Valek, of all those from Magnagora, is the most honourable from what I can tell. He has made pacts with Ethelon in the past and upheld them and I trust his word because of it. I cannot say the same for many other's though within that city. I've also noticed that Chade has tried to lessen the raids on Celest and Celestia.

It would be nice to see the guards beefed up a little and something done to draw people back to Celest. Nothing is more upsetting than watching person after person leave Celest and join MAgnagora for the lust of power or whatever reason they use.

I'm really, really not a big fan of PvP or PK at all. I gave it a shot on other realms, but I don't find it amusing at all. It's all too system-oriented for my tastes.

Anyway, that's not the point.

Maybe people should stop to think that behind every character there's a -person- playing, who puts time and effort into this game like everyone else. Aw, I'm -such- a bleeding heart. But it's really disappointing when people are actually giving up and leaving because they can't even log on for 5 minutes without being PK'd for.. no apparent reason. How frustrating.

Meh. Hopefully things get better for the underdogs. Hang in there, people who are being killed relentlessly.

They were killing the Magnagoran village guards.




Come on people, the blanket statements are getting old. It also goes without saying that every city has a few people who kill mindlessly. Pointing this out repeatedly is well..

From what I can tell of Celest is this: Whenever I happen to raid, I always see certain people there helping. Usually they don't know how to fight, but the people who know how to focus on getting kills (Like Rafael tackling out of the room, or Rhysus leaving everyone behind to do the jet stream thing, or Ethelon never participating in defending anything, or Koan never does anything, Dumihru I don't even see that much, Saraxus has taken to the tackling thing to now). You rarely see a Magnagoran going for kills (except for maybe sacrifice), you see Magnagorans working together to win (On another note, Terenas killed around 5 Magnagorans and 10 Celestians).

Things are so bad that one character I know, who was created for the explicit purpose of roleplaying a defection from Celest to Magnagora, has pretty much decided to put their entire concept on hold because the attrition rate is currently so woeful.

Quoth their player, "What's the point if everyone will lump me in with the rest of the turncoats? If I'd have done the defection a few weeks ago? It'd have been a big deal. Now? I'd just be jumping ship."

Such a pity, too...I was looking forward to helping brainwash/convince them...

My experience with Lusternia. (Take what you may from it)

I heard about Lusternia from a friend who also happens to be a builder here.
From the early descriptions and history of this place, I thought it would be fun to RP in. I thought it would be fun to explore, since the descriptions of areas that I had seen in other IRE games (from the few short minutes I played on them) were more vivid than other MUDs I've played, and I knew my builder friend was one of the most gifted area describers I could think of.

The attitude Estarra had/has toward PK was also highly encouraging to me, as I hate PK, and wish to have no part in it. :thumb: (If I had a serious problem with someone else that got to the point where IN CHARACTER, I'd fight them, I'd RP-fight, if at all, with them. System combat annoys me, especially if it's 'supposedly' for RP reasons. To me, system combat is, in a way, more OOC than an RP'd conflict. I mean, how often do fights in stories really end with people dying (at all), and then coming back to life, and fighting and dying AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN... maybe I'm getting off the subject )

My fun from MUDs as a player, has always been killing monsters and exploring; becoming strong and fulfilling personal goals, with the exclusion of others, and not getting in anyone else's way. I really don't care how strong anyone else is (I find more enjoyment from MUDs as an administrator, though. Playing the game, to me, is more of a time sink, unless I'm RPing... I like creating worlds )

~

So, I log in. I can't find a city/commune that I want to RP as a citizen of... so, I chose to settle with Serenwilde because it has the best chance of "letting me do my own thing." Maybe I could RP searching for my homecity or something. ...

I do newbie stuff, as I'm a real newbie to this sort of MUD, and get used to fighting. Going through the newbie areas, I find that people are killing the Quest NPCs... ruining my chances to make gold from my pathetic kills of finks. I chalked it up to idiots trying to powerlevel without regard for anyone else... there are always a few of those, I guess. (but this still goes on, whenever I check, at least)

While I'm minding my own business, in the newbie area, (note, this is like, the 1st or 2nd day, no grace of innocence), I get PK'd by someone because they thought I was from Celest. There's NO RP basis for this kill... they did not know me (and I was from Serenwilde, technically, anyway.)

Now, I was willing to let this slide, as I was so low leveled, and I hear that guy got a tongue lashing, and I never saw him again. (the Avechna thing wouldn't have helped, *sigh*)

So, I go continue playing the game. I explore Avechna's Teeth, and the newbie zones, unable to complete any newbie quests, because someone seems to be killing the important NPCs. ... Eventually, I begin to become hungry. I have no idea what's going on, but eventually figure it out, and I buy food from Bob.

At this point, Grace of Innocence is in the game. ... so, I see that at level 20, I won't be protected from the wanton PK that I see going on. I decide at that point that I won't level up past 20. ... Which means, I'd need to find a way to make gold, to keep me alive with food, WITHOUT getting experience, so I can remain apart from the rampant idiots. ... I don't see a way to do this.

