Best Of
Re: Are you there, Gods? It's me, Ollie
[We're back at it again, this time chatting at @Shikari - I'm probably more long-winded than He cares for but it's fine, everything's fine.]
The Fulcrux of Shikari.
The Fulcrux of Shikari.
Darkness enfolds the edges of this cave-like area, surrounding a roaring campfire with which it fights a constant battle for territory, its misty black tendrils darting inwards only to be banished once more by a flicker of flame. Around the fire, bleached bones and dessicated corpses of strange beasts and long-dead mortals are pushed towards the edges of the light as if in silent offering to the darkness. Perhaps it is only an illusion, but an eerie sense of something moving and watching from within the black depths is constantly present, its threat a palpable presence in the room. The orange tongues of a crackling fire dance eerily here within a circle of rocks and blackened bone. A pool of pure blackness sits in the centre of a rough rock cradle. An adolescent worg with elegant black wings is here, gazing about curiously.
Softly, you say, "Dark Tidings to You, Lord Predator. I know that You are... wandering, but I wanted to say hello."
You think to yourself: .... Comfort...
You tilt your head back and look up at the sky.
You close your eyes and inhale deeply, absorbing the scent of your surroundings.
You let loose a long breath from your lungs, exhaling slowly.
You think to yourself: .... Comfort...
Dipping into a low curtsey, Olethea toys with the material of her skirt, before she lifts her gaze to the fire. "I... wanted to introduce myself. Ahm... I've been spending a lot of time in the Proving Grounds, as of late." She scratches her cheek, lightly. "I can't really explain why I like them, but I do."
You say, "Um.. my name is Olethea. I live in the Glomdoring now, though it took some time to find my way there. It's been some time since I was in a position of formal worship, so... I hope I do not disappoint."
Softly, you say, "I'd really like to meet You someday. Fang Xenthos doesn't speak much, but his tone when he refers to You is.. wistful, and fond. In a very straightforward and blunt sort of way. He told me it didn't matter I'm not the best at killing, as long as I'm decisive..."
You run a hand through your cascading, fiery red curls, stroking the tresses and tucking a lock back into place.
You say, "The truth is, I'm still figuring out what I want, my life has been a series of assumptions proven wrong, time and time again, and I was hoping that being part of Your pack could help with direction, with purpose. Every time I thought I knew what I'd wanted in the past, someone seemed determined to prove me wrong."
You tilt your head back and look up at the sky.
You ask, "...Do Gods have answers, really? Is that something You can do? Or is all that we can ask of You a compass bearing while we draw our own maps?"
You close your eyes and inhale deeply, absorbing the scent of your surroundings.
You let loose a long breath from your lungs, exhaling slowly.
Softly, you say, "But I do like that You at least seem to... understand. You seem much less far away, much less insubstantial ... I don't actually know what I'm talking about, if I'm going to be honest with You. I just grew attached to Your realm, enough that I wanted to learn more about You."
You think to yourself: .... Questions .....
You think to yourself: .... Questions .....
You say, "I still don't know what Divine like. I asked the Lord Silence, once, You know, but He wound up being Quiet on the subject. I suppose that's to be expected, though. I can't expect something to be handed to me just because I've asked."
Olethea chuckles faintly, tilting her head to one side. "And I suppose that is His Name."
You run a hand through your cascading, fiery red curls, stroking the tresses and tucking a lock back into place.
You say, "I will do my best to learn well, Lord Predator. It is not as grand a goal as I might have aspired in the past, but it is one that I am confident I can accomplish. And maybe right now... that's the point."
You say, "I will try to grow so that when You return to the Glomdoring, I can meet You as someone who actually knows who she is."
You curtsey gracefully.
You say, "Safe travels, my Lord."
You curtsey gracefully.
You say, "Safe travels, my Lord."
You wade into a pool, and slowly sink within its depths, before surfacing from an identical pool in another place, gasping for air.
Olethea
8
Re: Ascension - Wyrdenwood, Lag, Bragging Rights.
I had a serious moment of panic about midway through when my gust attempts on Choros went through a good five minutes after I had entered them and he was safely back with the group. Thankfully it didn't wreck anything, but it had a real risk to.Dys said:That lag in the second half was really frustrating. Worse than I remember seeing in previous Ascensions. At one point I was killed and couldn't reincarnate for nearly three minutes. Even after I turned off my system (which wasn't trying to do anything anyway as it clears when I die) the game was spamming me with 'You are dead and cannot do that.'
