I like it.


(so not the most helpful post ever, I know. )

Lusternia could use more people. (and Gaudi and halifax and Ackelberry )

Well, yes. Though, really, I'm pretty sure that there's more people playing now than there was before I went on my last RL inspired 'break.' Pretty sure anyway. So, maybe it's increasing slowly but surely?

For reference, I am also willing to pay for a sketch of Iasme (whatever his name is, Jeremy), and if the place you meet in is snazzy, also willing to pay for a painting. Perhaps up to 5 credits for both, total.

Three issues:

The envoy system is entirely too political. Instead of working together towards a common goal (which is balance), it's devolved into bias and bickering. It's not about what will help balance each side against eachother, it's about what will buff MY guild while keeping the opposing guild down. Now, that's not to say ALL envoys are motivated by personal goals, but it's quite obvious that some are. There are some that are clinging tightly to skills thats are blatantly not balanced, and others that oppose any change towards opposing guilds no matter what the change is. Literally every single change. Maybe they just don't have a clue about balance. Either way, these envoys need to be replaced

Combat imbalances aren't actually being addressed. Concerns are raised, and blanket changes are made that effect everyone as opposed to specific issues. The racial changes for instance. Mugwump was fine, and in some cases, a necessity for certain guilds. Mugwump was an issue for bards and celestine, but not so much for Nihilist, wicccan, or mage. In fact, it hurt some guilds being unable to pick a race with a noticeable speed boost. Which bring me to my third point...

Hunting imbalances. After switching from Nihilist to Ninjakari and hunting a couple levels to get a feel for things (I hunted most to 88 as a mage/nihilist) I have some real perspective about the hunting imbalance between warrior/monk and mage/guardian/druid. It's not a small gap, it's massive. The difference between mage/nihilist hunting and monk hunting is so immense that I will not be changing from monk until it's addressed. There is just no point when I hunt literally twice as fast as a mage at my level (if not faster).

No, I didn't come here to put any names out. I feel like pointing something out. Yeah, they do have to be replaced, I agree. Except, for the same reason you say (politics), if another not-in-their-org envoy were to point out they were doing a bad job, the politics would come to play.

The only person who can comfortably point that sort of thing out would be their guildmates (of whom are generally clueless to the envoy process) or their fellow org envoys, who..because of politics or friendship or whatever might not do the same either, if that makes sense.

Well, I think you know one of my concerns (those emails I've been sending you), and another would be something you're already working to address (more communication on the forums).

Sounds like to me that those three complaints will ALWAYS exist in any large online game.

Regarding envoys, I think politics plays a lot less of a role than it has in the past. And I'd like to think that admin here pretty much filter through any OP suggestions or blatant bias. I'm really fine with the current crew.

Balance-wise: My only real issue is with how massive the hunting imbalances are, as Celina pointed out. Bashing as a monk (and I suppose warrior) is -nothing- like bashing as any other class... it's rather ridiculous. Also, combat is incredibly expensive to enter in Lusternia - skills are balanced around things like Transcendant Resilience and Combat, which is fine and expected, but it forces new players to ensure they have those skills to be able to enter Lusternian combat... saying "Well, those are optional skills." just doesn't cut it.

Generally: Lusternia is fine as a whole. Glomdoring, the main organization in which I play, is going to suffer a lot in the coming months as several of its key players have gone inactive/nearly inactive. Suffer a lot.

I don't have anything innovative or enlightening to add as of yet but thought I'd support this statement. Guardian bashing is so slow and painful that it verges on being tantrum-worthy: And I don't have a carpet so that could be pretty painful! Whereas the fact that at level 89 I still gain more experience from influencing than bashing is worthy of a fierce tantrum on asphalt. So what I can tank plenty of goats, bulls or fesixes when it takes me forever to kill them? Celina, remember when we were comparing how much exp an hour we can get at best on our level and Shikha's value for that level was thrice that if not worse? There's really little we can do to bump up guardian bashing even with artifacts

Yea, one of the reasons I switched from mage to monk is the superior bashing. Warrior still edges out better, but guardian/mage bashing is like banging a hammer repeatedly on your thumb. Even bards have it better because of their quick recovery speed and very high damage with minorsecond.

I disagree If there wasn't Bias in the envoy system. maybe the admin who help it along as well? because Inquisition would have never been given a buff if there was no bias in the process.

Remember to include Druids in with that 'mage' category.

I personally like Lusternia as it is, it is my favourite to game and it holds my interest despite playing for a couple years and claiming to be bored. ( )

I never really witnessed Beta, so I can’t give an accurate description of how things have changed because the game just didn’t catch my interest at the time, when I started my first main it was shortly after Beta closed. Since then, I’ve seen its numbers grow. Not huge leaps and bounds of course, but enough fresh players or new characters to keep things interesting. I do understand there are retention problems present in some areas, such as Glomdoring, but they tend to not be Administration related but more player related or, especially in the case of old Glomdoring, there wasn’t anyone there to help in the first place.

