Sleep does need to be fixed, so why haven't the Moondancers envoyed it yet? All of the recent Moondancer envoy submissions have been minor changes rather than, you know, getting the entire cornerstone of your combat fixed.

The choke nerf was aimed at making it not possible to fortress an area with the impossible chokemense and "iwin"ing team combat. Now, it's suicide in group combat, what more do you want?

The problem I see is that you gain nothing from small skirmishes, and without trans planar (and fighting off plane) you stand to lose a lot of exp.

I'd be much more apt to fight if I gained as much as I lose from fighting. Right now I know that if I jump someone I'm just going to get ganked for it later on, lose experience and power (from having to redef/lich) and have to grind it back.

So is the main problem here that it's hard to get into mid-level combat? Everyone has argued for ages and ages that you need too many trans skills to start competing in Lusternian combat, but Estarra always just puts her fingers in her ears whenever anyone brings it up (I guess you can't really blame her, skills are probably the main reason for credit purchases).

No it's not. Unless you are the target, you won't know who is choking . And I can think of situations where the current form of choke is actually even stronger than the previous. All the choke "nerf" did was make it so you can't just use a chokemesne on the entire opposition. Choke is still very, very powerful.

There are a number of up to date free systems available for Lusternia on the forums, so I'm not sure how this is true at all today.

I'm also fairly sure that 90% of people who use them don't have computer science degrees... most of the system makers don't either.

You're right in that you would need to know some programming basics in order to make your own system but you shouldn't need to know any sorting algorithms or advanced data structures to code a system, let alone use one someone's already made for you.

Uh oh, got choked. CLT BLAH IS CHOKING. *pwn pwn pwn." What situations? No one is debating choke is very powerful, it's just not the group juggernaut, which was the motivation behind the nerf.

edit: off topic, but whatever.

For reference, one of my favorite IRE characters to date was my Aetolia paladin, solely because during landmarking season I could PvP my way through a few levels. I started gaining XP primarily through landmarking at about level 45, and did well enough. I gained 20 levels that way.

For me it is the fear. Really, if I go wanking around making trouble, Daevos will get me when I sleep. Maybe not really, but we all know that the only way to -really- be a part of conflict, is when you are raiding with a huge team and there are no defenders (for us lower-bies that is, not you power mongrels of doom).

I don't know I always wanted to get into combat, really! I have a few systems, I am have a CS degree and I am writing my -own client-, not just system. I bought some credits, then some more, oh Trans resilience, oh yea planar, oh yeah go to be warrior to really make it... it never ends. There is always "one more thing" to get to really make it. I didn't know how good I had it as a Celestine, you can kill -anyone- if you can make the sit still long enough. It isn't like that as a warrior. I'm not complaining, but I do feel like it is the case of one step forward and two steps back.

Look at the Axelord thread where Desi posted about 21 str and high prec warrior weapons. Damn, wich I could hit 21 str... oh wait... wrong race, not demi.... it is so a requirement (being demi) for top tier, at least, for warriors. Without the mad strength (or whatever else), you're a joke.

Most of the available ones these days are mushClient. Not much available for other clients. Mushclient isn't newbie-programmer friendly as I understand it, so it's not a great environment for people who want to do some tweaking of their own.

And Lusternia's combat system is extremely complex, so trying to code your own is (without a huge amount of time invested) most likely not going to happen. I consider it every now and then, but I just don't have the time to start such a massive project with other projects I've got going. The alternative, MushClient with a "free" system, involves a similar amount of work-- I've a huge amount of other code for doing pretty much everything else which I'd have to transfer. So I putter around on a really clunky old system.

Also, I am getting course credit for my client, or I wouldn't even be bothering.

While it's certainly true there are a bunch of systems out there to give you basic defenses, it's important to also have a decent set of combat aliases and alerts for your offensive setup too. Granted, this is the case for hunting effectively too. I do believe the technical requirements for entering combat are higher than you'd like for the average layman. This isn't an excuse necessarily to shy away from combat, but it is important to note that it's not highly accessible to the average Joe like Richter or myself. In fact this is somewhat of a selling point for Lusternia.

"Player combat is an entirely more complicated affair. This is what our combat system is primarily geared to, and few, if any games, can match the intensity and complex nature of our combat." - http://www.lusternia.com/combat.php

Choke is effective in groups still, and I've been told that the Old Choke was like Retardation effect but without Vibes (or Fae) dying or some such. In my opinion, Choke is really good for 1 vs 1 situations (but I'm stating the obvious). If you're going to compare it to a group situation, there's nothing stopping Moondancers/Tarot Celestines/or Tarot Nihilists from repeatedly using Waning/flinging Aeon at someone to keep them aeoned.

EDIT: Though many times, Choke is a double-edged sword for me. All it takes is one Hadrudin or Monk to get the upper hand and I'm pretty much done for.

Yeah cause in a group situation you want to waste your first action on CLT. I'm fairly sure you'd be howling if you had this fun little item to deal with every time. Imagine uncurable aeon instantly in any group situation. Usually the choked target is one of the called targets so chances are you're stunned from calling it out anyway. "But, use fearaura to disperse chokers!" Lolwolf.

Combat is dead because it's group based and half the game has solo-based skills. On top of that, people don't control their zerg sizing. You can cry at Celest all you want but I can't tell you how many 3am's I'd walk out with three of us and nine mags on Celestia last summer. Everyone does it. Every single org does it and it's not going to get any better unless a reason to fight in smaller groups comes out or things stop becoming a gigantic mash of AE abilities. Shrines, Demesnes, Songs, Exalts, whatever. You name it.

Systems are available for MUSHclient because it's faster, more stable, and it's FREE. I hear a lot of people complain about the high monetary costs of combat in Lusternia, so I made an attempt to cut that down by making a free system for a good, free client.

The programming isn't necessarily harder to learn in and of itself, as there's a ton of documentation and plenty of people to give advice or examples. The only really difficult thing is getting started and figuring out where everything is, especially for those who are used to zMUD or CMUD.

(Yes, I do have a B.S. in C.S., but I know plenty of system coders who don't have one!)

Unfortunately, time investment is not free, and it's a massive time investment either way for me. And it's a large time investment for anyone who wants to learn how to actually tweak the free system they get if they don't purchase the support contract (or, well, even if they do).

QFT. This is the exact reason I bought support, because you still need to build off the base of the distributed systems. And even with support, you're put in a queue of other support requests. I'm still waiting on one for the system I'm using -- not a complaint, but I can't really PK with that system till I can port my offensive stuff over.

This is the exact reason that I switched to MUSH and Treant, thought it was great, realised I couldn't be bothered to get MUSH to do everything that zMUD was doing for me much easier...and switched back.

For me it is much less a client than a skills problem...

Trans Res and Planar and Guildskills, check. Still not enough, need combat, green/gedulah, trans discipline, focus spirit helps too....aww but I am a tracker so I literally have to have trans Environment to do what trackers do (get other's traps...see them...etc)... it really boggles the mind.

Not everyone who "has a computer science degree" has a real authentic degree in computer science.

It's something I've learned in the working world. Amazing how many people still just learn on thier own. (I thought that only happened in the 80s and 90s)