Best Of

Minkahmet said:

Kethaera said:

Minkahmet said:

Kethaera said:

Innon said:

Synl said:

Hence a combat score suggestion. Tarken has combat value 5, so you could fight him with 5 people who are value 1. Etc.

Eh, this is literally saying that Tarken is 5 times better than the average person. I think this is really the viewpoint, and if that is the case then we will never be able to agree there is an issue. We will continue to put our heads in the sand, and ignore the dwindling "Halli/Mag/Seren". If only we would be positive and git good instead of moving on. The point is Hallifax/Mag/Seren has PvP population issues, so much so that I am ignoring playing my favorite Org because I don't want to further the divide. However, let's ignore the data and continue to allow this side to lose valuable players.  Winning by default is not a win in my books.

You gotta love the idea, though, that not only does our side have 5 people to send against Tarken, but one additional person for each member of Glomdoring or Celest or Gaudiguch that show up, so it'll be "even". I mean... Jesus. If we could do that, there would be no problem at all. It's almost as if one side is entirely divorced from the reality of what being on the other side is like.

Honestly, Innon, I wouldn't worry about the divide at this point. PVP doesn't exist, and no one wants it back.

The way I'm picturing it, is simply that the alliances are technically still doing what has been done throughout Lusternia's history. That is fighting each other's anathemas, the fact of the matter and yes the reality is the lacking of combatants on your end. I could go into some examples of what I mean but it'd be obvious to what I just said. I mean, Avurekhos resurrected his dream IronHart with a twist no? Also, why not consider advertising other mudding friends of yours to get them into Lusternia and play on your team) That'd be a strong suggestion whereas numbers are concerned and I still suggest that there is some encouragement to teach Serenwilders how to contribute to your causes. It's not to say that I am noticing one or two Serens being proactive in your alliance's causes, but that'd be another great boon if competitiveness and gaining ground is concerned. Last thing you'd want to do is put even MORE stress on the admin as I have seen over the years when complaints come up. I'm not saying I didn't contribute, but I don't go running to the forums at every minute's turn about it either. Just look at yourselves and your allies and evaluate what is lacking there as well is all.

Uh, yeah, the combatants on our end gave up after being hopelessly outnumbered 20 times too many, and most of them have fled to other muds/other games. For I while I protested, but it's really not fair for me to do so when logging on is a chore and even when we have some numbers, it won't be enough. The last time I remember being able to batphone successfully was during the last Wildnodes, and yeah... that went as expected. So why should we bother?

As for my other mudding friends, they all play Aetolia, and they're aware that Lusternia has half the numbers and too much forum anger and salt (unless you're trading it for goop of course). I can't convince friends to play a game that I barely enjoy. As it is, I am tired of the suggestions that the problem is just that we suck, that we're negative, or that we just need to try harder to force people to play/pk who don't want to. I'm sorry for the admin, as I think for the most part it isn't their fault, but we keep saying the same things over and over, and getting the same useless suggestions back. Edit: From other players, mostly.

Now, I am no great combatant. I also don't have the time right now to sit and work out strategies and do testing and write code for it, let alone force other people to do it, too. Even if I did, it would mean less time of the only things I still enjoy in this game: Writing and roleplaying with people. And with the increasingly smaller population of willing combatants, I'm supposed to do more of what I don't have time for already to make up for their slack, too? This is literally what 'the snowball effect' means. I can't fix it myself, and neither can anyone else on my side. I don't know what you think you'd even do differently, but I'd love to see evidence that it'd work.

Although it may seem irrelevant to you, even small tricks blossom into the larger scheme of things to work out. Like how Saz and I are able to shut down a few key players on Glomdoring side when we worked together cohesively and figured out it is possible and how to wiggle what throws a crux in their offense and that is all I'm going to say about it. You have to be willing to spend time on your craft and make it work and not be so simple enough to give up at the first death or two. Now if you magnify that same critical thinking with the next person and the next and so on..it'll click and you expand your discoveries to others. That's the Hallifaxian researcher in me giving advice to you and of course, you don't have to take my word or anyone's word for it as they say in Hallifax, but the burden of proof and to discover that will be the ones you'll have to provide. No excuses.

