Hey fellow nutters who chose to read this! 'Ere we go!

-could prisoner mobs be made to respond to a "release" or "free" command that would make them "run off to freedom"?

-would it work to have something implemented so that if you assist in raiding or PK you immediately enter open PK status with the opponent(s)?

-there are emotes showing the existence of VirtualNonPlayerCharacters are players supposed to take them into account whenever they are choosing a course of action?

-can we have a newbie movement bonus that degrades at level 10 or 11, say an extra 150pts or so? Or maybe a movement cost penalty removal til level 10 or 11?

-ala Riftshadow could mobs signal players if they have something to say ie a quest to offer? Maybe make it signal view scan or look from a specific distance?

-could one city be made truly newbie friendly with mobs like Riftshadow's guards in their central city. The ones that WHACKed you unconscious and dumped you outside the lawful area surrounding the city.

-please, pretty please, could we have emotes that target players also known as pmotes or smotes? Example:

pmote pokes Nepenthe on the arm.

You see: You poke Nepenthe on the arm.
Nepenthe sees: Psektos pokes you on the arm.
Rest see: Psektos pokes Nepenthe on the arm.

also with esay whenever you put a capital letter in it is reduced to lower case:

esay 'smiling at Nepenthe' Bah!

turns into.....

Psektos says smiling at nepenthe 'Bah!'


- could there be "outfitter" mobs that trade purely in newbie available gear, ie lesser gear, making it all open to players of any level?

-could we, please, have some non combat based traits/skills/secondary professions to play around with?

-could someone do a very robust and well thought out newbie guide that will be attached to the webpage? (personally I think warrior is one of the absolutely WORST classes to choose as a new player, they are so dependent on gear and preps that without serious game knowledge you get owned...even if you play one of the giant races which mitigates some of the issues)

To cover some things that haven't already been covered in depth...

The area echoes, or "emotes" as you're calling them, are for environment. React to them however you wish, it's your character, and your roleplay.

The pmote sounds cool, but it'd be hard to account in code for situations like...
pmote nepenthe pokes your arm

where the result would have to be:

You see: You poke Nepenthe's arm.
Nepenthe Sees: Psektos pokes your arm.
Rest see: Psekto pokes Nepenthe's arm.

There'd have to be a "grammar code" or something, wouldn't there? Will we start seeing little squiggly green lines on our screen a la Microsoft Word?


Okay. Moving on. Um. Non-combat skills.
Currently, the only option in the game for this sort of thing is Herald. Of course there is forgecraft for dwarves, and other powers (Maran Mantle thingy?) that create items, but Herald is the only place where you can customize items and in some cases create completely custom items.

Granted these skills (see the Artistry helpfile) are limited, but there is that option. It is also one of the reasons I am attracted to the cabal again and again. I know other players enjoy playing around with these skills, and I think that if a wider variety of similar skills were made more widely available at little or no cost to their standard set of pk skills, you'd see no shortage of players taking them.

The only penalty I would think for taking on these skills would be that they use practice sessions, and that could take away from practice sessions that could be alternatively be used on PK skills.

The best way I can think of to implement this would work like this. After char creation, in the academy, there would be a room which introduces the arts, crafts, and common culture of Thera. Here you would be informed of the availability of "Professions".

-You could choose one at any time (perhaps a level restriction on this), via the command Profession <whatever>.

-This would allow you to learn anywhere from 1-5 skills in each profession, depending mostly on what the Imms want to implement. I can't see making any thing larger than that for any specific profession.

-You would be able to see the profession skills you're able to practice after you have chosen one, via the command "Professions".

-Normal practice sessions, just like rehearse for bards, would be used to practice these skills at specific mobs in towns. I think that certain mobs already in most of the major cities could easily be called guildmasters of their chosen professions.

-additionally, perhaps be allowed to learn a second profession at level 40. This would be a risky undertaking, considering it'd take even MORE practice sessions away from PK skills. Of course, I could see the first set of profession skills starting at 50% or 70%, and the second starting at 0%, if this were implemented.

-professions I could definately see people using: Farmer, Weaponsmith, Armorer, Scribe*, Alchemist, Jeweler.

