There is a desire for an ongoing essence sink which can be used by Demigods once they have purchased all of the powers available to them / all the powers they want to purchase.

An idea being bandied about is to expand the Domothean Realms.

To begin with, it would simply work like this:
1) The Demigod / Ascendant "attunes" to a specific facet of the Domothean realms; ie Life, Nature, Death. This would cost 25,000,000 or some such.
- True Ascendants are automatically attuned to the one they won through-- it's not possible to attune to something else. TAs are stuck.
- If you have a Seal the attuning costs 50%, though you can attune to another facet for full price if you wish.
2) When in an area claimed by the Domothean facet you are attuned to, there is no essence drain for Demigods.
3) Each facet would essentially have a 'town' and a 'wilderness' section to it. The town is built up by the expenditure of essence.
You buy a plot for X essence, you can expand it and describe it for Y essence, add permissions, and so on-- so basically a Demigod house setup in the Havens.
- This would be neat mostly because if little extra perks are created, purchased only through essence, and that apply only to the Domoth house and not to Manse houses, it could make them more appealing. Pay essence for an ambient there, pay essence to make a room temporarily regenerate willpower for a couple of hours, pay essence to be able to do an ambient-on-command with a cooldown timer, ability to eject anyone at will-- basically, things that give you control over the area as if your will were all that matters in that little area.
As the town section of a domoth expands, the wilderness area also grows-- as essence is poured into that facet of the Domothean realms it expresses itself in other ways.
- To begin with, the wilderness area would be populated by the Domothean creatures we all know and love from Domoth challenges. They're not greatly challenging, but as the wilderness area grows they will be present in greater and more challenging numbers.
- Once the facet reaches a pre-set point, stronger creatures might begin to appear-- Excorable weak, Divinus resistant. This would allow the Administration to slowly phase in new critters with different resistance sets, depending on how fast the facet grows.
4) Estarra hates areas without purpose. However, to begin with this area would not -have- a purpose; and because it's mostly player-driven, it wouldn't have a lot of Admin-description-building either. As it grows, it would give the Admin a great place to put in some quests (again, when a facet reaches pre-set levels) that delve into what the Domothean realms are and give a broader sense of how they fit in to Lusternia. This would let these areas be a living, evolving location which takes less effort to set up initially but that allow fun to be had in smaller intervals as time moves on.
5) Have a connecting path between the Domothean realms in the wilderness area, with wild / strong foes that aren't pleased to see trespassers.

Sojiro's been talking about using it as some kind of a conquest system, where sides can 'claim territory' and such. I'm a bit dubious at going to that extent since it would begin to blur organization boundaries. I'd really like to see something as above, where even if two or more orgs are centered in the same area, there's not a huge amount of reason to band together.

However, the beauty of it is that this is just a framework / underpinning, and you can add on whatever you'd like in addition to make it work.

I'm not a demigod yet, so I don't know everything being one entails, but I think this sounds pretty cool. I know that Aetolia has special manses that those at "demigod" or "end game" can buy and expand. Nothing as complex as what you have laid out, with the wilderness and and creatures and all that, (at least, I don't think so. I never did reached end game) but I'm sure the framework of that can be used as a good starting point. What else is someone with millions of excess essence gonna do with it? Save it up in case they die 500 times in a row?

Demigods don't lose essence for being in the Havens...? Unless we're talking, 'expand the Domoth Realms', and the title is throwing me off.

As one of the demigods who's not sitting on a huge pile of essence, I'm not likely to ever use this system, if it's in the Domoth Realms. The Demigod-Hunting-Grounds-and-Town idea sounds interesting, but if it costs a signicant amount of essence to visit for the 'normal' demigods (say, those on 15M essence or less), I don't see a large percentage of the population using the system.

On the flip-side of that, the normal 'Havens' (Ascend to the Havens) are rather small and uninspiring; perhaps, if demigods began tapping Domothean energies, they could "seek to expand the Havens themselves" (using teamwork rather than raw Divine power)? Perhaps releasing whatever Eldrich Horror is lurking around the corner...

It's pretty well tied in to the Domoths as an idea, so it would indeed be in the Domoth realms-- which is why you'd have to make Demis not lose any essence when in their attuned territory.

It's not an immense essence loss though, or Demis would never go up there to fight, so you'd still be able to explore the other parts of it.

Aspects of it ('town' vs 'wilderness', one expanding as the other grows, etc) remind me of the design system for godrealms.

We've seen this suggestion in a few incarnations before, though this one seems the most thought out. My biggest concern is that, previously, it's been stated we prefer to keep housing systems in the housing system (aethermanses/ships). My second biggest concern is that wilderness maps are ugly and I'm so glad we've never used them, sans for Aetherspace (where it's at least tolerable).

