The grizzled, claw-marked farmer chuckles dryly.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

We need a farmer class. A main class, no less. Here is the way a Farmer would be utilized. It is completely without Immortal assistance, and will require one karma. It is very reliant upon steady players, and so we will not have numerous farms popping up. In addition, it is also rather difficult to maintain. So, allow me to presnt you the idea.

I am posting here before sending it in to the account, because I wish to see how it is recieved here, and perhaps a few problems could be ironed out as well before-hand.

As we proceed...

************************************************

The farmer skill list will look like this:

[Farmer John|97/97|136/139|87/87|sirihish|resting|walking|riding: none]

Psionic powers
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
contact                                barrier                              

Combat skills
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rescue                                 guarding                              
shield use                             flee                                  

Weapon skills
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
chopping weapons                       bludgeoning weapons                  

Manipulation skills
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ride                                   skinning                              
pilot

Perception skills
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
forage                                

Language skills
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
sirihish                               bendune

Craft skills
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
tanning                                 cooking                               toolworking                           analyze
farming

************************************************

A breakdown of every skill and why it is included follows:

Psionic powers--
Well, everyone gets these, don't they?

Combat skills--
Rescue: Have to be able to keep any animals they manage to breed from dying if attacked, yeah?
Subdue: Have to wrestle the crazy animals down if they get out of hand, yes?
Guarding: The farm, the animals, the plot...
Shield use: Everybody gets this too, huh?
Flee: Have to be able to get away real fast, being a loner like that.                                  

Weapon skills--
Chopping weapons: Hoes and axes are chopping weapons, and these are both needed on the farm. Thus, it is likely that a farmer would be able to use on in combat.
Bludgeoning weapons: Hammers, pick-axes and the like can be grouped under this heading. Also, these are useful on the farm.                  

Manipulation skills--
Ride: Should be able to ride, but not to the degree of a ranger. Just simple ride.
Skinning: Some farms would focus upon meat production. These farmers need this skill.                              

Perception skills--
Forage: Some farms will focus upon grain and root production. These Farmers will need this skill.                            

Language skills--
Sirihish: This language is variable, of course, based upon whatever toungue is the PC's racial.
Bendune: Marooned in the desert like this, one can assume a nominal, at worst, amount of contact with Nomadic folk.

Craft skills--
Tanning: For meat farmers.
Cooking: For meat and grain farmers.                              
Toolworking: For crafting the tools they need to run the farm.
Analyze: For figuring out what to do with what they farm.
Farming: For the use of farmer items.

************************************************

Now we get into what makes farmers special.

Farmers can build tent-like objects that are called farms. In effect, they are permanant objects that erect like tents but do not fold. Inside these 'farm-tents', rather than a single indoor room, is a single outdoor save room which 'copies' the room description that the farm-tent is placed within, with the addition of a blurb such as "A fence of stone/wood/bone surrounds this plot of land, lending a bit of protection for the farm here". In this room, you can do a number of things.

A: You can 'water' the land and produce a better foraging ground. You also have access to seeds which you can 'plant'. These seeds will 'grow' if given the nutrients they need. Some of these plants will not require water and some will. Some may require other things, like meat, or minerals obtained in various rocks.

B: You can 'breed' scrab, kanks, erdlue, chalton, etc. This means that you can 'feed' them, ala Final Fantasy 7 and the chocobos, and 'mate' them in order to get more of them. Perhaps, though this would require a very high skill, you can also cross-breed various animals. In your farm, the animals are all given the docile flag. This means that you will have to get the scrab into the farm, but once in, it is docile. You can do this with any animal, for we are assuming that one knows what they are doing if they are 'breeding' animals.

C: You can erect a tent within the Farm. Your tent is also given the perma flag. Additionally, this tent is a save room, and you can store your things within. Since one can assume there will be very few farms in existance, the Imms can afford to alot a number of generic tents which only link to a specific room for this task, since typical tents cannot be quit rooms or tents.

************************************************

Now, what is to stop folks from simply destroying the farm and raiding you ceaselessly? Here is the answer. The raider must destroy the farm itself before they can even enter. That, or they could shadow the farmer into his farm. But only the owner and any he deems -friend- can enter without assistance. Once the farm object is destroyed, then 'the ruins of a farm' offer enterance into the farm. THe farm object has 1000 or more HP. That means that it is not a simple task to destroy a farm.