*scribes: Mages would be able to make recitable scrolls at a high level, containing very basic spells of low power and short lifespan. Non-mages would simply be able to create written items without the use of pen/paper items, via the "Scribe" command. Scribe would work just like Note, except when you finish a scribing, it simply creates that scribing in your inventory as an item. A field for item description (must include certain keywords to avoid abuse, just like any item created with a profession skill), and the scribing itself.

The professions I most see being taken are Weaponsmith and Armorer, for obvious reasons, but the other professions have their various combat and noncombat uses as well. Alchemists could create certain potions and pills. Jewelers could cut gems that could be resold at a high price, or mage jewelers could enchant their gems. Farmers could cultivate a room in certain areas, which would then produce a random amount of food during certain months of the year. The more skilled the farmer, the more food, and the more filling. Giving farmers the ability to butcher would be nice.

I could very easily see professions such as these being a viable tactical addition to the game, as well as a flavorful one.

I guess that's all I have for now. Sorry this is so huge! I do understand that non-combat professions are relatively low on the priority list, and that implementing them in this fashion would be akin to creating several small classes. It would be a massive project that I wouldn't honestly expect to see happen in the next year or two. But I honestly think it would add a lot of fun, flavor, and depth to the game in many areas.

Splntrd

>The area echoes, or "emotes" as you're calling them, are for
>environment. React to them however you wish, it's your
>character, and your roleplay.
>
>The pmote sounds cool, but it'd be hard to account in code for
>situations like...
>pmote nepenthe pokes your arm
>
>where the result would have to be:
>
>You see: You poke Nepenthe's arm.
>Nepenthe Sees: Psektos pokes your arm.
>Rest see: Psekto pokes Nepenthe's arm.
>
>There'd have to be a "grammar code" or something, wouldn't
>there? Will we start seeing little squiggly green lines on our
>screen a la Microsoft Word?

If we drop that you see line it leaves us with target sees and rest see lines. If you look at the sentences, that you see-line is the problematic one, since it differs from others grammatically. This is likely why emote command does not have any such corrections. But let's go to pemote and the coding it needs. We ditch the you see-part. So, you'll get the rest see-output. The syntax Psektos suggested was:

pemote <target> pokes your arm.

This output would go unchanged to the target(<name> pokes your arm). To the output for rest(<name> pokes <target>'s arm):

-_you_ is replaced with _<target>_

-_your_ or _yours_ is replaced with _<target>'s_

In the code, _ denotes blank space, comma, period etc. Including this to the code would prevent the replacement in words which contain strings you or your.

Since you and your functions similarly as the sentence object as a third person name, no other grammatic code is necessary if the first person form is omitted, as it is currently omitted from emote.

-could prisoner mobs be made to respond to a "release" or "free" command that would make them "run off to freedom"?

Sounds like a decent amount of coding for relatively little reward.

-would it work to have something implemented so that if you assist in raiding or PK you immediately enter open PK status with the opponent(s)?

I think this one has been answered sufficiently.

-there are emotes showing the existence of VirtualNonPlayerCharacters are players supposed to take them into account whenever they are choosing a course of action?

You can do this if you wish; I have in the past.

-can we have a newbie movement bonus that degrades at level 10 or 11, say an extra 150pts or so? Or maybe a movement cost penalty removal til level 10 or 11?

We've been sprinkling gear into the game that addresses movement and movement regeneration at lower levels. This is getting some attention, but I don't think it will ever be an 'across the board' bonus for all newbies.

-ala Riftshadow could mobs signal players if they have something to say ie a quest to offer? Maybe make it signalview scan or look from a specific distance?

This is pretty much what we have right now, with most quests set to trigger upon you entering the room with the questy mob. I don't think there's much of an added benefit to throwing scan into the equation.

-could one city be made truly newbie friendly with mobs like Riftshadow's guards in their central city. The ones that WHACKed you unconscious and dumped you outside the lawful area surrounding the city.

I agree that this would take away from Tribunal's job.

-please, pretty please, could we have emotes that target players also known as pmotes or smotes? Example:
pmote pokes Nepenthe on the arm.

You see: You poke Nepenthe on the arm.
Nepenthe sees: Psektos pokes you on the arm.
Rest see: Psektos pokes Nepenthe on the arm.

