Roleplaying Peeves

[touringCompl3t3]

People asking if I have branched a specific spell, and then asking or -demanding- that I do so.

Fuck -off- about it.  Just because you happen to know how the spell tree works doesn't mean every Drovian in the world or whatever else is the same.

I totally agree.  I plan to post a more extensive rant on this very subject.  Thank you for brining it up.

[Troicha]

People asking if I have branched a specific spell, and then asking or -demanding- that I do so.

Fuck -off- about it.  Just because you happen to know how the spell tree works doesn't mean every Drovian in the world or whatever else is the same.

I totally agree.  I plan to post a more extensive rant on this very subject.  Thank you for brining it up.

I agree, -except- in the case of people who have every right to demand such of you, and every reason to know the knowledge.

Templars speaking to gemmers, mainly.

[Barzalene]

This year, since returning to Arm, it seems like combat emotes have gone out of style. I hate that in many of the clans where you're forced to spar for hours, no one emotes at all. And everyone spams the combat commands. hit amos  bash bash bash bash kick kick kick kick


And it's not one clan, it's many of them. And it's what newbies are learning as correct. If you're going to force me to spend my days skill training, giving me a little rp with it.

And if combat emotes bore you, (and I can see how they might) talk to me. Talk smack. Talk about the weather, but give me something to make me not walk away thinking "Well, there's twenty minutes of my life I'll never get back."

[X-D]

Happily, I've not run into that problem.

Being a big fan of combat emotes and talking shit during even sparring.
All the clans I've been in for the last 2 years, everybody has done quite well.

Now, was in the byn a while back, and when I first started my PC there, it was active and combat emotes rare. BUT, I talked shit and emoted my ass off, and in VERY short order, so did everybody else. I've found in the distant past that improving that is a change that YOU can make.

Same for other activities. Like Byn Latrine duty, My PC was a runner, so, well, you know the drill. First time in, 4 other PCs, doing nothing, not even a change ldesc. Now myself, I think its the greatest part of playing the Byn. I started in, complaining, emoting, changing ldesc etc, soon, so was everybody else. Later, when my PC was trooper, and later Sarge, people who still got the duty continued to have a good time doing it.

Also, Staff is more likley to step in on good scenes and add even more

BE THE CHANGE!

[Fathi]

This year, since returning to Arm, it seems like combat emotes have gone out of style. I hate that in many of the clans where you're forced to spar for hours, no one emotes at all. And everyone spams the combat commands. hit amos  bash bash bash bash kick kick kick kick


And it's not one clan, it's many of them. And it's what newbies are learning as correct. If you're going to force me to spend my days skill training, giving me a little rp with it.

And if combat emotes bore you, (and I can see how they might) talk to me. Talk smack. Talk about the weather, but give me something to make me not walk away thinking "Well, there's twenty minutes of my life I'll never get back."

In my case, sometimes I won't emote as much during a fight if I'm playing a particularly buff character because my combat emotes tend to be fairly long or involved as far as targeting goes.

When I play someone who hits really hard, I keep my finger hovering over that disengage alias key out of paranoia.

I've come to within a few HP of killing someone in a spar because I was in the middle of emoting when my character got a freak roll that resulted in something like viciously piercing the poor guy on his head four times in a row. He fled, fortunately, but I've been wary ever since.

Edit for clarity: This isn't to say that I don't emote during combat anymore or that it's okay, just that there are reasons some of us don't emote as much during combat as we used to/could.

[Lizzie]

I'll admit to not emoting much when I'm sparring, but I do try to toss something in there every minute or so. It's just really hard for me to get the timing right. I'll emote something about trying to swing overhead, and the code ends up with me hitting the guy's foot. Or I'll notice that every one of my combat emotes is "emote tries to do something" because I really have no idea if the code will succeed or fail, and I don't want to power-emote. And so I just sort of let the code do what it does for awhile because it's pointless to emote after the fact, and emoting "tries to" do something every single time is repetitive and repetitious and repeats itself and does the same thing over and over again.

[Barzalene]

This year, since returning to Arm, it seems like combat emotes have gone out of style. I hate that in many of the clans where you're forced to spar for hours, no one emotes at all. And everyone spams the combat commands. hit amos  bash bash bash bash kick kick kick kick


And it's not one clan, it's many of them. And it's what newbies are learning as correct. If you're going to force me to spend my days skill training, giving me a little rp with it.

