Different Solution for Ascended
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:39 pm
The ascension server is unbalanced. There is no two ways about this and it's not going to become balanced EVER. DD can gripe about how they put in trillions in main into getting a good ascended account but put simply for everyone else a good ascended account merely means a good farm for some players who we can NEVER, no matter HOW much we sacrifice in main, have any chance of catching. I'm sure DD/CoP players will moan that this isn't the case but it is. I've known people who simply don't grow the way they want there because they can't. Getting bigger merely means getting to be a bigger farm with no hope of retaliation. That's partially what this war is about as well. The plain fact that it's almost impossible to get anywhere without joining a super power which some of us don't want to do.
The argument is of course that as the main game continues there is more naq, more UU etc so you can afford to sacrifice more to 'catch up' and while I'm sure average ascension APs are larger than when ascension was first brought in, nothing can equate to the amount of time that the ascended realm has existed. Upping the amount of AP gained per ascension now may help but won't rectify the problem.
Also, at first the ascended beings only had to work on their physical stats but now a newly ascended being has to work on both their ascended self and their physical realm. This means that catching up becomes harder again. Those who first ascended could work purely on their physical realm and once descension moved from the dream realm of Admin into a trial reality they could start working on their ascended selves. I obviously don't know if this was the case but they certainly had time to work exclusively on physical before spiritual, which isn't the case now.
Descension... let's not go there with the recent changes to it as it seems to me it's just a DMU race now. It's not meant to be easy to descend someone so I don't understand why some of the changes were made to make it easier. The way I saw it you are meant to put in a lot of time and effort and resources to descend your target but it seems to have been made a lot easier now. But I'll ignore that issue for now.
I don't know what ascension was meant to be like, I wasn't playing when if first came out but that's not the point. From what some people tell me it was meant to be an allianceless thing where it was every ascended god for themselves but human nature isn't like that so it simply didn't work like that. Part of the imbalancing problem comes down to the Admin's as well the way I see it. Simply because that section of the game was never developed for so long the way it was obviously meant to be done. You leave something for more than a year and of course people don't put in the time and effort for that game. Additionally while it may have been implied, those ascending at first had no idea that descension would be an issue.
I'm not criticising those who have put in the time and effort but in order to play a game you have to have people to play against and the way that it is now, it's simply not worth it. I'll take my losses in main and become dormant in time simply because that's the better option.
So where does that leave us? It leaves us with an ascension game that unless you are a part of, or subservient to, the elite clique you have no where to go and no reason to play. If people truly enjoy playing a 'game' then they should enjoy the challenge of playing, not simply knowing that they can crush anything that comes along, hence I make this suggestion. I'd appreciate if people read it fully before imploding (implode please it's less messy) and at least consider the merits in game play rather than what you think your little clique would want or is used to. Also read the justifications for the changes, and if you don't agree be reasonable with your argument and lay out why you don't agree.
The entire suggestion comes down to one point with a small amendment to the current ascension rules to allow it to work properly.
The suggestion is reset the ascended server each year (or at some interval) with the amendment being to allow ascensions past Ancient God.
That is it.
Now why would you want to do this?
To bring meaning back to ascension.
The initial ascensions to prior, prophet etc still have meaning and are still required to get the bonuses in main. Allowing ascensions past Ancient God also allows those people who have ascended that many times not to be disadvantaged in a reset of the ascended server and I'd allow a continuing 1% advantage for each ascension past Living God x2.
But imagine it, all ascended accounts reset, so once again everyone is on equal footing. You can ascend again immediately after the reset to give yourself better stats but then so can everyone else. More ascensions during the year also allow a boost of the ascended being and obviously the bigger they are the bigger the boost. So there is still a need to ascend which is why more than 10 ascensions would be necessary. This has the side benefit of 'resetting' some of the massive main accounts because if they don't ascend again they could face descension and I'm almost positive they don't want that. (I'd allow a starting PPT of 5-7 days but not less than 2 days so that you couldn't be descended immediately.)
This has the benefit that you actually would have to play the ascended server. Yes people ascending late in the 'year' would be disadvantaged by those who ascended immediately after the reset but if they are ascending for main bonuses they aren't going to be so concerned and that would perhaps give a new prior the chance to learn how to play ascension in the knowledge that their next ascension would be in the reset ascended realm so they'd then know what they are doing better.
You still have to play ascension to avoid descension in main and keeping records similar to the Quantum or Chaos wave results would give people encouragement to work on their ascended being. I'd keep the game play how it is (I think but basically no changes).
