Autotrain NPCs for skills and off/def

[MeTekillot]

NPCs that will train your skills, separate from the 'teach' command. Clans should have teachers that will bring you up to a certain point based on your rank. Indies should be able to utilize the teachers, with tiers based on how much they pay based on each session.

My motivation behind this idea is I miss being able to play 14 hrs a day 7 days a week, and now I actually have to dip into my real life obligations and hobbies to keep competitive with people who prioritize Arm more than I do, or simply have more time than I do. I have a feeling that I now represent a significant majority of the playerbase.

I'd still support the higher ends of skill gains (for indies) still be locked behind going out and training them. INDIE PLAYER CHARACTERS UP AGAINST THE WALL

I support clanned persons having the higher end of skill levels (including offense and defense, not just 'skills') having whatever heights available to them, with the levels based on their clanned rank.

IE: A Trooper in the Byn shouldn't get more than master parry and journeyman in most combat skills, along with advanced ride. They should get appreciable but not astounding increases to offense and defense. A Captain in the Oashi Elite (or whatever their ranks are) should flatten you.

Salarri and Kadian crafters should be able to receive training in house-relevant crafting disciplines. Aides could get psionics and stealth training. Etc.

If you want to train beyond the limits of these NPCs, you are still freely able to.

If you throw down with a Captain in the AoD who chose the Fighter class, you should have a really bad time, even if he can only afford a 10 hours versus your 60 hours a real-life week.

This would help even the expectations of high ranks in clans being competent. It would keep the ranks of competence under the high ranks relatively uniform, so that your Trooper who just had a baby IRL stays relatively competent in comparison with your Trooper who has autism and an experimental surgery to let him play Armageddon in his sleep via a brain implant.

It would work like the pay NPCs, in my idea of the implementation. Ask teacher training.

Code Select Expand


Furrowing his brow, the fucking shredded, bald-headed teacher says, in badass-accented sirihish:
     "You have not taken the time to meditate on my lessons. Come back in 125 (or whatever number) days."


[MeTekillot]

This would also give more automated power to the higher ranks in clans, where staff don't have the time to animate the world around them bending to their whims due to the glass ceiling. It would increase interest in clans beyond the food/water/spar benefits and make clanned PCs that much more superior to indie PCs. The rich get richer. The weak should fear the strong.

[Dar]

I'd be up for that, but it needs to be somehow clearly balanced.

Captaincy is irrelevant because it's an NPC role.

There needs to be a way to excel "beyond" the clan level training for indies at the price of extreme risk.

The training done by the auto trainers must be significantly slower then the average pace an indie can progress at. A price for "safe" training is "slow" training.

[Lizzie]

Are sparring dummies no longer a thing? They're not useful for defense, but I thought they were useful for some measure of offense and weapons training?

[Hauwke]

Honestly, Indies shouldn't even get given the option for this auto training. Most Indy characters that fight already have skills far and above what I would personally consider the point to which the auto training would bring them up to.

Clanned characters, Soldiers, Bynners, they should be the ones that are exceptional at fighting, not some random who likes to fight jozhal and hawks because it gives a few misses.

Sparring dummies can be used to train a very select few skills, but are almost useless for offense.

[MeTekillot]

There needs to be a way to excel "beyond" the clan level training for indies at the price of extreme risk.

There is. They can do it already.

The training done by the auto trainers must be significantly slower then the average pace an indie can progress at. A price for "safe" training is "slow" training.

It's literally just for people who can't log in for sparring/grinding like everyone else can. There's almost no risk with sparring.

[JohnMichaelHenry]

I'm not sure I see the need for this. I mean, it sucks of you don't have the time to play, but, if you aren't playing all that often, why do you need to be at the same level as people that can? Also, aren't you indirectly punishing folks that do play a lot? I mean, I put twenty days of playtime into this character to be a badass, but you only had to put five, cuz you don't play much.

[MeTekillot]

Also, aren't you indirectly punishing folks that do play a lot?

No.

Also, aren't you indirectly punishing folks that do play a lot? I mean, I put twenty days of playtime into this character to be a badass, but you only had to put five, cuz you don't play much.

