Vortex is the worst Cosmic Plane to defend. It is a deathtrap for the defenders, and an benefit for the attackers. None of the other cosmic planes, even the much maligned Celestia, is nearly that bad. It's clear that Vortex has problems, and these problems need fixed. But what are these problems, and how do we fix them?

A Brief Description of Vortex:

Vortex consists of two sections, which I shall call 'Vortex Falls' and 'Valve Chambers'.

Vortex Falls consists of 25 rooms linked vertically by a combination of up and down exits and north-south exits. Of these rooms, 12 are in sets that have 2 rooms on that "level" arraged as seen in figure 1, and the remaining 12 are arranged to have one room with an up exit, down exit and a valve in the room.

Figure 1:


The entire set wraps around in a circle, so walking down for long enough takes you to the up and vise versa. Each of the 13 valves links to one of the Valve Chambers. Of these 13 valve chambers, 1 is a single room containing the Eternal Flame, and the other 12 lead to 3 room chambers that contain the Fleshpots, Gaudiguch's supermobs. Entering and exiting the valves requires and consumes balance, just as the pillars and pits of Celestia and Nil do.


Problem 1: Vortex Falls All Looks the Same.

Each room of Vortex Falls looks the same, from the room description, to the long description to the contents. The only "unique" room is the one containing the antennae and that doesn't look any different on scry, scent or thirdeye. This is an issue for the defenders because, from the Eternal Flame, the only information we can get is "Are the enemies directly out the valve from the Flame chamber or not?" and "Have the enemies melded yet?", whereas on Celestia, Nil, or Continuum, one can get a position on the enemy and information on at least 2 rooms that the enemy could be in.

Solution 1A: Make each room of Vortex Falls look distinct, each having a unique short name for the room, as per the other cosmic planes. A simple, unambigous solution, but one requiring alot of design effort.


Problem 2: The Antennae is Poorly Located.

The Antennae (the object which connects to the cosmic transport/discretionaries construct for Gaudiguch) are located in Vortex falls which is, for the reasons described in Problem 4, a very bad location for defenders to enter into when arriving to defend. While it is true that the constructs for the other cosmic planes also send defenders into unprotected regions, all of those locations are either at break points (Magnagora), directly next to a Nexus (Celest) or next to a Supermob (Hallifax).

Solution 2A: Move the Antennae into one of the Valve Chambers. It's not terribly important which chamber it goes to, and I would personally recomend Augorum for purely flavour reasons.
Solution 2B: Move the Antennae to the room on Vortex Falls directly outside the Eternal Flame. This allows instant transportation to that room that can only be disrupted by traps.
Solution 2C: Move the Antennae to the Aetherport. This is the only universal breakpoint for Vortex Falls and, as such, is the last reasonable location to put them.


Problem 3: The Valves Favour the Attacker

Because the valves require and consume balance, those using them are always off balance as soon as they enter Vortex Falls, and, since the attackers will generally set up in Vortex Falls, rather than hiding out in a Valve Chamber, this favours the offense, rather than the defense. Additionally, the valves prevent ranged attacks, such as croak, staffcast, beckon, transmology sing, etc. and cannot be sealed off using walls, all of which will typically benefit the attackers rather than the defenders. The sole benefit to this arrangement is that it prevents enemies from melding the Valve Chambers and thereby further fortifying Vortex Falls.

Solution 3A: Change all valves on Vortex to in/out exits. This is the simplist and, in my opinion, the best solution to this problem.
Solution 3B: Change Vortex's layout to neutralize the advantage these facts give to either side. This is difficult and should only be considered if the change in layout itself is also advisable by its own merits.


Problem 4: Vortex Falls Favours Enemy Melds.

Because Vortex Falls forms a circle with only 2 exits to a room it is basically the ideal place to establish a meld in, beacuse the geography allows only 2 breakpoints in order to cover any segment of the falls, and the two breakpoints will be as far away from the Flame as is possible, requiring the defenders to charge through the meld to get to the breakpoint. Thus, Gaudiguch is faced with the unreasonable requirement of moving through up to 12 rooms of demense without loosing members to attacks, group-splitting tactics or other effects and then breaking a room quickly and effectively before they can even begin to clear the meld and retake the plane.

