Priests

[Roken 21]

Greetings!

 

After a short conversation with Etherdrifter who brought my attention to how priests are designed and what in common opinion should be changed, I thought of a different system that may or may not be better than the current "You may not (...)" commandments for each Deity.

 

[Please note that I'm yet-to-be-experienced as both priest and Wurmian in general so correct me if I make any mistakes in the text below. Also please first read the whole post before commenting, because there are some things in the middle of the post that seem wrong but I explain them at the end. Thank you kindly.]

 

Since my playstyle isn't very common as I have no deed of my own and no alts and can count on my Allies, I don't experience most of immersion struggles of priests who have to run two or more clients just to do very basic stuff for themselves. But the others do and I can imagine how unpleasant must it be, so I thought simply - "Why "Do not" instead of "Do"?". What I mean by this is:

 

Wouldn't it be good and more immersive if part (or most, but not all) of priests' restrictions would change into the orders from their Deity to DO specific thing? I mean we have it already in form of Epic Missions and a part of this system would be just a smaller version of those, designed for one person (with situational help of priest's community).

 

My idea is to trade some of restirictions for chores and missions, priests would have to do in order to keep their Deity happy with their service and so letting them keep their divine powers.

 

Chores: Idea for chores is rather simple. This system would require priests to do many small deeds in their Deity'sfavour. They'd be given another tracker for it or just messages "<Deity> is happy with your service." after you've done enough little deeds for it at given period.*Also the chores system shouldn't require a priest to do one specific thing many times but rather be made as a form of a "scoreboard" with different score gain for different chores.

For example:

- All priests would fill their chore-bar with listening to confessions, converting people to their own faith, holding sermons etc.

- Fo priest would gain chore points for planting sprouts, flowers and crop, tailoring square pieces of cloth, healing (others, not self!) with both spells and bandages/covers, breeding animal.

- Vynora would gain it for fishing, crafting tools, building roads, cooking and sharing meal with someone (trading it to them for nothing in return), building wells/fountains on water-providing tiles etc.

- Magranon would gain chore for killing creatures (non-passive ones) and enemies (PvP), mining, prospecting, some selected masonry/jewelry crafts, building stone constructions.

 

Chore points gain should be similar to skillgain - the more of one thing you do, the less points you get - so it would encourage priests to do several things for their Deity, instead of grindind the living hell out of one of those.

 

The chores themselves wouldn't provide priests with any benefit since it's a chore. It's something you HAVE to do for your Deity to even be considered a worthy priest, so you don't get a cookie for that. I mean - if the system was implemented as suggested, chores would be a tradeoff for some of your restrictions! You could do stuff you can't now and in exchange you'd have to do stuff you don't do now. Simple.

 

The part where you actually could get a cookie (many chore points and/or some long-ish lasting buff from Deity-specific list) would be Personal Missions. Those would be like Epic Missions, but just for you to do and separate from chores. Three examples, similar to each other, for three Deities (sorry Libila):

 

- The Growth of Fo: Plant (X of) a <type> tree sapling(s) in <what place>. (Requires priest to take specific saplings with him and travel to more or less distant region [as it shouldn't be very specific situation - more like "a forest in northern parts [of your server]" to spread the creations of Fo).

- The Influence of Magranon: Build an altar in <what place>. It must be made of <material> and stand <on rock/in cave/on dirt/in the forest>. (etc. etc.)

- The Thirst of Vynora: Build a well in <what place>. (Requires priest to find a watersource tile, so the well would actually provide water).

 

Missions may (well - should!) vary. Vynora could ask for fishing, Fo for taming specific type of animal and Magranon for mining something from specific (or not?) vein, killing something etc.

 

And for those missions you could get some temporary blessing (to stats, skills, anything) and a handful of chore points. Also - missions should be given to a priest at random, out of the blue and should have timer (once you run out of time - it's lost) BUT the timer should only take ONLINE time into account. None of us would like to get a pop-up with mission right before we logout and know that once we log in the mission would be gone or we'd have very little time for it.

 

I know what you'd say - "Why did you put "build X" so many times in there? Priests can't build!" and you're right, I know it. But it should be a part of those traded restrictions. To be perfectly clear: ALL priests SHOULD STILL HAVE NO-IMPROVE RESTRICTION, but many others may change. For example continuing buildings or more complicated items - it should be available for priests in some cases. It could always be done like for example "Magranon CAN continue constructions BUT only masonry/smithing/jewel related". It's a good improvement for priest live, but still (s)he can't do everything like non-priests can.

 

Another part of my idea about "dos" and "don'ts" is so priest could sometimes skip some restrictions and do something agains their Deity's law (like Fo priest cutting down a tree) without an automatic depriest BUT it would cost a hell ton of chore points or even a mandatory Deity Mission (rewardless [no buff], since it's a punishment for you and you have to repay for your sins) for a priest to accomplish. Just give them at least SOME option to disobey once in a while. They're all humans after all and humans do mistakes.

