@PeachMcD there will however, always be people that just started playing the game, and, particularly for this game, where guilds/parties/cities are so important, these people will need something to go on as to how to find those, and not everyone wants to just ask a question of the entire world, some people like to know things without having to ask, so perhaps a guild register or something in the starting cities, that the tutorial directs you to when you finish it? or something like the militias? i dont actually know how those work, do you need to go to the starter cities to join them? or can you join anywhere?

@Ostaff well, at least i've got something going for me, no such thing as bad publicity and all that

Beleaguered Fools

Night lay on the face of Syndesia; a bitter, white cold in the north; a black, stifling heat to the south; and a gentle, cool change from a day of pleasant warmth in the lands of Myr.
In the midst of Myr, among the wide plains, there rises a great upswelling of the earth; the last bastion of mountains that once had pressed inland from the sea, their outflung spurs driving like spears into the lowlands. But long and long ago they were beaten back by that most relentless foe, ranging now in misty lines of stone across a distant sky.
Alone this mountain stands, undefeated, though bowed beneath the long green cloak of time, with no friend about him but the graves of the slain; the laying dead of an army in retreat, in row upon row of rolling hills that stretch from here to the far off marching peaks. And across their sinking bones, like the ceaseless waves of a verdant sea, moaning and howling among the grass, The Wind drives his unseen herds to storm the horizon.
A river winds about his feet, and on its shores, between the mountain and the water, stands a city. Its walls are built of stone hewn from him; its houses of timbers cut from the forest that cloaks him, and its people are fed on the food that his body gives them; crops that grow on the floodplains about him, herds and flocks that graze on his grassy flanks.
The city stands muffled in the folds of a thick cloaking fog; masts rising from out of a cloudy sea, piers and jetties stretching over nothing amidst its pale drifts, and where the shifting white parts for a moment, glimpses of a black liquid sky. The banks of pale stuff pile themselves against the water gate and pool around the walls; rising up and falling back like waves, wisps floating over the parapets, through the cracks in the timbers to stray down cobbled thoroughfares and winding alley ways like ragged ghosts, their silent passage unheeded by the living, for the living are no longer there to see them.
The sun rises and the darkness begins to lighten, but shadows still lie deep over the city, for night lingers here, in the shadow of the mountain. The golden tide of sunlight flows by on either side, parting about the mighty sheltering shoulders and the high proud peak. The encroaching day shows the land bare all about the city; nothing but stubble stands in the fields, and the pastures on the mountains long, green sides hold neither flock nor herd, and the air is still and silent but for birds that quarrel over the empty fields.
Now comes the dawn in truth, and Morning races upon a freshening wind to catch at the banners hanging low and dark upon the spires of the city; snapping them out like whips until they flash and crack like fire: tongues of fire in every hue.
Then the light upon its breezy charger, turns and courses back again towards the the mountain, washing over the plain before the city to break upon the walls and foam about the knights there drawn up like the ranks of Faery; all in glittering mail and helms that flame with the dawn.
Their lances rise like a forest, the points tipped with the beaten fires of a new day. Their shields shine like the scales of great and wondrous fish, and the morning dances about them, pulling at their capes and the tossing the manes of their horses, until the sight of them, arrayed so boldly before that fair city, took on the seeming of a dream; some memory of childhood that brings to the hearts of men the ache of a nameless longing.
Now falls once more the night; darkness blotting out the land as the shadow of Tartaros catches the sun from the sky and devours the day.
Silence covers the land; deep, and dark, and waiting. Then a sound like metal torn and shrieking; like thunder breaking all to pieces, and a doorway flares in the darkness; the flaming hellish mouth yawning ever wider and lighting the field with a bloody light. The waiting army turns, it seems, to stone, all dull and lifeless while the shadows crawl around them.
Into that benighted world comes a creature like a dragon; crawling across the earth with a thousand heads and ten thousand feet that scratch and claw the green, green grass still wet with the mornings dew.
The beast draws itself up before the city; a dark and twisted mirror to that fair host which stood but a little time before, now gone grey and crumbling in the face of a mighty foe, and there it stops. Writhing and rustling like a forest of iron, a thousand thousand red and hungry eyes, all turned upon the city like a serpent before a nest of eggs, whose fearful stare has turned to stone the beak and claws poised to defend it.
The field stood so, poised for battle, but caught in an endless moment.

