zalanthan obsidian is actually metal

As far as weapon breaking goes, I've only ever had weapons break on me with a hg or a high strengthed dwarf. I had an exceptional strength dwarf warrior who went through like 3 weapons in about 10 days played, which I feel would be a decent balance between playability and realism. But, again, that was on a high strength dwarf. I've never had a human break his weapon, as far as I remember.

A coin press? If that's what the story is, it's "behind the scenes" now. The mining office will buy obsidian and glass (who the hell knows what they use glass for), but the echo is something along the lines of "a slave collects your <item> and carries it off." No mention of a press, as far as I recall. But on that note: an obsidian press? I could see if they had a metal stamp that they used to try and beat a crude dragon image onto the coin, but it boggles my mind what they would use to generate the power to mint obsidian...

I would love to say I don't believe you, but with everything that has happened in the last several years, I can.

I really can believe something that unreasonable was added to the game at some point. I can only hope it has been removed, as another poster commented on in the thread. I haven't played for a while and can't check myself, unfortunately.



It isn't "almost wholly different", by any stretch of the imagination. It is moderately more durable and can hold an edge equal to that of steel, instead of superior to it. It is still glassy, it is still shaped in the same manner, it comes from similar sources and carries out similar functions. It has the same weight burden of obsidian*. It still looks, feels, smells like obsidian. The dust from mining obsidian still kills many (virtual) slaves a year.

* This isn't to say there aren't many unrealistic uses of the material in the game, such as high end obsidian longswords that weigh less than a bone longsword of the same dimensions, but this is a failure on the part of the person who created the item, rather than a failure of how the material was added to the game originally.

It has been given a small fantasy adjustment to better serve the playability of the game, nothing more. There is already an overall preference for bone weapons in the game due to weight, even in Allanak where obsidian is king. Do you believe having to carry four obsidian scimitars in order to reliably be armed from the start to finish of a few hours long RPT is going to improve the game in a meaningful way?

We could simply remove longer obsidian blades and keep obsidian for daggers and small blades, a nod to the inherent fragility of our real world obsidian, but then you have to completely retcon entire swathes of the southern lore and economy, not to mention both the code and the items that depend upon it.

There is no deception or distraction involved, there has been no effort made to conceal the fact that Zalanthan obsidian is not a precision copy of it's Earth counterpart. There is no Red Herring, stewed or otherwise.



I have no interest in talking down to anyone and I'm not in the habit of backhanding people with a smile on my face. I've personally been the receiving end of more than my share of condescension; spouses, coworkers, family, friends.

I wouldn't perpetuate it towards anyone, even anonymous posters on the internet. If that is how it came across, you can have my apology here and now. I'm sorry for that.



The entire post was not directed towards you, but in response to the threads developments on the whole. I responded directly to your quote to correct what I believed to be at the time, a complete falsehood that was not just beyond ridiculous, but gave further credibility to the 'Zalanthan obsidian is a metal replacement' line of thinking, which was never intended.

I didn't know at the time that someone decided hard, glass-like material should be pressed as a way to justify a coin generation mechanic.



This isn't wrong, but it's being used to justify hyperbole. I think I've covered obsidian well enough to move on.



The obsession with realism is a relatively new one in mainstream gaming. The number of games like Rust in development is just astounding, as are the number of people calling for even more. That isn't saying it's a brand new concept or that RPI's haven't adhered to realism to varying degrees over the years, but the casual nod towards it in the past is nothing compared to the frothing-at-the-mouth obsession many players and staff have in recent years.

Armageddon is slanting farther and farther towards realism being the core design, rather than a feature and it comes at the expense of game play and the exciting experiences that made it such a wonderful escape from reality.

Where at one point it was something to keep in mind as a way of keeping the setting grounded and interesting, it is now a make-or-break issue for many people, both players and staff. Worse, it's used to back the removal of points of interest that a large percentage of the players wouldn't see in the first place, taking away potential stories and rewards for exploring and replacing it with an empty room someone will just walk through without a second glance. It goes beyond a silly discussion on obsidian or if there should be "bowel movement" code in place.

I personally think the push for excessive realism and ultra-low fantasy is squeezing much of the former life out of the game and it's a sore spot of discussion for me, so I'll leave it alone from this point forward before it turns into ranting.

I'll end my part in the discussion here, Bitter, as I don't really want to trade insults with you.

QFMFT. u nailed it right on the fucking head, legendary.

I disagree with this. When I started playing Arm in 2000, it was originally touted as being more 'realistic'. You died much, much faster in Arm combat than compared to other MUDs at the time. You came out of chargen weak as a kitten and this was justified as being 'realistic' that your average guy couldn't take on a pack of raptors and had to train. The Byn is fitted around the concept of realism: you follow a list of chores that involve cleaning toilets, chopping vegetables, maintenance, etc. The weapon shattering code was implemented because it was supposed to make obsidian behave realistically. The noble houses, belief that nobles were better than commoners, etc was supposed to be based on 'realism' and influenced by the Middle Ages.



I'm not sure what you're specifically talking about or referring to. However, 'low fantasy' and 'realism' aren't mutually exclusive to rewards for exploring and potential stories. Not by a long shot.




Two things-
1)The discussion about obsidian and questioning the reality about it comes down to why the fuck they just don't implement metal. I've posted numerous times about this and no one has yet responded or addressed it. If obsidian is going to serve the same functions and have the same behavior as metal IG, then why not just implement metal? why go through the mental gymnastics of well this is LIKE obsidian but chemically different and behaves way different as well. If I write a book about 2014 where there's no cell phones but everyone carries around a landline phone with them at all times that functions exactly as cell phone and I never mention or emphasize the downside of having a phone with a super-duper long cord, you would say wtf is the purpose of not including cell phones if you're just going to essentially rewrite them in?

2)There is no push to make the game 'ultra-low fantasy'. The game is nowhere near being low fantasy, much less ultra-low fantasy. One of the selling points of the game and setting is that it's not the typical D&D 'wizards are everywhere and magic magic magic!' setting. The front page says the following: "Any magick not granted by the Kings is feared and hated, and where the punishment of such a curse might be death." Yet I'll guarantee that gemmed mages are still rubbing elbows with non-gemmers in the Gaj right now. Arm has drifted so far from its original attitudes on magick that the most recent HRPT ended with a fucking volcano being magickally teleported into a place. This was a game where once upon a time PCs fought in a guerilla war against the south, or infiltrated the Tor Academy and blew it up with flash powder without magick. The first big Allanak vs Tuluk war was pretty low on magick iirc. Arm is so far away from it's original roots (which weren't even low fantasy in the first place tbh) that shifting over an inch will hardly impact it or take away the fun.

Uhm.. metal was far more common. You wouldn't carry 4 obsidian scimitars to an RPT you would have an iron longsword eventually. Is it that fucking unbelievable that you could have one of these back in the day? lol. My god they twisted DS so bad... :/

Not in the form of entire swords made out of one solid piece of obsidian.