There would still be time limits in the same vein as the paymaster system. For indie characters to utilize it (if they even GET to utilize it(INDIE PCS UP AGAINST THE WALL)), they would need to accrue coins in some manner. Otherwise, it would be one of those benefits of being in a clan and attending regular training in your virtual time.

You still get the benefit of all the material wealth and social connections you can accrue in 15 straight days, which is to say, 360 hours of playing. As well as the skill twinking you can do in this time. This system would be capped on clan rank.

[JohnMichaelHenry]

What do you mean when you keep saying INDIE CHARS UP AGAINST THE WALL?

Plus, you didn't answer the first question. Why do you need to be at the same skill level as someone who plays a lot? If you can't play a lot, can't you just explain it by saying you were off doing other stuff and you fell behind in your training? Why not? How does it actually hurt?

I'm not trying to be snarky, Met. I've attempted indie chars before and maybe I just suck at it but it can be really hard. You have to pay taxes, rent, food, water. Don't clanned players get enough benefits as it is?

[Barsook]

I'm not trying to be snarky, Met. I've attempted indie chars before and maybe I just suck at it but it can be really hard. You have to pay taxes, rent, food, water. Don't clanned players get enough benefits as it is?

That's what I'm thinking too. It's going to make the indie chars on easy mode.

[MeTekillot]

What do you mean when you keep saying INDIE CHARS UP AGAINST THE WALL?

Facetious denigration of indie characters meant to accentuate my support of clanned characters being superior in nearly all aspects when it comes to in-character power struggle, save for personal freedom in what they (indie characters) can do versus clan characters.

Plus, you didn't answer the first question. Why do you need to be at the same skill level as someone who plays a lot? If you can't play a lot, can't you just explain it by saying you were off doing other stuff and you fell behind in your training? Why not? How does it actually hurt?

If you are in a clan, you are virtually holding to the schedule. If you're soaking up a clan slot, you should be a useful asset in that clan slot even if you don't always have the time to log in and spar or train or grind with all your other clannies. Low playtime characters shouldn't suffer. You say clanned characters get tons of benefits and don't need more. High playtime characters get many more benefits, significant among them vastly superior coded competence. They could stand that have that advantage dulled a bit.

My idea won't completely even the playing field for people who go out of their way to train their character with their more available playtimes.

I've stated repeatedly that this system would cap the trained characters' skill levels (improvement from the NPC, not total skill level) based on clan rank.

EDIT: It's not a punishment for other players to be able to compete with you even if they don't play the game as much as you.

[Mercy]

There are reasons I don't like this idea. However, I think it bears merit. As someone who has had a revolving schedule over the past couple of years. It is possible to have a good amount of playtime, and low interaction with clan mates. So you can end up with deceptively high hours played for where your skill level is. Obviously there are a number of factors that play into this. But I feel like for this system to work, there has to be something in place to ensure it doesn't stack with normal skill increases. Otherwise what stops high-playtime PCs from getting to the clan-rank cap faster by supplementing play with coded lessons.

[MeTekillot]

sounds fine

[Heade]

I'm not a big fan of the idea.

First, I don't see any reason why people who dedicate high amounts of time to the game shouldn't be able to skill up more than those who don't. Second, I don't like that the idea is being floated primarily for clanned PCs, to further widen the gap that already exists between clanned and unclanned. I don't think we need more reasons to be in a clan. There are plenty already. Indies should be represented in the game, too.

[Dar]

I personally like the idea.

As for reasoning for this. I'll be honest, my gameplay time is extremely limited. Limited to a point where there are a lot of roles that I would like to play, but I'm not going to. Sometimes it's because the responsibility is high and I do not want it with my low playtimes. But sometimes, it's because a lot of training is required to be portrayed accurately and ... I simply do not have time for it. I can imagine myself spamming spells. Where I'm in the temple, or alone, not really interacting and at work IRL. But active participation? I would just log off. 


As playerbase grows older and gains more irl responsibilities, you are faced with situations when a player will chose to simply not play, then to play in such an abhorrent schedule that they're fated to a non-skilled character. Or, they sacrifice actual gameplay and roleplay to go somewhere to train for what little available time they've got.

