Posts made by Bananerz

Investigations are wonderful aspects that generate a lot of RP, lore and fun. It's more fun when you don't just use your own retainer but have multiple people looking into things where you can get various results that don't always pan out how you're thinking it'd go! The Scholars is one group off the top of my head publicly that had good examples of this, the Darkwaters did some too.

Retainers are great to even out your abilities without overpowering your own specific character.

Battle focused character but weak on social/investigative? Get and create a social retainer and begin upping their levels.

Social focused character but weak on battle skills? Get and create a champion retainer and begin upping their levels and giving them gear.

Retainers are cool, except a zillion of them following people and those creepy animals slithering up to deliver a message. Nobody wants bird poo in the eye or rabies! Bird messenger delivers a message, "KAW! KAW! KAAAAAW!" You take 50 damage to your right eye, becoming blind. Lord Zipperzot the next day brings a case against you in court for ignoring his request that he sent via messenger.

The clues and that entire system are absolutely a fun thing about the game. Working out your +theories, sharing them with groups and individuals who then create their own as well. It's a fun rabbit hole that I haven't experienced with the rapidness of response in other games.

Dismissing someone's negative experience is in itself a shitty thing to do and ultimately that type of thinking is going to roll into other negative problems. Arx is a community environment based on fixing a lot of the old problems of MU*s, and that's exciting to see change. Dismissing people's negative experiences and telling them to go fuck themselves is part of the old way.

Being not open for engagement from new people is in itself an OOC manipulation of the game as you utilize OOC friendship and coercion on a level you might not recognize. Your clique is a very clear way of ensuring padding to your character with the idea that "I don't owe RP to anyone" turning into "I don't know how you'll react, so I don't want the unknown possible outcome". That is loading your dice, and I sure as heck saw a lot of that.

The majority of organizations had significant manipulation on +tasks as well as the sharing of AP. Members discussed this openly on channels on how particular ones are set up to maximize various resources. There was zero RP with support requests being sent, again with the focus that if you didn't help, you weren't doing your part and then pushed aside as you can work out who helped and didn't. The OOC manipulation is significant on Arx, with most here closing an eye to it while they point at others like Max.

In the end, you aren't wanting new players or a community to grow, you're just wanting the same old thing called something different.

@Roz OK, I'm wrong on the 100's. 30's a week plus extras. Still, HIGH.

@Pandora I'll message you a private response because I'm irked with a bit of your response.

Stats: It's very easy to gain a lot of XP per week, and there are significant gainers per week. Look at the reports that are posted. We're nearly at the 200xp 40xp a week realm. That's a big problem and from the discussions on channels, it's easy to see that people do become masters of everything because there is nothing throttling them. You're at folks aiming for 6's.

Cost to Actions: The siege showed a huge amount of available cash, players talked in journals/RP and channels that while there was a large force around the city, there really wasn't an experience of a siege. Sure, you had Bringers and their ilk pop up on events from time to time, but Team Enemy experienced a lot of losses with their special NPC's, what did the players experience except off camera forces lost? You should as a player enjoy that challenge has a risk/reward that is equal otherwise just roll a dice and select the winning pose from a list.

Social: Then why have socio/economic classes in a pretendy game if it means nothing? You should have constraints, there should be expectations upheld on appropriate behavior. Otherwise, wipe it out and everyone is the same. I enjoyed playing a steward, it was terrific fun. But the amount of nobility crossing social boundaries showed that the players themselves don't understand it, but then again it is a fantasy and they're desiring to act out their fantasy for entertainment. That's why you don't see anyone make a fuss about it IC but it consistently pops up OOCly, because people are playing a fantasy and don't want to deal with the reality of limitations on a game. Nobles should have stewards, they should have persons that bridge the gaps of society which in turns creates more RP and begins including others outside your normal A to B RP.

Cliques: @Apos does a great job being inclusive, and the game is great at addressing issues around agency which is a huge breath of fresh air. Just because something exists currently doesn't mean that it is okay, and if we have the ability to change it, why not?

Animals: Now that you made me irritated and bitchy, I'll just say that I'm sick of seeing so many animals follow people around like they are a Disney princess in a movie about to sing away their troubles. STAWP. It'd be great if there was a +followers/squelch command so you wouldn't see any followers on anyone in a room or +messenger/denyanimal, because who wants to have a snake or lemur bite them.

*Edited xp! Thanks voice of reason!

I enjoyed being antagonistic towards particular characters simply based on their fealty or class, and even enjoyed doing that in white journals, as long as it'd offer opportunities for engaging and create RP versus just being an ass (although I was called that!).

I find in Arx there is too much of classes crossing social boundaries and what ought to be very odd behavior such as a princess engaging with commoners, lower boroughs criminals and whatnot and characters generally pussyfooting around each other with definite OOC manipulation and pressure happening to reinforce specific player (not character) order. I didn't like that, but I really enjoyed the stories and background of the game although I've said my goodbyes.

I find that the worst part of the game is what will be coming in the future with skill bloat and masters of everything, no realistic costs for actions with consequences. That, and what already was discussed with social combat and a clique/mob mentality on attacking players that isn't very nice.

I too find ansi in a text game annoying, although I'll also include actually having items as well is annoying because you'll have to deal with the db bloat that comes due to player hoarding. Just give a command to allow a character to adjust their descriptions for clothing with +outfit and ensure a policy is in place that you need dots in resource to cover it. Colour for me should convey meaning and information on a text game, so it's slightly frustrating when people look like rainbows especially with hugely long descriptions (thank goodness for quicklook).

I've found that I never look at what a person is wearing, much less actually looking at a particular item.

Tips for players who don't know about Dragon Age on joining a Dragon Age based game.

1. Go buy or borrow any game in that series.
2. Pester a friend to watch them play.
3. Watch youtube/twitch re: that game series.
4. Google it.
5. Have staff ensure there's a theme page on that wiki which breaks down Dragon Age to it's core, with the particular history/etc being pulled. Give it to your non-gaming friend and see if they can understand it (is it too much? too little?).
6. Profit.

@Apu said in Tea!:

@Tyche

Bean tea!