Content and creation

[Dresan]

I've absolutely used skimmers but I've had to purposefully make PCs with the intention of buying a skimmer just to explore. I've gone through most of the current iteration (as of a few years ago) of the silt sea and while it's super neat, it's not a necessary or particularly profitable place to go.

This makes me sad.

This game was never about exploration but still...

It would be cool if there were unique resources in areas such as this. Resources as valuable as tree/logs are that would generate interest to forming crews to go make profit from this potentially dangerous excursions. Valuable enough that GMHs are really willing to sit down and negotiate prices.   

[Dresan]

Its a bit of a code change but increasing how long the effects of spice last to make it more tempting for players to use.

There being an actual player demand for spice with in the game would just create tons of fun all by itself. 

[Shabago]

Should've asked this sooner. Do you all want return commentary on ideas as I'm able, or just wait X time until the thread winds down for ease of read?

IE:
Idea X may be problematic because XYZ.
Idea Y already exists in some fashion.
Idea Z is something we're working/discussing/can potentially do.

[mansa]

I say just give a comment now, and we can build / reiterate the thread in a nicer format later.

[Narf]

Should've asked this sooner. Do you all want return commentary on ideas as I'm able, or just wait X time until the thread winds down for ease of read?

IE:
Idea X may be problematic because XYZ.
Idea Y already exists in some fashion.
Idea Z is something we're working/discussing/can potentially do.

I would love commentary on my ideas. As much of a headache as it might seem at the outset though, I think it would be wise to put such commentary in another thread to keep this one focused on the brainstorming/polling process.

I know I'm desperately curious why no one has taken up the mantle of a city elf tribe after so many years. Is it just lack of interest? (Don't take the bait and answer this in this thread though or you'll get it inundated).

[HortaCulture]

+1 more silt sea swag/action

[number13]

I know I'm desperately curious why no one has taken up the mantle of a city elf tribe after so many years. Is it just lack of interest? (Don't take the bait and answer this in this thread though or you'll get it inundated).

If you mean players, it has been tried, multiple times.

If you mean staff, the answer that's been given over and over is, it's really, really hard to get it right, and even a c-elf clan with great documentation (like the Bejeweled Hand) eventually turns sour. (This also extends to d-elf tribes with raiding bents.)

Also, I'm easily baited.

[Dresan]

Again there are already groups/clans that players can join in every major location if the play an elf.

So if people are asking for an city elf tribe, they aren't just looking for a group to join as they could join the byn and all the clan benefits,etc,etc. The benefit of an elf tribe is of course their mentality would make them very loyal to each other. Not having to worry about your comrade backstabbing you is really boon.

But what i can find is what people feel the purpose of new city elf tribe would be:

• What purpose so they can be relevant and fun. another merchant group?
• How do you make sure they don't become overpowered and  terrorize the players in the city?
• If you make the elves within the tribe worried about farting without potentially causing the downfall of the clan, just goes back to the original question of how do you even make this fun

I would love to read these ideas. Not saying this isn't possible, but other than 'i want an elf tribe' i haven't heard many ideas to how to actually integrate one into place like Allanak without ruining it for every one else that plays there.  There was something that seem very forced with the bejeweled hand that i could never quite put my finger on. Even if I wanted to see a group like that return(which i don't), I am not sure how they would fit into Allanak (south-side, staff have players covered north-side).   

[LindseyBalboa]

Just joining in to say: the benefit of a c-elf tribe is to experience the roleplay of thematic elf tribes using the documentation put forth. It's a whole different game when a tribe is full and active. It's much different than playing a human in a clan, and elves are geared toward being in a tribe.

[Dresan]

Just joining in to say: the benefit of a c-elf tribe is to experience the roleplay of thematic elf tribes using the documentation put forth. It's a whole different game when a tribe is full and active. It's much different than playing a human in a clan, and elves are geared toward being in a tribe.

What will this tribe of elves do in the city, and how is the this 'experience' fit into allanak? How do you expect the experience to be different then the current elf only city based clan in the game right now?

