I've seen a couple of threads about suggested changes to Exaltation (here and here are good examples) and I would like to chime in with my own suggestions... though they are in many ways much more dramatic changes than anyone else has proposed up till now. I was going to wait until my Flight had gathered more statistical data regarding the Exaltation process, but I think there is an interest in getting this out sooner rather than later. Ladies and gentlemen, FR mods and users, may I present:
4000T a small amount for basic hatchlings. I can no longer keep up with the crash in the basic hatchling market. And while since the original posting of this thread the amount of money one makes for Exalting a high level dragon has been increased, considering the effort it takes to get a dragon to level 25 the return is in no way worth the investment of your time. Especially as is often the case, you have likely spent more than that amount, if only in opportunity cost of battle stones you did not sell, to get them to that point. Furthermore, a dragon is more than just a revenue point: it is a continual SOURCE of revenue, by producing more dragons, which can be revenue or further sources of revenue. Therefore, especially given the opportunity cost of exalting, you are dramatically impinging your own benefit... for what? A potential 1750T, 7 gathering attempts, +1 to all stats (yay...) and an admittedly decent discount for expensive market items. There are other arguments for why Exaltation is problematic, and you can see them in the other threads I cited.
It just plain isn't worth what you give up.
In addition, the view of Exaltation needs to change; it really isn't seen as sending our Dragons to serve the gods, it is seen as, basically that dragon's death. The End of All Things for that dragon. It is no more. And because of this, it has unfortunate economic impacts; people are unwilling to Exalt anything but plentiful breeds with basic genes. I know I am. This has rapidly deflated the price for gened and non-plentiful dragons and make scrolls economically nonviable. Why bother scrolling a dragon when you can get 4 dragons with that effect for the same price? Some people have suggested increasing the amount of money one gets for gened and/or non-plentiful breeds, but the problem with this is that it just increases the price floor and does not greatly affect demand, which is the REAL problem here.
First and foremost is the addition to a new link under Clan. It is the "Temple." The Temple is where all the exalted dragons of your Flight live and work, as well as where your Flight's Dragongod lives (Temple, by the way, usually means the place where a god lives. For example, with The Arcanist, the Temple is his Observatory. For the Stormcatcher, it is Tempest Spire). While at the temple you may ask for a Boon from your deity, at a frequency no greater than once per day and not less than once per week. I will get into what can happen more specifically in the Boons section below, but in short is a continuing stream of income and benefits, and it is tied to your Clan's "Eminence". Eminence is a measure of your Clan’s total accumulated-to-date “Grace.” You can also ask the High Priest(ess) to perform a Sacrament if you have pay enough Grace (which is why Eminence is tracked separately; it doesn't decrease when you pay Grace for a Sacrament). As a side-note; Grace and Eminence are tracked on a per-Clan (User) basis, not on a per-Flight basis. These subsystems enable you to get a return on the investment of time and money in your dragons. The Temple in no way interferes with Dominance as it functions now. Also we get more pretty art of dragons and the dragongods. What's not to love?
Potentially, during another Flight's Elemental Holiday, you can visit that Flight's Temple, to pay respect to the Dragongod of that element, purchase some holiday foods/favors, exchange holiday currency for fun items, marvel at the scenery, and the like. It could be possible even to have short little carnival games, little easily programmed computer games for holiday things; this can help make the various holidays feel more like Carnivales and Celebrations and Festivals.
In the Temple is a smaller sub-area, called something akin to the Rectory or the Hall of Heroes, or something, where a user can go view their Exalted Dragons. This serves a new purpose: Making something of a museum. If this area is viewable by others and organizable, it can form something of a showcase for artistic dragon-breeders, dramatically removing the stigma associated with Exalting dragons. In addition, these pages of Exalted Dragons could have a number of features! When a dragon is exalted, you could chose a "career" for it, or the game could (pseudo)randomly assign it. (I have the pseudo part because I REALLY find it hard to believe that a Fae would have the same career options as a Ridgeback, and vice versa). Based on this Career, the dragon's page could update every now and again with a procedurally generated form talking about what they have been doing and what they are up to.
