Icarus wrote:This is coming from a player perspective, as I brought SOI back originally to have a game to play.
You're more than welcome to play, Icarus. I've always made that clear. And what's more, you've retained your identity on the forums. Please. Come and play.
Icarus wrote:In the past, you've proposed a number of systems to "rescue" people from danger, or to remove them from that danger. You've also proposed systems to remove certain permanant death mechanics. This seems to be in-line with that line of thought? That's not an accusation, but simply a question, as you seem to have a different philosophy and approach than me in this regard. Are you planning on introducing further mechanics like this in the future?
The Mercy proposal. A huge flop with the players, the idea was abandoned. No, I have no plans for anything other than perma-death, though we are looking at the damage that arrows do and the bleed issues.
Icarus wrote:For players who like the danger, the fast paced combat, and permadeath -- is there still a place for them? Will they be stymied by what some folks refer to "huggy" mechanics?
Absolutely there is a place for them, there will be huge swaths of the game for them to play in. Huggy mechanics... I like that term. The question is far too vague to answer though. Stymied in your opinion may be something totally different to me, or another player. What I will say though, is that there will continue to be the same raw, unforgiving danger throughout Mirkwood. You'll still be able to get your rush of danger and tread upon death's doormat if you so choose.
Icarus wrote: In regards to introducing characters who are provided enhanced abilities, stats, skills, and equipment in an effort to make them impervious to twinking, how are you going to balance them in encounters where they stand alongside more mundane players on the same side? I'm Corporal Bob, for example, with my three newbie recruits, and then there's Sergeant Gorf, a dwarf who is one of these "invited" roles. If I go out with my recruits and fight some orcs, we are on the same page codedly, largely without any advantages or disadvantages. RP can happen, twinking can happen, but it's really up to us without any external forces moving us one way or another. Sergeant Gorf comes with us, and has been enhanced to essentially make him unkillable unless he deigns to. We encounter the other side, who does not have their Wartroll Gmog online. What's preventing us with wiping the other side across the floor? The next day we go out, and we don't have Gorf, but the other side has Gmog. What's preventing them from wiping the floor with us?
An interesting series of questions, though I will say I'm quite confused as to how these are important issues now and why they weren't brought up when you were on staff just a week ago. You're 'in-the-know' on all of these things already. You were around for all of our existing characters that took special roles, you took part in the process, you were part of the conversations that date back many, many months.
This thread is about trust, so I think the fitting answer would be that trust is what is required to make these things work. I'm not asking one to blindly follow me to the edge of the universe, I'm only asking you to trust that all of staff are here to make this game as great as we can.
There's no guarantee that someone may not come up and just attack your character, or sneak up on them and wait for you to go afk and then twink kill them. (Yes, we've had this happen in this version of SoI).
Also, you're speaking as though these characters with enhanced abilities will have the capability of turning you in to dust with a glance. That is not our intent. Boosts will follow the standardized role boosts as a starting point and if we feel modifications are needed for Sponsored Roles, we will discuss and come to an agreed upon boost.
By and large, Sponsored Roles will not receive boosts that any 0 RPP character cannot attain should they be able to play the same race, with regular play and practice. We're not releasing OP monsters on you. Well... for the most part anyway. I do reserve the right to animate some fairly ferocious beasts.
Icarus wrote:Does that make sense? The enhanced individuals will not be going out into the gameworld alone, but with mundane players. If you make an enhanced individual superior as you seem to be wishing to, you remove the agency of the mundane individuals on both sides. They are required to have an enhanced person to make an impact, whereas now anyone can make an impact.
Player Agency seems to be the term of the week lately. We're not taking anything away from the player that chooses to play the 0 RPP character. They can have just as much impact as anyone else with in-game events and roleplay.[/quote]
Icarus wrote:One of the big reasons we moved to this region of Middle-Earth was because it allowed us to provide all the different elements of Tolkien in one place canoncially. You have spiders, wargs, orcs, elves, dwarves, humans, dragons, etc all in one place. The idea was that, unlike in past iterations, Dwarves and Elves would be much more mundane. The elf wouldn't be an overpowered tank that players look up to with glittering wonder because in this region of the world, the elves /are/ mundane. They get drunk, imprison trespassers, party in the forest, drink with the humans in their tavern. Dwarves live in a mountain just to the east, trading and working on a day to day basis with humans and elves as well. They fight, they lie, they die, they deceive.
