Gwylifar2008-06-08 12:05:42
That seems like a fair approach -- not only does it give cooks teas, it also helps makes trades depend on each other more, like most of the trades already do.
Unknown2008-06-11 14:13:51
I was really excited when I first read this thread. The new skills are certainly very appealing-sounding, I would take it more for fun rather than practicality (which is what my initial impression of it was). Though I still feel bards in general could maybe have another look or facelift as someone brought up in the thread, personally I'm always up for new cool things!
Unknown2008-06-12 11:46:32
As you all may know, my lusternian character, Iytha, used to be one of the few characters in Magnagora that would preform the anti-commune quest to convert fae from faethorn into imps. You might also recall that she was formerly the Ambassador in Magnagora, both an undersec and security in the Nihilist guild and an active teacher in Magnagora. I say formerly because she was replaced as Ambassador and citydisfavoured five times over her actions in Faethorn. This made me stop wanting to play the game and I went inactive for about a month.
I don't blame the leaders of Magnagora for their actions. They were completely justified in what they did, even if it disadvantaged me personally. Nor do I blame Glomdoring's leaders. It made perfect sense for them to take offense to a commune enemy holding public office in Magnagora. Nobody in this situation acted out of spite or malice towards me, nor is there any sort of 'toxic atmosphere' in Magnagora. This is not a post to whine about how unfair people are being.
The reason why I was thrown in front of the bus to avoid offending Glomdoring is due to the game mechanics governing city-commune interactions. The cities face the choice of maintaining good relations with a commune or being completely neutered in combat due to a lack of alchemy. The communes face a similar situation with getting enchanted goods and having sigils removed. For a city, having the communes refuse to trade with you rules out bashing combat and influencing. For communes, combat and village influencing become unviable.
As a result, the cities and the communes rarely attack eachother and combat settles along stale lines of Celest against Magnagora and Serenwilde against Glomdoring. If a city or commune decides to veer outside these lines, they are not only hurt due to the decreased availability of required combat supplies but also required to fight two enemies at once due to a constant history of fighting with their opposite. Recently, Magnagora tried attacking Serenwilde and got crushed for a long while due to a combination of outnumbering and lessened access to alchemy. Further back, both Celest and Serenwilde went against eachother and both were at a disadvantage due to the alchemy and enchantments system. Even further back than that, Glomdoring was against both Serenwilde and Celest while maintaining ambivalent relations with Magnagora. They suffered from the after-effects of their difficult early history for OOC years.
Faethorn has become pointless. Communes don't bother with Maeve out of frustration with events involving that NPC and only rarely gather fae in faethorn. Players from the cities, with a few exceptions, refuse to go after the fae for fear of trade bans. Communes don't bring angels or demons to the well of souls. Some events have broken away from this mold, but they haven't had any lasting effects.
Roleplay has suffered due to the current system. Gorgulu and Raziela are marginalized in the guardian guilds, because converting fae is not practical for players, despite the fact that it makes RP sense for them to do so. The anti-city bias that the communes have in the histories is noticeably lacking in the modern organizations, simply because it's tactical suicide for a commune to take up that stance.
I urge the administration to reconsider the current setup and give communes and cities equal access to both alchemy and enchantments. The current idea of allowing cities partial access to alchemy and communes partial access to enchantmets through the bard guilds will solve nothing. The cities and communes still need to maintain prefect diplomatic relations with eachother to avoid being walked over by other cities and communes. By doing so, you would fix a number of headaches within the game, diversify interactions between cities and communes and, in my opinion, improve the game as a whole.
I don't blame the leaders of Magnagora for their actions. They were completely justified in what they did, even if it disadvantaged me personally. Nor do I blame Glomdoring's leaders. It made perfect sense for them to take offense to a commune enemy holding public office in Magnagora. Nobody in this situation acted out of spite or malice towards me, nor is there any sort of 'toxic atmosphere' in Magnagora. This is not a post to whine about how unfair people are being.
The reason why I was thrown in front of the bus to avoid offending Glomdoring is due to the game mechanics governing city-commune interactions. The cities face the choice of maintaining good relations with a commune or being completely neutered in combat due to a lack of alchemy. The communes face a similar situation with getting enchanted goods and having sigils removed. For a city, having the communes refuse to trade with you rules out bashing combat and influencing. For communes, combat and village influencing become unviable.
As a result, the cities and the communes rarely attack eachother and combat settles along stale lines of Celest against Magnagora and Serenwilde against Glomdoring. If a city or commune decides to veer outside these lines, they are not only hurt due to the decreased availability of required combat supplies but also required to fight two enemies at once due to a constant history of fighting with their opposite. Recently, Magnagora tried attacking Serenwilde and got crushed for a long while due to a combination of outnumbering and lessened access to alchemy. Further back, both Celest and Serenwilde went against eachother and both were at a disadvantage due to the alchemy and enchantments system. Even further back than that, Glomdoring was against both Serenwilde and Celest while maintaining ambivalent relations with Magnagora. They suffered from the after-effects of their difficult early history for OOC years.
Faethorn has become pointless. Communes don't bother with Maeve out of frustration with events involving that NPC and only rarely gather fae in faethorn. Players from the cities, with a few exceptions, refuse to go after the fae for fear of trade bans. Communes don't bring angels or demons to the well of souls. Some events have broken away from this mold, but they haven't had any lasting effects.
Roleplay has suffered due to the current system. Gorgulu and Raziela are marginalized in the guardian guilds, because converting fae is not practical for players, despite the fact that it makes RP sense for them to do so. The anti-city bias that the communes have in the histories is noticeably lacking in the modern organizations, simply because it's tactical suicide for a commune to take up that stance.
I urge the administration to reconsider the current setup and give communes and cities equal access to both alchemy and enchantments. The current idea of allowing cities partial access to alchemy and communes partial access to enchantmets through the bard guilds will solve nothing. The cities and communes still need to maintain prefect diplomatic relations with eachother to avoid being walked over by other cities and communes. By doing so, you would fix a number of headaches within the game, diversify interactions between cities and communes and, in my opinion, improve the game as a whole.
