Casual Armageddon

[Lizzie]

As someone who is too very constrained by time, I am completely against making it possible to quit out in the wilderness for everyone. Unless it's set up with some truly truly significant hoops.

Separation of labor and abilities does tend to facilitate roleplay. A merchant who cant go out into the wilderness "needs" a ranger to bring in supplies. A warrior "is" a walking machine of doom, but he is not going to survive very easily in the wilderness. Granted, with changes of direction sense and new extended subguilds, this is becoming less and less so. And makes me a real sad panda about it.

I am of opinion that if you cant handle some of the time requirements the game places on you. Be that leadership roles, wilderness trips, etc. It is your responsibility to be mindful of the game and others who may depend on you, and not get into such positions and situations. I've had plenty of situations where I ended up in such situations and felt super guilty about letting other people down.

It's not hard to schedule an escort with your clannies, when you're a ranger leading a bunch of Bynners of various guilds and sub-guilds. What -is- hard, is being those various guild/sub-guild clannies, and being that guild_merchant PC who you're escorting. The reason it's hard, is because hey - you know it only takes maybe 15 minutes to get from Red Storm to Tuluk if nothing goes wrong, and you're by yourself.

But you've got 6 people with you, most of whom aren't rangers. If it's the Byn, invariably, one of them totally sucks at riding and has no direction sense skill and forgot to <get that IC object that helps with direction skill>. So let's double that time, and now it's a half hour just to ensure that everyone can keep up.

But now that everyone's had to ride all over the place riding in the wrong direction because they suck at riding and got blinded by the storm, their mounts are tired, so now you have to find a rest stop to rest your mount. So let's double -that- time...and now we're at an hour.

There hasn't been any combat yet. So let's throw in one raptor, and then two gith show up at the same time. One person gets hurt and needs to be bandaged. So we'll add another half hour and call it an hour and a half.

Well we make it to the halfway mark, and have to stock up on water because Amos the guy who forgot his direction sense booster, also didn't bring a waterskin, and now Malik and Amos are both out of water because Malik shared his only skin. You have a few things you can sell in the market, and it's almost dusk, so hell, let's just stay here overnight and set out in the morning.

That's another half hour - from late afternoon to dawn. So now we're at 2 hours.

If you knew you had to log out after 2 hours, you could've planned a 2-hour RPT and everything would go just fine. Two hours is a good amount of time to spend in the game, right?

Except - they don't start on time, because nothing ever starts on time. So it was delayed a half hour.

That means you had to log out while you were duking it out with the gith. The "you're too excited to leave just yet" wears off while you're bandaging up the noob with lousy direction sense after the gith attack.

And - you go linkdead, because you really HAVE to log out after 2 hours, I mean jeez it was a 15 minute ride if you're alone, you planned for a whole 2 hours, how are you supposed to know that it might take 3 hours..four hours..I mean you haven't even seen the evil sorcerer who you're gonna meet on the second half of the trip. You haven't even gotten to that yet.

That's the problem with not being able to quit out anywhere. It's not that you have to plan in advance. It's that you _cannot_ plan in advance. I challenge anyone to post here about how they allowed for a very specific amount of time to run an RPT starting at one specific time, and ending at another specific time, with an outcome that allows for everyone to log out when it's over - and succeeded.

It just doesn't happen. And that's why "oh just do this or that" doesn't even apply most of the time.

[Patuk]

I think it's meant to be that way. If you can't handle the wilderness, or are in a position where you're supposed to lead people who can't handle it, or for whatever reason play a role where you need to put so much time into the game - you're doing it wrong. If you want to play casually but get caught up in things about which you -know- you would get caught up, it really is your own responsibility.

[RogueGunslinger]

That a long winded way of saying "deal with it" basically. If something can be added to help cater to casual players without diluting the experience of Arm for players who play often then what reason is there not to add it?

Telling people to either play something they don't want to or to learn to deal with OOC restrictions of playing something you do want to isn't very helpful to the problem.

[Patuk]

.. True. Yes, that is true. The problem, to me, is that quitting out right in the desert will have far more consequences than making the game more enjoyable for casual players. I'd love to have a way for them to be better able to play the game, but allowing people to quit out anywhere would do more harm than good.

[RogueGunslinger]

That's just one idea proposed. And is also just your opinion. Can you name these consequences? Other than making Rangers feel less special and a possible influx of players who quit whenever in danger, I see far more benefit than detriment. So instead of having people spam flee to a quit-safe room (of which there are quite a few, if you have the OOC knowledge lol) they' will just spam flee and quit immediately, doesn't seem much different, except surviving doesn't hinge on OOC knowledge.