I attempted one more time to explore and RP, since I knew every second logged in meant more money needed for food, etc... and the people at the Pool of Stars seemed too busy to RP. Some sort of raid or fight going on somewhere. That, and I didn't know how far I could go with my RP of trying to find Styrta, my home city. (Here's my webpage for Styrta, I might add the Chronicles if there's real interest from players, and the PKing dies down a lot...))

SO... now I just log in to read the news (oh how I hate Serenwilde)... and I regularly read the boards, hoping to see something done about the PK...

Maybe I'll decide to play here in the future... but right now, I can't stand it.

~
Iscarak Ioskia, the Golden Wing

As someone who has been in both Magnagora and Celest - and actually paid attention in both places - I can say that the situation is both better and worse then it seems.

For one thing, all of the good leaders in Celest refuse to step up to the plate. I'm not kidding. All the people in Celest who could make a difference seem to be in hiding, maybe because of the atrocious behaviour of some of their citymates.

Valek and a good deal of the rest of Mag's fighters seem honourable enough. Remember the really early days, when Celestia was Tainted and firewalls were all over Celest? At least it's not that bad. The only time they get bloodlust in their eyes is when they get a chance to go after Visaeris. They really chafed at the bit when he was top dog, and they seem to relish to chance to throw him in the dirt.

Unfortunately, Celest currently has a talent for listening to the people who know least what they're doing. And their influencing is almost as bad as Delportois cooking. :excl:

Eventually the situation with remedy. Take heart, Celest - your dawn will come. Unfortunately, right now it's dusk.

It really is a difficult situation and the problem is that it is perfectly IC for Magnagora to continue this way. Something (not sure what) needs to happen to make the Magnagora leaders pull back from actions that would be OOC for the city.

Once the actions become OOC it would be fairly ridiculous for Mag to continue. This, to me, seems the most reasonable way to stop the slaughter that is dwindling Celest and causing a lot of players to become disgruntled.

I think the guides should put more effort into making the new players feel RP is the most important thing in the world.

I see WAY too many names that if I was in imperian would have no problem asking them to change it.

Powergaming is fine, as long as you have role that you invented for your charachter to do taht powergaming.

As for gold without experience.... Buy and trade commodities, or spend your lessons on your trade skill.

Especially funny since Silvanus spent many a post on here making sure everyone knew it was "Visaeris, not Magnagora" that was attacking people in the beginning.

Well, that is true, I shouldn't have generalized it, but what annoys me is the fact that these people complained about the fighting, but then they go and kill newbies who are level 6 for being around Celest.

Basically what it comes down to, if anyone pays attention, is that Magnagora HAS made attempts at giving Celest this break they oh so desperatly need. And in return what has Celest given? Raids on Magnagoran villages and on the Plane of Nil. Now tell me what is the logic of spitting in the face of your foe who stands miles above you in power but is giving you a break? Thats like the local Lord sparing your life and instead of being thankful for his noble mercy you stand up and flip him in the bird. Now is this smart? I think not.

Now a quick evaluation of the situation, as has been noted several times in this topic, is that Celest lacks overall leadership. Right now there's nobody willing to step up to the plate and rally the troops. Now this may or may not be because a clique system has already set in or because constant losses and staggering of the will to go on is draining anyone of the will to lead.. I can't say for certain entirely because I'm not a Celestial.. I DO know however that all these statements made about Magnagora being SO bloodthirsty and caring only about the next kill and forsaking any and all for it is a complete load of horse dump.


Magnagora is an evil city yes, and if it wanted to be that ruthless it could be easily.. and yet it's been reasonable. Especially the one I see **** thrown at the most here in Valek. Valek is currently the biggest badass on the block yes, but hes also the one out there spending hours filing in Envoy reports for guilds hes not even in. Hes also the one out there helping out young Novices in our city. Hes also the one out there teaching young warriors how to fight and presenting them a chance to strut their stuff in his contest. Hes also the one currently fighting against clique's depriving future generations of Magnagorans from ever gaining more ranks. This may not be immediatly clear to you who only see the edge of his blade coming at you but I assure you Valek does more than almost anyone, if not anyone, of the mortal races on this MUD.

Now on to the topic of how do we fix this problem.. Obviously giving Celest a break isn't working because they shove it back in your face so thats out. It's been suggested there be some sort of major RP happen to Magnagora so their attention is diverted. This to me is one possibly good choice. What this might be I'm not sure.. perhaps raiders or something who knows, something that compromises Magnagora's securty but not overwhelmingly so it becomes obscene.


Another thing suggested has been the Prime being no PK. This to me would be a great stupidity. I know there are some out there who dont love PK but in this world where more and more people are only whining until they get PK either removed entirely or so restricted it feels like eating glass would be easier it would be a great shame if an IRE MUD followed this trend. Perhaps making Exp loss less on Prime? Maybe no exp loss on prime? Maybe make it so if you die on Prime you lose less exp or none but must have a mandatory grace period of 10 or 15 or more minutes to prevent suicide in masses? Something.. I don't know.. these alternatives don't sound bad to me.. but removing PK entirely? Bad idea..


