Motivation outside of Sid

[Pariah]

So one of the problems I run into with this game, which doesn't happen very often because I normally die QUICK, is that I'll have a random longer lived character, like 10+ days played and get bored.

This tends to lead to one of two things:

1. I stop logging as many hours, due to sorta being burnt out.

2. I do something crazy like go see if I'm strong enough to kill a Bahamet and that normally ends badly.

So I figured we could talk about it and see if we could come up with some solutions.  I have my own theories of what happens and I'll share that, but I'm curious what you lot think and how your own experiences are.

So for me, when you start the game is the most nailbiting, you can't kill a scrab (as a hunter type) you are relatively poor after buying a mount and need to worry cause each time you bring your mount out it chunks away at your very small amount of sid.  So that's the time where it's very cautious but adventurous because I'm like, can't make money in the town, gotta do it.  Oh shit I got my ass kicked and came back to town with nothing, I can only afford to get my mount out three more times...  Oh shit I'm outta water, oh no, etc etc.

So fast forward a few RL days of this cycle, you now have enough skill in getting your ass beat, that you don't get your ass beat as much anymore, you are able to take down some birds, some chalton, maybe scrabs easier or pretty easy except for those random super soldier scrab that get popped outta the random critter matrix.

You start to find some GMH crafters or merchants who buy stuff from you, you made a decent little chunk of sid and those initial worries are gone.  You can afford water easy, you can get your own food, you can probably cook it halfway decent by now, so life is getting better and the goals change from getting enough sid to go riding and hunting to getting the sid for better or more armor, a better weapon, a tool or tools, whatever whatever. Even with those damn templars forcing those licenses on you, you still are okay.  It turns into a game of quality of life improvements versus just bare necessities.

So now fast forward again, you're now equipped, have most of your wants equipment wise, are getting stronger and stronger versus wildlife of various types and making a bunch of sid, but then you start to wonder, "What else is there in life?"  So for me I try to join and help out folks in game, but you have to do it themely, you can't just randomly walk up to people and be like, what can I do for you sir or maam cause they will look at you like you're crazy as fuck, cause in theme, it's more like, fuck you get away from me obvious con artist, and that's fine.

So what normally happens now, is I find some things to contribute to, be a pc group, a clan, my own thing, whatever whatever, then I start amassing buttloads of sid because all the skills of a hunter are just sid machines if you work it right.  Foraging alone can make you a salt millionaire without trying or a sid mining magnate. 

(I do the blue steel face everytime I am mining in game, I just forget to emote it lol)

So there are some things you can put it towards like Wagons and Carts and shit, but that takes a bunch of requests and RPTs and such arranged by staff (to my knowledge) as well as the pilot skill which I don't have as a stalker/scout.  I do think it's a learnable skill, but didn't want to invest the time and energy to try and buy something on a "maybe".

Eventually though I end up with entirely too much of literally everything, more than I could possibly sell, more than I could give away, more than I could bribe folks with etc etc.

And I'm stuck wondering, what the hell do I do with my homeboy now.  Sure there are combat skills, and those you can get pretty good at but they take massive amounts of days played and ultimately only lead to either PVP or ultra-pve, like killing Salt Worms and Mekillots with your human hunter and while that's fun, it just leads back into the issue of amassing massive amounts of shit that you can't use.

So that's the problem I run into, what could be a solution?  Fuck if I know, but let's spitball some shit.

I would like if non-craft based professions had more and more correlating crafts.  Like if you look at stalker, skin>tanning>leathercraft, that makes sense and is I feel a great progression of "Shit that makes sense".

Now some of it doesn't in my opinion, Hunt>Florestry/Fletchery, somehow cause I can see tracks well in the sand, I all the sudden can convert that into making arrows and perfume?

Maybe turning that into weaponscrafting and armorcrafting as that makes sense you've disassembled hundreds of scrab and see their legs are capable of making swords or daggers or whatever.   That would at least flesh out the utility of the survival classes in my opinion.  And of COURSE I would rather supply a crafter than just grind skills myself, but sometimes you can go RL days where nobody crafty is around or they are hiding in their warehouses never coming out to breath into public. (No shade, I know it gets addictive when you have ALL those crafts to do things with)

But even if the craft skills were added or fixed on various classes, I think that would only be a bandaid, because once you get to a certain level of skill, sid becomes irrelevant.  There is nothing to really spend it on.

