Instead of removing stuff.
A new village, maybe. Somewhere to store a mount and get a cup of water, perhaps somewhere where people have been really wanting a place where they could do that. There is no village right now designated around the removal of ore from the ground, like the silver and gold mining towns of the American West. Those towns were often in the desert or the middle of nowhere, and were able to survive on a local well and the money from the ore.
New races with low roleplay restrictions?
Do you have any ideas for things we could add to the game? If people discuss it enough it could be made into its own thread. Mostly I want to hear ideas that people have, but possibly didn't think to make a thread about it, or thought they didn't have enough of an idea to make a thread about.
Air rooms over the Red Desert.
Drov, Nilaz, Elkros subguilds.
Full guild elementalists with the upcoming guild changes -> so you can have characters who can be more magick focused.
Northlands
More extensive things out in the Silt Sea, an island, things so people can skim around to.
There are all kinds of systems that need refurbishing. But they all require a fair bit of either creative or coding bandwidth.
Removing something is probably popular because:
--It can be removed today with less labor.
--If it doesn't work, it can (probably) be added back with only a bit of labor.
--Sometimes in the larger scheme of things, 'less is more' when it comes to streamlining aspects of the game.
I'd like to see 'bury' be modified so that it can be done in other than 'save' rooms and still hold over between reboots.
This would apply to items which have been specifically planted using the 'bury' command, not anything that sinks below the surface of the sands.
Should be possible to code it to be an overlay outside of the SQL database rather than require every room be a 'save' room. A text list loaded at boot time, maintained in memory, and saved now and then. Editable in memory so it can be trimmed if there's something the staff wants to get rid of or it's getting too long.
Arm ran on the computers of the day twenty seven years ago. The present Ginka must be absolutely cavernous compared to the dingy resources available back then. I simply won't listen to arguments that it is not technically feasible. ;D
NPC skimmers on the Silt Sea.
More reasons to take skimmers out on to the Silt Sea.
If we had another one or two races with low roleplay restrictions then it wouldn't look like a world populated almost entirely by humans. Like a race that always loves to fight, for example. I've always wanted to see that.
More air rooms sound awesome.
I want there to be some kind of supernatural entity either in the sands or in an apartment building, which manifests from time to time to harass people, eventually starting to try to kill them. However, templars wouldn't take action for a while because the first few pcs it tries to harm are (on purpose for this reason) undesirable to some extent or simply not important. Of course, the creature then harms someone who is useful to the powerful, and an RPT is scheduled for its destruction.
Like the first couple of times, it appears to a Kadian girl in the Gaj apartments for a few seconds and vanishes, and does basically the same thing to a human guy a week later. Then it does creepy things to a breed, an elf and a dwarf, in that order. However, no one does anything because none of those three people are important, right? The first two were random but probably would be employed humans statistically. Then a Salaari is physically attacked, either killed or not, and the manhunt begins. I could see this initially putting some strain on the gemmed population, as it should. Whenever anything weird happens they would get the first blame.
Being able to use flint to start a fire.
Along the lines of Bogre's post:
Instead of having just magick subguilds and nothing else, have a pick-three for magicks. I've posted it elsewhere but I think it's still a good idea. All other subguilds have main guilds that represent their skill sets. Magicks are the only ones that don't. And so:
You pick a vivaduan, but you want it to be more like a main guild, than a subguild. You select that option in chargen.
So now - you can no longer select a main guild at all. Instead:
You can select any TWO of the vivaduan subguilds
AND
You can select a third non-magick subguild.
Either that, or restore the "legendarily primary skill" for each element, to all of that element's subguilds. Known via the official docs:
Vivadu is the "water" thing. So ALL vivaduan subguilds should be able to create water.
Whira is the "air" thing. So ALL whiran subguilds should be able to fly.
And so on.
The lethal three - drov, nilaz, elkros, should be incorporated into the sorcerer set of subguilds, but each of those sorcerer subguilds should have some type of spell that implies they're corrupted individuals. The player of that sorcerer never has to use it, but that's the whole point of having sorcerers in the game, so they all should have an actual trademark skill to represent the concept of corruption. The cap could vary depend on the subguild chosen. Maybe the one for knowledge would have a resurrect spell capped at the second-to-lowest horn or something.
.
Bash Door
Roll armor repair and clothmaking into tailoring; add a command to the tailor skill that sizes a clothing item to any arbitrary person in the room. Chance to fail and rip the garment at lower levels based on skill.
Lady Borsail needs that gown fitted to her measurements INSIDE the compound, Krath-dang it.
Spawning camps of tribal humans and/or raiders for targets to attack.
bash door
option to full magicker again
Invading force from the east that was strong enough to fight back the hive of kryl, survive, and is now looking to take over the Red Desert.
Quote from: Riev on April 16, 2018, 04:41:53 PM
Invading force from the east that was strong enough to fight back the hive of kryl, survive, and is now looking to take over the Red Desert.
The Mantis would really work for that, TBH. A different clutch or simply an offshoot of the same one in the valley.
Random desert dungeon crawls that random spawn every two weeks, random mobs / locked doors, have random treasure at the end, and get 'blown over' next week to be covered.
A poison that isn't as deadly as terradin, but causes the same type of symptoms? One that causes you to shit your pants and vomit, and ruin your clothes?
A poison that doesn't last as long as Peraine. Perhaps one that lowers your strength temporarily?
"Character Creation" done in the website as an alternative to using the MUD client.
Quote from: mansa on April 16, 2018, 10:53:46 PM
"Character Creation" done in the website as an alternative to using the MUD client.
Yes x 1 million
Quote from: mansa on April 16, 2018, 10:53:46 PM
Random desert dungeon crawls that random spawn every two weeks, random mobs / locked doors, have random treasure at the end, and get 'blown over' next week to be covered.
Yes, please, on dungeon crawls. We have something similar with animal nests. I want to see mooooore!
I would also love to see more poisons, and the ability for poisons to have a delayed onset.
A puking poison that isn't as ridiculously deadly as terradin would be great. A poison that dehydrates you, forcing you to drink enormous quantities of water to survive (not that OTHER poison, this one would let you drink water to survive). Poisons that cause irrational rage. A poison that makes you throw up whatever you eat, so you can't eat anything until it wears off. There are lots of effects already coded that could theoretically be caused by poisons: blindness, deafness, stumbling when you try to move, weakness, slowness.... I want to see more poison types.
YES PLEASE TO THE CHARACTER CREATION!!
I love when I get messed with by staff with various poisonous effects and stuff, I would also enjoy a few non-lethal poisons to achieve doing that to players.
I'd like to see the craft system change.
Currently, it appears that once you get "craft skill x" to 'journeyman', you get access to "A through M" recipes. Once you get to 'advanced' you get "N through Z" recipes.
I'd like it to change to a teaching / recipe based learning, rather than a skill percentage learning.
