Proposals for improving the gemmed experience

[Boggis]

Bunch of gemmed all casting in an area at the same time? Sounds like a nightmare. Especially once they start using a particular tactic. I can stand to be the room with one other gemmed when practicing and that's about it. Typically my gemmed prefer to keep their precise abilities to themselves also.

[Agent_137]

I've seen non-lethal missions given to gemmers plenty of times.  Reconnaissance is something very common.  Gathering materials from a far-off location is another.  Harassing or passing along messages has even happened.  Capturing a person or beast doesn't happen too often, but it isn't unheard of.  It all depends on the situation, elementalists involved, and employers involved.  Without going into any detail, certain types of gemmers will be used mostly for certain types of missions, and that's because of the nature of their magicks.

In the past 5 months? Has there been any missions like this given to gemmers from the outside? I submit: maybe a tiny handful. Hell, on one mission, we were ordered to KILL a guy but we captured him instead. I don't count that as a 'capture' mission because those were not the orders. And, honestly, gathering materials is the lowest and the boringest of missions since it usually involves forage. I even tried to sell *special hard for mundane to get but useful item* to those who would use it and got a little interest but no one was really beating down my door. I had to setup all the 'go get this' missions myself. Which means they don't count!

In the days of Samos? Yea, we had some fun plots back then with templar and imm support. But now adays it's basically a 'join oash or diddle yourself' environment.

Like I said, there was a loose/simple gemmed hierarchy before the Council, and I suspect it's still in place.  Try asking some older PCs or NPCs.

there are no older PCs now. but yea, you could always wish up to have Numus tell you about the old days of rank before the council.

The failure is not due to the place, it's due to the players.

not quite true. the pavilion is not on the way to town for any temple but whira, and sorta ruk. That's a big problem and the opposite is one of the reasons the viv temple has always been a natural gathering place. Unfortunately, the viv temple now stinks inside. So you can either ignore the IC reality or go someplace else. Also, the best regen rooms for every temple are NOT the front lobby where people can see you from the street. So you either secret yourself inside to train or you hold your dick in the wind hoping for someone to come by.

it's like they make it obsessively hard for gemmers to get any interaction. They even BURNED the pavilion and left it filthy. It took two PCs to actually clean it. *salutes salt merchant*


 

I've noticed that gemmed typically like to practice spells alone, even when there are other PCs in the temple.

  no, this must be personal choice. I've noticed the exact opposite and i've known quite a few gemmers ICly over the past 2 years. However, multiple rooms would be conducive for this, but still provide interaction. My original idea a year and a half ago was a single gathering room with smaller casting rooms for each element attached to the main room. With the main room was visible from the casting rooms. it saves space and money ICly, and also serves an OOC purpose. what's not to like?
 
 

Bunch of gemmed all casting in an area at the same time? Sounds like a nightmare. Especially once they start using a particular tactic. I can stand to be the room with one other gemmed when practicing and that's about it. Typically my gemmed prefer to keep their precise abilities to themselves also.

you and moe bring up good points, but honestly if you want to be secret about your casting, why the fuck are you 'secretly casting' in the 'main casting room' of your temple? there must be at least a handful of VNPCs or NPCs moving in and out, and another PC could walk in at any moment.

A single temple would not prevent the secretive from going off and being secret. But it would afford a shit ton of more interaction. But probably too much. It would likely be shut down if only for IC reasons.

that said, it may have almost happened. The senate almost completely fucking reorganized allanak, and were going to put the nobles in merchant's quarter, and merchants in gicker quarter. And gickers in the borsail estate. That may have actually been good in the long run but probably required too much building.

[Pale Horse]

Looking back to the time when I had gemmed, both on and off the Council, I remember the times when gemmed would gather in lobbies (mostly the vivaduan, due to it's position, as has been noted), then being told that it was forbidden, IG, for them to be inside a Temple not of their Element.  OOC or IC, we took it as IG and rolled with it and tried using the Pavilion..just didn't work out as well.

That being said, having a single edifice house a wing dedicated to each element, and having a common meeting/practice ground sounds great to me.  Hell, save space.  Make the layout like an apartment building.  From F1 and up, Vivaduans, Elkrans, Krathi, with Whiran's having the top most floor and access to the roof.  Have the basement for Rukkians and Drovians.  Lobby is the common meeting grounds/hang-out space/bar.  Non-magickers not permitted past the lobby, Templars excepted.  If you still want to do that whole barrier thing, stick it at the beginning of the stairwell, thus letting only gemmed, those following them (Lady Jal or street sweeper Jilll has a secret, disgusting liking for the mage sexxors) and Templars past.

[Boggis]

you and moe bring up good points, but honestly if you want to be secret about your casting, why the fuck are you 'secretly casting' in the 'main casting room' of your temple? there must be at least a handful of VNPCs or NPCs moving in and out, and another PC could walk in at any moment.

Most of my gemmed haven't been too bothered about what others in their own temple know of their abilities as they have the same abilities / potential to achieve them. Most of my gemmed have preferred to keep other gemmed in the dark about what they can or cannot do given that there's a reasonable element of competition and conflict that exists between gemmed. Letting other gemmed know your ins and outs can be a dangerous proposition.

