I feel like that should be handled through in-character connections. Any noble worth his/her salt would have a templar's ear (or a militia sergeant, or whatever) and should able to say, "will no one rid me of this meddlesome commoner?!" That sort of interaction should be what the game's whole social dynamic is built upon. It's a lot more interesting than just letting nobles double as lawmakers on top of all their other privileges. If nobles can incriminate - even with a limited number of "charges" per whatever-timeframe - they aren't much different from templars.

If a noble is sufficiently pissed off, they can (and always could) just attack a commoner, who will then immediately be branded a criminal for having been in a fight with a noble. But then said noble has shown the city that they aren't rich or influential enough to go through the more dignified channels and use their self-evident superiority to get others to fuck that commoner over without getting their own hands dirty, and that will (or should) be regarded as low-brow by everyone, especially other nobles. Yet it remains an option, as it was in real-life history. An interesting option, I think, which will have ramifications for the noble who must always weigh their actions against the optics.

Templars and militia PCs have lacked things to do, too. Most of all, they have lacked real reasons to represent the oppressive nature of Zalanthan society. Nobles should need them. There should be people who become soldiers because they want to push people around, and nobles can give them that excuse if the right element of conflict is there. And then there can be people who conspire to strike back against the oppression, in dark alleys and ramshackle dive bars where decent people won't go.

When it comes to nobles and their teeth, I have faith in the idea that if seasons are good enough to get people to play in whatever sphere a given season revolves around, nobles will have the necessary clout. It has been lacking in recent years, but that's largely because three quarters of the playerbase was fucking around in the desert, ignoring cities, due to the fact that there was no reason to care about what went on there.

If seasons bring a reason to play in and care about the cities, nobles will naturally have the teeth they need, provided the players actually acknowledge the realities of the setting. If they don't, either they're bad players or there was a failure to manifest the setting into tangible in-game reality. Personally, I find that players have generally been good about acknowledging the status of nobility, but nobility has floundered in empty cities that offered them no outlet for their status and privileges - and, in turn, no opportunities for soldiers to be their underhanded lackeys, or anyone to oppose that entire social dynamic.

The game is set up in such a way that it requires a pyramid of social dynamics. It needs the oppressors, it needs the opportunistic lackeys, and it needs the downtrodden masses who may do something that compels the previous two to care. If ever one of these three elements are missing, the whole thing falls apart. It's my hope that smushing everyone into one sphere can make it so that each tier of the pyramid is filled out. That would be really fucking interesting. We had it once, a long time ago, but it got lost. Maybe it can be rebuilt. That would be neat.

The Community Mod Team would like to bring on 1-2 additional members. The team handles moderation of both the GDB and Discord server.

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This is not a wholly pleasant task.  Ideally the mod needs to be reasonable, and tough: Listen, receive and issue criticism, without allowing it to become emotionally charged or a grudge.  Kind firmness should be executed: Rule breaking conduct might not be technically wrong, you might find it funny, or agree with it, but a standard of decorum needs to be upheld and that is entirely reasonable.
 
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Quote from: Riev on April 18, 2024, 01:26:21 PMIs there a way to give PC Nobles the ability to incriminate but only up to a certain number?
Would this be giving a PC "too much power" for not being in a Templar position?

I think it would be interesting if a noble was annoyed by someone, and decided to incriminate them for something so that they go away. But I can also see a lot of PLAYERS being annoyed by that.

Agreed, nobles as they were in the past, were in my opinion worthless tavern sitters who you could occasionally get some money off.

I know certain players loved playing them, and with them, not trying to pee in your lemonade, but I never really viewed them as much of a benefit outside a coin generator.

If they had some coded power, some actual teeth, they would actually demand that respect they are supposed to have.

I think movement is fine except for wildlife.  They react with lightning reflexes that code allows them, I walk into a room and before I can type L N and see that mekillot it's already charged into my room and trying to kill me.

I can't tell you how many times I've been fucked up, maybe not killed, but fucked up by wildlife because I'll hit a lag spike, have moved via code into the next room and whatever nasty monster is chewing on me by the time my connection catches up.

I think the code should require the critter to actually see me, in a realistic way, like have it actually look in a direction versus just knowing I'm there.

