Simple idea re: criminals followed by not-so-simple ones

[Ktavialt]

I got an idea as one of my characters became wanted recently that could
add to the environment of the game w/out nearly any involved coding.

What about, instead of, after you commit a particular act that is illegal,
and seeing...
You are now wanted!

Say, if you casted a spell, in Tuluk, you instead see something like:
Frightened by your magickal powers, a young, fair-skinned woman runs
away, screaming wildly in terror as she runs to the militia.

Whereas, if in Allanak, the response would be mildly different since
there's slightly less fear and hatred:
A grizzled, harshly-tanned man backs away from you, speaking in
hushed tones amongst a crowd of people and drawing suspicious eyes
from nearby crowds upon you.

Dunno if this is stretching it, but if it is feasible, you could have an npc
involved in the emote appear, which actively searches for either pc or
vnpc militia/templars to report you.

I'd say you would be able to catch them if you do to keep from reporting
you, but any means to stop them likely would be illegal too.

Main reason for doing this being to add flavor to the particular
environment, as things would be different in each cities. Plus, it would be
cool to sit in the sanctuary in Tuluk and all of a sudden see an npc run
in yelling about a magicker outside. Otherwise, a magicker could cast
a spell where there are no hard coded npc's, and although they'd get
wanted, nobody would really know.

- Ktavialt

[I.G.]

NO THE CRIM CODE STAYS AS IS
YOU ARE WANTED
BEEP
MANTIS

ZALANTHAS IS A HARSH WORLD STOP CRYING
I HAVE BEEN ASSIMILATED


I.G.

[sjanimal]

That's funny, I. G.

You forgot a few

"You're a noob"

And

"This is too IC, I'm locking the thread."

And

"Read the Documents, they contain the answers to everything.

[sacac]

Since it doesn't have much to do with the actual code, but the changing "You are now wanted!" to a more IC way of seeing that such as "The little kid runs off towards a militia man" (Or something along those lines)

[Ghost]

Alright..I think I should finally join the fray.

I agree that the crimcode is a brutal way to punish for the failures.  But I think given the uber skill "hide", if there were a -small lag- for crimcode, or for the soldier who comes to kick your ass, it would be a pain to live in the city states.  Any criminal who has maxed his hide skill (which is -very- easy to do) would happily live ever after with all of his crimes.

Say, if you casted a spell, in Tuluk, you instead see something like:
Frightened by your magickal powers, a young, fair-skinned woman runs
away, screaming wildly in terror as she runs to the militia.

Whereas, if in Allanak, the response would be mildly different since
there's slightly less fear and hatred:
A grizzled, harshly-tanned man backs away from you, speaking in
hushed tones amongst a crowd of people and drawing suspicious eyes
from nearby crowds upon you.

For such a case, lets take a different example.  You backstab the guy to below half hit points, you hit a couple more and the guy is dead.  Now if somebody is running away screaming, why bother follow him?  Just "hide".  

So to make a happy living for non-criminals, WE CRIMINALS pay this bill, and we are supposed to make NO mistakes.

And that is it.

[sarahjc]

The "YOU ARE NOW WANTED" is sort of important because there is no mistaking from the player that you are now wanted.

As for flavor room emotes on the crime flag, if it's not that big a deal to implement then I think they are cool. But you could also just do that yourself when you get caught, make up a few on the side of failures and punch them in when caught. Or make up something on the spot.

A lot of room emotes for things of that nature can easily be added by the PC's themselves. I think it is awesome role play when I see people taking efforts to enjoy the bad scenes as much as the good ones.

The idea is to really get involved in what is happening to your PC and to forget about the OOC consequences. Ok, so you got caught stealing.. How did it happen? Who caught you? You should be telling the story.

But that's just my take on it.

[Anonymous]

It's only realistic that there are vnpc guards and there are so many of them you should have no chance for survival and if you get wanted you auto die instantly because the guards heard on the way and gang banged you


its realistic
zalanthas is a harsh world

[mansa]

Anonymous Kank.

Okay.  You're starting to sound like my pissed off little 8 year old brother.  

