But don't you guys think this is going to be a serious problem in the future? Already it is very inbalancing and it's only going to get worse. At the rate orgs like Serenwilde can whip them out there will be way too many Ascendants floating around at one point. I'd propose a much higher powercost to raise them as one mean of limitation.

I understand you might get a few unhappy people if you were to limit ascendants in some fashion, but which would you rather have, a few unhappy people or a successful-in-the-long-term game? And frankly, to all the people who actually spent the time hunting for lvl 100, the very idea of dishing it out to low lvl people was quite the slap to the face. It's like hey, I know you spent a sick amount of time reaching this goal, but we're going to take this 27 year old noob and give him the same thing in a matter of seconds; referring to Sidd there.

Demigods in and of themselves were an unbalancing factor at the start. But they were nerfed a hell of a lot and all the orgs had a few, which was fine. But now the problem that arrose when Demigods first started appearing is being made far worse by giving it out to people on a golden platter. Demigods themselves were limited (with good reason) by how long it took to reach it, but anymore it's become a joke to reach and then to top it off there is the ascendant system just adding to the issue.

I know I sound like a broken record but I think this is going to be a serious problem down the road if you think about it. You can't be afraid to piss off some people for the sake of your creation. It's just like owning a company, if I need to let go of some people in order for it to be successful, you better bet I'm going to do it.

I know at one point it was proposed that every additional Ascendant cost more and more power, ie 1 million, the next 1.5 million, the next 2 million, etc. That would slow the number gained.

Did anyone ever bring up an upkeep type system? Every 10 IC years or something you'd have to burn a high amount of essence to stay an Ascendant or become mortal. That way, if an Ascendant goes inactive, they lose the status, and the cost of raising a new one would be less (if the increased power system was in place).

Then you could just use it to make Demigods at reduced cost... just tell 'em not to bother learning much Ascendance and save their essence.

Hmm, point taken. I hadn't thought of that.

EDIT: Radical suggestion: only allow Demigods to become Ascendants. BWAHAHAHA

Why not just make it so that ONLY Demigods can become Vernal Ascendants? Like, a regular mortal's body wouldn't be able to handle the stress or something.

Then you wouldn't have people getting upset (rightfully so, maybe) that their org jumped them from level 80 to level 100 in a flash

Ninja'd! Edit Ninja'd even!

Increasing the cost is a maybe, for the completely different reason that it makes them more unique. But you keep stating there's a problem with increasing numbers of ascendants when that just isn't true. If there's any problem it's with an increasing number of demigods, because ascendants are basically the same as demigods. There are a lot more demigods than ascendants and will likely continue to be because 1M power goes towards only one person and multiple people can hunt to demigod in that time.
Then you try to conflate the problem with how easy it is. Even if demigod weren't comparably easier (again, afk farming guards vs actually doing work for org), these issues are totally unrelated and can't possibly be a part of whatever problem is being described.

QFT

It takes 3 - 4 months per ascendant at the moment. So you are looking at 3 - 4 ascendants a year as long as the org holds all the Domoths. In that same time you can bash-train multiple people (at least 2 - 3 per 4 month period) to demigod. The issue is not in how many ascendants there are or how easy it is to get, since as Shiri, and myself, have said they are just demigods with a few not very good bonuses.

The ship has sailed on slowing down the growth of demigods. Everyone complained about losing so much XP and it was said then that if you lower that then demigods will be more rampant and meaningless. I hate to say it, but this is a case of 'I told you so.'

So now Lusternia is an IRE where endgame is easier to get to. Personally, I think, despite my previous reservations, this is not a bad thing. People like Sidd, who get to the endgame early on are less likely to burn out once getting there and more likely to stay and spend money on Lusternia and enhance the game by playing it. Ask most demigods and ascendants how often they are around now that they are where they are, or how often they do much of anything anymore. We may have a lot of them, but that doesn't mean they are all present and accounted for.

Waaaaaay too much.

You don't count, you are a permanent fixture.

