What You Liked About Tuluk

[Cind]

A memory that stands out to me is the levies. I -loved- being in the levies, I was a blonde human woman named Kaga who was an unmanifested rukkian, hated the south, and became a 'professional' grebber for House Dasari and was privy to an interesting secret plot there.

The way most people play, they either want to be cockroach-eating elves with skellebained knives or ultra-rich folk who eat cake, and staff makes things for them and not much for the poor, boring, uninteresting common folk I like to play, so getting the levies sounded pretty awesome and I immediately signed up. I did not regret it for a moment, even when manifesting led me to flee the city.

The way the levies were set up worked perfectly if you wanted to be a nobody commoner citizen who regularly played with dirt as a child, but weren't actually responsible for any deaths. I had and still have a touchy schedule that doesn't allow me to play at peaktime, and no one cared or looked for me because of it. I showed up to training, I took advantage of the one minor advantage the levies give you, which would have been nothing to someone with a real job but was the world to a nobody like me. My Dasari noble did not care that I had to run off twice a week, in fact he loved it. It was new and awesome, I loved it, go join the levies.

Tuluk was also the only place I liked playing an unmanifested witch in. It was, when you think about it, the only place they seem to try not to bother you OOCly about it in. I guess they don't like unfair tavern deaths any more than the next person. Its really fun, though, you're sort of sniggering behind your keyboard in a way that gets dampened when you're doing it in Allanak.

I loved the cotton fields. I'm a big knitter, and one of my first solid pcs as a newbie would spend much of her time picking cotton to either sell or make her own clothes with. I miss this part of the game, dunno if you can actually still get cotton bolls and equipment for spinning and weaving it. The cotton fields also served as a grebber balance; do you want to walk through the ruins to a mostly unoccupied area of the old city to make more money, or do you want to greb in the clay pit where its shadier and a bit cooler? I mostly used the clay pits back when that barely made enough for your food and water, so back then it was a real choice. I remember that cotton-weaving newbie would go to the pits, make enough for a cup of milk in the Firestorm every day, and sit in the Firestorm at night with no particular personality because I was pretty new to roleplaying.

Speaking of Dasari, I miss that too. I wasn't particularly useful because anyone who wasn't wearing heels could fill my position, but I was at least available around 12-3 on some days and could get in on some conversations and go search for this or that plant if needed. My noble made time to talk with me and it was refreshing to be a part of something bigger than myself for a change. I realize now that he probably logged in when he realized I was available during middays and I would kudos him except I don't remember anything about what he looks like.

[boog]

Everything.

I miss it so, so much.

[Strongheart]

Maybe you folks should go there, check things out.

[Miradus]

Maybe you folks should go there, check things out.

It's virtually not in existence. Gates closed. Isn't it?

[Delirium]

It's codedly not in existence. Virtually it's still there. A giant white elephant stomping around the room.

Gates closed.

[Refugee]

There was always something to do.  People got together and did things, almost every day.  I never spent hours sitting alone in a bar.  There was more of a feeling of unity, whereas in Nak every group seems more isolated and autonomous instead of part of something larger.  Between hunting and exploring the lands around Tuluk and socializing inside the city, I found a way to be immersed for many hours a day every day.

Maybe it just was because I was new and everything was shiny and exciting.

[boog]

There was always something to do.  People got together and did things, almost every day.  I never spent hours sitting alone in a bar.  There was more of a feeling of unity, whereas in Nak every group seems more isolated and autonomous instead of part of something larger.  Between hunting and exploring the lands around Tuluk and socializing inside the city, I found a way to be immersed for many hours a day every day.

Maybe it just was because I was new and everything was shiny and exciting.

It wasn't because you were new. You're right in your assessment!

[BadSkeelz]

It was The Other. You knew things were actually happening on the other side of the world, things that might actually impact you some day.

[Grogerif]

I liked it because it wasn't Allanak.  It was someplace to go and not have keep as much OOC knowledge secret.  I always rolled in Tuluk when my Allanak character died, and vice versa.  (With breaks for desert elves.)  Almost didn't come back to the game when I found out it was closed.

[tortall]

I really loved the culture there. Nak is very in your face and brutal. Tuluk was playacting like everything is happy and being EXTREMELY brutal on the sly. I was never good at the latter part, but I always enjoyed the former.

[Riev]

I played primarily in Tuluk, but there was a lot that it struggled with. But this is a positive thread.

I liked that the "quarters" of the city were very clearly defined and mostly autonomous. Save a little exploration, you could live most of your natural life in the Warrens without ever needing to explore the Noble area, or even Freil's Rest.

I liked that they were "at war" with Allanak, but had refugees playing in drum circles. They made the appearance that they were all-inclusive, but really they just kept the "good people" and cut out the rot.

I liked when there was UnderTuluk, so there was a place to not play a "thief", but a place to play someone who didn't buy into all the happy-on-the-outside crap that was spewed above ground. It unfortunately turned into a haven for magickers but it had potential.

Again, because it bears repeating: Defined quarters. The ability to know, clearly, you are in the Poet's Circle. In Allanak, I feel like everything is "the bazaar, the commoner's quarter, the noble's quarter, the 'rinth". And that's it. The bazaar and commoner's quarter feel like the same "place" in the city. Tuluk made you feel that you had just walked down a long road and came upon a "new" village in the city.

Tunnels.

[Malken]

Tuluk after midnight, featuring boog.

[Molten Heart]

.