 

 

I think that this kind of approach to priests would make their gameplay less of a chore for those who hate keeping alts for menial tasks priests can't do, while it keeps core (no improve) restrictions so it would still be a hard choice whetner or not to become a priest.

 

 

I'd appreciate any suggestions regarding what "new restrictions" should be like. What should specific priests be able to do? My general idea is restrict only the thing REALLY opposing the domain of given god (like Fo and cutting trees, but this particular option should get a bit of freedom like that the youngest trees could be digged up and replanted so Fo priests wouldn't have to have an alt just to remove unwanted, wild growing trees from their deed etc.).

Edited January 19, 2015 by Roken

[Pidgeoni 272]

I think i like how this sounds

[Kagrenac 812]

You can already go against your restrictions with a minimal penalty to your faith.

I planted hundreds of trees as a lib priest, picked flowers, etc.

I really don't see the need for a new system when faith loss works and is really a minimal punishment.

 

The chores really seem like "play wurm to play wurm as a priest without restrictions", the chores are just what you would generally do normally as a priest (except for stuff like make tools, build constructions, etc)

[Etherdrifter 2,512]

+1

I actually like this alternative, a positive set of restrictions that requires a more interactive style of play, it would reduce the number of priest alts and would reinforce the priestly position in a community in a positive way for both priests and community members.

 

As things stand a priest can go against their god, however the penalty is VERY harsh later on (since 0.1 faith takes more than a day to recover at 80 faith and it costs 0.1 faith per action!), unless of course you have a paid alt farm to restore your faith at a fast rate using sermons....

In reality this boils down to adding an extra priest skill, one that replaces faith when going against a deity (a kind of buffer before faith starts taking hits) with some specific conditions on how to raise it.  Spend your days doing deeds your god approves of and you'll be able to live a much more normal life.  Spend your days doing nothing for your god, live a fully restricted life.

 

An interesting idea would be to price the cost of actions differently for each kind of priest (so cutting down a tree for fo would cost a little more than cutting down a tree for mag but mixing a cover on a vyn priest would cost less than it would for a mag priest) to reflect the deity's preferences.

 

As long as I can keep my lawn clear, remove cave ins and (most important of all) can put together some more complex items I'm a happy camper.

[Bachus 462]

I really like this idea.   +1

There have been many times on my Fo priest that I needed to cut down an intrusive Pine to make way for a maple or olive tree in my orchard and with my current internet having 2 on at a time is extremely laggy.  Also having my priest able to do repairs while my main is away mining on another server for the things I do not have in my mine would be great.

 The missions make more sense as well, planting or building an altar is more reasonable than 'killing the traitor chicken'.

[Aeris 3,750]

-1 Those of us who have good priests have spent years grinding their useful skills and trying to adapt to every single random nerf they've been exposed to over the years.

 

If there's one thing I really feel that we don't need it's chores - This is supposed to be a game for fun and while you might not have tried playing actively on a priest you'd quickly realize while doing so that there are already enough things to pay attention to that are verging on boring. I don't want my gameplay to suffer because some people want "immersion" because the priests are already restricted anough. If you want to roleplay on your priest that's something you can do all on your own without the game forcing you to do so, personally I don't give a crap about roleplaying and would not enjoy that as a mandatory part of my playing.

[Radni 1,089]

+1

[SmeJack 5,796]

Wurm is already 'chores online' and I think forcing more chores on me would be stealing the sand out of my sandbox

[Madt 1,178]

I like the idea of a 'priest skill'. Doing religious chores (sermons, preaching, doing diety specific tasks/quests) fills it to 100, doing non priest things drains it.

 

You'd need to find the right balance so it doesn't make everyone want to be priest, it can't be too easy.

Those who don't want to do chores would stay exactly as they are now, a priest with full restrictions. But if for example I went on a preaching spree for Magranon or whatever, I could then come home with a full amount of 'priest skill' to burn off on doing things I couldn't normally do for once.

 

I can also understand how this could ruin it for some people though, so I'm unsure how you'd go about it in a way where everyone is happy.

 

Nice idea, though I'm undecided. It'd all depend on the details and variables and if implemented correctly.

[JudusX 199]

Maybe instead have negative actions reduce favor first then if your at zero it would bring the perminent penalty into play. While doing these actions I would suggest no favor gain as to minimize the benefit.

[Wargasm 1,926]

-1 

 

Priests are fine as they are with the current restrictions.  We priests don't need "chores" because we already do chores for our non-priest characters.  If I'm building a house, my priest will be standing right beside me making the bricks and mortar or planks and nails to make it happen.  Whether I use both toons to saw planks and then use both toons to build the house, it still takes the same amount of time as my main building the house and my priest making all the materials to build it.