Now. That shouldnt be 'encouraged'. But mechanisms that could basically give a player a reason to 'login' instead of ... never logging on, is probably a good idea for the overral game. These mechanisms should never trump the hard working players who have the time to sink. They deserve the higher stats. But mayhaps closing the gap somewhat is a good idea.

What form these mechanisms should take, I do not know. Perhaps these auto trainers, or whatever else. But in my opinion, mechanisms like these would help the game a lot.

[Dar]

Perhaps create those auto trainers and have them accept "unique" currency. Kind of like the AoD/Legionnaire's chits. Then allow the nobility and high ranking officers grant those chits as rewards. Also allow house members to receive one such chit along with the usual payment.

The people with money can buy these chits off people. Or be rewarded by nobility and GMH.



Needless to say, the lessons from these trainers need to be appropriately expensive. Let's say 9 chits for 1 point of skill from journeyman to advanced.

Though I'd leave the actual economic balance up to the staff.

In-house trainers might be cheaper then out of house ones. Those are minor details.

[Heade]

Needless to say, the lessons from these trainers need to be appropriately expensive. Let's say 9 chits for 1 point of skill from journeyman to advanced.

Journeyman to advanced isn't 1 point of skill. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.

In either case, if this were implemented, I'd like to see an NPC that indies could buy said chits from, and a clear communication to EVERYONE outside of the confines of the game letting them know how it worked and where the NPCs might be found.

I do understand the desire to skip the grind. Honestly, I vastly prefer RP to grinding, and would enjoy if there were some way to RP more, grind less, yet still be appropriately skilled to represent what my PC is doing when I'm not online. But that shouldn't be exclusive to clanned PCs.

Also, it should be pointed out that if this is implemented and is easier than grinding, almost everyone will use it, and so almost everyone will quickly end up at whatever the trainer cap is. This will make the random stats rolled at character generation even more important than they are now.

[Mercy]

Needless to say, the lessons from these trainers need to be appropriately expensive. Let's say 9 chits for 1 point of skill from journeyman to advanced.

Journeyman to advanced isn't 1 point of skill. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.

I think they mean one point of 'progress' from journeyman towards advanced. Not to bump you directly from journeyman to advanced.

If I understand the goal of this, it's to make it easier for clanned PCs with clearly defined caps based on rank, while also having a more difficult (read: costs coin) option for indies so they have similar but not exactly equivalent access. Since there are no 'ranks' for indies, maybe some sort of token could be bought from an npc (to avoid PC favoritism with the system, and also prevent off-peakers from getting gated) to donate a certain level of patronage that allows further trainer caps to be reached. Although if you're a low playtime indie I don't know how much this system really helps. I don't know how they fare with coin typically.

[Brokkr]

While I understand the proposed solution, I am more murky on what the symptom and ultimately cause that drives the solution.

I'd like to, because nuance is important. 

Low playtime folks not making it to some "decent" level of skills?  We tried to address this with the class revamp, what is lacking there?
Low playtime folks wanting a way to move beyond combat "plateau" skill levels?  How is this different from non-low playtime folks wanting to do the same?
Sponsored leaders coming in with low skill levels?  Sponsored leaders are already typically set to skills levels we deem sufficient.
Leaders coming up through the ranks with low skill levels? I mean, maybe they are really good at schmoozing?

Can you narrow it to what the root cause/symptom seems to be?  Can't address whether a solution is the right one without knowing the drivers.

[MeTekillot]

It's in the first post, Brokkr.

[Riev]

I felt, in short:

If you join the Byn, and make it to Trooper, there's a certain "level" of training expected. Some sort of bare minimum.
This bare minimum is probably not the same minimum that an AoD Private would have.
Which is probably not what an Oashi Elite would have.

So for those people who are in clans that provide some sort of specialized training (mostly combat, but I'd like to see it expand to other things), there can be a feeling of making it to Byn Trooper, even if most of your playtime didn't involve other PCs.

