Character Timing Limits

There's one thing that's always bothered me and that's people being able to switch between characters so easily, especially with the decline in our playerbase over the years, this has become more tempting.

No one to PK at the lower levels or rank with or bored? Pop on one of your 50's.

Don't wanna fight with your caballed character? Pop on your other caballed character!

Don't want to deal with other 50's at all? Pop on your lowbie!

I just think it's too easy for someone to cherry pick their fights. Personally, I'd like to see people limited to 3 characters per account (I'd say 2, but I can understand people that want 3), only being allowed ONE caballed character, and a wait time of 30 minutes between switching characters.

There's a couple problems with this suggestion:

1. It requires us to develop an account system, that can be used to identify a player and their characters as part of a unit.

2. Limiting the playability of a character when we have a pbase on the decline, and people have ever further limited time to play, is going to hamper peoples' will to log on.

And 3) I just don't like it.

Good thought, not the way to go about it.

Actually, as constricting as this is... I really am not inclined to disagree with the premise. I have a couple of personal logs that I have not shared with anyone, linking characters together. Such as looking at a who list over the course of about 10 minutes. Then seeing the SAME 10 or so people except ONE character keeps changing throughout. Pretty indicative.

On the one hand, I like the liberty of having lowbies as prospects for development. Maybe only have 3 characters past 30? Or 3 characters to a limit where they can start collecting rares, and ban all rare holding before that. That way we don't have shelfed characters with rares just choking the pbase for ANY amount of time, not just rare purge.

Good thought, not the way to go about it.

Oh, I tend to disagree. If you have to come to the forums to make an account that's tied to the game.... The forums are the life blood after all.

Valek, what would this change?

I would prefer not playing at all than some system that is forcing me to play certain character.

It is a game after all jeez!

I am with Bali. His second point is very VERY legit.

Valek, what would this change?

.

Hopefully longer lived richer characters. Getting to interact with the same character more often. More integrity. More people finding the forums.

I can see many positives that add up here. Just think on it a while without thinking about being limited in characters.

And with that, I say good night. This has been brought up before and it's hotly contested. You'll feel strongly one way or the other and I respect whatever position anyone takes on this.

Removing peoples freedoms will just result in disgruntled players.

I 100% agree with Valek. I would also go so far as to limit each individual IP to a single account. Track back those proxies who will try to abuse the system. Instantly people who are abusive in game (of bugs, game mechanics, or the other players) don't play here anymore. A lack of asshats might be the key to increasing the pbase.

I agree with the lack of asshats.

I like the idea of time restrictions, but I don't like character restrictions. I've at times almost felt like jumping on my character was a job, an obligation. If such-and-such character was on, I needed to log on to my cabaled guy and fight him. Or, since what's-his-face is on and I can't beat him, I'll just log off as to not disappoint my cabal by losing our standard.

Later I came to realize that this is a game, not a job. We play largely in a self-serving capacity. It offers us joy (sometimes pain) and, most importantly, fun. Therefore, it is ok not to log on because the other guy will beat your *** and it's ok to log off for the same reason. Despite that, you may still have the itch to play. I don't see the problem in having a lowbie to train/RP with to avoid the danger of your pin.

You might think then that I'm a punk simply trying to avoid danger on my character. I can assure that this is not entirely true, but I've come to realize that condeathing in vain is a waste of a character and the hours you've put into him/her. It's best to learn the PK game by fighting people that you actually stand a chance against then to get immediately and swiftly massacred by someone who, at that particular moment, is superior.

Back to the self-satisfaction point. We all derive joy from this game in different ways. While some may enjoy the thrill and challenge of facing down three fearsome enemies at the same time, others might find it to be a bit stressful. They in turn should have the right to log off/never log on at all and play another character. Let's not forget that not all of us are fully equipped (player-wise) to play against incredible odds. That does not mean we shouldn't have the right to play. Because of this, I think limiting everyone to one character is too much.

I will note I don't like the idea of people logging on to one character, getting killed, then logging onto their other for an attempt at retribution. I think I've been guilty of attempting this, and I'm not for this idea at all. That's why I have no problem with a time limit before logging on to a second character after logging off the first.

Removing peoples freedoms will just result in disgruntled players.

Quaint, but freedom is not a reality.

Hopefully longer lived richer characters. Getting to interact with the same character more often. More integrity. More people finding the forums.

We are being naive again? Its getting old now, but you're an old man

I am not against account system.

What I am against is a system that tells me how many characters I can play and which of my characters I should play. Also restricing players to being in only one cabal at a time is funny (I will use this word from now on so Raar don't go crazy on me again ).

You know why? Yes you do. FL is our addiction. We steal time which we should be spending doing something else so we can play FL. Now lets put you in a suttuation where you are weak and you have to fight a badass character out there. You want to log out and log in with another character so you can still spend time in FL, but system tells you that you can't do this. Will you choose dying multiple times instead of logging out and simply not playing? Especially when you should be spending that time doing something else in REAL LIFE?

Putting so many restrictions on players will make a lot of us (who are considering whether to invest their time in real life stuff or in this game which already gives you more pain than pleasure) sit down and consider if this game is really worth the time.

Now, I will be honest here (even though some thick head might get offended).

You know who will benefit most from such a restriction? The vet players and those who do well in PK. People like Mindflayer, HitandRun, Jibber. I would put myself somewhere there bellow them too, since the combined ratio of my two currently active characters is around 13-0 (yes they are still fresh). Now this is not a boast, I am mentioning this because this rule will benefit me as well. Yet I am still against it, because it will hurt people like yourself Valek, who suck at PK no matter how good combo they are playing will be dying over and over. And over. And you won't be able to log off and switch to your other char. So that will eventually make you leave the game. And I don't want that.

