I'm done.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Fuck -5. -1 would do the trick.

Better chance of recovery if you leave them to die.

[Moofassa]

While I myself am a huuuuuge fan of flowery emotes that paint a picture perfect scene in my mind, I've had a few characters die to things like "stalks up to you and lunges towards your chest." And that's completely fine with me. Who am I to judge the other persons motifs? Who am I to say it was OOC or twinkish to attack me? I can't say for sure, so I've always given my friendly murderer the benefit of the doubt. Sure, I'd love more emotes, sure I'd love to the see the hatred behind his eyes, sure I'd love to get a chance to emote how my eyes widen and glaze over with life-threatening fear, but it doesn't always happen, and that's fine. Some players don't emote, that doesn't mean they are in the process of of twinking.

I understand how staff can side with players when a complaint is lodged about a boring death, but I don't understand how staff can negatively note someones account. Perhaps more of an email with a suggestion such as "your character Amos kileld Malik, perhaps a bit more emoting would help the scene?"

What did I just saY?

[X-D]

I think the better chance would go against the accidental though, Not to mention, when you do intend to kill them and 30 seconds after dropping they get up and run away at 1 HP is very annoying.

-5 still stays with the spirit of mercy not being perfect, which the staff, over the years has said that is the way they want it.

But as it stands, mercy does not work with spells of damage at all, and strong PCs might as well not bother with it either, or PCs without weapon skills or PCs with low weapon skills.

Which I personaly think sucks for all involved stealing that little chance for somebody to turn a death into something memorable on both sides. I know I like to give out that last dying emote as much as I like the killing emote. And from what I've seen with other PCs, most other players do as well. And maybe we would see fewer threads like this without hurting the harshness or brutality of the game at all.

[Doppelganger]

And maybe we would see fewer threads like this...

Because three "weak ass emotes", as OP puts it, are indeed better than just one.

[jhunter]

I've seen several situations throughout my time here where a pc's death (while ending their own story) actually spawned a huge plotline for several other characters connected to them.
Sometimes, the sacrifice of one character is well worth the story that results from it.

[SMuz]

I have a feeling that the OP has already rolled up a character again

Anyway, I find that it's good not to get too attached to a character. I bet most characters die in incredibly stupid ways and some in incredibly heroic ways. But likely, in stupid ways. Your character will die, just like you will. And personally, I think being killed by a twinkish PC is much more satisfying than being chased down by a tarantula across the desert and then being ganked (even though I know those tarantulas emote a lot). Characters are.. disposable, sadly. That's pretty much why my characters start off with barely any personality and background, which are shaped up in the first 3 days after I see where the character's flow is headed.

[Conspiracy Theory]

I think this thread http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,26665.0.html had some good discussion on the topic of PKing, including this portion which still rings deeply for me:

I play to create stories and add my voice to the song of Armageddon with the hope that a few notes will be remembered.  Sometimes creating the story trumps the individual decisions of my character in how I approach a given situation.  Sometimes letting someone live is bad for your character, but good for the game.  That isn't to say that someone should feel obligated to be nice, fair, or merciful.  It's simply a statement that there will be times when your actions, both ICly and OOCly, can have a profound effect upon the tapestry we weave, and sometimes letting a stray thread survive will result in an even more wondrous product than if you had simply tied a knot.

I come down on the side of "Yes, we all have an OOC responsibility to one another to make this the best story possible." And learning to balance being a jerk ICly with being fair and reasonable OOCly is part of that.

I wanted to emphasize this, since it's precisely where I reside with regards to Armageddon and how I play.

[Xio]

I'm the type of person who used to love to take the time to emote. Since not everyone feels the same way (and probably assumes i'm getting ready to run away not emote), i've cut down on how much I emote a large deal. There are times I'd love to sneak in a sweet emote, but I know other PCs in the area aren't gonna wait for me to do so. Given that, I can understand to some extent why people dont emote like crazy in pk-situations. Some of us aren't fast typers to begin with, and I know when I emote its not like the whole sentence forms in my head in an instant and i can just type it out in a flash. Granted my wpm has decreased as of late thanks to a hiatus from computers and a new keyboard layout.

[jmordetsky]

why do i read these boards?

[BuNutzCola]

My opinion on how to increase the chances of more emotes at first?

Remove that huge ass bonus you get for initiating the attack, unless you're hidden or otherwise unnoted.

That way both parties aren't both itching to lose the advantage by typing out an emote.

[SMuz]

The bonus on initiation isn't that huge.

I emote while PKilling someone. Go on and get your first three hits, boy, I'll emote dodging them flawlessly and shrugging off that one hit you did do, before slamming my head into your gut

Though, yeah, emoting is tough during combat, especially when your opponent is frantically spam-disarming. I'd like to encourage you guys to take impending death calmly and with honor. Hell, I did put up a good emoted fight when my first character was being slowly killed.

[BuNutzCola]

EDIT Eh, this isn't my thread to be talking about combat in, this is about the OP being done. Or something. I won't derail further.

[SmashedTregil]

A few times. I've actually abandoned typing out an emote and pressed <enter> with it unfinished, because I got attacked or backstabbed. It's sad, but ... shrug..

