Ascension Rules

edited January 2013 in Common Grounds
So, Ascension is upon us once again, and excitement boils over for old and newcomers alike for the potential to participate in this annual event. To stave off the inevitable tide of questions asking what is or is not possible, fair, or legal during the competitions and Ascension itself, I've compiled the following from the old forums from the Admin on high such as Estarra and Iosai:
  • There will be no shrine powers on astral during Ascension.
  • You must stay on astral and on the ground elevation to hold the scepter. You also must be alive, conscious (unconsciousness is different from asleep in this instance), not be under grace, and remain in phase (not out of phase or ghosted, etc.) Also, if you are not at an astral node, you will eventually lose the scepter.
  • Likewise the rules go for the Chaos hamster of the Chaos competition, except it is held on prime and the rooms must be outdoors.
  • Glamours Maze is disabled upon the holders of the Staff of Ascension and the Chaos hamster.
  • Curing insanity is disabled for Ascension and Chaos games, including Darkchant Truth and Healing Insanity.
  • The Staff of Ascension and the Chaos hamster prevent a majority (if not all) forced elevation changes such as Raise Cudgel, Telekinesis Fling, Aeromancy Raise Staff, Crow Hoist, Totems Seize, and Ecology ValleySmudge.
  • Magical movement and distance movement causes the Chaos hamster to be lost. Therefore, Teleport, pathways, snort spores, etc. are not available if one wants to hold onto that purple hamster. This is not true for the Staff of Ascension.
  • Justice has its own select set of rules as well, including what is allowed and not allowed:
  • Allowed: influence/dramatics skillsets, general healing (bromides, sparkleberry, etc), tradeskill items or abilities (including Enchantment, Tinkering, etc), and any preparatory or permanent buffs (karma blessings, racial benefits, etc.) acquired before your debate.
  • Disallowed: any activated abilities outside the skillsets allowed above (Roulade, Laetitia, etc.), passive ego regeneration from skills outside the skillsets allowed previously (Presence, Penumbra, etc), any action or skill that fully refreshes you (refresh, trueheal, etc), shrine abilities, and beasts.

What needs clarification still, however are things like the following and whatever else gets drawn up by this thread:
  • While it suddenly happened in the five minutes leading to Chaos last year, are all non-org based statues being deactivated again? Also, does that shrine rule apply for Chaos too, or just Ascension?
    • Yes, all non-org territory statues will be turned off for Chaos.
  • Would giving the Staff or hamster to a dirigible to deliver it cause the artifact to be repopped, or will this delivery be considered fine rather than handing it off?
    • No, you cannot give the Chaos Hamster or Staff of Ascension to a dirigible or delivery item.
  • Is that magical movement rule going to apply for the Staff of Ascension as it does for the Chaos hamster?

Lastly, as an aside, it'd be appreciated if a few other things were considered by the Admin for this year's events:
  • Institute a 200 word limit for Beauty submissions. As is, it is common practice for people to look at the past winners and notice that they're all painfully verbose things. This just encourages even bigger submissions that I feel could be addressed to encourage new designers to convey an idea in a better written manner rather than whipping out their thesaurus and seeing how many variations of 'drape' they can use. Also, I would imagine, it would help the Beauty judges with less eye strain.
  • With all the new mini-games introduced these past few years, Vengeance and Psychodrama among them, I would not mind the standard competitions changing from the current state from time to time.
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Comments

  • RiviusRivius Your resident wolf puppy
    edited January 2013
    Can we please disable shrines for all prime events, including nature, life and harmony?

    Also, I think last year they said using dirigibles and so forth was bug abuse.
  • ShuyinShuyin The pug life chose me.
    Actually with the way gravity is now, it really should be minimal impact, if any.

    But I don't mind.
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  • CyndarinCyndarin used Flamethrower! It was super effective.
    Are fleshstone, bubble, displacement and the like disabled like maze is? Probably should be.