I think it would be cool if there were things to invest in within the game world, ways to build up various areas, and they might be doing this with the experimental thing they are doing...
https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,58549.0.html

I know building in the wilderness is always a long term thing, or special case, but it would be nice to have something to do once you get more advanced that's not just finding the next creature to kill or get a skillup on.

If I could wave a magick wand, I'd have the ability to make your own hideout somewhere in the known, maybe just one room, but you could describe it and keep shit there, no locked doors but maybe camouflage?

Ultimately it would be nice to have some goals that could be accomplished outside player clans, which are great by the way, but something that you could invest the massive sid potential you can make into.

[Agent_137]

Any sufficiently hard to find save room is the hide out you described.  Put stuff there. Use arrange command.  Maybe there should be more?

I suggest having a tribe even if it's virtual. This gives your character something to ICly value more than their own life.  If you're a virtual tribal you can still join clans while making up this vibrant story about your tribe and junking resources to give it to them.  With coded tribes you have even more to do.  Train new tribe PCs. React strongly to world level threats.  Improve the tribes survival chances. It also gives you a very good reason to not do dumb shit with bahamets because you're an important resource yourself for your tribe.   

If you don't want tribes you can kinda do this by joining a clan but for most clans unless you want to move up in rank and do leadership you don't get the freedom or clout you would in a tribe by just being long lived.   

[Veselka]

Or if you are more of a city-based character, have a family. Make it a large family that is very demanding of you. If you have too much money, give it to an NPC and have it be virtually given to your brother who needs 'just another loan for 3000 coins' that you know they will never pay back.

The game can only be so difficult, once you have played it enough, and it will be up to you to come up with creative obstacles to stability. Add some character flaws that make them unreliable or undependable. Or greedy, or obsessive.

They could also look to become an entrepreneur or investment seeder -- Maybe they want to park their money somewhere so that it makes more money, rather than in a bank. Maybe they are tired of having to physically put in the hours to make the money by hunting, buying, crafting, and selling, and they would prefer to start a business with employees that make them money in turn, and free up their schedule to start a family, or go on that adventure they always wanted to.

Ultimately I think the game just provides the framework. If you play the game to the hilt, yes, you will make a lot of money and not know what to do with it, and life will be 'easy'. But more than the game being 'PvP' or 'PvE', it's always going to be 'PvP' in the sense that you are in a world with other Players, other PCs, and through interaction with them you make your own PC's life more interesting and varied.

So if you are playing a lot of loners, I would recommend if not starting or joining a clan, by making your loner PC part of a greater whole -- A virtual family, a virtual tribe at the very least, because it makes them accountable for their actions, and gives virtual places for their money to go, and their focus to go.

[Miradus]

Find an enemy, start working to destroy them.

And remember ... always punch up.

I don't need any more motivation than that.

[Gunnerblaster]

I used to find joy in the "rise" from nobody to somebody - Then after it felt like I plateaued - I made the story about "raising/training the next generation". I found mentors, lost them, emulated them, and hoped to leave the same impact on others, as they did on me.

Earning money is part of the rise but, after a certain point, you can reliably earn more - So I liked to use it to encourage others to create their own stories. Paying others to acquire materials that I could easily acquire on my own, and paying them better than the shops, because then it encouraged them to create their own support system.

[Riev]

I used to find joy in the "rise" from nobody to somebody - Then after it felt like I plateaued - I made the story about "raising/training the next generation". I found mentors, lost them, emulated them, and hoped to leave the same impact on others, as they did on me.

Earning money is part of the rise but, after a certain point, you can reliably earn more - So I liked to use it to encourage others to create their own stories. Paying others to acquire materials that I could easily acquire on my own, and paying them better than the shops, because then it encouraged them to create their own support system.

I wanted to double up on this.

The coin, for me, is usually used for finding places to train. Buying the materials or supplies that would be needed to help someone know as much as my character does. Became Byn Sergeants, Legionnaires, Salarri Hunters... being who my PCs wished were around they THEY were coming up.

Leave a legacy, whether it is in children, a unit of elite hunters, or as that guy who convinced a few people to explore an area of the world, which they settled.

[In Dreams]

The answer is mudsex.

[Pariah]

The answer is mudsex.

Mudsex is NEVER the answer, unless you've got friends hiding in the room and you're trying to murder someone.