Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning
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@Arkandel I'd rather still hear the criticism for anything I have, even if it's not near being officially open. Even if it's problems I already know about and are on the to do list to fix and clarify, I'd rather have it emphasized than risk me forgetting about it down the line, so I think it's very helpful.
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@Apos Well, IIRC I was looking to buy basic gear. The helpfile includes commands to acquire it based on recipes, but it doesn't tell you what those recipes are. After asking around I went to the market (which the helpfile doesn't tell you but it's where the vendor is) and you can actually use those commands... but even intermediate swords cost orders of magnitude more than my nobleman had total - for starting equipment maybe you guys could adjust both the cost and quality to be lower. That way PC craftsmen actually make a difference and you can have an actual economy if you want one.
Automating PC-made equipment getting sold would be great, too. Yes, it can be a source of RP but some players don't necessarily want a scene every time they buy an item (and it's a fire-sure way to make craftsmen burn out if 90% of their scene requests involve selling pants and shirts - roleplaying being in retail isn't necessarily a blast ).
A combat primer with examples would have gone a long way, too, maybe explaining a bit about the system and its mechanics.
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My main complaint is that I feel the lore could be better organized. I often need to go to several different web pages to cobble together info, and then discover that there's info not yet posted at all. As an example, I love the Easter eggs in the different rooms, but I'd appreciate a repository of that stuff because, some of it, I feel like my character would IC know, and it's bothersome to discover those tidbits pretty much by OOC accident.
I know it's a work-in-progress, and that Staff are doing their best to finish the files, but it is somewhat disorienting to feel so clueless. It's particularly frustrating when the content has been decided by Staff, but hasn't been properly written up thus isn't posted. If I'm not around to hear about it on a channel, odds are I'm gonna remain ignorant about it. (Again, I understand times constraints and it being Alpha, and I know Staff are working hard, and it's appreciated, but I'd feel remiss to not make mention.)
ETA: I'd also really appreciate some primers for coded systems. Examples of what make a good +support request would be incredible helpful. I feel at a loss for appropriate phrasing.
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Automating PC-made equipment getting sold would be great, too. Yes, it can be a source of RP but some players don't necessarily want a scene every time they buy an item (and it's a fire-sure way to make craftsmen burn out if 90% of their scene requests involve selling pants and shirts - roleplaying being in retail isn't necessarily a blast ).
This is in place. If a PC has a shop, they can choose to list some of their recipes through it so people can 'buy' through them and just desc it themselves. And a lot of PCs will also just take orders over messengers and send back stuff if you want custom work.
Edit to add: Oh, PC crafters can also choose to list pre-made stuff too. If you go to Joscelin's Atelier (@directions atelier), she usually has pre-made stuff put up in her shop.
For me, I prefer to have some sort of IC scene so I can get a feel for the character I am creating for before making their stuff. I think it makes them a happier customer and my job easier when writing custom descriptions.
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It kind of needs to be rolled back, though. Starting with:
- What is a recipe? What is it for?
- What does a recipe consist of, ie what are the "ingredients"?
- Where do you get the ingredients/How do you acquire them?
- What are the various "recipes" for different items that may be constructed?
- What is the step by step instruction for how to use the related commands?
This is the kind of approach that's needed to most of the commands and game features I've come across.
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@Cupcake And it'd be great, since coded items have an effect on in-game mechanics, if we knew what the significance of the stats involved are. Is it worth paying three times the price for Sword A over Sword B? At the moment there's no way to make an informed decision based on helpfiles.
Oh, and another thing... the game really needs a way for people to make one-off custom pages and put it on the web. Even really common basic things (such as 'which PBs are being used', let alone more handy information) couldn't be posted.
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@Arkandel, it's my understanding that PBs are not being policed. Which is to say no one gets dibs on one. @Kanye-Qwest made mention of it in another thread.
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@Arkandel said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:
Oh, and another thing... the game really needs a way for people to make one-off custom pages and put it on the web. Even really common basic things (such as 'which PBs are being used', let alone more handy information) couldn't be posted.
I disagree on this example. Strongly! @Karmageddon is right. No one on our staff has the time to invest in maintaining such a list, and I definitely don't want players encouraged to police other players on something like this.
But, there are many guides people make that get added to the website as is. It's just not something where players can post. (Nor can I, actually, I don't know shit for Django or CSS). Did you have other examples? I mean, I could also pay for a wiki players could dump things on, if there was something important for player maintenance.
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I actually wish we could do MORE things on the website. Like set up events directly off of it. Or banking. Banking from the website would be amazing.
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@Karmageddon Sure, but that's not the point. For starters I just didn't want to reuse any whether it was allowed or not.
But the real issue is any number of custom pages can be quite handy (maybe you want to add a quote to your character page for example, or create an primer for a PrP series you're running or... anything, really) and we're all used to them given how popular wiki use has gotten over the last decade.
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@Arkandel said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:
@Karmageddon Sure, but that's not the point. For starters I just didn't want to reuse any whether it was allowed or not.
But the real issue is any number of custom pages can be quite handy (maybe you want to add a quote to your character page for example, or create an primer for a PrP series you're running or... anything, really) and we're all used to them given how popular wiki use has gotten over the last decade.
Just as another perspective, I'm very much enjoying the standardized content and format. It's really very nice to be able to go to any given character page and see only the useful information, without fifty half-dressed photos, sparkly gifs, or every "funny" thing the character has ever said in any scene. coughs I also love not having to make a wiki page, or keep it updated. All of that just...happens. It's great.
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@Pyrephox I knew I shouldn't have mentioned character pages, now everyone will fixate on that. I agree with what you're saying though.
