I don't like the idea of quest runes. Seems like it introduces too much complexity with them repopping, people getting mad because someone currently has the rune (unless people can do the quest simultaneously and there's an unlimited supply of the runes).

I do believe that forgers (and enchanters for that matter) should have more control over the product that they are producing. If you are Transcendent in your trade skill, you should be quite good at what you do, and stats should be much less random. Some randomness may be okay - even masters of the arts had to redo their work several times to produce the quality they wanted. The Mona Lisa wasn't painted in one setting.

For one thing, the floor for how low stats can be on an item should be lifted. Master artists may not create perfection every time, but they sure as heck don't produce crap any time.

I think it would also be nice if you had a 'FORGE FOR' option or an 'ENCHANT FOR' option, which greatly increased the chance you would get more of that stat. So if you're trying to make the fastest weapon known to man, you would at least feel like you have some control on creating that weapon. It doesn't make sense that you, as a forger, randomly beat on a piece of metal and hope it goes well. There should be some finesse. Also, if you were an enchanter, you could examine the robes, and if one stat is falling behind the other, this would help to try to catch it up - if you wanted even robes. If you wanted to create robes with pure cutting resistance, you could try that too.

Another thing for forgers would be a new material, one for each type of stat, that you could fold into the item to increase the chances of that stat rising over the others. These could be nonrefundable through the smelting process (but all the other metals should be). So using a combination of those items + FORGE FOR, you would have a good deal of control over what you're making.

Oh yeah, another advantage of fixed over random is: you can actually use non-metal designs! Yay.

It's easy if you're a group of three or so demigods or equivalent, you have an hour to kill, you have a puzzle point or equivalent up there, and no one is trying to stop you. If any of those things aren't true, it's either very hard or simply impossible. Your reward for doing it will be a share of about 2000 gold, and about two astral critters worth of experience/essence; no power, no karma, no honors line, no buff, no anything.

(Sorry for the derail, I know this has all been hashed out ad infinitum, but I still think Globglob remains the single biggest mistake in Lusternia's history, and if they can delete all the work that went into constructs just like that, certainly someone can go tweak, if not eliminate, that quest. I've got an idea to get this back on track. Globglob's machines have used up all the unobtainium, and that's why forging sucks. Once we destroy the TBC for once and for all, we can get all that unobtainium and forgers can use it to do a whole new kind of forging. How's that for a Hollywood happy ending?)

I'd like to see-

Death of the Colleges. I don't know the numbers on this or whether it's been effective but for me, I feel very less inclined to assist newbies due to this system. I find CGT positively annoying. Newbies felt more like part of the guild when they were able to speak over GNT after leaving the portal.

A small tweak to Ascendance- deletion of fearaura. This, along with other abilities, is a true burden on group combat. Since you have a game that heavily revolves around group combat, fearaura needs to go.

Astral/Muud/Cosmic insanity feature- Tired of it. It doesn't really add much to the game- just annoys players.

Racial tweaks are a must.

The addition of a Rampage-like feature! (Rampage is an arena event in Achaea that runs like a neverending FFA. Very fun for practicing.)

Planar upgrades. To elaborate, giving cities accessibility to the outer planes they defend.

"Nowai" on the special quest items for good weapon stats.

All that is going to do is make all sorts of pointless annoyance over forgers trying to do the quest, and we'll just get rants about that. Not to mention that one of forging's few redeeming qualities is that anyone out there can make stuff on their own with just mats and abilities.

I'm for adjustable total weapon stats. Because what is desireable shifts around with game mechanics and ability scores.

For example, with the current mechanics, wounding weapons are largely useless. In fact, speed is nearly the absolute master stat. However, if someone wants a wounding weapon with the current set up, what is optimal for them varies dependent on their strength score (read: demigod or not, usually).

A demigod will want a 280 speed weapon, with as much as can be of what's left over put into precision. Someone who's not going to break that 21 strength threshold will want something higher than a xx/420/240.

If the admin ever get around to addressing weapon stats, and make precision actually mean something, or make damaging weapons more viable, then what people want will shift again.

