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Non-PK characters

 
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Dahlin



Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Posts: 99

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:04 am    Post subject: Non-PK characters

The idea I'm about to propose has been brought up several times in the past, and shot down. But I thought of it again, so I'm gonna start a new thread.

One thing that I don't like about this mud is the rude introduction most newbs get to PK: A quick, pointless rash of trash deaths beginning at rank 15 (hopefully not 10), and often never ending. I know a lot of the current players were actualy turned on by that, but I know that I almost stopped playing over it (thank God for sheer boredom though), and I'm sure a lot of newbs were turned away by it.

So basically, I'm proposing having no_pk as an option during character creation. To prevent this from being exploited, and to protect the newbs from getting too high too fast, I'd make the following restrictions: only pk allowed is arena duels (maybe only non-fatal ones, whatever you like);no doing anything with people who have pk addrenaline, and by anything i mean anything. No spells, no leading them around, not so much as even giving them items, heck, could ban them from talking to such people if you like; They can't hold rare, forged, or gambled equipment/weapons at all; They can't rank beyond 40; They can't enter certain areas (cabals, winter, underworld, anywhere else they shouldn't or don't have the priveledge to go); They condie faster than normal chars, 30 or 20 deaths or something; No joining cabals/coteries; No experience bonus from surges.

Of course, the whole point of this is to let the newbie get a good handle on AR, and then be upset with all the restrictions and make a normal character. They'll still get hit by the wave of trash, but they'll be slightly less pulverisable, and I think they would see it as more a result of their own choice than of other people's assholishness.

The main point of all the restrictions is so that while protected from trash, the newbies, while protected from trash, have even less an ability to interfere with other characters than random lowbies. So we wouldn't have to worry about them messing up our nice, kill happy game we have going. Also, of course, all these restrictions on no_pk chars would be completely permanent.
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deauja



Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 149
Location: rain forest

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:53 pm    Post subject:

first i thought you meant for roleplay. some people might see this character creation option as an opportunity for joining the mud on a roleplay only basis. they would be fun too have around but thats not A-R. maybe they should only be allowed to create one "newb" character who reaches a certain rank. the line does cloud though between our pk mud and the roleplay muds at this point. splendid idea, i wouldnt mind having a bunch of newbs running around in my pk rank that i couldn't whack. maybe instead i could teach them so they will provide competition later on.
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trance_monkey



Joined: 16 Nov 2005
Posts: 198

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:16 pm    Post subject:

The pointless trash PKs are what make AR what it is. That's where the paranoia and personal rush of adrenaline comes when you see YOU SURE ARE BLEEDING, or whatever it is.

The only way I see that working would be to cap them at rank 30, and perhaps require neutral alignment. If someone were to select that option, they could interact with others just like anyone else - why choose that option unless you wanted to learn the game and environment. No rares, but I don't see why they couldn't spend money on some gambled items (capping it at rank 30, they won't get the more powerful gambled items anyway). Your other restrictions seem ok.

But, it still begs the question... if that option were to exist, would it produce the TYPE of player that AR needs?

And, would that newbie's first time through AR be a true experience of it? What if they find out it's boring to have no_pk, then conclude AR is boring and do not come back?

When someone's looking for a new mud to play, they'll typically spend 15-30 minutes on one, then decide whether it's worth it to spend another half a day on it to really try it out. No_pk might just encourage them to move on to another mud to try in their search for one they like.
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_Clifton_
Emissary


Joined: 08 Dec 2005
Posts: 1405
Location: your and you're are not the same. they're, there, and their are not the same. learn to english.

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:33 pm    Post subject:

This sounds like it could be divided into abandoned realms port 9000 (for pk) and 9001 (no pk).

Doesn't make much sense does it when it's all one game, does it?
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E-ant



Joined: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 434
Location: Estonia

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 4:07 pm    Post subject:

We really dont need to spread the playerbase
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Erlwith



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 1626

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:01 pm    Post subject:

I think non-pk characters are just a bad idea unless it's a non-pk MUD. It gives a portion of the playerbase the ability to go relatively unchecked as as far as the player environment goes.

I think a better solution to give newbies ample time to adjust to the pk atmosphere is to raise the level to 20 to begin PKing for NEW players.
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Davairus
Implementor


Joined: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 10344
Location: 0x0000

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:14 pm    Post subject:

Its not the pk that bothers anyone. Its the loot, and that's been screwed with more than enough.
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Vhrael
Immortal


Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1085
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:17 pm    Post subject:

I've even suggested and been an advocate of "non-PK" characters before, but lately I don't think it's a good idea at all. The main reason is that it doesn't teach anything to the player.

If you want to teach someone how to swim, you don't take them to the park and have them paddle in the grass, telling them how good they're doing. You take them to a pool, or a lake or what have you, and you throw them in. Granted you might have to give them some "Water Wings" or a floatie thing or something at first (no PKs before level 10, etc.), but the fact remains that they're going to have to get wet at some point.

There are a hundred analogies that could be thrown in here: you can't teach someone how to drive a car without actually putting them behind the wheel, etc... fundamentals can be taught, yes, but you can't actually expect to have a high success rate of making the transition from "classroom training" to "hands-on training," much the same as you can't expect someone to fully grow into the mud that we have here without immersing them into the PK aspect. That goes double when it's actually a PK mud. If PK was optional, that would be one thing... but it's not, and never will be (according to Burzuk).

Here's another way to look at it:

* If a new player doesn't want to PK or attract PK attention, *

- They shouldn't wear things like rare or unique items (they probably wouldn't know what these even are at first).
- They can use OATH, PROTECTION, and things like COTERIES (Patrons and Heralds at least) to keep some of the focus off of themselves.
- They should avoid being aggressive, sarcastic or caustic in their speech and actions (calling someone "stupid" or using socials like 'bitchslap' or 'gimp' are sometimes enough to push the wrong buttons on people).

I guess I'm looking at the "no-PK as an option," as described in the suggestion, as something like this:

1. Player who's never played a mud at ALL before finds AR and decides to try it out.
2. Going through creation, he selects the "no-PK" option after learning what "PK" means.
3. Once he's in-game, he gets ranked up with others. He starts looking around, sees some fights, sees some rare/unique items and thinks "wow, that looks cool".
4. Player creates another character in hopes of getting involved in the cool equipment and fights.
5. Player ranks up again, starts noticing that strange <PK> next to his and other peoples' names.
6. Player gets trash-PKed as he possibly would've had done normally, and still has no idea what happened.
7. Player can't find his corpse, loses his things, and quits anyway.

Unless I'm making unjustified assumptions, I don't see how a non-PK option makes the game any more "enjoyable" than it is now. It's just a matter of sucking it up and realizing that you're not going to be Billy Badass from the first character you make while playing a new game.
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Matthais



Joined: 05 Feb 2004
Posts: 206
Location: New York

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:24 pm    Post subject:

Is Oath renewable like protection, or are you stuck with it until you manually break it?

That aspect of Oathing is rather annoying if it is.
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