Sparring NPC's!

[Synthesis]

There has been days when 60+ players were currently logged into the world and NOT A SINGLE ONE logged into the clan or visiting redstorm/luirs/cenyr.

What say you then?

Find a new clan?

[Lizzie]

Find a new clan, has to be one of the lamest answers..and the most common. It's also horribly unfair to the clan leader, and the clan imm, and to anyone who is active and IN the clan, but maybe on vacation for a week..imagine being in a very active clan, not particularly populated, but active. Now imagine 2 characters die. Two are left, still active. One player goes on vacation for a week. And word gets out that this clan is inactive. Now you have one player who logs in dutifully, looking to recruit replacements for the -recently dead- PCs..and no one wants to join, because it's "inactive." So that guy quits. And the guy on vacation returns, to find out that his clan really -is- inactive now.

All because people keep telling everyone on the GDB to find another clan if the one they're in is inactive.

If it's inactive, RECRUIT in-game for new characters. If your character is stuck in Luir's, break a rule. Go out and ride around. Or break a different rule, not so significant, and sit in the End when you're supposed to be sparring, and see if someone doesn't show up that you can interact with. Break a -different- different rule, and attempt to make contact with that <censored> in the <censored> that you're told not to mess with. Even if you don't have coded authority to hire anyone, you could put someone in touch with someone who does have coded authority. OR - you could even wish up and ask for an authority to be animated. Remember now we have "auto-pay" so finding someone to pay your salary is no longer an issue. Most clans have sparring dummies, so having someone to spar with is not an issue. Most clans have places where they store raw goods, so having something to keep busy with shouldn't be an issue.

If worst comes to worse, walk out the gates of wherever you are, 3 rooms, and type FORAGE ROCKS. Repeat a few times, add a fun emote. Rest once in awhile, repeat some more, emote some more. Use think to express how bored you are. Use feel to express how your brain is melting from the heat. Rest some more, drink some water, go back through the gate, and sell whatever rocks you just found. Use the sids to get drunk, and break some more rules.


APPENDED: Finding a new clan shouldn't be the result of not having anyone to RP with. It should be the result of your character's needs, and the clan's needs, not being a good match. Just because there's no one to RP with doesn't mean there's nothing to do. It's just, when what you do, is incompatible with what the clan needs from you, that it should become an issue.

[Rhyden]

I wholeheartedly agree with Lizzie.

[Synthesis]

Fine then.

Store and find a new character.

SHEEEEEESH.

[RogueGunslinger]

 

[musashi]

I agree with, most ... of what Lizzie said. Though not the bit about breaking rules. If your PC is the type of PC to want to go break the rules in the first place, sure by all means go right ahead. But if your character is the type to follow the rules set out by his superiors (be it because he's afraid of them or just the straight and true typ) ... you should not have to sacrifice that for an OOC reason.

[Riev]

I've been whining about what Lizzie and Mushmouth have been saying for like... a RL year.

Just because you don't have very active clan members shouldn't mean "suicide and do something better". There should be a way that the player isn't shafted due to poor play times.

[Rhyden]

Just because you don't have very active clan members shouldn't mean "suicide and do something better". There should be a way that the player isn't shafted due to poor play times.

So is the solution training with a sparring npc dummy? I'm not saying yes or no, I am just curious. If enough people feel that this ideal sparring dummy will help offpeak players from being shafted, then I can't really argue with that.

[musashi]

Just because you don't have very active clan members shouldn't mean "suicide and do something better". There should be a way that the player isn't shafted due to poor play times.

So is the solution training with a sparring npc dummy? I'm not saying yes or no, I am just curious. If enough people feel that this ideal sparring dummy will help offpeak players from being shafted, then I can't really argue with that.

I would say not just the off-peak players (though it would help them the most no doubt) but anyone who is newly recruited, at newbie skill levels, and seeking to move from newbie to at least the beginnings of competent ... and actually follows the clan training schedule would stand to gain from such an implmentation.

I feel like, when you take your spanking new character and place them in a military clan, you would expect that they would start to get military training. But if your PC doesn't frequently bump into other clan member PCs, this doesn't happen no matter how true to the training schedule you stay.

I think sparring NPCS would answer that problem.

But ... you know, I've probably talked enough in this thread. Think my piece has been said.

[Good Gortok]

There are players who play at times when the online tally is closer to 10 than the 50+ most of us get to enjoy.

There are clans that never have more than 1-3 active players at a time.

There are areas of the game so under-populated that playing there at any time of the day still qualifies as isolated roleplay.

There are players who deliberately never play in clans because of repeated experiences with intense boredom and loneliness.

It baffles me how some players will fight tooth and nail to prevent other players of a certain demographic from being able to play the game on the same premise as them. I don't know what kind of mentality it takes to want to fight change for the sake of not wanting to see change, and I wonder why it has become such an ingrained part of the GDB, but I hate to see it affect other players. Why should Niles the European or Ming the Asian have to live with the fact that they can either never play in clans or never have a character who can fight? Why should your playtimes have to affect your character's skill growth? This seems like precisely the thing that an RPI mud should try everything it can to avoid. Unfortunately, it is very much the case.

