It is not the only answer, but it is quite possibly the best answer, and, without a very good reason why it shouldn't be done or why some other choice would be superior, I cannot recomend anything else.

The in/out idea would not go well. You would not be off balance but you would still be walking into a death trap no?

Now there are actually two ways I would look at for this....

1) Move the flame to the falls. Make it an east exit from the falls, with rooms connected to both the flame and the falls up and down from the flame. This would give you assured break points in addition to being able to see people.

2) Change the exit to in/out but make an illuminati'esqe adjustment as well. At the flame have some sort of secret passage or passages that let you jump into places on vortex falls. This is still subject to travel being used to get on top of the group, but would improve the ability to escape normally and like every other plane can do, send 2 melders to break.

Only changing the valves to in/out exits and then not changing anything else would not help. It would actually make things worse to do that, since the meld would now have even more breakpoints that people would have to track down, break and defend. Defending the plane becomes even more intractable than it is now. But that was never a suggestion.

There are 4 problems listed in the first post, and each problem requires a solution. Fixing the valves is one change out of four. It is, in fact, the 3rd out of 4. The suggestions that Malarious brought up are both solutions that I proposed for fixing problem 4. Specifically, they are solutions 4A and 4B.

Signing here to agree that Vortex has to be the most awkwardly laid-out organization-tied Plane I've ever seen.

I'd like to note that, while it would certainly be nice to have unique long descriptions for rooms and creative titles and so forth, changing the room names to "Vortex Falls outside the Chamber of Foo", "Vortex Falls beneath the Chamber of Bar" and "Vortex Falls above the Chamber of FooBar" would suffice. And, if you want to go for writing creative descriptions, new titles and so forth, you could certainly palm the task off onto the Illuminati and get us to write it.

I would gladly pop by to contribute room descriptions. Or even just room names.

Bump for Great Justice.

I'd also like to recomend that ribbachi and other vortex mobs drain power from the Flame when killed. Currently, they don't, which is good because nobody in their right mind wants to defend, but once Vortex is less insane to defend, that should change.

This is still an issue!

Just noticed this thread exists, and thankful someone else has mentioned it. Yes this is a major issue, as a key point about org owned/loyal planes is the fact to be able to defend them :s .

The way in which Vortex is currently laid out makes no one want to defend it. Whenever Vortex is being attacked, most dont even give it mind, and those that do go up and notice a meld already made just shrug it off and leave, knowing nothing can be damn done. My ideas for Vortex were at the time to change it's entire layout, making it into a a sort of star-shaped area, with a fleshpot at each point (though may also cause more issues..), but I admit that I think placing the eternal flame on the vortex falls would also solve this issue.

I would definetly not mind at all to give different room names rather then 25 rooms named "The Vortex falls". Also if the names would be changed, I wouldnt mind a bit more uniqueness in the names also for the area as a whole. The idea that vortex is just a giant waterfall with valves connected on the side of it is rather...boring, I wouldnt mind it being changed to be more of a flesh island or flesh wildlife area or such, like is mentioned in the histories when it was being described.

In the end yes, all for change and Iytha has given some very good suggestions that I hope are implemented.

A proposal was made by Nydekion over Envoys that is relevant to Problem 4 in the OP of this thead, ie. that Vortex's circular shape favours enemy melds and shrines over defending melds/shrines.

The proposal is that the valve at the Eternal Flame be removed and replaced with 3 exits evenly spaced across the length of Vortex Falls. This would mean that there are 8 rooms between any two exits to/from the nexus and that the maximum distance that defenders would have to travel between the Eternal Flame and a breakpoint in a hostile meld is 4 rooms. Compare Nil, where the distance to the first breakpoint is 2 rooms, and Celestia where the distance is 5. This would also allow for a shrine at the Eternal Flame to cover 21 of the 24 rooms of Vortex Falls without meaningfully effecting the demense tactics involved for either faction.

Personally, I feel that this is the best solution proposed to this issue thus far and would resolve the vast majority of complaints regarding the defense of Vortex, leaving only the relatively minor issue of Vortex Falls looking all alike, a niggling complaint that could honestly be overlooked if this change went in.