Example:
Weaponcrafting
| ITEM | CURRENT "LEARNING" | Future "Learning" |
| a bone longsword | Novice | Automatic |
| a bone shortsword | Novice | Automatic |
| an obsidian longsword | Novice | Automatic |
| a curved sword of bone | Apprentice | Taught by Salarr NPC for $$ coins |
| a bone broadsword | Apprentice | Taught by Salarr NPC for $$ coins |
| an agafari longsword | Apprentice | Automatic |
| a slender, agafari longsword | Journeyman | Taught by Salarr NPC in Tuluk for $$$ coins |
| a sharp, baobab bastard sword | Journeyman | Taught by Salarr NPC in Tuluk for $$$ coins |
| a bone-handled obsidian longknife | Advanced | Taught by Salarr NPC in Allanak for $$$$ coins |
| a serrated-edged, ivory-hilted longknife | Advanced | Taught by Salarr NPC in Luir's ONLY WHEN CLANNED by SALARR for $$$$$$ coins |
1) Once you learn the recipe, you always have it, even after you leave the clan.
2) Maybe you could teach recipes that you know to other players? (You can have 'mastercrafts' be taughtable)
3) It would be a coin sink
4) There will have to be a way to view all recipes that you know for each crafting skill
5) Maybe with assess it will tell you who to speak to, to learn more about making it.
6) You could have random recipes 'proc' to learn random pieces, maybe 1/300 times of crafting the same piece?
Moar content ideas, less feature ideas plz.
Quote from: Armaddict on April 18, 2018, 04:54:04 AM
Moar content ideas, less feature ideas plz.
Yeah the coded additions over the last several years are nifty but I think I've used maybe one of them, once ever.
I'd love to see more additions to the
story of Armageddon. Add new bigwig NPCs, kill off old bigwig NPCs (some are literally hundreds of IC years old) and keep throwing different crises at the players, from famine to infestation, etc. I'll take that over new skills and subguilds any day.
More global story lines that don't just affect the nobles, but also come down to the commoners. Even if it doesn't affect me, it is neat to see it happening. Back when one of the farms were destroyed, it affected food prices which got people to go hunting more and trying to bring goods in from the North to sell off or what not.
Maybe something happens on the silt sea and spice is extremely abundant driving down the price for awhile for a few of the cheaper spices which then everyone in the Rinth is now stoned out of their gourd so more incidents happen in the Southside. Maybe Kurac jumps on this and have sales all over for the cheap spice trying to get more addicts.
Simple changes can make it interesting to multiple people. I do like the idea of randomly opening "dens" that show up in area that can be explored. Maybe one rarer creature shows up in one of these dens which can then be hunted and skinned down for something to be used in a rarer craft or even a new mastercraft done by a Merchant House.
I may be forgetting the reasoning of it being closed, with with the Atrium open again for training traditional aides, I'd love to see the Tor Academy opened again for training high class fighting aides/other.
I know the Byn can suit that as well, but I don't feel like Lord Fancypants wants his employees in training shoveling shit. :-D
A missile object that can be thrown or shot into a room to light it for a brief period plz.
Lowering the price for sections of low-quality hide in Storm, or increasing the price for which you can sell it back to the Sand Lord, would allow a human with above average wisdom to start making money on that skill, which would make career leathercrafters in Storm more possible. Right now the only way you'd get me to do it is if I rolled up an elf with decent wisdom. My human with above average wisdom and advanced leatherworking was breaking even for RL days in Storm before I said, "Screw this," and went to get a different job.
Cookbooks for that tiny section of commoners who can read and write, like Atrium teachers, trusted aides, and House merchants. These would not give you the recipe for grebber's surprise, but probably would tell you how to make things like ginka pie. Bonus points for being written like an actual cookbook.
An extra helpfile linked to in the cooking helpfile: Recipes Most People Would Know, such as those a hunter would know like grebber's surprise and bone marrow broth. Then maybe a couple of Tuluki recipes and a couple Luir's and Storm. A couple that elves would know, such as one non-Kuraci spice fruitcake I made once, which was done by elves for elves (without a roundear in sight!) and would only really be accessible to elf travelers who couldn't afford or get their hands easily on Kuraci cakes (since House merchants tend to drag ass for undesirables' orders.)
Cultural traits for bows, arrows, weapons and shields made by any one person, represented as a single line of descriptive code. The exception would be half-elves and giants, who would probably make weapons that look human. At character creation you could decide if your half-elf was raised by elves, therefore allowing them to make elvish weaponry.
It would probably be assess, a single line of code saying, "This has the look of elven/dwarven/human weaponry." If it were anything else (probably besides gith and mantis), the line would be blank. Merchants of course can tell if the item is southern, made by a merchant House, but an elf could tell what an elvish bow looked like, and any dwarf could tell what a dwarven sword looked like. Humans could recognize human craftsmanship, at least at a basic level. Perhaps you would need to either be a merchant or to fight with the weapon class in question to tell other races' handiwork.
Foraging could occasionally turn up a really big rock. Heavy enough that only a half-giant could reasonably lift it. (Maybe a really strong dwarf).
When found, they'd be placed on the ground instead of the inventory.
Big rocks could open up some new crafting options. Like large bricks, or sculptures (that aren't in miniature), sundials, boulders for catapults and the like.
Quote from: Eyeball on April 22, 2018, 04:21:50 AM
Foraging could occasionally turn up a really big rock. Heavy enough that only a half-giant could reasonably lift it. (Maybe a really strong dwarf).
When found, they'd be placed on the ground instead of the inventory.
Big rocks could open up some new crafting options. Like large bricks, or sculptures (that aren't in miniature), sundials, boulders for catapults and the like.
Searching around carefully, you find a giant boulder of sandstone twice your height that you... somehow didn't notice was there before.Edit: I'm just yanking your chain; it's not a bad idea.
Nilazi, Drovians and Elkrosians
Make magickers great again! Instead of the unpopular kids (more unpopular than elves) everyone picks on because they can and because it's easy to do so now. If the docs say something is feared because it's freaking dangerous, it needs to be freaking dangerous. Screw 'balance'. I fell in love with Armageddon because it was unbalanced and unfair.
Playable gypsies
Northlands stuff, bring Tuluk back or introduce another place for people to play in that isn't Allanak and is more populated than Red Storm.
Dungeon crawls sound cool.
Randomized wilderness rooms that keep shifting and changing. One of my Armageddon pet peeves is that the wilderness often feels smaller than it should be, and it's far too easy to run into the same people (like raiders...) every single time you leave a city. It gets old fast.
Quote from: cshoov on April 22, 2018, 01:13:18 PM
Searching around carefully, you find a giant boulder of sandstone twice your height that you... somehow didn't notice was there before.
> forage rock
Searching around, you uncover a giant boulder of sandstone embedded in the sands.
> l
You are surrounded by endless dunes.
One face of a giant boulder of sandstone protrudes from the sands here.
QuoteMake magickers great again! Instead of the unpopular kids (more unpopular than elves) everyone picks on because they can and because it's easy to do so now. If the docs say something is feared because it's freaking dangerous, it needs to be freaking dangerous. Screw 'balance'. I fell in love with Armageddon because it was unbalanced and unfair.
1) They are definitely NOT more unpopular than elves in the current atmosphere of the game. 100% certainty. But I can also say they should be, by all degrees of my opinion. Elves are far easier to tolerate and have around you (they -are- around you the vast majority of the time) than wigglers.
2) I actually agree insofar as the balancing; for me, magick was never about balancing. Neither are the classes. But when we bypass the social stigma for the sake of involving people in things, and that results in a degradation of mundane-participation, then I care very little for them.
