What is with the entitlement complex among the game's demigods? Demigod has always been a horribly arbitrary reward for a task that is really just a test of your willingness to grind rather than of any kind of skill. There's no good reason you should be given any reward that affects PvP at all for it. I say, be happy with whatever you have.

I wouldn't say they raised Malicia because of my elite rp. I don't sit around emoting.


As to the rest of this thread, I don't have a feeling on it one way or other. Seems like the topic has been exhausted.

Roleplay is not all about emoting, you know. Note that I stated the organization's ideals as being the driving factor for the first three picks.

I know I was picked over more combat-oriented folk (for example, Kaervas). I tend not to sit around emoting either, but I don't feel like emoting is what makes the character. I feel it's the overall action, intent, and focus.

The same can be said for Vernal, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. You grind experience for demigod, you grind rep with your org for VA.

This.

It's not just a Demigod/Ascendant problem. Everything is about "the numbers." Nothing is worth doing unless it gives you a mechanical advantage.

As was pointed out, the first Ascendants were raised because they were trustworthy paragons of their orgs. They represented the org. Now, if a new Vernal is being considered, it is almost always connected with how active they are, how many Domoths they can hold, how good they are at combat, etc.

I'm not opposed to the system we have, but I am opposed to the "it's not what we wanted" argument and the idea that Demi/Ascen should be made even more powerful by making the abilities that can tear people apart easier to get.

I disagree that no one would spend a million power to raise someone for purely RP results. If the Admin have indeed bought into that idea, that no one will do anything unless you reward them mechanically in PvP, then it is no wonder that that attitude has taken hold in the playerbase--it is being fostered. I think if you gave the non-mechanical non-PvP approach a chance, it would work just as well, if not better than what you have now. This thread is evidence of that--no matter what perks you offer, it will never be enough.

2 million.

I wouldn't care if this whole system wasn't brought in supposedly because we asked for it and also the gap between TA, VA and demigod wasn't so big. It just seems like the majority of the cool things involved only go to a minority of the people involved.

It's the same issue I have with the racial revamp. It's not that I disagree with the changes, it's that now that it's done, we're not going to get another one to fix the stuff they missed for a long time. We've got the essence shop, but it's not what we thought we were getting and it's seemingly done. People gave cool ideas and they were coded and implemented, just not for them. If you're not going to give them what they ask for, it's a lot easier on everyone to just say that, instead of putting in a lot of hard work and utilizing cool ideas that not only will the vast majority of players never see, but the majority of demigods won't either.

I would be cool with giving demigods all the cool RP tools. Would give some incentive (or at least, some 'looks cool' factor) to those who got demigod to be a better fighter, to do at least a wee bit of roleplay, or infuse their character with a trait beyond 'is an ordinary human and looks, acts, and speaks ordinarily.'

I have never been a demi, and it will probably be quite a while until I am, so my input here is from an (at best) slightly informed outsider. The thing that chafes me about the new system is the removal of the custom things. I would have been fairly happy to reach demi without divinefire and the other abilities if I could have custom movement messages and custom zap, on top of the RP of being godly. All of the hard work would pay off in some mechanical and automatic boosts, and I would get some cool toys. I don't know if it got annoying having to check/code custom things as the demi player base increased, but I sort of feel like I would have merited it after being a long time (and probably credits buying) player.

We could make it 'One point for supernumiaries per year of age'. Would give ageing practical use, would benefit long-term players more than 16-year-old demigods.

It would also imbalance the playing field with the 'big' powers (Aegis/FearAura/HavocCry/Etc), but if those were restricted to VAs/TAs it wouldn't matter.

Wow, that sounds excruciatingly painful given that the current amount is, what, a year and a half of playing?

About a year (~20 out of the portal + ~30 years/RL year).

Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't factor in the first 16ish. But still, I would be extremely leery about adding something like that that you can't even do anything about unless you were playing for 6 years beforehand, especially given how anal Hallifax is about the age-altering skill.

Hear, hear.

Don't sell yourself short. Even though you started out as a Seren, you have been around a long time like Xenthos and have been a very stable force in New Celest. I am sure you're long term contributions and your leadership has contributed positively and I think having the La'Saet line become part of Lusternia history is one of the ways the recognize you.

ETA: Same with Xenthos. FWIW, he's stuck with Glomdoring thru think and thin, and I believe he's been a key reason why its survived and thrived, although I know it's been a bumpy ride.

This doesn't really make any sense at all. Every reward for every mechanical goal in the game is something made up by one or more admins in an effort to make the goal worth achieving and to make the game fun. Its not unreasonable to expect a reward that doesn't suck for a goal that you spend hundreds of hours of your life working on. Its even less unreasonable to be displeased that you invested most or all of the time towards the goal specifically to get a reward that you think is worth it, just to have it changed into a reward that you don't think is worth it.

I think it does. What we are seeing is a shift away from meaningful rewards that are meant to enhance the gameplay experience toward rewards that are meant to give you a "winning" edge in a game that is 100% unwinnable in the manner it is trying to achieve. Demigod used to be a reward in itself. Now it is merely stepping stone for players who want more, more, and more. This was inevitable. As time moves on, to prevent things from getting stagnant, new and interesting changes must be brought in to allow the game to grow. It is the direction of that growth that we disagree on. It's happening all throughout the game. The end-game essence system, multiple forms of ascendancy, the ridiculous IRE daily OOC incentives, all of them point to moving away from making changes that are meant to make the game better and richer and towards making changes that merely try to dress up the game to make it more of a power-gaming place. It may be bringing in more numbers, but it's hurting the game.

I think you misunderstand my post. My "this" in the first sentence was referring to what Shamarah was saying about demigods acting entitled. Incidentally, I more or less agree with you.

Oh. Well then .

But I do agree with Shamarah as well when he says that there is a sense of entitlement above and beyond what is rational, which is what I believe you are referring to--a rational sense of rewards to go with accomplishments. My stance is that the rewards for many things these days, Demigod/Ascendant included, are no longer rational, but we've come to expect them so much that we feel unduly entitled to more.