Quote from: Obeliskocism on Today at 11:30:19 AMIf a player isn't particularly savvy when it comes to understanding skill and code interactions, but has a well-articulated character concept, could they submit that and have someone on staff assist them with the skill selections, etc. for a recommended advanced start?

Absolutely!  If you want, we can help you figure out a good class / subclass combo to get the most out of it.

If a player isn't particularly savvy when it comes to understanding skill and code interactions, but has a well-articulated character concept, could they submit that and have someone on staff assist them with the skill selections, etc. for a recommended advanced start?

What do you mean by "if you start with it?".

Say you pick Artisan who starts with no ride skill.  You pick your subclass as Bandit who does start with ride.  With that combination, you WILL get a boost to ride.

Q&A here:  https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,60351.0.html

See this announcement:  https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,60350.0/moderate.html

Overview:

We are happy to announce that starting now you can use a Special Application to create a character who starts with some advanced skills.  Previously this was limited to Heavy Combat (raider, fighter, enforcer) and Light Combat (scout, infiltrator, soldier), and you had to pick the T'Zai Byn, Arm of the Dragon, or Tuluki Sun Legions.

Now you can pick any class, and no clan.

You can still pick the T'zai Byn and start as a Trooper, or pick the Arm of the Dragon or Tuluki Sun Legions and start as a private (based on openness of clan during a Season).  If you pick one of those, you get some extra starting gear plus 500 extra starting coins.

If you do not pick one of those, you do not start with extra gear, nor do you start as an advanced rank (unless otherwise agreed on with staff of that clan).  However, you do start with an extra 1200 coins.



Requirements:

- Must have 1 karma
- Character cannot be a mul, a half-giant, nor any kind of mage or psionicist.  This is for pure mundanes only.  Normal racial restrictions apply based on the organization.
- If you start in the Byn, AoD, or Tuluki Sun Legions, your character must remain an active member of the organization for at minimum of 2 Real Life months, actively played.  If the organization has a longer commitment, such as lifesworn, that still applies.  Starting unclanned does not have this commitment.
- Must have a Special Application slot available.  See https://www.armageddon.org/help/view/Special%20Applications



What Skills Get Boosted:
You MUST start with the skill from either class or subclass to get the boost.  Branched skills will not be added.

For Raider, Fighter, and Enforcer:
- Offense, Defense raised a medium amount
- Two weapon skills of your choice raised to high journeyman.
- Parry raised to high journeyman
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to advanced
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised to journeyman/advanced (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- One ranged weapon style (archery, blowgun, crossbow, slings, throw) raised to journeyman/advanced
- Ride set to low advanced if you start with it
- Minor boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.

For Scout, Soldier, and Infiltrator:
- Offense, Defense raised a low amount
- Two weapon skills of your choice raised to low journeyman.
- Parry raised to low journeyman
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to journeyman
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised to low journeyman (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- One ranged weapon style (archery, blowgun, crossbow, slings, throw) raised to low journeyman
- Ride set to high advanced if you start with it
- Moderate boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.

For Stalker, and Miscreant:
- Offense, Defense raised a low amount
- Two weapon skills of your choice raised to apprentice.
- Parry raised to low journeyman
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to apprentice
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised a small amount (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- One ranged weapon style (archery, blowgun, crossbow, slings, throw) raised to low journeyman
- Ride set to master if you start with it
- Large boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.
- Sneak and hide set at low advanced

For Laborer:
- Offense, Defense raised a low amount
- Two weapon skills of your choice raised to apprentice.
- Parry raised to low journeyman
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to apprentice
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised a small amount (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- One ranged weapon style (archery, blowgun, crossbow, slings, throw) raised to low journeyman
- Ride set at low advanced if you start with it
- Large boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.
- 2 crafting skills (in addition to above) set to journeyman

For Pilferer:
- Offense, Defense raised a low amount
- Two weapon skills of your choice raised to apprentice.
- Parry raised to low journeyman if you start with it
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to apprentice
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised a small amount (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- One ranged weapon style (archery, blowgun, crossbow, slings, throw) raised to apprentice
- Ride set at journeyman if you start with it
- Large boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.
- 2 crafting skills (in addition to above) set to advanced
- Sneak and hide set at low advanced if you start with them

For Adventurer:
- Offense, Defense raised a low amount
- Two weapon skills of your choice raised to apprentice.
- Parry raised to apprentice if you start with it
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to apprentice
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised a small amount (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- One ranged weapon style (archery, blowgun, crossbow, slings, throw) raised to journeyman
- Ride set to advanced
- Large boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.
- 2 crafting skills (in addition to above) set to advanced
- Sneak and hide set at low advanced if you start with them

For Craftsperson:
- Offense, Defense raised a low amount
- Two weapon skills of your choice raised to apprentice.
- Parry raised to apprentice if you start with it
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to apprentice
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised a small amount (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- One ranged weapon style (archery, blowgun, crossbow, slings, throw) raised to apprentice
- Ride set to journeyman if you start with it
- Large boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.
- 4 crafting skills (in addition to above) set to advanced

