Quote from: dumbstruck on Today at 11:46:59 AM

Quote from: Dresan on Today at 11:07:35 AMI don't believe the game has the population to keep disregarding the time and effort of people who are not on the friend's list.

This though. Some of us are old (Lizzie), some of us are dying (me), and some people just generally have found other stuff to do. Being the oppressed minority might make for an interesting story but how many times do you have to tell it before you can tell something else, and why is your story the one disregarded? All too many times it's come down to sponsored roles being considered much more sacrosanct like their players' time means more. It doesn't. Everyone's time is the same. Stuff like that is why sponsored roles have a hard time finding underlings but there's never a shortage of people playing hunters in the wilderness. Their time isn't treated as disposable and worthless there.

No idea how I got tugged into this conversation. I haven't even read the other posts. I just saw my name being mentioned.

So just to address dumbstruck and the quoted snippet they're responding to:

I'm 63 years old. I didn't START playing this game until I was 40. I didn't start mudding until I was 30.  I'm also retired, and have an active life outside the game, outside the computer. Always have, probably always will.

I play usually 2 hours a day during the week, maybe 4 on each weekend day. When I was staffing, I was logged in longer than that, usually doing some aspect or another of my job as a storyteller/builder.

Most of the people on my list on Discord are players who have pinged me asking me for help over the past few years. For the better part of last year, I had DMs locked and turned my status to "invisible" because I didn't want to talk to any of you in private.  Because I'm no longer on staff, I also no longer have access to the DMs of any current staff member.  I'm not a staff favorite, I was never a staff favorite, I've had 20+ years of playing with MAYBE 5 sponsored roles during the entire time. I've never played a templar, or a sorcerer, and played my first and only noble shortly before the game was shut down.

I don't care nearly as much about skill gains, as I do about skill acquisition.  In other words - it doesn't matter to me that my [whatever] skill only lasts 20 minutes because I don't have it at full power. I'm more excited knowing that I can [whatever] at all. Be that making mastercraft jewelry versus being able to make ANY jewelry, flying for 4 RL hours versus flying at all, being able to kill a mekillot in one swing versus being able to survive a couple of poisonous snakes...

My age has nothing to do with it. My approach to gaming and my perspective of the gameplay and theme has everything to do with it.  I don't play to win the code. I play to win the scene.

Quote from: Dresan on Today at 11:07:35 AMI don't believe the game has the population to keep disregarding the time and effort of people who are not on the friend's list.

This though. Some of us are old (Lizzie), some of us are dying (me), and some people just generally have found other stuff to do. Being the oppressed minority might make for an interesting story but how many times do you have to tell it before you can tell something else, and why is your story the one disregarded? All too many times it's come down to sponsored roles being considered much more sacrosanct like their players' time means more. It doesn't. Everyone's time is the same. Stuff like that is why sponsored roles have a hard time finding underlings but there's never a shortage of people playing hunters in the wilderness. Their time isn't treated as disposable and worthless there.

Quote from: Athapaxis on Today at 12:27:08 AMKind of feels like we need to all try this out and see how it goes before worrying too much about the down sides.  The game ran for a long time with a focus on the "status quo" and there were issues that made it hard on staff and hard for people to stick around.  There will certainly be some down sides to the new normal, but it seems like we all need to try it out and see how those things actually play out.

Wait and see is what the few who are still around posting are already doing. It doesn't curtail the need for constructive criticism and feedback. While I don't expect the staff to change posted decisions, the approach people will take within those set decisions is likely still completely up in the air leaving room for some addition considerations that could potentially help avoid issues faced in the past.

Much of the stuff we've seen is not completely new to people who have been here for decades. For example, Tuluk didn't disappear, you could still play northern people after the city closed, yet the effects of it being removed still affected how both players and staff behaved in the IC world to its detriment. Now its gone farther into removing this element from the game, and I don't really expect the community(both staff and players) to behave differently than before. Redstorm, Rinth, Southside Allanak should be fundamentally opposing areas until certain staff and players decide its not and begin working in tandem to making these areas feel fairly unified despite documentation stating it should be otherwise. This poses a lot of challenges for anyone that has ever found themselves making a powerful enemy, but perhaps that's okay since I guess we can still go live in a cave.

We seem to be moving away from area vs area, to clan vs clan. This is also something we've also seen before, the  issue with this in the past has been that it eventually lead to either a massacre or more commonly stagnation between the clans. You can't really go targeting sponsored roles without 'IC consequences' so it leads to basically everyone else who happens to be playing an easy target being butchered. For example, you can't really kill the sponsored noble, but what about the aide they just hired, you can't kill the staff boosted sergeant but what about that unclanned PC they seem to be having fun flirting with, you can't really kill X,Y,Z but lets send powergaming mul assassin to kill the newbie crafter they are living with, the crafter isn't contributing to staff run plots after all. Again, all done with staff approval and encouragement.     