And if combat emotes bore you, (and I can see how they might) talk to me. Talk smack. Talk about the weather, but give me something to make me not walk away thinking "Well, there's twenty minutes of my life I'll never get back."

In my case, sometimes I won't emote as much during a fight if I'm playing a particularly buff character because my combat emotes tend to be fairly long or involved as far as targeting goes.

When I play someone who hits really hard, I keep my finger hovering over that disengage alias key out of paranoia.

I've come to within a few HP of killing someone in a spar because I was in the middle of emoting when my character got a freak roll that resulted in something like viciously piercing the poor guy on his head four times in a row. He fled, fortunately, but I've been wary ever since.

Edit for clarity: This isn't to say that I don't emote during combat anymore or that it's okay, just that there are reasons some of us don't emote as much during combat as we used to/could.

That's very legitimate. But I recently heard a newbie say, Oh, I was in X clan and none of the veteran players emote when sparring. And I've seen great combat emotes with one clan I  since my return but none with others  and some but less than I'd expect with still others.

So, not emoting in order not to kill people is an excellent idea. Not emoting cause, who wants to, or no one else does or sparring is such a good time to watch a bit of tv, less excellent.

[Barzalene]

Combat emotes can be monotonous. Chatting? Why not a bit of chatting?

[Barzalene]

I can't seem to stop posting. Sorry.

I wanted to explain. It's not that I'm so in love with combat emotes. Mostly they are awkward, and poorly timed, and often uninspired. But I hate the idea that rp should stop, when skill training begins. I have never thought that emotes = rp, but just tuning out while the code regurgitates pre-masticated canned spam doesn't seem like rp either. And in clans that spar for most of the day, that's kind of an issue.

[Ocotillo]

A simple nod to argh-pee can be something like 'emote sweats heavily as he circles ~sergeantkickass' or 'emote pants tiredly as his strikes slow'. It doesn't need to be poetry.

[Angela Christine]

I agree, -except- in the case of people who have every right to demand such of you, and every reason to know the knowledge.

Templars speaking to gemmers, mainly.

I'm not sure . . . are spell/skill trees part of in character reality?  I'm not sure that they are, not completely.  

Can you order a Ranger to Climb, or learn to Climb, just because you believe that Rangers can eventually branch the Climb skill?  If the Ranger says he doesn't know how to climb, do you tell him to go practice killing tregils until he learns to climb?  I'm not saying that Rangers can or can not climb, or that tregil killing helps a ranger branch climb, I'm merely pointing out that doing one thing causes another (possibly unrelated) thing to branch, which is a bit odd.  Often there is no obvious link between practicing X and learning Y, ICly the two things may seem completely unrelated.

I'd be dubious about a Templar ordering my Krathi to Vomit Lava, and then when I say I don't know how to Vomit Lava, he tells me to practice Burning Toast until I figure out how to Vomit Lava.  I'd think the Templar was a bit of a Loon if he did that.  The Burning Toast spell is pretty pointless and a waste of magickal ability, why would I want ruin lots of perfectly good bread?  And how the heck will that help me learn to Vomit Lava?  Am I supposed to eat the Burning Toast until it makes me sick?  Since Elementalists are a disorganized bunch who use a variety of different methods to work their magick, and have a variety of bizarre explanations for how and why their magick works the way it does, it would be silly to assume that everyone learns their spells the same way in and in the same order.  Relying on your OOC knowledge of the skill/spell trees and branching mechanics will be hard to justify even if you have carefully observed several elementalists and/or are an elementalist yourself.

[Troicha]

A templar can't order a ranger to branch, say, leatherworking (I don't know if that's in the ranger skill tree), but a templar who has dealt with, say, Vivs before, knows that they can create water. So that templar can go around ordering those Vivs to practice their watermaking (heh) because he/she wants to.

[manonfire]

Gotta chime in on the combat emotes.

For me, combat emotes are the best part of the game, just because you can go completely crazy elaborating what you're doing to that poor critter. Seriously, go crazy. Amuse yourself.

emote Shouting wildly, @ lunges at ~braxat like a spice junkie going through withdrawals, the tip of the weapon embedding itself into %braxat eye, causing a stomach-churning eruption of blood, gore, and all the other nasty shit that comes out of an eye.