Solution 4A: Move the Eternal Flame onto Vortex Falls. This would make it so that the Eternal Flame is connected to Vortex Falls by a pair of up/down exits, and is not in a seperate valve chamber at all. Unless Solution 3A is also implimented, this would make defending Vortex too easy, as it puts the breakpoints 1 room away from the Flame. With Solution 3A, they would be 3 rooms away, through a meld, which is in line with other cosmic planes.
Solution 4B: Move the Eternal Flame to the center of Vortex Falls. This solution would give the Eternal Flame exits leading off into various rooms on Vortex Falls, rather than only being able to access one room of the Falls. This also makes the meld much, much easier to break, as breaking can begin from any of the exits at the Flame.
Solution 4C: Move the Eternal Flame to the center of the Valve Chambers. This solution is similar to 4B in that it has similar effects stategically, but it is tactically different in that it still requires movement into and out of the Valve Chambers to attack the Vortex Falls meld.

For either of Solutions 4B or 4C, either a few fleshpot chambers can be chosen for thematic or other reasons and these be always accessable from the Flame, or a random aspect can be introduced, by simply creating an object that moves about ala the cave and whirlpools on Earth and Water while allowing two way movement between the locations.
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Please discuss the options, propose new ones, or generally comment on the topic of defending Vortex. Please try not to get side-tracked into discussions about specific skills or tactics by either side, unless these tactics are directly effecting or the result of the geography of the plane itself. So, no complaining about "Balestone is OP" or "Gaudiguch just sucks." in this thread.

My personal vote is 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A respectively. That's why they're first.

What about making the Vortex-Defense construct also make it so that for gaudis, entering valves doesn't consume balance/EQ?

That being said, trying to break a meld in the Falls (coming from the Flame) is nigh-impossible, so some help there would probably also be... helpful.

The administration has expressed an intrest in making it so that no construct is a "must have" and, if that change was made, the vortex construct would definately be a "must have" compared to our other ones. Not that it would actually fix the issue, mind, but it would not fix the issue in a way that breaks something else as well.

Yeah I think if Vortex was a bit more unique we could tell where they are a bit better, using scent for example shows enemies of where they are but it looks like everyone is in the same room. As for removing balance in the valve I think is a great idea for Gaudiguchian's only that way we can have time to break the meld without getting trounced. In short , I like the way it is currently but if there was a way around the consuming balance issue I think would make defending go more smoothly.

Make the valve construct the one that is on level with the commune altars and comparable city constructs. While not really necessary, they are damn useful as would be the valve thing. Even just having a reduced balance time would be nice. One thing to note is that if you travel in a group, only the person who actually went through should lose balance, so it's only a killing thing if you are rushing to defend one on one.

I would like to reinterate that making the valves take less balance, or even not take balance at all would not fix the problem. It wouldn't even come close to fixing the problem. Problems 1, 2 and 4 along with the ranged attack and walling aspects of problem 3 would still exist. The issue that Gaudis are off balance when they first charge into the middle hostile meld with no information about enemy positions is a very very minor problem compared to all of those other problems. And just fixing that isn't going to do anything.

LOOK THROUGH VALVE.

Valve problem solved. Now can we stop worrying about the f---ing valves and move onto the other problems?

It seems like you can already do that.
look through valve
You look through a valve:
The Vortex Falls.
Throughout the location, small dancing flames flicker and spark. The Vortex Falls crash down from
above here in an endless cascade of half-congealed, flesh-tone liquid, occasionally spewing gooey
globs of half-formed skin and flesh which slap audibly against the flesh-formed body of the cliff.
Ripped malformed skin, organs, flesh and miscellaneous, clear fluid line the walkway, carved
mercilessly away from the natural flesh that makes the Vortex, leading up and down the Falls.
Grotesque, unnatural flora and fauna wreathed from skin sprout happily in random places along the
flesh, adding a sense of life to this bizarre environ. An orb of blazing aether shifts and turns
continuously as it hovers above a plain granite pedestal. Flush against the wall is a valve that
breathes in and out.
You see exits leading up, down, and through a valve.

That was, in fact, his point.

Excerpt that it doesn't solve the range issue. I can't staff through a valve. Or can I? hmm.

You cannot.

That would be an easy change no? Just make it so you can do adjacent attacks through a valve instead of changing the whole plane.

Uh. Easy to state. To code, you'd have to rewrite how ranged attacks work entirely, I imagine.

That still doesn't solve the main problem that enemy melds on Vortex are practically impossible to break by defenders.

Edit: Also, if you can staff through valves, they can staff through valves too.

Or make them in/out exits, as suggested by Iytha... Somewhere, in that post.

I must of set up the meld wrong then because I can break it right outside.

Mind the gap.

IE, you need to leave a hole in your meld, so it can only be broken in two places. Then you pick those two places. Keep them far away from any readily accessible valve.

Ah hey thanks, it worked.

So is the only solution is to move rooms?

That's one of the many solutions raised by Iytha in the very first post.