Game Development: Ancestral Worship

[Gaiadin]

We would be able to benefit from some stuff that dont require stats, like lembas.

But the power of the ancestors, that gives strenght/melee/unarmed combat/marksmanship would still be left out of usefullness

Exactly. Currently only 1 of the 5 benefits of this system really requires your ancestor to have good stats. The light source and bread are determined by it but honestly that's a small detail when compared to the fact that we are left out of the mapmaking bonus, and the ability to acquire lembas.

[bajuba]

I can't use boar tusk snuff on the altar!

[RaptorJedi]

I can think of some ways to expand on this (that have probably already been thought of by J&L), like if your character has full industry or nature, you could pray to them for a random ore/nugget/bar, or a random seed, with the QL based on something like your farming or smithing of the dead character(s).

And a question here, is this going to lead into deity worship down the line?

[jorb]

I can think of some ways to expand on this (that have probably already been thought of by J&L), like if your character has full industry or nature, you could pray to them for a random ore/nugget/bar, or a random seed, with the QL based on something like your farming or smithing of the dead character(s).

And a question here, is this going to lead into deity worship down the line?

Yes.

[Jack]

For everyone who didnt died yet and dont have/wont be able to have one, unless we die.

Right now, we will be penalised 25 to 75% of all our stats, and considering food is very valuable, why even bothering to eating any type of food whose stat wont be used by the ancestor, since the way it is, we will have to die only to lose it, so everything we eat in reality just give 25% of its effects, or 75% if we wait the time to go full change to full tradition.

Ancestral Worship as it is, is a must have and I dont like to be left out of it, or endure the death.

Having been thinking more about it...

Guys... there is no point in eating most of the foods right now consider I will have to die to get an ancestor, except the ones the ancestor will benefit from.

So, its like the only thing that matter is getting LP and the stats used by the ancestral (strenght is most important and easier to acquire), so it is actually an incentive to go and eat as much strenght fep and grind as much LP we can, neglecting all the other stats UNTILL we die.

After we do this process three times and we get 3 ancestrals (their benefits stacks, albeit proportionally).


My suggestion is simple.
Give everyone an ancestor equivalent of if they had died at the moment of update. (even if they never died)
This way we solve the problems of people left out, the problem that people who just started not having to kill themselfs three times, and the mandatory LP penalty just to get access to it, since there were times when people died while being full tradition and already have fairly strong ancestrals...

Another idea would be to reset the ancestral pool. So everyone who wants to have an ancestral from now on, would have to die AFTER THE UPDATE.

Just my 5 cents.

[Gaiadin]

I'd also like to ask about the Family Heirloom. Since dying now has a stat reduction penalty even at full tradition. Would wearing the family heirloom (Edit: at full tradition), which gives 3 points of tradition (I believe that is accurate,) prevent that stat reduction? Resulting in a 100% ancestor if you die while wearing the family heirloom (Edit: at full tradition.)

[Jack]

I'd also like to ask about the Family Heirloom. Since dying now has a stat reduction penalty even at full tradition. Would wearing the family heirloom (Edit: at full tradition), which gives 3 points of tradition (I believe that is accurate,) prevent that stat reduction? Resulting in a 100% ancestor if you die while wearing the family heirloom (Edit: at full tradition.)

That would counter one of the points of the update:

1. You dont lose everything.
2. You dont keep everything. <------ THIS

[kobnach]

Interesting. I like that I can be full change and still keep some of my stats. But I want to double check; what do I keep? Suppose I die at full change, 100,000 LP total, and str, con, dex etc all 80. Do I come back with 25,000 LP and str,dex etc at 20 (implication - dying at 40 leaves you at starting values)?

This.

Ugh. That basically means that death wipes out one's investment in FEP, or very close to it. (I also presume this has always been true, for those dying without full change/full trad.) Why the imbalance between stat effects and skill effects?

[Edit - I see Loftar posted a correction later; once would get 10 + 1/4 of the difference between one's dying stats and 10. That's not as bad, but it's still a big difference from saving 1/4 of the FEP.]

[kobnach]

I don't think this is a perma-death game any longer, except in name. Many many games charge an xp penalty on death. One loses everything one was carrying or wearing (often left on a lootable corpse), and a percent of one's XP. The new % ranges from 25%-75%, which is pretty steep - but it still fits the paradigm. The only odd thing is that one also gets a forced name change, and loses the contents of one's kin list ("friends list" in other games). But keeping substantially the same name is possible, e.g Kobnach, kobnach, Kob nach, kobbnach, kob_nach, KobNach.... So how is this different from an old time LP mud with its non-perma-death system?

p.s. I don't think this is necc. a problem; perma death + player killers was a problem, so getting rid of perma death is a solution of sorts. I just like truth in terminology.

[Potjeh]

I like most of this update, but I hate the prayer to Loftar part. It's nothing personal against Loftar. I just think that Lembas as an instaheal item seriously breaks the immersion. I could live with a limiteds supply of Lembas in the world, as it'd get spent sooner or later. But now a whole village could give their Lembas to their strongest character, essentially rendering him invincible. Just imagine Blaze with an inventory full of Lembas. What the hell could anyone do against such a monster?

*edit*
I'd also like to use this opportunity to laugh at all those who made fun of me when I died twice with decent strength characters