Posts made by Jairone

Yeah, legal disclosure has been something that... publishers seem to want to avoid. I can see why if they are going to screw over a game with monetization or other things people dislike (not like we don't figure that out really fast)!

I do think that the moment one set of dev/publisher breaks that ice, it will become a flood. People tend to like the assurance of knowing that the deal is decent, and as a result I'd expect it to boost sales to an extent, so long as it isn't one of those bad to worse deals.

Of course, as long as places like EA sell millions of copies of games with cruddy systems that make the game less about fun and more about milking whales... we probably won't see so many willing to leave that behind without some major impetus.

@vegtam Minor issue there, people smoke or vape and do not care about others nearby. It is largely why I have gone from 'Meh, don't care I won't do it' to 'Make it illegal in public spaces'. Because people ruin things for other people.

It is far from alone in being something where the self centered nature of people has changed my thinking on proper handling of a topic, but it is certainly one example!

There is a pretty wide range of publisher interactions out there, from being little more than a toolbox to being all up and over things. Where a lot of places do not get a ton of trust most of that is tied up within whatever legal agreement is drafted.

On an aside, at least two of those you mentioned as good are bridges that have burned for me. I would not trust them with tying my shoe laces. One for being tone deaf over and over again in terms of monetization issues and having to backtrack (although at least they mostly have) and the other for outright insulting the customers.

I think the biggest thing will be what legal agreement information, if any, can be shared to show the depth to which a publisher will disrupt the system... and if none can be how badly things like cash shop issues disrupt the players.

@nightcoder TBH I was merely correcting a statement that vaping was entirely on the level of caffeine to what the research in question hypothesizes. There are still differences noted... but I was going easy on the person who posted that rather than tearing into the topic in depth!

It is amazing how few games aim for a WORLD. They are all about the combat, and the world is just a thin backdrop that is easily lost in the action.

Which is fine at times, of course, but it loses a lot of what makes MMOs so potentially special, imo!

I'm not so sure this person is as much a minority as they believe. It just is something that doesn't get as easy of investment firm approval, thus it would be far more difficult to finance the venture.

@trelia Exactly what so many of us have been saying, but... apparently some people aren't satisfied with one planet being a complete free for all, and will take everything said and try to claim it is making it a 'PvE' world. Good luck convincing them!

Stinks. Wastes money on something I don't really care about. Some people think it looks cool, but the effect is really less than awe inspiring.

The chemicals involved in most offerings are also NOT on the level of caffeine. It is Nicotine which is roughly comparable including in terms of addiction. Vapor offerings have far more than just caffeine or nicotine on average (although it might be possible to just use liquid forms of those). Still nothing all that exciting, though.

@mazikar said in NPC Strength:

Making guards nearly impossible to kill is only going to push people to become strong enough to kill them. EverQuest proved it. Every major starting city was wiped out, just to say it could be done. Why? The developers said it would be impossible. They also did not create loot tables on dragons right away because they said they were currently unkillable with the item sets players had.... we killed them all... even without loot. Just to say it could be done. That is the nature of MMO's. Everything that can die will die.

Yeah, that is true. Most people aren't suggesting super-elite guards like that. Instead, they are suggesting they be strong enough to make the rules matter, so that somebody coming by in the middle of the night can't just gank somebody, laugh at the guard, and then run off again easily if that's against the local rules.

Making them stupid strong is a challenge to go kill them. Making them a viable threat that is strong enough to almost always beat one player running around is... making the rules matter at least a little. That's all anyone here is asking for on Syn. imo.

@gothix said in NPC Strength:

@jairone said in NPC Strength:

Syndesia is supposed to be a middle ground.

And this is where you are mistaken.

Syndesia is NOT supposed to be a "middle ground", it is supposed to be whatever dominating guilds make it to be. Syndesia is a planet where guilds that own cities will decide the rule set for their own areas and that's what Syndesia will be (and that can change over time as guilds rise and fall, or simply change their mind about rules).

This means Syndesia can end up being completely FFA like Tartaros if guilds that will own cities decide so, or it can end up being a planet that imposes alignment / flagging punishment on rule breakers if guilds that will own cities decide so. Each zone will have its own consequences depending on guilds that own it.

That's what Syndesia is supposed to be, constantly changing while guilds battle for dominance and for the right to decide the rules (or lack there of), and not some forced "middle ground" with a necessity for existence of bit of both.

