Agree with Rika mostly. I'd personally prefer shrine powers be removed entirely along with exalt powers.

Veneration skillset is more focused on RP with rather limited benefit in PVP, which is nice.

Enyalida:

@Calixa IMO, they fixed a LOT of that particular problem by introducing tiers to the great hunt-type events. That makes things way way easier (like, it enables them to do it, period) for newbies to participate in big events.

Responding to four pages ago because my net was down a good while :P

Anyway, I <3 the admins for things like this. My gripe seems to be that there is no iteration on improvements, or they are deemed OK when I personally feel they could do with a bit more polishing. Take this for example. Tiers were an absolutely amazing idea ... except, every goddamn time there is someone who uses heartstop or crotamine to downlevel and snatch up one of the first places on the newbie or middle tier. And ther're allowed to get away with that. It really feels like two steps forwards and then one backwards so you're going at a frustratingly low pace. And to me it sets an impression of being afraid of excellence. And while this is actually an existing fear, I don't think Estarra or anyone else making the final calls suffers from this. So it really puzzles me :s

Calixa:


Responding to four pages ago because my net was down a good while :P

Anyway, I <3 the admins for things like this. My gripe seems to be that there is no iteration on improvements, or they are deemed OK when I personally feel they could do with a bit more polishing. Take this for example. Tiers were an absolutely amazing idea ... except, every goddamn time there is someone who uses heartstop or crotamine to downlevel and snatch up one of the first places on the newbie or middle tier. And ther're allowed to get away with that. It really feels like two steps forwards and then one backwards so you're going at a frustratingly low pace. And to me it sets an impression of being afraid of excellence. And while this is actually an existing fear, I don't think Estarra or anyone else making the final calls suffers from this. So it really puzzles me :s

Should be a way to monitor something like this and if they see that during a great hunt someone has deliberately suicided repeatedly to downlevel and snag first place in a lower bracket then they are disqualified and each of the legitimate placings are bumped up one to accomodate (2nd becomes 1st and so on)

Where are all these crazy $$$ numbers coming from that "need to be invested" in order that combat is viable? There are many, many ways to get all needed skills and artifacts without investing in cash.

My character is pretty much omni and has a few nice artifacts. Real cash investment? $5.

Kagato:


Should be a way to monitor something like this and if they see that during a great hunt someone has deliberately suicided repeatedly to downlevel and snag first place in a lower bracket then they are disqualified and each of the legitimate placings are bumped up one to accomodate (2nd becomes 1st and so on)

The issue with that is someone who rolls a newbie can easily level out of the first bracket if they seriously hunt - so either they must stop hunting, or they have to compete with people of a much higher level (who kill much faster due to crits, etc).
I've never seen someone who really 'belongs' in a tier kill themselves down into a lower one just to compete (ie people generally end in the same tier they began in, or higher).

I'm fairly new and reasonably hooked. I've never felt barred from accessing any aspect of gameplay I've wanted to. I wish I had a regular $ income right now but I've never felt it's held me back.

I agree some new players feel deflated thinking they can't contribute enough. Luckily Glom is pretty inclusive of anyone that wishes to participate in anything.

Draylor:

Where are all these crazy $$$ numbers coming from that "need to be invested" in order that combat is viable? There are many, many ways to get all needed skills and artifacts without investing in cash.

My character is pretty much omni and has a few nice artifacts. Real cash investment? $5.

Yeah but you sell a reflex program on another one of the IRE games, plus you have the know-how to do custom commissions for Mudlet scripts - I saw you advertising your services for a nominal credit fee in another thread. Not many of us have the time or capability to learn how to code those sorts of things, which is often why we are stuck buying them from people that DO know how to make them (an added credit requirement. And the creators of a lot of them don't accept gold either. It HAS to be credits or paypal. Thankfully city reflex programs soften the blow in that respect.)

My point is: It's doable. Regardless of what you do. Whether it be coding, designing, shopkeeping. Anything.

Eventru:


The issue with that is someone who rolls a newbie can easily level out of the first bracket if they seriously hunt - so either they must stop hunting, or they have to compete with people of a much higher level (who kill much faster due to crits, etc).
I've never seen someone who really 'belongs' in a tier kill themselves down into a lower one just to compete (ie people generally end in the same tier they began in, or higher).

Which rewards people who meta and spend all their time punching rats (or said suiciding), to take advantage of the mechanics bumping anyone actually seriously participating in that teir up to the next tier by the end of the hunt. I really wish the greathunt teirs would base it on what tier you -start- the hunt in, not where you finish.

Eventru:


The issue with that is someone who rolls a newbie can easily level out of the first bracket if they seriously hunt - so either they must stop hunting, or they have to compete with people of a much higher level (who kill much faster due to crits, etc).
I've never seen someone who really 'belongs' in a tier kill themselves down into a lower one just to compete (ie people generally end in the same tier they began in, or higher).

