Shattered Kingdoms

I agree with jennbo that playing a dark aura would feel like a chore right now. There is a whole slew of dark RP that would be fun to spice things up in the game, but the minute anything dark aura is mentioned for players, there's an immediate fervor to draw everything to PVP. I'm not even talking about control and power through mass killing and PVP either. There are certain parts of the game that are actually interesting and drive player attention much more than PVP. Playing the game recently, I have gathered there is still minimal player interest in actual PVP right now. Player sentiment just isn't there. There's some dueling here and there, but no matter how many people get heavily equipped on both sides, PVP just isn't there. You also just don't have enough dark aura priests to support player deaths.

What are the Crucible's powers now anyway? Are they even any good? With how powerful and popular the Fist is, why is a comparable power set not being manufactured for the opposition, if not for PVE at the minimum just to start building up darkie numbers?

I mean, I would even play a necromancer if it wouldn't be such a chore to level one up, and I can level characters fast. Playing a necromancer would be straight up miserable, and I don't need that level of method acting in my life to roleplay a solid character.

Code dependent changes aren't something we can bank on. Yes, it would be great if the Crucible skillset was more powerful. Make more hours in the day and days in the year for Dulrik to have time to make that happen.

Let's discuss more things that are possible with builder power. Because while you have a few imms that are active and willing, you do not have a coder.

So can't improve Crucible skillset, understandable.

From a builder perspective, would it be possible to make an area or areas that would make levelling a Necromancer specifically less of a chore at certain levels? Seems to be a complaint that could be solved with building!

That said, when my oldest character dies off coming up probably before the year ends, think it is time to dabble in the dark again. Have enjoyed playing dark priests and necros in the past, might be time to do so again.

I would start from the builder perspective to make some very strong scripted items darky only. I am talking spirit aura giving items, resist elements giving items, something comparable to the threads of energy that summon the divine steward for darkies. Maybe make dreamscape NPCs not aggro for darkies since Ephialtis is the boss there, like lighties can enjoy the isles of the west wind that can be a total death trap for darkies. Can someone say holy word by buff paladin NPCs in air room that dispel fly?

I like Trag's ideas. Touching on what he was saying about dark only items and combining that with the other posts, I was thinking that there may be some ways to buff the crucible without actually changing/coding in skillset changes.
Be warned, these ideas might seem a bit crazy, but they will have limitations from keeping them from being abused.

I was thinking today that if I played a melee class, what would it take for me to get interested in the crucible. I don't want to go into too much detail about cabal abilities, but in my opinion melee based classes might find it difficult to utilize the skillset. My suggestion would be (just spitballing) a weapon and armor rack inside the HQ near the forge.

*Darkflame weaponry - 3 sets of dark aura energy kama's, sickles, bills, bastardswords and greatswords.

*Shadowfire armor - 2 sets of energy armor that grant armor and spirit aura when the full set of armor is worn.

*10 potions of healing/refresh, but the catch is that these items, armor and weapons will operate like the adventure guild - they will disappear upon logging out.

I really think it would be cool if every cabal HQ had something unique like that.

*Imperial armaments - 5 diamond pikes, kamas and diamond shields for another cabal, wearing the shield and one weapon grants giant strength and armor - All disappear when you log out.




Regarding the NW lore/rp ideas, I think I like the idea of having having those tribal subgroups, fox bear etc would be interesting.
Fox could be cunning hunters, the Bear sect could be based around berserkers, tough and strong-willed, maybe each subgroup has a leader on the council which may or may not have an emissary of krychire on the council as well. I could see krychire being a safe haven for necromancers (depending on how the tribes feel about necromancy) with trainers and maybe an area to create a new training area the_me was asking about.

I'm not sure how to address the law issue jerin was talking about. Maybe there might be some sort of middle ground where tribal law could uniquely accommodate those issues by not being as harsh as other cities. No death sentences or jail time, just limb lopping, fines and confiscation.

"Not aggro for darkies" is a code change - it is a feature that doesn't exist. It can be done with hundreds (thousands?) of scripts, I suppose. But that doesn't seem like a great use of time and effort. I am willing to try it out in Krychire, but I mean, would a zombie or any other evil baddie really care if you're not good?

EQ in cabal HQ sounds like a slippery slope that will ultimately also benefit lighties.

I’m gonna give my most controversial opinion yet: the nightmare temple energy armor should be darkie only. Always made me lol to see paladins wearing “void of dark energy”

I want to back up the implicit notion that building something special for darkies can end up with the same thing for lighties. It's an insidious creep and I bet contributed to the insane script bloat we're dealing with now. There's also the inherent wish fulfillment of hunting powerful baddies with heroes that builds in a bias that requires creativity to get around.

I will offer a few building ideas, but I want to highlight that I overall think that the building approach is a tiny bandaid over something that really needs stitches. I know the coding time is very expensive (i know not monetarily), and I'm glad D is in a place to kinda not have the time to - I'm hopeful that's a barometer of good things. But a few small tweaks of his get to multiply over the dozens of characters that'll be impacted by it for dozens of hours, so I still will advocate for it - while acknowledging the incredible unlikehood. I think it's just on us to try to foster an environment where stepping a toe in won't immediately create an explosively combative backlash about the 37 ways what happened was wrong. Skimming some of the posts after coming back, I honestly wouldn't want to dip my toe in this pool from a coder perspective. Bless y'all for wanting to build.

