i realize the things said here will be largely irrelevant and dismissed in the large flood of discussion which will rotate for a while but i will say:
any character that is unbeatable should be, at the very least, interactable in a positive way that does not benefit one side only.
take the RISE member who caused the tournament. pushed IC and caused a significant change to the world (though its tied behind the tower which i dont really like, but thats preference)
take Lyseroth and how he, once becoming the strongest, turned into an EC and caused a significant change to the state of the world
now, consider xarxes. i'm not dismissing his efforts, but i am going to say: he is not influencing the world beyond being a beatstick for the enemy side to throw at people in raids, who has gotten so strong that he is now barred from getting raid match ups. this has obviously caused futility in his character on account of no longer being able to be that beatstick. which is fine! a powerful character does not need to attend raids. there are lots of other ways to influence rp in the world.
but... if you actually look at what xarxes is doing now:
![[Image: image.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/820467453397958658/1146277586658398218/image.png)
![[Image: image.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/820467453397958658/1146290703954104370/image.png)
you can say what you want, but randomly running into a settlement that has publicly renounced you and looking for stalls
and ALSO sparring right beside TAG tower, known enemies who have knocked down a tower of yours says one thing, to me.
He's unstoppable.
I'm not coming for Xarxes as a writer. I don't know what Xarxes writes because all I ever hear is negative discussion around him. And it really sucks, because having a character that's this strong shouldn't be possible, but it obviously shows he's a decent writer because he's lasted this long and apped that much. It just goes against game balance. I don't really care what anyone has to say about it. If your MAJOR ANTAGONIST can walk into settlements, look around and not suffer any consequences beyond a few scars (i.e., the 2v1 scrap outside the Dorian settlement), it breaks IC immersion MASSIVELY
I don't really know what should be done about invulns. I think Xarxes' build could be piloted by anyone (i've piloted pieces of the build with success without nearly being as stacked as it) but I also don't think the game should revolve around RPBs so strongly when people's numbers and skill levels can be so different (as said by Lung earlier!!). However, I, and everyone else, has a very different vision of what the game should be.
I just think that there should be a cap on how strong you should be able to become. Remember at the beginning of E4 when the admin team and community agreed, at large, that uniques and the journal system and hiddens shouldn't be as wide-spread? That's WHY the public master system got introduced in the first place. But, we slowly went back, and now we're in a stage of massive power-creep.
I think that on the side of the admins, more careful consideration should be given to what is given to certain people.
A while ago, I was having a discussion in the discord where I was told, verbatim, 'those who are not good at the game are more likely to be given Signatures.' I don't think this is actually really healthy for the game, but I think it serves as a good balancing act. I just think it should be done with much more consideration for the game state as a whole, because if an antagonist can walk into 2 enemy settlements, perform very OOC behaviors like sparring and looking for stalls, and walk away unscathed? There is something wrong with game balance.
I will also say that Na'ria's player, also complained about people walking through their area when I approached them during the tower fiasco. Their response was to danger them, and this was a fairly large, public area that people NEED to go to get fruit spawns. I think that it's a little inconvenient, but they made their claim to the land; thats only fair. People who ignore territory rules should be punished accordingly, even if they needed to be there.
But... why did Xarxes need to be in 2 enemy settlements? What did he need there that couldn't just be elsewhere? And, above all else, why did he do so in such an OOC manner that showed that he didn't feel any threat?
What people have stat-wise and hidden wise needs to be either more tightly gatekept and kept track of, with strong characters having regular check-ups (not to incite nerfs of powerful people, merit-based RP rewards effort and taking that away is counter-intuitive, but to evaluate where they are strength wise and what they are doing to justify that strength)
as for the discussion about invulns being on a second cooldown? idk lol im done giving game balance i give game balance suggestions even when i'm not playing and they're largely ignored. i've accepted that this game's meta moves in waves, and whatever is strong will be strong. it is what it is.
however, i think a lot of you have blinders on as to what game balance should be and should be ignored largely due to a) your lack of knowledge on what actually makes something strong and b) your lack of skill-expressive builds (again! no judgement! my character at its peak was Metal + Cosmic + Earth in a time when whips stunned, beams did a ton of damage, mud was incredibly overpowered and Tremor did 11k with a huge ass hitbox. it was not very skill expressive) c) the fact you're in an echo-chamber regarding the builds you encounter (also no judgement-- especially regarding occult and holy since people within the same settlements will likely mostly have holy and occult and only encounter the other in dangers or high-stress fights.)
tl;dr, better examination regarding stats/uniques/hiddens to keep numbers from getting out of hand.
stop fucking posting balance threads we've had like quadruple the amount of balance changes we had in e3 this shit is getting out of hand and i know the journal team is getting sick of the constant respec apps
xarxes stop walking into enemy territory and acting like you're untouchable
also as an addendum; just set up a dedicated balance team that doesn't play and doesnt lean towards any specific tree. maybe assign each tree a class or identity so its purpose can be properly evaluated (damage, support, etc?? idk. im spitballing and this is all a stream of consciousness) and you dont end up with really stupid spell combinations in a single tree that I WONT SAY HERE, BUT I KNOW EVERYONE SAW 1 PARTICULAR TREE IN EFFECT A LOT MORE THAN OTHERS IN THE TOURNAMENT
edit: im high as fuck dont try and argue with me i will not listen and i know im right anyway
any character that is unbeatable should be, at the very least, interactable in a positive way that does not benefit one side only.