I’ve had a character in every organization present in the game at the moment, just not every guild because many are very very similar to another one. My experiences with how Celest and Magnagora are run are not great, so I’ll refrain from commenting too much other than in the up moments there have been equal good parts and bad parts, griefing and helpful notions from players.

Serenwilde and Glomdoring I’ve had the most experience with and I’m glad about the diversity I’ve seen between them. Not just the obvious things like oh, Serenwilde is all nature and pure! And Glomdoring is all ewy and shadowy. There was an incredible amount of depth to both orgs in regards to history, roleplay and ambience portrayed by the different room and item descriptions.

I know Glomdoring had problems in the past, but I really do believe we’re on our way to fully correcting them, well, not fully, but as close as you can get to it. Our numbers are up, we’re retaining new members and we’re actively seeking to change and influence the culture in bits and pieces. I’m fairly certain that there are people that are training up to become able and competent fighters for the Commune so we’re able to defend ourselves better and actively participate in the games world wide events that require combat and organization, here’s to the future of Glomdoring!

Then, on that same strain, there’s the multitude of new places and skills that have been added, then the Elder Wars history and many Vernal-related history that’s cropped up with the introduction of new Divine, areas and denizens. It’s definitely a crowd pleaser to have those appear!

It’s been over a year since I’ve been an envoy, so I can’t make too many comments regarding it (especially since it seems to have changed to be a bit more open, which is nice I guess that we can see things) and I’ll leave it for someone who’s more knowledgeable about it. I’ve not always agreed with the changes made, but those that were truly horrendous in my opinion have actually been fixed.

Lately, everything with the player-admin interaction seems to becoming better. With the new bug system it’s a lot more personal and interactive to be able to see what you’ve bugged, whether it’s been noticed and what the reply to it in the end is, like if it’s not a bug, it needs more information added to it or what fixes are done to correct it. The Divine in each org seem very willing to encourage new ambience, items and denizens around the cities and communes to give it a new feeling and just general neatness!

I’ve probably rambled for long enough at the moment but maybe later I’ll think of something else, keep in mind this is just my own perceptions and opinions and by no means actually represents what each org has done. (eek, it's really long! )

I've a question actually, about whether things such as organization-specific items are appropriate to be raised in this meeting or if the meeting is aimed more towards general things. For example, I know that concerns have been made about Glomdoring and things such as room descriptions, or remnants of the days when Glomdoring was just hunting ground, or even just Glomdoring specific Influence AB's and the lack thereof - would these flavour questions be right to be raised in the meeting or not? Would say, the topic of room descriptions which stay unchanged even with the apparent change noted in the progression of the game or small things like the description for village influencing AB's for Glomdoring (which are still missing even though everyone else has them) be appropriate to be poked in the meeting, or should folk be pointed to poking the Glomdoring Patron instead of taking up time in the meeting? Would things such as the creatures which hold poisons which can only be found in Glomdoring since it used to be a hunting ground before a commune and haven't subsequently been found in other creatures be right for this round of question and answer, or would it be better to raise the concern through envoy suggestions?

I'm just curious exactly if questions like these are the ones looking to be answered with this meeting or not. -cough-

QFT. This is my number one gripe with Lusternia. Actually, it's probably my only gripe. I'm not really interested in being a Monk or a Warrior, but I have been tempted, and still am very tempted, to become one just so PvE will be enjoyable. Synl is right about combat being very expensive in Lusternia. Trans Combat and Resilience are nearly a requirement, and Lusternia is the only IRE game (that I know of) that forces you to raise a skill in order to cure a popular affliction effectively (paralysis). This is unlikely to change since people have already invested money and credits into getting these skills, but at least make PvE enjoyable for people who are working towards being good at PvP. Maybe this would also make Guardian/Mage/Druid/Wiccan guilds a bit more popular, which they really need. There are a lot of Monks and Warriors, and I feel that their extreme benefits in terms of PvE is one of the major reasons why.

We have a decent amount of hunting grounds now, unlike before my hiatus when it seemed like there was never anything to bash for a midlevel character. But I cannot begin to explain how frustrating it is when I go to a place, find that it's not bashed out, start hunting, and then a warrior/monk comes through and blows through all of my potential kills while I struggle to get a fraction of what they get.

And this isn't something that "happens in every MMORPG". There may be certain classes that have a slight advantage, but not like it is here.

Please, people who get elected to go to this meeting, bring this up.

^Quick note about Alban's post, FocusBody is actually the first skill in Discipline, so you don't exactly have to raise the skill to be able to cure the affliction. Of course, curing paralysis would go faster with lessons invested, but that's just a perk. The actual ability is available to anyone.

Indeed, but I said effectively.

Oops, don't mind meeeeeee.

Except, of course, my questions waaaay up there about org-specific concerns.^