"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." - Winston Churchill

6:26 AM EST.  Having fallen asleep with my laptop still plugged in the night before, I awakened to the sounds of pings from Discord. Checking my phone as I got up, I was shocked to find a couple concerned messages that something in my DMs leaked and some of those people were worried that someone was trying to get me banned.  Once comfortable and properly awake, I sent a DM to someone I was concerned with potential involvement for answers.

This was the start of my morning, and one I was certainly not expecting to go the way it did.  As a leader player, I knew about the potential war on the horizon, and I knew some would definitely disagree with anything I said or did.  However, you can imagine my shock at seeing this.  Several hours later, I talk to the player in question, Shivania, and we start discussing the matter at hand.  Apparently I'd been told some misinformation by members of our community, and I was explained what was actually going on.  At that point, once I got clarification, it was all good.  We chatted about how things were going, but eventually we settled on one major topic at hand: the misinformation.  We both agreed that we should probably oocly state what our ic intentions were for the future, especially in light of what was going on, and that's where this topic began.

Shivania listed off a set of concerns with what was going on with Geladyne, stating I was escalating things and being much more aggressive than Geladyne, and that I, and Meiaquar, wanted this war.  In response, I'd responded with what I knew, which was practically the same information, but Geladyne was the supposed "bad guys" here, rather than Meiaquar.  Issues such as falsely stated information that neither party had said, or if they had, not in the same way as stated, issues of who was actually the one pushing for things, of how people were reacting, of how people of each side were leaving their nations for the exact. same. reasons.  It was at that point that we realized just how parallel the situations were.  After some further clarifications and discussion, we had ironed things out and knew what the other side was thinking, about how both sides had, in essence, their bowls filled with the same food, but different brands.

I won't walk you through all the details, but when we finished the discussion, it was made clear that much of our information was false, that the barrier between ic and ooc interaction was blurring, and that folks were abusing the fact that all was "100% ic."  People weren't talking when they should have, individuals in the community were spreading misinformation like wildfire, and people were being told "facts" that were actually lies, myself included.  The same thing comes down to this potentially upcoming war.

While some false information is healthy for ic, and it keeps matters interesting, the issues begin when ic becomes so heavily diluted by ooc info, as well as straight up wrong info, that it blurs the line of truth and fiction.  Nowhere has this been more apparent than the war.  Turns out, from what we discussed, that neither Meiaquar nor Geladyne wants a war with each other, let alone a pointless one.  Meanwhile, both are being told the opposite; "your potential enemy is pushing hard for it and they're the crazy ones!"  Discussions, negotiations, and peace talks can't occur because the narrative of "them bad, us good" is consistently trampling the truth, putting a gag in its mouth and refusing to let it speak.  More and more misinformation spills onto the path between, and both sides are stuck trying to wade through it, only to be met with more and more, a seemingly endless pool.  And because what?  People want war?  It "keeps it interesting" in the long-term?  We're far beyond that now.

Now, you might be asking, "Hey, Blade, why didn't you go talk to one of the higher-ups in Geladyne to sort things out in DMs?"  I considered it, but I was told myself that no one was willing to do so.  I don't know enough to say whether that was spread to them as well, but if I'd been made aware that was a lie sooner, I wouldn't be just covering it as it forms to a head.  At the end of it all, the leaders of Geladyne, as well as our people in positions in Meiaquar, were just reacting to the information given to them.  We either had no way to know it was icly false if it came from someone else, or if it was, "ic is ic," we can't call them out on it without metagaming.  Like I said, don't know how much this impacted Geladyne, whether it was better or worse, but I'm quite certain they were dealing with the same things.  I make the same assumptions for Telegrad and Duyuei.  And leaders/reps from those countries, if that's not the case, feel free to state it's not so this very set of statements does not join the countless pieces of lies and misinformation that lay out there, festering and sapping the fun away from the game.

