CLOK BBS

I'm curious to learn where people prefer to hunt. I've noticed a lot of people still hunt the Tarueka outskirts, which is pretty much the easiest place to hunt (I won't even mention those accursed training dummies). Is there not enough incentive to move on to tougher areas?

I mostly stick to Tarueka or the Robber camp. They're easy for me to get to without much effort, and they both have boxes for me to lockpick. Tarueka is especially attractive because, generally, everything is weaker there and just easier to deal with. I don't see myself venturing far into the wilderness to train and end up getting my butt kicked when I could do the same training easier and closer to town. So, to answer your question, I suppose there isn't much incentive for me to go elsewhere.

Well, There is no easy way to put this so I'll just say it how I see it.

Right now in RPGs there are two major kinds of progression methods. The old "objective" based (ie gaining XP from killing, completing quests, obtaining things etc) or "action" based (hitting the enemy, mining, searching, scratching your nose, etc). There is also a hybrid of the two like in Fallout: New Vegas.

Each method has pros and cons. Obviously, CLOK was based on the "action" based method. Many of us should be familiar with the old rpg "objective" based system so I'll just give some pros and cons of the "action" based system.

Cons:

A classic example is hunting. In the old objective method you are encouraged to move to new areas because you are rewarded with more xp and loot when you kill bigger and better critters. However, in the action based system you are rewarded for attacking -anything- as long as it falls within the range of your accuracy, dodge, block etc. So, if I can still gain skill points from killing an infected carrier why would I move on to harder critters that would rip me to shreds for the same amount of skill gain? Another problem is that I don't really want to kill the infested carriers... I just want to hit them... or dodge them or block etc because I gain more reward from just performing the actions rather than killing them. A major problem in the action based system is that it becomes very exploitable to people who just want to perform the same action over and over without actually interacting/effecting the world around them. (Effort vs Reward) Players will almost -ALWAYS- take the path of least resistance to achieve their goals.

Pros:

A nice advantage to the action system is that it will reward you, more easily, for non-combat based actions. So if I wanted be the best nose picker in the land you -can- do that (assuming there is a nose pick skill lol). Just like in CLOK with the action based system you can avoid combat all together, if you so wish. Just stay in a room channeling, or mine all day, or try to craft some negative arrows, etc.

There ya go, a few Jaren thoughts on the subject. There is a lot more that can be said about this but I'm trying to keep this short and to the point.

Once again please do not take this as an insult. CLOK is an awesome game with a great crew of people running it. I just hope my ramblings can help in some form or another.

Didn't find anything insulting about the post, so no worries. I'm rather proud of the fact that people can avoid combat if they want to, and focus on other skills. I always found it silly how in most classic experience-based games you have to go out and kill things in order to increase skills that have nothing to do with combat.

It looks like we need to take a look at what range is providing skill gains. The gain should be based on the challenge relative to the character's skill. If Jaren is still getting sorcery gains from hunting carriers, that's a real problem. Same with Jaster getting stealth skill from carriers.

it's true, i'm totally pimp stealthin it

I started an Agent and I feel like I know a lot about the little farm areas and caravans but...as an agent, I get bonuses to ubran settings. What constitutes an urban setting as far as hunting grounds go? Or is that a pretty much "worthless" skill since I'm not worried about being spotted in town by any NPCs?

Urban settings are mostly towns. If you see UR in the room identifiers that's an urban area and you'll get that bonus.

Worthless is pretty relative. If you're planning on making an Utasa that only goes out an hunts infested creatures, urban stealth may not be the most useful ability, although I can think of at least two urban hunting areas.

But Utasa aren't meant to be warriors, not really.

Can they be caught in the town setting? I guess I haven't run across that yet but I don't see anyone in the towns that would catch me and I don't get any skill ups for stealth unless I am preforming combat related actions. Can we get a way to increase stealth without ambushing things?

Aerotine wrote:Can they be caught in the town setting? I guess I haven't run across that yet but I don't see anyone in the towns that would catch me and I don't get any skill ups for stealth unless I am preforming combat related actions. Can we get a way to increase stealth without ambushing things?

There are Urban locations with creatures or humans to kill, so it will be of use there. You can also increase stealth from sniping, not just ambushing.

I'll throw out picking pockets too. You can get stealth gains for that. And that's usually done in urban environments.

Rather or not picking pockets is a skill your Utasa would exercise is up to you. I can see it being useful to them, but not in the "steal to get rich" sort of way.

Oooh, perhaps that's another task that could be fun for Utasa.

I could invision them needing to lift certain documents or notes from the pockets of a diplomat or emissary.

Bet he'd like that and it would help him build steal in a non-combat setting, since they aren't really intended to be combat intensive.

That totally sounds like fun. Didn't they have that as a task in assassin's creed before? That's how I envisioned the agent character :P

I'm pretty sure James Bond doesn't pick pockets.

Pretty sure James Bond carries a PP7. You're telling me if he had to he couldn't? James Bond can do anything....ANYTHING!

I'm almost positive I've seen him pick a pocket or two in a couple of the movies, and besides lifting something from someone's pocket is in Mission Impossible too lol

Xavier FTW!