[Malken]

What is this thread about? 

[RogueGunslinger]

Being well cooked.

[modestlyawesome]

PKs can suck, however, they are often done with reason.  It's not like this is a HnS MUD, and if your character has any sort of skill, any random noob who doesn't know how to RP or anything else like that isn't going to be able to beat you. 

I'll just nth what everyone else said, about how just because you don't see the Rp that went into it, doesn't mean it wasn't a valid IC PK.



oh, and --

why do i read these boards?

So you can whine about how much you hate the boards?  I'm not really sure why anyone would even post that.

[RogueGunslinger]

why do i read these boards?

So you can whine about how much you hate the boards?  I'm not really sure why anyone would even post that.

If my sig space wasn't being occupied by something important, this is the first thing I'd ever have found worth putting into it. I'm so sick of the "I need a break from the forums." And "You guys are all stupid pricks and me, the condescending asshole that I am, needs to tell you that you're not worthy of the time it takes to read your posts" Posts.

[Potaje]

Could it be that every instance of a PK that happens and you don't see an emot, truly be devoid or could it be that the backstab that was building and waiting for you in the shadows wasn't after full of Pemotes, or beter yet with the pemote or hemote if that blind and or otherwise distracted by their on life character was not aware enough to catch the sething wild eyed creep standing to the side, babbling, eyeing, picking their nails with a shank beneath thier duster to theselves mean that there was never any role play. And I would think if after the attack the agressor had time to emote you had time to run away and live.

If a tree falls in the forest and you dont hear it does it really fall.

if a murderer in the shadows is not seen emoting by you then was there really no emote?

[SMuz]

Hah, that's a good point. But I think you mean semote, not pemote, right?

But then again.. what's the point if a tree falls on you and you don't hear it? Where is the joy in death without an emote? I'd rather get killed with 2 emotes, than a murderer hiding in the shadows with 40 semotes I never see. I think it happens that way, anyway.. I know for me there's always a lot of thoughts, feels, and more thoughts before PK, both IC and OOC. But in the heat of battle, and preparing to chase someone down if they (spam) flee, there's not much space for emoting.

[evil_erdlu]

I'm lucky....

Really..

The most frightening possible-PK experience of mine was against a halfling magicker.. Yes, halfling _and_ a magicker. I couldn't even emote that well, because something at the back of my skull yelled so loud: "run;e;e;e;e;e;e;e" and I remember not finding an emote to describe "duck and cover". I withheld myself. I wasn't that much of a code-newbie and I knew even though that command sequence would make me reach to safety (it was even aliased to flee from NPCs) the halfling should have caught up to me normally, even before the first room.

He (or she, I didn't take a log and I was too panicked IRL to read the whole desc) didn't bother killing me though, even though he had all the reasons. He also showed me why he was given the priveledge of playing a halfling mage. The story was indeed improved. His act was heard by every single templar or soldier I met in the city. Me ignoring the inner voice calling me to spam-flee was awarded too, I have a note in the account: "Did a good job of roleplaying a scared-shitless Tuluki commoner (over magickers)."

I got killed only once, the opponent's only reaction was telling me "Are you kidding me?" or something. I had deserved that PK, I had it coming, he had reasons not to type 23 flowery emotes and even though that character was _really_ belowed - long living+great concept+improved skills+improved social status - I understand why the poor sob died and I'm not bitter even a bit. Still, I felt depressed and gave a month's break to the game.

So, give it a month's break and come back. Then make a merchant/armorcrafter or something and enjoy being sickly rich, long living and social. Then, possibly, get bored and retire to make another half-elven ranger/thug.

[Pale Horse]

Chiming in to agree with the Wicked Birds post, above.  Speaking from experience, spacing apart the guild and concepts of your characters is a  great way of keeping the game fresh and prolonging your enjoyment.  I've gone from mostly ranger-esk, wandering solo-types, to social-seeking tavern sitters and back, and it's thrilling to see how I've loved doing so.

Also, everyone can benefit from taking a break, or, heck, even trying another MUD/game/Real life for a week or three, especially after something that's left a sour taste in your mouth..so long as you do plan on coming back, that is 

[Thistle]

Hey guys,

Just a reminder to keep it civil.

Armageddon is a harsh place, our boards are not.

[spicemustflow]

I like death being swift and brutal. Unless it's a torture scene there's no need for flowery emotes, showing fear behind wide-pupiled eyes and cold sweat glistening on your brow as you take your last breath and fall down with arms grappling your wounded chest while shouting out the last goodbye to your loved ones. It looks silly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EvPvfVOUV8.

One or two 'weak ass' emotes are enough in my opinion. Stalks to you and plunges the dagger in your heart? Excellent. My most satisfying death didn't even have that, one backstab  and it's over. That is, I assume it was a backstab, somebody just turned the lights off for my char and I never knew who, how or why. Just as it should be.

edited for a stupid typo

[Potaje]

This whole thing brings a question to mind.... Is there a thread on various emotes for during combat?

[Moofassa]

emote rolls his eyes as he ducks underneath a lazy swing from %roguegunslinger troll gun, eating a large twinkie shot from %spawnloser gun of amazing flame.