A single temple would not prevent the secretive from going off and being secret. But it would afford a shit ton of more interaction. But probably too much. It would likely be shut down if only for IC reasons.

More than likely. I always assumed that the Templarate prefers the gemmed population to be divided and splintered with no central focal point to gather around where they might potentially "get ideas".

[a strange shadow]

Or the Templarate could prefer to have them all in one place, easier to watch over (frequent Templar visits) rather than have to trek to each temple and check out each gathering spot for ne'er do wells when they could be doing other more important things, like politiking with that sexy Kasix temptress.

Any situation can be twisted in any direction; I'd like to see it twisted toward playability without losing the "contained" feel. A single temple would feel pretty contained, no?

[Marauder Moe]

I think the gemmer quarter as a whole could be considered like a big giant "single temple".  It's just a matter of scale, which then equates to a matter of players being too lazy/impatient to walk by existing gathering places and hang out there until someone else shows up.

Gemmed players could also make an effort to, upon finding other gemmed outside of the quarter, suggest relocating the group to the  pavilion or someone's temple.

Do these things often enough and I think you'll see that mages (with a half-decent elementalist PC population) can maintain an active social life without leaving the quarter.  I've seen it happen before.

[Lizzie]

I think just the opportunity to dispell your -own- self-cast spells would be great. Maybe to avoid twinkage, it would only be for things like..blurry blurs, extra-strong strength, upgraded mana, super-stamina, sparkling essence, shadowy shadows, like that (people who would know these things, already know. People who don't know these things, won't be able to tell from what I just said. So - no IC divulged, yay). Things that would normally give your own character some kind of boost, that you really don't need now that you're safe in the Gaj or in the gates of the city, etc. Maybe if someone else cast a spell on you, that you know, but you only know at a lower power, you'd still have to wait for it to wear off or find someone who can magickally dispell it for you.

[X-D]

Nah, the existing gathering places just suck is all.

The square, Alright lets see, We have a table, out in the open with nothing near, We have a burned crappy pavilion, but no furniture and nothing interesting in there. You can leave that and go get a bit of food in another room, But come on now. Oh, and the nearest quit area is your temple.

The main reason people are in taverns is for such OOC reasons. Mainly that nice quit safe room 1-2 commands away. Next, indoors so not burning food/water at the outdoor rate, Next tables/chairs, and lastly such things as food/water/booze/spice. Oh, and reasonably lawful in most of them, something else that meeting area lacks.

I'm all for one large elemental building with a common area and elemental annexes. I'd have to put a gemmed back in my list of future PCs.

[Vessol]

I like. I'm always for centralizing the player-base more.

[FantasyWriter]

Dwarf viv with the focus of opening a bar in the magicker quarter.

[Zoltan]

I like the large building concept. It'd still need to theoretically take up a ton of area yet, to account for gemmed NPCs and vNPCs. I just like the idea of putting gemmers in even tighter quarters. 'Cause believe you me, that mage-on-mage hate is a lot of fun too. Minor conflict is -bound- to start up with everyone in each other's face. It's how reality shows work!

[brytta.leofa]

My fear is that the rebuilding of the whole elementalists' quarter would take a very motivated staff member.

[Zoltan]

My fear is that the rebuilding of the whole elementalists' quarter would take a very motivated staff member.

I agree. Not to mention tremendous IC changes. I don't think it's very likely, but it definitely seems like a cool idea to me.

[Armaddict]

And some legitimate IC means and motivation, as well.

[Tallulah]

One of the reasons I was able to stick with this mud is because magick is hated and feared.  It's one of the things I like the most about Armageddon.

Take from that what you will.  With that, I bow out of this thread.

[a strange shadow]

I'm always for centralizing the player-base more.

[FantasyWriter]

Don't forget all the VNPCs and NPCs that like things just the way they are.

[jhunter]

I think combining the temples into one larger temple with a wing for each element is a great idea. Still give each wing their own place to -practice- their magick. After thinking about it more, I think that maybe adding another way into or out of the city directly from the magicker's temple might help out a bit too. You could enter or leave the city through this route, it could be guarded by a powerful templar and some soldiers. Make it legal to enter or leave through this route with spells in effect, so long as you are not acting out of line otherwise. Make it -kill on sight- for anyone entering or leaving the other city gates with spells in effect or being in any other part of the city with magicks in effect.

[Riev]

I am definitely for the larger communal meeting area. As others have said, the current one lacks a certain... flair. People go to their own temples only because they can't go into the other ones, and they go there because of special perks they get for being in their own place. If there was a bar-style communal area that -everyone- had to pass before getting to their section, at least people may slow down. If you say that you could do that now, that would be one tile away from the main road, before you go to the Vivaduan temple, and that is just bollocks.

Pushing everyone together is a great idea. The only idea I wouldn't agree to is the robes denoting how "powerful" one might be, and that is only because I think it would encourage more twinking, which is already pretty inherent in a class that "branches" pretty quickly. Saying "I know this spell now, so I can be a different color robe" just makes people want that position so much more, that they forgo much else. Thats just my Opinion.