Random Gripes

[Irrationally Angry Kank]

I've been playing Armageddon for a few years, and over time, I've collected an amalgamation of completely random gripes and pet peeves. Most of these are completely inconsequential, but God forgive me, I need to get them off my chest.
1. Hoods
Why is it that every PC in Zalanthas has a hood fetish? Are we all so ashamed of our sdescs that we need to hide them every hour of every day?
It's not just individuals, either. Every clan I've ever been in has had some crazy rule about hoods. Only wear them during storms. Wear them any time you're outdoors. Wear them any time you're out of the city. If you wear your hood up in the compound, you will be shot, drawn and quartered, because every knows only thieves, spies, and evil magickers wear their hoods up. Wear your hood all the time, because it's of utmost importance that we get as many misdirected emotes and battle-commands as possible.
It's crazy. It'd be like if you worked in an office, and they gave everyone a pair of sunglasses that HAD to be worn on your way to and from your car, but NEVER, EVER in the actual office, OR ELSE!
What's with this love of hoods? Even people that aren't in a clan wear them constantly. I love being the one oddball character that doesn't have a hood. If I played a noble, I'd make sure to dress all my employees in hoodless cloaks, and just watch them squirm as everyone got to see their super sekrit sdesc. I delight in being the one 'Rinther that walks around without a hood up. When I'm not doing that, I like to get a generic 'Rinther cloak, put the hood up, and stand perfectly still for hours on end, masquerading as another 'Rinth NPC. I'd be the longest-lived character ever!
I dare you, DARE YOU to play a single PC that doesn't have a hood.
2. Backpacks
Another item-related gripe. Does anyone ever get the image of Zalanthas looking a bit like a Boy Scout camping trip to the Grand Canyon? Everyone has a backpack, from the shit-covered commoner to the noble aid. They're an utter neccesity, and if you don't have one, you're a madman and a n00b. Everyone has their own, impregnable safe strapped to their torso, full of uncooked meat and Byn soup and their life savings. There should be some coded way to steal stuff out of backpacks. I've done it before, in real life. It's incredibly easy to open the backpack of some one you're walking behind and take stuff out of it; they won't feel a thing. I wish there was some code in place that allowed people to steal from backpacks, even if just so I didn't have to see a bunch of "open backpack; get coins backpack; buy mug; put 20 coins backpack; close backpack" spam every freaking time I sit down in a tavern.
I believe, (and I'm seriously not exaggerating here) the single greatest addition to the game in all my years of playing has been the sudden appearance of coded "simple leather pouch" and "ragged pouch" items to the game. Whatever Imm decided to do that was a genius, a mighty hero thrusting a shit-covered javelin into the eye of the tyrannical, invincible backpack-behemoth. Buy pouches! What sane person would go toddling around with a backpack every day of the week? How many of you would wear a backpack to a bar? Are you all hiking to Italy or something? Buy a freaking coinpurse, or a handbag, or *gasp* maybe put your coins someplace easily accessible, like in YOUR POCKET, like a SANE PERSON.
Feed an elf. Burn a backpack.
3. Word choice and spelling
I'm not the best speller in the world. We all make mistakes. I know some of the players here don't speak English as their primary language, and I totally respect and even admire that. But if you insist on using the same word in every freaking emote, at least make sure you're spelling it right. It's spelled SUBTLE, not SUTTLE (you know who you are!).
Here's a free writing tip to all of you, by the way: adverbs are evil. Not everything in Zalanthas needs to be done "quickly" or "faintly" or "quietly" or "simply". I'm not claiming to be perfect, but please... all the "ly"s are making my brain melt a little.
4. Sparring
I like sparring. I think it's one of the rare occasions in the game where you get to enjoy the complexities of the battle code, and get a chance to be creative with emotes and flesh out your character's combat style. I think something is wrong, however, when the entire training regimen is "hit stuff with sticks". I understand that people want to codedly increase their abilities, and that's perfectly understandable. I also get that PC leaders don't always have the time to come in and lead training, or spice things up a bit, so sparring becomes a bit of a crutch. Trust me, no one understands that better than me.
All I ask is that when a PC leader does show up, they should do something, ANYTHING other than spar. In my experience, drills, special training, or other "advanced" exercises are generally no more complex than "Okay, instead of having two people beat eachother with sticks and scream while we all watch, we're going to have THREE people beat eachother with sticks and scream while we watch. This really seperates the men from the boys, soldiers. Don't forget to spam kick!"
Most of us come here for roleplay. And while I understand that increasing your skills (and the skills of those you command) is necessary, sometimes even obligatory, there are still better options. Lectures, lessons, tests, exercises, a simple "drop and give me twenty"... almost ANYTHING is preferable to sparring, day in and day out.
And if increasing your l337 skillz is that important to you, then please, oh for the love of God PLEASE roleplay it out and use that beautiful, oh-so-neglected command TEACH.
5. Skill-list fishing
Nothing drives me more insane than some one trying to pick apart your selected guild and skill-list. Fishing for skill-lists has grown rampant with the relatively recent changes to the storm code, making rangers more valuable than steel. I hate it, absolutely HATE it when some one asks, "How good are you in a sandstorm" or (oh, even better) "can you see in a sandstorm". What the hell are you supposed to say to that? "Yes, I have the magickal ability to see through blinding sand traveling at 60 mph". "Yes, you should hire me because I'm a mutant with a second eyelid, making me impervious to sandstorms and allowing me to single-handedly lead your entire merchant caravan through a solid wall of scouring sand."
My next character is going to be a bum, with the most useless skillset I can dream up, that it will outright, blatantly lie to people who try to dig for answers regarding his skills. I'll single-handedly lead an entire platoon of soldiers off the Shield Wall because my employer had absolute faith in my ability to (somehow) know where I am in a maelstrom of sand and silt. If some one asks "do you know how to carve stone", I'll answer, "if you show me what you want, and give me the tools, I can try". And then I'll emote every inch of the carving process, and after several days of meticulous work, I'll hand them a perfect VIRTUAL specimen, and laugh as they pull their hair out OOC for being an OOC-information-fishing bastard.
I understand if you want a warrior to be your guard and a merchant to be your craftsmen. But you need to figure out a way to do a little more subtly, a little less jarringly than just blurting "so, are you good at being unseen" or "can you find your way around in a storm"? You might as well just say what you're really thinking: "are you an assassin" or "are you a ranger"?
If it's utterly neccesary to know if your new recruit is a ranger or a warrior, how's about testing them? How's about taking them out to the wastes in the middle of the storm, and letting them wander around? And then you can say, "Hmm. You handled yourself pretty well. I think we'll groom you to be a scout" or "I know, storms are hard to deal with. But I like how you held your ground against that scrab. I think you might have a future in the elite guard". Do it IC, instead of making these thinly-veiled attempts to probe for a guild or skillset.
Well, that's all. Thanks for reading. I just really had to get that off my chest.

