I miss Blackmoon

[Anonymous]

That's really all I have to say.  I played with them and I got hunted by them.

Sure they had great players and some lame players, but in the end I think this game misses their influence, even if it was far greater than their actual numbers (PC, NPC and VNPC combined) would have warranted.

Its not even really Blackmoon so much as it is an organized group of overt agressors.  With changes to Desert Elf stamina any joe on a kank can outdistance desert elves and beyond that with staff continuing to impress on Delf players that Delfs are not wandering, homeless nomads, you pretty much know where you can and can't go.

Blackmoon, however, could be anywhere.  North, south, in between.  And it wasn't so much getting chased by Blackmoon or even running into them.  It was the fear that you *might* run into them.

I realize that there are varying degrees of conflict to be found in this game, but for the last year or so, ever since the rise of Tuluk, conflict has seemed to have been relegated to two types, when you are talking about hot PC on PC action:

1. Subtle, quiet, behind the scenes stuff involving only a few parties.
2. A couple of badguys without any resources or a hideout get hunted by the entire known world.

For the most part there has been, from what I am aware of, ALMOST ZERO operations undertaken by the south in retaliation against the north or vice versa.

Now the only fear you really have when riding the roads is grouped up semi-intelligent NPCs.  And I'd rather get hogtied and done in by PCs than skewered by 5 spear-chucking gith anyday.  Maybe I'm alone on this.[/b]

[Stroker]

I would have to agree with you completely CRW, although the Blackmoon raiders were already gone when I started to play, I always wanted to play one ..... futile efforts. It -is- true of what you say about the conflicts and so on and so forth. Hmm .... as well I would like to see some more aggression between the North and the South, war-like aggression would be interesting. Then again, we can't have wars all the time, so maybe this is just a time when everyone relaxes .... it is well known that there is a calm before a storm .....

[Dan]

I always wondered why the warring just suddenly stopped. Wouldn't there be battles, terratory being lost and gained? Or is this happening now, only virtually?

[Stroker]

From what I understand, there is no warring going on between the north and south as of right now, because if there were .... I doubt northerners would be able to travel to the south, and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Its pretty hard to believe there is warring between the north and the south when you have southern mercenary outfits setting up shop in the northlands.  If there was any hostility you would think the north would close its doors to southerners for fears of magick like the time before that.

Its like the two have entered into an uneasy truce.  Maybe because neither has the resources to go to the other one's front yard.  Regardless as a source for PC vs. PC conflict it seems to have dried up.

I'd love to see bands of milita from the south making raids further and further north as they push the invisible border between the two further and further north and vice versa.

But in order for that to happen you'd have to think that some of the dangers on the north road would have to be beaten back into submission first, as there's no reason riding south to pick on Allanaki when you lose one or two of your number to gith or, at the very least, lose their mounts.

[JollyGreenGiant]

Without getting too specific with any information, it seems to me like some of the behind-the-scenes type undercurrents of conflict could, at any given moment, break out into full-scale conflicts, with the right impetus.

[Rindan]

I wouldn't mind seeing a little more conflict myself.  I don't doubt that the potential is there, it is just that nothing is really sparking it out into the open.  Without spouting anything no one doesn't already know, there are three very hot factions in the world, Allanak in the south, Tuluk in the north, and Kurac in middle of everything.  All of them have an eye on some prize.

I suppose I would like to see more spying and sabotage going on.  I don't doubt for a moment that spies don't exist, hell I played one a while back.  The things is that level of tension is just seems too low.  Accents might play a small part in it.  It is hard to have a northern spy in Allanak these days simply because your accent gives you away and keeps you from high level jobs in Allanak.  That said, there is still a lot of potential.  Both north and south have unrest that could create potential spies.  In the South you have the 'rinth and a generally oppressed population that is just waiting for someone to promise them better.  Northern rule might not seem like a bad idea to some destitute commoners in Allanak given the right influences.  The North on the other hand has an entire population that should outright love Allanak, namely magikers.  A gem might not seem like the best of fates, but it beats being hunted and killed.  In the middle you have Kurac and Kurac is... well, Kurac kicks ass.  North, south, east, west, a Kuraci could be anyone - anywhere.  Kurac rules.  'nuff said.

Perhaps part of the problem is that from I sit, it seems like a very large portion of the player base are people who are not grunts.  Grunts are really important in any conflict.  You need someone to carry out the sabotage, assassinations, and general mayhem.  It does no good to have a dozen lords and assistants if you can't build a team to sneak into Tuluk, blow something up, and create a few bodies.  If you just look at the sort of taverns that are crowded these days, it really seems like the grunt population of the game has dropped down to almost nil.  Worse still, all the grunts seem to be concentrated in the Byn.  The Byn is great and all, but they are not who you call when you want to launch a subtle sabotage operation.

I kind of wish I had some time and a decent battle wagon of death character.  It would be interesting to try and develop a group whose singular purpose is to launch highly risky sabotage missions inside enemy territory.  If you were a southerner you could even sprinkle a little magik into that instrument of mayhem and death.

It isn't so much that things are not happening down low, it is just that no one has given the common people a reason to care.  Northerners and Southererns are not given much more then a second look outside of their cities.  Tuluki people are not held in the grip of terror that an Allanak magiker might show up and rain down death.  Southerners don't have any great dear that a Northern raiding party might burn the fields or jump a noble as he carelessly makes his way through the commons.  

The tension just isn't there like it was after the war.  I really miss it.  I recall I had a southerner who used to spend a lot of time in the North.  He was in the North right before and right after the war.  It was a true pleasure.  While I was there I dodge more then one poisoned arrow from a pissed of northerner who still fancied the rebellion as being on, and I was almost put to death twice from by trigger happy militiamen.  Then tension was high and I found it most pleasant.  Recently I took a northern character up north no one gave him more then a second glance.

[Impska]

I also miss Blackmoon, for the same reasons as CRW. I could give or take warring, though the rebellion also had its charm.

[homes214]

:twisted:
Blackmoon was the last clan I was in.
We were some scary folks.

I still get misty eyed at the glass eye charms.

[witchman]

Start the next raidng clan then, please!   What's stopping you. :-)

[Socko]

They can come and go. If you look hard enough, you might find something akin to being raiders. They're just out there- but not conspicuously.

[Anonymous]

Start the next raidng clan then, please!   What's stopping you. :-)

Heh, didn't say I wasn't, but doing that sort of thing takes time.