There's actually a huge discussion to be had on inclusion/exclusion when level heads can prevail; I've had numerous threads where I talk about elves as 'normal', where most people would have elven acquaintances, where elves are useful...but that they still fall under that social stigma to an equal amount. It's rarely played out this way. Mages, in my mind, are in a similar spot where we need to find the balance of 'People associate with them, but that doesn't really give the mage much of a boon, nor empower them over the much larger population that is actually being kept docile; it's just what they do.'
I am, as always, sensitive about things dealing with the magickal side of the game and couldn't resist responding, sorry. XD
Quote from: Armaddict on April 23, 2018, 10:14:44 AM
1) They are definitely NOT more unpopular than elves in the current atmosphere of the game. 100% certainty. But I can also say they should be, by all degrees of my opinion. Elves are far easier to tolerate and have around you (they -are- around you the vast majority of the time) than wigglers.
When I played (not THAT long ago), there were multiple serial killers and mage haters specifically hunting gemmed. No one was specifically targeting elves for the sake of killing elves, as far as I knew. I also have the impression that players who dislike magick on an OOC level tend to play mage killer / gem collector characters, and not just once.
People should hesitate to even attack a mage, let alone try to kill them unless they have a very specific background of knowing how magick works. But unfortunately players know OOCly how the magick code works and that they won't burst into flame when touching a mage with a sword. ::) So, yeah, magick needs to be scary again without spending years in the Byn before manifesting. If the IG reality of magick ever matches the documentation again, I'll probably play.
But we've had that discussion before. Let's get back to stuff that could be added to the game.
Quote from: Akaramu on April 23, 2018, 10:27:59 AM
People should hesitate to even attack a mage, let alone try to kill them unless they have a very specific background of knowing how magick works.
One approach to dealing with this would be to occasionally, upon a mage's death, have some negative effect afflict a PC who kills the mage.
"Slay me you can, but you, your kin, and the soil you stand on will be cursed for a King's Age!"
An ability collector like Sylar from Heroes to the list of sorc subguilds. Every time you defile from an incapacitated elementalist, you get one of his/her abilities at random - or maybe the most recent one used - and the elementalist dies
I think we all know what my position on content to add is. I'm not even gonna say it.
I'm a dreamer so: Tuluk (Jihaens included)
But less ambitious ;
-The NPC wagons and raiders. I could have sworn this was being discussed to some degree but i've never seen it. Give those poor raiders a target other than noobs who they know can't fight back because they know every character that logs in and goes outside and how many days played they have compared to them.
-I'd like to see some of the backstory of the game revealed to players whether directly or IC somehow through the landscape or current events. As time goes on I feel less and less like the game is a sweet story and more like its a hack n' slash. Combat culture has changed in the game too, i'm not sure if i'm a fan of it -- I've adapted to it basically to survive honestly.
-ADD ROOMS-
You don't need to add thousands of rooms to go too. But make some zones for raiders / rogues / organizations to find and set up shop in that don't get patrolled by 5 different PCs three times a day everyday so they have a chance.
Actually, adding wilderness rooms sounds like a good idea, if your aim is to help give raiders/grebbers/hunters a larger space so that Amos the hunter doesn't keep running into Mal the raider EVERY SINGLE TIME he leaves Allanak. A raider as active as the average hunter starts becoming such a common sight outside that its honestly kind of weird.
This would also give you an excuse to add a mining town or something like that, some sort of noble House outpost where people can store a mount and buy a piece of meat and/or a drink of water, I guess I mentioned that already. I like pitstops, but more than that I like giving merchants more reasons to trade, giving a few players some work trading bibbobs from one place to another. Allanak and Storm do fill those roles somewhat, but mostly with regards to food in my opinion, perhaps training weapons.
Maybe a free elven village with a stable and tavern. Humans don't stay overnight, but those elves make some good food. Lots of dwarves, breed and giants there, too, creating a social environment you just don't see elsewhere south of the Shield Wall.
I'm all for more pitstops, small villages, and places of refuge that seem to have found a way to survive the elements, at least for now.
Unfortunately, its kind of a hacky thing when in the game, the gith would have raided the town, or actual RAIDERS would have raided it. And if the little village CAN defend itself from these things? Allanak or Tuluk would have seized it as their own outpost.
I'm 50/50 on whether little pitstops can realistically exist, but there have got to be small tribes and villages of escaped slaves and shit.
A bigger world (and bigger cities as well) certainly would help shady types and people on the run to hide out better.
Not sure if that's what the staff is looking for though. For example, some save rooms were removed from the wilderness a few years ago.
Decamping to the wilderness in general is discouraged by the "invisible territorial PC elf with amazing deadly arrows" deal.
Pitstops could exist as impermanent camps. There one month, moved somewhere else the next.
If I am in my bedroom I can hear my wife open the front door and walk through the house. Why can't listen be able to detect people entering and exiting rooms in the distance?
I SHOULD be able to hear a tembo charge in from a distant room.
Other viewing angles. I can see critters 3 rooms to the east and three rooms to the north. But if they are one room north and one room east - no luck. That's stupid.
I wish every room could be a quit room. It's impossible to be a casual player with that crap.
Quote from: stoicreader on April 26, 2018, 04:18:21 PM
I wish every room could be a quit room. It's impossible to be a casual player with that crap.
You can use 'quit ooc' if you need to leave abruptly. You will want to make your way to a quit room the next time you login though, since you can't quit ooc twice in a row. (I know, I know. But I understand why they made it that way).
It would be nice if wounds show on you and by extension your corpse based on severity for a time.
Quote from: KankWhisperer on April 26, 2018, 08:12:38 PM
It would be nice if wounds show on you and by extension your corpse based on severity for a time.
I like the idea in theory but I hate the screen spam it creates, not to mention the awkwardness of the wounds ostensibly being covered with bandages or clothing. I would prefer that this kind of information be available, but only in some sort of "inspect" or "examine" command output. And maybe the basics can be available to everyone, but details appear only to those with the bandaging skill.
Tombs and ruins and the like that spawn off the same code as the animal barrows with varying threats and rewards would give a great excuse to just go tool around otherwise familiar wilderness looking around.
There's currently some areas that just aren't worth visiting more than once (Scoria, salt flats, that kinda thing) unless you're there to visit some very particular point of interest.
I had something, but I forgot it.
Oh, but here's another one: every 12 hours of RL play, you have to go to the bathroom. You don't shit your pants, but annoying echoes pop up to discourage putting it off for more than half an hour.
It seems like you'd have bathrooms for places like the Atrium and outhouses along designated points in the city. They'd be one-roomers, and another place to smoke that spice you've been sneaking around, especially if you don't have your own apartment.
Perhaps every 15 hours. That would be once every three game days at the beginning of the day. I'm not sure how often people need to eat, as it tends to vary between places I think. But fifteen hours is enough.
But its also sort of like herbs and fresh flowers rotting--- realistic, but an inconvenience. However I believe if you have long enough periods between bathroom breaks, you can turn it into a rp tool, especially for people who need to sneak off and do something unsavory or illegal. "Lord Templar, may I be excused to the outhouse?" "Alright, its a bit far, so you have two hours to walk there and back. Don't be late." "Thank you, Lord Templar." The next day, Lady Amosa is found dead in a fountain in the noble's quarter. If you attempted to do this now without any code backing it up, people would be suspicious of you. No one roleplays bathroom trips, as far as I'm aware.