Races in this part of the world are more humanlike, and on the same level of each other, in a way that the old SOI could not do. We wanted to lower the bar and expand access to those cool races, because frankly people want to play them. What's the point of playing a tolkien game when all you can play is a boring fisherman? I, at least, wanted us to be able to revel in the epic fantasy world that Tolkien created and directly participate in it as the movers and shakers, not as the sideliners.
Yep. We're still on the same page on these points, Icarus. I'm not sure why you think these things are threatened in any way. If you don't want to play the boring fisherman, then don't. Play whatever you like, and if you play well enough, you may be able to request a role to play that elf you want to play so badly.
Some want to be movers and shakers, some want to be sideliners. It's up to you what your character does. We are not limiting you other than to put in place some fairly basic rules.
Icarus wrote:You're talking about restricting those "epic" things to a certain cadre of carefully groomed individuals.
No. I am not. You, more than anyone in this forum, should know that I have pushed for more player agency through pc-clans, pc-owned shops, pc-owned homes than anyone else over the last year.
Icarus wrote: I don't really understand that. Open the world up, lower the bar, and tell a true adventure story. As an RPA, on a day to day basis nothing really sets a high-rpp player apart from a 2 or 3 rpp player.
This has been the plan all along, Icarus, I'm not sure why you wouldn't know this.
Icarus wrote: There is nothing about x's roleplay that is better than y's. Nothing better about G's that's better than the other orcs. There are of course idiots out there, people who loot their corpses and cheat and all that, but honestly the high-rpp folks have done the same and will continue to. Even Brian set outside the orc stronghold waiting for people to come out to fight them. He didn't kill more of them not because he was a good roleplayer, but more simply because he doesn't understand this iteration's code in the same way.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here, Icarus. It sounds like you start off demanding more Player Agency, and then it switches to talking about Brian and that he didn't kill more orcs because he doesn't understand the codebase.
I reject that entire notion in regards to why Brian didn't kill more orcs. You're absolutely wrong.
Icarus wrote:I saw, as an RPA, fantastic roleplay from almost everyone. I also saw some really crap roleplay from those same people. At the end of the day though, it evens out. Soak this world in Tolkien and Fantasy and Magic, and bring that to every single player who comes to us, not just those who have invested decades into the game.
Once again, I have to disagree with you, Icarus. One good bit of roleplay does not justify another scene of crap roleplay. It does not all even out. We should strive for good roleplay. Always.
Sure, there are some newbies that are just getting their feet wet, they learn, we provide them with great examples of how to roleplay, we teach them through our players just how deep and grand this game can be.
Icarus wrote: I guess, in trying to understand your perspective, I think you looked at players ganking an elf and had a knee-jerk reaction. How dare they, and how can I make it so that the elf (who in your eyes is an epic character) feel like an epic character. You want people, when they see an elf, or a dwarf, to see something really special, and you want to codedly make them special.
Once again, I disagree with you, Icarus. My knee-jerk reaction to the elf's death that I was stunned that Songweaver pulled off what he did, and that Brian allowed his character to fall for it. I was not there for the scene, but after hearing a bit of what went on, I think that this particular chapter of SoI had to be one of the best damned player-run plots in our history. It took a selfless set of players (the humans and elf) to overlook the ooc obviousness of the situation, and let their characters get put in this position.
Kudos to all involved with the actual roleplay. I wish I could have been there.
And yes... I do think that elves and dwarves should be epic characters, not stat-wise, but play wise. And Brian's elf was the standard that many people, including himself, have to look up to.
Icarus wrote:and you want to codedly make them special.
Sponsored Roles make any character special, not just the restricted races.
In the past, I've left it to you and Frigga to debate the Lore issues, Icarus, you know this. Both of you had complete control of Lore stuff, I deferred to you both. I continue to defer to those with more knowledge than myself.
[edited to fix a quoting typo and a few spelling errors]
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