Eh...all the challenges leading up to the final one look great..but the final challenge looks really, really horrible.

Its essentially going to either degenerate into a horrible, horrible, unfun pk fest which is going to favor the org with the most combatants, or the people most willing to be lame.

Burrow, anyone?
Or Bubble? Or Fleshstone? Or TrueHeal while being fed power? Mass Hermit cards? The person who becomes a god is essentially going to be the person who can think up the best abuse of their skills. Yay. That's the sort of person I want as a god.

Sweet! An order? All hail Ialie, Mistress of Rainbows!

So instead of having Ephemerals solely for the purpose of enhancing the RP in Lusternia (an idea that has been repeatedly suggested and loudly rejected), you're asking players to participate in a series of relatively silly trials (that will most likely be dominated by the fighters who want the permanent blessings) for the sole purpose of becoming publicly viewable Gods who exist for the purpose of enhancing the RP?

...'kay.

Most of the trials don't require serious combat ability, e.g. the debate tournament.

And about the number of denizen trials: could it be calculated in terms of experience rather than number if possible? Like whoever gets the most experience from killing/influencing/saving(whatever that is) denizens? Someone could kill 1000 rats in the same time it takes another to kill 100 steel goats for example, same for influencing. If this will be about skill, it shouldn't be about number, no?

From my experience in two other IRE games.. I'm going to say this isn't the most wise or plausible idea at all. I wouldn't trust a good 90% of the playerbase in all of the collective MUDs of Iron Realms with even such a tiny portion of power given by Godhood.

As Fallen said, it will degenerate in to a contest of who has the most people that are willing to be absolutely abusive with their skills. I can already see an Aqua team following around their chosen contestant just spamming Bubble to keep them alive.

To tell the truth, I don't think anybody could really pull it off. It isn't exactly every day somebody becomes a God. You also cannot seperate the fact that this person isn't an Administrator, and thus you're prone to disrespect them more than any actual staff member of Lusternia.

All in all, I think it's a terrible idea just handing Godhood over to some poor sap who likely has no idea what they're getting in to. Little to no PK? That automatically discourages me. I can see the cool sidebits of being a God in a roleplay sense.. but it just isn't cool enough or open-ended enough to be worth it.

For the sake of the game, I hope the Administration has safety nets laid in excess - they're going to need them, I think.

Just a couple questions about the role, because I'm tempted to try for it -

Would we be allowed to be in OOC clans and such? And would there be a way for us to assume a mortal form or something and join arena events just for fun? Would we be able to make mobs talk and other such RP devices? Would we have shrines?

If you have an Order, you have shrines, I believe.

As for the rest.. I'd hope so, or else that person is going to quit pretty fast.

I'm pretty sure OOC clans are out of the question, but the rest seems reasonable.

The whole thing sounds interesting to me. I can see myself competing for the War blessing, but I seriously doubt I could gather enough support to attempt the final challenge. I think the very qualities that would make a person a great candidate for Ascension, would doom said person when it came to the last challenge.

Two possible outcomes: This will either be irrelevant, or so horrifyingly broken it'll get killed before six months.

I am reluctantly forced to agree with Furien, the last test won't look pretty. It will be much worse (as is, more boring and prone to abuse) than wildnodes, and most people don't like wildnodes from what I've seen.

The rest though is just party pooping. I believe most of the negativity here comes from people who are so realistic (in their own opinion)/disgruntled that they think they have no chance of winning. Of course, assuming you're going to win automatically is no good either.

I can see it working better if there were one or two group-oriented tasks. Maybe saving denizens will be. I dunno. As it is, you get someone with at least some measure of talent for the system end of things (which is no small feat, really) trying to rally support from other people with talent for the system end of things to...cease to interact with that aspect of the game that has had at least some bearing on their enjoyment here. You're getting down to a rather narrow group of potential candidates, then hoping one of the potentials beats out all the people who just want a permanent blessing.