A lot of what is being suggested is not "content", but merely features or coded requests.
I think the original idea of "content" was stories, roleplaying opportunities, things to DO, plots. Not "Wouldn't it be neat if"
Quote from: Cind on April 27, 2018, 11:59:51 AM
I had something, but I forgot it.
Oh, but here's another one: every 12 hours of RL play, you have to go to the bathroom. You don't shit your pants, but annoying echoes pop up to discourage putting it off for more than half an hour.
It seems like you'd have bathrooms for places like the Atrium and outhouses along designated points in the city. They'd be one-roomers, and another place to smoke that spice you've been sneaking around, especially if you don't have your own apartment.
Perhaps every 15 hours. That would be once every three game days at the beginning of the day. I'm not sure how often people need to eat, as it tends to vary between places I think. But fifteen hours is enough.
But its also sort of like herbs and fresh flowers rotting--- realistic, but an inconvenience. However I believe if you have long enough periods between bathroom breaks, you can turn it into a rp tool, especially for people who need to sneak off and do something unsavory or illegal. "Lord Templar, may I be excused to the outhouse?" "Alright, its a bit far, so you have two hours to walk there and back. Don't be late." "Thank you, Lord Templar." The next day, Lady Amosa is found dead in a fountain in the noble's quarter. If you attempted to do this now without any code backing it up, people would be suspicious of you. No one roleplays bathroom trips, as far as I'm aware.
FUck yea! Or just decrease stun slightly if you "gotta go". LOVE IT!
Re: forced bathroom echoes - hell no.
I think, however it would be cool if, like hunger code, players actually got 'sleepy' and would be required to sleep for at least an ingame hour(10 minutes) or risk 'sleep deprivation' which could include skellebain-like hallucinations and eventually heramide-like stun loss and passing out. Perhaps a well-rested bonus could apply increasing max stun by like 10 points for its duration.
This would force people to actually find 'safe' places to sleep.. and give Story Tellers easier options to 'influence' dreams and stuff.
I would say an hour, 10 minutes, would be a bit but 5 or so wouldn't be that bad.
Eh, RPTs already span multiple days, especially combat outings. When adding things to the game we should consider whether they will actually add to the game's enjoyment, rather than become annoying burdens for the sake of a dash of questionable realism.
We're telling stories, not playing the Sims... or at least I'd like to think.
Quote from: Vox on April 27, 2018, 07:54:12 PM
Re: forced bathroom echoes - hell no.
I think, however it would be cool if, like hunger code, players actually got 'sleepy' and would be required to sleep for at least an ingame hour(10 minutes) or risk 'sleep deprivation' which could include skellebain-like hallucinations and eventually heramide-like stun loss and passing out. Perhaps a well-rested bonus could apply increasing max stun by like 10 points for its duration.
This would force people to actually find 'safe' places to sleep.. and give Story Tellers easier options to 'influence' dreams and stuff.
This is GREAT!
(Shake) so you can rattle something or someone from hiding and not be combat code.
Hidden items that lead you deeper into an area to tell more of the story about the item. (via other items or an npc/animation). Though that can only be recycled so much. And I think things like that do pop up from time to time as it is.
Easy way to add more content: Give staff freedom to create rooms/code/NPCs etc... as they please. Make it like a building sandbox for the staff.
"Staff member Amos, you're welcome to add rooms and modify the salt flats as you please. You can create areas to explore, fill it up with more plant and animal life. You can make it larger. You can code new echos and even create an entire fortress with quit rooms that PCs can use to 'hide out' or get out from the sun."
I kind of feel that the reason all the rooms remain relatively the same has to do with the staff being stifled from creative activity. When I coded and built other muds it was an extremely enjoyable process to write room descriptions, echos, connecting rooms, NPCs, clothing and weapon objects, etc... I created an entire city in my free time with triggered NPCs and even the special features of each room could be examined for more detailed descriptions. The walls in the room had torches providing light? You can look at the torches and see what material they were made from. That was a fucking BLAST to do.
In the mud I coded and built years ago we were also given an experimental "playground" where we can pre-build things and make our own world of rooms, objects, and NPCs. It was a lot of fun to be creative in that regard.
Quote from: stoicreader on April 28, 2018, 11:12:18 AM
"Staff member Amos, you're welcome to add rooms and modify the salt flats as you please. You can create areas to explore, fill it up with more plant and animal life. You can make it larger. You can code new echos and even create an entire fortress with quit rooms that PCs can use to 'hide out' or get out from the sun."
I thought staff was doing this? I remember an announcement about new places to explore being added to the wilderness. Not that I actually ever found them ingame... :P
I also totes helped a staff member write a new creature at one point.
Quote from: stoicreader on April 28, 2018, 11:12:18 AM
Easy way to add more content: Give staff freedom to create rooms/code/NPCs etc... as they please. Make it like a building sandbox for the staff.
"Staff member Amos, you're welcome to add rooms and modify the salt flats as you please. You can create areas to explore, fill it up with more plant and animal life. You can make it larger. You can code new echos and even create an entire fortress with quit rooms that PCs can use to 'hide out' or get out from the sun."
I kind of feel that the reason all the rooms remain relatively the same has to do with the staff being stifled from creative activity. When I coded and built other muds it was an extremely enjoyable process to write room descriptions, echos, connecting rooms, NPCs, clothing and weapon objects, etc... I created an entire city in my free time with triggered NPCs and even the special features of each room could be examined for more detailed descriptions. The walls in the room had torches providing light? You can look at the torches and see what material they were made from. That was a fucking BLAST to do.
In the mud I coded and built years ago we were also given an experimental "playground" where we can pre-build things and make our own world of rooms, objects, and NPCs. It was a lot of fun to be creative in that regard.
This was once true in ArmageddonMUD -- And it yielded undocumented rooms/NPCs being added, no paper trails, and no accountability. From what I gather, having rooms/NPCs/objects added isn't so much 'Red Tape' as 'Peer Review'. Working in a creative field myself, I can tell you that even having an apprentice look over the work of the master may yield a simple mistake that was overlooked. Everyone's eyes are different, see the world differently, and so can offer perspective on what you are making.
I've also seen Staff very responsive with personal echoes and world echoes that cover much of what you are talking about. As well, the onus is on us as the players to suggest ideas and typos when we see them -- I've idea'd before 'Hey, it'd be cool to get an extra description on this mural mentioned, or this group of people discussed in the room description', and voila, an extra description was added. Staff can't possibly think of every detail, so crowdsourcing that extra detail to the player base is exactly what it seems the idea command is for.
Forced pee and poop echos would make mudsex way more exciting.
Quote from: seidhr on April 28, 2018, 11:44:57 PM
Forced pee and poop echos would make mudsex way more exciting.
So gross. :P
I think I just sat with my face bright red and buried in both hands for a full five minutes. So terrible. Hahaha!
Quote from: Vox on April 29, 2018, 01:05:22 AM
Quote from: seidhr on April 28, 2018, 11:44:57 PM
Forced pee and poop echos would make mudsex way more exciting.
So gross. :P
Quote from: WithSprinkles on April 29, 2018, 01:10:39 AM
I think I just sat with my face bright red and buried in both hands for a full five minutes. So terrible. Hahaha!
I'm offended.