[jhunter]

Hoods- Portable shade for your face. I don't have any problem with hoods except people -not- using them in a sandstorm or strong winds.

Backpacks- I agree with this. I've seen many pcs wearing packs that I don't think should be.

Word choice and spelling- Some people, as you stated don't primarily speak english and as long as people are trying I don't really care.

Sparring- The problem with the training rp from leaders is that you do this with people and then you have those that get bored because you aren't actually sparring. At least, this has been my experience in a leader role. It's hard to get a balance between rp'd training and coded training, because everyone is different and wants different amounts of each. You can't satisfy everyone all the time.

Skills-list fishing- This bugs me as well, but I seem to deflect it away in a way that doesn't tell them much OOC but ICly answers their questions.

[Forty Winks]

Nicely put.    I must say though, I think I agree with alot of those, even if I might have done them myself a few times. Specially the pack thing.

[Cuusardo]

Not everything in Zalanthas needs to be done "quickly" or "faintly" or "quietly" or "simply". I'm not claiming to be perfect, but please... all the "ly"s are making my brain melt a little.

Or slowly.  That one is grossly overused at times.  Seriously.

[Delirium]

Sparring- The problem with the training rp from leaders is that you do this with people and then you have those that get bored because you aren't actually sparring. At least, this has been my experience in a leader role. It's hard to get a balance between rp'd training and coded training, because everyone is different and wants different amounts of each. You can't satisfy everyone all the time.

Yeah, you lecture and people go AFK.

You try to include people in your lectures by asking them questions and challenging them to come up with answers, correcting them if they're wrong, and people get the fidgety shuffles and act bored.

