Ankyrean Anguish - Aetolia-based RAGE

Roux

Used Points: 74  Remaining Points: 7

I'm not crazy up there in the rankings, but I got a little some some. NEVER ENOUGH.
Of course, I also have a constantly expanding haven, soooo.

Rou

@Riluo - It doesn't seem to effect much these days, and the RNG Gods seem to outweigh the unnoticeable boons of the Hammer. I have racial too and I can't even begin to list the times I've fogotten to wield it and forged better than I would have wielding it. Maybe it's bugged or maybe the 10% improvement it gives (dunno that, don't quote me) just never shows up. I get pulling off a 103 speed from Honed full Damage tempers is tricksy, but pulling off a 179 shouldn't be after a dozen attempts.

Riluo

A lot of other people seem to have this issue too. Perhaps it needs checked again with racial and without to correct the problem.

Ishin

I was forging the other day without my hammer wielded. I can't really say as I noticed much difference. I've only ever forged one single 180 stat item, and it was after I made like 100 dirks. One out of 100, that's pretty crappy odds.

Lim

Not so much a rage, but seeing as there is the practice of passive aggressively complaining about something so that someone somewhere out there would take note ( just kidding ) ...

I've been toying with the idea of turning Lim into vampire someday, and how I could take him from here to there. However, I've been having quite a great deal of difficulty figuring out why he would want to. Or for that matter, why anyone would want to.  No one buys that being undead/vampire is better, just different. Part of what makes vampire RP so beautiful and alluring is the "deal with the Devil" aspect to it. It involves the sacrifice of your humanity for some greater power. Immortality, the ability to become master of the night. Power.

In Aetolia, however, there seems to be no convincing power differential. The mechanics don't reflect any advantage - no real allure to turning undead, or temptation of crossing the Rubicon. It's hard for our characters to be convinced of this power if we see that the living can kick ass just as easily as the undead, or see them live just as long and never age, or returning constantly from the dead due to Varian's grace. In being intent on balancing up the two sides, they have become equivalents of each other rather than one having a contrasting set of pros and cons to the other.

To make this 'rage' more productive, I was toying with the idea of adding harmless mechanics that give a bit more flavour to undeath and living, yet don't affect combat balance. Maybe, for instance, that vampires shouldn't need to waste time reforming their physical selves. Death turns them into a mist, they lose XP, defs, and then they can choose to reform in the usual way that they do when they turn mistform voluntarily. So then what we see is a vampire getting knocked down, forced to mist, then comes right back like it's no more than a passing inconvenience. (Note: stick a no-violence timer that's the same length of time as approaching the mirror, so this maintains combat balance).

Things like that, I think, would provide being undead with certain harmless advantages that give it more flavour. I'd like to see more of that so that the impetus to go undead/vampire isn't just a thinly veiled OOC desire to try out a different class.

Toz

@Lim

They actually don't die. They either sink into the earth and let their body reform, OR they do actually mistform and diffuse until they're rebuilt. So this sort of exists - you could argue that only the living ever really 'die', in that their soul has to walk the Halls before coming back.

Sarita

Reforming as a vampire in a coffin (Corpus skill) takes between significantly less time than the undead do in a graveyard, which I think is also less than the mirror sequence. I think the last time I died, I had three or four tick messages in total. Lore wise, even though in practice everyone comes back from the Halls, Varian doesn't always grant someone the chance to live again. That's been used to explain why named mobs have died permanently in the past.

Lim

Toz said:

@Lim

They actually don't die. They either sink into the earth and let their body reform, OR they do actually mistform and diffuse until they're rebuilt. So this sort of exists - you could argue that only the living ever really 'die', in that their soul has to walk the Halls before coming back.

@toz

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm saying that this 'advantage' over death is more of a lip service than it is to actually being an advantage that characters experience. Both processes are in substance the same (lose xp, inconvenienced for x minute(s), brb!), just different messages.

Up to some point, I'm thinking that everytime a living character dies, it'll be like "Ah, think the big man is gonna give me yet another shot? Probably. Ah there he is. Oh, another chance at life? Why, thank you, sir. See ya soon!" No doubt, there's the 'risk' that it actually is your time to permanently die, but the feel of it simply isn't there. However, since it's not a good idea to let living people actually die permanently, I thought of how the undead/vampires could have some relatively harmless advantages instead, e.g. not having to go through the delay of death.

Maybe it's just me though? If everyone else feels like being undead/vampire actually has them feel like a boss, then I suppose it's all good. Personally, it feels like the undead/vampire role has a lot of its potential underplayed because they come across as simply equivalent to the living.

Lim

Sarita said:

Reforming as a vampire in a coffin (Corpus skill) takes between significantly less time than the undead do in a graveyard, which I think is also less than the mirror sequence. I think the last time I died, I had three or four tick messages in total. Lore wise, even though in practice everyone comes back from the Halls, Varian doesn't always grant someone the chance to live again. That's been used to explain why named mobs have died permanently in the past.

Oh! Is that true? I didn't know that. Sorry!

Moirean

The death sequence is mechanic to allow one side to basically win a wave of a fight. Removing it for one side would have a huge impact on group combat.

Saybre

@Moirean
forums.aetolia.com/discussion/108/multi-class-flavor-skills

I tried this up over a year ago. It garnered us getting Lycan language SIGN understanding outside lycan Syssin. Otherwise it derailed really quick. And somewhere along the way credit was given to Alexina..?!?

