So, like, the other orgs have these nifty constructs that do fun things. Celest's give them some cool protective/utility abilities, Serenwilde's gives them a ranged sacrifice, and Mag's gives everyone lich and buffs the people who already have lich. Glomdoring, on the other hand, gets the short end of the stick with an utterly worthless construct that gives... either a local area transmigrate or a no-exp vitae.

It's pretty much widely agreed that Glom's construct is the most worthless of all the constructs. There is absolutely no reason we would ever blow the money/comms/power to build this worthless thing. Why is it so worthless?

I know a while ago there was a discussion on how it could potentially be upgraded, with Estarra also contributing... and then nothing happened. All the other cities/communes have their nifty little rezz/protective constructs, and we're still stuck with the worthless DarkNest.

Could we please get some admin feedback on exactly why the construct is so bad? There was a discussion on how to improve it and several good ideas were brought up, why was nothing ever done with them? Is it intended to be worthless, or was it overlooked somehow? Could we get some kind of an improvement to it so it's worth actually considering building?

(Also, please don't derail this thread talking about the other constructs, this is a discussion about the DarkNest only - if you want to talk about the others, make another thread. Thanks!)

If you could list exactly what it does for those that don't know, that would help. Seems like Glomdoring got the short end of the stick with that construct and bards, which sucks.

An area-wide vitae is what it is, basically, right?

Transmigration, I think.

Difference? No experience loss. (If it's really what he said.)

Darknest:
TOUCH - Grants a black egg for 10 power, which lasts one month
If have black egg and Crowform skill, Crowform takes no power
Reborn at egg upon death, if the egg is in the same area
Note: Egg will not work if in within any container
If an egg is prepared for darkrebirth in a crowsnest,
this egg will give dark rebirth.

woot.

It's a strictly better vitae if they don't prepare by putting the egg elsewhere in the area first, and a mostly better lich if they do.

At the very least, please make the egg last longer than a day? 20-25 days seems reasonable.

As for a buff to the ability, I'd be satisfied if it worked in adjacent areas on Prime, and continent-wide on non-Prime planes.

I remember the Court putting together an upgrade proposal that Xenthos thought was fair, but also made the thing worth building.

What was that proposal?

Psh, wish I could remember. I know if I try I'm going to miss half of it and its going to sound idiotic.

Realized it was way too much.

Current proposal is, and has been for a while:

Allow the DarkNest to hold up to 150 carrion.
Touching it costs 10p and 75 of the contained carrion, and gives you an egg.

This egg will not decay until the Nest is destroyed, but the only function it has while held is that Crowform costs 0p.

It must be taken to a location inside the Glomdoring (Harpy nesting grounds, perhaps), and fixed into the soil, at which point the person who uses it gains the DarkRebirth spirit defence (the Crow one). This Spirit only works on the Prime Plane, by the way.

This makes it a much more limited version of the Crow skill-- only two eggs can be made at once. Past that, the nest needs to be filled for others to get an egg. If four Glomdoring members die on Prime, only two can get a new egg right away IF the Nest is already full-- a minimum of 300 carrion would need to be gathered to replace what is used. Note: Thornbeasts are 5 carrion, hammerhead sharks are 6, etc. That much carrion won't be instant, and cannot be gathered within the Glomdoring's borders, period.

(It could also be made 100 carrion, and the Nest can hold up to 200 at a time-- would mean a fair bit more upkeep to keep the thing maintained / useful).

Yes, I realize that this is powerful. I also realize that it gives essentially no advantage to Crow users (less than Archlich's benefits), and requires far more upkeep and maintenance than Lich does, which I believe is a sufficient counter to the improvement over city-wide lich for all. It'd be worth building, it'd be worth destroying, and it'd be useful.

I can't see it being useful limited to a single-area-- the ONLY place it's any benefit at all right now is Ethereal Glomdoring, where you could bury the thing at the Master Ravenwood. With its current decay time, even that's pretty much useless, but if it was longer you could stick the egg there and rebirth to it if you don't have conglutinate. If you do... might's well just conglutinate. It's far, far too expensive for "org conglut in Ethereal Glomdoring."

To Shiri: It's not a strictly better vitae, by the way. You don't get suspect from it. You're better off just sipping vitae. It's not like you really lose anything from vitaeing... and suspect (cessation of further botherings on Prime) is worth that. Off-Prime, you've got Conglutinate as an option. Not everyone has conglutinate, but it's so bloody LIMITED that it can't really be plausibly used.

I like that idea

You're right. Still better than it offplane, but since it's roughly equivalent or worse on prime it's not strictly better. I missed that detail - my mistake!

Bump.

I'd really appreciate some kind of admin response to this.

I'd really appreciate a pony, but I don't hear whinieing.

Stop trolling.

One post already pushed you to the limit of your debit.

I'm an arab, I'm used to generous lines of credit.

So, from my hackneyed understanding, as it is this construct gives you an egg that lasts one day, and will let you resurrect at it so long as it's within the same area as you.

What is being proposed is that it cost fairly steep upkeep and power, so that it may be buried and then used from anywhere on the prime material plane, and even so only relatively few glomdorans (people without high enough in Crow/without Crow, and the ones that are willing to keep it up).

I think that maybe the city officials should be allowed to keep track of who puts in carrion and who withdraws it, so that people that offer up a lot of it can be selected for favors, and people that just keep drawing eggs could get a warning. Or perhaps institute a (non hard coded) system by which a city member has to put in an equivalent amount of carrion before they're allowed to get an egg.

(If you must flame me for not having a clue, do so gently.)

no offense but I think anything that keeps you alive with no exp loss is better. It still gives you another chance, unless of course dying strips vitae or makes vitae trigger first before the egg. then it's pointless. But if that's not the case it woudl give you another chance to get out or another chance to kill an avatar, just get a basic insomnia reflex and start tumbling if you can or spore out instantly.

The problem with your whole carrion deal is that it's absurdly easy to get that much. You've got three people actively going for demi. that's just a ridiculous amount of carrion if only a hammerhead shark is worth six.

Course i'm not arguing that it's worht it to build. don't know the power costs/upkeep/etc. Just saying I think it's better than vitae.

That is, of course, why there'd be a top cap so it can't be filled with 10,000 carrion and permanently used whenever.

I think you missed "max of 150 carrion."

Further, there are 14 hammerhead sharks. That's 84 carrion-- enough for ONE person to get an egg at a time. You can't bash up 3 eggs worth a few days in advance-- you have what's there, and maybe a few corpses in layaway at most.

It may be "absurdly easy" to get-- but it's a lot more difficult to get if you've got 4-5 people wanting eggs, and 0 carrion in the DarkNest. Getting 75-100? Easy. Getting 300-375? Not so much. There is, after all, a limited supply of creatures in Avenger-protected areas.

Edit: And no. Getting suspect is greater than losing 0.2% experience. It means you aren't going to lose defences in the future, and won't have a chance of losing further experience in the future, either. Further, it prevents you from even getting interrupted while hunting, which means more gain in the long run.