No more PK'ing and trust groups

[jorb]

Also, @ Avu, I do not deny that there are people who have played this game a lot more than I have, but I would like to point out that my character was one of the higher leveled ones in existence on the last map, (and the map before that, and (whaddayknow) the map before that going all the way back to first spawning). I don't know the exacts of it, but it would surprise me infinitely if he didn't make (at the very least) top twenty. Some stuff I will readily admit that I lack experience with, but do not be so presumptuous as to accuse me of newbdom. I think you do yourself and the discussion a disfavor.

Also, looking at the character sheets for some of the meaner players I know of shows a distinct lack of mass suicided ancestors, but it is of course possible that you know better than the character database.

[Elirian]

hey hey everyone remember this post? it still holds true

- permadeath
- slow, uncapped character development
- PvP
Pick just two, loftar

You can still have all 3 if you just tighten the diminishing returns curve. It's still impossible for the newer (or more to the point, recently dead) player to catch up, but they can get close faster.

With diminishing returns in place, the character who starts later can get infinitely close to the character who starts earlier over an infinite amount of time. Since we don't have an infinite amount of time, reduce the time needed to close the gap by tightening the curve.

Just a suggestion, although I guess it's kind of stating the obvious now that I think about it.

I've played a game where the curve was fairly standard up to level 25, at which point each level began to give only 10% of the bonus they did before. The end result was that a character at level 25 was considered end game worthy, despite the fact that there were characters at level 85 out there. Those last 60 levels equated to about 6 'pre25' levels, making a level 85 have a power equal to about a level 31, a much easier prospect for a level 25 to consider tackling. Levels after 25 had less effect on a fight than the gear your character wore, or your own personal skill. Advancement was not completely cut off however.

[Avu]

Also, @ Avu, I do not deny that there are people who have played this game a lot more than I have, but I would like to point out that my character was one of the higher leveled ones in existence on the last map, (and the map before that, and (whaddayknow) the map before that going all the way back to first spawning). I don't know the exacts of it, but it would surprise me infinitely if he didn't make (at the very least) top twenty. Some stuff I will readily admit that I lack experience with, but do not be so presumptuous as to accuse me of newbdom. I think you do yourself and the discussion a disfavor.

Also, looking at the character sheets for some of the meaner players I know of shows a distinct lack of mass suicided ancestors, but it is of course possible that you know better than the character database.

Well if you mentioned it it wouldn't hurt if you made some statistics for the game like top 10 each skill values, top 10 lp, average lp for characters more than a month old, top 10 each stat etc. All I know about you is that you started xanadu and by the end weren't one of the more active players.

Let's take for example cutlasses raid on wv last map. They tricked her into leaving scents at rob that precipitated an ancestor boosted raid on wv. Nobody dared face her. She was full change and still nobody dared fighting back. Sure the combat system changed and it should be easier to fight 1 single ancestor boosted char but only if you are prepared for it.

What about klaue that left vandalism and murder scents almost every week and got killed only by an exploit because breaking down their brickfort was too big of an investment for a basically dead character and even if someone was willing nobody who spent points in anything other than combat could afford spending time at full tradition and waiting to kill klaue just to die himself.

What about hermedicus who got played by klaue after his char got killed? Full tradition for a long while and never got killed when it mattered.

The truth is that you need an extreme investment to be able to fight a group that is intent on playing the combat only game and you have to play their game too if you want to be competitive. You find farming and planting trees fun? Fuck that you need to go out there and grind your combat and nothing else because everything else is a liability and only at best temporarily useful.

[Prism]

Hey you know what was cool? Mags were cool. If you don't know what a Mag was it was a flying robot friend that followed over your shoulder and buffed up your character in PSO. It had four stats and little progress bars for them that went up or down depending on what items you fed it. It also had sync, which was a percentage that could go over 100 and it was important too. And IQ which was a this number and it changed sometimes. I think higher was better. It would also evolve into other better Mags based on, and this is the best part, a combination of two stats compared to the other two stats. The stats it compared was based on what color it was, which also probably had some sort of other effect. Also the more damage you took would increase your Mags charge for special attacks, and possibly providing buffs at certain times, maybe depending on your IQ or sync.

Anyway, the combining stats and subtracting them from each other could be considered as a way to give heathlings distinct abilities based on their attribute balances, or something. Mags are super cool and fun.

[theTrav]

Avu is a jerk!

He also likes to talk smack about people with only the smallest of clues to support himself.

Last time I was online he was giving me shit for not playing WHILE I WAS ONLINE.

[Jackard]

Last time I was online he was giving me shit for not playing WHILE I WAS ONLINE.

i was there!

[sabinati]

my point was that there is a lot of drama on the forum about people getting killed and what-not, but it's really not that common in the game. and being killed or raided shouldn't be a game ender. you (the generic, figurative "you") had fun and learned a lot in the time you played. do you quit when you lose other games? hell, there are so many people here from dwarf fortress i'm surprised we don't see threads like "I Died And It Was Awesome".

Hell what sucks so much about being killed in hearth is that it isn't common and it's so mundane. If the hits came every week and not months apart, it wouldn't be so bad. If you died after holding off a seige for two hours, that could be fun. But dying quickly and starting so far back really strips away the insulation and these gears grind.

so you actually died in pvp? how many lp did you lose? what kind of stats did you have before you died? did you lose resources as well (i.e. everything in your village/claim destroyed)? just curious.

[Avu]

Dude your still not playing. Being online!=playing.

[Deathclaw]

I have an idea, lets remove murdering and thievery, along with tresspassing and violence in general - In real life! What a horribly boring tree hugging life that would make. However, we could revamp it a little. Make it harder to kill someone, especially if that person has hundreds in combat and you only have a fraction of what they have. THAT sounds more realistic.

[burgingham]

1) Even if you do have some kick ass ancestors, you have still died once, most likely at full change, and that means that you, base line, have been weakened.

Unfortunately this is just not true anymore, though it might have been. Raiders and griefers do not die at all at the moment. Just one layered brickwall is enough for 99% of the playerbase and if you are afraid of Sodom or BN coming after you it is sufficient to search for a new helms deep spot or a small island and build multilayered walls (we are talking very small amounts of bricks here in comparison to walling in a whole town). Especially on those small islands there is no way to get a ram on.
So I see why the wall buff was needed to defend weaker players, but in fact it helps the bad guys far more. They are invulnerable atm and so they can decide wether to die at full trad or not die at all. I agree though that Einherjer doesn't seem to have such an impact anymore with the new combat system and the strong walls. People just go out and kill and grief without ever being killed, so Einherjer is not really necessary to have.