You emote out lessons (WITH the teach command if they paid attention and played along) and people ask for a real spar.

You spar, often with verbal instruction throughout or after, and people want emoted lessons instead.

You have a million and one things going on IC and you're tired in RL and you're looked to for every direction that the training lesson's roleplay takes, because your underlings can't have some fucking initiative.

You dedicate a lot of your RL free-time to trying to make a role as enjoyable for others as it is for yourself and drop by the GDB to see the latest bitching gripe about how PC leaders aren't doing things right.

There, I got that off my chest.


p.s. RE: the ragged pouch submisson: You're welcome.

Down with backpacks.

p.p.s. To a certain extent, people need to be able to know what their underlings are capable of.  As long as it's roleplayed correctly, I see nothing wrong with asking if someone has any experience in tracking, or staying oriented in sandstorms, or jewelry carving.  Whether you do or not will be found out soon enough anyway when your abilities are tested.  If you lied and they didn't test you out first before sending you off to do something important.. sucks to be them.

[Gaare]

Not everything in Zalanthas needs to be done "quickly" or "faintly" or "quietly" or "simply". I'm not claiming to be perfect, but please... all the "ly"s are making my brain melt a little.

I do this a lot..  I am trying to stop myself.. but well.. that's hard. I will try harder after seeing that irrationally angry kank.    

About backpacks. Well, that's not realistic, but for gameplay that's a kind of -must-. Unfortunately PCs carry their homes with themselves, because unlike real life, they do not have cars, daily visited apartments or offices to put their belongings. Also, that would be funny for all people carrying waterskins with them.. but most Zalanthians do, even templars and most nobles.

[Vanth]

I would suggest that most clanned characters can get by with a pouched belt, in most circumstances.  But then again I have noticed that most PC Zalanthans are packrats.

[amoeba]

1. Hoods.   Everyone, should have a hat at least. Even in the city.  Walking around in the midday sun without protection for your head is plain stupid.

2. Packs.  Next time I'll leave all my belongings in my locker. Wait I don't have a locker.. hmm, I'll get back to you.

3. Word choice and spelling.   It takes time and skill to move from the -ly stage to more imaginative stages.  Personally I think my spelling/imaganitive skill was set at 0 when I entered the game, and I am coming to the conclusion that it is somehow stuck at a really low cap.  I'll try to wish up sometime to the IMMs and see if they can bump it a bit.   As for the consistiant misspellings, I've seen this a bit. One I've seen a lot is people "winching" in a fight. It's wincing, a winch is that thingy mounted on the front of your 4x4.  Mostly I find it heartwarming to see others with the same ..er limitations as I have to endure.

4. Sparring.  I dislike more than casual sparring, so I have no comment.

5. Skill fishing.  Senario; Person trying to hire a guide to get from Tuluk to Nak through backroads. Question: "So are you any good at finding your way through a storm?" Answer: ooc OMG, what with you people and skill fishing?   Sometimes it is logical to ask directed questions.  Or should certian questions be verboten?  Blatent skill fishing is a bad thing, asking relavant questions is a perfectly rational and IC thing to do.   In RL if I am hiring a programmer, I actually (gasp) skill fish, with twinky questions like, do you know how to program in perl? How many years?

[SewerRat_inTheOpen]

Hoods: Necessary if you move about and need to prevent sand/sun from  going all about your face all the time.

Packs: If we all have apartments that don't get broken in every time we log in, maybe we can do without. Now that you mention it, I did think about not having one with my current pc. He doesn't use it a lot, a belt seems to enough. Then again, with a pack, I can strap things onto it.

Words/spellings: I think I use -ly words frequently, I have a bad case of vocabulary repetitions. Mispellings I can handle, not everyone speaks english as a first or second and some people have fat fingers. I have this gripe about people apologizing in ooc because they made a spelling error. I mean if I can spell, I will know it's an error, if I can't, what does it matter? Either way, ooc is more sacred than to be used for every spelling correction. We're pronouncing/speaking the words anyway, as long as it's understandable.. it's fine.

Sparring : Higher ranked people should have lessons of sorts than sparring, even if impromptu. But.. nothing wrong with them just conducting sparring too, it's what they do anyway.