But yeah, I want cross-over things bad.

Edit: Cause I forgot which skill got added, Language was done that PROMPTED me to make that.

Vimi

I love when people try to tell you how YOUR characters personality should be. Lol gtfo. 

Xavin

Sarita said:

Reforming as a vampire in a coffin (Corpus skill) takes between significantly less time than the undead do in a graveyard, which I think is also less than the mirror sequence. I think the last time I died, I had three or four tick messages in total. Lore wise, even though in practice everyone comes back from the Halls, Varian doesn't always grant someone the chance to live again. That's been used to explain why named mobs have died permanently in the past.

Here's a fun fact: Despite what the help files may or may not say, the Spirit_Anchor artifact power does in fact halve the death-sequence time for vampires and undead. This makes reforming as a vampire in a coffin take approximately twenty five to thirty seconds.

Demarcus

Trying to RETURN TO HAVEN then not realizing you weren't at full mana but you run off and forget about the game for a bit only to have been magically summoned into a lesser.

Did I mention thumbs up to the Admin for making the no exp loss thing at lessers? 

Moirean

Sorry. We saw you on scent, braziered and before we could really go oh, wait, you were dead.

Demarcus

Moirean said:

Sorry. We saw you on scent, braziered and before we could really go oh, wait, you were dead.

No harm, no foul. Literally, nothing lost. Wasn't planning on bashing anymore, so the mist defenses were going to go away anyways. I wasn't doing anything but idling, so I didn't even lose play time due to the death sequence.

So maybe the post should have gone into the LOVE thread? I don't know, posting about dying in LOVE is kind of... oxymoronic. 

Moirean

Huzzah! You've received 1 giftbag(s) for your credit purchase during our Giftbag Promotion, containing a random surprise! Check your inventory to find the giftbag and probe it to see what's inside!

Thousands of tiny iron rings link together in a flawless pattern of sturdy metal to form the fabric of this heavy giftbag, rattling together at every movement with a noise like falling rain. Skillfully applied colour flows across the face of the bag's surface, forming the carefully rendered shape of a tall, square iron tower with windows and a door that open ominously into an interior concealed by shadow. A thin cord of some surprisingly strong, obscure material forms a drawstring for the bag, ornate little tassels adorning its ends.

It has 2 months of usefulness left.

It weighs about 22 pound(s).

An unwrapped giftbag is holding:

Nothing.

Edit: Apparently they are just buggy. If it says unwrapped it's actually wrapped. If it just says giftbag, it's wrapped. Can we get a hint added in to say if a giftbag is unwrapped or wrapped on probe as well, since that is a new change and wouldn't hurt to remind us about.

Toz

In other news, if you want giftbags apparently you have to actually buy the 10 cr packages one at a time, instead of it working like it has for the past few promos. Here's to hoping I can get comped for the ones I didn't get

Teani

Is it possible to make the encephalous crystals possible to sell for those who have no use for quicker class-changes?

Azton

I RAGE BAD.. Been back playing for a hour (if that) and found a REALLY bad bug so asked a Prae to come test it OOCLY he hits me, runs away and sends me "Thats all you get for being an enemy" .. for Fing real?

Daskalos

Yea, @Toz, I'm hoping they change it back to one every 10cr. It makes sense, because those of us that want giftbags are going to just spam the cheapest credit option... and we'll end up costing them more in CC fees and PayPal fees.

Sheirosia

Wow.

Riluo

I thought it was one for every 10 also and bought 100cr

Sheirosia

I bought 300cr a few hours ago and got 3 bags.

I just now bought 5 sets of 10cr and got 5 bags.

Gold in them all except one had a chalice.

Riluo

Yeah same just gold.

Moirean

I rage at people repeatedly setting bounties for tenuous (at best) reasons, and then griefers repeatedly trying to "claim" them over and over. If you jump someone 10 times and they haven't died, you really should just lose PK cause. I want to go bash but I get jumped every time I do, but I know if I just let them kill me, the bounty either won't be claimed or another one will magically appear. 

Zsadist

@Daskalos, Though I agree with you about the giftbags, I fail to see how we'll end up costing them with fees from CC/Paypal. As far as I'm aware, there weren't any other fees short of what we spend.

(Course, I might just be abit naïve when it comes to the IRE business model)

Xavin

@Zsadist usually there is a fee associated with processing a credit card payment. Likely there is one associated with paypall as well.

Ishin

There's one associated with both. That's why sometimes when you go into stores you'll see a sign saying there's a $5.00 limit on buying with plastic, because they have to make enough from the sale to justify the cost of using the machine. Paypal's similar.

Oleis

We're going to be rolling out some changes to giftbags in the next day or so to address your concerns. Our intent was positive: IRE asked us to tone down our giftbags so that we didn't have such a dramatic advantage over the other games. Ours were objectively much more valuable. So we chose to give out fewer giftbags while increasing the average value significantly. More that proportionally, in fact. Unfortunately, as you all noticed, that did not jive with our matching attempt to be inclusive (giftbag for purchases under 100cr, too).

@Razmael is the guy with the plan, and I'm confident he has the right moves coming. I just wanted to make sure you guys knew we're listening.