Another potential sub-area of the Temple is the Shrine. It's a small place, belonging to your clan, that you can personalize with new Decor items and show off to other users, possibly as a display of wealth. Now, there are 2 paths to take, and the development team should take the one that they feel is best. One, each element has a unique base Shrine design. Two, the Shrines, regardless of element, are identical in structure but have different aesthetics, so that Decor items only need to be made once, and would display identically in any Shrine, be it Plague, Light, or Fire. (There are some middle-ground options by having a set of elements have a same structural base, increasing the variety slightly.) In essence, decorating your shrine would work akin to apparel for dragons. Select a Decor item and it goes into a slot on the Shrine. More slots can be purchased with Treasure and/or Gems, just as can be done with Dragon apparel slots. While having the ability to freely arrange the decor of your shrine would be fun and could lead to a lot of great artistic accomplishments... I also fear that the power would not be handled... responsibly by some. This is, after all, still a family friendly site. Some possible Decore items include:
Dominance
Dominance, if the other changes are implemented, functions at a decent level, though I could perhaps argue giving perhaps 1 gem a day along with the current benefits, to make things a little more... interesting. In addition, a Dominant Flight will generate a fairly small amount of Grace for Clans belonging to it; it shouldn’t be enough for a Sacrament on its own but it should help a new player along the way to one. It should be noted here that this suggestion does not in fact change much of the way that Dominance functions. Dominance, as a mechanic, is fine, if somewhat contentious. While people see it as problematic NOW, I genuinely believe a lot of the problems that people see with it will resolve themselves with time and an influx of new users. Also I think this system may help resolve some of them mostly on accident.
Boons
This is the real meat of the suggestion, aside from the Temple where you obtain them (and Grace and Sacraments, which were added after the thread was originally posted). Boons are rewards, pure and simple, but consist of a weighted table with some interesting new items. Most commonly, and especially at low levels of “Eminence,” you would receive a pile of Treasure and/or random loot items unique to your Flight. Scavenging items from your area, your element's Runestone, and the like. Gems could also be possible, though comparatively rare. As you exalt more dragons and you improve your Eminence, more options available. An option for the devs to consider is to use a dragon you Exalted as a messenger to deliver you a message and the boon attached. The message could be based on a procedurally generated template, talking about what the dragon has been doing lately; it would be similar to the Exalted Dragon's page, but more personally framed. Here are some ideas for boons:
This would make the Temple a source of continuing income that roughly bases its returns on the value of the Exalted Dragons. Plus, it may have a place where you can view your Exalted Ones. The Exalted Ones may even greet you at the door, if the Dev's can figure out a way.
Grace and Sacraments
(As a note, Grace was originally suggested under the title “Glory” by @DragonSage; I’m sorry sir or madam that your credit for this was inadvertently delayed). Grace is a new resource obtained from exalting dragons; it is not item based and cannot be transferred between players and is derived from the number of dragons you have exalted, the level they were exalted at, and either to which Flight they belong or a bonus if they were originally hatched in your Clan. The reason for this as it is more logical for a slightly larger bonus for dragons of your own flight as they are statistically more likely to have come from YOU; personal sacrifices are greater than impersonal ones. Grace can be calculated using the following formula:
Grace is separate and distinct from Dominance and in fact the same formulas should not be used for the sake of fairness as it prevents richer flights from Dominating poorer flights continually. All of a Clan's (User's) Grace earned to date is also recorded as that Clan's (User's) Eminence and helps determine what Boons you are likely to get when praying at the Temple. From time to time (or every week) the dragongods may ask for a specific kind of dragon; exalting dragons that match that description earn more Grace than normal. Whether or not the Dragongods ask for the same thing or can ask for different qualifiers is left to the Admin staff. My suggestion, personally, is to have them be separate and randomized, with the ability to override for economic correction (too many Imps on the market? Ask for Imperials!). Some potential requests are below:
Grace can be used with the Temple's High Priest to perform Sacraments (A definition of the word sacrament is "grace made physical" so it is quite applicable). Paying for a Sacrament with Grace will decrease available Grace but will not decrease Eminence. These Sacraments vary in the amount of Grace they take to perform and in rare cases on availability. Some are really expensive, some are not. Some are only available when your flight is Dominant and your Dragongod is overflowing with power. These are overwhelmingly in the minority, however. Sacraments are intended to be a deterministic goal for players to work towards and for Flights to coordinate for in the case of the ones that require Dominance or for doting upon a favored player. Random rewards are fine and dandy, but when you work hard for something it has much more meaning. One of the things I would prefer is that Sacraments should not create items... I do not want these to directly create transferable wealth. I am totally okay with them indirectly creating transferable wealth though. Some example Sacraments are listed below:
Implementation
All these suggestions are fine and dandy, but HOW should they be implemented? I suggest a staged approach to allow the most important changes in quickly and then slowly add content.
