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Post by Cockasix on Mar 17, 2020 21:50:30 GMT -5
So I was thinking, some long ass time ago... I'm talking a long ass time ago I decided to go poke around in the blue caverns and, to my surprise. Aside from getting fucked by staff, it wasn't super big. Well essentially you go in and at the end of it after a underground lake there's a locked trapdoor, to my curiosity from not playing in god knows how long; has anyone been past that trapdoor or was I partying in the scary hole? Logs bitch, paste 'em.
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jkarr
GDB Superstar
Posts: 2,027
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Post by jkarr on Mar 18, 2020 1:38:14 GMT -5
So I was thinking, some long ass time ago... I'm talking a long ass time ago I decided to go poke around in the blue caverns and, to my surprise. Aside from getting fucked by staff, it wasn't super big. Well essentially you go in and at the end of it after a underground lake there's a locked trapdoor, to my curiosity from not playing in god knows how long; has anyone been past that trapdoor or was I partying in the scary hole? Logs bitch, paste 'em.
prob need ethereal or shadow to get past it but thats only if the tunnels dont fuck ur spell affects
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Post by jcarter on Mar 18, 2020 8:07:29 GMT -5
there's barriers that prevent you from moving through those doors as an ethereal.
those barriers are in a ton of random places.
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Post by psyxypher on Mar 18, 2020 8:23:06 GMT -5
there's barriers that prevent you from moving through those doors as an ethereal. those barriers are in a ton of random places. Willing to be there's a crap ton of odd secrets in this game that I'm pretty sure no one knows about, either because it's so well hidden or that the information didn't get passed down from generation of staffers.
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Post by jcarter on Mar 18, 2020 11:03:47 GMT -5
there's barriers that prevent you from moving through those doors as an ethereal. those barriers are in a ton of random places. Willing to be there's a crap ton of odd secrets in this game that I'm pretty sure no one knows about, either because it's so well hidden or that the information didn't get passed down from generation of staffers. not only that, but it's set up to be undiscovered unless an immortal deems it. for example, that gated mansion that's across the street from the krathi temple has a barrier that blocks ethereal from entering it. i later tried picking it as a burglar and iirc it was unpickable.
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Post by psyxypher on Mar 18, 2020 11:40:31 GMT -5
Willing to be there's a crap ton of odd secrets in this game that I'm pretty sure no one knows about, either because it's so well hidden or that the information didn't get passed down from generation of staffers. not only that, but it's set up to be undiscovered unless an immortal deems it. for example, that gated mansion that's across the street from the krathi temple has a barrier that blocks ethereal from entering it. i later tried picking it as a burglar and iirc it was unpickable. My question is "Who the fuck is setting up all these Ethereal Barriers, and how"? It's one thing if Tek/Muk Utep/Luir/Valasarus has warded their tower/pyramid/cave/expansive underground complex against magical or psionic intrusion, another for it to be randomly set up without rhyme or reason. Personally, I say let the PCs do whatever; if they can get to the point where they can, they earned it.
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Post by Amos's Boots on Mar 18, 2020 15:31:39 GMT -5
not only that, but it's set up to be undiscovered unless an immortal deems it. for example, that gated mansion that's across the street from the krathi temple has a barrier that blocks ethereal from entering it. i later tried picking it as a burglar and iirc it was unpickable. My question is "Who the fuck is setting up all these Ethereal Barriers, and how"? It's one thing if Tek/Muk Utep/ Luir/Adamas the Lich Dragonsthrall/Valasarus has warded their tower/pyramid/ outpost/expansive underground complex/city-state against magical or psionic intrusion, another for it to be randomly set up without rhyme or reason. Personally, I say let the PCs do whatever; if they can get to the point where they can, they earned it. Fixed that for you.
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Post by explayer on Mar 18, 2020 18:59:58 GMT -5
People think of shadow walking as this great spy tool, but the truth is that its use is limited. Nobles Quarter off limits, Templars Quarter off limits, GMH houses off limits.
Some of the limitations can be worked around. For example, a shadow can't pass through the city gates, but you can still send one into and out of the city if you know how.
A lot of spying was stymied by people sitting at tables, until the auto-listening while following was added. Even then, nothing in the magick documentation mentions using it. You have to figure it out for yourself, while at the same time discovering strange quirks (certain unpredictable things can be visible to others; a shadow is able to bite people, for example).
