Rite Casting Window

[Gwyn 328]

The problems with the current global spell journal goal are widely evident.

 

Suggestion:

Casting a rite triggers a 24 hour window in which the same rite can be cast repeatedly without limit on that server. All benefits (sleep bonus, char gains) can be claimed only once in this window, regardless of number of casts.

 

This would put an end to the drama and maintain the spirit of cooperation intended by the devs. Plus, it seems fitting: major real-life religious ceremonies are performed by multiple groups in multiple locations. The limiting factor is not the number of participants but the time period, such as the summer solstice for a druidic gathering. A time window would make a good in-game analogue of this.

[Flubb 773]

That's an interesting take. But it feels kind of "incomplete", as this window will have no added benefit to the casts effect, so it's another suggestion that only addresses the issue with attaining the goal without being a guerilla caster yourself, not so much the whole sniping kerfuffle itself. (It avoids the problem on a systematic level though, that's something at least)

If subsequent casts had some benefit to the ritual's secondary effect, with diminishing returns, I could get behind this though.

Holy Crop gives more yield bonus, Rite of Spring's "boat buff" is extended, Ritual of the Suns Nutrition boost cap increases (nearing 100 nutrition slowly), Rite of Death's head wound damage is repeated. (RoD is a stunted version of itself on PVE anyway, giving them something instead on Freedom is a different issue.)

 

None of that should be too overpowered, but still giving an incentive, if the bonus was halved each time. So RoS can only close in on 48 hours total, RotS very slowly pushes nutrition to 100, RoD wounds can get "bad" at best rather than medium...perhaps diminishing returns should be toned down for HC to make sense, but you get where I'm going with this.

[Grumpled 138]

I could get behind these ideas as a basis for a Rite-casting rehaul

[Wargasm 1,928]

So a few players do the work, someone makes an announcement, and every priest of that religion on every server can come to that server and fulfil their journal requirement without no more effort than sailing a boat for 10 minutes?

 

-1

[Ekcin 2,417]

20 minutes ago, Wargasm said:

So a few players do the work, someone makes an announcement, and every priest of that religion on every server can come to that server and fulfil their journal requirement without no more effort than sailing a boat for 10 minutes?

 

-1

A sound objection. But: we have the recent situation with a journal goal congestion, a bad implementation, and the conflicts arising from. Maybe it would suffice to limit the number of priests fulfilling the requirement in one rush to 15 or 20 or so. Then still the jam would be reduced. Mind that those casting or or being linked to the spell have not necessarily done much for it. A sniper could have been sailed elsewhere too.

 

From my side, with bit reservation, +1 because the solution is simple and addresses the problems existing.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Ekcin
addendum and correction

[Wargasm 1,928]

The congestion is 100% the reason it is difficult, I acknowledge that.  But my point is that that is how the journal entry was DESIGNED.  The devs have already met you halfway by allowing links to get credit for having casted it (just imagine the drama THERE!), and people only need to do it once per priest, so the demand will go down over time.

[Gwyn 328]

50 minutes ago, Wargasm said:

So a few players do the work, someone makes an announcement, and every priest of that religion on every server can come to that server and fulfil their journal requirement without no more effort than sailing a boat for 10 minutes?

 

-1

Don't follow your reasoning. Casting the rite isn't 'doing the work'; charging the favour pool is. And that 'work' is exactly what's not being rewarded under the current system because the pool is shared and open to draining by anyone. And even if you do consider casting the rite 'doing the work', the same 'work' would have to be done by subsequent casting groups in this proposed change. So what exactly is your point?

 

[Gwyn 328]

A lot of commentary on this suggestion is ending up in other threads, so I've taken the liberty of transplanting this from a post by Wonka:

 

It's hard to see a straightforward solution to this, without either making the goal so easy it's trivial (everyone can re-cast for journal within 24 hours) ...

 

I've actually done the rite goal already on one priest under the current system. It took no more effort than replying to a PM and getting a summon to the rite site, then waiting an hour till everyone was ready. So it's already trivially easy. Where's the challenge in being at the right place at the right, random time? Or in belonging to the right clique? We already have other people piggybacking on the efforts of others in the current system – that's literally how it works at present with the shared favour pool. This change would not change much in that regard, but it does safeguard players' efforts from outright nullification. The change allows players to work towards filling the favour pool (=honest challenge), knowing that their well-earned access to the rite is secure even if someone else beats them to the first cast (=fair reward).

 

If you look at how rarely some rites are cast ...

 

 

... this change hardly seems disproportional.

[Gwyn 328]

Another comment on this suggestion from Wonka made in another thread:

 

The issue with this kind of suggestion, I suspect, is that it makes the journal task trivially easy to complete, which is inconsistent with it being part of a high-level journal tier that has a valuable reward.  According to the stated design goals, journal entries aren't intended to be something you can bang out in a week without insane dedication.

 

This has never been about difficulty per se – see my previous post. Any lucky freeloader (myself included) can chance upon a group rite in the current system. The crux is fair access and cast frequencies.

 

So let's look at how often those rites in the image above get cast. I mean, let's actually do some rough calculations on this. Throughout Freedom, Ritual of the Sun has been cast 8 times in the last 4.5 years. That's an average of 1 cast per 202 days, or about once every 7 months. Now factor in the amount of time the average healthy player is online – 2 hours a day at most? I exceed this regularly myself, but this seems like a good number to go off. That's 1/12 of the time. So in the ideal circumstances under the current system — where casters do the rite immediately upon discovery of peak favour and invite anyone who wants in and there are enough free link spots for all takers — the average time a player will have to wait till a rite comes up during their play session is 7 months * 12 = 84 months, or 7 years. Even if you assume players are on 24/7, the number does not drop below 7 months. Let those figures sink in, remembering that this is the best-case scenario where everyone who wants to can participate. And now realize that the figures are even higher for Rite of Death.

 

My suggestion would take, for example, the RotS figure down from 7 years to 7 months for players who log in daily. Hardly 'banging it out in a week'.

[Flubb 773]

Even a small window like 2 hours, or even just 1, would solve the congestion caused by competing groups and the stolen opportunity by snipes. It still fails to address the systematic issues of timezones and life schedules, but having missed a cast you were totally offline for is, presumably, disappointing, but not as aggravating as the direct, confrontional competition as has been displayed during the...what, 3, 4 last casts on Xanadu? People told me "But you gotta respect the people who are online!", so obviously it's "worse". And even those who are online aren't always respected with the proposed "impromptu organization", this was proven over and over again.

 

I have little hope that even such a little change will hit us though. I think we just have to struggle through it with brute, inefficient force until the interest and therefore competition dies down. Which is a shame because even the charging process itself is so "meh" that I'll barely ever want to touch an altar again after this is over. The (one) incentive is there but it's like rolling through barbwire to reach a golden trophy.