Clan Revamping

[Ivan Strider]

I'll stay with Neutral. I love my wind.

[Rolina]

Well wolves are usually associated with the Moon/Luna, but I tend to use Ice Psynergy which is a Mercury/Sol Alignment by that chart.

Which is why I have my alignment system, where there's six options not three.  Keep in mind, these apply to all your alt classes, but not item classes which simply do whatever they want.

Greater Sol - Only the Sol Aspects
Lesser Sol - Both Sol and Neutral Aspects
Pure Element - Only the Neutral Aspects
Lesser Luna - Both Neutral and Luna Aspects
Greater Luna - Only the Luna Aspects
Balanced - Both the Sol and Luna Aspects.

None is more powerful than the other.  This merely lets you have more options with the types of spells you want to use.

[Star Magician]

I have two ideas for Luna Mercury for you if you want to use them instead of steam because I kinda feel a little "eh" about it too lol:
Mist (which could go hand-in-hand with steam anyway, making it more broad)
Void (a cold, chilling absense of any energy)

[Rolina]

Well, to be fair, it's more "vapor", and mists and similar things *are* included.

Void, an absence of energy, sounds more like what Saturn would be - an Anti-Alchemy force.

[Star Magician]

Ah, well in that case, maybe just go with a name change because steam is pretty specific :P

[Rolina]

Done and done.  Anywho, before we get off topic, this is about the idea of revamping the clans, not adopting a new system or anything yet.  You've seen my angle, but nobody said we're using it - we'd have to figure out what we want to do with the clans before we really even think about that.

[CHEESE4ALL]

Steam also is too close to fire, making you think more of heat than water. 
    Anywho,  I think I like this psynergy idea but I don't know how I feel about the clans being peaceful.  I like the Clan wars personally.   I've always liked the idea of the clans forming temporary alliances and duking it out.  I'm happy to see that our small community is mature enough to pretend to beat the poo out of each other, yet still remain friends.  I have a feeling that that migjt be difficult to maintain in larger communities. Also with too many people playing, I can see how it could get confusing.  I do see how it can get stale sometimes, but I think it's the interaction with each other that keeps it entertaining.
    Admittedly I'm saddened with the idea of Luna and Sol receding, howeve,r I recognise it as logical, and admit I'm probably only saddened because I'm biased.    I noticed you seem to have only positive, noble qualities assigned to each element.  Difficult to uphold while on the Luna side of things because, even though Luna is positive in that it brings about change, it is still chaotic.  Could we perhaps find a way to include extremes of good and bad for Sol and Luna's sake?   

[Rolina]

Nobody said they were nice.  This is implied to be a new peace caused specifically by the nations all recently getting new leadership, and thus sorting out affairs within their own countries first.  They're trying diplomacy right now.

But old hostilities remain.  Those who were warlike are still untrusted, the people are a bit racist to one another, and there's huge tension going on.

There is conflict.  Lots of it.  But it's not direct - indirect, misdirected, underhanded... that stuff is there.  Instead of trying to kill your friends in the Clan War, now you're trying to outsmart them in this tense peace.  The possibility that thing escalate and return to war is still there, but it is discouraged for the most part, because everyone does that and that's boring.

Besides, we have the Colosseum for direct conflict.  I think it's time we started having more one-upsmanships and trickery and stuff.

Also, Luna has good qualities as well.

Luna is the power of chaos and change, and fuels evolution.  It is symbolized by the moon, and associated with Darkness.  Without Luna, nothing could have evolved.  The world would be solid and seamless, and quite boring to tell you the truth.

However, the elements and the fundaments are neutral - they're neither good nor bad.  It's the nations that have the "good qualities" - but that's said from their point of view, and what they think is good.  Obviously, they have bad ones as well.  They just don't flaunt them.  What I posted about the four nations wasn't an accurate portrayal of them - it's the basis of what they think they're about.

[CHEESE4ALL]

Okay.  Makes sense.  So you're talking more politics of the clans and less brawls.  Could you go into a little more detail about how we might do that?  How would we keep that from turning into a free for all like Clan Wars has a tendency of doing.
   And I didn't mean to say Luna has no good qualities, I just meant they're more chaotic in my eyes while the Sol clan is more, say, lawful.   In my eyes, it's not so much between good and evil as it is between chaos and order.   They just have different ways of achieving their goals is all.