The building ideas

1) A few choice Ch'zzrym zapping ironguard jewelry items. Maybe 2-4? I feel like we accomplished removing scripted ironguard before (remember when Halberd had it and we had to remove it?), but...it's back. I'm of the mind to either go through and absolutely destroy them all again, and script vials to not allow brewing it, but the 'feed the power creep' side is to add some just for delves. It's kind of shocking how much worse they are on paper than elves. I personally think it needs to go away completely, but if we are going for boost rather than wimp - this would be the play.

2) Unload half the ki straps, or make them all leather, at the least get rid of any special damage types. The fact there's special wrath attack ki straps is the exact same insane power creep we want to avoid by building scripted items. I would honestly wonder if D knows about them. I recall (though my memory is trash these days) and thought the entire idea of ki straps was to counteract the accuracy/damage creep that happened with spec and fury and optimizing subtypes that left the Fist in the dust, but this is insane. We need to unwind that clock a bit, even if we are pro-buffing everything.

3) Targeted weapons and treasures: I am the kind of person who dislikes there being these insane and plentiful buff scripts in the wild, so bias admitted up front. The classes who need the most help won't actually meaningfully benefit from spirit aura, and if they would they can get the items that currently exist. However, some more worthwhile zapping items in Ch'zzrym, Krychire, and Seawatch could be good. Aggressively targeted racial weakness damage types (negative energy, blunt) on good weapon subtypes, some great reflex, wisdom, and trinkets. I'm curious if just free sets of top gear elite items like it's a test server is the answer. I don't think so. I think a few tactical choices could go a long way here. It seems like (with my SUPER limited current game knowledge) builders have been pearl-clutchy over the past decade about mixing good damage types + good subtypes on cursed/zapping items, except when it comes to stuff held by fist and paladins.

4) We actually have pretty good leveling areas, I think. Getting to GM has literally never been easier for either side and it's not hard at all - if a little rough for some gray auras with high XP bases. I don't think there's bias against darkies here - maybe I'll try a necro sprint to see if there's something I'm missing, though.

Just going to pull a few quotes and give my take for what it is.



That was basically the thrust of what I was saying already. The majority of players willing to play dark auras as one-offs have always primarily been interested in the PvP aspect of the game. Without PvP you don't see those people joining team dark side at all. To date myself, there aren't a ton of Smagglers around these days.

The lack of critical mass makes end game gear runs more difficult, so those explorer players also don't sign up either. The lack of critical mass of players to interact with keeps the RPers away. On the flip side, the majority of players who "always go" lightie usually do so because they want as little to do with PvP as possible in my experience giving them a much larger and more stable base of players.



This is what I meant when I was talking about with the power fantasy of evil characters. There is way more room within everyone's collective mindspace for good aligned characters to be about something that isn't just physical conquest than evil characters. It's a double whammy to be pushed in a direction that you aren't exactly very competitive in.

One of things I personally wanted to do was turn Menegroth a little further towards a grey-dark capitalist hellscape where economic power was as important as taking heads just because I thought it might give more space for "less evil" character concepts to develop and thrive. More Tywin Lannisters less Darkstars. Let's just say it wasn't a very popular idea at the time, but I still think part of the solution is opening up thematic space a little for evil people too.

I'd also add to the list of evil downsides just having your own side be a threat at all times, unlike lighties, is a huge deal.



I'm just curious how this doesn't end up encouraging more in-fighting in the darkies you do get for the super powerful items. Maybe religion restricted or something to lower the competition? There have already been multiple instances of hurt feelings OOCly over someone taking someone else's ore for instance.

Unlike lighties where once someone has an item it's basically tough [REDACTED], the evil people don't have that restriction. Also, most of the stuff you're talking about scripted items wise just seems to be focusing more PvP power via scripting since we can't via coding, and it seems like it would make the "evil player base" worse not better by adding a large additional dose of haves and have nots, just within the alignment itself.

We've already seen a ton of people only picking a religion based on what the sacred suit was for instance, so I do worry that even something like a racial or religious restriction on gear to eliminate some of the in-fighting would have similar if not even more exaggerated consequences.



While it's not the same as zapping, many of the items that are clearly one aura or another are set up in a way they enchant worse for people of the wrong alignment. There was also a pretty clear push from players of the past to eliminate zapping as much as possible so more equipment is useable by everyone. Considering the lower number of players now it might make sense to revisit the zapping on some things.



Necromancers are probably one of the most actually changed classes in the past twenty years, so if it's been awhile since you played one I would encourage you to try leveling one before writing it off as miserable. They can create their own pets, they can heal their undead and themselves, they protect themselves from undead aggro which is very helpful in some specific areas, etc. Most of the changes aren't directly related to their power level end-game compared to the past, so they aren't nearly as feared. But they also aren't nearly as hard to level either.

Leveling is fine for all classes, only that darkies get almost zero help on the way because of lack of darkies and the fact darkies are not eager to help other darkies at time.

Sure darkies could have infighting over phat lewt, but right now they get the small scraps no one else wants and they hardly can gank a lighty for something they want less risk being hunted down by a trong of lighties. And lighties could still take away good darky loot like they have in the past by just holding onto zappy loot via charms dropping it in containers. But making some really darky zappy loot would be a builder's start. Maybe add some none turning to dust strong empty potions that are zappy too somewhere.

I am all for making ki straps leather. Normal fists without ki straps is pretty good, add ki straps and they are too good. Not to mention every cabal gets one special item so maybe leave the lightning ones? Though druids lost their earth orb and harlies don't have any special cabal item. Maybe buff the knot for crucible to hp, mana, and pe regen while under consumption affect. The current set up for removing consumption for a little mana is crap.