Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning

[Lisse24]

@Tinuviel said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

There has have been rumours laid down by unnamed sources that many Firan ex-pats have found themselves on Arx and have crafted niches and cliques. It's just a hypothesis, but it explains a great deal.

I said this.
In a conversation about having difficulty breaking into RP. I did not mean for it to be nearly as conspiratorial sounding as it's coming off here.
However, as I said in my previous post, people tend to favor playing with others that they know and like over strangers. Unless there's a concerted effort to force people out of these groups, you'll see cliques inevitably form.
There's a lot of people on Arx who used to play on Firan. I think it's inevitable that those people would form their own groups and favor playing with each other.

[Tinuviel]

@Lisse24 Hey, you're not the only one to have said such things. Simply the most recent.

[lordbelh]

@Arkandel Presently I am judging it both on what it is, and what it can be. The can be part is going to find itself less and less important as we go forward, though. There's only so long that can be an effective lure.

I will say that while there is always going to be a level of OOC in political games, I'm not sure exactly how much of it there is. From the outside people have a tendency to ascribe a ton of ulterior motivation for things because they don't see the roleplay behind it. I've in the past been accused of OOC collusion with people my character was actively trying to destroy. And I've also found myself squinting suspiciously at other people, but without evidence I tell myself that all I'm doing is spoiling my own fun. It usually works.

Now I'm not a head of house/voice, so admittedly I'm not that thick into the political side of things. My character just doesn't care enough. Which was part of his appeal when I picked him, since I didn't know if I'd have anything close to the time on hand I'd feel obliged to spend if I was in charge. Plot seems to be building everywhere, though. The other day I encouraged 2 members of my org to try investigating, and funded their efforts, so they'd get a piece of it.

I look forward to the dominion system coming online. I'm not sure how much of that will even be applied while there's massive plot threats on the horizon driving unity. Politics sort of fade into the background during crises, they need a bit of breathing room to happen.

If I've noticed something, it is the amusing irony of all the silver of all the orgs in the game seem to be flowing into the crafters. These commoners who are making bank beyond any noble. Since there's no actual competition or pressures on them, or costs, they're probably gonna own everything soon.

[Arkandel]

@lordbelh said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@Arkandel Presently I am judging it both on what it is, and what it can be. The can be part is going to find itself less and less important as we go forward, though. There's only so long that can be an effective lure.

Agreed.

I will say that while there is always going to be a level of OOC in political games, I'm not sure exactly how much of it there is.

For political games OOC relationships can absolutely be a good, even a great thing! As I mentioned above for example, being specifically called out to play something by a faction ("hey dude, I need a spymaster who can pull it off, are you available?") is the exact opposite of what a clique can sometimes be; if factions can treat good players who're not currently playing as untapped resources and pull them into their orbit it's the best kind of win/win - folks feel wanted, the game gains players they don't have and no one is sitting there twiddling their thumbs because there's work for them to do!

But you know what that requires? Work for them to do.

For factions to operate like this the game must give them an absolute imperative to do so; to win today's struggle we need more troops, more money, more information - generating a roleplaying 'arms race' is imperative to me. And to do that, to turn newcomers into fuel to win races thus keeping them involved you need to constantly generate carrots for the Houses to go after.

[saosmash]

I love @randomscene for breaking me out of established rp patterns. Adding new pcs to the list to specifically reward players for hunting down newbies and pinning them to the nearest butterfly board was smart as hell.

[Apos]

@lordbelh said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

If I've noticed something, it is the amusing irony of all the silver of all the orgs in the game seem to be flowing into the crafters. These commoners who are making bank beyond any noble. Since there's no actual competition or pressures on them, or costs, they're probably gonna own everything soon.

I was concerned about that myself when designing the system but I think the sinks are working better than the perception of it might be. There's one commoner in the top 60 or so for money (at around 40th), and no others in the top one hundred, though one low silver character that has done basically all the tasks ever and is sitting with more economic resources than anyone. But neither of the two outliers has bought anything, and it's important to remember that most of the money spent is deleted, not transferred.

[Sunny]

I play with like 2-3 people I have played with elsewhere (that I know of) and a WHOLE BUNCH of new to me people. It has been pretty amazing. I have not had any problems at all getting right in the middle of a whole lot of plot stuff, and I'm not even at the two week mark. I have to keep a spreadsheet to make sure I'm getting everything done I need to. This is not a complaint (nor something I see people not me needing).

Part of my success is how I play, approach things, and reach out to people. I have little concern about figuratively cold calling folks. But I would not have managed as well if the character (that came off the roster) had not been built into stuff. I STRONGLY recommend a roster noble for folks who need a boost in terms of getting involved. It is SUPER helpful.

Anyone is more than welcome to tag me here or on game for help getting into things. I will find a reason and do everything I can to hook folks in as long as I don't have to fight against you to get you in (oh, no, my character needs to be begged to help, f'rex). I play Belladonna.

[Meg]

@Sunny said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

I have to keep a spreadsheet to make sure I'm getting everything done I need to. This is not a complaint (nor something I see people not me needing).

no I totally need a spreadsheet. And even then, I fail often at marking down things I may have said in page, at work, etc. I wish I had more hours a day to devote to doing things, tbh, which isn't a feeling I've had with a game in a long time.