Templars often have their ethereal eyes on (the spell duration is very long) and can figure out who a shadow belongs to fairly easily. It pisses them off to see them in taverns and such, so that sort of rules out one of the prime spots to stick your nose in.
The times I played a Drovian, I mainly found myself getting depressed at how little of what could be overheard was at all interesting. Which added to how irksome the GDB could be, with people piling on to gaslight everyone on how they are always oozing plots. There was very little evidence of this. I found shadows to be best suited for exploration more than spying.
That gated mansion belonged to a fire elementalist called Samos at one time, by the way. From 1995. It was shut ever since. Again, depressing. The game had so much potential. I think it was finally deleted or unlinked after one of my Drovians found a way to use it to turn his gem invisible while being fully visible otherwise.
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Post by psyxypher on Mar 18, 2020 20:23:10 GMT -5
People think of shadow walking as this great spy tool, but the truth is that its use is limited. Nobles Quarter off limits, Templars Quarter off limits, GMH houses off limits. Some of the limitations can be worked around. For example, a shadow can't pass through the city gates, but you can still send one into and out of the city if you know how. A lot of spying was stymied by people sitting at tables, until the auto-listening while following was added. Even then, nothing in the magick documentation mentions using it. You have to figure it out for yourself, while at the same time discovering strange quirks (certain unpredictable things can be visible to others; a shadow is able to bite people, for example). Templars often have their ethereal eyes on (the spell duration is very long) and can figure out who a shadow belongs to fairly easily. It pisses them off to see them in taverns and such, so that sort of rules out one of the prime spots to stick your nose in. The times I played a Drovian, I mainly found myself getting depressed at how little of what could be overheard was at all interesting. Which added to how irksome the GDB could be, with people piling on to gaslight everyone on how they are always oozing plots. There was very little evidence of this. I found shadows to be best suited for exploration more than spying. That gated mansion belonged to a fire elementalist called Samos at one time, by the way. From 1995. It was shut ever since. Again, depressing. The game had so much potential. I think it was finally deleted or unlinked after one of my Drovians found a way to use it to turn his gem invisible while being fully visible otherwise. I can't imagine any scenario where I'd leave my vulnerable body unattended.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2020 21:42:16 GMT -5
I can't imagine any scenario where I'd leave my vulnerable body unattended. Drovians could lock themselves into some outdoor places, quit out, and log back in at some random time later to actually ethereal around.
How about from inside an elven npc camp?
If you could find an exit that required search, that would just about make a drovian untouchable too.
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Post by psyxypher on Mar 19, 2020 11:24:25 GMT -5
I can't imagine any scenario where I'd leave my vulnerable body unattended. Drovians could lock themselves into some outdoor places, quit out, and log back in at some random time later to actually ethereal around.
How about from inside an elven npc camp?
If you could find an exit that required search, that would just about make a drovian untouchable too.
That's on me. I usually go for up front and personal roles. Not to mention I've yet to earn a point of Karma. >.> You reminded me I need to go make an "ideas" thread.
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Post by jcarter on Mar 19, 2020 12:55:13 GMT -5
People think of shadow walking as this great spy tool, but the truth is that its use is limited. Nobles Quarter off limits, Templars Quarter off limits, GMH houses off limits. Some of the limitations can be worked around. For example, a shadow can't pass through the city gates, but you can still send one into and out of the city if you know how. A lot of spying was stymied by people sitting at tables, until the auto-listening while following was added. Even then, nothing in the magick documentation mentions using it. You have to figure it out for yourself, while at the same time discovering strange quirks (certain unpredictable things can be visible to others; a shadow is able to bite people, for example). Templars often have their ethereal eyes on (the spell duration is very long) and can figure out who a shadow belongs to fairly easily. It pisses them off to see them in taverns and such, so that sort of rules out one of the prime spots to stick your nose in. The times I played a Drovian, I mainly found myself getting depressed at how little of what could be overheard was at all interesting. Which added to how irksome the GDB could be, with people piling on to gaslight everyone on how they are always oozing plots. There was very little evidence of this. I found shadows to be best suited for exploration more than spying. That gated mansion belonged to a fire elementalist called Samos at one time, by the way. From 1995. It was shut ever since. Again, depressing. The game had so much potential. I think it was finally deleted or unlinked after one of my Drovians found a way to use it to turn his gem invisible while