Flight Projects
Originally suggested by @warriorjames and offered for integration into this Overhaul, Flight Projects has FINALLY made its way here (sorry warriorjames that this took so long). The general meta-concept is that to build anticipation while the Exaltation Overhaul is being constructed and to take dragons, items, Treasure and Gems out of the market. Essentially, during each week/month/unspecified time period, a Flight is working on their own "project." This can range from fairly simple things like redoing the wiring on Tempest Spire to fix some shorts and arcing problems to the fairly complex like laying the foundation for the Flight's Temple. Each "project" would consist of the members of the Flight donating as many of a particular item (Copper and silver for the wiring project, stones for the foundation, etc.), amount of Treasure, amount of Gems (though this should not be common or high per person, this is not Pay to Win, after all), and/or number and breed of Exalted Dragons as the project requires for completion. If the project is successful (and the numbers should be balanced in such a way that it is possible to fail in the allotted time frame), every member of the Flight gets some bonus mailed to them by their deity. These rewards could be simple statistical bonuses (+1 Egg per nest, bonus stats or treasure per day, etc.), or could be item care packages (like we used to get for downtime), or even rewarding Grace and Eminence in preparation for the Temples. This can be done to organically stage the construction of the Temples while the back-end code is constructed. Now, because each of the Eleven Flights will be working on the Temples at roughly the same time, the similar stages of each project should not require the same item donations so as to not crash one economy or having one Flight being able to make progress at the expense of the others...in some ways this can help foster some Flight Cooperation!
Example Project: Rewiring Tempest Spire
THE @STORMCATCHER HAS ORDERED YOU TO GET BACK TO WORK! Specifically we need to redo some of the cabling and wiring around Tempest Spire. The current has been burning out the insulation and melting the wires. There are shorts and arcing everywhere and it is a MESS.
Requires some or all of the below:
~30 Copper Ore per Active Flight Member for wires
~15 Rich Copper Ore per Active Flight Member for cabling
~3 Silver Ore per Active Flight Member for low resistance wires
~30 Broken Bottles or Sand per Active Flight Member to melt down for new insulation. (Or ~10 of the old shoes/chew toys to melt down for new insulation. Requires a bit of Colosseum Grinding but it encourages people to expand their horizons)
~5000T per Active Flight Member to commission tools from the @Flamecaller
~3 Gems per Active Flight Member (Less than half what you make in a week from keeping your dragons fed)
~1 Fae Dragon Exalted per Active Flight Member BECAUSE MY MANTIS ARMS CAN'T FIDDLE WITH THOSE TINY TINY WIRES EASILY AND FAE HAVE SMALL AND CLEVER CLAWS.
Now, this does introduce a bit of a freeloader problem, but we've seen Dominance fights that work out similarly... and if the right "projects" are chosen (see warriorjames's original thread here for examples, this can be a way for Flights to push themselves and compete with THEMSELVES in addition to compete with the other flights, as well as possibly introducing some inter-Flight cooperation ("Hey, we need some copper, and you guys need some salt. Wanna trade?")
Misc. Changes
All dragons that are unnamed at the time of Exaltation are renamed to "Exalted One" or "Servant of ________", or some other similar thing (we could potentially assemble a random list. "(Deity)'s Batman" is technically correct (And that's the best KIND of correct!) for the word and would be both amusing and awesome. (Batman is an old timey word for butler). (Idea originally from Airyu's thread)
The immediate treasure reward for Exalting dragons is increased to be more rewarding; a level 25 dragon should produce AT LEAST 25kT if not more. This has been implemented! The change is helpful and appreciated, but is not enough to solve the ultimate root problem, which comes from supply, demand, and the fact that Exaltation as a concept isn't really worth it, yet.
There are many users who have helped in the success of this suggestion, and so thank you. I don't remember everyone, and if I have left out your name on this list and you want a shout-out, feel free to let me know! Thanks @DragonSage for the suggestion that led to Grace's existence as well as being a great promoter of the thread! Thanks @Never for a sizable amount of suggestions for Boons and Sacraments! @AdeleneDawner for some details about fleshing out the interactions of the Temple and Exalted Dragons! Thanks @warriorjames for your Flight Projects submission! Feel free to comment, suggest further improvements, or what have you. Have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Fayd
P.S. We know the Admin team is at least aware the thread exists. @Undel posted here, saying:
Fayd's Exaltation Overhaul!
Why?
Why do we need an overhaul of the Exaltation process? Simple, really: The rewards are, in no way, worth what you sacrifice. The average going rate now for a dragon on the Auction house is about It just plain isn't worth what you give up.
In addition, the view of Exaltation needs to change; it really isn't seen as sending our Dragons to serve the gods, it is seen as, basically that dragon's death. The End of All Things for that dragon. It is no more. And because of this, it has unfortunate economic impacts; people are unwilling to Exalt anything but plentiful breeds with basic genes. I know I am. This has rapidly deflated the price for gened and non-plentiful dragons and make scrolls economically nonviable. Why bother scrolling a dragon when you can get 4 dragons with that effect for the same price? Some people have suggested increasing the amount of money one gets for gened and/or non-plentiful breeds, but the problem with this is that it just increases the price floor and does not greatly affect demand, which is the REAL problem here.