This sounds cool at first glance. It might be hard to code, though.

- could there be "outfitter" mobs that trade purely in newbie available gear, ie lesser gear, making it all open to players of any level?

Outfit may not be the greatest command in the game...but it's better than what we had two years ago, which was pretty much nada.

-could we, please, have some non combat based traits/skills/secondary professions to play around with?

These traits and skills already exist. See help COMMERCE. I think it is safe to say that things like this will continue to be added to the game.

As for secondary professions, that's something that might come about as well. There's a few projects being worked on now that are higher up on the importance scale, though.

-could someone do a very robust and well thought out newbie guide that will be attached to the webpage? (personally I think warrior is one of the absolutely WORST classes to choose as a new player, they are so dependent on gear and preps that without serious game knowledge you get owned...even if you play one of the giant races which mitigates some of the issues)

This is in work, by me. Making it robust and still keeping it short and in the realm of readability is challenging to say the least, but I think I can do it. As for warrior being a poor choice as a new player, I have to disagree. They are usually fairly evenly matched (if not a bit more powerful than most other classes) at the lower ranks, which is when a newbie needs it the most.

Thanks for the thoughts!

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

Neat stuff in the works seems to be what you are hinting at. Tease.

I know the Tribunal are supposed to be the Law but really having a single hometown that was doubly guarded would not hurt. I read more and more disgruntled player deletion/retirees meaning there are less and less potential Tribunal players. Dio's forums are pretty harsh, sad, and nearly no fun at all to read.

Maybe have a set of guards patrolling that ONLY engages non-criminals who attempt to PK in the city? Otherwise they scream like little boys and run away from a hardened criminal with the criminal flag.

Hell I had a character die in a city, twice, with a Tribunal present. Must have been afk or lagged off, which happens. I just wish that if you are a Tribunal and have to go AFK maybe turn off your duty flag? Makes looking to your city for sanctuary more helpful.

The advanced emote code is out there. I know Arm has it, and several other muds have it as well. Let me just say that proper emotes for each and every situation is amazingly nice for a roleplayer. Atmosphere rocks!

As for the help file newbie stuff, I would strongly suggest consulting the players, especially the veterans, who are not senile, who remember their experiences and what was key to them making the next step to becoming a competent CF player.

>As for warrior being a
>poor choice as a new player, I have to disagree. They are
>usually fairly evenly matched (if not a bit more powerful than
>most other classes) at the lower ranks, which is when a newbie
>needs it the most.

Warrior, as a class, is powerful at the low ranks, but that doesn't mean a newbie warrior necessarily will be. Plus the warrior class doesn't afford as much ability to learn what gear does (identify), learn where gear comes from (locate object), explore Thera freely (pathfinding, refresh, duo), avoid repeated PK death (detect hidden, detect invis, camo, duo, hide), or be as useful to ranking groups (sanc, rejuvenate, metabolic quickening), ...

Just my $0.02.

Assassin is a FAR superior newbie class. You see nearly everyone coming, and can avoid being seen by most. You are also useful to groups as a tank (even without practice) or as a maladictor, regardless of eq.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>Hey fellow nutters who chose to read this! 'Ere we go!
>
>-could prisoner mobs be made to respond to a "release" or
>"free" command that would make them "run off to freedom"?

Would be kinda neat, however if you're also requesting exp
for it it can be abused.

>-would it work to have something implemented so that if you
>assist in raiding or PK you immediately enter open PK status
>with the opponent(s)?

As Isildur said, imms don't want a safe zone. I don't either,
to be honest. You should always be able to beat down someone
to get that nice limited thing they are wearing

>-there are emotes showing the existence of
>VirtualNonPlayerCharacters are players supposed to take them
>into account whenever they are choosing a course of action?

I see you've probably also played Armageddon. Neato mud. For
RP purposes you can take them into account, but it won't hurt
you if you don't otherwise. At least, take the actual NPC's into
account.

>-can we have a newbie movement bonus that degrades at level 10
>or 11, say an extra 150pts or so? Or maybe a movement cost
>penalty removal til level 10 or 11?

