I still say that's how the Soulless really came about. Kethuru, after all, is nearly always AFK.

I was also quite serious.

(Except for the radiation poisoning )




Hmm. So Kethuru is actually an early CL of Magnagora who came against Estarra over AFK influencing? Or was he just the AFKer, and Illith the Leviathan was the CL...

Hmm....

On the comment about newbies/lowbies being shut out cause they can't kill slivvens... I feel no pity for them. I personally don't think they should be on an aethership to begin with. It annoys me to no end to see someone come out of the portal, inducted to the pirates of the hearth clan 5 minutes later, told to learn aetherskills and possibly even given a credit or two to do so, then taken on an aetherhunt for the next 5 hours. Only to spend the next week asking "what do I do now? I haven't done any of my guild stuff and I am level 50 and I don't know anything."

I don't mean to single out that clan either, but as a member of it I find it to be the largest culprit in teaching people how to NOT play lusternia.

Edit:: Solution: If you are unranked you can't lock into a module. Learn the game, -then- you can afk on an aethership all you want. If you are an alt, getting unranked is easily done.

I'm not sure I like what 2 would do to the character of the community.

To be honest, I'm not enormously happy about 1. It's a complete waste of our time, much though I appreciate that we need to do it.

I don't like 2 for very much the same reason, and 1 is, as you say, a waste of time.

A third option that popped into my head would be to code something similar to a guide. Pay a player 50cr a month or something to watch for afk people. The problem is, you'd have to design the system such that the "guide" can't see player name, location, and other identifying details to prevent favoritism. Big coding effort for little return, and not to mention, doing this job would be boring.

It's a lose-lose situation, with perhaps the least damaging not adding in more coded checks (because players will code around them and you'll punish the good players). Perhaps the best thing to do is random checks on ships that haven't been checked for a set period of time.

Aetherhunts are a completely comatose experience. I've never found any sort of in-flight entertainment to be entertaining. Even regular bashing just feels so much more engaging; in aetherspace you're watching a meter slowly tick up in small spurts. At least while hunting you're mobile, sipping, have to be on alert, and you're earning yourself essence from offerings and gold.

If I'm going to lock myself in a single place for an extended length of time, I'm going to just sit there and let that meter tick. If a slivven comes on my module, I can solo it without unlocking, but there's no way in hell I'm going to actively be the group slivven-hunter. Not only are you putting up with a 40/50% reduction in experience due to being in a collector, you're also the only one getting off their bum to do anything awake and active on the ship. If the crew as a whole doesn't want to hobble themselves by stopping after every infestation to have you clear slivven, you're completely missing out at a massively disproportionate amount of effort.

Debating about policing/automation when you're essentially stuck in stasis for over an hour doesn't seem all that big a deal of me; I don't think it can be helped short of making yet more tweaks to aetherspace to keep everyone awake (which will, likely, just lower its popularity back to near-nothing). But it still might as well be worth it if you're going to end up the ship's .

I don`t understand much of coding, so i dont know how hard it is to implement certain ideas. Here are two solutions i quickly thought of that i personally liked, especially for the reason it can be done in a form of IC.

For Newbies trying to module lock to anything except collector (lets face it, only Newbies would be happy with the exp from collecting)

- Upon trying to Module Lock and tune their minds to the ship, The algontherine will assess their circle, and being below a certain circle cap, (say, 75), the novice would be knocked down, not being able to withstand the power of the algontherine in their minds.

(This would practically work exactly as how it is for a high circled player trying to enter newton caverns, as to which they`re immediately casted out. In this case, it would be the opposite, where the novice has to reach level 75 to module lock the three main ones. So i`m sure the coding for this wouldnt be that hard. I would suggest dropping the circle cap for collectors to 50 though, as higher level players are usually reluctant for that module.)

Solving AFKers in Aethership

solution 1 --------------------------------------------------
- Implement a slight chance different for each module, that upon a creature ramming the hull of the aethership, a random person locked will be immediately flung to a random room, nonadjacent) in the ship. If that player is conscious, (i.e. not afk) they would have to immediately stand up (from a knockdown) and run over to their module and lock again. Say 3% chance for Pilot, 4% chance for Empath, and 5% chance for turret. ( For this one, i`m not sure if one can Auto-walk there even from a random location) BUT, the slivven could help with that..


SLIVVEN

Remain as strong as they are (so higher levels can kill em), though simply drop their health to be able to kill them faster. BUT, increase the number of slivvens that come on board (thus dropping the damage to the modules). A major thing here though, is allowing them to block exits (due to their new large size). If there are multiple exits, they block a random one. If there are multiple slivven in the same room, each block a random exit.

This would have various positive points-

-The slivven coming on constantly on the ship would sooner or later block someone on their way back to their modules. The player would then be forced to kill the slivven. (no one wants their player attacking a slivven afk)

- A slivven hunter job reloaded. All aetherhunts will be forced to pay for at least ONE high level player to constantly kill slivvens, and due to the new high number of slivvens coming on board, a hunter will constantly be on the job. So a player who was knockeddown making his way back to his module would 1) have kill the slivven himself, or 2) wait for the hunter to make his way to knocked down player by killing all the slivvens blocking the exits to that particular room, where the player awaits.