The Changes
The TempleFirst and foremost is the addition to a new link under Clan. It is the "Temple." The Temple is where all the exalted dragons of your Flight live and work, as well as where your Flight's Dragongod lives (Temple, by the way, usually means the place where a god lives. For example, with The Arcanist, the Temple is his Observatory. For the Stormcatcher, it is Tempest Spire). While at the temple you may ask for a Boon from your deity, at a frequency no greater than once per day and not less than once per week. I will get into what can happen more specifically in the Boons section below, but in short is a continuing stream of income and benefits, and it is tied to your Clan's "Eminence". Eminence is a measure of your Clan’s total accumulated-to-date “Grace.” You can also ask the High Priest(ess) to perform a Sacrament if you have pay enough Grace (which is why Eminence is tracked separately; it doesn't decrease when you pay Grace for a Sacrament). As a side-note; Grace and Eminence are tracked on a per-Clan (User) basis, not on a per-Flight basis. These subsystems enable you to get a return on the investment of time and money in your dragons. The Temple in no way interferes with Dominance as it functions now. Also we get more pretty art of dragons and the dragongods. What's not to love?
Potentially, during another Flight's Elemental Holiday, you can visit that Flight's Temple, to pay respect to the Dragongod of that element, purchase some holiday foods/favors, exchange holiday currency for fun items, marvel at the scenery, and the like. It could be possible even to have short little carnival games, little easily programmed computer games for holiday things; this can help make the various holidays feel more like Carnivales and Celebrations and Festivals.
In the Temple is a smaller sub-area, called something akin to the Rectory or the Hall of Heroes, or something, where a user can go view their Exalted Dragons. This serves a new purpose: Making something of a museum. If this area is viewable by others and organizable, it can form something of a showcase for artistic dragon-breeders, dramatically removing the stigma associated with Exalting dragons. In addition, these pages of Exalted Dragons could have a number of features! When a dragon is exalted, you could chose a "career" for it, or the game could (pseudo)randomly assign it. (I have the pseudo part because I REALLY find it hard to believe that a Fae would have the same career options as a Ridgeback, and vice versa). Based on this Career, the dragon's page could update every now and again with a procedurally generated form talking about what they have been doing and what they are up to.
Another potential sub-area of the Temple is the Shrine. It's a small place, belonging to your clan, that you can personalize with new Decor items and show off to other users, possibly as a display of wealth. Now, there are 2 paths to take, and the development team should take the one that they feel is best. One, each element has a unique base Shrine design. Two, the Shrines, regardless of element, are identical in structure but have different aesthetics, so that Decor items only need to be made once, and would display identically in any Shrine, be it Plague, Light, or Fire. (There are some middle-ground options by having a set of elements have a same structural base, increasing the variety slightly.) In essence, decorating your shrine would work akin to apparel for dragons. Select a Decor item and it goes into a slot on the Shrine. More slots can be purchased with Treasure and/or Gems, just as can be done with Dragon apparel slots. While having the ability to freely arrange the decor of your shrine would be fun and could lead to a lot of great artistic accomplishments... I also fear that the power would not be handled... responsibly by some. This is, after all, still a family friendly site. Some possible Decore items include:
- Runestones
- Photographs/paintings/lithographs/etc. of Dragons you Exalted (These items would be sold as frames, you would select the Exalted Dragon when you placed it).
- Scrolls, Tomes, and such
- Various elementally appropriate things (seeds, test tubes, hammers, wires, stardust, and so on)
- Candles/Electric lights
- A portrait of a Dragongod
- Other appropriate items
- Tapestry drapings
- New furnishing materials (Stone, Wood, Steel, bronze)
- Stained Glass Windows with Neutral or Flight Iconography
- Incense
- Food or other offerings
- Statues (Dragons, dragon-gods, familiars, abstract art, what have you)
- More to come
Dominance
Dominance, if the other changes are implemented, functions at a decent level, though I could perhaps argue giving perhaps 1 gem a day along with the current benefits, to make things a little more... interesting. In addition, a Dominant Flight will generate a fairly small amount of Grace for Clans belonging to it; it shouldn’t be enough for a Sacrament on its own but it should help a new player along the way to one. It should be noted here that this suggestion does not in fact change much of the way that Dominance functions. Dominance, as a mechanic, is fine, if somewhat contentious. While people see it as problematic NOW, I genuinely believe a lot of the problems that people see with it will resolve themselves with time and an influx of new users. Also I think this system may help resolve some of them mostly on accident.