Folks cannot simply lay a farm. They can lay a 'farm-tent' object via the craft skill, and the delay on -this- is 20 RL minutes. This means that they will amost have to have someone watching their backs. That, or just risk it. If they are attacked, then they have to start all over again.

I am sure I am missing something. Feel free to chime in.

[crymerci]

Wouldn't most farmers have to be slaves, since most agricultural work around both Tuluk and Allanak is run by the government?

Don't get me wrong, I think there's some great possibilities there, I just don't see how this fits into the current gameworld.

[Barzalene]

I like what you wrote up, but I'd be afraid they'd be boring to play.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Wouldn't most farmers have to be slaves, since most agricultural work around both Tuluk and Allanak is run by the government?

I have no idea. Never thought of it. Also, this is not strictly limited to just Tuluki or Allanak. Desert elves would find this useful, aas well as folks who might wish to base themselves in out of the way places, such as that place, or that place right there.

...they'd be boring to play.

Heh. That is likely. But then, wouldn't all those solo players understand all about that 'boring to play' shit? Also, a farm could also be used as a base for any sort of group, from a raider (stupid as fuck but possible) to an aspiring merchant.

[Barzalene]

Yes, with some coordination it could be a great base. But there would have to be some coordination. And that raises the question of : do we want to pull a group of players away from the rest of the playerbase, or perhaps several groups?

[Moe]

If you want to be a farmer... go get any of the harvest moon games for ps* and nintendo..
-Moe the Schmoe
:twisted:  :evil:

[JollyGreenGiant]

I wouldn't want to play a farmer, I don't think.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

If you want to be a farmer... go get any of the harvest moon games for ps* and nintendo..
-Moe the Schmoe
:twisted:  :evil:

I actually played that game.

Briefly.

Very briefly.

All 5 minutes.

[Cowboy]

All I need is more feckin' farmers...

[X-D]

Well, I kinda like the idea, specialy since a farmer who placed in the right area could also operate basicly a hostel....Though, I'm kinda wondering what would stop a group like say the byn from making sure they have a farmer with them for traveling....hhhhmmmm....Well, making a farm would need a large material cost, which means they need lumberjacking so they can make planks and all that, Also, a branched herding skill would work (allows more animals to be hitched depending on skill) And branch brew but not poison, Though I would not worry much about brew untill somebody gets around to finishing alcohal brewing:) And a minor bandage skill. and simple crafting skills, pottery, basketweaving.

Thats all I can think of at the moment.

(edit)
Oh, couple more things, only 1 farm at a time per farmer and they can dismantle it at say a 30% loss of material, and when the farmer dies the farm only lasts till next boot, this includes destroyed farms, Any farmer should be able to dismantle a detroyed farm and recover say 30% material.

Ok, now thats all I can think of.

[Anonymous]

I personally like the idea, not sure if I'd play one but I do like the idea.
Who says all farmers have to be slaves...it seems to me that if farming is possible then there would be some (probably few), that would choose to do this to eek a living out of the land just like merchants and hunter types who live and travel the lands to make a living.
I think it'd be cool if there was a non-combative type guild that was based on living outside the walls rather than inside the walls.
You could have hired hands, that help protect the farm as well as escort the farmer to the city when the need arises.
Rp a farming family and such, maybe rivalries between neighboring farms or neighboring farms banding together at times to protect their farms and families from encroaching beasts or raiding elves.
I think it's a damned cool idea Venomz.

[Hoodwink]

Wouldn't most farmers have to be slaves, since most agricultural work around both Tuluk and Allanak is run by the government?

Don't get me wrong, I think there's some great possibilities there, I just don't see how this fits into the current gameworld.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

All the lush landscapes in the defiled, ever-deteriorating landscape of Zalanthas are occupied.  The last person to establish any sort of farming system in the game is some lone character without any ties.  Furthermore, desert elves are nomadic and also universally thieves.  It stands to reason that an elf isn't going to remain stable long enough to harvest from the land, not to mention it's not very thiefly -- a true elf would rely on his stealing arts to acquire food.  So who is going to utilize the option to farm?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Uhm...who says a farm is lush?

And not ALL desert elves are nomads. This, in fact, has been stated by one of the IMMs before.