[kahuna]

I don't see any issue with the way things currently are. If you don't have a ton of time to play too bad. You want higher skills? Use the skill bumps (which I personally feel needs a revamp but regardless). Sponsored roles begin play with much higher skill levels.

The grind is a part of the game, without it you will cheapen the hard work a lot of players put into their characters. Also this would be yet another huge addition to clans that really isn't needed. Clans are already power houses, they usually get a lot of PCs to play with, plenty of perks, plenty of training. If this ever did go in the game it shouldn't be restricted to clans, there should be public 'trainers' for all PCs to use.

[Heade]

If this ever did go in the game it shouldn't be restricted to clans, there should be public 'trainers' for all PCs to use.

I agree with this part, at least. Clans already have lots more opportunities to train without a significant risk of dying. That isn't true for indies, who have a hard time finding both safe places to train and people to train with.

[Brokkr]

It's in the first post, Brokkr.

I see the proposed solution.  I see your motivation.  I see how things "should" be.  I see how RL is impacting your play.

I don't see what I requested, which would require uplevel from there to a problem statement of the cause is.

[MeTekillot]

My motivation behind this idea is I miss being able to play 14 hrs a day 7 days a week, and now I actually have to dip into my real life obligations and hobbies to keep competitive with people who prioritize Arm more than I do, or simply have more time than I do.

I want people who don't have the time to play as much to be able to codedly compete with people who have all the time in the world to play. People with higher playtimes still maintain an advantage in every other avenue of play.

[Hauwke]

If this ever did go in the game it shouldn't be restricted to clans, there should be public 'trainers' for all PCs to use.

I agree with this part, at least. Clans already have lots more opportunities to train without a significant risk of dying. That isn't true for indies, who have a hard time finding both safe places to train and people to train with.

Indies should have it hard. People seem to forget that just because one person can build up a huge, stupid amount of money spamming Kryl or something that that is how it should work for the rest if the Indie world. Nope, Indies in the rest of the world are miners and dung scrapers and such.

[JohnMichaelHenry]

I'm taking this back cuz my emotions bled through.

[Dar]

If you can't play much, well that sucks, but you shouldn't be on the same level as those that can. Things are okay like they are IMO. Let's all agree there really is a problem before we start working on a solution?

Even if it it could make a player choose not to play? I'm playing right now, but plenty of times I chose not to. And a prospect of grinding was one of the factors that affected that decision.

I can safely say that the new and improved guild starting skills have encouraged me to play by tremendous amounts.



What about those awesome sergeants who start to schmooze from the word GO. Finding new contracts, recruiting new members, creating spy networks, creating support networks. Motivating and invigorating a shitton of content that makes it super fun for his members. Doing everything 'except' the most important thing - grinding skills.  Only to get insta OHKd by a tregil when he goes on a contract and people fail on their guard. 

[RogueGunslinger]

The gap between people who play a lot and people who play a little isn't really an issue you can fix without causing more problems. That can't really change, imo.

My main issue is when someone does find the time to train, and there's no one around, or no one at the right level for them around.

I love the idea of specific NPC's that come on a set schedule, and allow ranked people in clans to train or be taught their skills up to a certain level. That level being determined by their rank/or the clans status. So you don't end up with a Sergeant in the Byn who is outpaced by a local hunter/grebber following a similar schedule.

Maybe bring back Tor, with the highest level NPC instructors that offer skill training beyond simple sparring partners.

[Lizzie]

If you can't play much, well that sucks, but you shouldn't be on the same level as those that can. Things are okay like they are IMO. Let's all agree there really is a problem before we start working on a solution?

Even if it it could make a player choose not to play? I'm playing right now, but plenty of times I chose not to. And a prospect of grinding was one of the factors that affected that decision.

I can safely say that the new and improved guild starting skills have encouraged me to play by tremendous amounts.



What about those awesome sergeants who start to schmooze from the word GO. Finding new contracts, recruiting new members, creating spy networks, creating support networks. Motivating and invigorating a shitton of content that makes it super fun for his members. Doing everything 'except' the most important thing - grinding skills.  Only to get insta OHKd by a tregil when he goes on a contract and people fail on their guard.