Boons
This is the real meat of the suggestion, aside from the Temple where you obtain them (and Grace and Sacraments, which were added after the thread was originally posted). Boons are rewards, pure and simple, but consist of a weighted table with some interesting new items. Most commonly, and especially at low levels of “Eminence,” you would receive a pile of Treasure and/or random loot items unique to your Flight. Scavenging items from your area, your element's Runestone, and the like. Gems could also be possible, though comparatively rare. As you exalt more dragons and you improve your Eminence, more options available. An option for the devs to consider is to use a dragon you Exalted as a messenger to deliver you a message and the boon attached. The message could be based on a procedurally generated template, talking about what the dragon has been doing lately; it would be similar to the Exalted Dragon's page, but more personally framed. Here are some ideas for boons:
- A gene (tertiary, most likely) only obtainable from the temple, and unique and specialized to your Flight.
- A skin that can only be obtained from the temple, and unique and specialized to your Flight.
- A forum vista unique to your Flight
- An unhatched dragon egg from your Flight.
- An unhatched Wild Dragon Egg from your Flight. A Wild Dragon Egg has an uncommon chance to hatch into a dragon with a special gene or breed.
- A Boon of Fertility
- Boon of Twinning; the nest/dragon pair this is used on has a substantial chance to produce 2 dragons from one egg. Whether or not "twinning" is passed down (i.e. it skips a generation to pop up again) could be something for a later date.
- A Scroll of Multiplicity: When used on a dragon, their next clutch has a greater than normal chance for more eggs. If used on both parents, 5 eggs is reasonably possible, even with two dragons of the same breed.
- Boon of Mutation: One of the four genes (Breed, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary) of the eggs becomes decoupled from the parents that raised the eggs. This could result in special genes or breeds. Be careful though, as each Boon used has a chance to make an egg rot. Even though Egg Rot has been removed from the game now, I still feel like this is a good balancing consideration with a powerful item like this.
- Scroll of Mutation: Randomly change a gene of an adult dragon; Most commonly this would change your color, but gaining a rarer gene is still a possibility.
- Unique Battle Stones for your Flight
- Unique familiars for your Flight
- A breed change scroll
- An already present gene
- A Palette Scroll: This is actually a series of scrolls that allow you to change the color of a dragon's Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary gene to a random one within a particular range of colors (because being TOTALLY deterministic is boring!) These items differentiate themselves from a Scatterscroll in that they affect a single gene color and that they change it to somewhere in a defined range on the color wheel.
- A Gender-Change Scroll; Using this scroll resets the dragon's breeding cooldown as their body adapts to the new... equipment.
- A Dragon of your Flight. This could potentially bring Exalted Dragons back into the game. It may not. Depends on what the developers want to do. If it does bring Exalted Dragons back, they should only be pulled from the list of Dragons you personally exalted (and they could have a little status buff icon like the familiar that indicates that they were once exalted)
- Serendipitous Sweet: Raise a dragon's level by 1.
- A Treasure Chest of some description
- Things that may interface with the eventual item crafting system (I don't know if recipes are a thing but you could obtain some this way if they are!)
- Halos and Auras: These are apparel items that create a back-glow related to your element to your dragon. I don't think a halo should be a floating ring, that's boring. A stained-glass disc behind the head with elemental iconography? THAT'S COOL.
- Gift of Life: Revives one egg that had rotted due to an item.
- Raw ________ : Changes an egg, either in a nest or as an unhatched item to one of another element. (Raw Arcana, Raw Darkness, Raw Pestilence, Raw Luminance, and the like)
- Raw Chaos: As above, but not deterministic. Thus, a more common find
- Divine Feast: A chest that contains Nectar and Ambrosia, a high yield food item that fills ALL of your food types. And some Treasure and Gems. Because why not?
- Familiar Cage: Contains 1 random familiar. Good luck!
- Armoire of Faith: An Armoire that contains a random, appropriate for the deity, and relatively rare, apparel item.
- And MORE. Feel free to suggest them.
This would make the Temple a source of continuing income that roughly bases its returns on the value of the Exalted Dragons. Plus, it may have a place where you can view your Exalted Ones. The Exalted Ones may even greet you at the door, if the Dev's can figure out a way.
Grace and Sacraments
(As a note, Grace was originally suggested under the title “Glory” by @DragonSage; I’m sorry sir or madam that your credit for this was inadvertently delayed). Grace is a new resource obtained from exalting dragons; it is not item based and cannot be transferred between players and is derived from the number of dragons you have exalted, the level they were exalted at, and either to which Flight they belong or a bonus if they were originally hatched in your Clan. The reason for this as it is more logical for a slightly larger bonus for dragons of your own flight as they are statistically more likely to have come from YOU; personal sacrifices are greater than impersonal ones. Grace can be calculated using the following formula:
- B represents the Base Grace you earn. It is a simple number, likely an integer, that is simple and easy to change for balance purposes. It mostly affects the scale of the numbers.