Quote from: ShaLeah on April 29, 2018, 09:09:47 AM
Quote from: Vox on April 29, 2018, 01:05:22 AM
Quote from: seidhr on April 28, 2018, 11:44:57 PM
Forced pee and poop echos would make mudsex way more exciting.
So gross. :P
Quote from: WithSprinkles on April 29, 2018, 01:10:39 AM
I think I just sat with my face bright red and buried in both hands for a full five minutes. So terrible. Hahaha!
I'm offended.
I'm Intrigued!
Sometimes giving players only half of a story and leaving it there makes the world seem bigger. I know Lost made a lot of people angry with this strategy, but here's an example I love: one of the helpfiles mentions that the Dragon was amassing a library during its reign, but nobody has ever told us why or where.
Mysterious content that would be fun to see, and could tie into any larger story line:
- The wreckage of an absolutely enormous silt skimmer appears off the shore of Red Storm - larger than anyone's ever seen. forage artifact might be the main tool a player could use to reveal clues as to what this was.
- The black moon disappears from the sky. This seems of great concern to the templarate but nobody is saying much. Red robes are seen patrolling the streets administering magick detection tests.
- A cave in the desert suddenly gains a lot of attention. It's not far from where Steinal was. Nobody (except maybe the templars organizing the expedition) knows why. A camp is established. Tuluk gets involved. Is this another copper war, or something else?
- A city elven tribe, long thought hunted out of existence, leaves its calling card in Allanak. There are whispered rumors that a descendant of an ancient liberation alliance has emerged from hiding. A curfew is imposed on elves and half-elves.
- Following an unprecedented lightning storm near Allanak, an enormous, ancient obelisk rises out of the sand.
Quote from: seidhr on April 28, 2018, 11:44:57 PM
Forced pee and poop echos would make mudsex way more exciting.
(https://media1.tenor.com/images/851768617d1864e4eb58a6cc2adc09ef/tenor.gif?itemid=7320094)
Quote from: CodeMaster on April 29, 2018, 11:55:16 AM
Sometimes giving players only half of a story and leaving it there makes the world seem bigger.
I love this. This is a big part of most of my novellas that I like to write and never show anybody.
There are a few underwear items in the game, that I see people using as normal wear items, which is cool. I always thought boot cuffs were a good idea. People usually use them to keep grit and sand out of their boots (They're kind of like seals for the top of your boots) and I've always wished we had knitting and crochet so that I could make some, and make other things too like gloves and light armor hats. We have knitting needles, but you have to rp anything else.
Having a couple of crafting halls, across the street from each other, in the witch's quarter, would solve two problems. One, it would solve the dilemma of people falsely believing that only witches have any business being in the quarter, that only witches, slaves and soldiers should be in there, that other people don't go there for work or play. Two, it would give indie merchants who have no business being outside a job niche, which they have in Storm already and it seems to work. You don't have to pay them much, as they won't have a need to buy a skimmer at some point, which is why I always thought tailors were paid decently. (Fyi, leatherworkers in Storm are lucky to break even at advanced.) One crafting hall could offer more in a workday than the other, and that other would, possibly, create an avenue towards a good job, like tailoring. This way, you don't have the odd thing of tailors going to Storm to train up before going to Kadius. This is what I assume leatherworkers in Storm are doing; training up for something else.
When I say 'crafting hall,' I hope to mean an actual hall you can craft in, but more a niche, a store to buy materials from when you then craft into items to sell back to a particular affiliated shopkeeper. Basically what's going on in Storm.
I guess what I want mostly, is for there to be more niche jobs for off-peakers who don't necessarily want to fight for a living or to leave the gates. Off-peak is real quiet most of the time, and its very hard to get a Kadian agent's mind, a Salaari's, or a noble's or aide's. If you want to be a merchant in Allanak who never leaves the gates, you need to be employed by a House. That's pretty much final right now.
I mean an _off-peak_ merchant, by the way.
I don't know of any solutions to off-peaking aiding potential, as that seems to require people quite a bit.
Perhaps jobs as servants? I've seen servants for noble Houses before, so you could always do that. Its not something to add since its already in the game, but just throwing it out there that I've seen it and its possible.
How about:
Autopsy? Make it a skill to find out HOW that random corpse in the dessert died? Poison? Swords? Clubs? Or maybe bite wounds?
'autopsy body'
'You crouch down and look closely at <sdesc of body>, looking for wounds and other hints at how they died.
.
.
.
.
'You notice that <sdesc of body>'s tongue has a slightly blue shade.' Now go trough your knowledge of poison, wich poison leaves the tongue blue? Ah! yes, grishen. ((Disclaimer: The poison used in this post was used as example.))
Or: 'It seems <sdesc of body> died from several large cuts'
Or: '<Sdesc of body> seems to have been killed by an animal.
Maybe even make it that, with sufficient skill, you can find out what kinda animal did it?
What I want to see in the in the Known, by ShaLeah - a manifesto in hope and wishful thinking
- The ability to target yourself for feels, thinks and ways the same way we emote
- The ability to target PCs for feels, thinks and ways the same way we emote
- Mini Tulu.. err... I mean Morin's go away
- Tuluk (God I never thought I'd say it) return revamped
- Old school masks come back - crazy stupid expensive and rare - so that raiders get a real chance at fucking up the Known
- More slave trade and usage
- Sponsored roles covering all time zones - off peak Templars, nobles and GMH representation
- Bring back hunting/protection crews to GMHs
- Bring back House Tor
- A proper brothel in Allanak
- Add a spy guild
- Add a counterfitter/master merchant guild that can copy anyone's non-magicky product and is hunted by all gmhs
- Letting magickers in the quarter walk around with magicks on so long as they don't cast outside their temples
- Stores in the gick quarter that sell magicky shit
- For all stores in the gick quarter to refuse to sell to anyone not wearing a gem
- A bar in the magicker quarter that's permanent to keep those gemmed away from good, civilized and untainted people
- Full magicks return - by special app only. By full gicks I mean all elementals, nilazi and sorcerors - yeah, yeah, I know - I want them back anyway - the Known isn't the same without them.
- Mindbenders that can learn anything if they make it to master - ALL guilds and subguilds - so long as they are taught by masters in whatever is being taught - don't get your panties in a bunch, the likelihood that ANY player would achieve this is pretty much NIL - but imagine if they could! teach player piercing, bender gets it added at the minimal skill level or below to their skill tree if they don't have it and the teacher is at master in it. They have to grind the fuck out of it to get it to rise. This would be the scariest thing evah. Evah. Eh-vah.
Not to the game, but to the website, I guess.
Character submissions being opened (reopened?) so that current and past lore isn't lost. There are so many tales being told and sides of each story going unheard. Even if they need to be held back until they can be properly QC'd for release (and I hope they don't get forgotten if that is the case), I would LOVE to see these things able to be shared much more regularly.
Also, the worldwide Chronology timeline is great, but it moves very slowly because these are generally huge GM storylines, I think. If there were regional, or even clan specific Chronology pages to go along with the world one, that might give a better sense of 'movement', even if the events posted have to be very big in nature to get historical note.
Make it possible to log in as characters who have been dead or stored for more than five years. Except they appear in a foggy between-worlds kind of place, not the Known. They can chat and interact with other such characters in the same location but not fight or use the Way.