I posit that grinding skills is not only "not" the most important thing, but all those OTHER things you mentioned ARE the most important thing. This isn't a hack-n-slash game. It contains H&S elements for sure, and the skill grind is important. But it's the interaction, the IC connections your character makes, that matter more than the coded skills.

[kahuna]

If you're going to implement something like "trainers" in the game it will become MORE hack n slash. What's more hack and slash then going up to an NPC and typing train parry? The whole point of Arm's system is realism. You learn by doing, not by using NPCs to 'teach' you how to parry better. I would be more in favor of reminding powerful PCs that they can quite simply use the "teach" command.

Where does it end if you put something like this in the game? I don't have enough time to play so let's put crafting trainers in the game. What about trainers for magickers? Can we put those in as well? If it goes in for one it has to go in for all.

[Heade]

If this ever did go in the game it shouldn't be restricted to clans, there should be public 'trainers' for all PCs to use.

I agree with this part, at least. Clans already have lots more opportunities to train without a significant risk of dying. That isn't true for indies, who have a hard time finding both safe places to train and people to train with.

Indies should have it hard. People seem to forget that just because one person can build up a huge, stupid amount of money spamming Kryl or something that that is how it should work for the rest if the Indie world. Nope, Indies in the rest of the world are miners and dung scrapers and such.

Indies already DO have it hard in a ton of ways. There is no reason to add another coded way to make it more difficult on them. The decision to make this specific thing not available to indies wouldn't be motivated by realism or a desire to abide by the documentation of the game, but only by the "anti-indie" OOC bias that exists in some members of this community and has no intellectual foundation.

[Hauwke]

Indies are meant to be hard up, they are meant to struggle.

They are not meant to be both better at combat than a Bynner and richer than a Borsail noble. No way, no how.

And yet, we have situations where every second indie goes and spends 6 RL weeks logging or something until they have a billion coins and better gear then every clanned person.

[Heade]

Indies are meant to be hard up, they are meant to struggle.

They are not meant to be both better at combat than a Bynner and richer than a Borsail noble. No way, no how.

And yet, we have situations where every second indie goes and spends 6 RL weeks logging or something until they have a billion coins and better gear then every clanned person.

So you're mad at indies that grind. Grinding isn't easy or fun, but any PC, clanned or indie, can grind a bunch. That doesn't change the fact that there are plenty of things that already make it hard on indie players in this game. The fact that some people generally don't like indies and actively want to discourage people from playing them doesn't mean that we need to give even more coded advantages to clans. They already have plenty.

[Hauwke]

Indies are meant to be hard up, they are meant to struggle.

They are not meant to be both better at combat than a Bynner and richer than a Borsail noble. No way, no how.

And yet, we have situations where every second indie goes and spends 6 RL weeks logging or something until they have a billion coins and better gear then every clanned person.

So you're mad at indies that grind. Grinding isn't easy or fun, but any PC, clanned or indie, can grind a bunch. That doesn't change the fact that there are plenty of things that already make it hard on indie players in this game. The fact that some people generally don't like indies and actively want to discourage people from playing them doesn't mean that we need to give even more coded advantages to clans. They already have plenty.

My problem isn't with them grinding. It's actually with the fact that they often surpass those in clans when they really, really shouldn't be on an everyday basis.

[JohnMichaelHenry]

I don't believe that's true. I have seen some successful indies IG. But they are the exception, not the rule. I feel like I've always had it much easier as a clan member than any indie. Especially now after the code and class changes. It's much harder to do things on your own, and its much harder to sell all your goods. And that was intentional, if I understand things correctly.

I don't accept your premise that indies have more coins than a Borsail (even though you were probably exaggerating) And I do think that an independent would and should be more badass than a bynner, which they would have to be successful in order to do.

[Riev]

The indie/clan discussion, while beaten like a dead horse, is its own conversation.

[Heade]

The indie/clan discussion, while beaten like a dead horse, is its own conversation.

