You're not allowed to leave Glom.

Well, I talk myself out of it every time, but, still, there is a feeling of guilt at being another stone in the pile, especially when you read things like these threads on forums.

Glomdoring is highly organised at the moment, I think that plays a massive part in our current success. The number of Demi's we have is a definite bonus, but I still think our (well, not mine but eh) organisational skills are the driving force behind our success. I don't really see the need for guilt in this situation, frankly I'd say we're pretty tame in comparison to some of the things which have happened in the past and eventually we'll see a shift in game demographics away from Glomdoring. It always happens.

Funny, this is almost exactly what I said to another Celestian the other day. I like the way you think. I also feel sorry for you that you share similar thoughts on things with me. But yes, I agree. Glomdoring has HIGHLY organized and experienced players leading the commune and its guilds. Whereas.... some other places don't.

And personally, I'm not a fan of curbing raids mechanically. The reason why it's so heavily weighted - and I think this is the truth with a lot of power swings - is precisely because the "old guard" players decide to shift, and take all the experience that they earned being forged in hell with them.

Making things softer for newer players in my mind will ensure they're never as effective as older players, because they're not forced to be creative with their skills/surroundings. Sure, correct imbalances between orgs and guilds, but make stuff softer all around? I dunno. Seems like we're more saying, "I really hate being beat on, but I don't want to invest the time/energy in making myself better. Help me out, Gods." Overall, I think it makes things less fun. If you don't like combat, don't do it, OR at least don't expect to be good at it. It's your own organization's fault if they punish you for not fighting, not the mechanics.

Maybe it's just a change of the times, though. The people playing the characters are so used to the world handing them things or putting bubble wrap around every sharp corner that they just outright quit when something is actually very difficult. So, it terms of retaining players, maybe that's what you have to do. I won't like it, though!

This may be slightly off-topic, but I'd like to see more 1v1 combat in this game. People want to fight, but due to Avenger it's generally unfeasible to just go and jump someone, so to get action you have to go raid another org.

So here's my idea: A place/area like the Spring or NoT in other games, where you can go stand around when you're looking for duels. If someone's in that area, you know they're likely either looking for duels, or watching one. Rather than send a tell asking for spars/duels to everyone online or spam market every few minutes, you can just go hang around that place. Then you can DUEL CHALLENGE someone, they can DUEL ACCEPT, and until one of you dies or some time goes by without an attack, you'll be unable to attack/be attacked by anyone else, or exit the area. No avenger status either way.

You wouldn't even need the DUEL commands, except people seem to consider everything PK-related that isn't prevented by Avenger to be free game, so it'd never stay 1v1, or even relatively similar skill-levels.

I also don't think raiding should be curbed, I don't think what Serenwilde has experienced over the last few days to be really really dreadful. Today was really quiet, not one raid (although two lame run-in-run-out elder choppings) and I don't think Glomdoring is going to keep stomping us day in day out. I don't think any changes are required (that's just me, though).

Also agree with the Glom organisation thing. What really hurt Serenwilde was not only that we lost fighters but we lost the charismatic leaderish people, who were relatively loud. Sarra does that some times when she's fired up but a lot of the time she doesn't. (More communication, Sarra!)

If it helps, right now Serenwilde has two people online. Which is quite pathetic, it's not THAT off-peak.

Edit: oh gosh that second person just died and there's no one to get a resurgem for him. I weep salty tears.

Mag has had only 2 in realms for hours now. I hear ya!

This keeps bugging me in the back of my mind... so I'm just going to throw in that I also don't believe raiding should be curbed and I seriously doubt people are quitting the game because their org is getting beat on more than usual... if it is more than usual, really. I haven't noticed excessive beatings in either Serenwilde or Celest. I can't tell you why people are quitting, but because of raiding alone? No possible way. My suggestion, based on that, would be to further investigate why people are leaving the game... if you're really worried about player retention. Which you probably should be, based on the numbers I've seen lately.

Okay, I'm done being serious now. Back to my semi-pacifistic existence... *nod nod*

I kind of agree with Mihewi.

I do not believe raiding should be curbed, it is one of the things that make Lusty what it is. Organizations go up the food chain, organizations go down the food chain and as it is currently, Glom is in a position it hasn't been in quite a long while, just like Seren is in a position it hasn't been in for quite a long while, both will survive. Yes, being on the losing end of a butt kicking contest is not fun - but (hopefully) that is why people tweak their reflexes, change up their actions.

If the powers that be decide in the end that something needs to be done, then adjust some of the mobs ... slightly. Have Raziela (or Luna or whatever ) randomly throw an attacker out of her room, nothing all that drastic, just something to stop people from camping out and just sitting there.

