Lloth's Community Corner

[Fool_Hardy]

Maybe to some of you getting RP points for leveling others seems a bit of a trick.

The hours I am in game I am lucky to find ONE or TWO people online. Now, there is RP opportunity even alone through journals ect. But I prefer to get my points through actual interaction with another character, actually playing a role so to speak. Rather than playing with myself and showing the immortals that I am giving all of my time to my character. You balked at the Idea of aiding someone with the same religion as you to rank. Could there be a more in character reason to help someone succeed in game? Maybe I am wrong here, maybe you are right and RP points should be awarded more for shameless self promotion through countless communications to immortals instead of through live interaction with others who help shape your RP.

Or perhaps you feel the short story you write for your character each day holds more value than the endless aiding of other characters I see coming from a certain merchant druid. I personally find this druids RP fascinating. Always RP's as she aids my characters ranking. The interaction usually aids in the molding of my own high end Role Play. Personally I do not care if a character gets 1000 RP from aiding others, it proves their RP to be "helpful". JMO.

[Zavero]

On 12/19/2016 at 3:16 PM, Lloth said:

What do you, as players, consider to be good character RP? 

I agree with a few others who have said that the best role played characters are ones that make you feel as if they are real and belong in Aabrahan. They have stories, flaws, and intricacies that could or could not be unique. However, they have an ebb and flow, they aren’t static and they will change as they go through events like… being beaten in combat, being challenged as a leader, or being told to follow when they want to lead.

How does being promoted to V, T, or E effect your character besides getting some new skills? Are they suddenly leaders? Prob not… they will stumble. They may even get demoted!

 

I’ll use Lelleiala as an example of someone recently who took a poor situation she found herself in being outcasted. I spoke with her right after it happened on a character and she didn’t seem phased by it. However, after a time I think maybe the player looked deeper into it and perhaps came up with this idea of redemption. Perhaps it just came natural as the character progressed. Hell, maybe the player thought they wanted the Sigil skills over the Praet.

Either way Lelleiala’s role play (from my perspective) suddenly took off and now I consider her one of the best role played characters I’ve interacted with. (When she isn’t busy beating folks down at will). She’s no longer outcasted and is an Elder in her cabal. I think most would have given up on this character as it wasn’t what they envisioned. You have to be dynamic.

 

What I personally don’t like to see is characters that have no depth. They basically spill their entire life story in the first few minutes of speaking with them. This usually happens with qrace/class hopefuls in my experience. I think there is this need to prove that they are living their story and the easiest way to do that it to shove it down your throat. As cheesy as it sounds a character should have layers like an onion.

Do you ever go up to someone you just met on the street and tell them that your entire life story? If so, I doubt it was that interesting of a story. Character should have to pry this information from you. They should be interested and engaged, asking you about things that you may have hinted at rather than bluntly said.

 

Just my opinion on role play. I could go on… haha.

[Lloth]

How important do you think quests. (Not clan/class) should be? 

 

Are we currently meeting that expectation?

[Magick]

Quests are fun.  Quests can bring people together to overcome a goal or provide a challenge, especially when there's a lull in the killing.  They're a great tool to expand on the lore of an area or class or race.  So I'd say that quests are fairly important as they can promote RP.  But not of critical importance, as would be the RP of we the characters.

On a related note, the problem I have with quests are in finding quests or identifying that Mob A is an initial quest giver (not counting if you can speak the language of said quest giver [I'm looking at you, certain gnome in the west]).  I think that being able to find quests, to know about them is more important than adding more to the game.  After all, what's the point in having quests if the pbase doesn't know about them?  Gear has plenty, as does Avalon, the Asylum and Willow Palm.  But those are often because of the area itself.  Quest areas, as it were.  You walk in and before you progress too far, you're given a quest for the area.  Dandy.  But there's a lot of quests scattered about the lands that people rarely get because they likely don't know about them.  I have no idea how long the one in Elium has been there, for example.  Could be a 17 year old quest for all I know, but I only found it by accident last year.  

A solution could be an aura for mobs that initiate a quest or highlight keywords in their speech.  An echo to indicate an object or room is capable.  Perhaps publish a list of potential (general) quests by area, in game or on the forums.