Syndesia is supposed to be all about Guild vs Guild, and not about Guilds VS Guards...

Yeah, it isn't a PvP no rules demon paradise, but it also isn't PvE only. A middle ground. Yep.

Guards being strong won't stop guild warfare. It will, however, make it less of a T2 demon world redux, keeping wars to warfare instead of just mostly spy gank squads. It isn't like many people are saying "Oh, guards who can't be killed and one shot everything!" They just want the rules put in place by guilds who own territory to actually be enforced.

If the guards are too weak, then what will happen is that off-time raids will become increasingly common, rules won't really matter as they cannot be enforced and people happen to have lives outside the game, and there might just as well then not be any rules.

That's what most of us want to avoid. We aren't suggesting guild warfare should revolve around it (in fact, I'd counter that guards should not be involved at all in that). This is all about the rules those guilds put in place mattering at all. Nothing else. All your problems with it are super-easy to solve. Questions?

@gothix said in This game is a potential PVE gold mine:

@grofire said in This game is a potential PVE gold mine:

@gothix this is only partially true, GVG will be on some city area's, but most of human planet is not city area's, and the effect of the places that are not in city area's is PVP able, with flagging consequences, so you can PK but you will be flag and people could kill you with no consequences.

Even if this is true (not all planet surface belongs to city influence), it still means that:

1. It is still not a safe PvE planet, not even partially
2. OP guards that easily rekt players have no place here

GvG does not mean is should be a ganker paradise in towns either. Leaving guards on par with players would result in that very quickly. Most of us aren't saying guards should be super-op, but rather that they should be scaled enough that a single player trying that will be turned into mush pretty quickly overall.

If fact, if that isn't the case then any guild would have to be absolutely nuts not to go camp their enemy's town and gank away. Which, well, as we keep saying is what has happened in so very many games.

GvG implies some level of order to the affair, which requires rules and enforcement. Again, everyone knows and has seen how it doesn't work if those are missing. Trying to say that people are whining and pushing to make it safe is not really the case, nobody is crying that guards should patrol the whole world or be a major factor in wars. Same old, same old though...

I do think there is at least a couple rulesets that might appeal to people depending on where they go with implementation of things. After all, there are various mindsets on what exactly should be available for things like PvE and PvP encounters.

Different mixes of those and other mechanics are certainly where more planets could potentially fit in, although I think they need to get the current ones in a strong place and launch first.

After that, well, where they go will depend largely upon what people ask for and what they find feasible or interesting. In short, I think that the current worlds need to be seen, need full implementation of dev choices and some time with player actions... and then there may be a strong need to be filled.

@gothix said in NPC Strength:

@jairone said in NPC Strength:

1. PvP ravage everything and everyone until the game dies
2. I fully expect some town areas to be a free for all in effect, with laws that do not protect.
3. I fail to see any charm in attacking random people who are busy with something else, asleep, uninterested in fighting, etc.

Random people who want to be busy with something else without a desire to be attacked have Arboreus, a whole planet where they can be left alone, and protected without even a need for guards.

Other 2 planets are meant to be ravaged with PvP and full loot, it's in the game description. If you don't like that you are looking at wrong game m8. Asking for OP guards on those 2 planets have no place in this game. Play in Arboreus if you are a PvE player, and stop asking to nerf PvP freedoms on other 2 planets.

Eh, I'm just being realistic. Syndesia is supposed to be a middle ground. Without there being some firmer rules and limits, it will just be another Tartaros. Everyone who has been in these games before knows it.

No harm in trying for a middle ground, but it needs things to keep it a middle ground. That is kinda how Syndesia is supposed to be, with areas of both law and lawlessness. Having the law be less than effective merely makes that an unrealized idea, and the lawlessness will be the standard. The choice is highly key, take away that and the world loses the entire flavor of being choice centric!

That's not amazing game design. Arboreus is fairly novel, although for those who want that middle ground it doesn't fit well. Doing the same thing as every other game that has failed on Syndesia merely ensures that there might as well just be two planets, and forget about the middle ground thing. It would be completely failing to learn from the failure side of things for decades, yet once more. Not that the games that have had such rulesets are failures, but that they have not achieved the balanced middle ground that has been talked about for those decades.