It was mentioned in an earlier post somewhere, forgive for me looking it up specifically, that there could be another plane enacted with a few more villages on it, more power producing and power commodity producing, that would be Open PK so to speak.. No vengeances, full exp loss, basically like the UW on Achaea but without the super mobs roaming it.. This to me would be a cool idea.. that way your big badasses could get down in the trenches and fight for the big prizes and your medicore ones can handle the prime plane without losing 10 levels in a day. This to me is also not such a bad idea.. It leaves PK on the Prime Plane without so much loss and opens up a PK Festival on another plane..


These are just a few I think possibly logical solutions to stem this tide some.. but still this will require Celest and Serenwilde both to stop being so petty and solving their own domestic issues before they can dream of challenging Magnagora.

EDIT: Watch the language ~Auseklis

Well I suppose you'll have to forgive me if I view Valek in a somewhat negative light after he calls me a little bitch, a p****, jumps me when i'm sitting in mag and tells me to "get hte hell out of city", etc.

Agreed. The sheer amounts of totally unneeded swearing I get in tells is starting to tick me off. This is just a game, and even if your character would spam me with f**k you over and over in tells, it gets old quick and although I have done a little swearing before, it's never got to the sheer amount I get in return.

I have to agree with this one. It's really just unnecessary. Case in point, I'm entirely heterosexual, but if I wasn't, I'd have left a looooong time ago over the number of times people from Magnagora have screamed "F***ing f***ot" at me over stupid things like getting killed one time in a big raid. Give me a break, guys. Is it really that bad?

Excessive language is a bit annoying yes but.. what do you want.. most MUD players aren't the oldest or most mature lot you ever will see.

Please report language such as the above to the admin. We will deal with it swiftly and surely.

I'm totally thankfull to the few of celest that has still the erm.. gut, to raid Magnagora's villages or the plane of Nil.

I know some kids would like to be treated as they treat others, to go around happily singing lalala and kiss flowers and hug people around in a love and peace harmony and to be so niiiiiice that surely no one would like to kill them.

But those dreams are just deathwish in disguise.. deathwish for the mud, because that would just kill the mud in the end. If we just so far go down this path, Celest and Magnagora are going to sit down and be so doughy and so fat that it is just going to make the mud unpleasantly tasteless. Soon, you'll start to see celestines and magnagorans bashing together, less and less are going to take part in militaristic actions playing the deaf dog at the call for actions of their leader and even ignore the cry for help of their fellow mate.. because they don't want to be involved and it would so not match with their pink and candy vision of lusternia.

And there will always be a difference between two or three guys walking down the streets with their M-16 shooting down random people and an army knocking at the city's gate.

Yes, people raids. At least, they would like to, but in the end it just looks like a chaotic struggle of players killing randomly others.
All of this because the concept raid is not implemented. I wouldn't mind some energy shield protecting the cities and serenwilde that would saturate the air with energy, hindering everyone from using skills as long as the shield is up.
Afterall, all you need in a city, is your bashing skill that's all. But above all, raids should be implemented, and the acts of vandalism of the city as well, i know that's what the necromentate and the stars of celest were created for.

Just make raids as long as the shield is up , totally hazardous. That way , everyone would have a shelter and a place to hide and the villages and planes as a battleground

I agree, raiding villages and various territory is all nice, but raiding the cities itself should at least be a little harder than your average bashing trip. Surely a city could bring up some better defences than just the some pitiful guards, some examples could be: katapults, burning oil, sentry towers shooting projectiles, boulders, some sort of magical grenades ...whatever, plenty of possibilities, so it makes it impossible for just 2-4 people to massacre the entire city, they'd have to bring a decent force to storm the gates. Would make raiding an art of war, not just a field-trip.

Rhysus, feel free to throw the names of people throwing "F**king Fa***t" around to me, and I'll deal with them too. The problem is however on both sides, makes me laugh I have to admit when Rafael goes off on a bender after dying, or used too, since I like the guy, but when it becomes abuse I won't let people in "my" city get away with it if I can help it. Most of them are honourable and do abide by the rules, everyone has a few bad eggs though.

On another note Mag and Seren are not working together, we have a pact stating that Serenwilde can't get involved in the conflict between Celest and Magnagora, what we wanted in the first place, it's not just about refills either, Serenwilde isn't Magnagora's main focus, although we do have rumours that the Moondancers are an anti-Taint hotbed, should make for some interesting RP later.

I just want a way I can RP Mag out of the "smush" Celest, until Celest can pose more of a challenge, even beefing up Celest's security won't do much, as on Celestia they have no security, and even at the huge disadvantage of no Magnagoran entities, once we're on the plane, we dominate it. But I can't ICly turn round and say, right guys, today we're taking Celest on a bashing trip and teaching them how to fight.

The problem at the moment is a ratio of fighters, Celest have Rafael and Saraxus excellent fighters who I can't best one on one, unless I get exceptionally lucky or they make a mistake, although like I said, out of eight years in IRE I've never been a combatant, so this is my first time. (Gotta defend myself )

I really need some divine assistance in this if possible.

Chade