[Rindan]

The basic idea is sound, but I think it is in the wrong direction.  A farmer is going to be a relatively isolated support role.  Armageddon has very few support roles.  The closest thing to a support role that is played consistently are servants and aids.  Every now and then a person comes along and tries to take part in some other craft, but you see almost no true professionals who making a living off a craft.  The game could easily be broken down into aristocracy/rulers, soldiers/mercenaries, criminals, spies/informants, hunters/wasteland people, magikers, and merchants.  There are no serving wenches, innkeepers, cooks, tailors, herbalist, or any crafters that rely on commoners.  In fact, in general there are just very few normal old commoners.  It is one of the areas where I think the other RPIs show much better ability then Armageddon.

If an effort was made to start trying to encourage people into these roles, I would probably start with inns and tavern's first.  Start by having PC innkeepers.  They could really spread those rumors everyone is fond of spreading via the message boards.  An innkeeper could start out by simply acting as a server.  Some high tier people walking into the tavern and sit down.  The innkeeper goes over and asks if they want anything.  If they want some food he can cook up something more elaborate then what they can normally buy.  An innkeeper could also function to bring events to the taverns, like pull in bards and such.  If one wanted to get fancy they could actually rent rooms out to people just staying in town for a week or month.

From there you could spread down.  Serving wenches who double as cooks would probably be next on the list.  If all that went through you would actually have a decent commoner population big enough where a tailor would become possible.  So and so forth adding roles as you go along.  I think farmer would probably be one of the last things I would touch.  There is the fact that it would take a pile of code to begin with.  More then that, it is just such an obscure and out of the way role I think it would be one of the last things to be filled.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Bah! I have seen the light. Scrap the damned farmer. IMMs, ya'll can delete this damned thread now...

[Hoodwink]

Well, though I don't like the farmer guild idea, myself, I do like suggesting different guilds.  It's kind of amusing how the game has some 11 odd guilds and yet only 4 of them are available to new players.  That, and I'm sure there are some basic skill combinations which don't exist but could, and which aren't imbalanced.  I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe with crafting there is no middle ground.  If you select stonecrafter without merchant guild you will always be a poor mason, am I right?  Yet if you select stonecrafter as a merchant, well, you'll not only get this skill later on (thus defeating the subguild selection), but you can become a master of the skill and every other crafting skill.  Most true craftsman pick a single trade and operate on that one to perfection.  Though I don't know how worthwhile it is to code in a guild dedicated to each individual crafting skill, it's still nice to discuss the possibilities in skill sets.

I'm against blending karma-skills with basic classes, like quasi-mages who only know a couple spells life long.  I don't know why, I just am.  Either make a spellcaster or don't, I say.

I'm against mixing assassins and warrior guilds, or other power based skills, for obvious reasons.

There's plenty of useless skills which might make a neat combination all to their own.  Most nobles tend to pick merchant guild but what I can't help but wonder is .. would nobles really learn the Cavilish language as a general rule?  I don't think so, really.  It might be neat to see some sort of generic noble guild which includes some general skills, omitting some from the merchant guild, adding some from others.

Anyways, it's still neat to discuss ideas

[SailorMars]

Wanna be among farmers? Join the Byn and kick it with most of the new Runners at any given time...  :twisted:

[creeper386]

I'll I have to say... Is that I want to give a bump and direct everyone to Rindan's post.



Creeper

[spawnloser]

You know what, Rindan and creeper...with my first character, I tried to get a job as a serving wench in Bard's Barrel.  I wish I had.  I would have loved that role.  I had another character that was doing a great job as a tailor...until Kadius decided that they didn't like the competition.  I enjoy playing some of the normal roles sometimes.  I think it really does bring the world more alive for everyone.

[Flaming Ocotillo]

Choosing a warrior class would overlap most of those skills, and as compensation for crafting skills, you could simply take a subclass that supports one or two of them.

I'm not sure there's a need for a coded farmer guild.

[Hoodwink]

There are no serving wenches, innkeepers, cooks, tailors, herbalist, or any crafters that rely on commoners. In fact, in general there are just very few normal old commoners. It is one of the areas where I think the other RPIs show much better ability then Armageddon.

I completely agree, having originated from one of those other RPI MUDs myself.  There is less need for craftsmen, it seems, than warriors and merchants.  Sometimes you may find a guard in a merchant house with a crafting subskill that gets used but that's not the same thing as an all out craftsman.  Certainly crafting job positions for various clans are there, but they aren't pushed.

...or perhaps I'm just not looking in the right places.

A PC innkeeper -- someone who presumably takes over for the NPC while logged in -- would be interesting.  A bartender who offers discounts based on who his best clientel (rather than the haggle skill) would be quite amusing, I think.