Shattered Kingdoms

Hey, so question:

Why isn't there a quest for each religion in game for newbies to get invested with?


The reason I suggest such is it seems religions are always struggling to coordinate play times to invest new people and religion is rarely rejected anyways.


So why not have an investment take place through NPCs?


I understand "but we want it to be an RP driven game" and that's great, but the who lists don't support a dozen religions with two followers each in every time zone. And folks wanting to play priests/paladins/hellions (which are VERY popular among new players) can get some additional 'babysitting' from the game in order to stick around longer.


Otherwise, right now, it's looking at in game titles randomly and hoping you can figure out what they mean and hoping you can catch them online. Then if you can't, spamming pray and taking time out of an immortal's schedule to do it.

If an imm wants to do it, that's cool, but that option is still there anyways if this system was added in.



So, how about it? Automated system of in game characters earning religious investment, yes/no?

Problem with that would be those who ninja join without following the ways of the faith. If you seek a faith you could always ask around to find out the name of the High Follower to seek. Some of them don't have titles to advertise it.

That's not a problem at all. Why? Because of the premise that faction leaders are merely custodians of their factions as stated by the staff in the past. This means that there are objective conditions for membership, and that in turn means that they could be placed in quest format for any religion, tribunal, or cabal. The faction leader's job would be to punish or eject anyone who didn't follow those rules.

Of course, the degree to which this is a good idea is limited by the degree to which the original premise is a good idea in the first place.

What grep said with extra loose rules when it comes to religion. People join religions for two reasons:
1. RP
2. They are required to do so by their class (Priest, Paladin, Hellion).

In either case, it has been stated in the past that it is much more preferable to let people in and then use the tarnish/blemish commands if they do not act properly, rather than keep people waiting until you are sure they are a match. Especially so when that wait affects their progress and levelling (case #2 above).

So, in my opinion, automated investment quests for religions only are a good idea. Hell, they can even be repeatable so that they grant a holy symbol after the first time for those faiths with inactive priestly HFs.

I have always found that an imm will help you join a church with proper prayers and rp. It just might take a week to catch them but they will.

I am curious if Dulrik would allow clergy classes to be invested at creation with a LT cost. Seems like a good thing to consider.

I would earn and give many tokens if I could roll-out as a favored snowflake member of a legacy church.

I'm looking at you, Xandrennus. You, too, Yenko.

This would be the best.

And I'm only a little biased (can't help it priest is my favorite class)

I would hate to have a system created that would circumvent that great rp between a seeker and a leader of a faith. One of the conversations the immstaff is having is how to encourage more contact points between players—how can we do better to funnel players into situations where they get to interact with one another? Having a bypass of high followers built in would mean a loss of a great rp contact point.

HOWEVER, there’s not much benefit in “contact points” if there is no high follower to contact with! Imm rp is a workaround but can be spotty and slow and dependent on corresponding hours. Immstaff response is ideally just a safety net, but too often it becomes the only way to get anything done.

Brainstorming…what if each NPC priest of each faith in a major city temple was scripted to do something like the following…
If there is currently a high follower
Sayto %seeker% You seek to join the faith? I commend your initiative! Such a decision is up to the high follower of the faith, however. Seek out the one known as %highfollower%.
If there is currently no high follower
Sayto %seeker% Are you sincere in wanting to follow the faith? I wonder…let us test your mettle. <Insert Quest>

Could also do something similar with symbols.
If there is currently no one with favor to create symbols AND player is already in the faith
Sayto %needsasymbol% Blessings on you, %needsasymbol%! Do you need a symbol of your faith? I just need a small donation of <item>.
If there is currently someone in the faith with the power to make symbols
Sayto %needsasymbol% Seek out the one known as %highfollower%.


(This could create a new problem, however, in that a faith might PREFER to not have a high follower because it would be more convenient! Haven’t thought that through yet.)

I've had an occasion where I joined an inactive faith. I just had to find out what Imm was responsible for the faith. I then sent a pm and coordinated an Imm invest. This was more fun than a high follower induct.
I think there should be a quest for each faith to obtain a symbol though.