I'm excited to see the uniqueness added to servers here. I've played on Storm Haven for a bit (thanks Trevius) and have been thoroughly enjoying it, I will try Zeb's as well as it sounds like he's put a lot of effort into his. How the heck do you do it with College? I'm in college (studying abroad in China- learning Chinese) and find it somewhat difficult to find time to play, kudos to you! Also since there seem to be many dedicated server peeps on this thread I wanted to toss an idea.
I've been toying with the notion of suggesting a stronger role for DIETIES. They are picked at server log in still and seem to do little more than cause agro. (as faction relationships on some servers don't work). If there could be a way to reward a player's devotion to their diety via their in-game actions (the dieties have very specific descriptions to help aid in this endeavor) that would bring a hitherfore untapped dimension to the lore.
When I say "in-game actions" I'm not simply referring to quests, but rather to their actual character action/reactions that occur on a regular basis. This is a very loose idea with not a lot of algorithm to it yet, but I am hoping some others may adopt this new dimension as not simply another way to produce/obtain leet gear, but to actually affect the status/representation of a character in-game.
By affecting the status I mean a possible character permanent augment that has some sort of affect on others either visually or physically. For example: A paladin follows Rodcet Nife and his beliefs (randomly buffing non-grouped players, improving diety faction ect...) then he receives at some point a PBAOE heal that emanates unhindered from the Paladin. The effect would be visible (like a heals graphic on the passerby that receives the benefit of the radius). This effect would naturally start out small and increase with devotion/rank in the diety.
I have thought of some of the dangers associated with adding this element and the biggest one I can see is the possibly ease of play. This can be mitigated by the careful testing and implementation of diety abilities that will be balanced across the dieties. The abilities themself are not designed to significantly impact player solo performance, but rather to augment a player's ability to enjoy in-game content and perhaps appreciate some of the lore associated with their diety.
Agnostic would have no ability as it also has no negative consequence to faction. This could be tweaked but I'm not sure what to apply.
Also, there should be some kind of reward for those of the same diety (strongest cumulative affect) and those of like diety (next strongest cumulative affect) that are grouped or in a raid together. This ratio would be congruent to the overall ratio of like/unlike and good/bad dieties. Anyway a lot of possibilities here! Also, eventually, if this takes perhaps a class and a race paradigm could be added making for a very large pool of possible affects.
So in short, some sort of way to benefit those that care about their diety and possibly encourage others to read up on the lore of others so they can appreciate quest content even more.
Any and all feedback is appreciated!!
-Billiameo-