Character Creation

[keii]

When I was making my first character (Who I'm happy to report was killed quite quickly thanks to my own foolishness.) I thought what a good idea it is for each character to have to be approved. That way you don't get any 'l33t' idiots running around ruining the aptmosphere of the game. Now this might have been discussed before, but I think that a system whereby you had to have your characters approved until you had a good account history would also work really well, and it would reward those who took the time to be good RPers with instant character creation. Obviously this would be hard to get, since it could potentially lead to disaster, but I thought it was a nifty idea anyway.

[John]

reward those who took the time to be good RPers with instant character creation.

No, for the love of god no.

I imagine one day I will manage to get Sorc karma (I've heard of players getting it eventually ). I don't think it's impossible that when that does happen I still won't have a good grasp on certain roles, such as elves. I'd hate for me to be able to make non-approved elves merely because I'm good at various other roles.

Also, it helps catch any spelling errors that might slip past me

[mansa]

I agree with John.   We, as players, don't know how many other 'fire elementalists' are running around in the game at the moment, and if we, with 'fire elementalist' karma would get auto-accepted, there would be a great unbalance with the force.

It would make the 'mysterious and unknown' more known and less mysterious.

[keii]

Yeah, those are the two things I was thinking would make this system not work ^^; I'm guessing the majority of people also wouldn't support this, but there are probably plenty of potential players who are put off by the waiting time between making a character and playing him/her. Of course, if you're that impatient you probably won't like Arma anyway......

[Tamarin]

It's Arm.  Not Arma.

[keii]

It's Arm.  Not Arma.

Is that really important?

[Tamarin]

It's Arm.  Not Arma.

Is that really important?

Yes.

[gofmk]

It's Arm.  Not Arma.

I call it geddon    :twisted:

[RunningMountain]

I play lots of wanderer characters who come in contact with lots of PCs. And I must say the amount of magickers I've encountered is kind of ridiculous.  Just my observation.  And I may not know a number of how many fire-elementalists there are out there, but when there's more magickers/elementalists outside then there are normal rangers I find it disturbing.

-RM

[Ktavialt]

I play lots of wanderer characters who come in contact with lots of PCs. And I must say the amount of magickers I've encountered is kind of ridiculous.  Just my observation.  And I may not know a number of how many fire-elementalists there are out there, but when there's more magickers/elementalists outside then there are normal rangers I find it disturbing.

-RM

Yeah I can agree with that. I've felt the same, didn't know how many there
were out there. Then again, it probably happened because the last big event
that killed lots of PC's I don't believe killed many elementalists (Wasn't
there to know for sure, just guessing - IC info from me is shaky at best
). It could be their life expectancy has gotten higher.


Edited: To add another sentence

[Cenghiz]

When a magicker passes his/her 10-day-mark, you can't simply kill him/her with one warrior, even with a group sometimes. There are not _many_ magickers, really.. Only rangers are dying and dying and the magickers seem to stay alive, with new ones added.

[Rhyden]

I play lots of wanderer characters who come in contact with lots of PCs. And I must say the amount of magickers I've encountered is kind of ridiculous.  Just my observation.  And I may not know a number of how many fire-elementalists there are out there, but when there's more magickers/elementalists outside then there are normal rangers I find it disturbing.

-RM

The imms usually limit the amount of certain guilds when there's too many of a group that would have small numbers to it. Guess the fire elementalist population is rising.

[Agent_137]

It's Arm.  Not Arma.

Bullshit, it's arma.

[Bogre]

Like everything, I think it comes in highs and lows. There will be a lot of magickers and then some powerful person will get their sandcloth-panties aknotted and have them exterminated. And then the population possibly will swell over time again. It's a dynamic thing I'm thinking. I think the same can be applied to any group of people...be it clans, criminals, militia, nobles, hunters, etc.

[John]

People tend to go where the players are. If there are lots of magickers people are more likely to follow suit because they'll have someone to play with. Same if people are criminals, militia, hunters, etc.

[LBO]

I play lots of wanderer characters who come in contact with lots of PCs. And I must say the amount of magickers I've encountered is kind of ridiculous.  Just my observation.  And I may not know a number of how many fire-elementalists there are out there, but when there's more magickers/elementalists outside then there are normal rangers I find it disturbing.

-RM

I think that some people have this fear of playing gemmed characters too in that they think that it will be boring and restrictive and prefer to hang around the sands and do whatever they want to do. Personally, I think that being a gemmed can be both very interesting and rewarding and almost a requisite if you ever want to really learn the magickal system in Arm. I can understand their point of view though and sometimes players just want to take a break from the normal places. These things go in cycles and I've seen times in Allanak when there were lots of gemmed around and times when there were virtually none.

[Pantoufle]

I think that some people have this fear of playing gemmed characters too in that they think that it will be boring and restrictive and prefer to hang around the sands and do whatever they want to do.

