Okay then, back to talking about whatever you guys are talking about

If you recall, there were some very loud complaints that it was "useless" to be demigod because of the 500k cost of phoenix resurrect so we adjusted. However, looking at the essence some demigods have accumulated, I'm wondering if we shouldn't go back to 500k, or perhaps a percentage of your essence if you have over a certain amount.

If lich, resurgem, dark rebirth negate these effects. How about sacrifice and ressurection?

The first would be a bad idea, the latter annoying and vunerable to mass griefing.

PS: I think it's a bad idea for one half of the game to lose nothing when dying no matter what. Either have all lose something or just remove exp and essence loss from pk death altogether. Sure we'll have a game of demigods before the year is over.. but don't we have that already?

We're just saying the current costs are fine and that no other abilities should be added to make it even easier to keep Demigod.

I'd personally be fine if it was at the levels established when Phoenix was first changed - 500k, 250k, 100k. There's no need for it though. I just think it's incredibly unfair that abilities exist for part of the game to lessen this loss (and by lessen, I mean reduce the loss entirely.)

One of the best roleplay features of demigod was the thought that a mortal's grip on divinity was so fleeting that they could stand a chance of losing it. In addition, changes were already made to make losing demigod immensely less painful than it was earlier this year by only dropping a person to 66% titan. Allowing skills like lich, transmigrate, and dark rebirth circumvent this is excessive since it takes away from the flavor of the roleplay and makes it rather unbalanced for guilds and/or organizations that have no access to these types of skills. Either resurgeum/immolate/sacrifice/resurrect etc should all work to lessen exp cost as it works for everyone else or only conglutination should work (since everyone can learn conglutinate). I honestly prefer the second option. It is much easier, much more balanced, and fits better into the roleplay.

Er how is it confirmed to be a bug? From Estarra's statements I don't think it's bug... The admin are aware of it and have been discussing it.

I personally am pretty ticked if they have been aware of it.

The question of whether the costs should be higher is independent of the question of whether certain abilities should reduce it. If it makes sense that Lich, Conglutination, Transmigration, Resurgem, Sacrifice, DarkRebirth, Vitae, etc. reduce the costs, but we don't want them to end up too low, raise them all and then let those lower them back to where they are now.

Personally, I think it makes sense to let those skills reduce the costs. Seems silly to me to have someone suddenly lose the value of two or three of their highest skills. So up the amount to 500K but let all death-cheater skills reduce it back to 300K. Or if that's not enough, raise it to 700K but let those reduce it to 400K. Whatever.

We began discussing it after you bugged it, silly boy.

I believe the main issue wasn't the reducing factor but these things:

There are a few skills in the game that entirely negate demigod essence loss. That itself wouldn't matter so much but the fact that they are only accessible to half of the game. Atop of that, if you look at the 'normal' alliences over the course of three years you have two big conflict sides: Celest / Seren vrs. Magnagora / Glomdoring. The latter can reduce that essence loss entirely, the first cannot. That too is why it is perceived unfair by many.

@Forren: What personally irks -me- is that this was a change that was considered not important enough to be announced even though it does very well change the balance of the game.

This seems pretty logical to me. Anyone else have an opinion?

My opinion is posted right above. *cough* heh

To press on with what Forren stated, it's just not fair to other demigods that don't have access to these abilities. I'm firmly anti-anything that negates xp-loss in general, but that isn't the issue here. Those abilities are here to stay, but demigod is a choice and the benefits far outweigh any loss. It's very easy to maintain essence in Lusternia, when you're a demigod. The bashing is easy. Also, I don't quite see how resurgem/resurrect/sacrifice would negate essence loss for demigods. Perhaps for demigods that sacrifice themselves or heartstoppers for Seren's resurgem but when dying in a combat situation or when hunting - they would lose.

It somehow was changed a while ago - was this an intentional change? Was it a bug as a consequence of the Phoenix .5 second delay?


/agree

I took it for granted that all right-thinking people think this is, or at least should be, a bug. Did anyone defend it being this way on the thread? I skimmed a little.

The entire thread is about this not being a bug, but an intended change.

PS: I also think halfing it flat across the board for, again, only one half of the conflict parties isn't.. fair or whatever you want to call it.

It makes sense but at the same time, just because something makes sense doesn't mean it's a good idea. Phoenix should really just be a blanket effect that applies to all demigods when they die as a condition of demigodhood. You are no longer really mortal so mortal methods of returning to life no longer apply. It starts getting pretty complicated otherwise.

Edit: I do see something wrong with this, Estarra. It really doesn't make any sense. How would sacrifice or resurgem work in this circumstance? Would your soul then stick around as a demigod waiting on a sacrifice or resurgem? It just starts completely destroying the mystique of demigod. As Malicia stated, the benefits for demigod are pretty big and the risks at this point not serious. Not having a skill or two work quite as effectively as they once did is not that huge of a hardship but it should be something people consider prior to deciding to become a demigod.

Giving a lower death cost to half of the Basin is quite simply silly. I don't think it makes good sense from an RP perspective as well.

It should be changed to how it was previously - there are other benefits to lich and darkrebirth than just the XP loss.

Just to clarify, this means that regardless of how many skills one has to cheat death, the reduction will always be a set absolute value? For example, if the normal death cost was 500k essence, any skill or ability that reduces that essence loss would bring it to 300k and not stack with each other or am I understanding this incorrectly?