Hunter picks up each slivven killed (undroppable if the ship explodes), the Ship captain would then pay 50-100 gold for each slivven at the end of the hunt.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Solution 2 (for afkers) -------------------------------------------------------------

drop the strength of slivven, increase number of slivven, (thus drop slivven module damage) make them all aggressive only to players LOCKED into the ship. ICly, the slivven wants to kill the algontherine, so they assume the person locked in the module is also part of the algontherine. Player must UNLOCK to kill the slivvens. Sometimes two might appear in the same room, and as they wont chase, a player will be forced to leave the room to heal, come back and then finish them off)


Phew! Tell me what you guys think

Interesting ideas! They likely wouldn't be that hard to implement either.

I am, however, extremely reluctant to the aetherbeasts knocking people off of modules when they attack in melee. If they knock the pilot off, they would have to first stand, then run to the module, lock in, and then resume running from the beasts. This would likely take at least five, perhaps ten, seconds, during which the beasts will gather at the ship and attack, making it very likely the ship explodes. The problems with empaths being knocked off is lower, sure, but it could still prove very fatal, even if they aren't AFK. I can see it happening for all other modules though, since they're not critical in the same way.

Aggressive slivvens? Hmm. Not sure about that. It would, basically, make it impossible for many people to join the aetherhunt, AFK or not. IF you remove the afflictions I can see it happening, but not with the affliction-giving it has today.

stand;autopath to module;lock module

Any solution that is coded will have a coded answer from us.

Considering the solution is already coded into Lusternia, it's a very simple fix, yes. The slivvens blocking the path would make it a little more troublesome though.

Maybe not aggressive towards the player, but once you unlock, they stop fighting back. Since you're not part of the module, they don't care about you anymore. That way higher levels could still kill them without unlocking if they want, but others can unlock for a minute to kill them safely.

Rika hit it square on the head.

Even with slivven blocking, it's as simple as adding the line "slivven here" to a trigger and have it auto-attack.

No. Those ideas are just terrible. Limiting people to learn how to use non siphons until after level 75 will add nothing. Siphon is almost as valuable as the main modules after the latest cut, according to Sior. If anything, people should be encouraged to try other modules. Especially piloting and empathing, as too many people falsely think that this is MUCH too difficult. Kicking people off modules is just going to ask for people to not use aetherspace. Kicking a pilot out while hunting dragons means death for everyone. Slivvens blocking paths back would also prevent low level folks from returning, unless they've got tumble or something like that, at which point it does nothing to prevent em as they can just tumble past the obstacle.

Basically, you couldn't get worse ideas if you tried.

Do 1 viciously until people get the fear of god put into them. Slivvens will never really work because coded solutions are possible. A dedicated Slivven hunter has become norm so that everyone else on a ship can AFK. Make an actual statement to the playerbase that AFK aetherhunting isn't tolerated by creating a garden of very public shrubs until people get the clue.

Seconded.

I'd gladly become the gardener of such a garden as well

lol

- You`re definitely right about a pilot being kicked off meaning death for everyone. New idea necessary.
-Siphon is as valuable as other modules, but one better left for the semi-high levels.
- About slivvens blocking paths being a problem for the young ones, well, thats another point to it. Young ones shouldn`t be aetherbashing.



Oh you want to attack? I can see why, aren`t you circle 50 or something? You definitely don`t want the level caps to simply remove your option of easy experience all the way to level 90, whether thats your alt or not. Instead of hanging around the Aetherplex asking on the Pirates of the Hearth for any upcoming hunts, you should go and have that wonderful experience of bashing the old fashion way like half the old-time players have. Hell, i influenced and bashed my way to 91, which i still do, as aetherhunting isn`t that common in my city.

Instead of bashing the ideas of others, help out.


New idea then. I actually wrote last night another large paragraph, i`m guessing i was so tired i forgot to press ADD REPLY button.

Slivvens go unchanged in their strength when normally fighting them. Slivvens are aggressive to all locked players, and slivvens now do 25% damage of one`s total max health while locked, (regardless of current health). This way, they will always kill locked players in 4 hits, regardless of level. Players must unlock to attack back, but upon unlocking, slivvens are no longer aggressive, unless that player relocks without killing the slivven. Another big change is, Slivven run around the ship constantly like the parasites in the asylums, in which they will stop at a module locked with a person to attack. After that person unlocks, the slivven leaves again to search for another locked module. The slivven stops running around when engaged in combat.

This works for all modules except pilot.

In this way, If two or three slivvens are on board the ship, the ship would probably be best to flee to a safe area, have everyone unlock for a while until all slivven are killed. Imagine four slivven coming to one`s module and all attacking at the same time, removing 4/4 of one`s health (death). A person who is not AFK wouldnt have any danger by simply unlocking and waiting. A person AFK could immediately unlock, but then after killing a slivven and relocking, they could risk dying to another 3 slivven on board that could suddenly pop into the module.

Meh, I`m very sure there is something that can be done through coding, where a person could easily escape death by simply being present.

Level 76. Congratulations on failing debating 101.

I'm pretty sure, AFK or not, you will die to a group of 4 mobs that deal 25% (= 100%) of your health, instantly and before you can unlock.

Well, the point is for people to be present, so that they will already unlock knowing the amount of slivven on board

If they're aggressive and they're hitting you, you can simply heal while still locked in, and I prefer being able to kill them while locked in over having to unlock and relock. The equilibrium times are just too long, and with people being forced to unlock/relock during an aetherhunt, you run the risk of dying to the aetherbeasts, even if you are present and aware.

I like your general logic, though. Good to see some ideas put forward by someone, unlike others in this thread.