take the RISE member who caused the tournament. pushed IC and caused a significant change to the world (though its tied behind the tower which i dont really like, but thats preference)
take Lyseroth and how he, once becoming the strongest, turned into an EC and caused a significant change to the state of the world
now, consider xarxes. i'm not dismissing his efforts, but i am going to say: he is not influencing the world beyond being a beatstick for the enemy side to throw at people in raids, who has gotten so strong that he is now barred from getting raid match ups. this has obviously caused futility in his character on account of no longer being able to be that beatstick. which is fine! a powerful character does not need to attend raids. there are lots of other ways to influence rp in the world.
but... if you actually look at what xarxes is doing now:
you can say what you want, but randomly running into a settlement that has publicly renounced you and looking for stalls
and ALSO sparring right beside TAG tower, known enemies who have knocked down a tower of yours says one thing, to me.
He's unstoppable.
I'm not coming for Xarxes as a writer. I don't know what Xarxes writes because all I ever hear is negative discussion around him. And it really sucks, because having a character that's this strong shouldn't be possible, but it obviously shows he's a decent writer because he's lasted this long and apped that much. It just goes against game balance. I don't really care what anyone has to say about it. If your MAJOR ANTAGONIST can walk into settlements, look around and not suffer any consequences beyond a few scars (i.e., the 2v1 scrap outside the Dorian settlement), it breaks IC immersion MASSIVELY
I don't really know what should be done about invulns. I think Xarxes' build could be piloted by anyone (i've piloted pieces of the build with success without nearly being as stacked as it) but I also don't think the game should revolve around RPBs so strongly when people's numbers and skill levels can be so different (as said by Lung earlier!!). However, I, and everyone else, has a very different vision of what the game should be.
I just think that there should be a cap on how strong you should be able to become. Remember at the beginning of E4 when the admin team and community agreed, at large, that uniques and the journal system and hiddens shouldn't be as wide-spread? That's WHY the public master system got introduced in the first place. But, we slowly went back, and now we're in a stage of massive power-creep.
I think that on the side of the admins, more careful consideration should be given to what is given to certain people.
A while ago, I was having a discussion in the discord where I was told, verbatim, 'those who are not good at the game are more likely to be given Signatures.' I don't think this is actually really healthy for the game, but I think it serves as a good balancing act. I just think it should be done with much more consideration for the game state as a whole, because if an antagonist can walk into 2 enemy settlements, perform very OOC behaviors like sparring and looking for stalls, and walk away unscathed? There is something wrong with game balance.
I will also say that Na'ria's player, also complained about people walking through their area when I approached them during the tower fiasco. Their response was to danger them, and this was a fairly large, public area that people NEED to go to get fruit spawns. I think that it's a little inconvenient, but they made their claim to the land; thats only fair. People who ignore territory rules should be punished accordingly, even if they needed to be there.
But... why did Xarxes need to be in 2 enemy settlements? What did he need there that couldn't just be elsewhere? And, above all else, why did he do so in such an OOC manner that showed that he didn't feel any threat?
What people have stat-wise and hidden wise needs to be either more tightly gatekept and kept track of, with strong characters having regular check-ups (not to incite nerfs of powerful people, merit-based RP rewards effort and taking that away is counter-intuitive, but to evaluate where they are strength wise and what they are doing to justify that strength)
as for the discussion about invulns being on a second cooldown? idk lol im done giving game balance i give game balance suggestions even when i'm not playing and they're largely ignored. i've accepted that this game's meta moves in waves, and whatever is strong will be strong. it is what it is.
however, i think a lot of you have blinders on as to what game balance should be and should be ignored largely due to a) your lack of knowledge on what actually makes something strong and b) your lack of skill-expressive builds (again! no judgement! my character at its peak was Metal + Cosmic + Earth in a time when whips stunned, beams did a ton of damage, mud was incredibly overpowered and Tremor did 11k with a huge ass hitbox. it was not very skill expressive) c) the fact you're in an echo-chamber regarding the builds you encounter (also no judgement-- especially regarding occult and holy since people within the same settlements will likely mostly have holy and occult and only encounter the other in dangers or high-stress fights.)
tl;dr, better examination regarding stats/uniques/hiddens to keep numbers from getting out of hand.
stop fucking posting balance threads we've had like quadruple the amount of balance changes we had in e3 this shit is getting out of hand and i know the journal team is getting sick of the constant respec apps
xarxes stop walking into enemy territory and acting like you're untouchable
also as an addendum; just set up a dedicated balance team that doesn't play and doesnt lean towards any specific tree. maybe assign each tree a class or identity so its purpose can be properly evaluated (damage, support, etc?? idk. im spitballing and this is all a stream of consciousness) and you dont end up with really stupid spell combinations in a single tree that I WONT SAY HERE, BUT I KNOW EVERYONE SAW 1 PARTICULAR TREE IN EFFECT A LOT MORE THAN OTHERS IN THE TOURNAMENT
edit: im high as fuck dont try and argue with me i will not listen and i know im right anyway