Here's some ideas that I think were interesting that were tossed around in another thread. I couldn't get a handle whether people really like these ideas or not.

Each nexus also exists in aetherspace as a small world unto itself. By raising structures within these nexus worlds, counterpoint structures shimmer into existence on the prime city/commune. Any citizen/commune member can enter the nexus world through the nexus. Otherwise, you have to travel by ship to reach these worlds.

Some ideas for structures/upgrades:
*Aetheric Lure: Twice as many elemental creatures spawn / fae leave two ethereal creatures instead of one.
*Astral Passage: A rift somewhere in the city that allows anyone with Astrogate to transverse directly from prime to astral and vice versa.
*Aura of Replenishment: Willpower/endurance regeneration at the nexus.
*Scrying Stone: Lets city members scry people from the location of this upgrade.

Enemies can destroy structures over time (to prevent destroying them in off-hours). For example, let's say a structure has 100 health. Every game day, they can be attacked for up to 10 health. To completely destroy a fully healthy structure would take a minimum of 10 hours--assuming the structure isn't repaired (say you can repair it up to 10 health per hour) or successfully defended. If a structure is destroyed, that also causes a backlash into the nexus, causing a large loss power.

Maybe by destroying a structure in an enemy Nexus World, this de facto raises an opposing structure in its place which slowly drains power from the Nexus World into the opposing structure's nexus. For example, what if Serenwilde destroys the Celestial Tower in the Pool of Stars Nexus World by planting the vines of Nintoba at the base of the tower which slowly begins to wear it away. When the tower falls, the Pool of Stars looses power. But also, the Stone of Nintoba rises up in its place which slowly drains power from the Pool of Stars until it is destroyed.

Some people asked about aetherspace additions but that would be a really onerous task that we can't really divert resources towards. However, remember that aetherships will be able to block docks so that may make for some interesting aspace battles.

As an aside, although I had said we were moving away from conflict quests (i.e., quests that became a grind), I never said we were interested in avoiding all conflict. I like the above idea insofar that it is up to the individual city/commune to decide whether they want to open themselves up to attack by building upgrades.

looks and sound good, when will it be put into play

This sounds like fun. And not just because scrying and astral travel make the seren in me drool in absolute delight.

I vote yes (with the proviso of finishing aethership specs first )

Edit: To elaborate, it really is a brilliant idea. If we could integrate aetherships it would be FAN-bloody-TASTIC, of course. A shame, but at least it could be added on later in the game's development.

Awesome stuff, admin + players = win.

It sound like a good idea, actually. But remember that if destroying structures is too easy, this system will be frustrating and if it's too difficult, the system will be pointless. As long as you're willing to tweak things for a while after implementation, this has a good shot at working out. However, implement the Aethercraft specializations first.

Also, I suggest that orbital bombardment (From an aethership) of those improvements should be possible, to give aetherships greater involvement in this.

Of course, one of the avaliable improvements would be an Aetheric gun turret to protect against that.

Sounds good, sound. You guys are wonderful for listening to us. Would love to see it and can't wait until we do if theyre put in.

Just curious on one point though, accessing through the Nexus. Would a skill come for it? Or would existing skills be changed around a bit for it?

To avoid jumping on the brownnose/ubercritic parade:

I like the idea, however, it appears your ideas (Yes, I realize those are just samples) for improvements seem like they would create feather effects. Raiding would only hamper bashers (and communes) with ideas like those.

I think it would be best to have something with stronger effects on combat skills as well as possible negative effects instead of the return to zero effects that you are proposing. That way its a gamble towards greatness for an org to erect an improvement.

Overall its promising.

I don't see why skills have to be coded for it (Besides Aethercraft being finished). I think organization leaders would be able to raise improvements, and those would be healed/built through quests.

IDEA: Karma, power, esteem, and items randomly dropped by some mobs would all be useable for building/healing improvements.

If that was a reply to me Im just curious how people would -use- the Nexus to get there, nothing currently exists for it so..? If not just a clarification I guess.

I'm guessing it would be something like astroglide is during wildnodes. Every citizen has a new command to AETHERSHIFT (or whatever) from their nexus. I don't think it would be a learnable skill.

I really hate conflict effects over use of skills. Partially because it causes a snowball effect ("We can't keep them from keeping us down because we can't use five of our class skills!") but mostly because it's frustrating. Because of what other people did, something that you had no power over because you weren't online or aren't skilled enough to prevent it from happening, you can't use the skills you put effort and/or real-life money into getting, making you even more powerless to change things.

Feel free to suggest ideas!

Oh, I suppose a low skill in Planar? TRANSVERSE NEXUS WORLD, say.

That would work, and answers the question of how to get there and not what skills are going to be put in.

It'd probably be a city/commune skill, not a skillset skill.

I like these ideas a lot, this will actually give some meaning to the amount of power in the nexus rather than it basically just being bragging rights. Just make sure the stuff isn't too imbalanced. I'd tend to suggest things that are more of a convenience, like the stuff I listed above, rather than things that actually affect combat balance (ie. increasing damage dealt by citizens or something).

And, like Verithrax said, make sure the stuff isn't too easy or too hard to destroy. I like the idea of it taking a continuous effort with a cap on how much damage can be done at once, since I assume these upgrades will be pretty costly.

Some other examples:

-Elemental/Ethereal Sentry: shouts out over CT when a Lord/Aspect is attacked
-Sanity Touchstone: makes astral insanity go away twice as fast (or some degree faster) while in its presence
-Monolith of Persistance: discretionary powers last 50% longer
-Orb of Paranoia: when activated, guards/statues hit everyone not of the city/commune regardless of whether they are enemied
-Potion Factory: city members put in gold to receive refills (hey, I can dream).
-Enchantment Galvanizer: commune members put in gold to receive enchantment recharges

Actually, I've been meaning to do add that anyway. Think it'd be a weak upgrade by itself.



Hmm, surprisingly I don't mind this so much being that these upgrades could be attacked if communes or cities wanted to try and enforce economic sanctions. Note that refills would only work on potions that have at least one sip, and would be VERY expensive. (Same would go for enchantment recharges, of course.)

Would it be possible to include an upgrade that is something like... a city flame thrower that can be used once per RL day to destroy 2-3 totems in one commune (until it is destroyed). And some commune upgrade equivalent that deflects the flaming projectiles so that at most one totem is destroyed, and sometimes it is deflected entirely.

Obviously a more mystical, magical way of the city upgrade destroying totems would be better. But I'm not feeling particularly creative today. The commune upgrade would essentially have to be destroyed before any real damage could be done.

Why not ask the gnomes to make a medieval nuclear bomb and launch it at Serenwilde

Anyways, I'd like the potions for city and enchantments for communes, but a big problem, there will be no more trades between each orgs, since they have what they wanted.

I'd shy away from having upgrades who's sole purpose is to attack another org. However, perhaps raising opposing structures that destroy upgrades (like the Stone of Nintoba example above) could have different effects (such as destroying totems). The point is that if a commune or city doesn't want to get involved in any conflict (because they are weak or whatever), they can choose not to build upgrades and thus not be attacked through this system.