Story continues Here:
https://1drv.ms:443/w/s!BMOC4Gv9sGQ2gTMEHCqhDK1DnsIZ?e=KDpPvCx-fUON4-z7DMbNpg&at=9

P.S. I'm not sure if this will work, but my story is too long to be posted here so I hope it does.
Alternatively: https://forum.fracturedmmo.com/topic/15105/mythopoeia-beleaguered-fools

I like this idea.
Personally, I really miss the individual plots of land out in the wilderness, and this would allow for that same feeling without messing with 'The Economy' or anything

Mythopoeia

The city lay in darkness still, though all about the land was waking, for night lingered in the shadow of the mountain; protector and sustainer of the people who dwelt at its feet.
Once, the mountain had been clothed in trees; tall, straight pines and good strong oak, fine wood for the building of a city, and stone to set it firm. Now, the long green slopes were finest pasture where fed the herds and flocks. The shoulders of the mountain held back the storms, its flanks a living wall against attack. Its wide, strong, roots gripping the river, forcing it to flow quietly; deep, and clear, providing water for the fields, fish for the tables and passage for the trade ships.

On either side of the city crept slowly by the golden tide, but the jetties and piers rose out of a river blanketed in fog, great white drifts piling up against the sea-wall, whisps and tendrils of vapour drifting along the empty streets.
As the night began to lighten, the gloom left the fields and with it the illusion of crops growing high and thick; naught but stubble stood in the fields, and birds that flocked and squabbled over their own harvest, now that the city had taken what it wished. The grass on the mountain rippled gently, untouched by biting tooth or crushing hoof.

Caught by the smothering folds of the rivers ghostly shroud were the muffled cries of sheep and cows kept from their fields, and shadowy figures drifted from pen to pen on green and park and market court carrying feed for the imprisoned beasts.

Now broke the dawn in truth, and Morning raced upon a freshening wind to catch at the banners hanging low and dark upon the spires of the city; snapping them out like whips until they flashed and crackled like fire: tongues of fire in every hue.
Then the light, upon its breezy charger, turned and coursed back again to the feet of the mountain, washing over the field before the city to break upon the walls and foam about the knights there drawn up like the ranks of faery; all in glittering mail and helms that flamed with the dawn.
Their lances rose like a forest, the points tipped with the beaten fires of a new day. Their shields shone like the scales of some great fish, and the morning danced about them, pulling at their capes and the tossing the manes of their horses, until the sight of them, arrayed so boldly before that fair city, took on the seeming of a dream; some memory of childhood that brings to the hearts of men the ache of a nameless longing.

Then fell once more the night; darkness blotting out the land as the shadow of Tartaros caught the sun from the sky and devoured the day.

Silence covered the land, deep and dark and waiting. Then a sound like tearing and burning; like thunder breaking all to pieces and a doorway flared in the darkness; the flaming mouth of hell growing wider and lighting the field with a bloody light, the waiting army turned, it seemed, to stone, all dull and lifeless while the shadows crawled around them.
Into that benighted world came a creature like a dragon crawling across the earth with a thousand heads and ten thousand feet that scratched and clawed the green, green grass still wet with the dew of morning.
The beast drew itself up before the city; a dark mirror of the memory of that fairy tale army that stood there mere moments before, now gray and crumbling in the face of its foe, and there it stopped writhing and rustling like a forest of iron its eyes red and hungry glaring balefully at the city like a serpent eyeing an egg with hardly a glance at the beak and claws poised to defend it.
The field stood so, poised for battle caught in an endless moment.

Then one of the statues moved; raising a hand in which was gripped a banner, the field of which was dark and the sign thereon concealed by its own rippling shadows, but it billowed bravely in the wind that the darkness had not stilled and behind him, with a sound like the ringing of a thousand bells, the swords of his knights rose aloft shining in the darkness as though the sun shone still on those silvery blades, and there stood once more an army of living men, but grim now and fell where the morning had shown them fair.
The war-chief of that black host raised up his mighty weapon, and even as he does so, a bright light, as though the dawn had come a second time, and from the mountains peak where sat the sun enthroned ere its darkening, up rose a bolt like lightning that rose and plunged to the earth before the black captain, striking with a sound like thunder and the shock of it caused many of his underlings to fall and cry out, though he himself stood firm.
There stood a man; of no great height or stature, clad simply and bearing no metal, neither weapon nor shield nor mail. With a laugh and a flashing of teeth the demon lord let fall his weapon and the man but raised his hand as though in surrender. With a flashing of sparks the black metal struck his hand and was thrown back, a shimmering light arcing outward from the hand, unhurt like a ripple in the surface of a pool flowing away and up as though the sun glanced at a wall of glass between them.
The black one spoke
“You are but one man, however mighty your magicks, and you cannot stand against us forever.”
“Indeed, I could not. And so I counselled the others of this place; we are few and of no great strength. But I did not summon this magic that protects me; look there, atop the wall, there stand the telling of us that have such arts, though even they must let it fall eventually.”
“Hah! Then you wish to plead for your lives? You think to defend yourselves with talk? What could you offer me for your lives that I could not take? “
“I do indeed wish to persuade you against this course of war, but not with talk of surrender: for myself I would give my life into your hands; I and all which lies before you, that you might let live the people who dwell within, and none need perish. But yet I say to you: leave this place or Perish.

