Remaining Organizations

[Riev]

Actually, WITH the hunters being dismissed, and some more leniency in the MMH ideals... you kind of can.

As a single person, being known as the Mad Marble Mason? Might be hard to have the quantities in stock, but as the Mad Marble Miner? People would know to come to you with orders. Thirty blocks? You'll have it in a week.

Storage is an issue, because of course it is. That's sortof intended.

[Akaramu]

forage stones for ruby

This. You can forage for specific stones, and skill does factor in there, because specific things are harder to find.

[Miradus]

forage stones for ruby

This. You can forage for specific stones, and skill does factor in there, because specific things are harder to find.

It doesn't work the way you think. You don't have a better chance of finding a ruby. What it does is discard anything that ISN'T a ruby so you don't clutter up your inventory.

[Akaramu]

Oh, right. I actually used to know this.  Then I took a long break and now I'm a nub again.

[Synthesis]

I dunno.  It seems like your forage skill influences more than your success rate.  I've found things with rangers and <redacted> that I've never found with a warrior, even foraging in the same location.

And you don't have to be maxed out to get to mid-tier greb.  If you're sitting at advanced-master in combat/weapon skills, the question isn't "can I kill a raptor?" It's "How many raptors can I take on at once before they even start hitting me?"

[Miradus]

Oh, right. I actually used to know this.  Then I took a long break and now I'm a nub again.

It doesn't appear to be well known. I asked like 4 different helpers and got 4 different answers. Had to do some testing and pick what I thought might be the most likely theory based on what they said and what I saw.

Foraging is a lot of fun. It's kind of like an in-game lottery. But you can't particularly rely on it for fast or instant cash.

[RogueGunslinger]

I dunno.  It seems like your forage skill influences more than your success rate.  I've found things with rangers and <redacted> that I've never found with a warrior, even foraging in the same location.

And you don't have to be maxed out to get to mid-tier greb.  If you're sitting at advanced-master in combat/weapon skills, the question isn't "can I kill a raptor?" It's "How many raptors can I take on at once before they even start hitting me?"

This always felt fairly obvious to me. Becaus my high skill forager d had issues getting simple rocks instead of diamonds.

[Dresan]

This change is one of those types of changes I wish had happened years ago.

I always complained about Kadius/salarr being two sides same clan, offering roughly the same experience and that they should be merged. Now the routine hunter experience can be delegated indies and the cool rare hunter events can be given to the byn.

Would leave room in the clans to hire exceptional people to become guards/scouts/spies though, that way getting work with one of those clans become something cool again.

[Synthesis]

The lack of GMH hunters is kind of a bummer for GMH assassins and spies, because the way GMH assassins and spies have always got gud is by sparring with or hunting with their hunter (ranger or warrior) fellow employees.  Now it's like...well...you can go git gud first, then join Kadius, or you can resign yourself to being terrible at combat forever.

[Akaramu]

The lack of GMH hunters is kind of a bummer for GMH assassins and spies, because the way GMH assassins and spies have always got gud is by sparring with or hunting with their hunter (ranger or warrior) fellow employees.  Now it's like...well...you can go git gud first, then join Kadius, or you can resign yourself to being terrible at combat forever.

Or you can join the Byn, the combat school for nearly every other clan in the game. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be like that. The Byn should want people who actually want to be mercs. What's the point if they leave to join (insert clan here) as soon as they start being remotely useful?

[Akaramu]

Another related thought: I really, really wish the Tor Academy (or a comparable institution, an 'Atrium for combatants') were open to those who either pay or are sponsored in by a noble.

Hey guys! New MMH idea. An independent, pay-to-enter combat school where it's okay to leave whenever you want, or when you stop paying.

[Cind]

I think a 'gym' would be a good idea. You'd pay a fee based on your apparent race and gem or lack of to enter, and there'd be two spar-okay rooms, with a third room just to rp lifting weights in. A bench to sit on perhaps. A couple of soldiers in that room as well, you could only leave through that room, so anyone who killed someone would get a wanted flag, and by the laws of common sense 'waiting out your timer' in the spar-okay rooms would make as much sense as shooting someone from the Gaj cookroom and then going up the stairs to wait out your crimflag.

[boog]

I like the idea of a gym. Like, through the Tor Scorpions or the Borsail Wyverns. I think it'd be awesome!

[Miradus]

What's interesting is that there's absolutely NOTHING stopping anyone from doing this right now in game.

[Inks]

Miradus is correct on this. Get it going.

[Akaramu]

I can't, for multiple reasons. Someone else though? *puppy eyes*

[Seeker]

What's interesting is that there's absolutely NOTHING stopping anyone from doing this right now in game.

That may or may not be true.  In the past, the Byn has threatened to brutally murder anyone who offers independent weapons training.  I believed it was wrong-headed then, but it came from staff and may still be the official stance of the organization now.  YMMV.