Jaspet
1
Re: Ascension - Wyrdenwood, Lag, Bragging Rights.
I think what most people are saying is, if not for lag they would have been able to counter the bombs. But with lag, any sort of set and forget powers that hit multiple people for massive damage from a distance that get through with people unable to react are going to be incredibly powerful, and bombs are a powerful less-than-10-second ability that can get through and hit multiple people at once while they helplessly stare at their screen, hoping the command they entered 5 minutes ago will send - let alone react in a timely manner. Logging out and restarting every 10 minutes shouldn't be necessary to hopefully have a few minutes where commands go through. Where's the real competition in that? Where is the victory?
People know how to counter the bombs/protect themselves/stay alive. They didn't lose to these powers by being poor players or less skilled or by making tactical mistakes, and that is what really stings. Being told to just get better for next year is a really big kick in the face. No one says the other side didn't also work hard and plan and try hard and spend credits (everyone did!), and it seems no matter the outcome, it was going to be unfair because ultimately lag won the day. Anyone who poured their heart into it would be (and a lot clearly are) upset with being unable to play and perhaps everyone saying prettily to get good or maybe you should have envoyed should consider how they would feel if the outcome wasn't in their favour.
Maybe if there had been no lag, Choros would still be triumphant, and I truly believe most (most, not all, most) would still be satisfied knowing they tried their utmost best and gave it their all and were just unfortunately outplayed, as opposed to what ultimately happened. I think we all need to look beyond 'they are just being sore losers'.
People know how to counter the bombs/protect themselves/stay alive. They didn't lose to these powers by being poor players or less skilled or by making tactical mistakes, and that is what really stings. Being told to just get better for next year is a really big kick in the face. No one says the other side didn't also work hard and plan and try hard and spend credits (everyone did!), and it seems no matter the outcome, it was going to be unfair because ultimately lag won the day. Anyone who poured their heart into it would be (and a lot clearly are) upset with being unable to play and perhaps everyone saying prettily to get good or maybe you should have envoyed should consider how they would feel if the outcome wasn't in their favour.
Maybe if there had been no lag, Choros would still be triumphant, and I truly believe most (most, not all, most) would still be satisfied knowing they tried their utmost best and gave it their all and were just unfortunately outplayed, as opposed to what ultimately happened. I think we all need to look beyond 'they are just being sore losers'.
Sapphira
7
Re: QUOTES 8: THE QUOTING
The sort that are on a specific variety of payroll.Daraius said:What kind of High Supreme Justice just hands over an execution order without trial or anything?
Jolanthe
3
Re: Lusternian AMA
I think this is just part of the struggle of trying to leave enough room for things to be "wyrden" as well, which I am sure is a difficult area for admin to grapple with between the forests and how fae are dealt with.Lief said:Definitely agree there. It might seem like there's more obviously a place for trickery in Glomdoring, but we've got plenty of room for something a shade darker in Serenwilde as well imagery-wise, with how the moon is constantly shifting her face.Uzriel said:Don't actually live in the forests so not really my org's roleplay (and I assume this is more a Serenwilde thing than a Glomdoring thing), but one lore thing that bothers me is that the fae generally seem to lean much more heavily on the silly whimsical side - at least from what I've seen. I would love to see them a bit closer to the real life stories that have inspired them. Amoral while not not necessarily being malevolent, its just don't really care if their pranks happen to hurt people along the way, but with a love for deals and trickery.
Jolanthe
1
Re: Lusternian AMA
If it's any consolation, I think Serenwilde suffers a similar fate in this regard. And I don't just mean by the presence of spirits and cairns, mind! There are entire chains of storyline dedicated to Serenwilde's failures and one in particular where the whole of that storyline was amnesia dust'd away because it was apparently too awful/shameful to remember? And then, of course, that whole forgetting of the business just comes back to bite Serenwilde in the ass later.Misericorde said:Time to be Controversial on Main...I also lowkey dislike that the org is New Celest instead of having an original name. It always feels like as a result of the naming convention the org is constantly on the apology for whatever happened in the past, and it feels like everything is a memorial as a result. Every time we get a new memorial or preservation garden or statue to the dead I quietly cry a little inside. I don't want to live in a graveyard
Serenwilde historically feels very impotent.
