I agree with the idea of diminishing the role of luck, which I think is the basis of the original suggestion here. But I definitely favor a point-buy approach (which, fwiw, I'm not convinced would be all that complicated to implement, but the coders can figure that one out).

Here's my issue with random stats:

You have a great idea for a character. You think through the class, the subclass, the background, quirks, weaknesses, and so on. You take the time and get the description just right. You utilize all the options for customizing your character. You apply and the character is approved. At that moment, your enthusiasm for playing the role should be at its peak. Then, and only then, you get to find out your character's stats. And, after that, maybe you're not so enthusiastic anymore.

I want everyone to begin playing out their intended characters, without having a discordant array of stats to dampen their excitement for a role that had inspired them.

Random stats are inconsistent with the rest of character creation. Imagine a system where your subclass was chosen for you at random. Imagine randomly-determined skill caps. Imagine your starting location was determined by chance. All bad ideas, which perhaps only seem different than random stats because we're accustomed to random stats.

Quote from: Bogre on Today at 01:08:16 PMAnd no, people aren't going to act like fools without IC consequences. There are very easily enforceable IC consequences to being masked up all the time, the Guild boss can kick you out, the Templar's can have you seized and searched, etc. What exactly are people worried about?

If you play elves this is a moot point since people just search the ground, see the tracks and contact the only elf in the game. 

Conflict is better promoted with autonomy of regions, allowing people to work as a villain in one place while being a saint in the other.

I admit that having some anonymity when performing high risk actions(assassinations/attacks from stealth) makes some sense but this should be very very limited.

If done incorrectly it has the potential to prevent meaningful RP because its harder to hold people accountable for their day to day behavior due to the fact they can become anonymous/someone new whenever the heck they want. It will lead to pure foolishness.

That said, if staff are not able to properly maintain autonomy of regions then perhaps this might be the only possible solution.

This doesn't seem like a huge departure from the status quo, but it does seem like a good change. Clear expectations are always welcome.

Quote from: Krath on Today at 12:04:07 PM

Quote from: Riev on Today at 11:56:12 AMAttitude wise, I mean the people that feel you have to kill a PC because they looked at you and see your description. Because being anonymous means you can still socially roleplay with people back in the city. Because once you know Green-eye Amos is the raider, every templar and Bynner in the game will be contacting green.eyed.amos and hunting him. Once we can collectively get over the idea that a PC raider in the sands doesn't need the other 120 people in the game hunting them, we'll be closer to allowing more fun raider RP.

Staff could bring back the mask that hide mdesc to solve this issue.

Exactly this. Anonymity actually promotes the ability to be an antagonist in between the 0 (don't do anything conflict related) and 100 (instant PK before you can get desc sniped). There is so much more hoop-jumping, workarounds, and abuse potential that comes about because people try to avoid the consequences of getting look-ID'd than the downside of someone running around incognito. It opens up many more avenues of roleplay (infiltrating, cults, subterfuge) that the absence of being able to obscure identity actively stifles.

And no, people aren't going to act like fools without IC consequences. There are very easily enforceable IC consequences to being masked up all the time, the Guild boss can kick you out, the Templar's can have you seized and searched, etc. What exactly are people worried about? That someone in a mask will PK them or steal from them? I mean, that's exactly what's going to happen without mdesc obscuring ability, because that's what happens now. There's really much less room for you being left alive, and frankly, I'd rather have a raider leave me bruised and wondering than dead with a glimpse of who it was.

Atonement, Shadows of Isildur, Harshlands, essentially every other RPI could cloak up. It didn't break the game. It in fact led to some of the coolest reveals and situations I can remember. Sure, there might be some edgelord who wears a greathelm literally every second in game, but there's ways of discouraging that. (Needing to remove to eat / drink, etc).

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The ways of addressing mdesc obscuration also opens up a good avenue. Basic information is already available with assess -v, and sdesc. But many of the muds I listed above had a 'study' command, where you could obtain things like eye color, build, hair color, etc, which could be set in character generation. It's something that could potentially be piggybacked of watch, or a new skill that could serve as a boon to the subterfuge / noncombat roles branching from it.

