any city elves?

Started by My 2 sids, January 02, 2008, 12:55:07 PM

Anyone interested in playing city elves?
"The Highlord casts a shadow because he does not want to see skin!" -- Boog

<this space for rent>

I've never been able to do it successfully. I like to wander the wastes and get into trouble, which city-elves just can't do.

All the city-elves I've encountered have been badly played.

Quote from: Troicha on January 02, 2008, 01:02:31 PM
I've never been able to do it successfully. I like to wander the wastes and get into trouble, which city-elves just can't do.

I finally could beat down "the wander the wastes" urge, but still, playing a city elf is not easy for me.  The level of interaction and the mindset are hard to adapt.
some of my posts are serious stuff

I have only ever played city elves when I have had a tribe to play in.

Otherwise the temptation to turn into a human with pointy ears often overwhelms players.

Quote from: Adiadochokinesis on January 02, 2008, 01:33:01 PM
I have only ever played city elves when I have had a tribe to play in.

Otherwise the temptation to turn into a human with pointy ears often overwhelms players.

Exactly why I'd like to set up a tribe/family w/ anyone interested
"The Highlord casts a shadow because he does not want to see skin!" -- Boog

<this space for rent>

I'd be interested. Being an elf is the best race for me, I never have a hard time playing one.
staff member sends:
     "No problem. We'll just eat your brainz later

I'd suggest playing a city elf in the 'rinth, with a plethora of coded families you can find out with a simple email to the MUD account.

Its fun.
"You will have useful work: the destruction of evil men. What work could be more useful? This is Beyond; you will find that your work is never done -- So therefore you may never know a life of peace."

~Jack Vance~

Quote from: Mudder on January 02, 2008, 09:26:14 PM
I'd be interested. Being an elf is the best race for me, I never have a hard time playing one.

You could be horribly misplaying them!

You never know.

Quote from: Reiloth on January 02, 2008, 09:40:40 PM
I'd suggest playing a city elf in the 'rinth, with a plethora of coded families you can find out with a simple email to the MUD account.

Its fun.

Oh, fosheezy?
Damn, this game turns up new surprises for me every week.
A foreign presence contacts your mind.

There are coded 'rinth families? That's amazing...

Quote from: RogueGunslinger on January 03, 2008, 06:33:40 PM
There are coded 'rinth families? That's amazing...

He's lying. Everyone can continue on slaughtering the orhpaned fodder NPCs.

Not 'coded' per se. Like "YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THIS FAMILY YO", but perfectly useable for backgrounds, and somthing that fleshes out the RP of the 'rinth. It really does help.

I don't know why it isn't in the documentation, or 'what you know' when you start up. It doesn't seem realistic that if you were an elf in the 'rinth, you wouldn't know about these families.
"You will have useful work: the destruction of evil men. What work could be more useful? This is Beyond; you will find that your work is never done -- So therefore you may never know a life of peace."

~Jack Vance~

'Rinth tribes are nice and all, but people do need to realize that not every single elf MUST be an 'rinth elf.  I personally would be overjoyed to see some south side city elves that are merchants, crafters, or traders.  Not all elves are desperate criminals.  Not all elves are even deeply impoverished xenophobes who are as likely to cut you as trade with you.  A family company tribe in the south side is an entirely viable elven tribe.  They don't stand much chance at displacing a great merchant house, but they could easily service low end markets or quietly supply high end markets.  While they might never fully trust others, they certainly are not so stupid as to refuse to hire, buy, and sell from others when it suits their needs.

If you want my opinion of what a city elf tribe should be, see Deep Space 9, watch Quarks run his bar with his family, and make him a little nicer to his kin.  He provides a valuable and needed service, deals in just about anything, and if he is breaking the law, he is certainly being quiet about it and paying off the right people to ignore it.  No one really likes him, but everyone tolerates him for providing something only he can provide.

I would agree with you, Rindan, but I do believe that a majority of elves, especially if from the 'rinth, are highly xenophobic, and thieves, and ripoffs. I mean...The well played ones at least. I agree that a family of south side city elves would be neat to see, as well.
"You will have useful work: the destruction of evil men. What work could be more useful? This is Beyond; you will find that your work is never done -- So therefore you may never know a life of peace."

~Jack Vance~

Elves are xenophobic to an extent, but this does not preclude them from doing business, hiring, and using people who are not in their tribe.

It would not be out of character at all to see an elven business trying to hire humans to do menial labor.

Nor would it be strange to see an elf-owned brothel whoring out humans or dwarves.