If people want to play a game then I see this as a challenge. The reset universe puts everyone on equal footing but still gives benefits to those who do sacrifice a lot for ascension as they'd be the more powerful players there still but it also gives all game players a challenge as they struggle again to become what is in their eyes a worthy ascended being. It does not invalidate a massive sacrifice in main to ascend, in fact to me it gives it more meaning over a longer time.
Problems - for those with lots of UU with all those ascensions you'd eventually go over 50million lifers with training and retraining. This would be a problem but might be avoidable if a dynamic cap on army size was placed to allow slower but still steady growth for the bigger accounts. Say you are allowed 10% of your lifers in UU no matter how many lifers you have - hence if you have 55million lifers I can still transfer in and out of my account 5.5million men without hitting the rules laid out by the Galactic Council. (Then of course I can raid to a certain amount as per normal). There's a number of ways around this problem.
---
A few other odds and ends or amendments to suggestion if various parts are found invalid.
If the decision was made to limit ascension to the 10 allowed now then change descension so that if you are a Messiah and you get descended you return to a Prophet, etc etc, this would mean some knocking down of the Ancient Gods to Living Gods again if they got descended but would allow the 'cap' on the number of ascensions to be maintained. Yes you'd HAVE to be descended if you are an ancient god wishing to reascend at reset if this was the case.
If resetting at one set time causes an issue then reset each account on a year by year basis. So that if you ascended on the 12th April, then you reset on the 12th April. This would allow alliance 'protection' there to mean a lot more as suddenly the protector becomes the protected. It also allows a lot more interest. If this was the case I'd allow a starting PPT of 7 days not the usual 2.
If you are descended at your time of reset then you are still descended. Therefore if you get descended the day before your reset then you have to spend a month descended before you can reascend and start again, this time with reset stats and yes... unfortunately very vulnerable again to be descended. Perhaps though then the same person can't descend you twice, or the same alliance can't do it where alliance membership holds for a least a week after leaving. You could put a lot of restrictions or none on this but presumably in your month descended you worked out whatever issue it was that got you descended in the first place.
---
This is suggested to bring back a challenge to the ascended server and to bring back the challenge for the larger ascended beings. It does not invalidate striving for a large sacrifice in main as you'd still need that to be powerful in ascended and it would make competition for the top spots in main have some meaning again as you'd need the glory to once again ascend with the reset. There are numerous benefits and very little to make it unpalatable to the vast amount of us, except for the love of the status quo and the inability to embrace a new challenge.
The argument is of course that as the main game continues there is more naq, more UU etc so you can afford to sacrifice more to 'catch up' and while I'm sure average ascension APs are larger than when ascension was first brought in, nothing can equate to the amount of time that the ascended realm has existed. Upping the amount of AP gained per ascension now may help but won't rectify the problem.
Also, at first the ascended beings only had to work on their physical stats but now a newly ascended being has to work on both their ascended self and their physical realm. This means that catching up becomes harder again. Those who first ascended could work purely on their physical realm and once descension moved from the dream realm of Admin into a trial reality they could start working on their ascended selves. I obviously don't know if this was the case but they certainly had time to work exclusively on physical before spiritual, which isn't the case now.
Descension... let's not go there with the recent changes to it as it seems to me it's just a DMU race now. It's not meant to be easy to descend someone so I don't understand why some of the changes were made to make it easier. The way I saw it you are meant to put in a lot of time and effort and resources to descend your target but it seems to have been made a lot easier now. But I'll ignore that issue for now.
I don't know what ascension was meant to be like, I wasn't playing when if first came out but that's not the point. From what some people tell me it was meant to be an allianceless thing where it was every ascended god for themselves but human nature isn't like that so it simply didn't work like that. Part of the imbalancing problem comes down to the Admin's as well the way I see it. Simply because that section of the game was never developed for so long the way it was obviously meant to be done. You leave something for more than a year and of course people don't put in the time and effort for that game. Additionally while it may have been implied, those ascending at first had no idea that descension would be an issue.
I'm not criticising those who have put in the time and effort but in order to play a game you have to have people to play against and the way that it is now, it's simply not worth it. I'll take my losses in main and become dormant in time simply because that's the better option.