Quote from: Usiku on Today at 11:21:31 AM

Quote from: Patuk on Today at 09:18:24 AMI distinctly recall past staff members telling us that PK was a once-in-a-week kind of event. With the rules you've made currently, it'll likely be even less. Even if every single PK ended up contested - and they won't - you'd talk about this once a week at the absolute very most.

Is that really the realm of the impossible? One such a talk a week, at absolute most?

Yes, it is in the realm of impossible. Not due to how often it may or may not occur, but due to the nature of the required decision making. Armageddon is a coded game. Whether or not the death happened is based on the code. We will consider resurrections based on what is outlined in the helpfile. What gets added there are instances that we can assess that are basically black and white, was it a bug, were they cheating, did a staff member royally screw up and set a bahamet to have 1,000,000 strength by accident, did that person die of dehydration with a full waterskin in their hand and so on. There is simply not a chance in the burning firepits of Suk Krath that I am opening up staff to have to mediate over every PK that happens on the basis of 'was their RP good enough' where the progress of the story and life of a PC one way or another hinges on that decision. I'm sorry, but that is a fast track to a high stress, no win scenario for staff where whatever they decide, someone will be angry and it would ultimately chip away at the relationship we are trying to restore between players and staff and almost certainly cause higher staff turnover. So no. Draw a line under that. I can understand why people wish this was a thing that we could do, but unfortunately it simply is not.

Okay then.

Quote from: Krath on Today at 12:04:07 PMStaff could bring back the mask that hide mdesc to solve this issue.

This should be an ability linked to assassination techniques(backstab or sap) which only lasts for a couple minutes after performing the attack or be an assassin skill that activates for a limited time after attacking from stealth.

It should not be an item that freely allow people to act like fools without IC consequences.

On this note, I think it'd be a cool idea to have Regen of all types when you log out. But only if you quit inside your "home". This being either a tribal camp that belongs to your clan, clan dorms or your own rented apartment. This'd be a cool way to encourage rp even when logging off and would give people another reason to rent apartments, which I think is always good.

Quote from: Riev on Today at 11:56:12 AMAttitude wise, I mean the people that feel you have to kill a PC because they looked at you and see your description. Because being anonymous means you can still socially roleplay with people back in the city.

Actually, this is the importance of making sure the different areas (redstorm, rinth, luirs and allanak) are somewhat autonomous to each other. Fucking up in one location shouldn't ruin your ability to live in all locations but we will see how this is managed.

This allows people to practice the age old art of 'Not shitting where you eat'. It was one of the purposes to my thread here: Closure vs Unsupported

If you choose to not follow this rule, there should be IC consequences to personally killing/attacking your neighbor like needing to leave find a new neighborhood. And with the policy changes, some OOC consequences if you keep using anonymity as an excuse to repeatedly murder people especially when you had the option of just going to live somewhere else or hire someone else to send a message.

Quote from: Riev on Today at 11:56:12 AMAttitude wise, I mean the people that feel you have to kill a PC because they looked at you and see your description. Because being anonymous means you can still socially roleplay with people back in the city. Because once you know Green-eye Amos is the raider, every templar and Bynner in the game will be contacting green.eyed.amos and hunting him. Once we can collectively get over the idea that a PC raider in the sands doesn't need the other 120 people in the game hunting them, we'll be closer to allowing more fun raider RP.

Staff could bring back the mask that hide mdesc to solve this issue.

I wouldn't mind seeing at least a "gennable bump" after more than 4 hours of being logged out or linkdead. On ALL of those effects. Movement, stun, HP, mana, focus, spice, poison.  If your natural max HP is 100, and you were down to 25, that's the point where you have to "sleep" in order to regen. Once you hit something like 55 (?) it'll start going up even if you're awake. So maybe something like that could be added to the system.

If you log out at a low [whatever] and it's low enough that it won't regen naturally without jumping through hoops, then logging back in after 4 hours being logged out/linkdead, will bring you above that threshhold.