I think that is a correct assessment.  And justifiably so.  Though I've played a few "gemmed" mages before, I can't understand why anyone would want to.  You are limited to joining no more than one or two very specific clans and if you aren't human you might not be able to join any!  As a secondary means of employment you can work for a templar but considering more templars die/retire more often than not, your "clan" can suddenly vanish without a moments notice.

I'm going to go against the grain here by stating that I think too many people dislike spellcasters (in Allanak).  Mages are a coded guild for a reason, and that's to be used -- not to be ignored and hated by everyone.  There are some spells in game which are useless to the caster but extremely valuable if casted on another person, which makes spellcasters a useful tool to non-spellcasters.  I don't mean to suggest that we all roleplay a deep fondness for magic and dress our characters up as befuddled old wizards that tame unicorns, etc.  But in a city-state where spellcasting is legal, it stands to reason that more people should be taking advantage of elementalists.  And if they're not, then I stand by the statement that playing a "gemmed" mage is an excercise in futility.  It's about as pointless of a role as playing a guild_merchant character (with hopes of becoming a master craftsman) in the Labyrinth.

I'll take recluse, wilderness-dwelling closet mages over being "gemmed" any day of the week.  Give me (and the rest of the playerbase) a good reason to play a "gemmed" mage and maybe you will see the Allanaki temples get more use, instead of so many alleged wilderness mages.

[Boggis]

I'll take recluse, wilderness-dwelling closet mages over being "gemmed" any day of the week.  Give me (and the rest of the playerbase) a good reason to play a "gemmed" mage and maybe you will see the Allanaki temples get more use, instead of so many alleged wilderness mages.

Actually, looking over the past six months in Allanak and without getting too IC I think I could pretty safely state that a gemmed mage would generally have had a more interesting time than a wilderness mage. There are two houses willing to hire human gemmed officially who will then put you to use in their continuing plotlines. Other houses may well be persuaded to hire the services of a mage (of any race) from time to time depending on the circumstances (I can think of a couple immediately in recent memory). The templarate will often find a use for you - it doesn't matter if they disappear as new ones come along after and will have their own ideas. I really think that you will have more interaction playing as a gemmed over an ungemmed wandering the wastes. Yes, you can live a normal life as an ungemmed doing what you choose but, to me, such a role is not as interesting as really exploring the different facets of the magickal system and what it is to be a magicker. As an ungemmed you will learn very little about the magick system and the plots that go on will more than likely not be ones in which you will have much call for your magickal abilities. I could do this occasionally if I wanted to play the "hidden magicker" type role but I think to do it always means missing out on some of the really juicy bits about being a magicker. If you play as a gemmed people know precisely what you are and will find uses for you.

[Pantoufle]

Well to each his own I suppose then, Boggis

I find two Houses for HUMANS ONLY to be horribly restricting.  And even if there are new templars to replace the old ones, it's not consistant and it's not a coded clan.  It's unstable and unreliable if you're looking for the benefits a hard coded clan can provide.

As far as exploring the inner workings of magick and such, any spellcaster can do this. I might venture to say that the closet-mages can do this even moreso -- since wearing a dull black gem (which is essentially a slave's collar) includes a few serious disadvantages.

Though I see now by your reply that playing "gemmed" or not is more a matter of opinion than fact

Interesting discussion.

[Boggis]

As far as exploring the inner workings of magick and such, any spellcaster can do this. I might venture to say that the closet-mages can do this even moreso -- since wearing a dull black gem (which is essentially a slave's collar) includes a few serious disadvantages.

Hmm, any spellcaster can figure out the code the same as everybody else but taking my last gemmed its my belief that I almost certainly never would have found out the majority of things I did by just playing on my own. The code is only part of being a magicker and it doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to realise that those institutions that have a long history of working with magick would have a lot of hand-me-down knowledge that a solo mage in the sands is most likely never going to figure out without a lot of Imm interaction.

Though I see now by your reply that playing "gemmed" or not is more a matter of opinion than fact

Yes, only my opinion and each to their own - just I wouldn't like for people to immediately discount playing a gemmed mage because of a perception that they will have nothing to do which, in my opinion and experience, is not the case at all.

[Pantoufle]

The code is only part of being a magicker and it doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to realise that those institutions that have a long history of working with magick would have a lot of hand-me-down knowledge that a solo mage in the sands is most likely never going to figure out without a lot of Imm interaction.

Good point.

Yes, only my opinion and each to their own - just I wouldn't like for people to immediately discount playing a gemmed mage because of a perception that they will have nothing to do which, in my opinion and experience, is not the case at all.