Quote from: Eyeball on May 12, 2018, 08:09:19 AM
Make it possible to log in as characters who have been dead or stored for more than five years. Except they appear in a foggy between-worlds kind of place, not the Known. They can chat and interact with other such characters in the same location but not fight or use the Way.
They would literally never have anyone to talk to or interact with because... how often would people log onto dead / stored characters instead of a living one? Maybe once out of curiosity.
Quote from: Akaramu on May 12, 2018, 09:54:30 AM
how often would people log onto dead / stored characters instead of a living one? Maybe once out of curiosity.
I'm not really sure this would be true, but anyhow, there's usually a certain percentage of players who are between characters (designing the next, waiting on an application), and a giant number of former players who might log in as an oldie just to touch base.
Quote from: Eyeball on May 12, 2018, 10:06:44 AM
I'm not really sure this would be true, but anyhow, there's usually a certain percentage of players who are between characters (designing the next, waiting on an application), and a giant number of former players who might log in as an oldie just to touch base.
They already do this on the GDB, where it's easier for staff to moderate content :)
What I'd like to see is an option to re-read character descriptions and backgrounds from way back. No chat or interaction, just the old descriptions. That would be neat!
You can actually do that, just log into your account on the website and choose the 'biographies' tab.
All my chars since 2005 show up there with descs/backgrounds.
I'd still like to see some sort of pawn shop that sells random, craftable items that aren't clan-restricted. Make the number limited and change the items at every reboot. You'd have a way to discover new recipes that isn't free and preserves the secrecy. Since there is a large number of craftable items in the database, an item that is available in one week would be unlikely to show up again anytime soon.
I still feel like "Content" was meant more in terms of lore, places to explore, and content to discover and interact with, as opposed to "bathroom code" and "logging in as a ghost".
Content that has yet to be explored, or content that can be repeated for a couple years until people get tired of it and it can be recycled into something else. I'll dungeon dive time after time if every so often it leads me to an "ancient" tagged breastplate that is no different from other breastplates.
How about a "death test" for soldiers and mercenaries. You go into a ruins with the goal being to live to emerge from the other side, after having to fight through various foes. What is the reward? Status, with some sort of marker (medal or whatever) that can be worn to indicate that *you* were tough enough to survive. Certain employers might even get into the habit of requiring survival of the death test before taking on new employees, or might start such new employees at a higher rank.
That is something you can KIND of already do in game. Its called "Surviving a year in the Byn and getting a Sergeant to ADMIT to it". Its a good idea, but doesn't really add "content" to the game.
Insurgents. Warriors from another area of the Unknown World. Pirates from across the Silt Sea. Earthquakes opening up areas near the Conclave, re-allowing access. A race of underground dwarves who have mutated to have hair crop up in the middle of the Red.
Something that just gives a new angle beyond "Guess the gith are attacking again".
Time for it to rain for thirty days and thirty nights, and to wash away the cities and return the world to naught but tribes, with fragments of Allanaki loyalists attempting to rebuild their city?
Quote from: AdamBlue on May 14, 2018, 12:40:54 PM
Time for it to rain for thirty days and thirty nights, and to wash away the cities and return the world to naught but tribes, with fragments of Allanaki loyalists attempting to rebuild their city?
For the sake of discussion? Kinda, though this situation would give players far too much agency. What makes Arm work (regardless of how I disagree) is that there are set limitations. The docs may say you can "do anything" or "be whatever you want to be", but there are hard stops. There are sorcerer kings who are so far above you, their lackeys' lackeys' lackey MIGHT be bothered to deal with you. There are raiders, there are clans of thieves, there are people whose social and political power are so far above what any player might achieve that the world is generally going to be unchanged.
If we went back to a square one, every player would be Minecrafting their own settlements and while that WOULD be interesting for a time, it would become text-based Ark, and FAR too much building work for staff.
Goddamn. I feel like I'm not on the same wavelength with 90% of this community. I can't help but scratch my head at the amount of unnecessary stuff people ask for, too. It's -technically- content, like in the same way a cosmetic pack is -technically- content, but... not my idea of useful content. I feel like there are other types of content currently more needed.
I get that there's not going to be another HRPT this decade (if ever), and that this has been repeated for 5+ years, but load up some resources to fight over. Just let players fight over something universally sought by parties far and wide, and keep animations of red robes and shit to a minimum.
I dunno. Whatever. Y'all do you.
We asked for that in the big things thread.
This is the little silly things thread.
edit: oh, wait, no it isn't. So yeah, uh, we asked for those things!
Give us "dungeon crawls" and resources and etc, absolutely. We've gotten some of those recently and they are great!
A magick maze that is -always- random whenever it pops up but is hard-coded to have two solutions--- one with a small treasure and one with a big. Baddies would be guarding the treasure so that Yolo the burglar dwarf would not be able to bypass all the spiders to get to one. I'm trying to elaborate on Delirium's idea.
Bring drovians or subguild drovians back, and they'd have a new spell that specifically tells you clues about the new treasure. This would be linked to code that already exists about the item, when valued with 'assess.' "Its made of stone/wood/metal, it weighs such and such." I don't know, I'm sure that's assess. But you'd be able to tell as a commoner if it were metal because the people would be up in arms over it. This would help keep drovians useful to the templarate, if their spying skills were removed.
The entrance could be opened one of six or seven ways, always the same seven ways. For example, maybe you need to be a master lockpicker and unlock five locks. Maybe the entrance is guarded by a mekillot who never leaves the room, an entrance which will not open until the mekillot is defeated. The rest of the ways in would not be usable by people other than master mages and Templars, to facilitate clan roleplay. You would hear a bell gong across the flats two RL days before the maze rises from the salt, so that people could prepare.
Naturally this makes the maze sound like a magick-powered one and it is. This would prevent every dick and jane from waiting at the entrance to get in because fuck Allanak.
More development with the far reaches of the silt sea would be cool. perhaps even new civilizations and exotic lands to explore there.
As several others have asked for, resources for players to conflict over, such as:
* rare crafting/building materials
* small settlements of people, without a Sand Lord / Highlord / giant business interests; let players conflict over the fate of these small settlements. Should they be protected? Exploited? Enslaved?
* "dungeon crawls"
It would be cool if these things just appeared on a small, "one-shot plot" scale, and weren't large projects representing a huge investment of staff time. Less like "the Big Summer Plot will be a meteor that falls from the sky and it's a big deal and this is a months-long thing and clans negotiate over it and the sponsored roles involved will file many requests trying to talk to their superiors."
More like, "shifting sands reveal an old tunnel in the Shield Wall. Past some dangers within there's a small piece of metal. After a group clears the tunnel, the sands swallow it again."
And whatever happens to that bit of metal, happens. Characters will die. It will change hands, organically, without staff micromanagement necessary, until some sponsored role gets hold of it and either makes a special item out of it, or passes it up the chain to their VNPC superiors.
Which would be a fine result! The game will have churned a bit. And then another similar place can be discovered, with different challenges and rewards.
Seems like a good place to plug this again:
Quote from: Large Hero on April 11, 2018, 04:00:38 PM
I like this. I also sometimes run into awkwardness when I use think and feel.
