When a follower of Marlow visits her deity’s home plane, she is immediately greeted by a number of conveniences – a banker, a merchant, and a handy port-out straight to Erudin Palace, which in turn provides easy access to the MoP. Followers of Jayla are similarly pampered. Althuna’s subjects also enjoy these perks, though bellyflopping into the Storm Sea is admittedly less useful than winding up in Erudin proper. For flavor, many NPCs in these home planes will engage in dialog, solidifying the connection between plane and player.
Many deity planes, however, are not so lucky. Shiritri’s Plane of Air, for example, may offer some unique fishing opportunities for followers and may contain a port-out to the Northern Badlands, but no merchant or banker are to be found. (Even if they were put in, I have a feeling they’d be put inconveniently far from the current port-in location….) The Tower of Tarhyl is even less accommodating; despite that this deity comes with perhaps the richest of all aug quests, Tarhyl apparently can’t be bothered to offer his loyal followers a simple means of departure. Perhaps worst of all is Shojar, whose plane already lacks a merchant, a banker, and a port out, but on top of all that, I don’t believe a single NPC within the entire zone will respond to a hail.
Why not even the playing field so that all pledged players can enjoy equal benefits? Find an appropriate spot for a merchant/banker duo in Sihala’s tree tower and give them some throwaway dialog praising the Lady of the Earth (perhaps even giving a one-off Lawful alignment opportunity). Create a “followers only” portal from Sivyana’s Towers of Agony to some unique, evil-oriented Old World location, such as the entry to the First Ruins (where her Sivakians dwell) or the tunnel just outside of Lasanth. If deemed necessary, reassign the deity necklace port-in locations to place the follower nearer to these new amenities and to minimize the potential for their misuse by non-followers.
Of course, a change like this will do nothing to help the fact that poor Malath still lacks an implemented home plane. (According to the wiki, it ought to be HMal, but that place clearly serves other purposes in its current form.) Nor will it benefit those of the Divine Light or Pariah, but those players know they’re forfeiting a home plane when they make their choice. This also does nothing to address the missing deity aug quests, which would be a far greater undertaking than simply adding the items suggested here. That said, these simple changes would bring new utility to the planes and might even boost the appeal of certain deities.
Let’s bring some religious equality to Dalaya once and for all!
TL;DR – Give all deities a banker, a merchant, and a port-out so they can be as cool as Marlow.
Many deity planes, however, are not so lucky. Shiritri’s Plane of Air, for example, may offer some unique fishing opportunities for followers and may contain a port-out to the Northern Badlands, but no merchant or banker are to be found. (Even if they were put in, I have a feeling they’d be put inconveniently far from the current port-in location….) The Tower of Tarhyl is even less accommodating; despite that this deity comes with perhaps the richest of all aug quests, Tarhyl apparently can’t be bothered to offer his loyal followers a simple means of departure. Perhaps worst of all is Shojar, whose plane already lacks a merchant, a banker, and a port out, but on top of all that, I don’t believe a single NPC within the entire zone will respond to a hail.
Why not even the playing field so that all pledged players can enjoy equal benefits? Find an appropriate spot for a merchant/banker duo in Sihala’s tree tower and give them some throwaway dialog praising the Lady of the Earth (perhaps even giving a one-off Lawful alignment opportunity). Create a “followers only” portal from Sivyana’s Towers of Agony to some unique, evil-oriented Old World location, such as the entry to the First Ruins (where her Sivakians dwell) or the tunnel just outside of Lasanth. If deemed necessary, reassign the deity necklace port-in locations to place the follower nearer to these new amenities and to minimize the potential for their misuse by non-followers.
Of course, a change like this will do nothing to help the fact that poor Malath still lacks an implemented home plane. (According to the wiki, it ought to be HMal, but that place clearly serves other purposes in its current form.) Nor will it benefit those of the Divine Light or Pariah, but those players know they’re forfeiting a home plane when they make their choice. This also does nothing to address the missing deity aug quests, which would be a far greater undertaking than simply adding the items suggested here. That said, these simple changes would bring new utility to the planes and might even boost the appeal of certain deities.
Let’s bring some religious equality to Dalaya once and for all!
TL;DR – Give all deities a banker, a merchant, and a port-out so they can be as cool as Marlow.