“Haha! Truly you must be great to speak such threats; to stand before the Dragon and to pull at his beard, what courage! You I shall not kill until you have seen your fellows fall weeping into death”

“I have said that which my own heart would have me do, but I am not alone, and these that array themselves before you would not have it so.”
“Though they call me leader, and heed my wisdom in many things, they are not sheep to be told “Go there” and “Do this” nor am I their master to say what they will do. But I tell you this; They will not fall easily, for they have naught to lose by defeat, and those at your back have little, each for himself, to gain by victory. Many will fall of yours for each of theirs, and even yourself may be slain. But you do not fear this; your pride is great, and you care nothing for the deaths of those about you.”

“I have said that my companions are more warlike than I, and now I tell you this: they are not alone.”

“Truly? Then there shall be the more for us to slay, and the greater spoils to take, for what men might stand against us? The shadow of our Goddess protects us, and the gods of men cower in fear of Her, Tyros himself cannot stop us from taking your lives, nor do those that inhabit Elysiums corpse care for this world of men. what is the knowledge of Galvanos to our steel? The favour of Iridia to the strength of Babilis?”
The lone man bowed his head and seemed to shrink before the great armoured Demon Lord.
Slowly he shook his head and sighed.
A light seemed to settle on his brow, dim at first but growing brighter as he raised his head and began to speak.

“What are gods but the blowing of the wind? What is their power but the changing of the seasons; their blessing but the passing of winter to spring?
These things that you call gods are bound to the stones of these fractured worlds, but there is One that fills the darkness behind the stars and the space between moments. And though these worlds do not know him, there are those among their children that have seen his way, though they do not know it, and they are of all kinds; of men, and of the beast folk, and even of your own peoples, and they will not suffer their kindred to be slain by you. I say again: Begone, or Perish!”

And as he spoke these last words the shimmering of light flared before him and faded, but the weapon of his enemy hung at his side, for in that moment there appeared two great doors of light between the facing armies; one to either side, and from each strode a host of creatures; Bear-Kin, Elk-Kin, Tiger and Wolf. Demons of Hellfire, Shadow and Blood.

At the heads of each of these armies stood a warrior greater than the rest; the one bright and fair, the other dark and grim: An Angel and An Abomination.
The Demon Lord watched unbelieving as his army was surrounded on three sides by armies of every race, the portal at their back the only escape.
He looked down at the man before him, fury blazing in his eyes and he raised high his weapon to cleave that pitiful skull; a skull now bare of flesh, the teeth grinning up at him.

“I think you had better run”

@spoletta Brilliant! I particularly loved the bit about the improbable way the bank works

@GamerSeuss In the system I mentioned where it is only ordinary attacks that are automatic, you would have a hard time winning on autopilot because for most fights you still need to use skills. I was also assuming that clicking anywhere else with the mouse would disable the automatic systems. you would still need to select your next target as well.

Torchlight had a real problem with ranged combat because you had to click on the target for every single attack, and with enemy movement that was hard enough, when you add other enemies that you don't want to target yet (prioritising targets) that makes it even harder, and you cant move while attacking, so a miss is very bad. Add lag to the mix and you have an un-playable game (no lag in Torchlight because it's single-player, but Fractured has lag)

The Fractured system is better because you can hold right button to attack and then hold left to run, so kiting is not too bad, but with any lag you might as well logout; you wont hit, you cant time skills, nothing. At least with melee you can still just swing your weapon around and hope. Also, objects; if the enemy is behind a tree ( which is often) you can't hit them with ranged, but you can with melee (Does toggling combat mode fix this? I keep forgetting to use it :/)

All this system would do is give ranged combat the same ability that melee has; namely to hit your enemy (with ordinary attacks) I get that ranged has an advantage in that it can hit without being hit, but (I believe) that the damage is already adjusted to compensate for that, and the view distance is incredibly limited anyway.

