Report 216

Report #216
Skillset: Celestialism Skill: Symbol
 Org: Celestines Status: Rejected Jun 2009
Furies' Decision:
Considering retaining symbol and pledge but powers associated would remain
inactive.
Problem: Although I am going to be using language associated with Celestialism
and Celestia, this also extends to the associated skills for Nihilists.
Currently, whenever a Supernal dies you lose that pledge, meaning you cannot
invest those afflictions in your angel. If you are deepbonded with this
Supernal, you also lose your deepbond, meaning you also lose your symbol. It is
a common trend that whenever one supernal dies, several die, if not all. This
leaves the Celestine crippled in both PvP and PvE. Not only does one have to
spend 10 power per supernal to regain a pledge, but you must also dig up sand
from the Isle of Light to do the Celest power quest. This has many problematic
factors. Newbies take the sand a great deal of the time, both for the rewards
and for the collegium quest. Recently, enemies of Celest have been stealing the
sand for no reason other than to cause problems. This means that, including the
time it takes to raise supernals, redo your pledges, dig up sand, bring in
supplicants, you can be out of commission for several days. It has been said
that this exists because of the interesting role play - it actually just makes
people bitter, and hinders role play. People will often choose which Supernal to
deepbond with not because of a personal affinity it has with their character,
but because it may be one that is least likely to be killed in a raid.
Solution #1: Change it so that if the supernal you are deepbonded to dies, you
 retain both your pledge and your deepbond with this Supernal.
 This would leave the Celestine with at least a small ability to
 fight other players, and they can use their symbol to PvE with.
 It would also prevent needing to dig up sand, beyond the first
 time you form your deepbond. Players would still feel encouraged
 to raise the supernals, due to needing to regain their full
 affliction set. This would also encourage players to choose to
 deepbond with a Supernal for role play reasons, rather than
 because they think it will be the last to get killed. The RP
 reason for this change is that a deepbond with a Supernal should
 be so deep and meaningful that it can transcend death. You would
 lose other pledges as normal.
Solution #2: Celestines can build a reserve of supplicants, getting sand and
 leading supplicants to a Supernal at their leisure, and whenever
 the supernal which they are deepbonded to dies, these built up
 supplicants are automatically accounted for.
Player Comments:
---[Shamarah on 6/10 @ 01:23 writes]:
This is a good change, although it still doesn't fix the fact that you're more
likely to choose your deep pact for the combat benefits than for the RP (any
would-be fighter Nihilist would be an idiot to deepbond anyone but Luciphage).
---[Zynna on 6/21 @ 17:46 writes]:
I agree that Celestines/Nihilists should not lose their symbol on the death of
the Supernal/Demon Lord with whom they have their deep pact, as it has a great
impact on regular hunting, in addition to fighting others. I support Solution 1,
but offer as an alternative solution in case the Furies want more connectedness,
that Celestines and Nihilists could be able to create a reserve of sands/spikes
quests. To use the Celestines as an example, this would allow a Celestine at his
leisure to lead supplicants to the light. If he lead 100 supplicants to the
Light, he'd have a reserve of 100 that would go down by 10 if his deepbonded
Supernal died. This would allow the connectedness between being a priest and
bringing supplicants, while still not penalizing and causing a race for the sand
when a Supernal falls.
---[Alban on 6/22 @ 00:27 writes]:
I've updated the solutions to include Zynna's...which is agreeable.
---[Ceren on 6/29 @ 19:54 writes]:
I agree with solution 1. Going back to cosmicfire is one the most painful things
you can experience in this game... more so now that the gap between symbol and
cosmicfire has been widened even further by hexangle/pentangle.
---[Alban on 6/30 @ 14:58 writes]:
I wanted to add, just in case it isn't clear, with both solution 1 and 2 you
would have to bring in supplicants for a new supernal if you wanted to switch
your deepbond to that supernal.