That makes sense.

Possibly a secondary ranking system for demi's and VA's? I mean, people like competing for rank. It gives them something to do.

Edit: Pft Greg, stop ninja'ing me!

Removing VAs from the xp rankings is retarded because they're the same as demigods except they lose more xp on reform and have other costs to pay, but at the same time it's irrelevant to most everything so whatever?

Kharvik, you contradict yourself. Firstly it certainly wasn't agreed on that demigod should be hard to maintain. It used to be agreed on that it should be hard to -reach-, but not maintain. Secondly, if most of the combatant demis already have enough essence, it doesn't do what you want it to anyway, it just means people have to waste inordinate amonuts of time bashing to even continue to play the game like mortals can. Strictly a change for the worse! Also, if you want them to be "on a different level to players", we would need suggestions to make that actually the case before we start randomly nerfing things so that they're treated as if they were...

Hush you, if giving VAs their own ranking system means the rest of the complaints quiet down then we should be agreeing!

I for one have two qualms:

1.) I do not want everyone to be a Demigod. Being a Demigod, in a city of Demigods, in a Basin of Demigods takes the theme... to radical new heights. I know, it's rather insignificant to many in the grand scheme of things, but I find the idea more annoying than long signatures. The Demigods are exemplars of exceptional achievement for us new players to emulate and regard, paragons of our factions and faiths! Having too many will turn us into American Idol fans.

2.) Should a player really have to pour hundreds of hours more into bashing before they are able to stand one on one against those who have? It will probably take me much longer than that because I am not so familiar with the trend and have very little concept of what good bashing is- not to mention my reluctance to hunt 'protected' denizens for fear of being hunted like a stoat.

Not having the skill and understanding to use your class effectively is one thing, statistic disadvantage is another- of course, it may be that the people emphasizing the Demigod advantage to me are exaggerating- but if this is not the case and someone had told me before I began the game, that I would in all likelihood need to hunt to level 100 before I could expect to stand on level ground (added to all of the practice in between), I probably would have reconsidered making an investment. That is a lot of work for what is made out to be the status quo.

Not to say it should be easier to get- maybe (If the truth is as great as the 'hype') it just shouldn't make the same degree of a difference.

Standing on level ground is another concept that is misleading. If you want to stand on level ground with people level 100 then of course you need level 100. This is obvious and common sense. If someone told you that you needed level 100 to fight people that are level 100 and you said "Hey, now wait! That's not fair." I would say you should probably start playing mario brothers instead.

Yes, group fights can be dominated by the level 99+ people, but that doesn't mean you are not on level ground with people in your own bracket and I have seen low level people (read 50 - 80) come out ahead in group fights just as much as I have seen high level people.

Edit:: Also I should point out that nerfing yourself so you can't get to level 100 as easily as others is no reason at all to nerf getting to level 100.

Lol. It seems I touched a note with Nejii.

People like to compete as someone just stated and the rankings are certainly something that reflects competition. Why should someone who becomes a VA be thrown from rank 600 to 50 on par with the people who actually earned it? What did they do to compete in this competition besides win a popularity vote? And wtf are you talking about, of course demi should be hard to maintain. Where were you when all those threads were made claiming that exact thing? I know where you were, you were here because you live here, so surely you recall. And no, I am not digging through 4.5 years of forum history to find the threads, I don't feel the need to.

I dont see how upping the essence loss back to how it was is a change for the worse. It was like that for over a year and things were fine. Now things are even safer because if you lose demi you dont fall to 0% titan like Kaervas and Daevos did.

Earning it by doing actual work for your org is worth as much as or more than earning it by farming guards afk or bashing prenerf Astral. I got there the slow but easy way too and glorifying the amount of effort it took even then is highly cheesy. So no demigods haven't earnt anything special that VAs haven't. However if all it's going to take for this randomness to stop and actual valid issues with ascendance to get focus is for XP rankings to be pointlessly changed, fine by me! As for the odd thread, it's not like I said some random people didn't think that...it just wasn't the actual consensus, which was hard to -get- not maintain, unlike what you seem to be implying.


It wasn't "fine." That's why it was changed. As I remember it, Daevos actually lost demi on purpose so he wouldn't have to keep bashing massively (I may be wrong though). I just stuck around midway through titan for ages for the same reason. It's a change for the worse to force people to bash forever whenever they die instead of playing the parts of the game they enjoy. And for people who DID enjoy bashing and PK, and have tonnes of essence already like you said, it doesn't restrict it nearly as much. The problem you claim to be identifying here actually has a completely different solution, which is temporary penalties to things other than exp when you die. That one was already rejected by the playerbase.