There's already something like that in game I think.

>-ala Riftshadow could mobs signal players if they have
>something to say ie a quest to offer? Maybe make it signal
>view scan or look from a specific distance?

Doubt it will happen just out of preference of wanting it so
you "stumble" upon quests here and there.

>-could one city be made truly newbie friendly with mobs like
>Riftshadow's guards in their central city. The ones that
>WHACKed you unconscious and dumped you outside the lawful area
>surrounding the city.

Don't think so. Some will whack you and take all your equipment
and put it in the Sultan's Throne Room, leaving you in prison,
if that suits you?

>-please, pretty please, could we have emotes that target
>players also known as pmotes or smotes? Example:
>
>pmote pokes Nepenthe on the arm.
>
>You see: You poke Nepenthe on the arm.
>Nepenthe sees: Psektos pokes you on the arm.
>Rest see: Psektos pokes Nepenthe on the arm.

Would be neat to have a little more variety in use of emotes.

>also with esay whenever you put a capital letter in it is
>reduced to lower case:
>
>esay 'smiling at Nepenthe' Bah!
>
>turns into.....
>
>Psektos says smiling at nepenthe 'Bah!'

I'd go a bit further and say it would be cool if esays put the
action before the "XXX says" and also allowed it to work with
sayto like with esayto so...

esayto "smiling at Nepenthe" Bah! will be...

Smiling at Nepenthe, Psektos says to Nepenthe 'Bah!'


>- could there be "outfitter" mobs that trade purely in newbie
>available gear, ie lesser gear, making it all open to players
>of any level?

Outfit command works, but the rest you'll just have to scrap for.
Doesn't take long to get newbie sets.

>-could we, please, have some non combat based
>traits/skills/secondary professions to play around with?

Neat. Sounds like Armageddon again. Unsure if they would get
much use. Depends.

>-could someone do a very robust and well thought out newbie
>guide that will be attached to the webpage? (personally I
>think warrior is one of the absolutely WORST classes to choose
>as a new player, they are so dependent on gear and preps that
>without serious game knowledge you get owned...even if you
>play one of the giant races which mitigates some of the
>issues)

This would be neat.

>-could prisoner mobs be made to respond to a "release" or
>"free" command that would make them "run off to freedom"?

Or attack you. Not all prisoners are nice. Or, alternately, a swarm of guards could run in and attack you when this command is used.

>-would it work to have something implemented so that if you
>assist in raiding or PK you immediately enter open PK status
>with the opponent(s)?

This would mean anyone considering someone that is ranking has to take on that person's entire group, even if only the one person is actually in their PK.

>-there are emotes showing the existence of
>VirtualNonPlayerCharacters are players supposed to take them
>into account whenever they are choosing a course of action?

Huh?

>-can we have a newbie movement bonus that degrades at level 10
>or 11, say an extra 150pts or so? Or maybe a movement cost
>penalty removal til level 10 or 11?

I've given my $0.02 on this one before. I don't support a decreased movement cost for low-ranking characters or a system where they get extra movement points. A low level character shouldn't be able to run all the way across the world without resting. That said, I do support raising the movement regen rate so it doesn't take as long to rest up.

>-ala Riftshadow could mobs signal players if they have
>something to say ie a quest to offer? Maybe make it signal
>view scan or look from a specific distance?

Some questy mobs do this. Usually via a 'tell' or 'say' when you walk by them.

>-could one city be made truly newbie friendly with mobs like
>Riftshadow's guards in their central city. The ones that
>WHACKed you unconscious and dumped you outside the lawful area
>surrounding the city.

How plentiful would these guards be? What you're describing sounds like a no-kill zone, which the staff has already said they're not interested in. The Inn is about as close as you'll get, or any town with an on-duty tribunal.

>-please, pretty please, could we have emotes that target
>players also known as pmotes or smotes? Example:

This is a pretty cool idea.

>- could there be "outfitter" mobs that trade purely in newbie
>available gear, ie lesser gear, making it all open to players
>of any level?

Presumably the gear that's currently available to newbies is the gear the staff wants available to them. There's also the "outfit" command, which, if you've done a thing or two, gives you decent low-level armor.