I am not bashing the idea of a city elf tribe, but I would like to hear more of the ideas of how to actually make it work especially in contrast to what is current already being offered for c-elves.

[HortaCulture]

Just joining in to say: the benefit of a c-elf tribe is to experience the roleplay of thematic elf tribes using the documentation put forth. It's a whole different game absolute stupid fun when a tribe is full and active. It's much different than playing a human in a clan, and elves are geared toward being in a tribe.

ftfy.

[Pew Pew]

Please please please bring back full class mages.

[triste]

Please please please bring back full class mages.

+1

Edit, just to add: Also bring back [other redacted awesome magick things that cannot be publicly discussed but were once open and now are not so far as I know ]

[9001]

One thing I'd really love to see is an NPC in every playable city/settlement (Allanak/Luir's/Red Storm/Morins) that just buys every raw material (shell/hide/bone/stone/meat/herbs/etc) really cheaply. Like 1-2 sid per item cheaply, without limit on the items. To prevent abuse, it could be capped at something like 30 sid per character per IC day. It'd allow characters to sell off things they accumulate for a pittance. It'd be way more profitable to sell things to the shops like normal, or to other PCs, but it would smooth off some rough edges on immersion when it comes to hunters/grebbers leaving things behind because they know they'd be unable to sell them even if they really should be able to pass them off cheaply.

The items sold to this NPC could be available to buy at normal prices for a short time - maybe an IC day or two? I think this would encourage the people that need materials to end up going there to check for things, running across the people selling them, and cutting out the middleman.

[Delirium]

One thing I'd really love to see is an NPC in every playable city/settlement (Allanak/Luir's/Red Storm/Morins) that just buys every raw material (shell/hide/bone/stone/meat/herbs/etc) really cheaply. Like 1-2 sid per item cheaply, without limit on the items. To prevent abuse, it could be capped at something like 30 sid per character per IC day. It'd allow characters to sell off things they accumulate for a pittance. It'd be way more profitable to sell things to the shops like normal, or to other PCs, but it would smooth off some rough edges on immersion when it comes to hunters/grebbers leaving things behind because they know they'd be unable to sell them even if they really should be able to pass them off cheaply.

The items sold to this NPC could be available to buy at normal prices for a short time - maybe an IC day or two? I think this would encourage the people that need materials to end up going there to check for things, running across the people selling them, and cutting out the middleman.

Make it like the buyer in the Blackwing Outpost. Y'all know which one I'm talking about.

[Lizzie]

One thing I'd really love to see is an NPC in every playable city/settlement (Allanak/Luir's/Red Storm/Morins) that just buys every raw material (shell/hide/bone/stone/meat/herbs/etc) really cheaply. Like 1-2 sid per item cheaply, without limit on the items. To prevent abuse, it could be capped at something like 30 sid per character per IC day. It'd allow characters to sell off things they accumulate for a pittance. It'd be way more profitable to sell things to the shops like normal, or to other PCs, but it would smooth off some rough edges on immersion when it comes to hunters/grebbers leaving things behind because they know they'd be unable to sell them even if they really should be able to pass them off cheaply.

The items sold to this NPC could be available to buy at normal prices for a short time - maybe an IC day or two? I think this would encourage the people that need materials to end up going there to check for things, running across the people selling them, and cutting out the middleman.

Make it like the buyer in the Blackwing Outpost. Y'all know which one I'm talking about.

My obligatory yearly rant on this subject:

Have ALL NPC buyers be able to buy a small number of EACH item from EACH PC, per day/week/month of real time. You can reduce the value of the items in question with each subsequent sale during that window of time. For instance:

Amos has 4 red widgets, 7 blue widgets, and 2 orange widgets.

Kadius will buy up to 2 of each item from Amos. So he can sell 2 red, 2 blue, and 2 orange widgets. The consequence to Amos:
He can sell one of each, with the haggle skill at max, at 50 sids each. So he would net 150 sids from the first of each color he sells.
The second (and final) one of each, the most he can make with max haggle, will be 25 sids. So that'd be 75 max for the second of each color combined. And a total for the RL week of 225 sids.