Skill fishing: In armageddon, I find this a problem. Mainly because we have only one skill set, and one subset. It's like I got employed for working metal, and then the employer would try to ask if I can work in the wilds, guarding and then find out if I'm a sneaky type... Easy to eliminate, if you don't answer, you are high-probable SNEAKY. Why can't I just be a metal worker??? In this aspect, I find SOI stronger, because of the many skillsets they make available and the roles more wide.

[Maybe42or54]

Backpacks. They are like women shaving the underarms.
They do it in America and in Italy.. They wear braids.

In earth, we don't wear backpacks all the time. (I wear my hiking backpack a lot of the time if I wont be home for a while or I throw shit in my car.)

In Zalanthas, they may not have a safe place to leave their things, since they don't trust anyone, they -have- to. -Have- to carry all of their belongings around.

Then some people don't want to carry shit in their hands so they put it in their backpack.

I admit that seeing little PCs with gigantic backpacks are a bit off, still. You gotta do what you gotta do, even if you don't want to do it.

[jstorrie]

When I'm out and about - during the school year, at least - I generally have a small book-bag with me, and pockets. Similarily, my random city PCs generally have a small satchel and pockets (and it can be tougher than you think to find clothes with pockets in game!). People with backpacks tend to be my soldiers, explorers, etc. But I agree: pawn your starting pack and buy something reasonable as soon as it's convenient to do so.

Hoods I like. In most populated areas there are tons of virtual characters and a few PCs. Why should the PCs stand out so much? Hoods actually help the game, I think. When I walk into a really crowded bar I shouldn't automatically recognize every player-character in the place. I should have to look. That being said, my last rinther ran around without a cloak for months, so I know what you're getting at.

Sparring is a necessary evil, but the teach command can get around this. One problem is that in most organizations only the sergeants and up are really in a position of authority to lead drills, etc. When it's just all the runners around, they're generally going to spar.

Skill-list fishing is hilarious and I think it's done less than you think. My advice: everyone should actively try to screw up any fishing attempts so people stop doing it. It's fine for someone to ask, 'can you pilot our argosy?', but most skills are more vague. 'Can you guide us through a sandstorm' is pretty iffy, and I bet plenty of non-ranger PCs would think they could. 'Can you guard Chosen Lord Winemouth over here?' Sure, my merchant will guard him with his life to the best of his ability. Haven't you ever lied at a job interview?

[Jherlen]

Hoods - Some people don't want you to know their sdesc. Others don't want to get sunburn on their head. Some clans don't want people trying to hide themselves while walking around their compound. I don't see a problem.

Backpacks - Due to the way objects and inventory are coded (and that's DIKU's fault, not really Arm's), they're sort of necessary.

Word choice - Just find some new people to mudsex with?

Sparring - See Delirium's post...... it was excellent.

Skill fishing - PC leaders don't have unlimited space in their clans always. I agree that asking questions like "can you see your way through a sandstorm" is sort of metagaming. More general questions, though, like "Do you have any desert experience or have you spent your whole life in the city?" or "My unit rides a lot, can you handle yourself on a kank?" or "Do you know how to craft toothpicks? I need a new toothpick crafter?" or "I need somebody who can keep a low profile and not be noticed for this job, can you do that?" or "Have you had much experience fighting? We need tough people in our unit."

If the PC has a sensical background, then answering questions like those truthfully will give the leader a good enough idea of what the PC is capable of. Sure, you CAN lie... but when your merchant/linguist gets a military job and Sarge tells you to take point on the next trip into the tablelands... you're screwed? I realistically don't think many Zalanthans would take a job that would put them in excessive danger that they knew they couldn't handle, or that they would get killed if they weren't good at.

[bloodfromstone]

Hoods are annoying to me, not because everyone wears them, but because some people treat them as inpenetrable shields to hide every inch of their bodies. "look @ us and u dye" muggers are silly. Hood or no, you would still hear their voices, catch glimses of them. You'd see their boots, hands, any number of things.
They also are extremely frustrating because there is no way to tell the two tall figures in X cloaks apart. Even if you've spent the last year of your life training with them, even if one is male and one is female, your character will end up ICly asking "Who said that?" more than once.

Backpacks are a little silly, but are necessary from a game mechanic point of view, I think.