I suppose I could spew vitriol as well though, and be all like "PvPers already have Tartaros. Why they got to ruin Syndesia by pushing to make towns too easy to attack?" Maybe throw in a few terms I find derogatory and the context to make people feel like it is an insult... I just don't think that's constructive discourse in the least, and honestly it strikes me as not having anything but thinly veiled attacks to back up your thoughts. But, you know, maybe you have some deeper reasons hidden away there. Doubtful, given your post history, but do please surprise me!

@gothix said in NPC Strength:

@jairone said in NPC Strength:

For the rest of the time, I am in favor of the guards having a higher strength. Players tend to find ways around things, so only if they are a real threat will the entire law and order part hold up based on town rules. If that doesn't hold up, it isn't really a plus to the game.

Care bear alert

It's a sandbox PvP game, players are supposed to organize and stand up to aggressors, and not rely on guards being OP to protect them. At least on Syndesia and Tartaros.

If anyone is finding "ways around things" then stand in his path and stop him, with a mace to the face, or at least warn others and they will come to your aid, if you don't feel like fighting yourself.

OP guards have no place in sandbox PvP game. If you aren't bothered to aid in your towns defense yourself, then you do not deserve to have a safe spot to reside in. Or chose to play as Beast men then you will not need guards at all, you will be safe anywhere.

For Humans and Demons, OP guards would just ruin it all.

It's a game, and sandbox does not require that there be no protective elements and PvP ravage everything and everyone until the game dies. Getting around the limited mechanics of that is common, so since people want to exploit to cause other people misery we... can't have nice things.

Especially given that people will just offline assault, this is something that will quickly make the human world an abandoned wasteland that may as well not exist except as yet another note in the long and sordid failure of such things. That said, I fully expect some town areas to be a free for all in effect, with laws that do not protect.

P.S. Carebear I am not. I'm more than happy to join people in PvP, although I fail to see any charm in attacking random people who are busy with something else, asleep, uninterested in fighting, etc.

@cinnao I believe given that law and order is supposed to be a thing within the town rules part, that guards will likely be strong enough or have the requisite 'stop and arrest' skills required to make that work.

At the same time, I don't think guards will be made to hold up during things like wars or demon invasion of the human realm events. How exactly they do that will very much impact the gameplay around those, but my expectation would be guards act like a normal combatant at 1v1 level then.

For the rest of the time, I am in favor of the guards having a higher strength. Players tend to find ways around things, so only if they are a real threat will the entire law and order part hold up based on town rules. If that doesn't hold up, it isn't really a plus to the game. On the other hand, they should not be invulnerable either, and players who are up to no good should not be put on the spot with a guard who cannot possibly have seen them doing something wrong (unless they have something like a warrant system where that player is banned from town)!

I'd also expect guards to be realistic enough to use a buddy system, and even to have alarm/retreat options to gather more support. Not because they should stop all crime, but because that is fairly realistic.

Finally, yes, players will run toward their preference on a lot of this. I'm looking at where they should go based on players using meta and tactics that won't be predicted, and all that. I do believe that player war-bands may be something that will have to be addressed (because we all know that people have varying motivations, and those who want to PvP sometimes disregard that in those who do not and WILL drive players away... part of the reason that there are three worlds here and all that) but also that there should be some mechanics on the human world for raiding. It will be something that is difficult to balance at best. So many games have failed to look at how players will act on such things, and just lost a huge amount of their market due to that!

@00 It is amazing that you and gothix seem to go so far. I guess whatever floats your boat...

Not like the rest of us strip down the same-gender avatar to undies to admire it before we toss on other gear, but apparently some people can't resist. Sorry that it is so hard for you guys!

Eh, let people do what they will. No big deal. Never assume anything about a person you don't know is my rule!

If I cross-gender character create, it is usually not a main. That, though, is more of a thing where I tend to know a bunch of people I am playing with, and we main a given gender across all games. I have absolutely no hang-ups with characters of either gender.

Woohoo, long catch up list! Grats all, and ty all!

Yeah, they showed up just a few hours ago. Probably that vacation kicked the date back.

It's not too terrible, but definitely worth improvement.

Depends on my mood. Sometimes I just load up something rock, other times I do something like epicmusictime. Still others get something that more fits the theme of the game, when those do not.

Usually quiet enough to pick up the game ambiance, so long as it is not annoying.

Lich is still human in terms of alignment system, so the odds of them changing worlds is very small.