Jolanthe
3
Re: Ascension - Wyrdenwood, Lag, Bragging Rights.
Of course our side of things would be mad if we'd lost. Losing sucks, and sucks even more when there are elements out of your control which fundamentally alter the nature of the contest. The lag was absolutely infuriating and it is impossible to know how things would have gone were it different. We can speculate all we want, but unfortunately we will simply never know. I was one of the people suffering from multi minute lag bursts (it seems like some of us maybe got it worse, but maybe not?).
Precision was out of the question in this event. The lag was unlike anything I've experienced in past ascensions: obviously everyone knew it was going to be rough because it is just the nature of the beast, but something definitely wasn't quite right this year. I literally entered my doom alias half way through and went to make a coffee. I got back before it went through. There are few things more rage inducing in text pk than knowing what you have to do but being unable to do it due to lag.
I'd personally have supported a woodbomb report, but am not an envoy and do not participate in the public discord so have no idea what the discussions here have been.
Congratulations to Parhelion and Ixion for making a fight of it even so.
Precision was out of the question in this event. The lag was unlike anything I've experienced in past ascensions: obviously everyone knew it was going to be rough because it is just the nature of the beast, but something definitely wasn't quite right this year. I literally entered my doom alias half way through and went to make a coffee. I got back before it went through. There are few things more rage inducing in text pk than knowing what you have to do but being unable to do it due to lag.
I'd personally have supported a woodbomb report, but am not an envoy and do not participate in the public discord so have no idea what the discussions here have been.
Congratulations to Parhelion and Ixion for making a fight of it even so.
Tarken
7
Re: Lusternian AMA
Time to be Controversial on Main...
I despise Raziela and feel like she kneecaps New Celest, since all anyone ever interprets her teaching as is 'you have to do no harm because love'. I also lowkey dislike that the org is New Celest instead of having an original name. It always feels like as a result of the naming convention the org is constantly on the apology for whatever happened in the past, and it feels like everything is a memorial as a result. Every time we get a new memorial or preservation garden or statue to the dead I quietly cry a little inside. I don't want to live in a graveyard 
What I do love though are the Saints! I hope we continue to get more information on them and better insight into Unification and what that entails for someone who has achieved it. I also really enjoy the Tide Lords/Ladies (especially Sarye), but wish they had a little more personality overall. I feel like sadly all of the elemental entities kind of all into this category? It feels like they originally had big ideas attached to them that never came to fruition?
Re: Ascension - Wyrdenwood, Lag, Bragging Rights.
That lag in the second half was really frustrating. Worse than I remember seeing in previous Ascensions. At one point I was killed and couldn't reincarnate for nearly three minutes. Even after I turned off my system (which wasn't trying to do anything anyway as it clears when I die) the game was spamming me with 'You are dead and cannot do that.'
It was weird how it wasn't consistent. That time Shango died about a minute after me and reincarnated way before I could get the command through.
I enjoyed the fights in the first half when we could move. A lag of 5s or so actually gave me time to think about what I was doing and shielding against the bombs was ok.
Well done Parhelion (good name) and team, I liked the celebratory lego cake from your child!
I feel bad for Ixion.
It was weird how it wasn't consistent. That time Shango died about a minute after me and reincarnated way before I could get the command through.
I enjoyed the fights in the first half when we could move. A lag of 5s or so actually gave me time to think about what I was doing and shielding against the bombs was ok.
Well done Parhelion (good name) and team, I liked the celebratory lego cake from your child!
I feel bad for Ixion.
Dys
7
Re: Ascension - Wyrdenwood, Lag, Bragging Rights.
Going to chime in briefly to say that players have been aware of issues with wood design since oh... day one of their release, and that none of the major problems have ever been fixed. The classes have *always* been feast or famine with really busted bombs in huge group fights and substantial issues doing anything else but spam. Read the special reports and you'll see reports on such hits as noose and so on.
There have been many reports, pages of analysis written and ignored, and it's one of the reasons I don't play anymore.
There have been many reports, pages of analysis written and ignored, and it's one of the reasons I don't play anymore.
Enya
2
(c) Iron Realms Entertainment 2012.