[Rolina]

Well, that's exactly what they are:

Sol is Order.  It is rigid and unmoving.
Luna is Chaos.  It is fluid and evolving.

Too much of either is bad.  In the right amounts and mixed well, it's awesome.

Anywho, to go into more detail... the first thing we might want to do is create a world.  Worry first about the small stuff - what will be the new names?  What would our governments be like?  How will we run the nations?  What are the nation's borders?

After that, it's much easier.  For example, I usually see Jupiter as being Imperialistic.  What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think Empire?  The evil empire from stuff like star wars.  That's a serious image problem that we would have to face, and a lot of the conflict would be the extreme amount of distrust that those in, say, a Republic might have against us.  Wars of ideals, debates, and culture.  That's how the political events would be - intellectually driven, in heated arguments and flared tempers.

Then you have oneupsmanship.  These are competitions like Collosso.  Tests of strength, fighting off monsters and always trying to do better than the other nations, and of course, duals to prove who's the best at combat.  But nobody said that this is strictly about strength - there could easily be two divisions.  The Warrior Division, and the Caster Division - where it's the power of their spells that win out.  This is a post-Golden Sun world, after all.  Alchemy is well known and common.

Then you have the underhanded competitions.  These would be done in mostly a roleplay kind of fashion, but they're also probably the trickiest to do, probably with restrictions to ensure fair play.  For example, one vs one, with a judge from another clan to ensure no godmoding.  The point of these?  Let's say there's some documents.  You know, stuff with intel.  And they need to sneak in and steal them.  Well, the trick is this - where do you hide them, where do post guards, etc?  This could be done in a kind of labyrinth/minotaur style, and heck, there might even be actual flash games or something out there we could literally use to play it, just with people typing out their moves from the game into the forum to make a fun story out of it.

And, of course, we have casual competitions, where a representative from each clan is chosen to play stuff online such as Board Game, Cards Against Humanity, and other fun party games.

The point is to do more than just fight.

[CHEESE4ALL]

So each person in a clan would be a high up official?   Because if they were just a common person they wouldn't matter much.  Would they be a ruler or more like an ambassador? It all sounds complicated and would seem to require higher attendance in members.   Are you sure we have enough people for this?

Earlier I was thinking Takoshi and Scorp were onto something to make Clan Wars into a more manageable and entertaining system.   Takoshi was working on making the game more strategic, and the idea for mapping out the area fully would greatly help with keeping people from straying and making the whole thing easier to visualize and comprehend. Limiting the layout might make things easier. While Scorp's idea of using FE tiles would simplify the process.  I think confusion and being overwhelmed is the main issue with Clan Wars.   Working out the kinks and developing these two things would perhaps bring in more members playing Clan Wars.
   But yes, that still is more fighting than your plan, even with Takoshi helping to develope it into more of a strategy based game of capture the flag (in the loosest of senses a Golden Sun Stratego), that in theory could help prevent the violent free for all.    But as far as attracting new members, a simple game might be more appealing than a more detailed game of politics.  I like your idea, but it seems a little complicated and might scare off people from joining if they're afraid of doing the wrong thing.   

[Rolina]

Well, the way I do it is that clanless are citizens, and clanned have a position in either the Government, Military, or Clergy.

As far as the game of politics goes - that's a thematic way of saying "Debate Club", you know that, right?  These are simply a bunch of different types of competitions, but with a thematic twist.  You can do as much or as little as you want, you're not forced into it.  Heck, if all you want to do is come up with cultural stuff like buildings and food and cities and stuff, you can do that.  Nobody said you have to get complicated with any of this stuff.

[TakoshiWolfite]

I'm liking these ideas, now if only could get sea king in here to look at them

[Rolina]

Well, someone could... you know... throw an email at them.  That might have a better chance of getting their attention.

[TakoshiWolfite]

Ok I emailed him, *goes to pester Legend also*