Eventru:

Aspects of it ('town' vs 'wilderness', one expanding as the other grows, etc) remind me of the design system for godrealms.

We've seen this suggestion in a few incarnations before, though this one seems the most thought out. My biggest concern is that, previously, it's been stated we prefer to keep housing systems in the housing system (aethermanses/ships). My second biggest concern is that wilderness maps are ugly and I'm so glad we've never used them, sans for Aetherspace (where it's at least tolerable).

I've never actually seen a "wilderness map" (unless Aetherspace is what you're referring to); when I think of wilderness, I'm more thinking of standard rooms with mostly the same description, so there isn't a lot of work that needs to be put into them, and more rooms just get added to it as time goes on / it gets more built up. They'd have a rugged feel and have angry inhabitants that want to eat you.

I am pretty much a Lusternian through and through, so my idea of "wilderness" may not really match what others see it as!

I kind of like this alternative version of housing as well, as a more 'personal' thing. It wouldn't work as a family house at all for instance, so all of your family manses & shops would have to be through the current manse system. This just gives you a personal area for yourself if you want to work on it. That is, at least, the way I am picturing it-- so there's a difference between the two. This would allow for additional powers for your own area that just don't work in the manse system as-is currently either (since manses can be aetherships, an "eject" button isn't feasible, for example).

Xenthos:

I've never actually seen a "wilderness map" (unless Aetherspace is what you're referring to); when I think of wilderness, I'm more thinking of standard rooms with mostly the same description, so there isn't a lot of work that needs to be put into them, and more rooms just get added to it as time goes on / it gets more built up. They'd have a rugged feel and have angry inhabitants that want to eat you.

I am pretty much a Lusternian through and through, so my idea of "wilderness" may not really match what others see it as!

I kind of like this alternative version of housing as well, as a more 'personal' thing. It wouldn't work as a family house at all for instance, so all of your family manses & shops would have to be through the current manse system. This just gives you a personal area for yourself if you want to work on it. That is, at least, the way I am picturing it-- so there's a difference between the two. This would allow for additional powers for your own area that just don't work in the manse system as-is currently either (since manses can be aetherships, an "eject" button isn't feasible, for example).

Ah. When you say "wilderness", I think most of us old school IRE-ers think of Achaea's wilderness - basically it's like Aetherspace in appearance, except it's a map of the continent, and you move about by foot/flying/burrowing. It's... Really unpleasant and was always very obnoxious to move through.

While it's 'personal', I don't see the point in spending the gold on a personal manse if you could instead just grind to Demigod and pour essence into this. Clearly people can enter it for entertaining etc, else you wouldn't be able to eject them.

I don't know - it really feels like an encroachment on at least one aspect of manses, and that's a bit of a turn off for me, personally, in the system. Not that I'm opposed to demigods having more essence sinks, but I'm not sure this would be something that fit that bill very well.

I would say that most manses are:
1) Owned and created by non-Demigods who aren't really aiming for Demigod, or
2) Family manses, being owned and maintained for the entire family including non-Demigods, or
3) An aethership or has plans to become an aethership, or
4) An aethershop.

Or some combination thereof.

If you want to entertain non-Demigods, you'll need an actual manse.

Sure there might be a couple of people who do what you say, but I do think there'd be a niche for both! People like myself would probably utilize them both. My manse is a 'family manse' and my demi-place would be essentially be for myself only. Not that there's a huge difference in the two right now, but they'd have completely different themes.

Xenthos:

Not that there's a huge difference in the two right now

House Xenthos stands alone.
I'd put the pic here, but not up to tracking it down atm.

I'm not really sure why this is needed, manses already exist and you can make them fit practically any purpose you like though the ability to anchor their entrance elsewhere would be nice, and if demigods want to convert essence into manses I'm sure bob can come up with some way to satisfy that desire. I am also confused as to why the comment that most manse owners are not demigods would be helpful for the case here, demigods aren't building manses so we should give them manses in another way?

Ultimately, with absolute bias I would say that if any players gain the ability to build in the non-aetheric areas of the game, it should be the guild leaders/a ministry, let those guildhalls, cities, and communes expand a bit more easily.

Also, as a non-demigod, it kinda feels like demigods get a lot of attention. I'd rather see something more multi-layered where all players can get involved (no domoths don't count), (noting point where mind tangented) perhaps literally so... a demigods working in the havens while the mortals work in the basin. :shrug:

Everyone can get Demigod (and it's really not that difficult. Really.)

Everyone can get Demigod (and it's really not that difficult. Really.)


That's nice, I dislike systems that require hours of bashing sitting around in a manse running a script to begin participating in and with the constant reinforcement that "everyone is demi" realistically now it just seems like Syndrome has had his way with the game.

I don't - personally! - inherently mind a 'focus' on demigods, but that doesn't mean the other aspects of playerhood in the game should be abandoned.