Meh, the data ingame is broken, but the winner of the 1-60 tier of last greathunt did it. It was mentioned on the Facebook group as well as was issued (not by me). It's been done before, alas I didn't issue that, so that's my fault.

The response to the issue was essentially, as I read, 'That's fine'.

(peaced revolts)

Debating, and the entire concept of revolts in general, is PvP.

Shikari:
I'm surprised that you say this, because the prevailing complaint among the playerbase at this time is that the divine aren't involved enough. The divine conflict is a huge part of Lusternia's history that translates seamlessly into the game conflict now. It makes little sense for a Serenwilder to follow Viravain or Nocht, whose ideologies are opposite that of Serenwilde's (and of Serenwilde's pantheon). I, for one, would love to butt heads with Charune one day.

Now this is what I disagree with. Who is to say that the person likes Viravain (and for this we can say the people in the order), but completely hates the rest of the people in Glomdoring? Or maybe they just agree with the views of X order but also agree with X views of an opposing org. (given there is bound to be some conflicts but still).

One of the reasons I went to Hallifax when it first came out (this should be just before Affinity was released) is that I enjoyed the concept of the city and its RP, and yet I still agreed with most of the teachings of Viravain. but the moment that Affinity was costing me around 20k (and was only giving Talan, the OH, 1k) a month, there was some issues. Now its no secret that I don't really offer much, but I have tried writing for the order, but anything I do that become higher in the order is just stopped because I will be costing more. Thus I choose to leave Hallifax (although Affinity wasn't the only reason) because I couldn't stand that I was costing Viravain so much essence myself.

On that note, I do agree that the Divine are not active enough on the religious type font. Shikari has been changing this a bit with the talks given by members of his order.

Hmmm. Maybe introduce a "Training Ground" quest for each org designed for level 30ish characters, a sort of fantasy school style "Final Trial" that introduces players to the basics of curing and sipping while bashing/influencing (something Newton lacks), the basic actions of questing (how to ask for information, how to examine items, ect.), and the central lore of their org. Preferably, this quest should be saved per character in steps, though each step should eventuallly reset. I recommend a large pile of lessons as a one time reward from it (like the Wayfaire dingbats), with a small pile of gold on every completion, as well as an honours line ("He/she has completed the , proving his/her worth to the people of ").

This will help teach new players basic skills nessicary to play, give them sufficient lessons to feel competant early on, indoctrinate them into their org, and give them a sense of independance.

Kagato:


Yeah but you sell a reflex program on another one of the IRE games, plus you have the know-how to do custom commissions for Mudlet scripts - I saw you advertising your services for a nominal credit fee in another thread. Not many of us have the time or capability to learn how to code those sorts of things, which is often why we are stuck buying them from people that DO know how to make them (an added credit requirement. And the creators of a lot of them don't accept gold either. It HAS to be credits or paypal. Thankfully city reflex programs soften the blow in that respect.)

I've got a bunch to say about a bunch on this thread, and will get to that later (when I'm not also eating) but I do agree that there are ways to slowly rack up credits without coding expertise or $$$. My first character I rolled entered the bardic within a week after being created and won second place (And oodles of credits for a starting character). I seriously had no idea such a thing existed until someone mentioned it and I entered last minute!

On the divine thing, my main complaint is a combination of both statements.

No, I'm pretty sure the majority of complaints about Orders (affinity aside) is that they are -too involved- with combat. Instead of being a cool religious thing that's separate from the day to day fighting that pretty much everything else in the game is about anyway, many people see them as nothing more than another weapon to be used.

Really, I agree. We've really got the political intrigue and combat aspects of things pretty much down on the player side, and generally a god showing up (seemingly) merely to stir the pot on either issue isn't something that will be received well.

I was alluding specifically to complaints about divine not being around for general interaction/RP/helping out/feeling good.

This also. Though I understand he's a busy guy and presumably has his own in-order stuff going on, I was pretty miffed when my prayers to Hoaracle during the dream/ice devils event, trying to set up a light/casual RP relationship between the dreaming, dreamweaving, and a dream-based event were ignored.

As a side note: I personally would love to see conflict quests done again, I always found them the better quests in the game.

Ayisdra:

As a side note: I personally would love to see conflict quests done again, I always found them the better quests in the game.

Problem is, if conflict quests have major repercussions, they turn into a double-lose situation, and if they have small repercussions, nobody bothers doing them.

foolofsound:

Problem is, if conflict quests have major repercussions, they turn into a double-lose situation, and if they have small repercussions, nobody bothers doing them.

How is it a double-lose? One side wins, the other loses.

Ayisdra:

How is it a double-lose? One side wins, the other loses.

Because that isn't what double-lose means. That's lose-lose. Double-lose means that, as a consequence of losing, the losing side now is disadvantaged in further conflict, leading to lose again, and again.

I delete my off topic post and replace it with my shocked expression in response to Phoebus's claim that she likes debates.