Cults really seem like they are designed for a bigger game. I hope Lusternia gets there. They also seem designed for Avatars, not specifically ascendants, as they are described. I guess in practice it's a combination of both. That making use of a huge chunk of these ascendant abilities is reliant on having a close relationship with an active god with a large enough order to support it does seem extremely limiting.

In the mean time, maybe the admin would consider allowing cults to exist apart from orders.

As far as unranking ascendants, makes sense I guess. It does not matter to me, but for those who are interested in rank, and I'm sure there are others, it's true it doesn't really make sense to have those who were selected VAs be ranked alongside those who got there through independent effort. Having their own 'ranking' list based on essence/skill in ascension/cult members would be fine.

I never once afk farmed so perhaps I have a different perspective on the matter regarding "earning your rank".

Either way I didn't mean for this to be a flame wars type of thread. You're right, this is an RP realm so doing more for your org certainly is worth more than mindlessly bashing. But these things have always been two separate categories, you bash to gain lvls and reach that ultimate high, you do more for your org to gain respect, class, and power within the organization. Also you are right about Daeovs losing Demi on purpose because he didn't want to bother with the upkeep, I had forgotten that was why people like you, him, and Athana remained titans for so long. So reverting back to the old system won't work on fixing what I'm still maintaining will be a problem later on (especially when it comes to keeping novices), can we think of anything else?

Well, that's how some demigods are getting it these days, but in my case I didn't do that either, so my perspective ought to be the same as yours. It took a lot of time! But not enough for this to be a good idea. I don't think anyone's been flaming so np there.

Well, maybe the Admin should re-examine their position on automated scripts?

Instead of just triggers and code that move you around, there should be rules against auto-bashers and auto-influencers?

I think this would help a decent bit with the "they afk'd to Demi" complaint that so many people have. Make it not ok to automate experience gain in any way.

Also, on the topic of Ascendents

Removing them from the experience rankings makes sense to me, since right now it's not so much experience rankings as it is essence rankings.

Which brings me to another question:
Why are Demigods and Ascendents worth so much less experience than mortals? It seems so completely random that killing a titan nets more experience for the mortal than killing a demigod or ascendent.

Auto bashers and influencers are fishy, IMO anyway. I'd never be comfortable using one, and not only cause I've seen enough hilarious examples of how they go wrong here on the forums.

Actually, there is a rule (I think) that says your system or whatever shouldn't automatically move your character to the next group of mobs to bash/influence. It's fine if your triggers just run through begging, supplication, wheedling, but it's a big no if it makes you walk from GuardGroupA to GuardGroupB without you inputting at least one command.

Because of the way experience is done in IRE. Essence and Experience are actually the same thing. The code just sets you to level 100, resets your experience to 0 and then changes your score to show the word essence instead of experience and lists the flat number instead of the calculated %.

So effectively you have less 'experience' than anyone of decent level. Even though that seems to make no sense.

I am quite aware of this. I was suggesting that scripts that run through begging, supplication and wheedling for you to be made a nono as well.

That wouldn't change anything, I can sit and watch tv and hit a key every 3 seconds. In fact, I generally do.

Aside from not wanting to press the enter button and have something like influencing preoccupy the greater of my attention, auto-scripts might be tricky to track. Can they even tell the difference between the client and player entering commands, except through timing? If not, just think- a player familiar with her class and focused on the task at hand is going to be mashing that alias at roughly the same rate the client would, with slight variations in timing and the occasional blunder. It would just be harder on her bones.

Point-Ninja'd by Gregori.

In case there was any question, AFK influencing/bashing is definitely a no-no. If we catch you, you'll be punished. It's as simple as that. We never have and never will allow that. It's simply unacceptable. If you suspect it's going on with someone in particular, you're welcome to ISSUE ME and the administration can look into it.

We have our ways, you will be caught, and you will be a bundle of leafy greens - which will promptly be diced up, made into a salad, and fed to Gorgulu. No joke.

As an edit, let me define AFK influencing/bashing. Where your system fights a mob for you, sips for you, what have you, then targets the next one for you, and runs through it, while you're in the shower, making dinner, or out at the clubs. Get it? Got it? Good!

Ok, I guess it's not exactly responsible to use the term like this, but when some people (inc. me) say "afk-influencing" they really just mean you can sit there and influence without really putting in any effort while multitasking (writing a book for the library, chatting on clans, etc.) Since the admin have explicitly said the automation line is drawn at moving rooms, it's even easier to influence guards than normal bashing. But that's all really tangential.