Since the new cities have been open for awhile, I have heard that raids have become pretty common and debilitating. As I had said before, if it seems like the new cities are getting pounded on before they have a chance to get their feet underneath them, I'd look into giving them some sort of temporary defenses to give them some breathing space. The question is are we there yet? Are the raids so intense and non-stop that they're driving people away? If so, what should be done about it? We don't want to go overboard and mollycoddle the organizations but we don't want to stomp them down before they have a chance to grow. Also, remember, there is only one guild currently in each city so they are limited on the types of guards and discretionary powers as it is.

Should they have cheap temporary guards they can buy? Should they be allowed to erect constructs that'd give free discretionary powers on the outer planes? What's too much or too little? Any other ideas?

We're open to your comments and opinions (especially those in the new cities).

Wait, the new cities are being WTFRaided? I saw there was some back and forth, but is it really that bad?

I don't really think it is all that bad. The only raiding Hallifax has seen is some occasional raids by Vathael & Co. on Air and Cosmic, which really aren't constant or debilitating. There's also Azoth coming in a killing denizens in the prime city, which isn't debilitating, just annoying.

I wouldn't mind some cheap temporary guards to at least keep the prime city secure and for the nexus rooms off-plane so they can be a secure defense point, but I wouldn't say they are crucial at this point.

Edit: Free discretionaries would seem really over the top at this point.

I've had a message that "people are about to leave" because of the raids, but that was just one message. That's why I'm posting here to get some more input. Let us know! Maybe we shouldn't do anything at the moment.

I think cheap temporary guards may be a reasonable solution. Anyone else?

I want cheap temporary guards.



That said, depending on how cheap, they could use guards for Prime. Do keep in mind that power is flowing in pretty quickly in at least one these orgs anyways, heh.

They could even be normal-priced guards, they could just use the ability to... y'know... summon them.

I was thinking half price. Keep in mind, they have to save power to open up their next guilds.

Further keep in mind that 4 people doing the epic quest chain pretty much completely gets them to the 200k threshold, heh, so that's not really such a limiter here.

I'd love to see cheap temp guards.

I certainly don't feel inclined to leave. Raiding has been more of an irritant than anything else to me, but that could be because I get more annoyed by people who scream at Aoife for "doing it wrong" than by Vathael - even though he killed her thunderbird (that heartless monster!). Still, having something in the way of defenses would be nice.

I'm not considering leaving, but the feeling of hopelessness of having Munsia and Vathael camp the nexus and waste anything that comes up does make me extremely unhappy. I do know at least one person who said every time it happens he gets closer to just reincarnating and switching sides though

Did you expect any different?

What.

You killed Aoife's poor defenseless thunderbird

But does that really make me heartless?! It was ferocious looking and put up quite the battle!

While I don't think raids have been much of a problem so far, a temporary solution to get up some defence seems like a good idea.

Ah, memories. Silly Hallifax. What makes you think you've earned the right to do anything but PK 24/7 yet? Why, back in my days, when we released an org, you logged on, threw yourself at the endless horde until you couldn't take anymore, logged off, got a little tipsy, then did it some more. There was no such thing as a "non-com" in Glomdoring, just someone who wasn't upset enough at dying so often yet to fix his system. You whippersnappers just don't know how good you have it! Why, we lost ten levels from conglutinating so many times, and we liked it.

(Seriously, there was no time for political drama, and everyone was on good terms with each other.)

Anyways, yes, guards are good, discounted or not! Then the raiders have something to aim for and spam up the city logs.

I don't mind raiding, really. That's not the issue. The issue is that they sit there, meld the plane (or get as far as they can without interference) then camp the nexus. Over...and over...and over. It STOPPED when munsia got booted from Gaudi, totally, for a few days, which kinda says something to me...

It says that Vathael doesn't want to meld?

It's not a matter of cheap guards, it's a matter of any guards at all. Let both cities draft militia that would serve as warrior guards, level one or two, and let them pay the same cost as everyone else until they've got "real" ones. It's not like either city is desperate for power, and the main problem right now is that raiders can congregate at the nexus and kill people before they've recovered balance from transversing, making an effective defence impossible unless you're willing to commit a lot of people to the grinder.

One of the most aggravating things about defending against people like this isn't even the deaths suffered, it's putting up with their brutish, bullying, blatantly ooc attitude. They can't claim it's RP, either, as their characters sound exactly like their forum posts, and they're clearly not doing it to benefit their city or to make any measurable gain, but rather to cause as much suffering and bring as much shame as possible.

I definitely agree about the second part. When Vathael's up there saying crap like "You're doing it wrong", and they're just there to be total tools instead even some semblance of an RP reason, it really hits home, "They're not doing this for the game, they're doing this to make us unhappy"