non-com, I can't really make an educated assessment of the majority of the topics, but here are the reports I want in:

1. Construct Inequality by Xenthos
11. Demigods by Ssaliss
18. Devalued Gold by foolsofsound

Things I don't see as needed are:
14. XP loss by Ryleth (If you're below 80, you should be able to catch up to a death in less than an hour, and that's coming from a non-avid basher).

Before I go further, for the love of god, please stop making special report topics discussing x issue, while it'd be nice to talk about, it will be very confusing to have wade through 14 topics when no one is even convinced that all 14 topics are major imbalances.

So please, let's chop things down a bit, then I'll make the threads discussing the 7 or however many we decide to talk about.

Druids and sap can be combined.
Bashing ineq and dmp avalibility can probably also.
I feel that capture speed is a momentum issue.

I will combine druids vs. mages and sap, then make it "Druids", since mentioning mages will be misleading.

I think I'll just leave DMP availability in and fold in bashing to it.

Capture speed is definitely not a momentum issue, since non-top orgs have done the same.

I think the moment the 'Special Report' idea came up, everyone was in silent understanding that Choke would be there. Other than that,

• Druids/Sap
  
• Demigod
  
• Org Momentum
  
• Monks
  
• Revolt/Aetherflare speed
  
• Village feelings
  

Also, can't Revolt/Aetherflares be combined with Village feelings?

Sounds good to me. Might as well fold that in too.

I've also added in descriptions for the issues now. Or at least I'm about to finish.

Some of you have only been doing a top less-than-8, which is fine too!

3. Choke by Akui
4. Org Momentum by Akui
12. Warriors by Rivius

I've folded in bashing vs. influencing to races, since Kiradawea's argument was mostly related to that.

I'm also finally done adding in descriptions to each issue, please let me know if they are misrepresented or if anything's unclear.

I vote for

Warriors
Monks
Shrines (mostly because I think orders have way too much of an influence on interorg politics... and combat in general)
Raid mechanics (I avoid raids like the plagues they are because the mechanics suck)
Demigods (used to be awesome, now demi is the new titan, but even less so)

3. Choke

4. Org Momentum/Slippery Slope - Kind of a hard topic to balance for, since there are so many options that lead to an Org becoming stronger.

5. Shrines - I think this also sort of ties in with Malarious raid mechanics, although they are two separate issues, the one problem is shrines make raiding extremely hard and annoyingly difficult.

8. Races - How many times do you find yourself RWHO and seeing you are the only person on that list (or that list being empty cause you have a gem). Yeah, that's how I feel with Viscanti. Some races and specs are just very poorly designed for any archetypes whatsoever. There are a ton of races that will just always be second-class cause they are not as good as Aslaran, faeling or human.

9. DMP Inequalities/Bashing - I have a feeling this DMP inequality argument is going to go the ways of the old Drawdown/Nightkiss vs everything else argument, but eh. Divinus > Excorable, in every possible way.

11. Warriors - The same problems as before, a lot higher price to enter top tier combat, while always being minimally effective. I've never been a Warrior, its hard to say exactly what the problem is except for low damage where I almost never have to sip and can focus on applying only.

2. Revolt Speed - For what everyone else said above.

I still think all of those are problems that need addressing at one point, especially the devaluing of gold, constructs, monks, bards (which isn't listed), probably more raid mechanics like discretionary powers, pits, melds, shrines, the planes layouts itself, but one problem at a time and I think weakening of a shrine's influence on a battle/area would help a lot.

Druids and their plans to take over the world with syrup farming

I bashed to Demigod and all I got was a custom t-shirt

I'm on ur plane, raising mah uber-Shrines

XP Loss, because friends don't let friends waste hours spamming enter

Organization Momentum, for the guy who has everything and wants to make sure no one else does, ever

I'd like to see you leave the room when I'm Choking you to death!

Gold? Oh, you mean those fractions of a credit I keep in my pack until the market goes down.

-Demigods
-Choke
-Constructs

Org Momentum
- I think this is one of the major factors in the health of the game, more so than anything. Winning should give you advantages, but I don't think there should be a snow-balling effect.

Warriors
- My philosophy is that it's best to win because of player ability and not mechanical advantages/disadvantages. I'd like these brought in line with everything else.

Monks
- See my comment about warriors. Also, I think that a major problem with monks is that there is a dichotomy in their skills: there is only UP and OP options/setups, which limits diversity. The best monks are mechanical outliers with some player ability to utilize it, but if you look closely, it's a very stagnant approach. I'd like the OP brought down and the UP brought up, just so that there is some other viable options.

- With warriors too, I think the best way to approach this is to come up with a few sentences that describe the archetype and guild goals. They should be general enough to not force one option, but specific enough to the class. This approach could be beneficial when it comes to tweaks, and yes, I think monks are going to need to be looked at very closely. The tweaks needed aren't going to fly by the envoys b/c there are too many and it's too risky to do one at a time.

Bashing/DMP:
- This is important as it can create momentum on the macro level. While some people might think that small difference don't matter, these small differences can become -huge- over the course of a few hours/days/months, and an extra 10k gold per bashing run can very easily switch to an extra 100credits within a month or an even shorter period of time.
- DMP needs to be balanced to remove outliers so there's no obvious choices or unfair, heavily stacked advantages.
- This shouldn't be focused on org versus org, but also archetype versus archetype. Some math will be needed here. You want each class to have roughly the same DPS over a long period of time. I'd say mages have the best right now due to their criticals stacking extremely well with tuning, while monks' 3 crits per form is way lower due to a very low damage base. Knights do well in general, have 2 crits and good damage.

Races
- I do know that statpacks have been denied many times, but Shuyin, I think that now that you have the admin's ear, it might be a good time to suggest it again. It seems so reasonable, that I think people are saying 'no' to it simply because people don't want to copy Aetolia. It's irrational, though, to say 'no' to better options.

Shrines
- I think it's unfair at how much of an effect these can have. They can very easily turn the tides in group combat and between those and melds, you can fortify yourself in. People will say that you can counter shrine and stuff, but I don't think it's a good idea for Lusty's group combat to be based on who has the most esteem or who can handle shrine influence the best.

Combos
- I think combos are a great thing to have, but there needs to be some power balancing here. Power costs should be the same or very close to the same for combos that do the same things. I'm not going to try to get into the muck of choke/crucify/barrier/blah/blah/blah, but things should be looked in to.