Agreed but it may be worth mentioning to any would be "gemmed" mages to consider their options carefully, as each decision has its own advantages and disadvantages.  Unless you're creative and patient, being "gemmed" can lead to boredom real fast.  Though in either case, to address an earlier point, I don't think it really matters if we have more of one mage over the other, whether there is a surplus of Suk-Krath elementalists or mages in the desert versus Allanak, etc.

In closing, being "gemmed" is just not for me.

[Xamminy]

In closing, being "gemmed" is just not for me.

Noone can say that it is for you, however, we can say that it may be for someone else, so giving the suggestion and the potential benefits for those that may be interested can't hurt, can it?

[sjanimal]

I like this idea.  It could be controlled.

[Tamarin]

I laugh at this thread, because not in a million years will it ever happen.  It will destroy this game.

[joyofdiscord]

I agree that it's a bad idea.  Char approval is already lightning fast.  It MIGHT be helpful, and take a tiny bit of workload off the IMMs* if karma'd players were allowed to instantly submit non-karma characters.  By the time a char has karma, he should be perfectly capable of writing an approvable app for any of the non-karma roles, even if he may or may not be able to actually PLAY an elf well.  However, char approval is already so quick that changing this is not worth it at all.  Besides, I know it is just nail-biting having to wait for your char approval.  I, for one, am always itching to log into my newbie chars.  But think about it this way: char approval takes 1 day.  MAX.  Mine today took like 3 hours.  Then, you will be playing that char for a couple of weeks at least, hopefully.  Possibly months or years.  Is one day of not playing Arm REALLY that bad?  Also, I like the waiting period.  Gives me some more time to reflect on that char I created and make it real in my mind.  Also, I'm less inclined to hurry up and submit a rushed char, which I might if I knew I could be in and playing once the last keystroke was entered.

(off topic)*Note to players: From my experience with MUDs, I can tell you, anything that reduces the IMM's (already large) workload is a GOOD THING FOR YOU.  That's why the "policy changes" a while back were something you should have all been PRAISING TO THE HEAVENS, not complaining about not having that quirri-embroidered off-white linen pants with a double seam hand-sewn with fuschia thread.(/off-topic)

[Angela Christine]

In general I think a "cooling off" period is a good thing, and waiting for approval provides one.  The alternative would be terribly tempting, even for good players.  If you pre-write apps in a word processor during the Saturday down time, you can have a new character submited within about 10 minutes of your last one dieing -- it's just a matter of entering a few keys for race, sex, age, class, subguild, height, weight, and cut & pasting in the desc, sdesc and background.  If you decide to slightly modifiy a few key traits due to recent events, then it might take 20-30 minutes, but still hardly any time at all.  Without the uncertain waiting period of approval, it would be too easy to have a character that "just happens" to go some place you know is interesting because you saw it an hour ago.  The siren song of your last PC's corpse, full of virtual loot that YOU, the player, worked for hours and hours to accumulate is a terrible thing.  Or you get your shiney new character, but her stats are kind of icky, so you reroll and **GASP** make things irrevokably worse  --  it would be tempting to do something really stupid but reasonably "in character" that you know will get the wimp killed quickly, and you can be rerolling a brand new character within the hour (and the chance of getting really bad stats 4 times in a row is pretty low).   Obviously those temptations exist even with the current system, but I believe that instant gratification could make them much worse.

I'm not talking about abusive twinks, because it doesn't make sense to reject something solely on the basis that it could be abused by jerks.  No, I'm talking about unnecesarily tempting basically well-intended players that happen to be human and subject to doing the occasional dumb thing, if they think they can get away with it, particularily while in the grip of emotion.  


* * *

Imm time is an issue, but I think cleaning up after messes caused by unapproved characters could end up taking more time than the app aproval process does.  I remember some imm saying it takes about 10 minutes of work to approve an uncomplicated character.  Lessee, the last weekly update to include app stats said "79 applications accepted, 58 rejected, 15 edited this week" which is 152 times that an imm had to look at an application.  Times 10 minutes per app to get the total minutes, divided by 60 to get the hours . . . that workes out to about 25 imm hours of effort toward applications that week.  Wow, 58 rejects, bad week.   Anyway, that is a lot of time, but monitoring unappoved characters for abuse could take even longer.  Or not.  No way to know really.


AC

[Cuusardo]

The application process is there for several wonderful reasons.  I see no reason to get rid of it.

[Rhyden]

When I was making my first character (Who I'm happy to report was killed quite quickly thanks to my own foolishness.) I thought what a good idea it is for each character to have to be approved. That way you don't get any 'l33t' idiots running around ruining the aptmosphere of the game. Now this might have been discussed before, but I think that a system whereby you had to have your characters approved until you had a good account history would also work really well, and it would reward those who took the time to be good RPers with instant character creation. Obviously this would be hard to get, since it could potentially lead to disaster, but I thought it was a nifty idea anyway.

I could see how that would become so corrupt.  :twisted: