I have to disagree with the acountability issue. Yes, Celest needs time to learn the ropes of PK and leading in PK but at the same time, it is the responsibility of the leaders to be doing this themselves, organizing information, encouraging efforts, and above all else, communicating. Yes, other citizens can do it too and some do but the onus falls on leadership and if leadership is not willing to do it then there is a problem.

We could have all the time in the world and if the leaders are showing the amount of leadership they have thus far we would still be in the exact same place because we would still have everyone not really sure what they're supposed to be doing, wandering around doing their own thing, and being a generally disorganized rabble. There has to be someone that will stand up and say "We will do X because of Y" and then make sure it gets done. If this is not the job and point of leaders, then I really don't know what is!

This isn't a blanket statement for all the leaders because some do make an effort.

I'd just like to add my 2 cents here, since it seems to be a popular course of action...

I've taken the time to read all the posts here, and I've noticed that one point which stands out to me is not present. It seems to me, and Estarra, stop me if I'm wrong, that Lusternia leans more heavily towards the economic and politic side of life, rather than the physical. That's great! That's why I really love Lusternia and come back again and again. However, those that champion economics and politics can do absolutely nothing about those that champion physical skill and brute strength. Anytime we try something related to this, large groups of raiders cut us down without a thought and move on. Vesar is trying very hard to play the role of a leader within Celest and his guild, but he's having to resort to combat now to get anything done. His roleplay is getting killed more often than he is himself.

On the matter of "poor Celest," it's clear that Celest has issues which need to be resolved IC. We know what we need to do, and it's just going to take time to fix.

I had more, but I forget now. Ah, the result of stress.

Vesar

One of the biggest problem is that the Divinely selected leaders copped out. Jerah is the only one that has stayed around out of the group chosen by the Divine, and he helps me a ton, though I don't think PK is really his game either. Achacius and Zeit have never really been around for the past two years or so, and so the load we're shouldering has been enormous of late. Place that on top of the fact that we do HAVE strong structural leadership in place for the Army but no one seems willing to actually go through with the regimen set out for them (Lazy? Disenchanted? Who knows.) and you've got a recipe for the type of lackluster progress that has so far been made.

Actually, we Paladins selected all our first Leaders.

Okay, yea, back on topic..

Yup, Rhysus. I agree.

Add that to the fact that statues miraculously stop working any time Magnagora is influencing a village full of statues we erect against them. *hiss*

Well, apparently i'm partially responsible for the statue thing... as Estarra said, the problem was relating to the Avenger... well.. I discovered (the hard way) that if someone calls the Avenger on you and then commits suicide, the Avenger CAN'T kill you through physical damage.. it will drop you to 0 and you won't die... so then it is the bleeding or afflictions that kill you, and the Avenger doesn't count it and comes back to kill you again... I died 11, XI, Eleven times before a God was finally around to crumble the Avenger and save me.

So, yeah, kinda my fault... but, I doubt any of you highlevels would have liked death after death at the hands of the Avenger.. so.. you should be glad... right? :-P

The statue thing is an equalizer though, it didnt work for any side...

Influencing does have one thing in common with landmarking:

They are (were) both extended periods of RP-forced, boring, repetitive work. Being forced by RP to do the same task (chant, chant, chant, chant, chant, ....) over and over and over again with no short-term gains really blows. Plus, a couple good raids can induce a city to have to do it all over again.

Magnagora has two people who stand out as excelent fighters. Then we have people who stand up to the challenge and have decided to learn.

Celest use to have some fighters that it no longer has because they either got kicked out, or pursuaded to join Magnagora.

You complain that Lusterinia is high politics and economics but the brute strength people are winning. I highly beg to differ, Magnagora is blessed with good politicians, good economic theory and good combat leaders who are willing to teach citizens how to become better themselves.

Hive minds are always stronger when ingenuity is lacking or not strengthened by the good guys. Remember the Borg?

Oh and about the statues.... We tried to destroy the statues numerous times but they still hit us. They are very annoying indeed, and a few people died because they got hit from statues and then attacked.

So stop whining about the statues.

Its really not nice putting up more statues after I say here that statues can't be destroyed... thats just wrong.

Statues can be destroyed. I just did it.

Daganev.. what'ya mean Celest -use- to have some fighters? I'm still here. And, Zhaine and Davrick may fight, but none of them really ever made it to the capability that I and a few others have.

even if its been fixed now, the point remains that you should have had no statues, and putting up more without the others comming down is just bastardly.

We put up statues. You destroyed them all. We then proceded to put up more, after destroying the ones YOU put up. Where's the problem?

ok unless I'm missing something, that didn't happen. We were unable to destroy any statues for the 3-5 hours we had delport alone, trying to sneak past them and lure people we would have liked to influence away from them.

I join back after posting that the statues were hurting us and find more statues erected, one after another.

but I'm sure they will get destroyed soon enough.

That reminds me... Anyone here ever take a class in game theory? (It's a type of math heavily used in economics.) That would be useful in solving village influencing. When multiple villages are in play, there is probably a formula to calculate the optimal strategy for where you put your influence resources based on what you know of your opponent's strategy. So if it's unknown what the other guys are doing, the formula says to do . Then if your spies tell you that one city is focusing everything on Delport while another is going 75/25 between Southguard and Rockholm, then the formula changes to say . It would be interesting if a lagging city figured out the game theory of village influence to see if implementing it impacted performance (assuming that they could get the city to go along with it in a coordinated fashion). It's been too long since I studied it to know for sure how it would work, but I have a hunch how it would turn out.

I've taken some game theory classes, though it would be odd trying to predict an optimal strategy given clearly defined equations governing the behavior of the villages that we don't know. From an omniscient viewpoint it would be pretty simple to say "Oh, City X is putting 55% of its forces in Village 1, 25% in Village 2, and 20% in village 3, so City Z should do M, N, and O for optimal performance." but given how it's pretty difficult to get all those variables in order for long enough to establish a good prerogative I'm not sure how well it would work out.

It's -still- going.

Like 5 straight hours of influencing with nearly no competition didn't get it, and now it's looking like Magnagora will win. I went to bed and came back and the whole place is tainted and statued and whatnot.

I beg of anyone who can change thing, make statues only work in the territory of the city they're tuned to, at the very least. If people are allowed to statue villages, it should only work -while- they have that village. Like with guards.

And it's been 24 hours since Delport opened pretty soon, so I think -maybe- the time is just a bit overboard. I'm going mad. This is not fun. This is monotonous, soul crushing, horrible, mindless busywork. 2 or 3 hours, that is what it should take. Not 15 minutes, not 24 hours, just a nice bit of time that doesn't drag on unto eternity.

I agree with you, this needs to be changed. I used to like influencing, but now its just sickening.