With that being said and of the quests to which I am aware, you are meeting that expectation concerning the lore of the area.

[Trick]

Individual quests are fine, but I'd like to see more group quests. With out smaller PBase, this might be hard.

I miss the days of needing a group to go to Discord/Gear/Desolation. Not necessarily QUEST areas, but they need to be. The powercreep(yes its real) has made these areas more than pathetic. I suggest they get an update. Make them harder. Make it so that people HAVE to work together to defeat them. I don't care if you just buff 'em or if you make it a whole RP thing where Morlhach returns and sets his sights on those areas to test the world. 

What will this accomplish? It MIGHT make it so less people have god-suits. OR! It might make it so that the side thats dominating becomes even more dominating.. I dunno. I just know its too damn easy. 

[Ulmusdorn]

I would love some indicator that showed people there was a possible quest in the area? 

How this would work or the best format would need to be discussed obvs. 

I think what we lack are: 

1. Repeatable quests with different outcomes. 

2. Different outcomes to various quests. 

 

I absolutely love the dart game idea. Cause you have the possibility to get screwed over.

[Manual Labour]

I don't like the quest indicator idea. There should be tons of quests but they should be discovered naturally not spoon fed to people.

[Pali]

22 minutes ago, Manual Labour said:

I don't like the quest indicator idea. There should be tons of quests but they should be discovered naturally not spoon fed to people.

I think there's a middle ground to be found - you really don't need more than we already have for a lot of quests, just a mob saying something when you walk in like Mik does about the starstone is plenty.  For more esoteric quests like helping the forest animals, maybe add some dialogue lines that townsfolk have a small chance to say when you walk by - "Did you hear the creatures in the woods can help you if you gain their trust?" or the like that points you in the direction.

[Lloth]

I would personally never add one. I strongly dislike the WoW style of questing.

 

I want for players to find them in the most seemingly unimportant things. I want it to be a treat to find them. I want to introduce both choice and consequence. The human racial line does this to a small extent, and it is brilliant.

[Fool_Hardy]

I like the hard to discover quests personally. Quests that cross area boundaries and link our world are my favorite.

As to having quests being repeatable, I think if tracked this could become an RP tool for staff. For instance, some character keeps repeating a certain quest, regardless of reasoning at a certain point, the staff could label the character based on real character life choices. Suddenly your title changes to the Oozinator, or Collector of Keys, Savior of the Citadel, or Gearhead.

Something as small as Tamara's passing glance should be more than enough hint that something deeper is going on. But, some people prefer transparency in games, so for them I offer compromise. Make known the total number of quests, as well as the number of quests with origins in any given area. This list would show that there are 20 quests originating in this area, 10 in that area, and one in those areas, however, not list any quest individually. Perhaps side notes such as one quest is race/alignment sensitive.

I agree with allowing different, and even slightly disappointing, ends to repeatable quests. I would offer that there should be a scaling difficulty to the quests we make repeatable, in the Ooze hunter comparison above, perhaps the oozes start summoning other oozes or splitting in two to make the quest more difficult. This may dissuade abuse.

[Zavero]

I'm all for having quests that aren't in your face obvious but some of the quests I will never find unless another player says something detailed about it or shows it to me for something in exchange. Which kind of kills the point of questing to me but seems to be the only way for me to find out in some cases.

[Fool_Hardy]

@Zavero If something talks, ask yourself why brother, even better, ask yourself why bother?

Did it speak to create atmosphere? Was the implementer so bored he thought I will write a ton of dialogue? Or perhaps the atmosphere can be seen, so its words mean something else.

The only trouble that confounds me, is some of the quests seem to stall or fail, I find the "target mob" but then can not get the quest to move along. Such as the new "aiding the militia" line, or the drow head upstairs thing.

[hotspring monkey]

I'm in for fleshing out the lowbie (or whatever level you do this) quest of Tamara's pub. Why not have a PC able to be bouncer for athe night to remove too drunk PC customers and dictate who gets in or not?

