Tuluk, Nub City?

It's a desperate attempt to reclaim legitimacy.

It's the brutal executions, showers of blood and gore, rape surprises, murder and general savagery that makes Zalanthas such a dark and exciting world. Tuluk wants to be a part of that world, without having to really commit to the rest of it: The filthy, the bleak, the rotten and the barren. It wants to be lush and beautiful, elegant and sophisticated, yet still be "Zalanthas". It just doesn't work like that, even with the paint-on grit you see in the warrens, there is no escape from the relative opulence that defines Tuluk.

When you pass through the gate from the north road and into Tuluk, you are quite literally entering into an entirely different game. The original-now-bastardized theme; the rules, the social ordering, the pretension of bloodless this and Artist that, these are things that could and likely would be an interesting theme for an entire MUD. I would play a game like that and I would most certainly enjoy it, but it isn't in a stand alone game. It was shoehorned in on top of twenty years of dirty, desperate and despicable and it should be clear from the departing old guard and lack of interest from new players that precious few are interested now that the new toy shine has worn off.

Tuluk does not gel with the rest of the game; even if you could walk in from a place other than Luirs and not have to worry about getting your character turned into a loot bag for the Legion, there is, for me at least, this inescapable point where I know I'm leaving Zalanthas behind. It's where I go from "Is killing that grebber worth the risk?" to "Fruit here! Get your fruit here, three on every tree and the price is FREE!" that I feel the disconnect and am immediately wanting to turn around.

What we're starting to see, both in some of the more sweeping changes and in the more open brutality is an attempt to bring Tuluk back into the Zalanthan fold without anyone having to admit that it isn't working; that taking it in that direction was a mistake from the get go. It isn't just a case of too little, too late, either. It's making the situation worse.

Not only does Tuluk still not adhere to the central theme of the game that has held firm for the better part of two decades, but it no longer even stands true to it's own original concept. It is completely lacking in integrity and credibility now, as are the people who continue to prop it up as "Working as intended".

With the population plummeting, the zone being a no mans land for non-citizens and the last string of RPTs being met with a universal shrug from players, I would think even Nyr has to see the writing on the wall.

You just really boiled it down for me.. I'm a tuluk fan since the rebellion, and I've been a ooc defender of tuluk ever since. But the recent changes feel tacked on like having some scripted deaths of npcs I don't know and care about is enough to make tuluk better. I've not been feeling up to arming lately but maybe what I need is just to get out of tuluk.

edit to add: guess I'll need to wait to leave b/c it will be easy for nyr to figure who I am when I leave tuluk. if your playerbase is mircoscopic one missing pc probably sticks out.

Hunting around Allanak - high risk, no reward
Hunting around Tuluk - low risk, high reward

It's an out of whack system. I think a great balance for Tuluk would have been having it Allanak-occupied after the last HRPT and the Rebellion starting up again. Incentive for Allanaki players would be much higher reward: promotion to red-robe for templars or higher-ranks for Militia, better apartments, more money, prestige, etc. Rebellion movement could be a pretty PC-led option. Smuggling out weapons to Rebellion camp, pulling strings to rip off the Allanaki PCs, etc. Keeping a good amount of tension and intrigue while the pbase is concentrated.

But that would require lasting change and effort that goes above and beyond making an area an inhospitable volcano.

I think Beldyn was kryl'd iirc.

I was on board all the way to the salt rain thing, but salt kills things. It saps moisture out of them, which in a desert is essential, that would really be like it wasn't raining and make all the land sterile.


Up to that point, though, big thumbs up, loving the idea.

Was Beldyn the one who got saved by the white carru and got like 50 bonus perm hp?

If it is, then he died to the humble bahamet, from what I heard.

Beldyn was executed by Raleris after killing someone during the museum riots. Coverup was done. Aon was killed by a bahamet. A lot of people were killed by bahamets. Dargan was saved by the white carru once.