Is there a way to give PC Nobles the ability to incriminate but only up to a certain number?
Would this be giving a PC "too much power" for not being in a Templar position?

I think it would be interesting if a noble was annoyed by someone, and decided to incriminate them for something so that they go away. But I can also see a lot of PLAYERS being annoyed by that.

So what Karma point breakdown do you qualify for when you do every example listed minus that whole, "be positive in the community." shit?

I've always played my characters well and have got kudos to that effect from both staff and players, but it's always the pesky, "Pariah hurt my feelings on the board." shit that I get in trouble for.

Speaking about nobles and their inability to have teeth, at least in the past.

If there was a way to arrest folks, and the crime system wasn't just, KILL EVERYONE, and the nobles could flex their weight to get folks arrested by the guards without it being guaranteed death.

Also as an offshoot of that, having the guards using more clubs would be beneficial to keeping people alive to BE arrested versus getting insta-gibbed when they don't have combat skills.

Hopefully there will be a way for AOD/Nobles to actually arrest folks without the crime system going DESTROY THEM!

Quote from: FantasyWriter on April 18, 2024, 12:21:45 PM

Quote from: Halaster on April 15, 2024, 10:19:12 PM

Quote from: Bast on April 15, 2024, 06:01:50 PMTemplars can't recruit because the Byn, Raider group X, indy merchant 'y' has all the combat players ect..

I think with the game focused on the Southlands, particularly Allanak, it will help lessen the issue of being spread too thin.  That's the hope at least.  If we get to that same point of too many "combat" roles, we can always adjust things.

I feel like the problem with not being able to hire soldiers into the AoD has always been the level of restriction to the role if you didn't have an active templar doing patrols/raids. I would almost want to see with two available blue robes that one at least of of them is an out-of-the-walls focused character.

I know for a fact that all three ministries have reasons to want to bring AoD out on patrol.

City ministry for the obsidian mines
Trade for securing trade routes
War for War.

I do agree that as a technically a leadership position in the AoD, a Templar has an obligation to also create fun for the AoD, if the Sergeant is in need of that. However, this does require the sergeant to be willing to play ball, as technically the player unit falls outside of the Player templar chain of command slightly.

Quote from: FantasyWriter on April 18, 2024, 12:21:45 PMI feel like the problem with not being able to hire soldiers into the AoD has always been the level of restriction to the role if you didn't have an active templar doing patrols/raids. I would almost want to see with two available blue robes that one at least of of them is an out-of-the-walls focused character.

I do find this true, but to be fair, I find this to be less of a design problem and more of a gamestate problem.  We have super-effective crimcode, we have a generally low-conflict city life (not overall, but in comparison), and these make military arms feel like unnecessary appendages rather than necessary things.

I didn't mind playing a bodyguard, even when nothing was happening, because there was a significant enough chance that there COULD be something that happened that I felt necessary, and paid attention to security-things around me.

I didn't mind playing a soldier when patrols actually found crime in progress, when people were trying to mug npc's for money, when pc criminals were outwitting npc reactions left and right.  On one hand, we can consider those actions twinky, or we can consider them actions of 'superior' members of society that other 'superior' members of society have to deal with/watch for (i.e. we routinely have people say that the act of being a PC is already 'special').

So game design can shift to try and create natural rather than contrived circumstances for 'things to do'.  Or we can just stay in a state where only directed plots provide content, which may sound more fruitful, but ultimately makes logging in as a military member less necessary unless something is already planned.

Quote from: Halaster on April 15, 2024, 10:19:12 PM

Quote from: Bast on April 15, 2024, 06:01:50 PMTemplars can't recruit because the Byn, Raider group X, indy merchant 'y' has all the combat players ect..

I think with the game focused on the Southlands, particularly Allanak, it will help lessen the issue of being spread too thin.  That's the hope at least.  If we get to that same point of too many "combat" roles, we can always adjust things.

I feel like the problem with not being able to hire soldiers into the AoD has always been the level of restriction to the role if you didn't have an active templar doing patrols/raids. I would almost want to see with two available blue robes that one at least of of them is an out-of-the-walls focused character.