How about this idea? It's from another mud.
internal (message)
This form of emote allows you to emote internal thoughts, feelings, memories, etc.
examples:
internal dice and games, drink and spice. @ fondly remember the time ~amos and ~woman danced the night away at Luirsfest. Happier days.
player sees (assuming amos and 'woman' are in the room):
Dice and games, drink and spice. You fondly remember the time the tall, muscular man and the mohawked woman danced the night away at Luirsfest. Happier days.
internal wonder if #me should tell ~templar about that theft.
You wonder if you should tell the ravishing, raven-haired woman about that theft.
Everything we can do now with think and feel would be possible with internal, as well as this 'wonder' idea, and other things besides.
Quote from: Large Hero on May 19, 2018, 11:21:03 PM
As several others have asked for, resources for players to conflict over, such as:
* rare crafting/building materials
* small settlements of people, without a Sand Lord / Highlord / giant business interests; let players conflict over the fate of these small settlements. Should they be protected? Exploited? Enslaved?
* "dungeon crawls"
It would be cool if these things just appeared on a small, "one-shot plot" scale, and weren't large projects representing a huge investment of staff time. Less like "the Big Summer Plot will be a meteor that falls from the sky and it's a big deal and this is a months-long thing and clans negotiate over it and the sponsored roles involved will file many requests trying to talk to their superiors."
More like, "shifting sands reveal an old tunnel in the Shield Wall. Past some dangers within there's a small piece of metal. After a group clears the tunnel, the sands swallow it again."
And whatever happens to that bit of metal, happens. Characters will die. It will change hands, organically, without staff micromanagement necessary, until some sponsored role gets hold of it and either makes a special item out of it, or passes it up the chain to their VNPC superiors.
Which would be a fine result! The game will have churned a bit. And then another similar place can be discovered, with different challenges and rewards.
(https://m.popkey.co/c41ec7/dWEyA.gif)
Whenever I hear 'dungeon crawl' I think of the final Ratsucker RPT. Which was awesome. 8)
So absolutely yes, please!
You know what would be cool? A 'rigging' crafting skill that literally everyone gets. All it can do, basically, is tie things to other things. Really shoddy makeshift stuff that no actual crafter would want anything to do with.
I think it's pretty silly, for example, that Kurac are the only ones who can tie a glow-crystal to a strap. Anyone should be able to do that sort of thing. You can give something else to Kurac, like longer-lasting crystals. Give people the ability to make basic survivalist stuff, kind of like "break" can make a really shitty weapon out of a bottle. There could be all sorts of horrid shoddy crafts associated, with a high chance of failure. It'd be a great immersive way to RP trying to fend for yourself as you crawl your way back to civilization after you've been robbed of everything!
P.S. No selling this stuff to NPCs, of course.
Similar to the new hack skill, I think it would be awesome to have a skill that blinded an opponent for a short duration, similar to bash/disarm in use, but for assassin or stealth combat classes.
It would make the blind fighting skill more valuable, and could even be less effective against opponents with sunslits.
>pocket sand big.strong
>You throw a fistful of course dirt into the big strong man's eyes. Sha Sha Sha!
I love the dirt toss idea, but I think it should be coupled with coded blindfolds so that people aren't tempted to use it on their buddies to train blind fighting. Blindfolds would of course have their own associated RP opportunities!
I'm gonna guess a lot of people are thinking 'rawrr' but really I just wanna be able to kidnap somebody.
Quote from: Delirium on May 25, 2018, 05:50:19 PM
I'm gonna guess a lot of people are thinking 'rawrr' but really I just wanna be able to kidnap somebody.
Rawrr didn't even cross my mind, just kidnapping and (non-sexy) initiation sort of things.
I said it in another thread, but I would love to see more dangers and inconveniences in the wilderness that aren't "go 10 rooms out of your way" and "hey mean critter". Biting flies, poisonous plants, natural traps (see: poisonous plants), more poisonous critters in general, especially lurking near watering holes, coded illnesses beyond Krath's Touch and Scrub Fever, and more poisons in general - not deadly or even particularly severe, but debilitating all the same.
I'm imagining a hunter stumbling home with bug-bites and the sweats because he went to a watering hole, which, sure, has water, but is also a breeding ground for flies. He isn't gonna pass out but he's gonna feel extra thirsty for a few days unless he gets treated, and he's going to get frequent itchy echos unless he salves those bug bites with something.
As it is, wilderness people just bop from oasis to oasis and never buy water, it's not remotely an expense or danger.
Yes and yes! I have always wished, for example, that Ivory-Salt sickness wasn't just virtual. It's rarely even mentioned in-game despite the south being full of PC salters. I know it's a tough balance to strike because a lot of things would just amount to annoyances that you have to wait off, but I'm sure there's a way to make such things playable.
Yes, it seems that, at least a few years ago when I salted regularly, all you really needed was to keep covered and hydrated and not be an elf and most of the time you wouldn't even get touch. Salting has enough dangers, but you could just keep to the right portions of the edge and be aware and you literally would not have a problem most of the time. Enough scrabs and scorpions to keep you from making a thread about it, though. That's probably why they added the scorpions a few years back.
I dunno if I said this, but a crafting hall in Allanak where you could buy raw materials, make them into armor, clothing or weapons, and then sell them to another guy in a room over like with cloth in Storm, except the money would just be passable and you wouldn't be a protected employee. It'd just be a way to be a dirt-grubbing crafter where you wouldn't have to play during peak to get materials. The unemployed crafter presence in Allanak is basically nil, you get more aides at the bar on a daily basis.
It would be simple to come up with a couple more games, especially cheaper ones, I'm thinking a three to six sid bet for each dice roll/card shuffle, what have you. It would be pretty simple to come up with and hopefully code games like this, or simple transfer the game in Storm or the one(s?) in Luir's over to a 'gaming den' in Allanak, perhaps the one that exists in Red's but doesn't have actually coded gambling right now.
Like, for example, a form of Zalanthan blackjack where you play Whira's Luck against the dealer. It costs four sids to receive your card, and you can pay three sids to exchange it for a different card once. If you win, you get ten sids. It should be balanced in favor of the House, as the dealer without charge can choose between his own original card and a second without needing to throw the first card away first (mentioned each bet in an automated emote,) which will always give him the advantage.
A shop where you can buy stills and the ingredients for two simple, low-quality ale brew recipes. Perhaps Oash could sell it.
Perhaps players could choose when to become sick, with a variety of ailments.
>sickness
These are the illnesses you can add codedly to your character, for a time:
Krath's Touch Salt Sickness Light Injury
Light Food Poisoning That One Sickness
>sickness light food poisoning
>You eat a bite of the food, and begin to feel ill.
>sickness krath's touch
>You begin to perspire heavily.
>sickness light injury
>You are already ill with other ailments.
No more new skills, subguilds, or anything coded. Nothing. Instead, add stories. That's the real content this game desperately needs.
Shift one of the noble houses up or down. Close one that is open, flesh out an NPC house with documentation and open it for play. Destroy a section of Allanak such that it is exposed and vulnerable and requires rebuilding. Make use of the unappreciated goldmine that is NPC Tuluk with animations. Destroy something and when it's gone replace it with something new (something in a public, heavily populated region, not a remote area). Run an HRPT.
To me this is what is meant by content. I'm sure all the new coded additions you see lately are a lot of fun to experiment with, but they don't really add anything to Zalanthas. In a game where characters must have a minimum of four lines for a description, storytelling is everything. When we talk about adding content, stories should be at the top of the list. Everything else is secondary.
