This would be a really nice addition. My big wish is for some changes to be made to the games so it's a little new for all participants. Failing that, it would be good for newer players to not automatically be forced to count this year out as just recon for next next ascension. That's a weird lens to view this event through. World ending OMG. Eh, I'll catch the next one.
This would be a really nice addition. My big wish is for some changes to be made to the games so it's a little new for all participants. Failing that, it would be good for newer players to not automatically be forced to count this year out as just recon for next next ascension. That's a weird lens to view this event through. World ending OMG. Eh, I'll catch the next one.
I just wish people weren't so jaded about it. Everyone is just like "Oh yeah, that happens" and it really kills the immersion and excitement.
This would be a really nice addition. My big wish is for some changes to be made to the games so it's a little new for all participants. Failing that, it would be good for newer players to not automatically be forced to count this year out as just recon for next next ascension. That's a weird lens to view this event through. World ending OMG. Eh, I'll catch the next one.
I just wish people weren't so jaded about it. Everyone is just like "Oh yeah, that happens" and it really kills the immersion and excitement.
After 9 years (10 counting this year) of it happening like clockwork, it doesn't really surprise anyone. And its not like the ending is going to be different. Ascension will happen, someone will get TA and Ketheru/Soulless won't break out and things will go back to normal as if none of it really ever happen.
I would love to see something different happen. Maybe the Sealbearers all refuse to empower the Seals and let Ketheru out. Or maybe the Trials don't happen quick enough and he breaks out anyways. Or maybe a Ketheru is sealed, but a bunch of Soulless break out causing chaos and death.
Just something besides "oh, the seals are weak and we need do this we do every time again"
Not all of us have played for a decade, though. This is essentially my first Ascension (I don't remember details from when I last played) and I was excited for the atmosphere of encroaching doom and RP and a big event.
Not all of us have played for a decade, though. This is essentially my first Ascension (I don't remember details from when I last played) and I was excited for the atmosphere of encroaching doom and RP and a big event.
And that may be, but those of us who have played for years, it is a lot less doom than it turns out to be given that short of the Sealbearers saying 'no' that the world won't actually end unless the admin change things up majorly.
To us older players, Ascension is really just what it is, contests every weekend for credits(/chance at TA) and that's about it - no chance of doom, no big event.
Now that would be intensely interesting, if instead of waiting for admin to change, the Sealbearers all collectively decided to not participate in the Final Ascension.
Eh, I think it's fine to have a yearly big competition. The world events tied to it tend to get a little trite, because this is primarily an OOC competition, really, not an IC one. While other events that happen throughout the year may be organically conceived by players and the current crop of volunteers behind the RP gods, this one is not - it's scheduled, and it's set. It's a promise, with a big reward, that comes at a predictable time every year.
It's not an impromptu event, and wasn't designed to be unpredictable in its results. And shouldn't be.
Randomness is desirable to a certain extent in competitions, where there are sometimes fluctuating factors of luck - as long as they aren't too great. But a preparation focused competition is generally speaking more fair and... well, controllable. Having such an event also tends to give players something to plan for, to look forward to, to aim at. A competition that is designed to take place at the top tier of competition in a game is really not a bad thing.
With such events, you generally speaking want the winners to feel good about winning. When they do win, you want them to be able to say, "yes, what I did was right!" If you start messing with the plot and the (predictable) storyline of the world event that is basically a cover for this OOC competition, you start opening that pandora's box of one day the quest reward not being aligned with the OOC reward. If one year, the winning Ascendant does not save the world, or fails to save the world, from Kethuru, and something negative and world-changing happens, it's great for keeping the RP of the game fresh... but may not be so great for the personal RP of the Ascendant.
If one day, a player is made to feel unsatisfied with the way the story turned out, despite winning the competition, it may well leave a sour taste in his mouth.
A stock world-event that happens everytime this OOC competition rolls around certainly gets stale by the 10th time. Sprucing up the competition by changing the rules, the execution, or even the RP messaging of some of its components (changing the life event messages from saving squirrels to saving rats, as an example) are ways to keep things fresh without compromising the event itself. Changing the entire way the story plays out, though, is much more risky. Personally, I'm not too perturbed by having my character tackle the same crisis, with the same result, every 30 IG years. A little bit of suspension of disbelief as a player, and a little bit of glossing over and forgetting the "unbelievable" coincidences of timing and regularity, goes a long way to making the world event enjoyable.
@Breandryn is more that lots of people have seen it so just shrugging it off as nothing important in game and the older players are basically going eh its the same story as last year so no worries seals crack, they get fixed job done?
Throw in a curve ball to the story line perhaps? Doesn't have to be seals and ketheru every time right?
Well it can be what the story is founded on. Doesn't have to be player choice. It's just a case of instead of ket and the seals being a threat one year perhaps some other soulless or something else is?
Well, historically, there have been other soulless. We've had the Eye of Zenos, we've had the mushtrees that were Nemach. While these are Big Bad Soulless (tm), they tear at the fabric of creation which is helped to be held together by the Seals. When the Seals break, the prison that holds the Biggest Baddest Soulless (tm) is weakened, and things become in real danger of being destroyed forever...well, maybe not mechanically but in story-wise.
The only way to repair the seals and seal Kethuru away again is through the powers of an Ascended mortal, so if you take away Kethuru's escape and the prison breaking, what could all that power possibly be used for? I'm not trying to be demeaning, either, that's the question that needs to be answered before something New! can be done for Ascension. There has to be a purpose for someone to be Ascended.