being fully visible otherwise. same here. actually, playing a drovian was really what killed a lot of my interest in arm. part of it was the reasons you mentioned: a magical spy machine could be thwarted by people sitting at a fucking table. you couldn't use listen at all, nor sit at the table. this wasn't some obscure bug, it was something that i'm sure everyone who played a drovian immediately encountered. it was disappointing to see how such a big issue for a class got ignored for so long. the other reason was that i used the drovian to explore, and found the world to be entirely disappointing. i explored the silt sea and there was literally nothing out there. the end of the world was just a wall. on the occasion you found some of the actual cool stuff that was out there, like the tower way northwest of tuluk, it made you realize that it was meant to be impossible for anyone to reach except for super-powered sorcerers. if you tried to get to that tower you had to pass through rugged terrain that would drain a ton of stamina, go through multiple climb checks, and still get passed all the halflings, rantarri, and gith that guarded the way. once you got there, it was completely empty...except for a unit of tuluki soldiers stationed there. it was pretty obvious that absolutely no PC was meant to get there or ever use it as a base without imm approval. on the off chance you got through all the shit on the way there (which would've required at LEAST a whiran + nilaz working together to make use of as a base), magick-hating soldiers were stationed there. it made absolutely zero since in character -- how are these unit of soldiers surviving in this tower, located hundreds of miles away from Tuluk and separated by harsh terrain and patrolled by dozens of hostile and dangerous humanoids? same with 1995 samos's mansion. at some point someone got a custom mansion made for them that was set to be 100% impenetrable to anyone else for the rest of time. i don't think anyone has been in that mansion since. how silly is that? there's a huge chunk of real-estate in the middle of Allanak that has been ignored and unused for 25 years. just plain dumb.
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vex
Clueless newb
Posts: 133
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Post by vex on Mar 19, 2020 15:42:44 GMT -5
This is what I touched on, elsewhere.
It isn't that, there isn't enough content in the game, it's that much of the content has been rendered impossible for pcs to engage with, manipulate or utilize without direct staff benevolence. I've also noticed, a lot of places are being gated off by "the entrance is too small!" invisible barriers. Places, prior, my explorer celf could enter, at maximum elf height, now cannot be squeezed into, as an average sized human. Some of these, are utterly nonsensical, like expansive canyons that, inexplicably, are "too small" to climb up, despite my knowing from prior experience, that the room above is a sizeable ledge, or some other open space. At least, add a descriptive blurb to look <dir>, that explains why I'm too big to scale, a by description an open canyon.
Much content, or at least world space, is locked away behind inexplicably steep challenges, or outright impossibility. It doesn't make sense, to me, why the game world is shrinking in these ways, a little piece at a time, when players are rotting away, bored to tears, with nothing but slice of life drama, mudsex, and griefage to keep them going, and barely at that.
Cramming everyone into Allanak/Luirs, and simply denying anything beyond, will NOT revive a faltering population. It'll only starve out, those who remain.
Karmas, likewise, is a rather imposing and souring barrier, to new players. The shift to make "extended" karmas available to anyone with 1 karma is a good step, but tbh, it should just be available to everyone, all the time. New players will already contend with mundane/witch griefers, pretty much everywhere. At least give them a fair shot, with some good mundane combos.
Tbh, the game needs to get over itself, and get back to basics. Run some metas, unlock some doors, be more inclusive, especially to new players.
Game will die, if it keeps choking on its own conceit and laziness.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2020 15:55:20 GMT -5
Well said Vex.
I'll add the existence of death traps on the edge of the map in places. When I have encountered logically inconsistent traps, the staff attitude has been condescending at best, and accusatory at worst.
One my pcs was a HG who got banished into the thornwalker canyons. The exit was human sized.
"I dig my way out."
Nope.
"Friends bring me food, water and digging tools (IC), so I can dig my way out given enough time." Nope.
"The wall over the way out is 3 rooms high. My pc climbs well. I climb up and fall off the other side." Nope.
Imagine how irked they got when the whiran than banished him took a bribe to summon him out.
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hates2
staff puppet account
Posts: 17
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Post by hates2 on Mar 19, 2020 16:32:27 GMT -5
The line is "removing content to focus on stories" but the lore page indicates the stories happening do not matter in the grand scheme of things (which has been pointed out here many times).
I just can't believe it's just on the players not trying to do anything note worthy to be added to the lore page. It's obvious the barriers to making a mark on the world are beyond reach.
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