The noble houses should be a thing, I totally agree, ghanima. I think that shifting due to PC actions or inaction was a truly brilliant facet of Tuluk.
It would give Allanaki nobles something to work towards, for, or whatever. So many of them grow stagnant and boring because they really don't have a way to get better, or to make their house fail or fall. And that's just kinda shitty. There are only so many types of parties you can throw and normie PCs you can behead with a flick of your fingers before you become redundant.
Quote from: boog on June 05, 2018, 10:28:50 PM
It would give Allanaki nobles something to work towards, for, or whatever. So many of them grow stagnant and boring because they really don't have a way to get better, or to make their house fail or fall. And that's just kinda shitty. There are only so many types of parties you can throw and normie PCs you can behead with a flick of your fingers before you become redundant.
At the risk of sounding mean spirited, I actually think most players of nobles just don't have enough creativity. There are so many things you can do as a clan leader besides fail or fall, or throw a party or behead someone. So many! There are a lot of intricate political deals that could be hammered out over a lengthy period of time, things that would leave a long lasting impact on the clan even after they are gone. I just don't think most players realize this so instead they get bored (or become boring) and declare that "there's nothing to do with a sponsored role".
However, yeah, adding content (storytelling) to Allanak or Tuluk would help offer some inspiration for noble and templar PCs, who would then pass their plots down to the rest of the clan, which would possibly then extend to other clans as well.
Stories, yes. I feel like we have good stories now, but nobles really do seem to be here one day and gone the next for lack of things to do. Now, if the role calls were for several nobles at once (and often they are) then maybe they'd have more to work with.
I idea'd this, but maybe we could put in an additional cook in each House kitchen. Eating the same six things for many years is going to get old. It doesn't even have to be good stuff, maybe that new dwarf cook will only give you varieties of steak. Make it funny, even. Give House cooks a reputation for having one candycane short of a candy shop. Fleshing out the culture in small ways like this would do wonders.
----------------------------
>s
Salaar's Kitchen
This is Salaar's kitchen area, and it looks real nice but also still practical because you don't work for the 0.1%. There's stone stuff and bone stuff and no one has even heard the word metal in a couple of months.
A guard stands here, looking pouty.
The original Salaari cook stands here, offering a piece of bread, a type of stew and maybe some kind of white cheese or lizard meat.
The new npc dwarf is here, and everyone is watching him closely to make sure he's really a npc.
>ask dwarf help
The new npc dwarf says, cautiously, as though expecting backlash, "I make carru steak, chalton steak, scrab steak and horror steak. Don't you even _dare_ ask me for anything else."
------------------------------------------------------------------
>w
Kurac's Kitchen
Kurac's kitchen area is made of old spice bricks, glued together with something that is obviously keeping the rock-hard spice from withering away, but it probably shouldn't be touched more often than is absolutely necessary. Sort of like how everyone knows sifting in the Sea turns your bones to rock, like it does those little rock skulls, but people do it anyway, mainly because they try not to think about it.
The overly breasty female guard is here, practicing her swing whenever someone walks in.
The original Kuraci cook is here.
The elf cook is here, because they can only do this bit in Kurac.
>ask elf help
>The elf cook says, eyes darting between you and the guard, "I can, uh, you know, uh, I've got soup, and then there's this sort of bread, but don't tell the guard I've got it, I swear, I'll cut you, but umm, I also have some spice cake, free feel to have that, _seriously,_ don't tell a fucking soul, I know where you sleep, I can describe it to you if I have to, and we have steak too."
Quote from: Cind on June 06, 2018, 12:44:30 AM
Stories, yes. I feel like we have good stories now, but nobles really do seem to be here one day and gone the next for lack of things to do.
I still don't think it's a lack of things to do so much as a
perceived lack of things to do. In my experience, staff aren't going to throw out a list of ideas of what you can do with your sponsored role, you have to ponder that up yourself. And for that you need creativity, which not everyone has.
Also in my experience from playing a sponsored role or two in the past, staff (depending on the individual in question) can be very supportive with your ideas and proposals. A lot of the really cool stuff you can do with these roles hinges entirely on staff support in order to be successful, but that's part of the experience of a sponsored role, noble or otherwise.
I would love to list some of the cool ideas a sponsored role could pursue to help generate interest for their clan, but I'd rather keep those to myself in case I decide to app for one in the future. The only ones who will succeed in these roles are the ones with creativity, perseverance, and an ability to hear no more often than yes. Unfortunately, these three qualities in tandem come in short supply, which is why you see many sponsored roles flop before they even get started.
In my experience, staff DO sometimes throw out a bone for "you could chase this plot line" but not everyone takes it, and its not always something the PC would want to take.
Sergeant Rush was thrown into the mix pretty early in his career, and lost a lot of good people. When someone wanted him to go back into the mix, he was very reticent to do so, feeling like he failed himself, the Company, and his people the last time. The plot line was great, had a ton of potential, and staff were really pushing it. But it didn't make sense for my PC to just jump at it, considering his feelings.
So sometimes you get stuck with a story that is great, and the players don't take it, and I can imagine what its like imagining a great plotline with a ton of really cool hooks but it relies on a PC taking it and they won't. Kind of like when a Player comes up with a plotline but staffers have to be kind of into it, themselves.
I do that a lot, sometimes, something about my character, like them being a foreigner in the place where they work, I have mental hang-ups that aren't quite disorders but are kind of tied into what I have, and I'll compulsively store over something, if I'm lucky I'll change my mind quickly enough and have that precious character for another two or three weeks. I often feel like I shouldn't try to join clans, because it requires a little paperwork and I know I'm going to store over something. Looking on the bright side, I get to try many things, even though a lot of them have to be vanilla, everyman roles because excitement really takes it out of me.
I say go ahead and be a part of things, what's the worst that can happen, you and your whole vnpc family gets killed? Plot your vengeances.
I remember someone saying something to the effect that they thought gith wars were a more vanilla form of plot, but I. Love. Gith. Wars. Its an excuse to kill/donate money to the killers of gith! No one is playing them so the player doesn't need to feel bad about wiping them out. It would be really nice, though, if during a gith war, staff allowed certain responsible and willing players to play gith. There is -nothing- like an intelligent and battle-hardened enemy working together to kill you.
I would absolutely love LOVE love a full blown gith war between the gith and Allanak, full blown to the point where if you even step out of the gate you are going to either die, or sneak past a couple till one spots you and you die. Have it go on for a few RL weeks or even months.
Quote from: Hauwke on June 07, 2018, 03:41:44 AM
I would absolutely love LOVE love a full blown gith war between the gith and Allanak, full blown to the point where if you even step out of the gate you are going to either die, or sneak past a couple till one spots you and you die. Have it go on for a few RL weeks or even months.
Or at least just remove the silly code that tells them not to wander close to cities.
Quote from: Armaddict on June 07, 2018, 10:55:39 AM
Quote from: Hauwke on June 07, 2018, 03:41:44 AM
I would absolutely love LOVE love a full blown gith war between the gith and Allanak, full blown to the point where if you even step out of the gate you are going to either die, or sneak past a couple till one spots you and you die. Have it go on for a few RL weeks or even months.
Or at least just remove the silly code that tells them not to wander close to cities.
That would also work. Make me scared!