Cordon Checkpoints

[BOXCARS]

It always seemed odd to me that in such an oppressive environment citizens and travelers could come and go from the city states as they please. A simple, and not very thorough, bag check for drugs and poison and you're on your way in moments. No longer! Now workshopping a very inconvenient additions to a hellhole near you!

I consistently hear militia player characters have very little to actually do, meanwhile other characters sneak back and forth carrying corpses and other bizarre items. Who's that elf with a staccato accent and desert gear who always seems to be hanging around open pockets? What's that dwarf riding a beetle laden with bags to and from the south doing? Just WHERE exactly are you going and coming from? Worry no longer, all your questions will be answered (some of them might even be true!).

"But BOXCARS", you might say, "What if there's no militia players online at the time and I want to get in? What if militia have something better to do? What's with all the micromanagement, BOXCARS?". Well worry you not! The checkpoint might work as so..

An NPC asks you "What is your name?", "What is the purpose of your visit?", "How long will you be staying?", "Where did you come from?", "What is your trade?", and so on!
Allanak being the wonderful and illiterate place that it is, answers will be recorded in the border guard's memory and available for withdrawal upon request by a sufficiently ranked individual. Being loosely organized, there's no standard answer and no standard requirement. The wonders of corruption bloom when militia can find suspicion in travelers for the smallest of reasons, and given by the traveler's very own mouths! No longer will militia members struggle and bemoan the lack of activity for them outside of menial patrols and spitshining templar boots.

"But BOXCARS!", you might retort, "BOXCARS aren't you just turning wall entry into a text-based game of Papers, Please?"
Perhaps, dear questioner, you might view it as such. However, what is the sense of letting folk come and go as they please from the massive, well-guarded and severely violent fortifications of Allanak? What's the harm in answering a few questions and going on your merry way if no players take offense or initiative at your words? Surely we can handle a little inconvenience to give our favorite foes a new hammer to smack us with? 

LIMITATIONS: I don't know the server's ability to hold such information after crash, or how much work this would take to implement. With so much on the coder's plate lately I couldn't imagine they'd get around to this any time soon. Perhaps if this feature ever is ever added it will merely be annoyed as a worthless headache, perhaps. Maybe His Arm's reputation as masters of investigation, meted violence and intrigue is well justified. Maybe.

In any event its a nice thought exercise.
Now accepting all criticism, suggestions, kudos and outright insults.

[kahuna]

Gonna file this one under playability vs realism. You will drive what little criminal element is left in allanak out of the city and they will simply migrate to other areas of the game.

[WarriorPoet]

Playing a law-dog requires a happy medium. You might have the authority and resources to hassle every elf or stranger, but, as kahuna said, that is going to stifle your criminal element badly even without automating the process. You want someone to play off of.

Snatching up every rinthi or traveller you see is going to net you a handful of petty crap. Giving them the freedom and rope to hang themselves with, and you get to catch them with a pocket nuke AND Lady Borsail's panties.

[Miradus]

Yeah, it blows getting nabbed and executed before your newbie rat kebabs even spoil.

There's a bit that templars (maybe the sergeant?) can flip and it will permanently crimcode you, trapping you on rooftops or in the rinth for essentially the rest of your life. The half-giants will see you hidden and teleport to you if you set foot out of the rinth.

This would be about as much fun as having that bit set on every potential criminal.

[Cerelum]

I think it should be changed, I don't know if this is the change, but kudos for thinking outside the box.

Right now the system is essentially broken if you have taken certain steps I can't go into now.  So this would be a nice change.

[Kryos]

Playing a law-dog requires a happy medium. You might have the authority and resources to hassle every elf or stranger, but, as kahuna said, that is going to stifle your criminal element badly even without automating the process. You want someone to play off of.

Snatching up every rinthi or traveller you see is going to net you a handful of petty crap. Giving them the freedom and rope to hang themselves with, and you get to catch them with a pocket nuke AND Lady Borsail's panties.

This.

Additionally the sentiment of new character crushing so they can't ever become a fun antagonist is a bad one.

Finally, cordon points(of a bit of a different sort) were up in Tuluk for a bit and as you might guess, crushing interaction leads to a decline in participation.

[BOXCARS]

Ah so its happened before and it was bad.
That's good to know.

[Is Friday]

Something like this was used back in 2007 to "blockade" the rinth by AoD as a plot response. It was really just a way for AoD to harass whoever was coming/going as a way to annoy the Guild. People could certainly go another route and avoid the interaction, altogether. There was a lot of semi-interesting interaction, though, I guess. IDK. I was a noob.