Armada needs help, and distinctiveness

[Dr Dragon]

Being a Stygian I must comment on the following.


1 Stygians are not super humans.

2 Treanda despises arcane attacks and ranged weaponry because it dehumanizes war one should taste the blood of their enemies and feel their last breaths not standing in the back firing fireballs to kill scores of foes with no honor.      

In short theyd have no problems with potions. I can vouch that very high ranking Armada members have drank potions.

3 Not all in the Armada are the same some do not care about the Trenada's policy on ranged weapons and magic.

4 Stygians can be beat and they can beat people. The Armada has had scores of victories its just the victories aren't often bragged about or loudly declared.


5 As far as wanting stronger Stygians feel free to join the Armada or be an adventurer working alongside the Armada I have been trying to involve PCS in assisting the Armada all the time.

[tropic]

I think that adding a few extra spells to the Tempus Disciple in the Citadel would be a great help to the Stygians. Just the basics: Magic weapon, Strength, Endurance, and Darkfire.

It'd be a gold-sink for them, and in the case where someone is mugging folks in the Warden's, they could get buffed up and good to go without scrambling to find a friendly wizard or cleric on the Ziggurat.

edit: Over the past few months, if you look at the big "crooks" that have given the Stygians lots of trouble, it's always been a combination of spellcaster and fighter-type: Aulgrim and Karida, Jim and Vargul, Lawthorn and Glacier-Man. Giving Stygians the ability to buy Magic Weapon and Darkfire wouldn't give them a fatal advantage in every case, just a (more) even playing field.

edit2: Plus, Stygians walking around the Ziggurat with flaming weapons is just a cool visual.

[The Beggar]

They're supposed to be elite mercenaries, but are actually a laughingstock that has a long, long run of nearly unbroken pvp losses against everyone.

Very PC dependent. Very player dependent. It can be difficult to live up to the epectations when you are in a faction that is at auto-odds with lots of factions right off the bat.

That said, a lot of that was PC molded, and can be changed IMO through in game actions. There are badasses that bring factions together and badass characters that just spur lots of conflict. Perhaps there have been more of the later than the former?

[Porkolt]

Maybe the Armada should deal with being on the losing side of their battles ICly instead of OOCly.
 
Maybe them being outnumbered and losing all the time isn't a result of some form of inherent mechanical disability or poor work by players, but simply because the Armada consists of a bunch of belligerent and warmongering assholes that are at odds with every other major faction on the server because of their elitist ideals.

[Random_White_Guy]

Maybe them being outnumbered and losing all the time isn't a result of some form of inherent mechanical disability or poor work by players, but simply because the Armada consists of a bunch of belligerent and warmongering assholes that are at odds with every other major faction on the server because of their elitist ideals.

I disagree with Porkolt's first point because mostly the Stygian PCs aren't the ones pushing for OOC stuff. That said-

The point raised is 100% true and 100% perfect. The Armada does find itself in an awesome political position of late that does draw a lot of bad hands to it, so to speak. EFU Factions have a long history of heavy-handedness, and many PCs have grown to prosperity and complete prominence by either adding flames to the fire or attempting to mitigate political problems.

[Porkolt]

I disagree with Porkolt's first point because mostly the Stygian PCs aren't the ones pushing for OOC stuff.

I stand corrected.

[Caddies]

Its up to the players to make strong Stygians, if successive Stygians fail the faction's image does fall. Its kind of unavoidable in some cases.

Tropic's idea might have merit, we'll discuss it. Stygians definitely won't be getting extra STR/CON/SR though.

[Garem]

Ghost is totally wrong on one thing and totally right on another.

The Conclave gets some AMAAAAZING bonuses both RP-wise (created by a ton of awesome PCs recently) as well as some seriously awesome powers and abilities from loot and being, well, super-magical. I would argue that for the past year, the Conclave has been far more "dominant" in the life of the server per-member than any other faction and its PCs have had more influence on the course of the server's history than any other faction. This is mostly due to RP reasons, but hey, that's part of the "power" you get in factions.