So where does that leave us? It leaves us with an ascension game that unless you are a part of, or subservient to, the elite clique you have no where to go and no reason to play. If people truly enjoy playing a 'game' then they should enjoy the challenge of playing, not simply knowing that they can crush anything that comes along, hence I make this suggestion. I'd appreciate if people read it fully before imploding (implode please it's less messy) and at least consider the merits in game play rather than what you think your little clique would want or is used to. Also read the justifications for the changes, and if you don't agree be reasonable with your argument and lay out why you don't agree.
The entire suggestion comes down to one point with a small amendment to the current ascension rules to allow it to work properly.
The suggestion is reset the ascended server each year (or at some interval) with the amendment being to allow ascensions past Ancient God.
That is it.
Now why would you want to do this?
To bring meaning back to ascension.
The initial ascensions to prior, prophet etc still have meaning and are still required to get the bonuses in main. Allowing ascensions past Ancient God also allows those people who have ascended that many times not to be disadvantaged in a reset of the ascended server and I'd allow a continuing 1% advantage for each ascension past Living God x2.
But imagine it, all ascended accounts reset, so once again everyone is on equal footing. You can ascend again immediately after the reset to give yourself better stats but then so can everyone else. More ascensions during the year also allow a boost of the ascended being and obviously the bigger they are the bigger the boost. So there is still a need to ascend which is why more than 10 ascensions would be necessary. This has the side benefit of 'resetting' some of the massive main accounts because if they don't ascend again they could face descension and I'm almost positive they don't want that. (I'd allow a starting PPT of 5-7 days but not less than 2 days so that you couldn't be descended immediately.)
This has the benefit that you actually would have to play the ascended server. Yes people ascending late in the 'year' would be disadvantaged by those who ascended immediately after the reset but if they are ascending for main bonuses they aren't going to be so concerned and that would perhaps give a new prior the chance to learn how to play ascension in the knowledge that their next ascension would be in the reset ascended realm so they'd then know what they are doing better.
You still have to play ascension to avoid descension in main and keeping records similar to the Quantum or Chaos wave results would give people encouragement to work on their ascended being. I'd keep the game play how it is (I think but basically no changes).
If people want to play a game then I see this as a challenge. The reset universe puts everyone on equal footing but still gives benefits to those who do sacrifice a lot for ascension as they'd be the more powerful players there still but it also gives all game players a challenge as they struggle again to become what is in their eyes a worthy ascended being. It does not invalidate a massive sacrifice in main to ascend, in fact to me it gives it more meaning over a longer time.
Problems - for those with lots of UU with all those ascensions you'd eventually go over 50million lifers with training and retraining. This would be a problem but might be avoidable if a dynamic cap on army size was placed to allow slower but still steady growth for the bigger accounts. Say you are allowed 10% of your lifers in UU no matter how many lifers you have - hence if you have 55million lifers I can still transfer in and out of my account 5.5million men without hitting the rules laid out by the Galactic Council. (Then of course I can raid to a certain amount as per normal). There's a number of ways around this problem.
---
A few other odds and ends or amendments to suggestion if various parts are found invalid.
If the decision was made to limit ascension to the 10 allowed now then change descension so that if you are a Messiah and you get descended you return to a Prophet, etc etc, this would mean some knocking down of the Ancient Gods to Living Gods again if they got descended but would allow the 'cap' on the number of ascensions to be maintained. Yes you'd HAVE to be descended if you are an ancient god wishing to reascend at reset if this was the case.
If resetting at one set time causes an issue then reset each account on a year by year basis. So that if you ascended on the 12th April, then you reset on the 12th April. This would allow alliance 'protection' there to mean a lot more as suddenly the protector becomes the protected. It also allows a lot more interest. If this was the case I'd allow a starting PPT of 7 days not the usual 2.
If you are descended at your time of reset then you are still descended. Therefore if you get descended the day before your reset then you have to spend a month descended before you can reascend and start again, this time with reset stats and yes... unfortunately very vulnerable again to be descended. Perhaps though then the same person can't descend you twice, or the same alliance can't do it where alliance membership holds for a least a week after leaving. You could put a lot of restrictions or none on this but presumably in your month descended you worked out whatever issue it was that got you descended in the first place.
---
This is suggested to bring back a challenge to the ascended server and to bring back the challenge for the larger ascended beings. It does not invalidate striving for a large sacrifice in main as you'd still need that to be powerful in ascended and it would make competition for the top spots in main have some meaning again as you'd need the glory to once again ascend with the reset. There are numerous benefits and very little to make it unpalatable to the vast amount of us, except for the love of the status quo and the inability to embrace a new challenge.