It WOULD be a bit rare to have elf-owned brothels outside of elf neighborhoods, but I doubt it is unheard of.

It is a mistake to think that city elves would not do business, associate with, or hire humans/dwarves/elves not of their tribe. They simply would not trust them.

Quote from: Adiadochokinesis on January 03, 2008, 08:48:44 PMIt is a mistake to think that city elves would not do business, associate with, or hire humans/dwarves/elves not of their tribe. They simply would not trust them.

After all, who can you cheat if you only associate with your brothers?


I've always found city elves to be one of the "worst" races in the game, for many reasons.

- Code-wise they're about as poor as it gets. Their lack of strength and endurance makes them terrible fighters compared to any other playable race, because the agility bonus does in no way make up for the other shortcomings. Add to that the fact that they can't ride, which rules out much out-of-city activity, and that very few clans will accept them, so their lawful options are more or less narrowed down to the Byn. They have no useful racial traits or abilities, and they get screwed over badly by the terrible stat system. I've played both a human and an elf warrior for roughly equal amounts of time, with a very similar style of play which would leave them not far from eachother in terms of skill. Their stats were even fairly similar in total numbers, but the elf's lack of strength made him about half as good as the human. There comes a point where agility matters very little, and strength will always be -the- combat stat.

- There's no actual elven community in any city anywhere except for the 'rinth. If you want to play anywhere else, expect to be playing with everything but other elves, and while this does create some of the supposedly interesting conflict, that grows dull when it's everything you see week after week. The alternative is playing in the 'rinth where every elven PC sticks together as friends, usually in the same tribe, with absolutely no conflict on their own side. This means that if you want to do anything other than sit around and hold hands, you'll need to leave the 'rinth anyway.

- Playing an independent merchant sucks, and that's more or less the only other option if you're not into being a pickpocket or a 'rinthi NPC-slaughterer.
Telling the Truth Where Others Hush.

Give them the bonuses of the desert elves and I guarantee you you'll start seeing elves in the game again.

At the very LEAST they should be able to run from one city to another.

When's the last time you saw a city-elf PC in Tuluk? Hrm, yah, do you still see him/her lately? No, didn't think so.

When's the last time you saw two city-elves PCs in Tuluk? Hrm, yah, years ago.

When nobody wants to play the race, it's time to take a look at it and try to improve it some.

If you don't want the city elves to have the stamina of the desert elves, THEN at least get rid of this insane
pride that they have toward (not) being able to go from one place to another with their legs, so they don't need a mount. (Hah!)

Desert elves: Proud, athletic, desert dwellers. They can run for miles, don't need mounts.
City elves: Tricksters, thieves, scums, that's where their pride comes from, they have absolutely no problem with riding mounts.

That's how it should be, in my opinion.

"When I was a fighting man, the kettle-drums they beat;
The people scattered gold-dust before my horse's feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back."

QuoteWhen nobody wants to play the race, it's time to take a look at it and try to improve it some.

This is perhaps the shortcoming of ArmageddonMUD, in my opinion: even when a problem grows to such extents that nobody (or everybody) plays a certain type of character, things are not addressed or even acknowledged by the staff until the players practically rebel.
Telling the Truth Where Others Hush.

Then I challenge you guys to make a city-elf PC and have them ride mounts! You get that race option removed for bad play, oh all the better then, no more city elves forever! Heh, how ironic.
A foreign presence contacts your mind.

Can city elves run between cities like a desert elf can?  If not.  No way in hell would I want to play one, cause elves sorta blow in other aspects, as says the help file.  "If you don't think you can handle playing a physically weak class" or something along those lines.

I don't even think they could run -halfway- between the cities.
"When I was a fighting man, the kettle-drums they beat;
The people scattered gold-dust before my horse's feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back."

City elves, like D-elves, are territorial. Leaving their city is like a d-elf leaving the grasslands. It shouldn't happen a lot.
City elves, like D-elves, are prideful. Riding a mount like a roundy little bitch because their legs are too weak to carry them? Absurd.

One of the problems that I've had with a city elf is that everyone and their mother goes out of the way to watch you. I was once hidden in a tavern with 7 pcs. Every last one of them were talking, and going on. Then I emoted walking to the bar, and every single one stopped talking. Three of them started watching me.
Quote from: Shoka Windrunner on April 16, 2008, 10:34:00 AM
Arm is evil.  And I love it.  It's like the softest, cuddliest, happy smelling teddy bear in the world, except it is stuffed with meth needles that inject you everytime