Illdrain and lvl 3 village influencing are all that we really need for thoids to compete in village revolts

I've been praticing debating and the buff illdrain gives to my ego makes it better, though I do have a charisma of 9 now instead of 7

I really really disagree, the collegium is very helpful. From experience as leader I find collegium invaluable in teaching real novices basics and basically allowing alts to advance to a good point without wasting too much time in needless tests or pretending to be a real newbie. In Glomdoring at least everyone is very helpful to other guilds, mainly because we don't rely on "self-help" scrolls which Celest relies on. Honestly if you wanted to help them why even have those scrolls saying do this so we can ignore you. The collegium allows newbies to be helped by anyone especially at off-peak times, even if some places are bad for it and you can still help them as a guild member, I've never been stopped by someone being in the collegium and the flow into guild is normally seamless. If anything I think the collegium could be expanded in what it does.

I'm among those who feel that the random number generator should be scrapped. I think that it will be easier to balance around fixed weapon and armour stats than the fluid possible maximum that exist now.

Celest is a lot bigger and noisier. I just don't like people from other guilds helping Paladin novices. I think it confuses things. I just miss the private, quieter sessions with inner guild training only. My opinion.

Am I the only one who likes Astral Insanity? It's so fun to play with...

Serenwilde is pretty big too, can't say I have any problem with the Collegium. The time after they graduate is optimal for those quieter more personal interactions. And diligent undersecs tend to catch them before people from other guilds can anyways. Other guild people only help when there is noone else available.

It would be best if, at least for weapons, the RNG was removed and forgers could essentially pick the exact stats wanted (within a range). This would allow non-metal designs to be used -and- make it easier to balance warriors as a whole, without basing stuff on very specific 1000-speed weapons that someone managed to forge. Nobody likes RNGs D:

I used to feel the same way, but have since dulled myself to it. My only problem now is this:

Novice: "Yay! I graduated the collegium!"
Me: "Yay! Now you can speak on GNT!"
Novice: "Yay! What does that mean?"
Me: "You're still a novice!"
Novice: "Ya- wait, what? Didn't I just graduate?"
Me: "Yes, but now you have another 10 Lusternian days as a novice!"
Novice: "Then... what was the point of graduating?"
*crickets*

Haha. Been there too.

Edit: To the other points, if it's actually effective in helping retain new players, great. Such a system was never necessary in Achaea but then again, there's a reasonable beginner's learning curve there. Lusternia is just insane for new people. I still hate colleges.

It's a perfectly reasonable opinion to hold. That said, off-peak newbies get a much better service now than they ever used to.



Achaea's much bigger but it still brought in the hideous class channel to make it easier for rogue newbies. I prefer our way.

with regards to Malicia not liking others teaching paladins and other posts like that:

I've made paladin characters twice now. Both times, I was systematically ignored by the entire guild when I asked for help. I'm not blaming anyone, but the college system really helps to make sure that nobody is left in the dark with no one to turn to.

I think when when we look at fixing forging, we should also look at making ( or keeping depending on how crazy you are) artifact runes less needed. That's why I'm not really a big fan of the fixed stats idea. I spent a week forging this thing and it actually works pretty great, but if we were stuck with fixed stats it would basically make runes 100% necessary to fight. I know how people use Ceren as an example of how you don't need runes to compete, but I also was told the stats on his weapons, fixed stats would make it 100% necessary for runes to compete with nearly anyone.

I think colleges would be perfect if newbies could talk on GNT right out of the portal. It's always bothered me that they can't. In fact it really aggravates me.



Fearaura sucks.



It's a neat concept and can be funny at times, but for someone who wants to be able to do something other than set around and laugh at it, it's a gameplay killer. I don't even see the point of it anymore...just delete it.



Yes please. I want to play a Merian. Also, it would be cool if Celestine Imperial Merians got a con buff instead of an int buff. That int is absolutely positively worthless to us.



That sounds awesome! Especially if you didn't lose defs after you died and the fight could just go on and on. I think this would be a huge help for people who want to learn PvP, since it's a pretty common thought that combat in Lusternia is very complex and hard to get into.



Yep. People keep saying things like 'all you need is a friendly guardian/mage.' Well, I'm a guardian, and I consider myself friendly. But I'm going to get annoyed pretty quickly having a bunch of bums standing around at the nexus treating me like a taxi.

Wouldn't be so bad if asshats would quit ripping apart the gates we weave

Insanity seems to be intended as a deterrent, except it doesn't actually deter anyone, they just go ahead with it and get annoyed about the consequences.

Collegiums are one of the better things to happen to Lusternia.