The problem is that no one that is complaining seems to want to offer an option to fix it that isn't one of the following
- Make them so weak we don't really need to worry about them
- Revel everything so they are completely game-able and we never set a foot wrong
- Make them do nothing but send nice RP's
You're asking us to make suggestions when we have absolutely no knowledge of the Zuma's purpose. Without knowing why they were put on Dwilight in the first place, it's a bit hard to suggest options since anything we come up with might defeat their purpose. But for what it's worth here are my observations:
1. The Zuma are overpowered.
2. This is probably to deter us from getting it into our heads to try to destroy them, forcing us to instead deal with them on their terms.
3. This has resulted in a classic example of power-GMing, as the metaphorical GM has now placed into his plot an obstacle that can only be overcome by following his predetermined story arc, into which he is now railroading his players who, as it turns out, aren't actually that interested in it and would rather pursue their own plots but can't. This is resulting in unhappy players (surprise!).
You can argue that everything they do is a result of player actions, but the fact is that you have a significant population of players suffering and getting frustrated as the result of the actions of only a small handful of players over whose actions they have no control whatsoever. My advice: Stop using such a big damn hammer to hammer such small nails. Stop overreacting to things and punishing entire realms over the trivial actions of one character. Start ignoring the little things and let things settle down a bit. There's no reason that the Zuma *have* to go bat-!@#$ crazy every time someone casts a shadow in the wrong spot. They're swinging that big hammer around indiscriminately every time someone sneezes, it's forcing everyone to dive for cover every time they do, and people are starting to resent being forced to do that when most of them were minding their own business.
A choice was made to overpower the Zuma. Because of that fact, their power should be used sparingly at best, and preferably not at all. Some realm decides to attack the Zuma? Go ahead, eat them alive. They deserve it. Someone is having a bad day and says something more harshly than he intended? Find other ways to punish him, or if you must, just ignore it. Keep whipping out the big damn hammer and handing out massive punishment over such trivial things and the players are going to be *miserable* before long. Just read this thread and you'll find all kinds of evidence to that effect already, and that's just the players who post in these forums. How many players in Barca, Terran and Asylon that don't post here are feeling the same level of frustration? I know I would be if I had the misfortune to be next to the Zuma.
It needs to be recognized that there are a lot of players around the Zuma that just don't care about them. The Zuma need to find a way to stay engaged with the players who want to engage them while not railroading everyone else into doing so as well, which is exactly what this constant and uncompromising resort to force is doing. So there's my advice: Lay off the hammer for a while and start reserving it for serious provocations.
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