Not when it's being used to justify whether or not to make a mechanic available to all people, or only to clans. It becomes a part of this conversation. I fail to see why people who play in clans should be allowed to forego grinding in favor of RP with limited time to play, while others shouldn't be able to do the same. This entire issue is being discussed as an option to aid an aging playerbase who has more real life things going on and less time available to grind. That particular issue isn't unique to players who only play in clans. So, if that is the true issue we're trying to solve, it should be an option available to everyone.

Honestly, I don't think the mechanic should be introduced at all. Not doing so keeps us all on relatively equal footing, except those of us with no real life obligations who can dedicate tons of playtime to the game. Those people get an advantage, but those people are also able to offer more to the game by being a more constant presence in the game world. I don't think the rest of the playerbase necessarily needs to be able to compete with those people(in lock-step, anyhow. Skill caps allow for competition over a long enough timeline). But, if anyone needs to be able to do so, then I think everyone needs to, because personal obligations and adulthood aren't unique to clan players.

[Riev]

It hasn't ben determined if the base idea of training NPCs is even justified, regardless of it being 'for clans or indies'.

I don't think you're wrong in what you're arguing, it just is its own separate discussion unless staff say that there IS merit in adding an NPC trainer.

[Heade]

I don't think you're wrong in what you're arguing, it just is its own separate discussion unless staff say that there IS merit in adding an NPC trainer.

Yeah, I understand what you're saying. I just disagree, and think that the number of people effected, and what the likely overall outcome would be contributes to the decision on whether or not there is merit to the idea at all.

[number13]

Right now the curve for time spent vs power gained is more or less linear. There are some combat skills that cap out sooner, like parry and backstab, and there's there's difficulty in finding appropriate challenges to raise up the weapon skills and innate offense/defense scores, so it's not quite linear.

But it's close enough to being a linear one to one relationship that players with high time investment will easily out gain players with low time investment.

I think the solution is front load more gains at low levels of time investment, and then drastically slow advancement past that point. And the closer you get to the cap, the slower your advancement becomes...like Zeno's Paradox, it should be practically impossible to completely cap a weapon skill or the hidden offense/defense skills. But it should be very, very easy to achieve a high level proficiency with these skills at, say, five days played.

https://itotd.com/files/2018/05/Zeno_Dichotomy_Paradox-696x331.png  Pretend the denominator in those fractions is days played, and the end point is Mastery level in weapon skill.

Five days is already an extraordinary investment to make in a game, when you think about it.

.....

A second problem mentioned in this thread is players with high time investment on indie characters easily getting more money and thus soft power than nobles.
The solution there, I think, is that the bank should have a hard cap on the number of coins it is willing to take from a PC. Like, five to ten large. If you need to store more coins, you have to put them somewhere vulnerable (almost certainly inviting burglary), or trust another player to hold them for you in their account (potentially inviting betrayal).

[LindseyBalboa]

I don't think there should be an in game cheat to level up skills without putting in time. Not having time to play happens to everyone at different points.

[Veselka]

I think there's two different concepts here.

1. Not having enough time to play and getting lapped by people who can play 24/7

2. Organizations that should ostensibly be the bees knees when it comes to certain genres of skills not properly being represented.

To point #1, I gotcha. I don't have nearly as much time as I used to. But skills kinda come naturally. The grind sucks, but if you can play a little bit here and there, it's almost better than grinding 24/7. I've had very effective combat PCs simply from sticking around and sparring the right people and fighting the right things. A bit of luck, a bit of schedule, and a bit of grind. I do think the new classes help with this a bit.

To point #2 -- I kinda agree, and I kinda don't. I don't think simply because people are a part of an elite group/clan that they should suddenly become better than everyone else. I'm not sure it should be automated via training NPCs. I also don't think we need to reward members of a clan more than they already are. I could see it being a sort of one off thing for long-played AoD Sergeants/Lieutenants or a Tor Scorpion or something like that as a concept, but I'm not sure if it would make sense as a rule.

I did like the 'chit' system mentioned as sort of a reward for good service. In a game without EXP, it'd be the closest thing to leveling up after a boss fight. But I'm not sure it makes sense to the setting/game foundation.

[Heade]

I could see it being a sort of one off thing for long-played AoD Sergeants/Lieutenants or a Tor Scorpion or something like that as a concept, but I'm not sure if it would make sense as a rule.

