No binding to hostile rift shards.

[Terminal Insanity]

I think this should be restored back to the way it used to be...

The ns story, if i'm correct, goes sorta like "People are being pulled into this realm, and they've built cities around the shards"? or did mages create these?
I dont see how a shard would care, or even know what faction you are.

And what was so bad about it? Besides making people run for literaly 2 hours to get back to the place they died at?
Plus places like Evenshire's rifts are "Hostile" to me, even though i can talk to any of the NPCs and buy/etc there...



A Suggestion:
Since Evenshire, and places like the shard in the Angmar desert are not exactly belonging to any faction.... maybe they could put in quests that would let you be able to bind there after you completed it?
Maybe even require attacks on other shard cities (sorta like fledgling factions trying to gain power, and recruiting people from the bigger factions to do their work?)


Ether way, i think the 'hostile' factions should be bindable, if only untill its possible to bind somewhere other then RK, AO and Avendell... thats horrible... I seriously will just stick around Avendell to do all my PKing and Killing, instead of traveling around... theres no point in walking for an hour only to die and have to walk alllll the way back again...

[Lework]

It makes no sense that a player from Menzo can travel all the way to ns, bind there. And raid all day no matter how many times they die. I love this change. It makes raiding much more dangerous and it will create a sense of danger when traveling far away. Maybe if you died less you wouldnt mind this change. I certainly dont mind it.

[deathdearler1]

i know a few ppl like the changes to the binding and all however i don't much care for it. you can bind in at you factions rift shards and your allies(i have yet to be able to do this since the wipe being from garagoth and can't bind in menzo). you may also bind at a neutral shard........all 3 of them. avendell, linorala, and the inn by menzo are like the only neutral shards anywhere. i don't know of any on server 1 which means that if i try to raid anything there i break the spawns when i die. all this means is that i just might as well sit at my house and kill the lowbies who wander into my domain so i don't have to spend hours walking places.

[Malakar]

As much as I like the idea and convenience of being able to bind to any shard, it doesn't seem likely that any faction would not account for enemy factions being able to port in to the middle of their cities at will and slaughter their inhabitants.

[Flailer]

I do think it's silly to be able to bind in an enemy faction's city from a city defense point of view. However, unless we plan on LA being the primary faction that gets assaulted, then there should be more neutral bind points about. (LA gets it rough because of 2 reasons: Avendell is the only place you can buy/sell higher level items so most people go there to bind when they're able and it's only about 4 maps to the NS guards and the NS guards are some of the weakest of any faction).

I'd propose a couple more bind points around the following locations:

- The Underdark. In an area that's maybe about equidistant from Menzo and the front gates of Ragnars Kin. (The dwarves exposed the shard while mining?)
- The Archeologist's Camp. That would put you somewhat close to Sleeth. Also, makes sense I guess from a world view: the Archeologist's uncovered a shard out in the wilderness. Or, possibly a bind point on the road between Sleeth and Melencia, just east of Beryn.
- Is there already a neutral bind point at Windale? Can't remember. That'd probably be another logical location.
- Just between the Plains of Angmar and the Ash Mountains. Or maybe far north Plains of Angmar.

It's hard to say exactly where these things should be since obviously the server is down right now and I can't recall the exact location of Linorala (Dark Forest?), so I'm just working off memory and the map. Wherever they end up being, they should probably be placed about the same distance that Avendell is from NS, to even things up.

Also, the added neutral shards will probably always play second fiddle to Avendell unless they have some way of buying/selling items. Probably my suggestion in that is that you can purchase basic supplies and be able to sell items for maybe half of what you'd get in Avendell.

Anyway, just my 2 farthings....

[kgb]

The most logical place for a bind shard is the goblin hut in Dark Forest. So many times has Giant Mountain been broke and this would greatly reduce incidences of this occuring as most players are bound in Avendell for obvious reasons and then jump over to the other server to head up Giant Mountain.

The closest bind point that I know of on the same server is the Cracks of Ithyr which is the bind point for the Ancient Ones two screens from Archaelogist Camp.

[El Smokey Bearo]

Another idea to allow binding to enemy shards is have the binding become "unstable" over time and eventually revert back to the last known bind. Time limit could be 5 hours ish (game time) and maybe vary with level (lasts an hour longer for every 5 or so levels after a certain level). This maybe more work and resources than its worth but its an idea to mull over.

[deathdearler1]

Linorala is right by the haddon mirk. i did remember that there is another shard at the ash mountains 4 or 5 screens north of Linorala. i suggested a nuetral shard at the goblin hut a few monts ago but did not hear anything good or bad about it(that is a very likely and convienent place to put it). instead of having a time limit on binding to enemy shards maybe a death limit. something like u have 3 live to be bound to it. of course i don't really know anything i just pretend alot. in fact i might just be a monkey bashing a keyboard with a banana.