That might not sound like a lot, but he can ALSO sell 1 of the red and one of the blue at the generic tradesman for an additional 100 sids. And because widgets are containers, he can ALSO sell one blue one to the container guy down the street, for 400 sids.  This means he'll still have 3 blue widgets unsold, which he could try and sell to actual PCs, or give as a "donation" to the local law enforcement, or gift to their mate, or whatever else.

That means he just earned 400 sids for just one item in three different colors. He could make serious bank if he was serious enough to make thingamabobs and sell those as well.

But he'd have to put in some actual work, he still has a limit to what he can SELL to an NPC, but the player eliminates the frustration of going to all the shops only to discover that Randy the Stump beat him to the 5 max per BUYER, rather than the max per SELLER.

[lostinspace]

Full class mages

In short - Unlikely. Various reasons/positions on this. To name a few;

1) Exceptionally limiting as a role.
2) Guild sniffing for those trying to remain ungemmed.
3) Unbalanced/overpowered and unfortunately, prone to abuses in various forms.

For what it's worth I think many of those asking know that 1 and 2 are true, but find the role fun despite that.
As for 3, not something that just effects the one choosing to play the class. Maybe make them spec app only, if it's good enough for letting someone play a sorcerer, I hope it's good enough to allow a full class mage.

[mansa]

I think it would be cool to have rotating dungeon crawl type events for players to discover.


Here's how I would code it up.

On a set rotation, in set areas of the game, load up 3 'dungeon entrances'.

Each dungeon is a basic cave structure with random badies / traps / treasure.

Every 2 weeks RL, close the entrance and then open up a new entrance to 3 more dungeons.


This may be able to use the same code that is used to migrate the camps for the tribal clans.


If you have it rotate on a 20 week cycle, you would only need to create 60 "dungeons".   and I believe a rotating set over 20 weeks with 60 unique dungeons to explore would be fun enough, and "sufficiently" random enough so that people won't get bored.

[Pew Pew]

Full class mages

In short - Unlikely. Various reasons/positions on this. To name a few;

1) Exceptionally limiting as a role.
2) Guild sniffing for those trying to remain ungemmed.
3) Unbalanced/overpowered and unfortunately, prone to abuses in various forms.

For what it's worth I think many of those asking know that 1 and 2 are true, but find the role fun despite that.
As for 3, not something that just effects the one choosing to play the class. Maybe make them spec app only, if it's good enough for letting someone play a sorcerer, I hope it's good enough to allow a full class mage.

I think this is actually a very fair compromise. Making Full mages akin to sorcerers.

3 Karma and Special app required. I would be ok with this.

[number13]

3 Karma and Special app required. I would be ok with this.

Me, too, but...it should be something that's actually special and rare. If there's five of them running around at the same time, or even three, or even two, then it's less special.

The problem there is for all the players who really, really want to play full class mages, their would only be a scant few slots. People might feel slighted if they don't get to be the Chosen One.

An alternative, for people who want the RP experience of being a full class mage, there could maybe be a Mystic full class that has some mana bonuses, but few skills. The elementalist subguilds already have a pretty wide range of spells, as it stands. From what I saw from playing one elementalist (since the change), that character's spell list was pretty long. It felt like more than half of the old spell list.

[lostinspace]

I'm not sure why they'd need to be rare, but even if they do, similar constraints exist for sorcerer no? I've never got to play one, but I was under the impression if there are already 2-3 in game special apps will be denied for the role until a slot opens.

[Bebop]

I like deskoft's idea of opening one noble per house and more Houses.

I would like to see the rule to remain anonymous and not discuss IG plots and details as optional.

I think there is too much secrecy ooc and ic around the game and that information sharing constantly happens anyway, especially in regards to the one year anonymity rule.  I think the secrecy and lack of transparency around the game hurts the game and encourages an OOC element of deception not all, but some of the time.

There is a heightened sense of fairness that must be maintained when you go off of the assumption that players know OOC information and are expected to play IC anyway.  I didn't read this whole thread, but I saw a mention of LARP and that's how it's generally done in LARP as when you are playing person there is obviously an immediate lack of anonymity.

