Religion without priest

[Chenier]

Would getting their positions back really kill anyone?

Look, if you don't have enough clout within the guild or religion to get your positions given back immediately, or didn't plan well enough so that you had trusted successors rather than people who would betray you and work to keep you out, then perhaps you didn't deserve to have them in the first place.

BattleMaster is, and always will be, designed to make things work smoothly for the people who play it. Not for the people who are coming back after being gone for 3 months, when there is conflict between the two. Sorry, but that's the right way to design it, whether you like it or not.

And if you were the religion's only priest at the moment? Or the only elder? And if that guild/religion had a ton of infrastructure and treasuries, had taken years to build?

The problem isn't often the people that betray you, but the people that can't be arsed to keep things going while you are gone.

I don't see how a month would hurt anyone. At the very least, if immediate, why not just drop down to lowest rank, instead of complete removal? That way, other people get to go up in rank if top ranks are cleared, but without any of not unnecessary harshness to the guy on vacation.

[Indirik]

And if you were the religion's only priest at the moment? Or the only elder? And if that guild/religion had a ton of infrastructure and treasuries, had taken years to build?

The problem isn't often the people that betray you, but the people that can't be arsed to keep things going while you are gone.

You're describing a guild/religion that doesn't deserve to stick around. Sorry, but if the players can't be arsed to keep the stuff they built going, then there's really no hope for it.

[Chenier]

You're describing a guild/religion that doesn't deserve to stick around. Sorry, but if the players can't be arsed to keep the stuff they built going, then there's really no hope for it.

I disagree. Many guilds and religions tend to have periods where things go rather poorly, to eventually be able to spring back up. A bad phase doesn't mean it's unworthy. And if it's truly unworthy, then it's unworthy of kicking the elders out to allow lower-ranking nobles to claim the upper ranks.

And sometimes, there are people willing to become priests, but just unable at the time they are needed. It takes very little time for a religion to fall to rubbles after the last priest is gone, it usually doesn't give enough time for others to switch classes. If the best candidates are in foreign lands, or if there is no temple in their realm yet, they can't switch class, especially not in time for it to matter.

The harshness of these uncommon occurrences is not justified by the nearly null impact of paused characters hogging guild ranks, and could be easily avoided by either switching the timer to a month (instead of auto-pause) or by simply demoting elders to a full-member rank instead of kicking out completely of the guilds. There is absolutely no objective that this harsh measure aims for that could not be achieved through softer means.

[Anaris]

The harshness of these uncommon occurrences is not justified by the nearly null impact of paused characters hogging guild ranks

Everything you're saying here makes it quite clear what a huge impact paused characters holding guild ranks has.

[Stabbity]

I've seen guilds rot and die from paused leadership, and very few bounce back. Even fewer are the number of religions I've seen that die from lack of priests that had membership willing to save it.

[Penchant]

Everything you're saying here makes it quite clear what a huge impact paused characters holding guild ranks has.

For the paused player, yes, everybody else, no. Well unless the mechanics were changed then it would be more important so that religions/guilds weren't destroyed so easily. It took nearly a thousand gold I think to save Evgenism.

[Ketchum]

I think temples start falling apart immediately. Something like one level per day? So you don't have very long before you lose it, unless you have some *really* big temples.

However, I am fairly certain that paused priests still count as active priests for their religion.

Sound fair and reasonable, though a bit cruel. Haha

Reclaiming the elder ranks part, that would be nice to have a little conflict every now and then when an elder paused but come back sometime later.