Due to the changes made to the requirements for cities, most importantly the requirement of 20 citizens to claim a city, many smaller guilds, such as my guild, Mythopoeia, will no longer be able to claim a city for themselves.
Some guilds will likely take up residence in or around the city of a larger guild, and not mind much how that city is run, but I am sure there are other guilds, or even solo players, who would like to have the things a city can offer, but to also have a more weighty say in the affairs of that city than a mere squatter would have.

My suggestion is that some of the smaller guilds band together in a democratic union of guilds to appoint a governor and claim a city.

My first thought was that guilds of like interest might do this, but it occurred to me that such a union might in fact be better served from guilds with different, but not opposing, focuses; namely that one guild might primarily be in charge of farming, or crafting or PVE or PVP, and the other guilds prioritise the others, which would allow all guilds involved to pursue their foremost purpose, but be able to engage in the other aspects of the game at any time, as the other guilds have 'set them up'

Is the travel instantaneous? are ships controllable like the wagons? or is it a scripted passage? do you have to stop? are there storms? currents? pirates? winds? can you travel directly from a harbour on one side of the continent to the other side, or do you need to stop at the ports on the way?
If anyone has played mount and blade viking conquest, in that game it is often most economical to buy materials in a particular port, and travel to the port most suited for selling at a profit, but also to buy and sell lesser amounts for less of a profit at ports on the way, this results in a 'scheduled' journey where certain stops are made and others bypassed. If merchants do something similar in fractured, which seems likely, might passengers seek transport even if the ship would not be going directly to their desired port? Skyrim allows a player to travel directly to a location, which seems uneconomical; simply taking a single passenger directly to a single location, so it would be nice to have passenger ships that would need to wait for enough passengers, and would make stops along the way, or merchant ships that trade as they go, rather than the usual instant and direct travel

I really think, and I've said this before, that there needs to be a way for people to join guild/party/settler groups, well, perhaps not settler groups, but certainly the other two, without direct contact.
Couldn't there be a place in the starting cities that, like the citizen 'book' allows players to request membership of a guild or settler group?
Otherwise the only real recruitment methods are through the forum, discord or by someone seeing a player in game with a guild name above their head.

There is of course an issue with giving only governors and vice governors all the control, which is a problem even now (though there will I believe be ways of replacing these people by voting or siege etc.) Namely; what if the people with the power to do all these things happen to be offline for whatever reason? Time zones also come into it; what of the players that are on when all the governors are asleep?
I suppose that the main thing is citizenship, which a player might have to wait for, but that shouldn't be an issue, are there other things that require direct access to a governor? I'm beginning to think that this is much less of a problem than I thought

Still, what if a governor stops playing completely? and are there powers that vice governors don't have? All I can think of is the power to promote someone to governor

@Tuoni Ok, Thats what I thought, but I really hope that the Angels and Abominations are categorised as wildfolk and demons respectively in regards to planetary freedoms and restrictions

Tartaros is a dedicated PVP world, everyone knows that, Arboreus is PVE, so players starting in those worlds will be primarily doing whichever the world they chose is specialised for.

So, Syndesia, being a world that allows both, needs to allow both, but not only that, to encourage both. PvE still exists in Tartaros, and PVP in Arboreus, so simply allowing both isn't enough.

Even having neutral, good and evil 'regions' (which are likely to develop, and usually seem to in the tests) isn't the final solution. Evil regions wont be entirely PvPers, or vice-versa, so, while there will be a natural progression towards various factions and alliances and so on; who is at war with who and who is neutral, who are to be attacked and who not etc. Including more systems and mechanics to facilitate communication between players and factions would allow the players to work things out as they go, instead of everyone trying to settle on mechanics that everyone agrees with.

P.S.
How will demon/wildkin travel and stay on syndesia work? is it still time limited? or can they remain there indefinately? and is duration of stay on Arboreus/Tartaros determined by race or alignment?

I ask because many players will want to explore other worlds as the 'wrong' race, and I'm sure this has already been settled, but I can't quite remember and race should certainly be, if not separate from alignment, at least separate-able.

At first I was thinking that, yes, Syndesia and humans are 'Neutral' but they are, at least nominally, more good than evil, in that they have more in common with good than evil as a rule.
However, adding in the post by @Rife about neutral alignment, there is a point to be made for changing Syndesia and what it means to be 'Neutral'
This would have to also take into account the discrepancy with loot drops for different alignments.

If Tartaros is evil, and any good players there have only a short stay, debuffs(?) and the entire population after their heads, with Arboreus being the opposite, then why not make Syndesia truly, if not neutral, then at least equal?