To clarify, this isn't a player issue or a staff issue or even potentially a setting issue, this is just a community reality.  There is a risk with the approach so far and it is best to call it out early. Again, not suggesting a course correction in the  decisions made so far but rather offering some food for thought for potential pitfalls as the season moves along. I don't believe the game has the population to keep disregarding the time and effort of people who are not on the friend's list.

Quote from: Tuannon on April 25, 2024, 08:22:58 AMI think the rinth would be great if it had more of an ecosystem and throughput.

Personally I don't really have a preference for regions,

I can play anywhere there are collaborators to work with. I think the Outpost full time is the last stop on my bucket list though.

I kind of feel like the Rinth might get some new life with Seasons.  Intrigued to see how the changes make it different.

Kind of feels like we need to all try this out and see how it goes before worrying too much about the down sides.  The game ran for a long time with a focus on the "status quo" and there were issues that made it hard on staff and hard for people to stick around.  There will certainly be some down sides to the new normal, but it seems like we all need to try it out and see how those things actually play out.

I listened to the whole series earlier this year, to answer your question at a very high level, all the sorc. kings are deformed, I believe, because they spent some amount of time near the Pristine Tower, which mutates whatever is in proximity to it.

IDK if the pristine tower or dark lens existed in Arms history, but mutations are completely allowed and common enough that mutants are allowed to own and operate businesses in Nak and Tuluk.

Year 48, The 23rd Age of the Dragon's Ire

...Somewhere in the Red Desert...

Reggie's hands shook as he fumbled with the straps of the arrow-laden quivers, running at full tilt towards the entrance of the mine. He passed some grim-faced comrades in arms preparing their kit – people like Davil seemed to have a resting face that was prepared for imminent death. Others, he could smell the fear. Or was that his own odor? His boots thudded heavily as he ran, dust occasionally raining down from the ceiling and its wooden supports.

He stumbled up the last few cords of the steep incline to the mouth of the mine. "Arrows! Got the arrows!"

The Junior Agent was up in the pilot's perch of the Lazy Scimitar – their crew's pride and joy, their wagon, their love nest. He had a hand to his brow, looking out over the hastily built walls they erected just that morning. But night was falling...

"Might be Gith...Might be Kuraci. Hard to tell. Fire some warning shots," the Junior Agent, Shem Salarr, called out almost calmly. Reggie liked the Junior Agent in that moment – he was usually petty and short-tempered.

Reggie fumbled with his own bow, handing one of the quivers over to the Right Hand, Bags the half-elf. Bags smirked, pulling the quiver around his waist and cinching, drawing an arrow, and thrumming off a shot quicker than Reggie could string his own up. Bags drew again, firing, and a few others along the line did the same, over the makeshift walls.

Other Privateers were hauling out bags upon bags upon chests of what looked like black and green sand...Chunks...Reggie knew what it was though. They all did...

Copper.

They dragged it up to the wagon's loading ramp, passing them off hand over hand in a line, hefts and grunts between man and woman as they passed along the heavy payload.

"Keep loading! Definitely not Gith! They're returning fire...! It's Kurac...!"

The last thing Reggie remembered was just how sharp an arrow looks when it's falling from the sky, and how slow the descent...

---

50 Year History

In the 25th year of the 23rd age, rumors began circulating that House Salarr had exclusive control over a lucrative copper mine in the Tablelands. They had managed to extract significant reserves undetected. Recent tensions over a copper vein near Luir's left House Kurac incensed by the discovery, prompting various groups to attempt to seize the mine. Despite Kurac ultimately forcing its destruction at great cost in lives, Salarr swiftly moved on, uncovering and establishing a new mine. Their effective methods for locating deposits triggered a race among the other Great Merchant Houses and city-states to uncover their secrets. Through corruption, betrayal, and assassinations, House Kurac eventually acquired this knowledge, closely followed by Allanak and Tuluk. This era marked the beginning of significant fractures in cooperation among the Great Merchant Houses.

Over the next two decades, multiple copper deposits were discovered, with Kurac, Salarr, and Tuluk controlling at least one mine each. House Kadius opted to make deals or purchase metal from other sources, avoiding direct involvement in the high-stakes armed or political conflicts. Extraction and smelting techniques gradually advanced, and by the 50th year of the 23rd age, high-ranking nobles, templars, and Great Merchant House members were commonly seen wearing copper jewelry. Some elite individuals were even spotted carrying copper daggers or knives.

By the 70th year, House Kurac had developed a reputation for selling the occasional copper tool to wealthy patrons, and rumors spread of a battle-hardened Byn sergeant who had secured her own personal copper blade.