Agreed, and as I understand it, this sort of thing is already possible for such long-lived PCs via request, as mentioned here: https://www.armageddon.org/help/view/Skill%20Increases

[Greve]

Other muds have had this and I thought it was great. It meant that if you wanted to get steady, dependable training, you could join a clan. Armageddon tends toward the opposite: if you want to be able to train when you want, and not merely when matching playtimes allow it, you should go indie. This has demonstrably hurt clan populations throughout the years. If you don't play during peak hours, joining a combat clan is actively detrimental to your character. This is something that has deserved to be addressed for so long that it's almost embarrassing.

There were never any problems with sparring NPCs except possibly for the fact that some players preferred to spar with NPCs since there was no burden to emote, but that should be easily fixed with soft rules. At the end of the day, the benefits far outweighed the potential issues. You could join a military clan and know that you'd receive adequate training that at least matched the IC time served instead of depending wholly on other members' playtimes. It was one of the most valuable features with regards to clanned gameplay and kept those clans well-populated at all times. It meant anyone could partake and get something out of it, and that being a soldier was actually a good way to get training instead of, you know, the worst way. We all know that this is a problem here, given how you can easily spend hours standing in the training hall without anyone coming by if you live in Australia or whatever. I'd say it's due time something is done about this.

Sparring dummies are worthless. You can't gain anything from them unless your skills are so low that you could gain from fighting rats. Any heavy-combat class begins at a level where dummies are already useless. They serve no purpose other than passing the time or training rescue. Sparring NPCs would solve many issues that have plagued the game for its entire existence, such as off-peak players or HG/mul training. It's easy to regulate how much they can be used. Basically make the NPC come out at x o'clock and leave again at y o'clock, and make it official clan policy that you must prioritize or at least include present PCs in sparring routines.

[Riev]

I'm not sure I agree with auto-train NPCs, but I will admit that the clans that put out sparring dummies should think about the quality of their dummies, because as mentioned, Heavy Combat classes start the game at a level where the dummies are not useful. they are good for guard/rescue drills if you only have 2 people, but otherwise, you learn nothing. They are RP props.

RP Props are fine. Unless you want to make combat skills slowly degrade when not being used actively, and sparring dummies are the only way to reset the timer.

[LindseyBalboa]

Not a fan of trainer NPCs. No role play value.

[Jihelu]

Not a fan of trainer NPCs. No role play value.

They have infinitely more roleplay value than an automated PC that buys obsidian or a training dummy that pops up every few hours once a week.

[SmashedTregil]

Not a fan of trainer NPCs. No role play value.

Plenty of roleplay value if access to auto trainer NPC services is gained via some form of roleplay and interaction. IE tokens from nobility, alternative currency, etc.

[tarkas]

The emperor's elite Sardukar troops were elite, because they lived in the harshest worst world imaginable.

When that world became easy, safe, when they began to train, and spar rather than fight to survive, they became
fat and weak.

The fremen lived a harsh life, fighting every minute for water, food, and the ability to move around without being blinded by
sand or eaten by a worm.

Should the emperor's elite Sardukar be more badass because they are the "elite"  or should the fremen, who lived the dangers
be able to rofl stomp their drunken, whoring, fat asses?

I see where this comes from.  The whole idea behind Eve Online is kind of based off of this idea.  Time, whether playing or not, should
determine skill.  And it works on eve.  Because after 20 seconds you are 5% better than somebody else.  After 20 minutes you are 10% better than most people and 5% better than the 20 second people.  After 3 days you are 5% better than the 20 minute people and 15% better than the didn't bother training.  All the way up to 63 days you are 25% better than somebody who never thought about doing this, or 5% better than the guy that spent 12 days.  That kind of min/max time spent thing would probably be alright.

But, it is a VERY severe amount of effort.

Personally I would prefer they continue with plots, and interactions, and the incredible changes (that are subtle, but awesome)  than implement this.

The other side affect.  If I do not have to log on to become better.  Will I?  If I can start as a fully formed character.  Why wouldn't I?