I think making the outside of gates in places where gates close down Quit Rooms, is a great compromise for people who have issue with people being able to quit anywhere. But personally, I don't think it's enough. Shops should be open at night, It even makes sense in a desert world. Quitting should be allowed anywhere, with a possible countdown times (say, five minutes). Training dummies should increase skill,  or NPC's should be given sparring scripts.

I'm just sort of blabbering on now though. These sorts of threads get very tiresome after having been through them numerous times.

[RogueGunslinger]

Everything works fine for me too, so obviously there's no problem at all. Guess we can just close the thread.

[solera]

Just make the outside gate rooms quit-safe.

Or camp down in the nearby town where the gates are open (I think) and the bar prices are much the same.
And there's two quit rooms.

[Drayab]

Wasn't idle-logout one of those Armageddon Reborn features we were promised/teased with?

I'd be tempted to ask for it again, but I fear the rage comic. 

[Harmless]

I get to say this now? Oh goodie!

DEAL WITH IT IN GAME.

Want more quit safe rooms, work to establish an outpost and defend it. Or make friends with a nomadic tribe. Or figure out your own damn solution, but there wont be any making this game easier by whining on the GDB while you have this dedicated following of hardasses around.

Yay!

[Malken]

I get to say this now? Oh goodie!

DEAL WITH IT IN GAME.

Want more quit safe rooms, work to establish an outpost and defend it. Or make friends with a nomadic tribe. Or figure out your own damn solution, but there wont be any making this game easier by whining on the GDB while you have this dedicated following of hardasses around.

Yay!

Totally sounds like awesome ideas.. IF YOU WEREN'T STUCK ON A CASUAL SCHEDULE.

Oh man, I feel for the poor guy who only gets to play an hour a day to try and establish an outpost AND defend it.. On Armageddon.

lol.

[Harmless]

Then get some help, dude. There is plenty of meat to employ last time I checked... Anywhere.

[Malken]

Then get some help, dude. There is plenty of meat to employ last time I checked... Anywhere.

You obviously have no idea what it's like to only have a couple of hours to play on Armageddon a day so we'll just leave it at that.

You hear that, people with children? Go build a fortress if you want a quit room.

OR JUST DEAL WITH IT, GOSH. There's always Solitaire.

[Nyr]

I don't think there's the link between quit-safe rooms and player plots that is being suggested.

[RogueGunslinger]

[Harmless]

Actually, I do, because for days or weeks at a time I have minutes. That is why you can find me arguing here instead. but I have never had a problem with quit rooms and havent played a ranger in years.

And as for nyr's comment, yeah, ok, it was a cheesy suggestion. Really, the only option is to deal with it apparently.

[Zoltan]

I just can't play casually, I've discovered, after wasting a few fantastic role and IC opportunities. I still give it a go now and then, but I just get disappointed in my own play. When I started hitting hard limits (lots of overtime at work and somewhat enforced bedtimes), it just killed it for me. I don't think that has anything at all to do with game design, though.

[Dar]

Funny how GDB threads effect my mood and desire to play. I am stuck on a 'very' casual schedule. Baring from occasional to non existant. But after reading the whole safe and cozy thread, I was all ... "fuck it, I'm going to cook up a dude who will turn the game upside down and make young mothers scare their children with his name".

After this thread, I'm much more content now. I can continue playing my own role and prove that even with a very casual schedule, you can still make stuff happen.

[Dar]

Time to roll up a dwarf with a focus to abolish slashing weapons.

[Malken]

Funny how GDB threads effect my mood and desire to play. I am stuck on a 'very' casual schedule. Baring from occasional to non existant. But after reading the whole safe and cozy thread, I was all ... "fuck it, I'm going to cook up a dude who will turn the game upside down and make young mothers scare their children with his name".

Hopefully you're going with a magicker otherwise good luck getting any mundane class to the point where people will actually fear AND remember you, as a casual player. I think you're just trying to convince yourself that you can still matter some, as a casual player. That's okay, we've all been there

[Delirium]

who cares about mattering? Just tell a freakin' story and have some fun doing it.

[Malken]

who cares about mattering? Just tell a freakin' story and have some fun doing it.

What is the sound of one hand clapping, my young ritikki?

[Delirium]

Apples and oranges, and you know it.

[jstorrie]

I still think that making the city gates quit-safe-rooms would be a serious playability improvement. I've been very frustrated by the Allanak gates many times. Just last week I needed to leave in a hurry - but I ended up having to wait for nearly thirty minutes for the Allanak gates to open. That sucks. Hard. Why can't my PC just wait there virtually and go inside at dawn virtually?

[Nyr]

city-gate fortress
you broke my immersion, Holmes
I quit in your arms

[Lizzie]

city-gate fortress
you broke my immersion, Holmes
I quit in your arms

I have seen this, and it is beautiful.

Thanks staff for the imp-lament.

Thanks FantasyWriter for being the genius who invented the idea.