Word choice and typing are a grey area for me. I respect those who don't speak English as their first language, and those who may not type very well, but don't want to get lost in the midst of a set of fast typists, but since I'm a writer myself with (I like to think) good typing skills, sometimes I get frustrated or jarred by the way something is typed, despite myself.

I have a love/hate relationship with sparring, myself. I enjoy it to some extent, but it certainly gets old to have to break away from roleplaying out an interesting scene to go spam-spar every dawn. At the same time, if you're looking to play a kickass fighter or some sort, sparring is necessary to be able to back it up.

Skill fishing is funny, but I understand why it happens. Since the guild/subguild sets, while good, are a bit limiting. No matter how many hours of X training you pour into Y guild, it's not going to change anything, etc, etc... It's a little jarring, and I reccomend rolling with it IC as much as you can. I guess I don't have a lot of input on this one, since I haven't had much experience with it.

[Rindan]

Hoods are annoying to me, not because everyone wears them, but because some people treat them as inpenetrable shields to hide every inch of their bodies. "look @ us and u dye" muggers are silly. Hood or no, you would still hear their voices, catch glimses of them. You'd see their boots, hands, any number of things.

Not from a city, eh?  This is exactly what real life mugger do, and they generally get away with it.  They were a hood and tell you not to look at them.  If it is dark, you are doubly screwed.  Once the mugging happens, the chances of you ever seeing them, and if you do recognizing them by their boots, voice, or hands is close to zero.  Anonymous muggings are real and very much a possibility in real life.  If someone tells you to not look at them while they mug you, regardless if it is RL of Zalanthas, it is generally a good idea to not do so.

[bloodfromstone]

I'll concede that this may make more sense than I'm giving it credit for. Mostly, I have problems with it out in the sands, but I suppose with enough planning and coordination, that could be done realistically, as well.

(minor edit to make it make a little more sense, I hope)

[jhunter]

Mostly I've seen the problem of people seeing too much when someone is covered up with a hood, facewrap, or whatever. I've never seen anyone trying to pretend they are invisible. Just folks saying that because the code allows them to see the entire main desc they know for certain who it is and give up every detail that they can remember or read from their client.

Me, I give maybe a couple of details that I can remember that I would be able to see and nothing more.
"Sorry, he was pretty covered up...looked like he had dark skin and long blonde hair...he was taller than me...uh..."

[Manhattan]

seriously what is the coded advantage of facewraps and hoods?

i never wear that shit, useless.

[Me]

Hoods are good. Hoods keeps your face shielded from the blazing sun. Hoods are good to keep gritty sand out from filling up your nostrils, ears and mouth. Horray for hoods!

Now as for bad spelling. Not everyone are native english speakers, and even if they are, you are allowed to mispell occationally. After all, not everyone is like a modern Tolkien that studied the entire Oxford dictionary. What annoys me sometimes is..yeah.. going ooc for EVERY single spelling mistake. And...to another extend, what I don't like is rping with someone that emotes stuff out from the Thesaurus.


The so and so commoner's multi-colored hued orbs shines with a whimsical ebullience as bird-boned fingers bloom outward in a gesture of a reposeful wave, serpentine lips parting gradually until a generous smile surfaces upon the wind-blown facade like a flower upon seeing the rays of Suk-Krath.


For some reason, things like that makes my eyes hurts. Or...maybe I'm just too stupid?  :shock:

[Sokotra]

My next character is going to be a bum, with the most useless skillset I can dream up, that it will outright, blatantly lie to people who try to dig for answers regarding his skills. I'll single-handedly lead an entire platoon of soldiers off the Shield Wall because my employer had absolute faith in my ability to (somehow) know where I am in a maelstrom of sand and silt. If some one asks "do you know how to carve stone", I'll answer, "if you show me what you want, and give me the tools, I can try". And then I'll emote every inch of the carving process, and after several days of meticulous work, I'll hand them a perfect VIRTUAL specimen, and laugh as they pull their hair out OOC for being an OOC-information-fishing bastard.

:lol:  Lol.. that's funny stuff.  I've actually done stuff pretty close to that at times.. but not gone quite as far.  Hmm... next time.

One comment I want to make, though... DON'T get too crazy when people ask "are you a ranger?".   Some of them might be people that know better, but for the most part it seems like the people asking these types of questions are fairly new to the game and need some more guidance and examples to go by.  