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@Arkandel, my point is that there will not be a list unless Staff changes the policy, which seems very unlikely. Having a list will result in policing PBs. If you are concerned about not having the same PB as some other character, your only option, really, is to go through all the character pages of the same gender and look at the photos. Even then, someone else can come along and use the same PB you have, and it won't be in violation of anything. In fact, from what I gather, it would be considered poor form to complain about it.
@Kanye-Qwest, I'm definitely among those who feels frustrated by an inability to add content, and I still intend to create a Wikidot site to act as a repository for my org's lore and doings. If any of it is worthwhile enough to end up on the main Arx site, cool. If not, my peeps and I will still have a handy reference for our history and evolving cultural notes.
ETA: Speaking of the main Arx site, I would love for a search function. I miss that so much.
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I will agree that the helpfiles need serious attention. As others have said, they're definitely not clear in a lot of instances.
An emphatically linked starter guide for the theme would be great. There's totally a history intro and timeline doc, but you have to go digging to find it. I tend to be pretty intuitive and not easily discouraged in these sorts of areas, but I definitely had to look around a bit. Overall things just need to be more descriptive and written from a place assuming a lower level of knowledge from the reader.
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I've also got a character wandering about Arx right now. I have enjoyed most of the characters I've been able to experience, and have been able to experience more of those characters than I've actually run across, due to the journal system.
For me, the big takeaway from reading the last few pages of this thread is that the work subfunction of the task command can be used multiple times per week. I had no idea. I took the section of the task helpfile that stated, "The /work switch allows you to consume one of your tasks per week in order to do some small service for your chosen organization, generating a nominal amount of money and resources." to mean that you could only do it once during the week. This will increase my weekly resource generation by probably four or five times, from pathetically minuscule all the way up to merely pitiable.
Overall, I'm quite impressed, and it hasn't really even started yet.
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I suspect people might disagree with me here but in case it's useful.
For games neither based on the real world or an existing work of fiction (a novel series, TV show etc) I'd really somehow like to get a feel not for the IC culture. How does it 'feel' to be in the streets of a city? How corrupt is the average lawmaker or magistrate? What about the rural areas, how far does the rule of order reach as we move away from the centre of power? How does the populace at large at each region feel about their own nation, are they proud and patriotic, cynical and subdued, resentful and boiling?
When I run plot I need to be comfortable that my interpretation is more or less consistent with everyone else's; it feels - to me, maybe to others - like a challenge to the suspendion of disbelief if one plot calls for hunger riots by gap-toothed peasants during civil unrest but the other person's has clean, orderly streets and shocked, cultured civilians closer to what you'd expect for Victorian London.
Suggestions:
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Some 'look and feel' pages letting us know about these things in the most popular parts of the game. Make sure to include TL;DR tidbits about the relations between major Houses, the Crown, etc. Basically an IC primer sorted by geography and association.
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When PrPs are allowed/encouraged (last I saw Apostate said it was going to happen after the MU* opened officially, maybe I remember wrong though) perhaps either assign STs with geographical areas in which they have a greater degree of leeway - obviously with some oversight to make sure no one goes too far off the reservation - to expand on. You know how idle characters end up on the roster and others can play them? Do the same for geography, slowly expanding the world through the creative efforts of others - that way you also move away from an echo chamber of only staff members contributing to the game's overall atmosphere, and 'zones' will feel more diverse.
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Keep things moving. PCs when left to their own devices tend to move toward greater stability since there is a finate - often small - number of them and it might be no one wants to rock the boat too much. So rock it for them, but document it clearly - not in a long-ass History Of The World wall of text no one but a handful of players will ever go through but a short index which includes only IC events since the game started. It can double as a visible way for influential characters to leave their mark on the game since look, that's your name right up there!
Just some ideas.
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I would love a task guide. Which is to say, not a "guide on how to use the task system" (though I'd love that too) but rather a manual to the tune of "you are playing a noble with lands, these are the things you are expected to do, here are the commands most relevant to you" and so forth, same for crafter oriented types, combat oriented types, etc.
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Starting beta tomorrow, November 1st. This means in practical terms the start of GMing for the game, and beta should run for the length of the first major story arc of the game (season 1), which will hopefully coincide with us finishing most of the major systems that we'll use to have long term sustainability. Things not yet fully implemented but planned for beta are:
- Dominion, the land and army management systems and macro war systems for the game.
- The Exploration system, with dynamically generated rooms and automated plot/events in them.
- Projects, automation similar to investigations used for characters working together on offscreen projects to accomplish specific goals. Probably tied into a revamped task system.
- A GMing system for players creating PRPs, that would temporarily grant GM, staff like powers and code support.
- Full social combat systems.
- Specialized training under Abilities (fighting styles, spy/thief/assassin training, magic systems, etc)
- Various minigames (animal breeding, for example)
- Milestones, character timelines, increasing integration of the website that'll ultimately see many game commands duplicated on the website and players able to handle pretty much anything ooc related on the website.
- Refinements to various systems to give player characters more control without GM interaction and increasing automation to systems that'll reduce staff overhead and increase response times.
And then ideally we'll be ready for full release. Mostly during beta we'll be watching for things that break and then trying to fix them, and handling everything by hand as we need to.
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@Apos said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:
- The Exploration system, with dynamically generated rooms and automated plot/events in them.
I must say that sounds neat as heck. One of the things i wish was more possible in the MUSHing side of things is the ability to get a small group together and just find random things like that.
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@ThatGuyThere In the very very long term, ideally we can make a build of evennia that's available that would feel more like off the shelf TinyMUSH and then let people add in coded features we've created like that if they want, so that someone wouldn't need to know much python in order to get the kind of game they'd like. Because I totally get wanting to have a very code-light MUSH feel game, but then the possibility of, 'well, except maybe for this one thing' or whatever.