Give good players in Tartaros the same problems as evil players in Arboreus, with full loot drop if you like, but equal if opposite, and give good and evil players the same legal penalties on Syndesia.

Make it so that in the same way that good players can hunt down and imprison evil players, evil players can do the same to good players. Since there will be evil aligned cities and regions anyway, then this way neither alignment can complain about unfair treatment.

Neutral players on the other hand, should have both greater and less protection; on the one hand, while good players in evil zones will likely be attacked on site, and vice versa, though every player will react differently, then Neutral players in either good or evil zones could be viewed as untouchable, being attached to neither side; enemies, because they are not allies; spies, traders, whatever the situation calls for.
Neutral players should be able to be attacked by any, because they refuse the security of either side, but potentially be attacked by neither for the same reason. They should be able to attack any (though not steal I would say, crimes aside from murder should be kept solely for evil alignment, only because there is no other way to protect against theft than to have the one side incapable and the other side visible as potential criminals, if there could be another way to register criminal activity that would be good, but as it is...) but karma would still be affected normally (there is a point where negative karma forces alignment change to evil isn't there?)

@Vortech It would be cool to have different arrow types and stats for different materials, but that would of course be something that non-archers don't have.
Personally I dislike that games need to 'balance' weapons; even if you suck with a bow, there is no disadvantage to taking a few shots at the guy before he gets into melee range, and even the worst archer can kill the best warrior, archery is inherently unbalanced.
I like the idea of having different weapons as situational/strategic, where you can start with a long ranged weapon, then go to melee, but thats starting to get off topic.

I do see what you mean about 'crafting progression' stones are heavier but dont require anything to aquire, where bones are lighter and you can carry more for future arrows, once you manage to kill something to get them (though I believe the stone/bone arrow heads weighed the same?) and without different stats its really not so interesting.
That being said, and this could be applied to lots of other things in the game; if done correctly weight can be a very good balancing mechanic; more powerful but heavier and more expensive VS lighter, less powerful but cheaper (Morrowind did this brilliantly)

After hearing all these ideas and opinions, I'm leaning away from auto targeting/attacking.
My initial suggestion was mainly to deal with problems hitting your target, not so much targeting itself, so if those issues are fixed, auto systems wont be needed. (Can anyone say what specific circumstances lead to arrows missing at close range? I can't remember if it was specifically targeting, because I know that often, when trees are in the way and such, aiming before or after the target in the correct line rather than actually having the cursor on the target can fix targeting problems)

@GamerSeuss In the system I mentioned where it is only ordinary attacks that are automatic, you would have a hard time winning on autopilot because for most fights you still need to use skills. I was also assuming that clicking anywhere else with the mouse would disable the automatic systems. you would still need to select your next target as well.

Torchlight had a real problem with ranged combat because you had to click on the target for every single attack, and with enemy movement that was hard enough, when you add other enemies that you don't want to target yet (prioritising targets) that makes it even harder, and you cant move while attacking, so a miss is very bad. Add lag to the mix and you have an un-playable game (no lag in Torchlight because it's single-player, but Fractured has lag)

The Fractured system is better because you can hold right button to attack and then hold left to run, so kiting is not too bad, but with any lag you might as well logout; you wont hit, you cant time skills, nothing. At least with melee you can still just swing your weapon around and hope. Also, objects; if the enemy is behind a tree ( which is often) you can't hit them with ranged, but you can with melee (Does toggling combat mode fix this? I keep forgetting to use it :/)

All this system would do is give ranged combat the same ability that melee has; namely to hit your enemy (with ordinary attacks) I get that ranged has an advantage in that it can hit without being hit, but (I believe) that the damage is already adjusted to compensate for that, and the view distance is incredibly limited anyway.

My main issue is arrows not hitting at close range, and I do actually like that the main 'difficulty setting' in Fractured is your own personal learning of what works when and how to use what you have to best advantage.

@spoletta That would still put archers that spend a lot of time running away at a disadvantage

@spoletta considering that skills/abilities/spells (the things that you use to kill things that cost mana, whatever the name is) are also used by monsters, perhaps, and I know it would be a lot more work, but the system could be based on what is done by, rather than what is done to ie: every time a player uses a skill, or attacks with a weapon (potential problem there, what about accidental attacks, practice swings, missfires etc?) or an attack/skill is used by an enemy and hits, the wear is applied based on the skill/attack.
So every weapon would have a 'wear per attack' value, as would all skills whether player or mob controlled.

I don't like time based, I tend to use the slow and steady approach so...