For Fence:
- Offense, Defense raised a tiny amount
- Parry raised to apprentice if you start with it
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to apprentice
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised a small amount (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- Ride set to journeyman if you start with it
- Large boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.
- 2 crafting skills (in addition to above) set to master
- Sneak and hide set at low advanced

Force Dune Trader, and Artisan:
- Offense, Defense raised a tiny amount
- Parry raised to apprentice if you start with it
- Two fighting styles (two-handed, dual wield, or shield use) raised to apprentice
- Kick, bash, disarm, rescue, guarding, riposte and hack all raised a small amount (depends on skill) if your guild/subguild combo starts with the skill.
- Ride set to journeyman if you start with it
- Large boost to 3 "other" skills.  Examples would be hunting, direction sense, skinning, clothworking, etc.  Again, a skill you start with only.
- 6 crafting skills (in addition to above) set to master




Note:  Some of this may be updated based on feedback.

Quote from: flurry on May 12, 2024, 06:50:50 PMI wonder if there would be any benefit for players to be required to submit a brief report after a PK. I understand it's expected for some roles, but as far as I know it's not a requirement for all. If nothing else, it would bring staff into the loop sooner for minimal effort.

I am pretty sure staff receive reports before hand or are aware of what is going on but again still supported it. A long time ago I reported someone who I thought had cheated OOCly when killing me. Staff told me they found nothing wrong.  Years later the cheater admitted to cheating openly in the shadow forums, mentioning staff knew and made a comment in their account notes but didn't do anything else, this person had old school whiran karma too. Despite the documentation saying otherwise, the game/staff have routinely approved of psychopathic and sociopathic behavior as just being the norm.

Again, it is not even just staff or players, it is really a community/culture problem. People have been asking to make 'mercy' more reliable for years, but the reason given is so combat feels more deadly...in a permadeath game. People have been asking to be able to at least  RP death scenes.  And heck, changes could have been made to make incapacitation a more viable option without leaving the person vulnerable to insta-kill, other games have done it and you can respawn in those. Lets not forget that in this community stealing 100 virtual coins is equivalent to slapping their mother OOCly in RL so the game would lose none of its teeth by allowing people the option to disable people with risking killing them.

And to tie back to my original point, I've no issue with conflict or PK itself within reason but I guess anyone wanting to start shit is going to be need to be even more mindful of not getting caught, leaving no evidence or witnesses. Since there is a risk of the south turning into one big area, you don't have any second chances to start somewhere new or hide if you fail, well there is always a cave i guess. There seems to be much less room for non-fatal troublemaker.

I do hope staff manage to keep the areas we have left somewhat autonomous but I have not seen it be successful outside of city states. We'll just have to see I guess.

Quote from: flurry on May 12, 2024, 06:50:50 PMI wonder if there would be any benefit for players to be required to submit a brief report after a PK. I understand it's expected for some roles, but as far as I know it's not a requirement for all. If nothing else, it would bring staff into the loop sooner for minimal effort.

I'm pretty sure PK reports are required, at the very least they're in the Karma requirements. The issue is that staff thinks rp that has happened away from the victim counts. As long as the PKer has made the reasons apparent to himself and staff, it doesn't matter what the victim experiences. I've made a couple of player complaints on characters who have attacked me with zero care for the virtual world, zero rp towards me or any communication as to why they were trying to kill me and I either get 'players are allowed to play bandits' or 'there was rp, you just didn't see it', both of which I don't personally think is sufficient standards for an action that can delete months or even  years of a player's progress.

I do want to make clear that I'm not trying to bash on staff, as if the rules aren't there, I don't expect them to act differently, but my problem really is with the lack of PK-related rules/standards.

That's really unfortunate and I can see how that would be discouraging. I haven't experienced that scenario exactly, but I've had characters killed for reasons that were not apparent to me.

I wonder if there would be any benefit for players to be required to submit a brief report after a PK. I understand it's expected for some roles, but as far as I know it's not a requirement for all. If nothing else, it would bring staff into the loop sooner for minimal effort.

Quote from: Riev on May 12, 2024, 05:34:02 PMCan't kill the new Salarri Merchant? Well. Kill their Recruit crafter they hired 2 RL days ago. With no emotes and no preamble so you can 'send a message'. Did it work? It sent a message alright. I was the new Salarri Recruit, and I walked into a shop and got a zero-prompt mantis head.

Just to back this up, this has literally happened to me on a brand new crafter that joined a GMH while the GMH PC leader had pissed someone off. I was harassed every day by a gick I could do literally nothing about, it was so bad that I actually stopped playing the game for several months. I was a 4-day old character with no relationships or reputation, I had absolutely zero idea why it was happening or any of the plot around it.