    I see no argument for disabling shrines for all events. I would love for them to be disabled during my raids, but alas, wanting is not the same as needing. Turning them off for Ascension is fine, it's spammy and laggy enough without running from invasion mobs and getting chewed up by wrath.
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  • CyndarinCyndarin used Flamethrower! It was super effective.
    Oh, and the War Seal has a slew of rules of its own. I know there have been several DQs because they like to surprise rule change. Like no interference. I've seen some War seals turn into circuses because of all the whining and rule flip flopping.

    Death also has a few, like no farming domoths.
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  • ShuyinShuyin The pug life chose me.
    Should probably figure out a good round-robin method for justice debates and war tournaments too, just so we don't run into the complaining about one team getting multiple tries to place and another team getting less.
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  • edited January 2013
    I think that the War competition having four rounds to qualify is probably the smoothest way that tier competition could be handled. Why the Anniversary war competition (which stands out, to me, as the biggest headache concerning war tiers) wasn't suggested to be handled in that manner escapes me, but with four rounds for a team to qualify for the semi-finals, that always gives us an even number to progress with.

    And really, the only other War rule that stands out to me indeed that I forgot to add in was the no interfering bit. If two teams are already initiating, a third team getting involved disqualifies the third team if it were done on purpose. This would include, but is not limited to: summoning a member of either of the first two teams, spring chaining that member to a gank, etc.

    Now, Justice progression is the confusing bit. People start counting how many times they've won and lost compared to someone who progressed further yet lost more gets everyone upset at the end, unless it were just straightforward handled as single elimination.

    Oh, and the blip about no farming domoth critters for Death also stands true. I'd toss those on, but no editing anymore!
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  • CyndarinCyndarin used Flamethrower! It was super effective.
    Actually, the war rule is so broad that it's risky to even have a meld/traps with anyone enemied before you are engaging. Teams have been disqualified for people walking into a pit 5 rooms away.
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  • Also, because apparently it wasn't obvious enough, no sending supplies to people already in the arena. Bad things will happen to you.

    Diagnosing people in the arena and relaying that information to your friends who are fighting is not something that people should do. Hard to police but just don't do it.

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  • If @Estarra or @Iosai could clarify some of the questions raised up there, I'd appreciate it, please!
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  • Unconciousness should not drop the hamster. Why are we encouraging starvation?

    If you are unconcious you can die, there is no reason to auto drop it I can think of. What abuse does that open?
  • Agreed with Malarious, why does unconciousness drop the hamster?
  • During my Ascension, we were told not to use dirigibles/pets/etc. to move the Staff.
  • I really like the idea of a word limit on Beauty submissions!  Make this happen!  Would make things a lot more interesting if we didn't have to worry about making a submission that takes up an entire word document page
  • I, too, like it a lot. Would really appreciate if @Estarra or @Iosai or one of the other admins could confirm some of these things though!
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  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    edited January 2013
    Whoa, whoa. I have a really intricately done throne that I already plan on submitting, and it's long. Nix on the Beauty Seal idea.


    Edit: Having checked the design, the examined is 283 words according to an online word-count checker, and 1600ish characters. I'm not sure why the word count is even important in Beauty Seal designs, or why this rule would be added.
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • In the past extremely verbose designs have shown more than an tendency to win. It's happened with enough frequency that designers have chosen to completely avoid concise or understated designs as entries to the beauty seal contest because there is a feeling that if your description isn't really, really verbose then you are wasting an entry.

    I don't think there should be a word or character limit. The problem really has more to do with the criteria and methods used by the actual judges. Past contests would suggest that the judges (whoever they are) tend to favor intricacy and great detail, deciding that these are more beautiful. The more details in your design, the more chances you have to wow the judge with the concept you've imagined, your wording, and leave a lasting impression for when it comes time to vote.