If people are leaving, its not cause of the raiding ... if that is the case, then Seren and/or Celest would have noticeably less people. Not just a lower number in general. I think people get bored and frustrated cause they run out of things to do ... you have areas (Tosha, Moors, Astral, Observatory) that are constantly bashed/influenced out, and other areas like the Kalkodan reserve, snow valley that stay almost empty. You have a great quest system in place, village quests are almost all redone (generally by those who have already done them). Others can't be completed cause the quest mobs can (and are) repeatedly killed. I say fix up some of the under-used areas and let the raiding be what it is. When the Czigany Wayfaire came in, there were tons of people on the roads and in the areas with very little fighting. People were active and on a mission. Give more people something to help pass the time.

One of the things I adore about Lusty is all the little impromptu divine run events ( the traveling leprechauns with the pot of gold, the drunk pirates ) or even when an old man came to the pool and kept calling everyone Doman and shot flames at Aison. Sometimes, just focus on the little things and let the big things figure themselves out.

I once tried to envoy that as a Music ability almost exactly like this (but with other uses too so that cities could also benefit from it), to give bards a way to contribute so the burden didn't all fall on the druids, but I couldn't get anyone to submit it. (It also cost power.)

Speaking in general terms (because whenever I get to specifics they get discarded because I'm not a Combat Monster), I think the red herring throughout this thread is the idea of "curbing raiding" meaning making conflict less desireable all the time. That tends to lead to yo-yo effects where we change from too much conflict to too little conflict.

The real issue (and this is hardly the first time it came up) is making conflict more intermittent. No one, not even me, wants conflict to stop. Heck, even when it was Narsrim's unstoppable great-pentagram-monolith Etherwilde raids four times a day every day, no one seriously wanted to make conflict never happen. What we want is to make it so there's enough time for something other than raiding to also happen. And the thing that used to do that is the various mechanical incentives to make conflict more about stuff that happens periodically (domoths, villages, nexus world conflicts) and less about things that are always there (killing guards/Ladies/Daughters/trees/novices/tutors/Avatars/Supernals/DemonLords/noncombatants/denizens/etc.).

When more of the focus of the "I want to raid" people is on these intermittent things, everyone else has a chance to breathe, and do other stuff. That's the recipe to bring them back. And it doesn't require making the "I want to raid" people unhappy either. (I'm not saying it won't make them complain. Everyone complains. But it won't make them log off.)

Raziela is perhaps a bad example. She already does that to a further extreme by flinging people to the astral plane!

I know this opinion of mine is rather late into the discussion.



Perhaps by adding an essence drain when 2 demigods/ascendants stand within the same room with the exception of the nexus and city/commune world

Release new orgs.

I think a way to try and split people up is to release something new and shiny that would catch their interest, since I know some of us have been waiting on these since the beginning of time..

I think some people are still interested in Ackleberry, Hallifax, Jojobo, or Gaudiguch, anyway...

No offense, but that's the worst suggestion so far.

You don't take a dwindling population and thin it out by opening a new organization, not to mention that this would be the most work out of anything else being considered.

I totally understand the sentiment, but as a leader, you're doing the right thing in staying. The game is here to be enjoyed, and most people enjoy Lusternia primarily because of the playerbase. For a Harbinger, you're the most visible and stable piece of the playerbase that there is, and taking off with little warning would probably be more detrimental to the playerbase than you'd realize, even if all the people you spread warm-fuzzies to eventually go on to grief another org's little novices into the ground. Griefers are players too! The other side is that, as a leader, you have the power to impose or encourage restraint in people and find solutions that bring relative peace to the downtrodden while still allowing your people to feel like winners who have the world open to them.

It was 9 AM, I'm not awake and sick. I'm full of bad suggestions.

Too lazy to read everything....

- Lower the cost of nexus guardians

- Increase the duration to 3 RL days if cost not lowered?

- Give nexus guardians ability to give karma curses (do they still exist) for a power cost from the users reserves but have the curses perform at their latter stages

- Planar skill that allows you to hear all cries for help from supernals/demon lords/avatars (Cant help defend if I dont know something is being attacked

- Allow bards and warriors a skill to travel to the elemental plane tied to their nexus. (I hate having to go the long way)

If you kill 30 players from org x, you are never allowed to join that org.

edit:
All kidding aside, one of the things that first made me feel ok with being completely inactive was that I often watched people who I knew as Angel eaters suddenly being demon eaters and visa versa. It reminded me that the game was really just a bunch of fighters who just keep switching sides for seemingly arbitrary reasons. (like boredom, or a friend asked them to, or they wanted to help another team win). And I was reminded of the fact that if I want to play skilled combat games, Muds are not really the best place to do that. I play/played (I have to admit I just don't have the schedule to play anymore) MUDs because of the inherent diversity provided by text based games. The fact that Org hopping is cheaper than guild hopping was the first thing I noticed that made the RP and IG loyalties all screwy. Now, it's the combat winners that seem to have no real loyalty to any particular org over the course of their lifetime.

I think I can count the number of good fighters who have stayed in only 1 org on my hand.