CLOK BBS

I love making suggestions and even more when they get put into place. I'd like to turn the table around though and ask you GMs what features you're mulling over right now what player input could help out on.

Some random choices from my stuff I'm mulling over at the moment:

- Food rotting (where's the line between interesting mechanic and annoying realism?)
- Permadeath of mounts (and various associated changes to go along with it)
- How NPCs react to some actions (particuarly being stolen from, or being hit with "minor" attacks like a knockdown spell, a mesmerization, a snowball, a hurled fish)
- More inn rooms (where do people want them most?)
- My personal GM lair (should I redecorate? It's very utilitarian and boring right now)
- Newly-released area (should I announce it OOCly, or let the PCs who've discovered it get word out?)
- That one hidden treasure that's been out there for years that nobody has found yet (I just decided to put this here to taunt people)

I've been thinking a lot lately about hitching posts for mounts. It seems a little silly that people just leave their mounts unhitched out on the streets while they go about whatever business they have in towns, and it'd be a fairly simple thing to implement. If we did actually put it in place, we could possibly start allowing unhitched mounts to wander on their own when left unattended more often.

Outside of that, all my attention has been on tasks and abilities for the future brawling guild, The Brotherhood of the Fist and boring code optimization stuff.

Rias wrote:Some random choices from my stuff I'm mulling over at the moment:

- Food rotting (where's the line between interesting mechanic and annoying realism?)

Food rotting makes sense. I would suggest certain items be totally or nearly immune to it, like rations and certain breads, since they are pretty much prepared for the purpose of lasting a long time. Perhaps raw meats could be put in special salt barrels to prevent them from rotting (and would also pave the way for jerky!), and produce could last, say, a week? Prepared foods and such could last a full in-game day. Set up like that, people would have to manage their food a bit better so that they aren't wasting 30 pounds of meat every day by cooking it all at once, and still not so realistic that it would be too annoying.
One rather hilarious result I see stemming from this is the hurling of rotten pies, fish, and tomatoes at people, resulting in them being covered in nasty, stinking goop.

- Permadeath of mounts (and various associated changes to go along with it)

I think this is a good idea. It would discourage people from taking the risk of leaving their horse somewhere dangerous, or even riding it straight into battle. As for warhorses, it would give people a clear line of when to retreat. Horse deaths seem too OOC right now, and I would prefer permadeath, though I know some people would certainly not like it.

- How NPCs react to some actions (particuarly being stolen from, or being hit with "minor" attacks like a knockdown spell, a mesmerization, a snowball, a hurled fish)

Yes, please do this at some point. But rather than change every NPCs attitude, perhaps some sort of personality system could be put in place? The rougher, tougher, meaner NPCs might try giving you a good beating (but not killing) if you screw with them, whereas the nicer, kinder NPCs could give a slight scolding, or perhaps even have a nice giggle or two if they get a snowball or pie hurled at them.

- More inn rooms (where do people want them most?)

Mainly, I just want rooms in Mistral. I think that is the main place everyone wants them. Another idea has to do with the price of rooms: Why not lower the Hearth and Home's rates to 100 riln or 75 riln, and make the Shattered Pumpkin charge 150 per night, but their rooms are nicer? I always see Mistral as the more high-class town, and Shadgard as the rough-and-tough town. This would fit along with their own themes, and allow RP based more on your character's personality (Sure, Shadgard is cheaper, but do I really want to stay in a simple room when I could have luxury in Mistral?)

- My personal GM lair (should I redecorate? It's very utilitarian and boring right now)

Sure, do it. I think every GMs space should be what they want it to be. It should be somewhere they can relax and enjoy, where they can perhaps forget about all that coding and bugfixing, if even for a moment.

- Newly-released area (should I announce it OOCly, or let the PCs who've discovered it get word out?)

I say let the PCs get the word out, but if knowledge of it isn't spreading quite as fast as you'd like, go ahead and announce it.

- That one hidden treasure that's been out there for years that nobody has found yet (I just decided to put this here to taunt people)

Oh, now that's just mean. Time to round up the best explorers and send them out to scour the world!