>-could we, please, have some non combat based
>traits/skills/secondary professions to play around with?

I don't think anyone would take them, honestly. At least, not if it required them to give up pk-related skills.

>-could someone do a very robust and well thought out newbie
>guide that will be attached to the webpage?

I very much support this.

>>-would it work to have something implemented so that if you
>>assist in raiding or PK you immediately enter open PK status
>>with the opponent(s)?
>
>This would mean anyone considering someone that is ranking has
>to take on that person's entire group, even if only the one
>person is actually in their PK.

Well yeah. Your level 20ish and you attacking that level 30ish you better believe you are in trouble. This is the implementations on many MMPORGs. Sort of a neat thing. Adds some danger to otherwise silly acts that would be unimaginable to attempt in most other realities. D&D for example.

>>-there are emotes showing the existence of
>>VirtualNonPlayerCharacters are players supposed to take them
>>into account whenever they are choosing a course of action?
>
>Huh?

This answer makes me sad. You seem to be a long time player. You have not noticed all the "world emotes" that show people and things(carriages come to mind) moving past you? Things happening in the general populace that is not MOBIFIED should be noted in my opinion and taken into account for in a player's RP. I guess that would mean a player who wants to RP.


>>-could one city be made truly newbie friendly with mobs like
>>Riftshadow's guards in their central city. The ones that
>>WHACKed you unconscious and dumped you outside the lawful
>area
>>surrounding the city.
>
>How plentiful would these guards be? What you're describing
>sounds like a no-kill zone, which the staff has already said
>they're not interested in. The Inn is about as close as
>you'll get, or any town with an on-duty tribunal.

Obviously you never played RS. PKing in the central city was not impossible, far from it. And at higher levels the guards really did not matter one bit. It made PKing at lower levels harder to do, which in a populous central city that would make sense! And you almost never got killed by the guards(would happen rarely if you were overzealous) just waylayed and left outside of town.

In one way it was a great technique to hone up them PK skills while having a margin of safety if you messed up. I know I started a fight or three in the capital city only to be thankful of having the guards drag my butt out of there!

>>- could there be "outfitter" mobs that trade purely in
>newbie
>>available gear, ie lesser gear, making it all open to
>players
>>of any level?
>
>Presumably the gear that's currently available to newbies is
>the gear the staff wants available to them. There's also the
>"outfit" command, which, if you've done a thing or two, gives
>you decent low-level armor.

This sucks as it stands. Outfit is lame. And finding something as simple as the charred bracer can be a pain in the ass as a new player.
Especially when some freak summons the mob with it away. I hate tracking and summoned mobs that do not

Started a low level character and tried for hours to get a party going. No go. Had I been an absolute newb, the frustration would have been enormous trying to level and get items. Alleviating one of those issues would be nice.

>>-could we, please, have some non combat based
>>traits/skills/secondary professions to play around with?
>
>I don't think anyone would take them, honestly. At least, not
>if it required them to give up pk-related skills.

This is the answer I hear most often from PK focused players. I really find it sad. CF has so many limitations for RP already why snark at the option for another? I think RS had some you could learn but you had to explore and find the instructors. Made for a cool reason to explore.

Thanks for replies.

YAY another person who played RS. I loved that mud, too bad it went down never to return...

>Well yeah. Your level 20ish and you attacking that level 30ish
>you better believe you are in trouble. This is the
>implementations on many MMPORGs. Sort of a neat thing. Adds
>some danger to otherwise silly acts that would be unimaginable
>to attempt in most other realities. D&D for example.

It doesn't just apply to people attacking, it would affect people being attacked. Maybe I put together a group with a lvl11, lvl19 and lvl27. We run around and have the lvl11 guy attacking other low-ranking characters that are in his PK, then his two groupmates autoassist. That sound like a good idea?


>This answer makes me sad. You seem to be a long time player.
>You have not noticed all the "world emotes" that show people
>and things(carriages come to mind) moving past you?

Yes, I've noticed them. I said "huh?" because I thought you were suggesting some sort of game-play change, rather than just encouraging players to incorporate these "virtual" NPCs into their role-play.