- C is a number equal to the Dragon's Breed's breeding cooldown (15 for Mirrors and Tundras, 35 for Wildclaws); this means you get more Grace for Exalting rarer dragons; I divide by 15, but this need not necessarily be the number eventually used; adjusting it higher and lower can help balance the formula properly.
- G sub P, S, and T represent a number that determines the rarity of a gene, and N represents a normalization factor equal to that of the number of the basic gene. In a hypothetical example, basic genes have 15, and Iridescent and Shimmer have 35, and N is 15.
- L represents a bonus factor based upon the Level of the dragon.
- A represents a bonus factor based upon the age AND maturity status of the dragon. Mature dragons are worth more than babies, and older dragons are worth more than younger dragons.
- O sub F and C represent factors based upon the Origin of the dragon; you get more for dragons from your Flight and from your Clan originally.
- Finally, that last function, RAND( ) produces a random number between a lower bound (B sub L) and a higher bound (B sub H), preferably distributed along a bell curve. B sub L should range from somewhere between 0.90 and 0.95 and B sub H should range from somewhere between 1.05 and 1.10. This will introduce an element of randomness that will make the process more "exciting." Also it will make it harder for people down the line to figure out the formula. Numerical obfuscation!
Grace is separate and distinct from Dominance and in fact the same formulas should not be used for the sake of fairness as it prevents richer flights from Dominating poorer flights continually. All of a Clan's (User's) Grace earned to date is also recorded as that Clan's (User's) Eminence and helps determine what Boons you are likely to get when praying at the Temple. From time to time (or every week) the dragongods may ask for a specific kind of dragon; exalting dragons that match that description earn more Grace than normal. Whether or not the Dragongods ask for the same thing or can ask for different qualifiers is left to the Admin staff. My suggestion, personally, is to have them be separate and randomized, with the ability to override for economic correction (too many Imps on the market? Ask for Imperials!). Some potential requests are below:
- "I NEED MORE FAE DRAGONS TO ACCESS TEMPEST SPIRE'S DISTRESSINGLY SMALL CONTROL PANELS!" And if you exalt more Fae Dragons, you get a bonus.
- "Ice for the Icewarden!" Exalting dragons with a primary, secondary, or tertiary color that is Ice gets you a bonus.
- "I have found a most curious phenomenon and wish to study it; it appears these linear markings on the skin of some dragons appears to cause them to channel magical energy in a subtly different way than normal." Exalting dragons with the Circuit Tertiary grants a small bonus.
Grace can be used with the Temple's High Priest to perform Sacraments (A definition of the word sacrament is "grace made physical" so it is quite applicable). Paying for a Sacrament with Grace will decrease available Grace but will not decrease Eminence. These Sacraments vary in the amount of Grace they take to perform and in rare cases on availability. Some are really expensive, some are not. Some are only available when your flight is Dominant and your Dragongod is overflowing with power. These are overwhelmingly in the minority, however. Sacraments are intended to be a deterministic goal for players to work towards and for Flights to coordinate for in the case of the ones that require Dominance or for doting upon a favored player. Random rewards are fine and dandy, but when you work hard for something it has much more meaning. One of the things I would prefer is that Sacraments should not create items... I do not want these to directly create transferable wealth. I am totally okay with them indirectly creating transferable wealth though. Some example Sacraments are listed below:
- Blessing of the Seeker: Bonus gathering attempts for 1 week.
- Anointment of Fertility: One random nest becomes ready to hatch
- Skins and genes unique to the Flight.
- Blessing of Battle: Increases dragon's stats by X
- Anointment of Health: The Dragon's next clutch of eggs cannot rot due to item use.
- Another Nest (only obtainable a certain number of times)
- Additional Lair Space (only obtainable a certain number of times)
- Blessing of Fortune: Games give double money for X days.
- Packrat's Paradise: For X days, you can grab +Y items from Pinkerton
- Gambler's Glory: Rewards for Higher or Lower are dramatically increased
- Anointing of the Blessed Fast: Your dragons do not hunger but cannot eat for X Days. (Convenient for vacations). At the start of the Blessed Fast, the energy of all dragons is lowered by 5% per use cumulatively until they have not been fasting for a time greater than they were. Therefore if you chain Fasts together a number of times you WILL lose your well fed bonus.
- Blessing of Twinning; the nest/dragon pair this is used on has a substantial chance to produce 2 dragons from one egg. Whether or not "twinning" is passed down (i.e. it skips a generation to pop up again) could be something for a later date.
- Consecrated Combat: Colloseum XP increased by X%
- Transference: This is not a single sacrament, but rather a set; each one allows you to change your Lair's location to another one in the region. Whether or not this actually means something could be up for debate.
- Severance: A dragon's connection to its ancestors is severed, making the dragon now Parentless/First Generation. This may have a rather nasty side effect of potentially reverting genes to their basic versions.