[Ryddwillow]

I personnaly don't think the Goblin hut is such a good idea-- too much traffic and other things.

[imom411]

Personally, I love the idea of having extra shards at "outposty" kinds of places. When I first came across the goblin's hut in the Dark Forest, or the Hermit (in Enchanted Forest, I think?) I thought, "whoa, cool, a building outside of a town, and I can ACTUALLY go in it!" But *boo!* there's just a cranky goblin inside. I think adding shards in these places would make the game feel a lot deeper. I know that's supposed to happen with jobs and such. Still, it would be nice to, maybe, have clerics at all bind points or something!

Also, any ETA on magic shops carrying scrolls, potions, staffs, wands, etc?

[Flailer]

Don't think there's plans to put in 'magic shops'. They're trying to encourage an in-game economy of sorts by having you able to buy them off those that can scribe, brew potions, etc.

[Terminal Insanity]

I personnaly don't think the Goblin hut is such a good idea-- too much traffic and other things.

I'd say put a shard in ether the goblin hut, or in the archeologist camp...
1) it would be a fairly fast addition, its just a few scripts and a map change... i dont know how much work it would take to fix the respawn-to-another-server bug but considering how serious and how long that bug has been around, i'd definatly say it would be easier and faster to just give us a new bind point so we dont break these areas so often... not to mention, this will stop alot of people from being killed unbuffed as they come through from avendell, not an illegal thing, nor should it be, but it would be a nice way to cut back on it without starting to throw up lame rule after lame rule about what you can/cant do

[AggieDan]

I think this should be restored back to the way it used to be...

The ns story, if i'm correct, goes sorta like "People are being pulled into this realm, and they've built cities around the shards"? or did mages create these?
I dont see how a shard would care, or even know what faction you are.

What if... What if the shards are the reason for all the discourse and the creation of the factions in the first place. Could the whole reason for the existence of the realm be a contest between gods or some other power? This would lead more to the idea of sentience to the shards. This plays in to a shard rejecting you because you were from a hostile faction. And all the people pulled in to the realm are merely pawns in a great game or contest?

If it is a contest between gods, surely some of them are decidedly neutral good and attempt to mitigate some of the suffering by placing shards in other places of safety so that one doesn't have to be bound to a shard that is part of the power struggle. That, or they could be as you suggested, merely trying to gain followers so that their own city can be created.

This leads to a possible job for someone in Garagoth as they investigate to discover the truth. Having played someone from Garagoth, I seem to recall that they were studying the rift shards. Maybe upon completion of THAT job they could gain a better understanding of the shards and possibly bind at a greater number of shards. Though, possibly this should be restricted knowledge for only the highest level mages of Garagoth. I can't imagine some of the less learned amoung the populace to be able to grasp the full implications and how to then deal the with powers that be in order to gain a greater control over them. Mages, especially experienced ones, are used to grappling with such awesome powers and striking a kind of compromise.

Also, since MA doesn't allow anyone of a good nature to join their ranks this may lead to more mages that don't take a single paladin level. It would also be another good reason for more of the best mages (at least the power-hungry ones) to come from Garagoth.

[The Rizz]

I think a better plan would be to allow anyone to bind anywhere, with the exception of capital cities - make those the only bind points that enemies cannot bind at.

This will get rid of the problem with the redundant bind points right outside home cities ... I mean, who uses the bind points 2 maps outside the city? It's too close to the city to bother with, and generally when you die you'll want to hit the shops anyway, so you might as well bind inside the town. Now, if ENEMIES could bind at those rift shards right outside town, there'd be a reason for them to be there.

Also, because of the faction-only setting on all the rift shards, it means that no factions on server 2 can bind anywhere on server 1. At least those from server 1 can use Avandell...

As is, pretty much nobody uses any rift shards outside their home cities. (NC being the exception - they have some shards over a dozen screens from the home city.)

However, if the faction-only setting is going to be maintained, I would suggest that instead of just adding neutral shards, you add some faction shards in far-flung areas. (I would suggest this anyway...)
I think it would be nice to have a haveily defended NC outpost set up somewhere near Garagoth, or have the Drow take over one of the caves in the hills near Sleeth. As for AO, just put working rift shards in the homes of the dragons that are spread across the servers.

[Flailer]

Or, and this gets a bit pie in the sky, a bind point in an enemy territory can be touched by a raiding party which temporarily allows members of that raiding faction to bind there. They can keep respawning there until a member of the raided city touches that bind point and returns control of it to the city being raided. That would add the twist of not only raiding an enemy faction, but also possibly leaving behind a guard contingent for the bind point to maintain it's control...