    In comparison, an absolute genius design that is only five sentences long, which conveys an incredible sense of imagination and awesomeness, might seem plain because there appears to be less detail (sometimes where the reader should do some extrapolation, beauty is in the eye of the beholder etc.) No matter how awesome, this five sentence entry is probably going to seem half-assed next to this 2000 word essay describing a tapestry.
  • CyndarinCyndarin used Flamethrower! It was super effective.

    The beauty seal is so objective and vague it's hard to put any sort of limitations or rules on it. Personally, I think "beauty" is a misnomer, and should be called "creativity seal," because while beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, mashed potato Mt Avechna or tapioca Hallifax are more "creative" than resembling any sort of beauty.

     

    I say to say this, some people need to length to communicate an idea. Describing something's beauty can be simple, explaining a unique or creative idea can get wordy.

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  • CyndarinCyndarin used Flamethrower! It was super effective.
    That being said, I've seen items place that look like a thesaurus vomited all over them.
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  • Wow, that's a big list of rules...
  • EnyalidaEnyalida Nasty Woman, Sockpuppeteer to the Gods
    Rubric, public rubric. Easiest way to limit stuff like absurdly wordy entries without flat banning them. You still have space for subjective beauty, but you also can explain to someone else what it is that made something a better choice for you, without resorting to direct comparisons. This may already be how it's done 'upstairs', but who knows!
  • Disable Kiwi Punch and Clover for Death.

    Disallow Godrealms for Harmony.
    Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    Disallowing godrealms for Harmony would be a nice touch.
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  • NochtNocht Glomdoring
    Enyalida said:
    Rubric, public rubric. Easiest way to limit stuff like absurdly wordy entries without flat banning them. You still have space for subjective beauty, but you also can explain to someone else what it is that made something a better choice for you, without resorting to direct comparisons. This may already be how it's done 'upstairs', but who knows!
    The admin in charge of it collects the submitted designs and then presents them to the rest of us without any information about the designer/cartel. We submit our votes to that admin who then tallies it all up. That's all there is to it!

    There are no guidelines or rubric to our voting. In the end it comes down to what we each like. So don't stress about word counts or things like that. Have fun and create a design you're proud of! 
  • Now that HELP ASCENSION RULES is up and active, I'm still curious about things!

    Namely, are Death and the like free PK like Chaos is?
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  • http://www.lusternia.com/game/helpview/lusternia?what=ascension+rules&x=Help

    The various rules have been compiled by the gods running the events, and we've posted them in an in-game helpfile (web version link is above).

    If you've questions, post them here, and the various gods can answer them/have the helpfile updated/have someone else answer them/cruelly ignore you so we can laugh raucously when you break the invisible rules and shrub you for it.
  • edited January 2013
    I think there is a typo in justice:
    We are ALLOWED to use refresh, trueheal, penumbra etc?  These were all banned, for good reason. The event is supposed to be just and fair!

    Nothing in justice actually says "not allowed". So I think they forgot that. I can see the line where things from last year were banned.
    + Any activated abilities from skillsets not listed above (roulade, laetitia,     etc).
    From there and down should be banned.

    I agree, godrealm mobs should be off limits for harmony.

    Also, will we be allowed to share hamsters again this year? Previous years there have been abuses to share them via heartstop for instance.  This has been issued and said nothing was wrong, so I wanted to check if we are allowed to share in a no sharing event if we can find a way it lets us do so.
  • edited January 2013
    Godrealms are allowed for Harmony.

    You cannot share hamsters. If you die, your hamsters will disappear. No sharing means no sharing, please don't try to get around that.

  • ShuyinShuyin The pug life chose me.
    It would be dumb if Death and Chaos weren't free pk, then no one would kill each other without getting Avengered, not very Chaos or Deathlike.
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  • There was an editing error prior to its posting for the Justice rules, which has been fixed.
  • ShuyinShuyin The pug life chose me.
    I also think that it's hilarious that Chaos has the most rules.
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