On a related note...some of the area echos in Tir-Talath don't make any sense when characters are involved in certain activities, namely slaying the town's residents. I was killing a merchant once, or maybe a citizen, and got an echo about some guards or townspeople walking past and smiling at me. Must have had a bad grudge against whoever I was killing.

>Obviously you never played RS. PKing in the central city was
>not impossible, far from it. And at higher levels the guards
>really did not matter one bit. It made PKing at lower levels
>harder to do, which in a populous central city that would make
>sense! And you almost never got killed by the guards(would
>happen rarely if you were overzealous) just waylayed and left
>outside of town.

That's pretty much how it is in Galadon now, if you get made wanted. Have you fought the guards lately? If you're proposing to have the "wanted" tag added automatically, without a tribunal having to add it, that takes away one of the big jobs of the tribunal cabal. Without it Tribunal would become a "vindicator-only" cabal, with the primary focus being to hunt down criminals -outside- cities. That might be an acceptable result, but it's what would happen.

>This sucks as it stands. Outfit is lame. And finding something
>as simple as the charred bracer can be a pain in the ass as a
>new player.

Fine leather from the academy is not bad stuff at sub-10 levels. When you hit 11, yes, it starts to lose its luster, but it's still preferable at some positions. For instance, I'm not sure charred leather bracers are head-and-shoulders better than fine leather ones from the academy. Depends on what you're looking for.

Learning where gear comes from, and what different pieces of gear do, is one of the tasks a new player -must- eventually do. Most of the lowbie stuff is found in lowbie ranking areas, which should theoretically make this task a little easier w/ regard to low-level gear. If you let characters buy higher quality gear, newbies will just wear that stuff until they reach a rank where it's no longer considered "decent" at which point they're in the same predicament as before. The gear they can purchase isn't that great, but they don't know how to get anything else.

>Started a low level character and tried for hours to get a
>party going. No go. Had I been an absolute newb, the
>frustration would have been enormous trying to level and get
>items. Alleviating one of those issues would be nice.

Not being able to find a group does indeed suck, but it's sort of built in to the ranking system given that it favors groups over solo ranking. I don't see that changing. This has, unfortunately, been exacerbated by low player counts.

>This is the answer I hear most often from PK focused players.
>I really find it sad. CF has so many limitations for RP
>already why snark at the option for another? I think RS had
>some you could learn but you had to explore and find the
>instructors. Made for a cool reason to explore.

Well, here's the deal. If you have to give up something PK-related to get the non-PK skills, hardly anyone who cares about PK is going to take them. Those players who would take them are the ones who aren't PK-focused, which puts them at an even -greater- disadvantage since now they have to do without whatever PK-skills they gave up. That's not good. Now, you have to decide if these non-PK skills have some sort of "utility" value. If they do, and if it isn't necessary to give up any PK-ability to get them, -every- character will get them purely for the utility value. So, imho, they would have to have zero utility value to be viable addition to the game.

>Well yeah. Your level 20ish and you attacking that level 30ish
>you better believe you are in trouble. This is the
>implementations on many MMPORGs.

This isn't an endorsement in my mind. If I wanted to be playing Everquest, I would be.

>Sort of a neat thing. Adds
>some danger to otherwise silly acts that would be unimaginable
>to attempt in most other realities. D&D for example.

This isn't really a good idea if you think this through.

Let's say you're a 15th level conjurer grouped with a 23th level storm paladin. I'm a 32nd level human invoker that walks up to the group and casts cone of cold. I sure hope you didn't have autoassist on, or I probably just took you from full to somewhere well past dead in one spell.

Additionally, if I want to PK for whatever reason (I'm a paladin and want to kill all the necromancers around, or whatever) at non-hero range (e.g., where a lot of my opponents will be in levelling groups), if I'm faced with the prospect of always having to go 1 on 3, what I'm going to do is assemble an enormous gang instead.

I can keep going. Realistic? Eh, maybe. Fun? No thanks.

>Obviously you never played RS.

Obviously. Why would I want to leave America to visit America Jr.?

>And finding something
>as simple as the charred bracer can be a pain in the ass as a
>new player.

I suggest to you that a player who can't learn to assemble passable newbie gear without getting frustrated is likely to have many bigger problems with the game.