I'd just like to chime in about food spoilage. While interesting and more realistic, for many food is already somewhat tedious to manage. I like being able to make a whole bunch of food at once when I have free time, and then living off of it. I can imagine my character making food everyday (off screen) if I like, but I don't always have time to do it myself. I already have to cook meals in real life, and I like the option of not having to cook every day as a player if I only have a few minutes to play that day. So I think having non-rotting food is an Acceptable Break from Reality for reasons of fun. I think if it was implemented you would see even more people just eat rations and nothing else (which I think is unfun and immersion reducing.)

Just my two riln.

Rias wrote:Some random choices from my stuff I'm mulling over at the moment:

- Food rotting (where's the line between interesting mechanic and annoying realism?)
- Permadeath of mounts (and various associated changes to go along with it)
- How NPCs react to some actions (particuarly being stolen from, or being hit with "minor" attacks like a knockdown spell, a mesmerization, a snowball, a hurled fish)
- More inn rooms (where do people want them most?)
- My personal GM lair (should I redecorate? It's very utilitarian and boring right now)
- Newly-released area (should I announce it OOCly, or let the PCs who've discovered it get word out?)
- That one hidden treasure that's been out there for years that nobody has found yet (I just decided to put this here to taunt people)

I think a centrally located inn would get the most use. Valeria is the most central town, but not everyone can get in there unfortunately. I thought it might be interesting to have a 'refugee camp' inn just outside Valeria for incoming settlers or rebuilders?

Otherwise, Mistral is the most obvious choice since the majority of active players, and newbies, hang around it.

Rias wrote:Food rotting (where's the line between interesting mechanic and annoying realism?)

Och. I haven't made any food myself but I would agree that this would be terrible unless the timers were fairly lengthy. I would also like to see salt added to new mines around Arad as a way to continue indefinitely preserving meat.

Rias wrote:Permadeath of mounts (and various associated changes to go along with it)

This would make sense. Is there armor for mounts? Saddlebags? I think these would come in handy before implementing permadeath though.

Rias wrote:How NPCs react to some actions (particuarly being stolen from, or being hit with "minor" attacks like a knockdown spell, a mesmerization, a snowball, a hurled fish)

This is probably the one that got me most excited. I absolutely think that a personality and/or faction should be taken into consideration before a person reacts.

Rias wrote:More inn rooms (where do people want them most?)

No thoughts on this one.

Rias wrote:My personal GM lair (should I redecorate? It's very utilitarian and boring right now)

I'll offer up an item description or two for your new pad/theme.

Rias wrote:Newly-released area (should I announce it OOCly, or let the PCs who've discovered it get word out?)

Rias wrote:That one hidden treasure that's been out there for years that nobody has found yet (I just decided to put this here to taunt people)

To both above... "Pssssstt you can whisper it to me." :)

Jirato wrote:I've been thinking a lot lately about hitching posts for mounts. It seems a little silly that people just leave their mounts unhitched out on the streets while they go about whatever business they have in towns, and it'd be a fairly simple thing to implement. If we did actually put it in place, we could possibly start allowing unhitched mounts to wander on their own when left unattended more often.

I think this is an excellent idea! Perhaps there could be a training to coincide with reducing the rate of wandering for your animals though? Or perhaps just that warhorses are less likely to do so.

I think food rotting for perishables would be fine. You shouldn't be stockpiling hundreds of unsalted, unpreserved meats in your house! *guilty*

Horses need to be treated better, and I've always been a staunch supporter of permadeath for horses.

N-nooo. Unless you mean that they won't react by instantly trying to kill you after getting caught. It'd be cool if when caught, they ask for reparance instead of trying to murder you and/or report you to the authorities.

Boring and utilitarian GM lair?! Pff. Add more colors! Add morep izzazz! Have everything trigger a script when you look at it!

Oh hey, new items and areas to find. Well. "new" item. (I'm never going to find it!)

It'd be awesome if there was a hitching post on certain properties outside of Town where canim can easily deliciously murder said horsie. I say implement a horse fine for leaving your horses on the streets of towns. Every like 10 minutes, whisk them off to the stables! Minor fee, say, like, 40 riln, for horse loitering. And if it wanders back in from starvation, that's 100 (from wilderness).