In Lusternia, certain areas have defined backgrounds. Although some deviation may be necessary and worthwhile, it would be absurd to just ignore them and bs whatever you want to get where you want to go (which is basically what you are suggesting):

For example: Shallach and the Catacombs



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Celest:

I really don't see how Celest can argue that they are protecting the spirits of the Catacombs when it is quite known that those spirits are infact undead servants of Urlach. Furthermore, it would be quite bizzare to Celest to scream out, "Don't hurt the undead" when in fact they possess abilities specifically designed to destroy undead.

Serenwilde:

Ghosts and Spirits are not considered "unnatural" in the slighest. The Fae are, in fact, the lesser spirits of Nature. Mother Moon and White Hart are greater spirits of Nature. As for ghosts, Chuchip is both a spirit/ghost that serves Serenwilde by offering a prophecy to the Commune.

As for undead and nature, Serenwilde is primarily concerned with itself (and this very much stated in the histories) and self preservation. At one time, a Seren wanted to go so far as to limit how much one could harvest and Lord Auseklis made it quite clear that Serenwilde has no claim over nature or any right to police. As such, it would be even more difficult for us to order we are going to "restore" nature when our former Patron made it clear that we don't have that right nor should we have the desire.

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Furthermore, the motivation to have access to the Catacombs more-or-less is to have the ability to hunt the gar creatures for experience. Magnagora hunts them just like everyone else so no one is by any means claiming to "protect" to the gar creatures. Rather, Magnagora (and I've been told this IC) is protecting the ruins of Urlach and Shallach (which was the former guild hall of the ur'Guard or something). Given the associations of undeath to Urlach and Magnagora, this does provide them leverage with the area.

This leverage isn't bad necessarily. The problem is that the only major bashing area for high end levels is the Catacombs because Astral is dead. As a result, Magnagora has some roleplay claim to police the Catacombs innately (I believe their guild tutor even spoke to them at one point about the Catacombs) versus everyone else who really has nothing to work on... and it isn't as if we have other areas to bash that are up to par.

I would like to have an event by which the Astral nodes are refilled, and it is made impossible to destroy everyone else's enjoyment by draining them all as someone clearly did. Does the reason that the nodes take longer to regenerate at low power outweigh the reason for Astral's existence?

Now that I can hunt there, I find often it is completely empty, and with all the nodes drained it is really only a very few people who get benefit from the plane.

Alternatively, maybe the other communes/cities could discover high-level bashing or influencing areas similar to the catacombs. Not necessarily theirs, but as closely aligned with each of them as the Catacombs is to Magnagora.

Just a suggestion, but maybe have it, during the wildnodes event the winning organizations sphere's node will get fully filled as/when they win? Or have it for all of them, and have them regenerate at a certain amount per wildenode your organization has?

I thought it would make sense, what with the astral energies running wild and all, for the nodes to recharge at a faster rate during the hour of the event

Would be fun if all the nodes were full...you could try to sneak to the node of an enemy team and start linking there.
Imagine Celest overrun with Lobstrosities!
....
or Glom with Scopions...*shudder*

And anyone who links during the event gets fried due to the wild energies. Glom would have to guard their linking node more then their wild nodes. One link would spawn dozen scorpions, and it only takes one to get the upper hand on a lot of people

There's a reason we spent the time necessary to finish draining our node before the event started.

Any argument for a "bashing ground" will be scoffed at, as the admin here have said time and time again that they will not just create bashing grounds.

I suggest people look at the histories and try to come up with something mentioned in there.

Perhaps one aspect of the wildnodes event is that if you plant a node in a sphere that is not one of the main 4, then that sphere regenerates. Gives something for Rogues to do.

I like the idea of astral being reformed to the new astrological signs. Would give it a nice touch

I don't think reforming or refilling Astral will realy do anything. There's nothing in the design and nothing in the community that stops a few people from just draining the thing dry again. In fact, refilling it will just turn the whole thing into what I see other wild nodes do: Charge in, drain the thing dry, wait till next time.

The only way to avoid it is to essentualy make it impossible to drain the thing and keep it drained. The result is an unlimited source of power. Even the risk of flooding a sphere with monsters wasn't deterent.

As it is, all it takes is ONE WEEK of no one draining to have Astral back in full form. If we can't even do that then how can we manage a reasonable Astral. Perhaps if it's watched Faethorn style (*listening to Serenwilders groan*) then ONE of the nodes can be protected and powered.

Blah.

I like this idea:

If the node is drained to empty, it enters a stasis where it recharges. It cannot be drained until fully recharged again.

This way, you could drain nodes and keep them dead... but it wouldn't be something you could do once and keep the same forever. If you wanted them drained, you'd actually have to drain them over time...

It takes 7 days for a node to regen from empty so I don't this being too much of a hassle.

Personally I'm of the opinion, that Astral is currently too weak. In the early months of the game, draining the nodes dry weren't really a issue, simply because only a few could hunt easily there. And those few had enough common sense to monitor their own draining after Estarra made her announcement about the nodes. What has changed now, is that as the number of people who could hunt on Astral grew steadily. The benchmark of motes started to be seen more and more til someone who got tired of playing by the unwritten rule, and started draining beyond that. And I have no doubt with the ease of Astral it is quite easy for that person or small group to destroy the energy reserves of the plane as well as it's hunting potential.

To me, the best solution would be to make that extremely difficult. By vastly altering the node spawn rate as well as the natural spawns. Astral should be a lethal place that is only ventured to with caution, and especially so for single adventurers no matter their archetype. There should be atleast 10 natural spawns on each sphere, also there should be a wide variance in the numbers of beasts that spawn when you link. Also all of the node spawns should track at the same speed as the faster spheres, such as Virgo and Libra.

I 100% agree.

How are you going to make it hard for any single character of any archetype when some are twice as strong in bashing than others? If you make it hard for warriors, it's gonna be impossible for guardians. And I dislike the idea of turning it into catacombs where only the most tanky people in the basin can bash.

I just think Astral should favour sizeable groups of hunters over one hunter. I don't want to see the mobs boosted til one can one shot a high level mage/guardian. But I do want the danger of being swarmed by a huge number of them to be vastly increased to the point where one person couldn't drain all of Astral. Also to encourage more caution in regards to Astral, since going by the history it should be a extremely dangerous place. Also the power aspect can not be forgotten, if Astral was significantly harder, it would encourage organizations to deepen the bonds amongst their members by going on huge hunting expeditions for power as well as other resources.

More afflictions could help with that. Then, regardless of archetype, group of astral mobs could be deadly while one or two not.
But then again that would suck for people without the healing system...

FYI:

The strongest bashing class at the moment is Mages. While they may be less tanky, they do more damage by far. Furthermore, demesne are amazing bashing. You can have the center (in a local area) in a relatively safe area and poof back to it at the first sign of danger.

Guardians with Tarot aren't so bad either. If you are bashing by yourself, Hermit is just as useful now as in the past.

Well, maybe it's time for more planes of existance to start showing up rather than changing astral. The Void is filled with Cosmic and perhaps other planes. The astral plane might have gateways to other places.

There are problably planes, spheres, and pocket dimensions closer to Kethuru.

Or ya know.. we already know life exists beyond the basin. Perhaps new areas should open up out there that are higher level bashing areas mixed in.

More areas would always be appreciated. They stated there won't be any simple bashing spots, and it takes more time and effort to create one that's filled with quests.