That being said, you're absolutely spot on correct that Stygians get the best bonus of all. Pretty good loot, lots of DM attention (positive and negative, but always fun), and PAY[/i]. Stygians are fine. Stygian PCs just struggle because of the sheer amount of enemies they face.

Caveat: I've never played a Stygian.

[Yalta]

The Stygian Faction is hugely powerful and well rewarded (argubly the best rewarded of the main factions).
 
At various points its PC players have bossed the server. Right from De Olid through to more recent players.
 
These characters successes are down to the skill (and maybe some luck) of the players behind them, just as it should be.
 
Yes, the Stygians are an elite band, and when a DM possesses one of the named NPC's, Masemba for example, we all get to see how powerful they can be.
 
PC Stygians are initially at least, meant to be raw, new, recruits, not veterans.
 
We have had a tiny number of PC's get to the Captain rank in the Stygians. At that level I imagine (like any Favourd Son or Zeulisad) they would be rewarded by the DM's with perks, loot and other stuff to make them suitibly powerful.

[Egon the Monkey]

I don't see so much of a problem. Yes, the faction can't have spellcasters other than Bards officially as members, but Loyalist mages and Clerics, for example Nihm's own Wizard, regularly support them. If I was playing a Stygian and bothered about that, I'd be trying to recruit spellcasters into the Militia as an official support unit for the Armada or putting the onus on suitable Patricians to provide magic. Not to mention that no matter how kicked in or inactive the Armada gets at any given time, as an organisation, it's always survived and prospered on the server.  I'd argue that if Stygian PCs keep getting their asses handed to them, that this should actually reflect on the faction's power IC more, for example fewer Infantrymen about, and even more Militia.

The Stygian's badass rep is because they take and train tough nuts and have political power and deep pockets for bounties. It's not that they inject all their recruits with 50ccs of Badass Juice when they join to up their STR, it's that they don't take weak Aspirants, and have a tough initiation rite.

IMO the Conclave's biggest advantage that by design you typically end up with mage/thug smash teams, because Caliphars tend to recruit Consorts who are good bodyguards and quest partners, and they are meant to work as a pair, with rewards and penalties to encourage that. Tropic's idea for some PVP buffs would help fill the gap, as you have a faction with a lot of PVP going on but can't officially call in their own buffbots.

[Portal Rat]

If the Stygians get their own faction buffbot, I hope everyone can agree that they should get cold damage applied to their weapons, not fire.

[Listen in Silence]

Having played two Stygians, I can agree with the problem that started the thread. I don't agree however that this should be solved by giving the players any kind of extra support or benefits. As has been said, players should themselves strive to be the elite Trenadan guard that they're made out to be, they shouldn't just automatically turn into them by passing the initiation.

This puts the pressure on players to play successfully, but that is something I for one approve of. This makes the Stygians a faction aside all others, a faction that requires that little extra both to get into and to stay alive in.

[Disco]

IMO more action from the lazy NPC stygians.

[WIZURD]

It takes pressure to turn coal into Diamond :)

[SluaghSluagh]

Just the newb chiming in, here, but wouldn't giving them a buff bot just sorta steal all impetus for them to actually develop alliances with outside-the-faction PCs that can (and are willing) to offer that support?  Or else it could be interesting to give them very limited buffs, but leaving the goods for PCs to provide ...

Most of the issues of "perception of the Armada" are ultimately the domain of the DM, though, if a lot of the really tough vets are NPCs.  They are certainly within their rights to make the PCs do most of the grunt-work; however, increased presence of NPC Stygians (wherein they have clear numerical advantage via DM possession) in some instances would certainly take -some- of that weight off the PCs' shoulders, making them seem more as recruits and grunts than -the- Armada in entirety.

I only mention these things as a semi-outsider-looking-in, because there is definitely an element of every faction seeming like a gang ... though that really isn't necessarily a bad thing, by any estimation.

Cheers!