You are asking me to consider the benefits this will bring.

I am asking you to consider the negatives it will bring.

[edit]

PS.

Quaint' date=' but freedom is not a reality.[/quote']

This is not reality too. It is a game.

Foxx, you're not fooling me anymore than, well, Mya.

This account system will benefit everyone in the long run. It would create stability eventually. And if I haven't gone anywhere in 9 years except when real life makes me, well then I'm not going anywhere.

Just ponder it. I know the negatives, but, seriously, they're not really negatives. It's just people crying about lost memories and what could have been.

Foxx is right. This will only benefit people who choose to play non-PK characters or those who can hold their own no matter who is on.

Foxx is right. This will only benefit people who choose to play non-PK characters or those who can hold their own no matter who is on.

It benefits people who would normally log out, too. It makes people think twice about taking the easy way out. Positive. Think positive.

EDIT: And Foxx, the reference to freedom is in regard to game policy, not the game itself. Heck, you could apply the perception to real life even if you wanted to. Freedom only goes so far as you perceive it to.

Foxx' date=' you're not fooling me anymore than, well, Mya. [/quote']

I am not trying to fool you my friend. I am just worried about the future of the game.

I used you only as an example. You might not leave because if this, but others might (even as I am writing this I am asking myself, "Hell, it's a nice day, why am I not outside hunting girls instead of hunting some undead?"). This is no small change. I've been looking for reasons to leave (even the smallest) and I am sure I am not the only one. And if it wasn't for the superb administration we have I would have done it tens of times by now.

With this suggestion you will make people play characters which they do not want to play at this moment. Do you think they will bend over and play them?

I can give you many many examples of people not playing their characters because of a strong enemy. I myself fall under this category. Although I can grab a few moments of playtime due to my strange timezone, as soon as a much stronger enemy character joins the lands we will tackle for bit, and I will eventually leave. That is what I do (look, I am using myself as an example this time so someone doesn't get offended). That is what EVERYONE does. That is the natural way. You fight till someone is dead. Then the dead guy goes back to his corpse and leaves the lands. Many times though, due to the high level of PK ability in our player base, there is no dead guy, so the weaker guy usually leaves since he knows he would end up dead and leaving anyway. You want to FORCE a weaker (and most of the times badly equipped) player to fight a stronger (and most of the times much better equipped) player.

And with that you think you will achieve "longer lived richer characters. Getting to interact with the same character more often. More integrity."?

Isn't that naive?

Just a few days ago Mindflayer made a thread about how to PROMOTE this. Not enforce it.

FORCING someone into doing something is not the way. You as a parrent should know it best.

With this suggestion you are taking away a lot from the players while giving them only an empty promise in return. GIVE! DON'T TAKE!

Promote. Don't enforce.

This is the logic that I've tried to hint so many times.

Make people want to RP. Not hate to RP.

Make people want to play with their chars. Not hate to play them.

Make people want to condead their chars. Not delete them.

With this suggestion you will make people play characters which they do not want to play at this moment. Do you think they will bend over and play them?

They don't have to play that character. It's what they THOUGHT they wanted to play when they logged on. I'm suggesting people THINK about WHY they're logging in before they do.

I myself fall under this category. Although I can grab a few moments of playtime due to my strange timezone' date=' as soon as a much stronger enemy character joins the lands we will tackle for bit, and I will eventually leave. That is what I do (look, I am using myself as an example this time so someone doesn't get offended). That is what EVERYONE does. That is the natural way. You fight till someone is dead. Then the dead guy goes back to his corpse and leaves the lands. You want to [b']FORCE a weaker (and most of the times badly equipped) player to fight a stronger (and most of the times much better equipped) player.

This is not the "natural" way. This is the "I didn't get what I wanted, I'm picking up my ball and going home" mentality. What I want to promote, again, is people truly living for the character.

FORCING someone into doing something is not the way. You as a parrent should know it best.

You, sir, do not have children. EDIT: I'm not mad about it or anything, but I would greatly appreciate it if my parenting skills/abilities were not part of this conversation.

I'm with foxx.

I agree with various points and ideas, but overall I think installing an account system will limit the already small pbase.

We have so few players right now, that this all seems superfluous. Sure, if we had 50 players online at any given time, the concept would be almost necessary, but the most I've seen on since I came back was 14 people.

14 people during the day time does not seem to require an account system to me. More trouble than the benefit. Who cares if you switch characters, as long as you obey the rules.

As someone who loves playing, but isn't all that great, I relish the ability to still get to play, but not "suicide" my best character. Sure, it might seem a bit cowardly to log off when you catch a serious threat at you, but I think it was Lytholm that said the imms want you to try, not throw yourself to the lions. If I do my best, and try, but know full well that I'm going to get killed/looted/lose my standard, I log off.

But I don't think that should limit my play time just because the other dude is pissed that I logged off for my own safety.

With all the rules we have already, to make this game fun but challenging at the same time, do you really think we need more restrictions?

Let's work on getting us in the top 20 again, and then we can worry about accounts.

Might as well just close the mud down after this. You can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to do period. I'm personally having a hard enough time trying to find the motivation to play as is. Especially with other rl issues and less time consuming games to invest in. For these reasons alone I've not had a powerful char in awhile. And yes I'm still pissed I rolled 3 bears, 3 tigers, 1 falcon and not a damned werewolf yet.