I don't see how sparring NPCs is such a bad alternative to standing around idle for 20 minutes every dawn, or going that step further and just saying "fuck it" and not even going back to the compound at dawn because there hasn't been anyone there the last 30 times. Sparring dummies are pretty much useless for general skill development and some clans don't even have them. Most clans do, however, have large vNPC populations and strict training schedules, and it makes no sense that any character could be in a clan for any length of time without getting to benefit from that training. It should be one of the greatest advantages to being in a clan in the first place. For every soldier, mercenary or guardsman who has to spend what is in reality a training session without seeing any training, a major flaw in the game is highlighted: something that should be an everyday fact is missing, and it's just as bad as if you had to accept mantis in the Gaj or gemmers visiting Tuluk.

It's also a matter of putting life back into the clans. Most of them struggle to even maintain enough players to be considered active, let alone ensure that everyone can expect clan roleplay in any given playing session. So many players stay away from clans these days because it easily becomes such a lonely experience, and it's a vicious cycle. Skill growth is one of the most effective incentives in the game to the point where people will base their characters' entire existence around it, so when being clanned tends to be the bar-none worst way of increasing your skills, it should be no surprise that people aren't interested. The Byn is just about the only clan that offers a consistently large and non-cyclical population these days, and you can only play a shitcloak so many times before it gets old.

It makes no sense that the guy who hunts birds for a living or mugs people in alleys for a living becomes a much better combatant than the guys who protect the city-states and fight in wars, or make their coin as goddamn mercenaries. Unfortunately, since the hunter and the mugger can hunt or mug whenever they want, they have unlimited access to the training that many clanned players consider themselves lucky to get in much lesser quantities. It's an atrocity that a character in the freaking army often has to get by with one or two sparring matches per day played. It even affects everyday roleplay because people have come to know that clanned characters are often pushovers until they've been around for an obscene length of time, and if I had a dime for every instance of roleplay I've seen affected by the fact that soldiers never get to train, I'd hire a crew of people to provide the clans with the training that they by all rights (and according to the documentation) should have.

[musashi]

I <3 Good Gortok.

[Riev]

I <3 Good Gortok.

I second this message. There is not one thing I would add to his post, but instead wish only to show my support and raise my post count.

[Eyeball]

Thumbs up to Good Gortok's post.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Amen, Gortok. Amen.

[RogueGunslinger]

Right? Jesus I suck at putting a point forward like Good Gortok does.

[jmordetsky]

I don't see how sparring NPCs is such a bad alternative to standing around idle for 20 minutes every dawn, or going that step further and just saying "fuck it" and not even going back to the compound at dawn because there hasn't been anyone there the last 30 times.

Amen. Truth be told when I'm in those situation, I just say fuck it and do what I want. I leave the gates, go in the rinth whatever and I justify it ICly. If my Imms don't like it they can doc me, animate, whatever.  I don't care. I'm here to have fun not cling to lines of realistic behavior regardless of how boring that will be.

But this is stupid, because realistically, I would stay in the compound and train. It's OOCly driven because I don't want to be a 90 warrior of idle time who has no idea which end of the sword to hold.

Anyone who follows this up saying the game is not about skills can feel free to go play a mush.

[Malken]

Both Harshlands and SoI have NPC trainers that you can spar with, and again, the horror stories of "what could happen" in this thread doesn't happen there.

[Gimfalisette]

I can't help but believe that providing something that would satisfy the expressed need of off-peak, iso-clan, or underpopulated-clan players would attract and retain more players. MOAR PLAYERS.

All players of ARM enjoy skill-building, to varying degrees, or else we would not be playing a MUD that is coded to allow for so much skill development. That is simply fact. When we make it more difficult or impossible for certain subsets of players to develop their PCs' skills, then we actively encourage them to play elsewhere.

Encouraging players to play elsewhere is dumb.

[Cutthroat]

I agree with those who say adding sparring NPCs is a good idea, overall.

Leaving a clan to join one that makes you more free to skill-up, or breaking rules to go outside isn't really a solution to this problem. The current system awards the PC boxing animals instead of the PC sticking in their barracks during training time. And yes, while it's certainly possible to send in logs of your virtual practice, the gain isn't immediate when it probably should be for the basic skills.

NPCs shouldn't help beyond a moderate level, and I think supporters of the idea agree with that.

[RogueGunslinger]

I agree with the OP, this should be implemented.

[musashi]

I hope this generated some discussion staff-side.

[RogueGunslinger]

Of course it did. What you really want is for them to come in here and let you know their thoughts. But they seem to be keeping away for some reason.

[Malken]

Where's Isobue (?) and his army of lobbyists when we need them!

[musashi]

Where's Isobue (?) and his army of lobbyists when we need them!

roooooooooofl

[Manhattan]

Poor off-peakers.  Just give them their damn sparring NPC.