[Reiloth]

I think what no one is stopped from doing is forming their own sort of 'higher end' combat school, akin to Sujaal's in Tuluk. I do think, IIRC, the Byn doesn't independently train people who aren't in the Byn. So it's sort of a catch 22, if you don't want to join the Byn to git gud, you have to hunt. Or find other people to spar with on the rooftops or something.

Having another option (especially considering Tuluk is closed and consolidation happened) besides the Byn for combat training (now that the GMH hunting branches are closed) would be nice. Sometimes you just aren't playing a PC that wants to shovel shit and be a runner in the T'zai Byn.

[Taven]

Traditionally, staff has been very cautious about creating places and situations where people could spar. For example, there used to be open sparring/training in Tuluk in the Partisan's Arena, where any citizen could come and train with another. However, it was closed down due to abuse. Later on, the new staff-approved version was the Tribal Levy, where you could get training in exchange for a promise to come fight if ever needed. This was run by specific PCs who had been accorded appropriate rank and could oversee things. Sparring was only opened to people participating when one of them was there to run it.

Most of the higher-class combat opportunities (A'Jinn Academy in Tuluk and Tor Academy in Allanak, respectively), are things that have been closed. It should be noted that both were intended to be less about sparring (so less of a gym) and more of about combat tactics and philosophy. I believe the Atrium was offering some "self-defense" lessons as well, although is also currently closed.

I guess the trick with any sort of MMH combat training facility is making sure it was run responsibly, had variation in schedule (not all sparring all the time), and of course trying to find a way to not step on people's toes. There's also the matter of the target audience. The Byn trains their own, the militia trains their own, and so on. I suppose there could be a market in it for the hunter groups, maybe, as a result of the void recently opened up by GMH outsourcing. There's also something to be said for cross-clan training opportunities (for example if the militia has only a couple people, it can be hard to get good training).

[Taven]

I think what no one is stopped from doing is forming their own sort of 'higher end' combat school, akin to Sujaal's in Tuluk. I do think, IIRC, the Byn doesn't independently train people who aren't in the Byn. So it's sort of a catch 22, if you don't want to join the Byn to git gud, you have to hunt. Or find other people to spar with on the rooftops or something.

A higher-end combat school could be in direct competition with the Tor Academy's virtual presence, or the Atrium's virtual presence (depending on how seriously they want to mark 'training aides for combat' as their own).

The general problem is that when something is closed, it not only shuts down the opportunities of participating in that direct group, it also continues to shut down similar opportunities, because virtually speaking, it's still there.

You might be able to make a mid-level combat training opportunity, though. But you'd still have to convince Tor/the Atrium that it wasn't high class enough to be a threat to them, and convince the Byn that it wasn't going to take away from their Runner pool. It would probably be doable with GMH support, connected with one of the hunter groups.

[boog]

The Atrium has never been and will never be about self defense or fighting.

Just, no.

[Reiloth]

Also, I think the problem with the Partisan's Arena is that pretty much anyone could use it. There wasn't some 'Partisan Clan' you had to codedly be a part of. So a lot of people participating weren't even Partisan's of anyone, they were just there to spar and git gud.

So I think having membership narrows the scope and field, especially if the criteria for that membership is specific enough to send people to other organizations if they don't fit in.

I think not having something like this around leads people to do silly things to improve their skills -- Hunting creatures when they aren't a hunter, for example. Or arbitrarily coming up with reasons to train with random people, just because they're another PC. Or, compromising your PC concept in order to join the Byn.

Also yeah, I don't think the Atrium should offer 'self defense' classes. I imagine that was a PC run thing by a Host, because it doesn't really fit in with the ethos of the clan? It's supposed to be a training ground for Aides in the same way the Byn is a training ground for Mercenaries/Combat Roles.

[Taven]

The Atrium has never been and will never be about self defense or fighting.

Just, no.

The Atrium is about training aides to serve. I have been told that a part of the course of the lessons they offer is in self-defense, either for your standard squishy aide, or because of a rising interest in "Combat Aides". However, I have also heard of would-be aides who trained in the Byn because the Atrium would not have the expanse of combat lessons that they needed.

I have no direct experience of this, I just have to go off of what I have heard.

[Reiloth]

Also, I agree that closing an entity (unless it's actually closing) still creates a vacuum, as there can't be direct competition with those entities.

So, rather than have the Tor Academy shut down 'to the public' and still be around, it might be cool if Tor literally shut it down, due to lack of funding or some other reason. Leaves the door open for it to re-open down the road, but takes it off the virtual stage as well.

[Jingo]

Unpopular opinion time.

What did the Atrium actually do? Not even trying to be snarky or condescending. What did the Atrium provide beyond an IC playpen for new pc's?

Same question for the Tor academy.