There are three ways to get onto Cosmic: Rift, Cubix and Aetherport.
There are two ways to get onto Ethereal: Aetherport, Archway.
If we assume that both locations being accessable by an aetherport is equally balanced (I think that's safe to assume) than we have to balance Cubix and Rift against whichever Archway option we choose OR add/subtract ways to enter from one side.

Option 1a. Move Archway from ethereal Nexus, to original location.
--Pro: No huge demenses. Easy to enter Ethereal without going through guards.
--Con: Still safer than Cubix+Rift. May need another option for full balance.

Option 1b. Remove Guards from ethereal Nexus.
--Pro: No huge demenses. Easy to enter Ethereal without going through guards.
--Con: No safe location on Ethereal, possibility of camping transversing defenders.

Option 1c. Remove Archway, replace with normal.
--Pro: Easy to enter Ethereal without going through guards. People can see onto other elevations.
--Con: Demenses which go into faethorn are hard to break.

Option 1d. Do nothing relating to the Archway.
--Pro: Same as now.
--Con: Same as now.

Option 2a. Add Rift between Prime and Ethereal.
--Pro: Allows access to ethereal planes. without going through guards. Similar to Cosmic.
--Con: Can be distorted, just like Cosmic.

Option 2b. Add 2 Rifts between Elemental and Ethereal.
--Pro: Allows access to ethereal planes. without going through guards. Similar to Cosmic.
--Con: Need to figure out which elemental plane get's who's rift. Earth-Glom reinforces MG v.SC, Water-Glom makes Celest v. Glom fighting more common.

Option 2c. Add 4 Rifts between Elemental and Ethereal.
--Pro: Allows access to ethereal planes. without going through guards. Similar to Cosmic. Both elemental planes get a rift to both ethereal planes.
--Con: Distortable.

Option 3a. Add Cubix entrances to Ethereal.
--Pro: Pairity between the planes, easy raiding.
--Con: Estarra says having an artifact for planar raiding should not be needed.

My choices are bolded. The rest are there for comparison.

Doesn't seem like it matters now anymore.

You can also get to cosmic via the nexus points on Astral.





Why not?

Didn't count those for the same reason I did not count transversing from ravenwood/moonhart. Because you would have to be an idiot to try it when you have the other options.

Yeah... wow.

The archway seems to me to be just as logical as going from Astral to Cosmic. (There are no guards on astral) but there are guards on prime seren/glom and at the nexus.

They just moved the archways to the old positions. So it's like having an easy way to walk from Nil to Celestia, without visiting guards. No cubix required!

Way to whine, good job.

Welcome back to 2007

And... not much else changed. It's just basically a free-to-everyone 2000-credit-entrance into both orgs. With all the other negatives still intact.

Is it pretty much locked into this, Estarra, or are you still reading and looking for comments / ideas? :/

I have no complaints about what happened, in fact, I think it was the best decision. If you removed the archways completely, no balance loss and ease of walking would have been a pain.

Though, on the other hand, it's pretty funny that a transplanar prism (if not plain old walking) is now all that's 'needed' to raid ethereal, but it's not a big deal.

I think the bigger problem is that you 'need' a cubix to raid Cosmic?

That's true, but that's not the point of the thread.

Plus my cubix my free.

Also you don't really 'need' a cubix, just pointing it out before I get misunderstood.

Which would be one of the differences, yeah. There are a number of others, but still. Ethereal is a completely different beast than Cosmic in terms of getting to and getting away from.

I actually still think the best solution would have been to leave the archways where they were (permanently), and then allow for a moderate-difficulty quest to open up a passage for a day where they are now for an hour. Enough time to raid, but not something you want to do every hour. Just when you want an easy path in and out. Then it's still... more along the lines of buying something, since you're putting more work into it. Still easier to get out, but eh.

They would see the quest happening, then mass up defenders. Not a good option.

Depending on whether or not there's a lot of attention being paid, and you still would have other options for an "instant unexpected" entrance via an aethership. Just like there is one with aetherships to Cosmic or Nil.

You can just get around that with a lovely 2000 credit artifact on Cosmic, or with a 0 credit archway in Faethorn.

To be fair, the 'quest to open up ethereal' would be so watched by both glom and seren like hawks. So many eyes and spirits.

And yeah, people are lame, can't do much about offhour raids, but life goes on.

P.S. cubixes are nice but are not raid makers/breakers. Plus all the people who 'matter' usually have one anyway.

Don't they 'matter' because they have one?

I dunno, I certainly don't think 'easy raiding' when I got a cubix, I just thought, 'hey I can travel easily to bash now' as I'm sure at least most cubix owners think to this day.

Hmm, when I got my cubix I had a bunch of people tell me, "hey, now you can help us raid" perhaps times have changed.