[Sunny]

@Meg

Same. I actually use a website spreadsheet that I can access from both work and home for that very reason. I think Google has a solution, though I use smartsheet and highly recommend it if you are a heavy spreadsheet user and you don't mind paying an MMO subscription cost to it every month. ^^

I also need more hours in the day.

[Cupcake]

I love the idea of @randomscene; not so much the fact that a lot of times either RL Stuff or the realization that on that particular day, my energy levels are way too low that keep me from engaging in scenes. (@lordbelh I regret we couldn't get something on the books, and now, well, I imagine my gal isn't the most popular with your peeps. TEEHEE.)

I've resolved with the fresh week to try and do better, hopefully get at least two of my @randomscene folks as well as start visiting people and pushing my character's current IC agendas.

[Tinuviel]

I have a to-do list too. "Glare menacingly" "Manipulate X" "Annoy Y". It's a pretty good list.

[Ominous]

I think investigation needs some TLC as a system. While I have my issues with tasks, for the most part, it does what it is supposed to. Investigation, though, doesn't require any real interaction with anyone else. It would be nice if each clue had 3 to 7 "tidbits" (Tidbit 1 of Superman's Identity, Tidbit 2 of Superman's Identity, etc. with a little bit of info to correspond to the tidbit) that get dispersed to those with information on a topic.

When you put in for an investigation on a certain topic, you get a list of the few people with tidbits on that topic, prompting you to RP with them. They can exchange their tidbit with you using the @clue system's functionality. Once you have all the tidbits collected, you get the full clue. To compensate for being unable to get the people with tidbits to RP with you, you also get the system's current rolling that, instead of giving you a full clue, will trickle in tidbits instead. Thus you can still investigate without RPing but it's quicker to RP.

Example: Kristin shot J.R. (spoilers) Considering how big of a plot element this is, a bunch of tidbits are used. Tidbit 1 - It was a woman. Tidbit 2 - The shooter had brown hair. Tidbit 3 - It wasn't J.R.'s wife's lover. Tidbit 4 - It wasn't J.R.'s wife. Tidbit 5 - J. R.'s wife's fingerprints were on the gun. So on and so forth. Once all the tidbits are gathered by a person, the system reveals Kristin shot J.R. (spoilers) to that person.

[surreality]

@saosmash said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

I love @randomscene for breaking me out of established rp patterns. Adding new pcs to the list to specifically reward players for hunting down newbies and pinning them to the nearest butterfly board was smart as hell.

Can you elaborate on what this is? It sounds like a great idea and I would like to know what it is.

[Apos]

@Ominous It actually -does- work that way. To date, no one has combined them to get a 'revelation', the second tier up. For clarity, that's how the difficulty numbers work, in the same category they combine for an aggregate where if you pass a threshold you get a big thing for the category. Three tiers total, though it's designed to have mini tiers if necessary.

[Roz]

@surreality said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@saosmash said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

I love @randomscene for breaking me out of established rp patterns. Adding new pcs to the list to specifically reward players for hunting down newbies and pinning them to the nearest butterfly board was smart as hell.

Can you elaborate on what this is? It sounds like a great idea and I would like to know what it is.

Every week, everyone gets a list of three randomly-selected characters that they can get a little extra XP and resources for RPing with. They've also just added a list of characters who have been chargenned in the last two weeks so that you can also get these benefits for RPing with new characters (with the idea of helping new folks get involved in the game).

[saosmash]

I don't always make them all -- Thanksgiving week, surprisingly enough, was a terrible time to try and RP with random people -- but it gives you a new set every week to try with for the cron and I've definitely had some scenes that I wouldn't have had if not for @randomscene. And, since everyone gets them, you can always turn out to be someone else's @randomscene, which is like a surprise bonus getting sought out for somebody ... and since both sides of the @randomscene get extra RP, it's like a giant wave of inclusion for new players as well as motivation for people who've been around longer to go out and hunt, but also motivation for people to be like "Sure, I'll RP with you, random person I don't know! Woot, extra XP."

[Ominous]

@Apos Then my suggestion would be to give a list of names of people who may have clues related to what is being investigated. Include a few false positives, so its not a definite thing. I honestly would appreciate a list of 'go pester these people and RP it out' rather than the 'wait for the roll every week' approach I am using now.

EDIT: Spelling errors. Phone posting is hard.

[Apos]

@Ominous That's a pretty good one, and I like that, though I'd have to think about how to implement it in ways that don't give a significant advantage in conflicts- some of these are designed to be very, very dangerous to look into and so on. Will need very careful tweaking.

[Glitch]

@Roz @saosmash @randomscenes is seriously one of the best RP incentives I've seen for going out and meeting people you don't already RP with on a regular basis. I think part of it is, of course, the bonus XP, but another large part is that it is such an easy system to use. The list of people is just a simple check, another quick command after the scene is done and you're set! You've now RP'd with someone you likely don't often RP with and newbies become superstars their first few weeks.

Also, being sought out for randomscenes is fun too! It is probably my favorite system on the entire game.

[Ominous]

With regards to the @randomscene code, it should be noted that BOTH players get a bonus - the player who gets another player as their random scene and the player to be scened with, so there is incentive for the person to be scened with to cooperate.