Less Thought Policing, More Physics

[Mook]

Per the spawn's post:
Elves who have no desire to ride will not learn to ride.  Playing an elf who desires to ride is, imho, enough of an exception that it should require imm permission.  I just can't think of a good reason why an elf would want to ride.

As for the situation where someone pulls out a crossbow and threatens to shoot said elf if he doesn't ride, he would still be no more able to ride than a human burlgar that (like the elf) has never tried riding in his life.  So in this situation the elf should still not be able to climb aboard the kank and suddenly know how to ride, even if he has the desire to do so.  The human burglar would be similarly screwed.

If one would like to argue that the human burglar can probably ride a little bit, after spamming the directions countless times, then alright.. give elves a secret 5% riding ability, just so they can attempt some very crude riding in such a situation.

And anyway, you don't need to have the riding ablity just to mount a mount.  You only need the skill if you want to ride into another toom.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

The probem with this line of thinking is how players will respond. If players learn what is and is not acceptable roleplay based on code alone, what happens when there's a crack in the code?
Let's say an Imm makes a mistake while building a new apartment complex. Some jackass player discovers the bug, which also them to use their kank as a room-mate. If this philosophy is what we go with, the player will figure: "The code lets me do this, so it must be okay."

[Shiroi Tsuki]

I am not quite following the 'the code lets me do this, therefore it is ok' argument.  That's like saying 'the laws of physics let me shoot this gun at this other guy, so that makes it ok'.  The code should not have to babysit and handhold the players, it should simply make the environment work.  If you don't want to read, you're playing the wrong kind of game.  If you don't want to read the docs, rolll a human or don't be surprised you get yelled at for behaving outlandishly.

I don't see why these things -need- to be hard coded when the majority of the playerbase seems to handle them just fine.  It is only the new people that don't read the documents that make stupid errors, and the vast majority of the time I'm betting they only needing one warning to get things fixed.  That's such a small portion of the population.  The people that aren't making the mistakes are the twinking type, and they'd still be twinking types even if you hard coded difficulties in their way.  Their elves would -practice- riding so that they could do it well and/or ignore any coded warnings.

In short, I think coding time could be better spent.

[Mook]

FDMW:  I am not suggesting that players should learn what is and is not acceptable roleplay basd on code alone.

I merely think that in some situations, coded realism improves the believability and balance of the game.

For example, insta-skinning of animals seems a bit silly.  Why should hunters ever be able to spam "kill x, skin x, get all, mount kank, e"?  It might make sense to add a short delay to account for the time spent removing useful pieces from the corpse.  This time could even give the player a chance to interact with anyone he's hunting with, or to do a little solo rp (if that's his cup of tea).

[Coat of Arms]

There are some things where I really wouldn't bother inserting too much realism. Sure you could add a delay to skinning, no skin (ha) off my nose, but it wouldn't accomplish much. When has anyone ever been negatively affected by someone doing the skin;get all;scoot thing? If somebody habitually does that, someone (staff or fellow players) will probably comment at some point. If they only do it when they're alone, who cares? Time on Armageddon is already a warped and way beyond realism. You can sew a gown in two minutes, cook meat without lighting a fire first, or ride from Allanak at dawn and arrive in Tuluk before high sun. You probably shouldn't do it all the time, but sometimes the Byn just likes to spend less than eight RL-hours on a contract.