Critical kicks are great for emotes, too.

em kicks the ever-loving shit out of %jozhal head, shards of skull and bits of gray matter scattering all over the fucking place.

[Qzzrbl]

Gotta chime in on the combat emotes.

For me, combat emotes are the best part of the game, just because you can go completely crazy elaborating what you're doing to that poor critter. Seriously, go crazy. Amuse yourself.

emote Shouting wildly, @ lunges at ~braxat like a spice junkie going through withdrawals, the tip of the weapon embedding itself into %braxat eye, causing a stomach-churning eruption of blood, gore, and all the other nasty shit that comes out of an eye.

Critical kicks are great for emotes, too.

em kicks the ever-loving shit out of %jozhal head, shards of skull and bits of gray matter scattering all over the fucking place.

The imms must love watching you hunt.

[Lizzie]

Except all those really awesome emotes look really really really really stupid when the code returns:

>You swing at a braxat, and miss.

>A jozhal deftly blocks your pierce.

Combat emotes are great once your character is good enough that you can reasonably predict how he'll match up against his target. If you're sparring against a dummy, combat emotes are just "emote swings and misses" over and over and over again, using different phrasing each time but saying the same thing. Thrusts, swings, lunges, circles around, hops to the side, hops back, thrusts, swings, arcs, lunges, circles around, hops to the side, hops back, thrusts, swings, arcs, lunges, etc. etc. etc. You know you won't bust that dummy open. You know that before you even get into the ring. All you'll do is bounce your weapon on the surface. Every single time, no matter how you lunge, or how fast your blades riposte, or how fancy your footwork. That dummy ain't gonna die, period. And the emoting involved in trying to kill it is SO boring that I'd rather just let the code do what it needs to do, and run to the kitchen to get another cup of coffee until the vnps move the dummy out of the ring.

[Fathi]

Except all those really awesome emotes look really really really really stupid when the code returns:

>You swing at a braxat, and miss.

>A jozhal deftly blocks your pierce.

Combat emotes are great once your character is good enough that you can reasonably predict how he'll match up against his target. If you're sparring against a dummy, combat emotes are just "emote swings and misses" over and over and over again, using different phrasing each time but saying the same thing. Thrusts, swings, lunges, circles around, hops to the side, hops back, thrusts, swings, arcs, lunges, circles around, hops to the side, hops back, thrusts, swings, arcs, lunges, etc. etc. etc. You know you won't bust that dummy open. You know that before you even get into the ring. All you'll do is bounce your weapon on the surface. Every single time, no matter how you lunge, or how fast your blades riposte, or how fancy your footwork. That dummy ain't gonna die, period. And the emoting involved in trying to kill it is SO boring that I'd rather just let the code do what it needs to do, and run to the kitchen to get another cup of coffee until the vnps move the dummy out of the ring.

That's why I normally emote AFTER the coded result.

Code Select Expand

You bludgeon a ring-tailed jozhal on its head, inflicting a grievous wound.

> emote swings ~club down in a wide swing, crushing the jozhal's head in one fell swoop with an explosion of little bone bits and brains!

[X-D]

I got a sparring dummy to terrible  once:)

And even if your blows are bouncing off it, thats still hitting...So, more fun emotes. And no staff is going to smite you for emoting damage to the dummy, it gets fixed every evening anyway.

[manonfire]

Except all those really awesome emotes look really really really really stupid when the code returns:

>You swing at a braxat, and miss.

>A jozhal deftly blocks your pierce.

Combat emotes are great once your character is good enough that you can reasonably predict how he'll match up against his target. If you're sparring against a dummy, combat emotes are just "emote swings and misses" over and over and over again, using different phrasing each time but saying the same thing. Thrusts, swings, lunges, circles around, hops to the side, hops back, thrusts, swings, arcs, lunges, circles around, hops to the side, hops back, thrusts, swings, arcs, lunges, etc. etc. etc. You know you won't bust that dummy open. You know that before you even get into the ring. All you'll do is bounce your weapon on the surface. Every single time, no matter how you lunge, or how fast your blades riposte, or how fancy your footwork. That dummy ain't gonna die, period. And the emoting involved in trying to kill it is SO boring that I'd rather just let the code do what it needs to do, and run to the kitchen to get another cup of coffee until the vnps move the dummy out of the ring.