In general though, after thinking on it, I don't think this would really add much to the game. In general I find some aspects of it potentially awkward (Xenthos, Ilyarin, Malicia, Iasmos, Munsia, Ixion all decide to settle in the town associated with the Life domoth - talk about an awkward block party), both thematically and mechanically. I will never, a day in my life, be convinced stock, ugly, simplistically described rooms will be an 'okay' addition to Lusternia. I'm also not sure how I like the idea of shifting focus to the domoths in such a manner. I think in application, 9 towns with 9 wildernesses (18 new areas) will ultimately come across as an unused mechanic. I think we'll largely see people pile on to a few (Life, Death, Nature, Harmony, Chaos) with some (War, Beauty, Justice, Knowledge) really being at risk of being underdeveloped and ignored. Even still, I question if the demigod population is large enough to support it. Even moving beyond that, I'd personally rather see efforts be made to expand existing cities (ie Celest's gardens and library, the wyrden temple) versus some awkward location in the domoth realms. Domoths are fonts of power, not expansive planes, as far as I understand them. While I'm not inherently opposed to the notion of divinus-based bashing ground akin to Astral, I'm not sure this would really be appealing. Worse, it'd be Demigods-only, and I really don't like the idea of demigod only bashing grounds. I can see some areas being that way for soloing (Muud), but it being mechanically enforced would be painful. If I were to look at a demigod-only bashing ground, it would be the sort of place where mobs can't be crit hitted and they'd have tons of health - almost forcing group bashing, even at the highest tier. Which wouldn't inherently be a bad thing!

As well, in the past, essence sinks never seem to pan out well. People want to buy things with essence, but there's also the reality that we need to 'check' that somehow - because ideas for demipower purchases aren't limitless, nor do we really want thousands of rooms per demigod. You'd be looking at costs scaling the more rooms/upgrades you have, etcetera, and I think pretty quickly we'd see the same complaints as we did before and do right now - "we don't have enough to spend essence on!".

Donno. As always, these are merely my thoughts - the one who really needs to be convinced is Estarra.

Rather than tie it into Domoth realms, maybe there's an alternate idea for creating a sort of Achaean grove or personal demiplane.

Dreamweavers takes place "out of phase" with Lusternia's planes. Imagine if there was something called the "Deeper Dreaming", a plane to itself, maybe part of the spirit plane, or a layer below the dreaming areas we see. Imagine if Ascendents or Demigods got the ability to create their own pocket realities in this location. For essence they could build a few temporary rooms with their own descriptions and ambient effects. This of this as a text version of Minecraft.

Now, imagine if they have to be anchored to the first world by some portal that can only be seen or accessed by Dreamweavers or those with the appropriate Demigod/Ascendent power. Building these temporary areas can have a minor effect on the first world in the area around the portal. If Xenthos, for instance, made "Supercrow's Fortress of Shadow" in some area, he could build items there that might produce a minor effect on something. Say, anybody who dreams in that location see's custom dreams of him. Perhaps there could be other effects. Maybe certain areas of the Basin might have some special resource that could be tapped for some kind of passive benefit or effect.

Now say that these places can be raided or even destroyed, or essence stolen, say a game similar to tower defense. Say a group of Dreamweavers or Demigods decides to dismatle Xenthos' "Jungle Room" and grab the essence invested for their own purposes, but they have to get past something akin to a shrine or a denzien that would fight them--the X golem for instance--and also the ascendant and his or her allies if they are around.

Just a possible thought.

I like the idea of essence sinks!

I'm not fond, however, of the idea of a special house/manse system for demigods. (What happens to it if they lose demigod?) Isn't it a copy of another IRE end-game feature? I'm definitely not keen on a wilderness map outside of aetherspace. I'm not even completely sold on a special bashing ground just for demigods. And, yes, I strongly dislike areas without purpose except to bash--added to my misgivings of players basically creating endless bashing grounds for their own use. Even aside of all that, my read of the idea as-is, I think it would take an incredible amount of work and could take many, many months to implement (especially if we did need repurpose the wilderness map).

So, just thinking out of the box. I could see perhaps upgrading existing manses with special perks bought with essence, which would go inactive if the person ever loses demigod. I could also see a domotheon realm in aetherspace, accessible only if an aethership is upgraded by a demigod owner with whatever special essence feature needs to be bought. Entering that aetherspace realm with any non-demigod crew would just cause the ship to explode. At that point, we could consider aetherbubbles for each domoth sphere (no, not just with creatures to bash). However, demigods could not 'own' the spheres, though I like the idea of tuning to them for benefits. Maybe they could set up special obelisks or something for essence that grants some benefit.

I haven't really thought through the above, just my usual brainstorm rant. I will note that anything so large would take some time to design, set-up and implement (though probably not as much as the original idea).

I like that as a concept as well, actually.