Perhaps the wave of ascended energies can sweep the basin of bad stuff X, or enegize/activate a slightly modded old Xyl made Defense Z. Which fends off the Aetherspace Pirates! Ｏr perhaps each ire game has to fight off another ire games traditional threats.
I spend a whole lot of time manse-afking. Yes, yes, that makes me a bad person, and it's on my resolution list.
BUT. I came back to my keyboard the other day to find that a godmin had reached out to me for RP whilst I was manse-afk'd, and it broke my heart. I just wonder if we might have an AFK toggle that you can put up to make it clear to a godmin that you're not paying attention. Obviously this would not in any way mitigate the AFK rules, so if you have the toggle up at the Nexus you're still fair game for a Vira-zap.
I just hate the thought that a godmin wasted even a minute of their precious time talking to my vacant toon, so perhaps this would help to mitigate?
I try to use TELLSOFF to indicate when I am going afk in my manse for that reason. It has a couple of issues, though. One: Gods can send tells through it. Two: I (almost always) forget to turn them back on.
Allow protege and mentor to be able to send tells regardless of planar ability, possibly include this for ga GC and gm for guild members in collegeium and novicehood? This would be really nice
I think it would be really cool if you could do HELP FAMILYNAME to read a history or whatever that is set by the players of the family, it would be nice to have their bragging or just historical importance in a help file for new players that might be wanting to investigate families to join but are too shy to speak to members just yet.
Idea for shops, at the moment we can make bins exclusive and discount our entire stock for different groups. It would be a nice feature to be able to put those exclusive discounts on certain bins rather than an entire stock, so that you can have a bin with basic enchantments and offer those enchantments to novices for a much lower price to help them get started easier
Idea for shops, at the moment we can make bins exclusive and discount our entire stock for different groups. It would be a nice feature to be able to put those exclusive discounts on certain bins rather than an entire stock, so that you can have a bin with basic enchantments and offer those enchantments to novices for a much lower price to help them get started easier
Can we have a way to check wounds and what not on people in the arena the same way we can diagnose? Also, it would be super awesome if we could actually have a way to watch the spar. But that is a dream I have been told not to have.
Comments
Vive l'apostrophe!
I would love to see something different happen. Maybe the Sealbearers all refuse to empower the Seals and let Ketheru out. Or maybe the Trials don't happen quick enough and he breaks out anyways. Or maybe a Ketheru is sealed, but a bunch of Soulless break out causing chaos and death.
Just something besides "oh, the seals are weak and we need do this we do every time again"
To us older players, Ascension is really just what it is, contests every weekend for credits(/chance at TA) and that's about it - no chance of doom, no big event.
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
It's not an impromptu event, and wasn't designed to be unpredictable in its results. And shouldn't be.
Randomness is desirable to a certain extent in competitions, where there are sometimes fluctuating factors of luck - as long as they aren't too great. But a preparation focused competition is generally speaking more fair and... well, controllable. Having such an event also tends to give players something to plan for, to look forward to, to aim at. A competition that is designed to take place at the top tier of competition in a game is really not a bad thing.
With such events, you generally speaking want the winners to feel good about winning. When they do win, you want them to be able to say, "yes, what I did was right!" If you start messing with the plot and the (predictable) storyline of the world event that is basically a cover for this OOC competition, you start opening that pandora's box of one day the quest reward not being aligned with the OOC reward. If one year, the winning Ascendant does not save the world, or fails to save the world, from Kethuru, and something negative and world-changing happens, it's great for keeping the RP of the game fresh... but may not be so great for the personal RP of the Ascendant.
If one day, a player is made to feel unsatisfied with the way the story turned out, despite winning the competition, it may well leave a sour taste in his mouth.
A stock world-event that happens everytime this OOC competition rolls around certainly gets stale by the 10th time. Sprucing up the competition by changing the rules, the execution, or even the RP messaging of some of its components (changing the life event messages from saving squirrels to saving rats, as an example) are ways to keep things fresh without compromising the event itself. Changing the entire way the story plays out, though, is much more risky. Personally, I'm not too perturbed by having my character tackle the same crisis, with the same result, every 30 IG years. A little bit of suspension of disbelief as a player, and a little bit of glossing over and forgetting the "unbelievable" coincidences of timing and regularity, goes a long way to making the world event enjoyable.
Throw in a curve ball to the story line perhaps? Doesn't have to be seals and ketheru every time right?
The only way to repair the seals and seal Kethuru away again is through the powers of an Ascended mortal, so if you take away Kethuru's escape and the prison breaking, what could all that power possibly be used for? I'm not trying to be demeaning, either, that's the question that needs to be answered before something New! can be done for Ascension. There has to be a purpose for someone to be Ascended.
Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
BUT. I came back to my keyboard the other day to find that a godmin had reached out to me for RP whilst I was manse-afk'd, and it broke my heart. I just wonder if we might have an AFK toggle that you can put up to make it clear to a godmin that you're not paying attention. Obviously this would not in any way mitigate the AFK rules, so if you have the toggle up at the Nexus you're still fair game for a Vira-zap.
I just hate the thought that a godmin wasted even a minute of their precious time talking to my vacant toon, so perhaps this would help to mitigate?
Has the advantage of being relatively easy to implement....