That's why I normally emote AFTER the coded result.

Code Select Expand

You bludgeon a ring-tailed jozhal on its head, inflicting a grievous wound.

> emote swings ~club down in a wide swing, crushing the jozhal's head in one fell swoop with an explosion of little bone bits and brains!

Yep.

Nice try, but you don't get to shit in my coffee, Lizzie. 

[Hot_Dancer]

Don't emote actual strikes.. just go atmospheric in combat, general movement schemes, motions.. sure some for the bash/kick/disarm attempts. The noise the group is making, the eventual fatigue..there's considered to be a host of background strikes often that the code does not represent, so you can emote the sequences of blocks and parries in more competitive matches there..I find injuries are more easily and accurately portrayed than attacks, so go with those..You get to react to getting hammered in the face, with no 'ifs'.

[Salt Merchant]

People asking if I have branched a specific spell, and then asking or -demanding- that I do so.

Fuck -off- about it.  Just because you happen to know how the spell tree works doesn't mean every Drovian in the world or whatever else is the same.

I totally agree.  I plan to post a more extensive rant on this very subject.  Thank you for brining it up.

I agree, -except- in the case of people who have every right to demand such of you, and every reason to know the knowledge.

Templars speaking to gemmers, mainly.

I found this to be particularly irritating, myself. It reduces magick to mechanics once figures of authority start expecting you to progress along a timetable. And then when my character tried to comply and meet a deadline, someone else got upset over her "spam casting". If she had been a fire mage, there would have been a few dead bodies lying around after that incident.

[Dalmeth]

Don't emote actual strikes.. just go atmospheric in combat, general movement schemes, motions.. sure some for the bash/kick/disarm attempts. The noise the group is making, the eventual fatigue..there's considered to be a host of background strikes often that the code does not represent, so you can emote the sequences of blocks and parries in more competitive matches there..I find injuries are more easily and accurately portrayed than attacks, so go with those..You get to react to getting hammered in the face, with no 'ifs'.

This is what I usually try stick with.  To be honest, I can't make many emotes that both truly reflect the combat code and make sense at the same time.  I just can't relate to it.  Also, I simply don't have the typing speed to come up with a decent emote to reflect specific strikes in combat.

So, the most dramatic emotes come at the end, when I have plenty of time to type out a good emote.

Code Select Expand


The gaunt, brown-haired man viciously pierces the lean, brown skinned elf on  the neck!
The lean, brown-skinned elf crumples to the ground.

The gaunt, brown-skinned man shoves the lean, brown-skinned elf against the cold, alley wall and rams his knife into his gut.

The gaunt, brown-skinned man stares coldly into the lean, brown-skinned elf's eyes as he wrenches his knife upwards through his flesh and then jerks it free.

kill elf

The gaunt, brown-haired man lets the limp form of the body of the lean, brown-skinned elf fall to the ground and then turns to walk down the alley at a swift stride.

arrange body ~ lies here in a heap against the wall of the alley.


[Troicha]

People asking if I have branched a specific spell, and then asking or -demanding- that I do so.

Fuck -off- about it.  Just because you happen to know how the spell tree works doesn't mean every Drovian in the world or whatever else is the same.

I totally agree.  I plan to post a more extensive rant on this very subject.  Thank you for brining it up.

I agree, -except- in the case of people who have every right to demand such of you, and every reason to know the knowledge.

Templars speaking to gemmers, mainly.

I found this to be particularly irritating, myself. It reduces magick to mechanics once figures of authority start expecting you to progress along a timetable. And then when my character tried to comply and meet a deadline, someone else got upset over her "spam casting". If she had been a fire mage, there would have been a few dead bodies lying around after that incident.

I was thinking more just of specific spells and the like. So, for example, if I'm a templar, and there's a gemmer Drovian I know can cast the 'shade' spell, I see no reason OOCly motivated reason not to demand the other Drovian learn as well, if I want him to. 'course, that's because I don't know that 'shade' is a final tier spell, and further, I don't really demand a time table. But I think this is a derail.

[Qzzrbl]

I don't know that 'shade' is a final tier spell.

Me neither.... 'Till now.

[Adiadochokinesis]

I'm pretty sure that was used as an example.

[Troicha]

I'm pretty sure that was used as an example.

That was just an example. I actually have no idea what's even ON the Drovian spell list.