faroukel
Displaced Tuluki
What's a story without a villain?
Posts: 201 
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Post by faroukel on May 17, 2017 14:46:46 GMT -5
Seuly - If a player were to have done the same thing, shoot an arrow at a pc, and leave a room without even an emote, they'd have been labeled a twink (and rightly so). Staff should hold themselves to the same standards they hold players to.
Animating an npc to ultimately try and maim a pc who's seeking out some sort of conflict rp, basically trying to nerf them so they try not to actually interact with the opposite sphere, is bad form.
In my experience, SoI staff are able to hold pretty good social events...well told short stories, ect. But when it comes to DIKU combat animations, or a running plot, not so much..
They have a distinct position in the direction of the game, guided more to social rp...problem is, none of the players seem to been buying into it, and those that linger and don't fall in line are more or less punished through crap animations, refusals for support, ect.
You can't get a cobbler table (don't get me started on the ridiculousness of crafting tables...) because orcs don't wear boots, for example. Or the orc pc you've managed to plug through and help build a small stable of pc's with is suddenly surrounded by three bears, insta-ganked. Or the master skilled armourer with heaps of coin can't open a shop, because the market's filled..(With pickle and flower shops.) Or staff can't load flower seeds, because some player, somewhere, who never logs on can possibly craft them...but they can load gemmed backpacks when there's an IG leatherworker who can sell satchels and such. Where all the shops are loaded with the most basic of crap that no one wants to buy, or sit empty forever. This kind of stuff just makes the game so boring, unreliable, and more or less unplayable.
Nothing will fix SoI until the proverbial ostrich pulls it's head from the hole in the sand...but yea, not holding my breath.
I suggest anyone missin' some decent rp and players, go to Harshlands. Active, diku, rpi, permadeath, great staff, great players.
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OT
Displaced Tuluki
Posts: 257
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Post by OT on Jun 25, 2017 8:19:12 GMT -5
Somebody showed me this and I had to share it. This has to be the definitively worst design decision ever made by an RPI. Report typos, help newbs and participate in RPTs; earn stat/skill boosts, wives, personal RP plots. Goodness fucking gracious. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2017 8:38:23 GMT -5
CPP doesn't surprise me. The staff's grasp of the difference between IC and OOC has been non-existent since the launch of SOI3. In addition, though, the easily abused system above is a great example of how the staff understand nothing about how to actually design a game, on top of being non-roleplayers, disconnected from reality, with an instinct to curb stomp proactive players.
The answer is the same as it has been for years: don't play SOI. Don't reward their awful administration. Let it die and play something else.
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OT
Displaced Tuluki
Posts: 257
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Post by OT on Jun 25, 2017 10:28:31 GMT -5
I don't think there's even anyone left to take that advice. I logged in twice last month just to take a glance and I was the only one online on both occasions. Calling the administration mentally ill is a bit beyond the pale, though. They're merely incompetent.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2017 11:54:08 GMT -5
I don't think there's even anyone left to take that advice. I logged in twice last month just to take a glance and I was the only one online on both occasions. Calling the administration mentally ill is a bit beyond the pale, though. They're merely incompetent. Considering that the previous head administration of SOI was running a cult that literally worshipped colors and hawking color crystals and whatnot to their players ... it could always be worse. |
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seuly
Clueless newb
Posts: 103
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Post by seuly on Jun 25, 2017 17:10:31 GMT -5
TI (Inquisition) does something similar and its pretty bad ass. For TI, I liked another way to get some kinda karma points, because I don't got the time to rp all day, everyday like others and I haaaate doing 20 line emotes. Brain's too wired to Arm. To say no RPI does this, or isn't successful with it, would be shit wrong. I wish Arm did this, cause I use typo like a fiend.
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punished ppurg
GDB Superstar
Why are we still here? Just to suffer?
Posts: 1,098
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Post by punished ppurg on Jun 25, 2017 18:04:07 GMT -5
While falling onto an excuse of mental illness is a pretty low blow, you gotta admit that there's someone retarded somewhere who thought what they've laid out was a good idea to get players into a <10 dying game.
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faroukel
Displaced Tuluki
What's a story without a villain?
Posts: 201
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Post by faroukel on Jun 26, 2017 15:31:57 GMT -5
Don't mind the idea at all. Sure, it's more or less a schedule on how to properly distribute favourtism, but seriously...don't care. If it means more people get involved in the game, sweet deal.
The game is in a rough spot..but there are glimmers of light.
Last night, I had some of the most fun I've had playing in a long while.
PVP encounter, 4 humans vs myself.
No jumping to code. Long rp scene.
Staff interaction with a suitable contingent of orcs brought to my rescue.
Everyone lived. Everyone got a chance to rp conflict. Everyone had fun.
There should be a lot more of that. I for one, will try to do my part by trying to put some threat beyond npc beasties into the game.
But yea, CPP. Maybe not something I would propose. Maybe not something to focus on. But at least it's something that could get more players referred to game, get more players interested in contributing, and so on.