[Tiktak]

Bards and the Bardic Circle, the Artists and their Licenses, the culture, the Sunking spice being legal to commoners, communal cooking area, Arena bar, the Teahouse, more varied noble Houses with broader representation, and more. I could ramble for hours. I miss it.

[Cind]

I loved how bards could hold status in a way that wasn't really available to other people. Perhaps the closest thing to them would be a House mastercrafter. It was like membership in a medieval guild.

In medieval Europe, a man who wanted to be a member of a knitting guild would train as a current member's apprentice for six years (I mean, come on, back then they lived to about twenty so that's a bit steep) and when he was ready to join he had six months to start and finish certain items, like a tapestry and a pair of socks (the item number was around five I think) and they had to show their best work. If it was deemed suitable, they would join as a full member. Women couldn't join but if a member died and his wife needed income she was allowed to try to get in. The Rusalka circle reminded me of the fact that apart from that particular situation, women were only allowed to join rosary-making guilds. Its a complex industry of skilled labor that affects a lot of local people.

The Bardic Circle had requirements like the medieval guilds that might reasonably take as much time and certainly took skill to join and it was unique in the world for this. In a game where the empty spaces in a culture are necessary for creativity, it was kind of cool to see a master bard walk by and know they worked really hard to get to where they were, in a way that doesn't dampen the game's potential for creativity. I'm not sure how relevant this is to the discussion but I didn't want to delete it.

[deskoft]

Yeah for me Tuluk was a really good way to still play city politics without having to play with the same characters; I actually loved that a lot, among many things in the culture.

[Yam]

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[AdamBlue]

It was a place to explore when you tired of the Allanaki politics on any character. It was also 'wealthy', considering it was perched right by the Grey and had access to many different types of things. Clan headquarters were bigger and better, even, and it was always a different conversation dealing with Northern Templars compared to Southern Templars. It was a large, amazing bastion for culture that let you know that you really were part of a bigger world even if you were outside Allanak besides the tiny outposts where people got bored quickly and moved on.
I'll give you a quick example; The Byn.
When you were a Bynner, back when there was still a Northern compound, you really felt like you were always 'close to home'.  Either you were close to the northern home or the southern home, but you could reasonably stay in the North for a while and hang out. The place was nicer, even the food, something as simple as the fact that you could get bread from the northern barracks while in the south there was always a shortage, was a nice touch. And with the economy being different than it was in Allanak, there was ALWAYS money to be made. Nowadays, Morins is nothing in comparison, and nobody cares about it much, and it lacks any kind of meaningful history or interesting character archtypes, just 'lol loggers and soldiers'.

Tuluk being gone is like downsizing a company because you're not making enough money. At first, it works because you don't need to pay as many people as much money, but then after a while you realize that you're not doing as much as you could if you had more people. And then everything is just worse as a result. Sure, it'll stay afloat, but it will never be as good as it was.

[boog]

Tuluk after midnight, featuring boog.

Sometimes, a person is only as good as their counterpart, and I felt like Tuluk definitely had the best of the crop when it came to said counterparts.

[The Lonely Hunter]

I liked that it was a neat little hunting outpost. I liked the 'feeling' of having the rebels right there always trying to sabotage something or 'free' the oppressed Tuluk. I liked that there was an occasional noble or Templar stationed up there but only having one or two made them feel isolated from their powerbase.

I liked Tuluk before it was...revamped.

[Cind]

People seemed to have really enjoyed the Rebellion Tuluk, I noticed. Maybe we need to do something like that again. If you re-open Tuluk right now without changing anything, I think you could do something effectively similar.

Elves up there felt like they had more clout because the Akai had regular contracts with the city that involved work they could do in broad daylight. They had that protected-skilled-artisan thing going on. Whenever I played an elf there the Akai would approach me with offers of work. I kind of liked that. You could both play an elf and have a safe, protected job. I never accepted their offers, but I think I would if I got a chance to play there again.

[spacewars]

As most have said Tuluk had a lot of culture to it. And as others have said it gave an appearance of Happy all the time, but what most that did not take the time to play there. Tuluk had a dark side to it behind the scene of the public eyes. Things happened in the shadows..... I miss Tuluk

[Veselka]

I think Tuluk would be great if it were just less complicated.

Less documentation, more precise documentation.

Fewer Noble Houses with fewer niches. More Nobles in those fewer Noble Houses.

One Templar Order, with both men and women, squabbling and in-fighting just the same as Blue Robes, but with a different flavor or bent (Psionics compared to Magick).

Fiefdoms for the Merchant Houses to fight over.

Commoners as pawns.

[Miradus]

I never played in Tuluk. They closed the gates shortly before I started playing.

We want another city? I'm okay with that.

It's the newly discovered, Aztec-styled city on the far side of the Silt Sea. You need a skimmer to get there and risk all the hazards, but it's filled with wealth and riches and intrigue.

There's no purpose to the Silt Sea right now except as a theme. I want a full maritime culture in the game on silt skimmers. Pirates, seamen, the works! Put whomever did those starter shops in Luir's on the project because their starter shops are above and beyond what could be expected from a newbie equipment store. They're ready for their own freakin' kingdom.

Yesterday I typed who and I saw like 50+ people playing. But they weren't in Morin's, they weren't in Luir's, and they weren't rolling around on the roads north of the Red Desert. Where the heck are they? Dunno. Crowded into the Gaj maybe watching half-elves puke on the floor.

[Malken]

If Tuluk didn't lack in something, it's certainly seaman hehehehehehehhehehehehehehhehehehehehehhehehehehehehhehehehehehehhehehehehehehhehehehehehehhehehehehe