Well, what does this mean?  Clearly I'm coming to the forums to bring it up and bring about change, right?  Well, yes, that's the goal, but change is impossible to make when only one person, a pair, a small handful, are the ones trying to bring it.  In the words of George Orwell, "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."  And I get it, it's an arduous task, but if no one covers it, how long will it continue to amount for?  When, if at all, will someone else bring it up?  Change doesn't start unless someone is willing to take a daring leap, a risk of sorts.

as an avid Pillawag enjoyer, there are some issues with how it works atm and some things that it doesn't have

so here we go

what it can do
-destroy traps
-destroy tiles
-hit from strange angles / multiple people

what it cant do
-it cant use crash potions
-it isn't a great axe : (

maybe unintended things it does
-destroy its own tiles it makes
-not be able to attack runes ( they take no damage )
-ignore geist entirely because it hits the ground
-doesnt work with crash at all, nothing changes
-destruction runes removed ravaged as well(?)


suggestions
- make pillawag a great axe bks rejoice
- prob make it able to use crash potions but remove the tile effect when that happens
- make it not destroy ravaged tiles created by you
- perhaps let the use alter between single tile and three tiles? this way it can hit runes or maybe they just want to delete 1 tile ex: ally used smoke and its all around, i only want to destroy one tile
- i hate boxers but i will say pillawag bk can just nullify the giest mechanic entirely, they cant giest the attack, they then get clumsy applied after. might be best to have the strike apply as a single target hit if possible still? idk, i will say i do feel for the boxers that get bamboozled

Impure Element's Void Energy-to-Null Damage drawback activates upon chanting a spell (1st use), and again when releasing the spell (2nd use).

It should not work on cast (1st use of any invocation), since it does not use any Elemental ATK yet as you are preparing it, I think. And sometimes that same damage works to break the invocation, which makes this very janky.

Hello, all. Apologies if I get any formatting wrong, I'm certainly not used to making a post like this.

To be honest, dozens of little things have been bugging me ever since I rejoined SL2 to play Korvara. Korvara was touted as different, it was touted as a place for player-driven RP and progress, rather than the relatively stale state of the Great Six that can only ever have 'change' with the intervention of GMs or Eventmins. A place where players made the story of the world, and not just their own stories within said world. This is what brought me back to SL2 after a multiple year hiatus, and what also brought swarms and swarms of new players, eager to see if Korvara could live up to its promises.

Most of those new players have now left. Of those who have not, many are considering it. Korvara is not in the state it was advertised as- or rather, the rules are not in a proper state to allow Korvara to be in the state it was advertised as. SL2 and conflict have always been at odds with each-other, for good and for bad. The mainland did not often allow for organic conflict that truly felt organic, whether it be miles of red tape in the way between you and anything close to an 'event' for your character occurring, the lackadaisical rules allowing for many such matters to descend into little more than carnivals for onlookers who would deride your character's story into little more than funny quips, or simply the stagnant world around them, where the Onigan war always happened x years ago. All of these issues, and more, kept Sigrogana's conflict from ever truly feeling organic.


Korvara was the solution, or- at least, it seemed to be. No more player housing-districts, where most would hide away to do private rp, away from the stagnant world around them. No more would said stagnant world seep into every aspect of roleplay. The players were the rulers, the players the lore-writers, the players the drivers of conflict. This was exciting, this brought plenty of people disillusioned with the state of Sigrogana back to the game, and plenty of people who had never given Sigrogana a chance, a way to see the game at its (hopeful) best.


Things have not turned out this way. Korvara is, in all honesty, a mess. The Rules for Conflict, even as they have been recently revised, are not tight enough to offer the conflict and player-driven roleplay that was offered. My main points of contention come down to the ever-prevailing presence of the mystical non-player-characters, as well as the forewarning afforded (or not afforded) to players for significant moments of RP that their characters should reasonably be around for.

To begin with, the presence of NPCs, while sensible, does little to nothing to enrich the roleplaying experience. In the Great Six? I can make the concession that they are necessary. Players are the adventurers, the trouble-makers, and the leaders are so far above everyone that the mere mention of the Guard Captain would leave criminals wary, the idea of facing waves after waves of mobs to dissuade trouble in major cities, while perhaps not the most entertaining prospect, was one that undeniably made sense in a world that players were little more than onlookers in.