[Fool_Hardy]

Nice. I had forgotten until that post monkey, the bouncer quest has optional endings. Old age addles my memories. 

[Fool_Hardy]

Without anyone bringing anything up, I thought I might take liberty to kick the can. (Not that most of you have ever played the game.)

It seems to me we have a few very intriguing as well as large RP plots in the works. I hope to see some of it play out, and wonder if any member of the staff involved will be sharing any form of advanced notice of large events.

Thoughts?

[Lloth]

We don't reveal a whole lot OOC, because that gets used to influence character decisions, however I personally will notify the playerbase of upcoming events as it becomes acceptable to do so while maintaining our stance on OOC influence. 

[f0xx]

7 hours ago, Fool_Hardy said:

It seems to me we have a few very intriguing as well as large RP plots in the works.

I am not sure what you consider "intriguing" or "large", but just from reading the current notes it seems there are at least 2 big plots going on. With a playerbase of 10, that doesn't seem so bad.

Now, whether other characters decide to jump in or not, is entirely up to them. What I've noticed though, is that people just can't be arsed to RP most of the time, yet they complain there are no plots going on.

[Zavero]

12 minutes ago, f0xx said:

I am not sure what you consider "intriguing" or "large", but just from reading the current notes it seems there are at least 2 big plots going on. With a playerbase of 10, that doesn't seem so bad.

Now, whether other characters decide to jump in or not, is entirely up to them. What I've noticed though, is that people just can't be arsed to RP most of the time, yet they complain there are no plots going on.

What do you consider to be role play? I am not trying to call you out, I am just curious about your opinion due to your feelings that others cannot be bothered to do it.

[Celerity]

@f0xx I think there is a language problem here. Fool meant that there are some intriguing and large plots now, not that there are too few.

[Fool_Hardy]

43 minutes ago, Celerity said:

@f0xx I think there is a language problem here. Fool meant that there are some intriguing and large plots now, not that there are too few.

Exactly.

Intriguing Plot 1. The Unseen Threat

Intriguing Plot 2. The Rise of the Oppressed

Now these two plots are being championed by certain Cabals, inspired if you prefer by certain Cabal Leaders or Immortals.

My hope is that instead of these plots playing out at some random hour on some random day where staff happens to "catch" all of the actors on stage, that staff might telegraph the time and or date in real time that the ACT may play out, so that we the thespians can see that the show goes on.

I apologize for any confusion there Foxx. Actually figured you to be on board with this one Idea.

If announcing Halloween Havoc increases player interaction, announcing other large events may also prove useful.

[Lloth]

There is some widespread misguessing of the intent behind at least one of these plots. Some of the things I personally introduce do not follow the typical buildup->crisis->climax->resolution flow made standard by RPGs. There is no big battle against any antagonist. No epic encounters. Just an eerie presence just beyond the limitations of perception, lurking behind the veil. As such, there's nothing to schedule, no big sweeping RP until such a time when the playerbase picks up on some of the subtleties and run with it to see what lies beneath. 

 

I have said it before, and I will stick with it for as long as I am staff: I want to challenge all of you to take a good, long look at Aabahran. Really take it in and understand that it is its own world. As such, it necessitates intricacies and a certain detail that have thusfar been lacking. I aim to change that. This plot, although I am not fond of that term for this case, is one such endeavor. That said, all of the tools are in place for discovering some horrific and fascinating truths that will give many of you a whole new perspective on our little home away from home. 

[Fool_Hardy]

So just play every day, turn every stone, compare notes with the rest of the world ...

Or, just bring in "The Master Investigator".

[Lloth]

It is a gradual thing. I am not even sure it will ever be fully figured out. You are more than welcome to try, though.

[f0xx]

3 hours ago, Celerity said:

@f0xx I think there is a language problem here. Fool meant that there are some intriguing and large plots now, not that there are too few.

Oh, I re-read his post. My bad.

Apologies, @Fool_Hardy

[Lloth]

If you guys could change only a single area, what would it be, and why? What sort of area changes excite you the most?

 

Disclaimer: this is not to say that any ideas here will be implemented or explored. Just a question and attempt to make sure I am providing things the playerbase enjoys.