- Hibernation: A dragon is put in ensorcelled slumber, from which it cannot wake. During this time, its energy will not deplete, it will not eat, it cannot breed, it cannot fight in the Colosseum and its breeding cooldown will not tick. It can still bond with familiars (Snugglepile!) but that is about all it can do. This is a relatively inexpensive Sacrament; could encapsulate a number of actual Sacraments based on length (or it could have a dropdown list with a dynamically determined cost).
- Scattering: A dragon's colors or a single color are scattered, a la a scatterscroll.
- Mutation: A single gene of a dragon is randomized, up to and including its TYPE. (Basic->Tiger... or Iridescent->Basic). Potentially there are genes that can ONLY be obtained this way.
- Other things on the Boon palette as appropriate, reconfigured to be instant and not item based.
- Sublairs: Essentially Tabs in your Lair that help you organize dragons, as well as increasing the number of dragons you can hold. Lair and Sublair tabs can be renamed (either for free or for a cost). Beware the food cost!
- Attunement: This is a complex ritual, and only able to be performed for extremely high Grace and during the time your flight is Dominant. It links with my Attuned Dragon Breed idea; essentially, a selected dragon is Attuned to the force of your element, changing appearance (breed) to more closely match that of your dragongod. (The breed would be difficult to make as there would be 24 forms (one for each Flight and 2 undifferentiated babies) that would have to be colored and gened (though genes for them could come later). This powerful ritual binds the dragon to your clan and it then can never leave except by Exaltation (but why would you want to). The breed is considered very rare (on the level or more rare than wildclaws). Baby attuned dragons, if hatched in your clan however could be sold.
Implementation
All these suggestions are fine and dandy, but HOW should they be implemented? I suggest a staged approach to allow the most important changes in quickly and then slowly add content.
- Stage 1: Core features. This step, while the easiest to implement from an artistic standpoint will likely take a lot of coding effort. In this tier, the Temples are implemented, along with Grace, Eminence, BASIC boons (Treasure, gems, chests, location specific items, dragon eggs, and maybe some of the easier to generate content items like a new familiar for each Flight or the like). Some basic Sacraments should be implemented, such as Scattering, more lair space, more nests, and the like. This implementation will start to solve the basic economic problems.
- Stage 2: Simple Content: The lists of boons and sacraments are filled out with more of the simple rewards. Art-resource creation of some of the more complex pieces could go on in the background if time permits.
- Stage 3: BIG rewards: In order to keep the system interesting, one or two of the big rewards should be implemented rather quickly after the system is created.
- Stage 4: More Simple Content
- Stage 5: Attuned: Due to the complexity of this reward, it would likely take the LONGEST amount of time to do; it wouldn't be fair to release it to one Flight and not the rest, so it would have to be done all at once, and making a dragon-breed is no small feat, as Skydancers prove.
- Stage 6: Ongoing additions: Fill out the boons and Sacraments are added as they are created.
Flight Projects
Originally suggested by @warriorjames and offered for integration into this Overhaul, Flight Projects has FINALLY made its way here (sorry warriorjames that this took so long). The general meta-concept is that to build anticipation while the Exaltation Overhaul is being constructed and to take dragons, items, Treasure and Gems out of the market. Essentially, during each week/month/unspecified time period, a Flight is working on their own "project." This can range from fairly simple things like redoing the wiring on Tempest Spire to fix some shorts and arcing problems to the fairly complex like laying the foundation for the Flight's Temple. Each "project" would consist of the members of the Flight donating as many of a particular item (Copper and silver for the wiring project, stones for the foundation, etc.), amount of Treasure, amount of Gems (though this should not be common or high per person, this is not Pay to Win, after all), and/or number and breed of Exalted Dragons as the project requires for completion. If the project is successful (and the numbers should be balanced in such a way that it is possible to fail in the allotted time frame), every member of the Flight gets some bonus mailed to them by their deity. These rewards could be simple statistical bonuses (+1 Egg per nest, bonus stats or treasure per day, etc.), or could be item care packages (like we used to get for downtime), or even rewarding Grace and Eminence in preparation for the Temples. This can be done to organically stage the construction of the Temples while the back-end code is constructed. Now, because each of the Eleven Flights will be working on the Temples at roughly the same time, the similar stages of each project should not require the same item donations so as to not crash one economy or having one Flight being able to make progress at the expense of the others...in some ways this can help foster some Flight Cooperation!
Example Project: Rewiring Tempest Spire
THE @STORMCATCHER HAS ORDERED YOU TO GET BACK TO WORK! Specifically we need to redo some of the cabling and wiring around Tempest Spire. The current has been burning out the insulation and melting the wires. There are shorts and arcing everywhere and it is a MESS.