So what really irritates me even more than someone asking "are you a ranger?" is when people get all upset and start this huge debate in OOC discussion.. or even use OOC at all when instead they could just be like:  "Well, some folks have called me a tracker or a pretty decent desert guide... but I tend to stick closer to the city."  Or something like that - anything - depending on what guild you actually are you can make all sorts of stuff up like... "Yeah, I've roamed the wastes since I was old enough to clamber atop a kank and I'm real good at haggling with those darned dune traders too!."  Even though you are a merchant, there might not be a thing wrong with calling yourself a ranger if your background somehow fits.   You can explain things a little better down the road if that person becomes a better acquaintance... or they can just be like "What the heck, this guy is no ranger.. he's some sort of nomad from the scrub."  And that could just put the game in a whole other aspect for them and help them to be a little more realistic in their roleplaying.

[JollyGreenGiant]

On backpacks:

Yeah, I mean, who wants to have a convenient container to carry things around in?  I never see women carrying gigantic purses that contain everything but the kitchen sink, or students with backpacks crammed full of everything they need for the day, or businessmen carrying briefcases or satchels, or programmers with a laptop carrying case strapped to their back.  No, wait.  I see that ALL THE TIME.

[SpyGuy]

Not everything in Zalanthas needs to be done "quickly" or "faintly" or "quietly" or "simply". I'm not claiming to be perfect, but please... all the "ly"s are making my brain melt a little.

I do this a lot..  I am trying to stop myself.. but well.. that's hard. I will try harder after seeing that irrationally angry kank.  

You and me both Gaare.  Let the adverb addicted players unite to get past this growing addiction!

[Anonymous]

You and me both Gaare.  Let the adverb addicted players unite to get past this growing addiction!

You mean 'Let the adverb addicted players unite vociferously', right?

Because I simply agree with your post.

[Ghost]

I think backpacks is purely IC to have with you all the time.  Because as a poor one, you have little assets as it is.  And the best way to keep them safe is to keep them with you.  Keeping your things in a locked house does not offer half the safety as keeping them with you.

On hoods:  Hoods offer shade, and relative protection against the storms/sands.  So it is quite useful to have something that have a hood to pull it up.

Skillfishing:  Well, I am not sure about sneaking/crafting and other stuff, but surely desert navigation is something VERY crucial.  So if someone is asking you if you could find your way out of a storm, it does not mean he is trying to figure out the rest of your skill set.  I, for one, asked every guide I hired IG, if he can "find a way out of the storm" if we happen to end up in one.  WTF now, is it annoying that I ask a guide IF he can guide me ?!? (which is what I am hiring him for) And if he can't guide me, I will either kill him or not pay him, so... It is the hired dude's problem if he wants a little excitement in his life.

Sparring:  See Delirium's answer at that.

I'll single-handedly lead an entire platoon of soldiers off the Shield Wall because my employer had absolute faith in my ability to (somehow) know where I am in a maelstrom of sand and silt.

And if you are serious in this, I mean, driving an entire group purposefully in danger, you are being more OOC than what you are ranting about.

[Halaster]

I would suggest that most clanned characters can get by with a pouched belt, in most circumstances.  But then again I have noticed that most PC Zalanthans are packrats.

That's an interesting point you bring up, Vanth.  I think there are several reasons people are packrats on Zalanthas.  One, most people are fairly poor and don't have a lot, so what they DO get, they horde (OMG I HAVE A BAG FULL OF DEAD BONES).  Two, burglary is often rampant, so, it's safer to keep the valuables on you.

That's my theory for the IC reasons.  I think an OOC reason is that people just don't think about how uncomfortable and annoying a backpack is (me included)

[Fnord]

I would suggest that most clanned characters can get by with a pouched belt, in most circumstances.  But then again I have noticed that most PC Zalanthans are packrats.

That's an interesting point you bring up, Vanth.  I think there are several reasons people are packrats on Zalanthas.  One, most people are fairly poor and don't have a lot, so what they DO get, they horde (OMG I HAVE A BAG FULL OF DEAD BONES).  Two, burglary is often rampant, so, it's safer to keep the valuables on you.

That's my theory for the IC reasons.  I think an OOC reason is that people just don't think about how uncomfortable and annoying a backpack is (me included)

I've always thought most people don't have homes, and carry their world on their backs.