If you end up making an account, pc, or whatever...tell them Faroukel sent you, hahah!
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OT
Displaced Tuluki
Posts: 257
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Post by OT on Jun 26, 2017 17:50:53 GMT -5
If I was ever considering playing SoI, I certainly wouldn't feel encouraged by the knowledge that I'd be joining a game where people have souped-up characters boosted with bonus skills/stats, tailored personal plots and other assorted advantages. You mention PvP as your only example of the game's positives, but CPP is a feature that guarantees inequality between characters. You don't recoup former players by providing benefits for those who already play, you do it by presenting them with a way to get back into it without being at the bottom of the totem pole.
SoI probably doesn't have the means to do this anymore since they can't exactly open a new sphere or something in its current condition, but this is otherwise the type of thing that would work. This CPP stuff does the opposite of compelling me to play, not just because it's a fundamentally bad idea but because it means I'd be even further behind and my characters literally cannot catch up until the day I've earned enough poindexter points to get those same advantages. This shit matters in a game that tries to sell itself on PvP.
And, as you noted, it's a huge platform for potential favoritism... in a game that just about died as a result of favoritism.
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Post by pinkerdlu on Jun 26, 2017 17:59:05 GMT -5
time to get me a npc wife
p.s. I logged in the other day and there were 0 people online
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faroukel
Displaced Tuluki
What's a story without a villain?
Posts: 201
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Post by faroukel on Jun 26, 2017 19:51:05 GMT -5
Well, the general consensus is that no one plays anymore.. which is true to a certain extant. This sort of deflates the starting a new pc amongst a heap of tweaked (non-existing) veteran characters arguement to some part.
Get where you're coming from though and don't really disagree. More or less I guess I prefer to start at a disadvantage so that it means that much more when I stomp over other peoples characters. Haha.
There are certainly other positives, and negatives to SoI to boot (beyond the pvp comment).. but I think you could read my previous posts for the Coles notes on that.
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mike
staff puppet account
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Post by mike on Jun 27, 2017 2:49:49 GMT -5
From an e-mail with Risthe;
This was her explanation for the above log of the "interaction" with the NPC Elf. Mental illness can have a number of meanings. I don't know how one wants to define "autism spectrum" in the context of mental illness, but that's what I'm reading with Risthe's response to oldtowel's log. When I went through the long log of the original encounter, I understood that whether oldtowel's character survived or died was secondary to the desire to have a real rp encounter. So when Risthe sarcastically writes "I wish you all the fortune in finding an RPI where you cannot potentially die in reaction to the world around you." it seems to me clear that Risthe just doesn't have the empathy to understand the player's concerns: he/she can't put him/herself in players' shoes. I've experienced this profound lack of empathy with Risthe myself in the context of SoI.
State a fact. Sarcastically contend the other person is unaware of the fact, when obviously they are. Repeat. That's classic autistic communication. It's entirely centered on the autistic's own understanding of the situation: and it's the only possible understanding of a situation when one is devoid of empathy.
Sadly, these on-line MUDs especially attract people with autism issues. The relative anonymity of RPI MUDs make them relatively safe places for people with these issues to experiment with social interaction. The exclusively text-based interaction foregoes any requirement to try to understand or follow body language or eye contact. And a major social fuck-up can be remedied by simply creating a new character/persona and starting fresh. When these people hang around long enough to get into a staff position, a major fuck-up can also be remedied by an invitation to others to just go find another RPI.
Well, at least until all the players are gone. That point seems to have been reached.
And no matter how many times you explain to them the repercussions of their failed efforts to communicate, they just don't get it.
Autistic people DO tend towards having attributes that would make then appear to be good staff choices: they often have an ability to stare at a screen for long periods, alone, and not feel lonely or isolated, and they can get deeply involved in a task (like building or coding or checking logs and records)-- to the point of obsession. I write that as someone who has these some of these tendencies myself.
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OT
Displaced Tuluki
Posts: 257
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Post by OT on Jun 27, 2017 6:49:42 GMT -5
I just wanted to point out, since two people have messaged me thinking I'm oldtowel, that I'm not.
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Post by playeronebegin on Jun 28, 2017 14:12:55 GMT -5
Is it just me or does anyone else think there's just too much documentation? Things like this make me cringe, along with all the other supposedly helpful pages in their wiki. It just seems like I can't even begin to interpret how I should be able to act in a given situation. Anyone else feeling this too? |
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faroukel
Displaced Tuluki
What's a story without a villain?
Posts: 201
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Post by faroukel on Jun 28, 2017 14:23:11 GMT -5
There is a huge focus on documentation.
Tolkien left a lot of information in minute detail. SoI staff/players have also developed a lot of content.
I've mixed feelings on it. Sometimes, it's awesome, other times, tiresome.
I think the only parts that particularly bother me, are when PC's are -expected- to conform completely to documentation that is open to interpretation or is ad hoc non-Tolkien fanon.
Otherwise, I usually see complete documentation as a plus.
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