---

Kurac & Mobile Ops

Kuraci Mobile Operations is the traveling command center of the Great Merchant House, bringing back the opportunities of the wastes to the other divisions. Never spoken of lightly, it is considered to be where the most promising Agents, Merchants, and soldiers are assigned. There is a mystique and reverence to service in Mobile Ops, so much so that high ranking Agents find their careers stunted if they have not had a tour there. Many apply, few are permitted entry.

The Kuraci Outriders are the elite direct action and reconnaissance units of the House, now seeing assignments into Mobile Operations. In previous Ages, the Outriders served in a capacity to rival other military units with a focus on assassination, scouting, and skirmishing in the wastes. However, in the past fifty years, their focus has shifted to accommodate the desires of profitable ventures. Where once it was a tool used sparingly in defense of the Outpost or Kuraci personnel, now it is bent toward the long reach of the Great Merchant House. If there is a credible rumor about metal deposits, you can bet that the Outriders knew about it first. Outriders operate outside the boundaries of city-state laws and prefer to remain anonymous, never speaking of their work in public to others.

---

Salarr

For close to five decades, House Salarr has been ensnared in a maelstrom of contention and conflict with House Kurac, engaged in a relentless struggle for dominance over prized resources and territories. Across the vast expanse of the Known World, they have staked their claims, only to find scant reward for their endeavors. The Agentry's mandate has led them to traverse the unforgiving terrain, from the eastern reaches around Cenyr to the desolate Canyons of Waste in the west, in an unending pursuit of the next unparalleled discovery. Yet, each encounter with House Kurac in the wilds has been fraught with brutality and uncertainty, leaving scars both seen and unseen.

This perpetual clash has cast a shadow of intrigue and tension over the civilized political landscape of Luirs and Allanak, as both Houses project confident airs and parade waves when questioned by outsiders as to the state of their affairs while engaging in the War of Shadows -- compelling both House Salarr and House Kurac to heed the immutable adage that echoes:

"In the Desert, deeds fade like footprints, and only the sands know our secrets."

Expansion Division

The Expansion Division of House Salarr is one that the House Head and Senior Merchants and Agents admit exists if pressed by a Trade Minister. On paper, they 'seek out, secure, and harvest resources for the House to utilize and turn into assets'. However, in reality, Expansion Division has become one of the better funded sections of the House as they pour coin and resources into discovering new sources of metal deposits. It is considered a trying ground for family members of Salarr who wish to join the Agent Branch – where their discretion, political agility, and ruthlessness can all be put to the test.


The Expansion Division seeks out and secures areas of interest, establishing a sizable and defensible base of operations and bleeding the area dry, regardless of claimed territory. It is a megalith that overshadows the smaller operations of House Kurac, attracting greed-driven prospectors and privateers who wish to make it rich quickly under the long shadow that is cast by House Salarr.

---

OOC changes to Great Merchant Houses

We are thankful to our community for feedback regarding GMH play and are eager to showcase dramatic changes to address the dissatisfaction in the play experience. Our goal is to allow for people to gravitate toward the roles they like with less focus on the tedium that can come with GMH characters. In summary:

• GMH will be focused on Agent Branches rather than Merchant Branches at the start of Season 1. This comes with a focus on politics, plotting, adventures, and drama. We are cutting as much red tape as possible to allow leadership roles the room to create a fun environment for their clan without the exhausting bookkeeping in and out of the request tool.
• Non-Family Merchants are still available for play as a potential promotion for crafters. People who love to play crafters and sell things will still have a place to find in the GMH, it just is not the major focus at this time.
• We have archived redundant and confusing/contradictory documentation, and removed edicts/rules that were too prescriptive or micro-managed players in their approach.
• We are shifting away from "vending machine" requirements, with GMH NPC shops providing a vast majority of available wares to the player base.
• Increased autonomy for PCs -- rule followers, benders, and breakers welcome. Expect IC consequences for IC actions, rather than OOC repercussions.

His Shadow,
The Armageddon Team

Quote from: FantasyWriter on May 10, 2024, 09:08:25 AM

Quote from: Halaster on April 19, 2024, 08:27:22 PM

Quote from: Riev on April 19, 2024, 01:14:34 PMAnd how much do we have to pay for this Early Access version of Armageddon?

100 TekTokens, or 75 MukBucks.

How the eff are MukBucks worth more than TekTokens.... Tekflation?

We call that
Tekflation

Read The Amber Enchantress by Troy Denning..

First time reading/listening to the Dark Sun, Prism Pentad. I am certainly enjoying the story, but I am certainly more interested in, why most if not all of Sorcerer Kings seem to be deformed, Part cilops for Tyr's, Neboneys kings son and king too... I wish THAT was more common place monstrosities walking through the cities.
The Sun Runners are badassed drunks, etc..
Sorcery, defiling seems commonplace and not persae openly talked about, is more common that not to me even going as far as having secret societies for them.

I hope we eventually have tales like these!