As I recall, the Domoths are also mentioned in the Book of Orlachmar. I could be mistaken, but I thought they were last-ditch efforts to shield First World from the Soulless Gods.

EDIT: Or maybe it was the book of Clangorum.

Oh thank goodness, I thought I was the only one. I laugh when anyone tells me they can't get a level and tell them "ur doin it rong".

I literally cannot get a level. Please do not laugh at me.

Also, humble thoughts:

Being a new player and inexperienced in Lusternia's deep-seated combat, it is far beyond me to speak with much weight on the matter, but-

limit power cost or not, you still face the inevitable tide of Ascendancy that threatens to swallow the game. Even if the rate of raising new Ascendants is counter-balanced by old ones going inactive, there will still come a time (if it hasn't come already) where the new player is completely overwhelmed and discouraged to find that he has to grind to Lv. 100 to contend. Even if he treads lightly and doesn't pick fights with the High Tier players, he still risks their fiery retribution if he makes too much noise, doesn't he?

If you want to make the game as accessible as possible and capitalize on player retention and artifacts sales from levels 1-100, you may want to nerf Ascendants. Stat points seem critical in Lusternia from what I have read and tested- do they really need +2 to every stat? Do Ascendants really even need +1 to every stat?

That they were selected for Ascendancy at all (which seems to open the path to mostly combat oriented gameplay) seems to usually imply that they will be capable of holding their own, if Divinity has to meet that criteria for roleplay's sake. Add to that all sorts of flashy abilities and the power to travel Domoths with impunity- for balance's sake, isn't that enough, if not too much?

Not trying to make a ruckus, I am genuinely curious.

Why would that be enough? That's essentially only Domoths, which (without the stats) would be considerably harder to use that advantage anyways. And Demigods grow faster than Ascendants anyways-- the issue you're trying to address is both of them adding together. Further, it's only "combat oriented" because of the +stats.

Sorry, I did mean Demigods, didn't I?

..Do they add together?

An Ascendant is essentially a Demigod with a new skillset which doesn't add a lot on the whole and some Domoth advantages.

Demigods have to hunt for it, Ascendants have to get people to vote for them. But for everything else they're essentially the same.

I believe for the reason Vhaas (a relatively newer player) stated, my point has been made. None of you arguing against me can really relate because you've all been playing the game for so long (not to mention you are all three ascendants).

When you are a new player to Lusternia you're going to be oppressed with the idea that you need to reach lvl 100 to really amount to anything combat-wise. Also, if you dare join in anything on your path to that lvl you had better expect retribution from multiple high lvl people who will hunt you down and make the already painful task even moreso.

Somebody mentioned demigods being the issue and the amount of xp you lose when praying. Both are totally valid points, and I have always been "for" when it came to heavy xp and essence losses. I went from 15 million to 5 million essence because I was careless and died 20 times without hunting much, back when each death was always 500k. Now for me to make that big of a loss I would have to die over 150 times. When I died at lvl 97 I remember losing 50% xp, and at lvl 99 losing 30%; but now days you dont even lose a quarter of that.

We've become babied. The admins are trying to please the people who bitch nonstop because something bad happened to them and it's literally going to ruin the game.

Dont believe me, but give Lusternia 2 more years and you'll see all this coming to fruition despite the stubborn mindset you wish to lock yourselves in, Nejii/Gregori/Xenthos.

I'm inclined to agree with Kharvik. I think more people will resent Ascendants as they grow in number. Shuyin already proves how annoying it is to have to deal with someone who can raid an area like Rockholm, get foiled, die, lose nothing except a few minutes where he's chatting, reform, wait a few, and do it again.

If he succeeds, he succeeds. If he fails, he loses nothing.

So, uh. Mind telling me where we disagreed with you? Any of us?

All three of us have, in multiple threads all over these forums, posted that it's growing too much. We're just disagreeing with the assertion that the issue is entirely Ascendance: It's not. But Ascendance is making the issue much larger much faster.

I'd like to see the cost for raising an Ascendant rise with each one made, so you have to think about it (and you can't keep making a new one every million essence), but that doesn't do anything about the Demigod end of things.