It does not make sense in a world where players are those leaders. Where the head of the Guards is not a mystical level 90 creature meant to come in the most dire of circumstances to stomp out any troublemakers, where the head of the Guard is a man named Clement, a player, with his own backstory, his own ambitions, goals, traits- his own place in the world. The presence of NPCs undermines this. It undermines the efforts the player characters make to change this supposedly changeable world, to mold it, to have a place, as they were promised. Some cases are understandable, of course. Prisons must be guarded, whether a player is there or not, along with many other examples.

However, simply using them as a hand-waving excuse for every little issue or conflict, is stale. Player characters efforts can be undermined with the simple knowledge that no matter what they do, the NPCs outnumber them. Realistically? The solution to this problem is doubtless a complicated one, but I feel it's certainly one to be discussed.

Secondly, the forewarning (or lack thereof) to groups dealing with things they should realistically be aware of is horrendous. Getting a bit more personal here, it is TWICE that Beggar's Hole has been encroached upon by Geladynian forces without forewarning given OOCly to appropriate parties, and this is not only terrible for every person playing at Beggar's Hole, but terrible for the state of conflict as a whole. If Korvara is meant to be a conflict, roleplay driven continent, Geladyne's current conflict with Meiaquar and Beggar's Hole is the most action it has seen on this front. To undermine it with acts like unannounced conflict, while other players have to go through loopholes including at least 24 hour forewarnings to GMs and pleading their cases to make such moves on 'bigger' settlements/nations, due to- again- NPCs, it seems downright mean-spirited to not afford a player-run faction at least some OOC notice so their players can prepare. This is not the only such case of such a thing occurring, either. With a GM's permission, Geladyne's jail was raided while Beggar's Hole and Geladyne were in mild conflict, and many took to the Discord chat to discuss how such matters were unacceptable, and air their ire with the perpetrators that Geladyne was not given proper forewarning. Many of these were the same people who had come to Beggar's Hole with much the same warning: none.

None of my gripes are against the playerbase, nor the GMs, nor the Developer. They're simply against how conflict has been handled thus far, and I post this only in the hopes that it will go more smoothly in the future, and to invite discussion as to how it may do so. If you read all of this, thank you for your time.

TL;DR: Conflict in its current state has proven to be a messy endeavor, and strives should be made to ensure it is smoother in the future, on both an OOC and IC scale.

Make screaming tome an instrument. It's a book that screams. There is currently no instrument tome.

Animal Pelt: 
Armor: 4
Magic Armor: 2
Evade: 6
Weight: 1

Effect: +2 power to nature spells.

This armor is pretty much useless, and so i'd like for it to be buffed.  A bonus to lightning attack, another effect entirely, better stats, or maybe just bonus damage to nature spells are all potential ideas.  Its base stats are nothing special, and in fact its evasion is pretty bad. But the effect is just. . . So bad. 

Maybe it could be reframed as an armor that makes one feel more in touch with their wild roots? Allowing instinct effects to trigger easier, or to have more power.

When getting a Back-Attack on an enemy, it seems like the order in which your team goes is completely randomized.  To replicate this, get a team of four people and take note of who is fastest, slowest, and so on.  Then, perform a Back-Attack.  Note that the order people go is completely random, and has no relation to their initiative stat.

This is horrible for the only thing in a class based around singing and dancing which deals sound damage. I'm sure everyone agrees this needs to be toned up slightly to at least be a considerable basic skill.

Sound Wave

- Needs to be a 3 wide range projectile and pierce, like Kadouha behaves.
- Needs to have its minimal scaling be 100% Sound ATK, 100% Scaled WPN ATK, (Scales with +5% per Skill Rank, to a max of 110% SWA/110% Sound ATK).
- Has no need for Cooldown, increase its FP cost to (10/15/20 FP cost), so spamming it drains FP faster through Repeat Action.
- If you have Volume Up active, the range is doubled and it also knocks back all damaged enemies once, after the projectile disappears.

If you enter the sign text editor but hit 'Cancel' this will erase everything written on the sign.

Steps to reproduce:

0. Have a placeable sign down.

1. Click 'Edit' on the sign.

2. Click 'Edit Text'.

3. Click 'Cancel' on the text window that shows up.

All the text that might've been there will be erased.