Esoneyuna said:

Innon said:

Batphoning is really only a problem when you are trying to ninja domoth which is literally just avoiding conflict. Imo, that entire mechanic is flawed in such a small population. 

Let's be real. Who is to blame? We are. Alliances are run by players. Every action we take has consequences. Look at Ascension. Malarious literally made it fun and competitive. Yes, we lost, but it was because we lost. Losing is okay. The issue is alliances are too set in stone. There should be more disputes between orgs. Each org on its own will have lulls and weakness (even Glom). Let's be real Gaudi and Celest will never leave Glom's side, but if you truly wanted PvP then split the alliances. Imagine a wild nodes where it was an actual free for all. Honestly, why is Hallifax so cozy with Magnagora? Serenwilde should hate everyone. Celest should want to take it's place as the "rightful" place a king and punish any that step out of line. Magnagora should be wanting to rule us all with an iron fist and cull the weak. Gaudiguch should be a wild card playing by they're own rules. Glom should be focused on spreading the wyrd everywhere. It is the entire basis of the game, but because we want the safe and sure wins we create these 3v3 alliances. 

I would love to see villages where orgs would fight any org. I would like to see wildnodes have nodes ticking at different orgs spheres. This would make it chaotic, fun, and eventful. 

Let's have an understanding between leaders that we keep raids and defenders between 1-2 players between raiders and defenders. I would gladly hang back. I have seen some Glom's do this before too. 

We have an amazing lore. We have a great game. We have taken it and turned it two sides with little org importance.

This is just my opinion though. 

Alliances stem from the fact that if you go at it alone a bigger org will come after you. If Gaudiguch where to go alone at a domoth it would not be just Hallifax coming after them, it would be Hallifax and Magnagora. Likewise if Hallifax goes at it alone a bigger org like Celest would go after them. This results in alliances. The fact alliances are so inflexible has multiple reasons. Since Gaudi is the most recent to actively consider its alliance I'll show you my reasons for not changing alliance:

• Allying with Hallifax would be a mess, we tried this before and phantheon went oh no you don't
• As we were considering post ascension I took cross sections of engagements that were happening, in the majority of those engagements Glomdoring/Celest was at that time outnumbered (do note this was while I was around, I can't speak for other times)
• The neutral route I wanted originally would result in not being able to participate in conflict at all, eg no villages, no domoths, no future timethings, no raiding. The only thing we might be able to do was flares and that is if nobody else showed up. Neutral = get bullied by everyone.

These are my reasons though, I am sure others have other reasons.

Lycidas said:

I mean it's not like the Magnagora of the past stared up into the sky with empty bowls going, "Can I have some more?" People miss that crucial link, Magnagora never made it their goal to be tainted. But instead of just wallowing in self-pity and loathing, they decided to embrace their alterations and run with it, to prove to everyone just how strong they were. It bothers me that Magnagora gets labeled as a city of evil, even by the website's briefing, when the history clearly paints them as survivors of a really unfortunate event.

Anaklusmos said:

Orael said:

One of the goals with timequakes is that because they are random and often, there will be more opportunities to participate as city populations flux throughout the day. This should lead to more situations of having more equitable fights. There will no doubt be ones that favor one side or the other still, but some of them should appear more even.

Haha. This is painfully naive. Batphones still exist (and I'm definitely not against it, as a concept; you can't expect everyone to stay logged in and waiting 24/7). The idea that "okay, Glomdoring has 3 people and Serenwilde has 9, surely Serenwilde can win this," is broken. I'm almost worried that this is what constitutes as balance according to the admin.

Timequakes are just another combat mechanic that is geared towards securing Glomdoring's perpetual topdog position. This will just broaden the gap between Glomdoring and its allies versus the rest of the game. Essentially, implementing this before addressing the discrepancies between skills was a colossal waste of resources, because timequakes will now further add to the already-muddied waters of combat (on top of all the wondercrystal, goop, and all the rest of the cashgrab artifacts that Lusternia has introduced over the years).