Something has happened to you and you don't understand it so you are whining and whining until you get your way.

You're going to get yourself banned from the game, and you're not going to be able to come back.

Is this what you want?   Is it?  If it is, continue.  If it isn't, message me over AIM, my handle is Robotmansa.  If you don't use that, I also use MSN Messenger, and ICQ.  You can get those contacts from my user profile.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I like it.

[Ktavialt]

The "YOU ARE NOW WANTED" is sort of important because there is no mistaking from the player that you are now wanted.

But that's just my take on it.

Ok... yeah, if 'You are now wanted!' is important... then have it, -and- my
emote suggestion . Tada, problem solved. As far as all the emoting it
out yourself stuff, I mean, it ain't that hard to code I'd imagine. I know the
staff is doing other things like with the automatic tribe relocations, but I'm
just throwing it into the pot. Also, um... saying emote it yourself is like
saying 'instead of having weather emotes, just have players emote that
they're seeing the effects of the weather'. Yeah, you can, but it would be
cooler if the game did it for you (and you're probably also able to add
more yourself if you -really- want)

Also, with the later ideas, and I'd say, of course, they are harder, coding
wise, if you do have an NPC running away, screaming about a magicker,
that does something that emotes can't. You're not going to cast a spell,
then go running around doing emotes of a little girl/old man in each and
every room running screaming about a magicker.

- Ktavialt

[sarahjc]

Also, um... saying emote it yourself is like
saying 'instead of having weather emotes, just have players emote that
they're seeing the effects of the weather'. Yeah, you can, but it would be
cooler if the game did it for you (and you're probably also able to add
more yourself if you -really- want)- Ktavialt

See thing with that is, the weather effects everyone, it's really not something that one person can change, yes you can emote on it, but there is a standard for everyone. So room emotes on it are cool because if there is a sand storm the entire city is effected.

Where as stealing, well that just happens to you. And I think it would be kind of cheese to have the same kid running off all the time to tell a soldier or the same five people. Also I would like to note, that unless you try to kill someone or try to steal too many times, the NPC will most likely not make you wanted and when they do, they normally have some kind of emote.

Like the such and such man shouts, "Theif, Thief!"

Maybe the only change I would make is if you try to kill an NPC, they shout out, "Help!" or screach or something that would attrack attention, if the fact that you are trying to -attack- someone isn't enough...  I've never tried to kill an NPC so I don't know if they do something already.

Also the same thing with Magick, if an entire city is in fear of thing, I think you can and should asume that if you cast a spell in public veiw, and the rooms description says that people are there, walking around. You should assume that someone may have backed off quietly and ran straight to a soldier.

And it's not that I think your idea is terribly bad, but I just don't see the need, you can really make the scene interesting by deciding yourself how it was you were caught.



I mean, if the game told you how everything went down where would the fun be??

[Anonymous]

wtf mansa no, i believe the criminal code should stay as is
but think about it, how many people are in the major cities?  Now, how many guard npcs are there?  NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH guard NPC's to be realistic.  To make it realistic, there are assumed guard VNPC's in the city as well.  Now, with the way, and the fact that 1 second = several minutes in game time, a few seconds should be sufficient time for guards to run to you and gank you.  They are using the way to coordinate and communicate.  I really don't know what you're problem is dude, is it with my opinion?  I don't want criminals gettinga free ride

[fearwig]

Wait, Zalanthas is a harsh world... which is why its cities are kept totally happy-bunny safe by a super-elite super-efficient system of guards?

I would think having crime be a more prominent factor in the cities would make it a much harsher, much more interesting world. It seems to me there's hardly any crime in, say, Tuluk, because failure is such a big deal. But uh, don't mind me... just a big fat n00b


Edit: Take this, for example.

It's a dark night in NYC. There are five people walking down the street. Suddenly, a guy on one side of the street gets mugged, and calls out for help.

Not taking cell-phones into account, how many of the four remaining people would you say would totally ignore the scene, and maybe scurry away faster? Probably all of them. Now consider this in a much harsher, much deadlier world, where life is cheap and slaves are traded daily.

Gimme a break.