Am I the only one who's noticed this? I believe I've started basically every non-arena fight I've been in for the past couple weeks, mostly just out of boredom. There haven't even been any interesting raids or anything recently. Why does no one fight in this game anymore? Why do people bother transing their skills if they aren't going to use them?

because one day, at some point, I hope to use them

I have more fun hanging out with people instead of killing them.

Actually, I'm guessing it has something to do with the "only ascendants and demigods can fight" mentality.

Speaking honestly, Celenwilde killed conflict. Yes, I know. Everyone will roll their eyes or scream about bias or whatever. I don't think it was the intention of their alliance, just an eventually for having a near monopoly on combat situations. All the domoths, 2 to 1 demi ratio, massive numbers advantage. I can't speak for Glom, but I know a lot of Mags just got sick of dealing with Seren zergs on Celestia and what have you, hence why Mag no longer fights as an Org, rather just individuals harassing angels from time to time.

Oh, and monks. I can't even poke around Eventruland without Yurika doing the lolunstoppable instakill or domoths without asmodea spamming the shofangi bs. I, for one, think most monks have little to no interest in combat or conflict. I found being a kata robot boring as hell (amusing at times, simply because how ridiculous it was), but we seem to have a butt load of them.

Is it not true that only demis and acendants can participate? It sure seems that way from the outside looking in...

It's not just group combat, nobody jumps other people either and nobody duels.

Demigod isn't really as necessary as it used to be, and a number of classes function just as well without demigod as with it (particularly guardians and wiccans).

That was the ONLY great thing about Imperian- Tri-trans Knight/Mage/Malignist/Warden/whatever, oh what level? Level 50, eh? Let's go gank these four mid-tiers, and get you to 60!

And with lower entry requisites you have more low/mid tiers combatants who are actually willing to fight. For better. And worse. (i.e., not being able to leave cities without expecting a fight, but sometimes that's what you're in the mood for)

Yea the ever raising bar for combat is a huge let down... I keep wanting to get in but I am just never good enough... the stairway to demi is paved with the fact that I could be doing something else. /satire

Admittedly, there's a steep skill curve and investment curve to fight in Lusternia, but even the people who've invested the time and money don't seem to be fighting. So what's up?

From what I have noticed, conflict seems to be "so called" killed whenever the evil leaning side "tainted in this case" ends up on the losing end of many conflicts. As long as that is not the case, as long as that side is dominant, then conflict is booming. It seems some, not all, of those who choose a side that encourages dominance of others, are not so tolerant of being dominated.

Rofl no, that's a really stupid myth. Might be required for top tier and it certainly helps survivability, but it is not, by any means, a requirement for group combat.



I see duels fairly often. Jumping someone is usually a quick way to get zerged.

edit: Lusternia also has mechanical imbalances that kill conflict. Wrath stacking, shrine whoring, unbreakable demesne entrances, pathtwist. Usually, when these things go up, fights end.

I also think Geb speaks from a limited perspective, and is excluding some facts from his analysis. Mag was "losing" for quite while continuing to raid and stir up conflict. It wasn't until, and I mean this quite literally, every group combat situation turned into a zerg war. I've seen Ceren get upset, and Ceren is rarely upset, because an enjoyable fight that was going back and forth will suddenly shift because Seren swarms in on Celest's side. Village revolts recently are a prime example. 1 per 1 fights quickly change to 3 per 1 fights when Seren arrives. Their numbers tend to upset the balance. Geb does have a point, to an extent, that Mag has been dominated to the point that they gave up, but the blame doesn't rest solely on Mag's unwillingness to get dominated.

Mag doesn't want to fight, Celest called a ceasefire. Conflict is now at a low point.

edit2: Just in case I wasn't clear on one point, I know a lot of Mag outright refuses to fight. It's an issue I had with Mag's general population. There's a chunk that just don't feel the need to defend, ever. Glom and Seren, for instance, seems to have a large number of midbies and lowbies that show up to a fight just because they feel they should or can help in some way. Mag doesn't have that mentality. It's been the same pool of fighters for a very long time, and it's not gaining new fighters nearly as fast as it's losing them. A lot of the blame does rest on Mag.

I don't fight (as in start a fight or raid, I almost always join in defense) because I'm bad at it. Combat usually leads to me getting the shakes for ten minutes, sweating like a pig and sometimes getting dizzy. Borderline panic attacks are not exactly fun to me!

I generally come away from fights feeling like I'm mentally challenged in some way because everyone seems to just 'get it' and I freeze up to the point where I honestly forget all but about three or four abilities I have and I do them over and over and over until suddenly I realize I'm dead.

I'm only ever any good in big groups where that's ok because the folks who 'get it' are doing the good strategy stuff, can tell me what to do, and my efforts add to the group rather than sink myself. I enjoy defending because of that. I don't enjoy attacking or raiding because I don't like feeling dumb or like I'm about to have some sort of heart attack or something.

I'm really not sure what you're trying to say here. Neither side has been raiding much at all.

I think you shouldn't let that kind of thing discourage you. Combat is so complex that pretty much everyone has that reaction when they first try it out. I know I did! It's something that you overcome as you practice more and develop/buy a system (if you don't have one).

Yea but you can not fight and not be Top Tier. If I went and raided my arse off on Nil, and tried to fight someone my own might... I would have the demis after me for it, for sure.

I bet if you raid Celestia, you get Nars and our top guys after you, even though you may not be at that level (I do not know what level you are, I am just throwing this out there)

I don't know about that. I generally don't bother going after those occasional lower-might raiders unless they raid often, trash-talk, or kill Demon Lords.

It took me a few readings to figure it out but I think this is the idea. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with it, just trying to rephrase it to make it more clear.

Those people who are more likely to play the "bad guys" side seem to be more likely to also not want to keep up the fight when they're losing for long enough. Certainly not all of them, but more of them on that side than the other side. So when the "bad guys" side is winning, the bad guys are happy to fight because they're winning, and the good guys are happy to fight back because they're almost always happy to fight back. But when the "bad guys" side is losing, the good guys are happy to fight, but the bad guys are not so happy to fight back, and are more likely to quit, walk away, complain, or do something else.

Of course this is all generalizations. Obviously, not all of the people on either side will fit any personality, just that there's an increased likelihood. Obviously, anyone on either side will have a limit to how long they're willing to lose how hard before they get discouraged and stop, it's just that the limit might be higher on one side than the other. Etc. You can fill in all the other disclaimers (and it won't stop Celina from ranting at what this isn't saying but she thinks it is) if you like.

Again, I don't have an opinion whether this is true or not, I just think it's what Geb is saying. (Geb, feel free to tell me if I'm wrong!)

Easy, as long as the side you are on right now is able to dominate, then conflict is never killed in the eyes of some. Once that is not the case anymore, than conflict is dead.

Anyhow, there is still conflict. You want it, go raid and start it up.

Edit:

Yes, that is what I mean. I just did not feel I needed to write multiple paragraphs to relay that. I guess I need to work on making what I write more clear and complete, while also trying to be brief.

I actually agree with this. I fought in-game for a long time for a Seren+Mag alliance against Glom+Celest, but it's just a hard sell. I think it would make things more interesting and more even, but it's just difficult to make it happen.

The second thing is that there aren't really many rewards for it. As a Seren, my options are to raid either Glom or Mag. Most likely, I would get swarmed and slaughtered (we all know I'm no top-tier), but I would still consider putting together a group to do it. The difficulty is that it's more and more difficult to get past enemy defenses, and then I almost feel bad for bringing the zerg against the groups that are already suffering from beatings.

I might give a raid attempt another try one of these days.