I do not like the idea of full class mages, however ... going along the lines of increased transparency I would like lists of what each magicker actually can do as when I would attempt to play mages I never knew how to select them properly.  Playing magickers as mysterious IC shouldn't lead to needing to hide what they can do OOC.

I am for removing time restrictions on karma roles and letting people play what they want.

[deskoft]

I'm going to toss a few more ideas, here's the first:

Phouse Rework
Two scenarios:
THE CURRENT SCENARIO: Phouses are used just for a specific variety of scenes and very minor storage, sparring, and minor stealing of items because they tend to be unfurnished due to the excessive amount of thefts. Phouse renting gives you a very short amount of enjoyment all around, and zero accomplishment.
THE POTENTIAL SCENARIO: Make apartments unable to be lockpicked. Notably increases the difficulty of wiping out every apartment in an apartment complex. You would probably need to sneak in with a PC and/or steal the key. It creates a money sink in furniture since players can NOW buy furniture and the only way they get the apartment stolen is by someone targetting their apartments specific (which is something that happens IRL since people 'case' places before stealing them). The money sink makes having an apartment a social thing and people want to have cool apartments.

Opens the possibility of insanely expensive apartments with 5-rooms and the like that cost an eye of the face, therefore increasing the amount of achievement a player can have.

Will it make players RP in cliques? They already do.

[Kyviantre]

I'm going to toss a few more ideas, here's the first:

Phouse Rework
Two scenarios:
THE CURRENT SCENARIO: Phouses are used just for a specific variety of scenes and very minor storage, sparring, and minor stealing of items because they tend to be unfurnished due to the excessive amount of thefts. Phouse renting gives you a very short amount of enjoyment all around, and zero accomplishment.
THE POTENTIAL SCENARIO: Make apartments unable to be lockpicked. Notably increases the difficulty of wiping out every apartment in an apartment complex. You would probably need to sneak in with a PC and/or steal the key. It creates a money sink in furniture since players can NOW buy furniture and the only way they get the apartment stolen is by someone targetting their apartments specific (which is something that happens IRL since people 'case' places before stealing them). The money sink makes having an apartment a social thing and people want to have cool apartments.

Opens the possibility of insanely expensive apartments with 5-rooms and the like that cost an eye of the face, therefore increasing the amount of achievement a player can have.

Will it make players RP in cliques? They already do.

I want!

[Obeliskocism]

There were some ideas I really liked from Arm Reborn/2.0 I am struggling to recall but which I want to recall so I can post them here.  I know many of the innovations from that time did make their way into the current game.  While I continue my archival search for those other ideas I did find this gem from the Brideofson blog about "notes" which could be added by staff and by players.  I'm sure some of it is in use already, but there are other ideas to consider here:

Imagine if players could create the following:
   

• Item Biographies
      What if a certain cane had its lineage detailed by its several owners?
• Mount Biographies
      That beetle's been with you through thick and thin, sandstorms and battles –  a scarred, jaded, but loyal beast.  Document  its life for the stories and for the imm who might animate it
• Merchant House Orders
      A merchant needs to keep track of orders placed by their clientele.  What better way to keep that information than in-game for Imms to peruse and load items as needed.
• Clan Information
      Instead of sending in clan emails, players in clans could make notes and updates inside the game for their imms to read.
• Literature
      Books, books, and more books.
• OOC Player Notes
      "Oh man, I need to remember to give Amos his share of the sid tomorrow night at 8 EST." or "What was the name of that red-head I just met?"

Now add to that the ability for imms to create:

• NPC Biographies
      History and notes that define that NPC's interaction with other characters, giving imms new to a clan the necessary knowledge for consistent animation.
• Room Biographies
      Lasting entries that describe the major events of a location, not only for other imms to use but perhaps for characters of certain abilities to discover.

There are also administrative notes:

• Builder Information
      Rooms, items, echoes, and various other things that require completion, questions , notes, or to-do lists for a builder to manage.