Tons of potential and it is a very interesting idea. I think you guys should let it actually get started before you start slamming the system. It is about time there is a system for the people who genuinely want to RP, and with the admins watching closely it could be a ton of fun.

EDIT: That being said I don't care for the majourity of challenges.

Absolutely true.


The zerg rush to find the dirtiest, cheapest method to win is a nightmare waiting to happen.

How much influence are these gods going to have anyway when it comes to running events? I can see a situation where a group of mortals have been roleplaying something out and they spend tons of time on it and then an ascended god comes along with an event they cooked up in five minutes and messing things up. Cynical but probable.


Edit - Oh, I did want to say that at first I hated this idea. After seeing exactly what the different challenges will be I'm pretty ok with that part.

My complaints don't stem from wanting to win, Cuber. I actually have no intention of attempting any of these Seal contests, and obviously through that, not attempting the Ascendancy. Mine are just simple projections about what I expect to see come the end of this little contest.

It's being experimented in another IRE MUD, and IRE mandates the muds should be different. This idea has been part of the design and the web site hints for a long time. We should let Estarra execute this idea. Worst case scenario, it doesn't work, but it's an experiment worth trying.

I would like to think that we have a mature playerbase and could pull it off.



Or, it could work. Really, Verithrax, I think it's time you just find another MUD to play in if this isn't suiting your needs. I don't understand this obsession people have with hanging in the forums if they hate the game. It's almost like they hate it so much they want it to fail to prove a point. People like Gwylifar had the maturity to move on once they were dissatisfied.



That raises an interesting point. Is this going to divide among "party lines", or will the god have to be neutral to start? Like Estarra said, I'd like to see the players vote for the person who has the most potential to be a good god game wise rather than just create a Viravain, Fain, Terentia, or Charune 2.0.

Another few questions.

* Can a blessing winner assign it to another person if he doesn't want it?
* Are Demigods/Titans ineligable for this like has been hinted before?
* Will Ascended gods be tied to a community?

I believe that the god's RP events will have to be accepted by the "elder" admins first, etc. And that s/he'll have to prove themselves trustworthy before trying out major things by her/himself.

I do not think the maturity of the soon-to-be god will be an issue. Lusternia is a very mature RP game (believe it or not), and I believe most immature/irresponsible people won't be qualified enough to even get a seal.

As such, the ONLY issue here I see so far is the final trial. And for those who do not like it as well - maybe there is a better option for the final task? What are your ideas? Discuss!


THIS IS AN EDIT, OR ANOTHER POST (MERGED):
I'm going to sleep now (2:30 AM). I expect 20+ pages of whines here when I wake up.

Please, DO disappoint me on this part.

Estarra and other admins, do not feel discouraged by the amounts of negativity you'll get in this thread. Well, you all are probably pretty resistant to it by now anyway.

This sounds cool. Skeptisism be damned. You know what? Great advancement and great risk go hand in hand. I highly doubt a PK-OOC lover is going to try for the staff anyways- or else they are morons. I'm going to give it a shot. It sounds cool, and until I see the PK griefer who becomes the god I'm going to keep my hopes high.

Cheap tactics can be worked around. The person has to hold the staff for an entire day, those cheap tactics will be difficult to hold out for that long. The only real exception I can think of is greater pentagram.

If there are enough people out against a given person ascending, then that person will not ascend, simply enough. If a person would truly be a horrible divine, then they most likely will not even have enough people to even pull off these cheap tactics.

I vote that we watch this unfold, and do what we can to make it work out well, instead of cursing it from the beginning. Let's actually put some effort into making it work instead of the constant negativity!

A couple of points.

All the current active gods were once players, picked and trained to not only be gods but handle admin duites. I would like to think we have worked out so far.

The ascended God won't be "cooking up an event in 5 minutes" as no god is allowed to do that and we will certainly be helping/monitoring the new god with events and showing them how to get them running and the planning involved.

The main difference here is that this god will be a player that everyone knows and will not be an Admin. They will have the RP side of being a God without the Admin side. It is certainly not an easy task and only people who are certain they can RP should consider it.