Requires some or all of the below:
~30 Copper Ore per Active Flight Member for wires
~15 Rich Copper Ore per Active Flight Member for cabling
~3 Silver Ore per Active Flight Member for low resistance wires
~30 Broken Bottles or Sand per Active Flight Member to melt down for new insulation. (Or ~10 of the old shoes/chew toys to melt down for new insulation. Requires a bit of Colosseum Grinding but it encourages people to expand their horizons)
~5000T per Active Flight Member to commission tools from the @Flamecaller
~3 Gems per Active Flight Member (Less than half what you make in a week from keeping your dragons fed)
~1 Fae Dragon Exalted per Active Flight Member BECAUSE MY MANTIS ARMS CAN'T FIDDLE WITH THOSE TINY TINY WIRES EASILY AND FAE HAVE SMALL AND CLEVER CLAWS.
Now, this does introduce a bit of a freeloader problem, but we've seen Dominance fights that work out similarly... and if the right "projects" are chosen (see warriorjames's original thread here for examples, this can be a way for Flights to push themselves and compete with THEMSELVES in addition to compete with the other flights, as well as possibly introducing some inter-Flight cooperation ("Hey, we need some copper, and you guys need some salt. Wanna trade?")
Misc. Changes
All dragons that are unnamed at the time of Exaltation are renamed to "Exalted One" or "Servant of ________", or some other similar thing (we could potentially assemble a random list. "(Deity)'s Batman" is technically correct (And that's the best KIND of correct!) for the word and would be both amusing and awesome. (Batman is an old timey word for butler). (Idea originally from Airyu's thread)
There are many users who have helped in the success of this suggestion, and so thank you. I don't remember everyone, and if I have left out your name on this list and you want a shout-out, feel free to let me know! Thanks @DragonSage for the suggestion that led to Grace's existence as well as being a great promoter of the thread! Thanks @Never for a sizable amount of suggestions for Boons and Sacraments! @AdeleneDawner for some details about fleshing out the interactions of the Temple and Exalted Dragons! Thanks @warriorjames for your Flight Projects submission! Feel free to comment, suggest further improvements, or what have you. Have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Fayd
P.S. We know the Admin team is at least aware the thread exists. @Undel posted here, saying:
Undel wrote on 2013-07-05 04:09:56:
Thought I'd chime in so you know I'm not ignoring your pings. ^^ We try not to comment on the suggestions threads for several reasons. The big two are:
If we bring up positive or negative points to the idea, it seems to end most conversations, because "the admin has spoken". Also, bringing up positive or negative points about an idea seems to imply that we're going to implement or reject the idea. This also ends conversation.
If we like an idea and want to implement it, folks immediately want a timetable, and we have a lot on our plate to address before we can begin implementing some of the more involved suggestions. As an example, a lot of what you're suggesting involves a large, timeconsuming amount of backend programming and artwork for the reward system. The development time needed to create such things would likely put a stop to our updates for several weeks to a month. If we were to ever implement an involved suggestion, it will likely take a long time, as we'd build the updates behind the scenes concurrently with the updates we're actually releasing. (This is not a yay/nay for your thread. This is an example. ^^)
TLDR: We do read the suggestions forum several times a week, even if we're not vocal. :-) We are purposefully trying not to be vocal because us doing so is a conversation and idea stopper, no matter which way we weigh in.
That being said: Carry on the discussion! XD
If we bring up positive or negative points to the idea, it seems to end most conversations, because "the admin has spoken". Also, bringing up positive or negative points about an idea seems to imply that we're going to implement or reject the idea. This also ends conversation.
If we like an idea and want to implement it, folks immediately want a timetable, and we have a lot on our plate to address before we can begin implementing some of the more involved suggestions. As an example, a lot of what you're suggesting involves a large, timeconsuming amount of backend programming and artwork for the reward system. The development time needed to create such things would likely put a stop to our updates for several weeks to a month. If we were to ever implement an involved suggestion, it will likely take a long time, as we'd build the updates behind the scenes concurrently with the updates we're actually releasing. (This is not a yay/nay for your thread. This is an example. ^^)
TLDR: We do read the suggestions forum several times a week, even if we're not vocal. :-) We are purposefully trying not to be vocal because us doing so is a conversation and idea stopper, no matter which way we weigh in.
That being said: Carry on the discussion! XD
Admin wrote on 2013-07-26 13:09:00:
When things have calmed down a bit more and we have our server congestion and site optimization under control under control, we will absolutely be giving everything in the suggestions forum a second read-through. We have lots of great ideas on how to make the game more fun, but at present, no time to implement them. This will change. :-)
Fayd's Exaltation Overhaul
The ******* Links are correct. There's a bug preventing direct Forum URLs.
The ******* Links are correct. There's a bug preventing direct Forum URLs.
