Spamfunet Nanny Forum

Telearian shouts: any RT knight Alts on tonight?
Telearian shouts: last call for RT knights any alts on?
Telearian shouts: i want to be a friggin knight please.............
Telearian shouts: RECODE the knights so i can be one since nobody seems to care
          about them anymore
Telearian shouts: YOU KNOW WHAT REALY PISSES ME OFF MOTHERFUCKERS WHO WRITE A
          FUCKING GAME THAT YOU CANT JOIN ONE OF THE FUCKING GUILDS THAT
          FUCKING PISSES ME OFF ALSO HOW THE FUCK IS THE CREATOR OF THE GAME
          UNABLE TO FUCKING HELP ME WHAT THE FUCK ITS YOUR FUCKING GAME HELP ME
          ASSHOLE FUCK IM SITTIN AROUND HERE WITH MY DICK IN MY HAND AND IM
          JERKED OUT FUCK THIS FUCK YOU GUYS FUCK YOUR GAME AND FUCK YOU AGAIN
          FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK HAVE A NICE DAY
-------------------

> fi telearian
There is no player with that name.
That name is banished.

I actually think it was too harsh to banish if the above was the only thing out of the ordinary. Ok, he shouldn't have been joined into knights after this, but it really sucks he couldn't find anyone that could help him.

Shouldn't join the knights after this....  From his point of view, a chance would have been a fine
thing. This was not a few shouts over an hour or so, this guy was shouting for days.

I heard his shouts, yes, but as I haven't got an RT in my back pocket, its hard to know what to
do. In the end, his shouts just earned 'witty' replies. What would you have done/did you do?

Not sure from whose perspective the last question is meant to be. I wasn't logged on to hear most of his shouts, I think. Saw it on "shoutreview". Unfortunately (?) I have no RT either, nor have I any say in that guild at all.

If I had been him, I would obviously been very frustrated, but never THAT frustrated. I probably would have started a new character, aiming for another guild.

Only hope we didn't lose a fresh new player there...

This is not just a problem for knights. There are very few players these days and so I think activities that require the participation of many players should be changed.

Dark rituals are so incredibly rare. I used to hate that while I was still playing (which was more than a year back). I tried requesting a change so that rituals could be done by a single player (I still don't see why not), but for some reason no one liked that idea.

I think cultists have a small problem too. I log on my priest once a month to read notes and I find that Cthulhu is usually pissed off.

Simyarins need an apprentice to advance past a certain guild level. That's a really painful requirement and I have had to get my friends to make a dummy char to become my apprentice. I don't think people should have to do that.

Hmm...and what do we say about vampires? ;) Probably not much that can be done there.

Anyway, I don't think anything is going to be done about it. Just thought I would write a note anyway since bitching is so much fun. Blahblahblah....

Eresh

Obviously a problem with less players, but I don't think dark rituals are so rare nowadays. Today at one ritual all four mortal players were in fact darks. I'd say almost 50% of the rituals are in fact held now, and several inactive darks seem to have emerged lately.

Remember the golden rules for many DM's and administrators.
1: Screw with the players.
2: Screw over the players and make the game not as enjoyable and fun as it could be.
3: Hinder the players ideas and/or progress and fun.

So what are you trying to say? That there is nothing to be fixed?

Eresh

Happily, I'm get to share Tredons level of cynicism  :D  I'm also not a big player of the darks guild. Are rituals
required for advancement (like masses in the monks)?  If they are, then I think your suggestion of letting
them be done by one player is a good one.

Carrion seems quite sure of his ground, however. But if there is a problem, I can't see it getting better with
time unless some change is implemented.

I would like to hear your views on the Vamps these days Eresh.

From the point of view of the knights, something really has got to be done. Maybe allowing Elders/Champs
to induct new players ?  Whatever changes we/I suggest, they won't sit well with established knights, but
times have changed.

You don't _need_ rituals to advance, but they help. You get a good boost to your void chant/gate through a ritual, so if you are active and playing, it can be a bit frustrating when they don't happen. Also, after some time the void chant power gives less and less healing unless you "recharge" yourself with a ritual. So rituals aren't quite as critical as monk masses, but they are very desirable. What I don't see is...what's the problem with letting a single dark do a ritual? I can understand that rituals are there to encourage people to work together, but if there is only one player on, the issue doesn't even make sense. I really fail to see any thematic objections to it. Anyway, it doesn't matter to me now really. I don't feel like playing now. (I guess my real problem with darks has been how boring it gets past G1. Collecting light sources means that you don't make good xp/money and just have a really lousy time. I wish there were some other way of advancing. Apart from that it is a great guild. But anyway, I guess this has nothing to do with the topic.)

Vampires... I have not played vampires for over a year now. It is a great guild if you can get fights soon enough. About 6 years back when I first played vampires, you could get a fight within 24 hours if you were looking. So losing was not too frustrating. You could always hope to get another shot. Right now if you lose, it means you are stuck for a pretty long time. I guess there are times when there is a brief surge of players, but typically the waiting period is kind of substantial. So I got bored and stopped. I don't think there is anything that can be done about it since the problem is too deep. The guild is not meant to be playable alone. I can imagine one fix - allow players to duel an NPC (of the appropriate age) once every 2 days if they wish. But that would be difficult since duels aren't exactly mechanical. There are lots of tricks that people can use so it would be hard to fine tune the NPC so that it offers the same amount of difficulty as beating a real player. (It might be possible to do this if you are clever enough. The standard duel strategy isn't that hard to put into code.) Besides, it would take away part of the thrill of playing vampires which is to beat a real player (but then this is optional, so it's up to the player whether he wants to use the NPC or not). But perhaps things aren't quite entirely unbearable for vampires if you are patient enough. After all, there are still some players who do play. Its just not for me anymore. I do think it is the coolest guild in Nanny though.

For knights, I would think anyone with a certain amount of "age" in the guild should be allowed to recruit...perhaps anyone who has fought 100+ attacks. But yes, as you said, people won't like that because in theory that would make it hard to ensure that everyone takes the recruitment process seriously. But then it isn't as if RT's can guarantee that the people the recruit are really "nice" or anything. From my point of view the only serious concern is that any such change might hurt the theme. But then, as you said, times have changed. So something should be done. My suggestion: Forget about screening people with interviews etc. Just make up a quest that players need to complete to prove their worth before joining the guild. If you want to make sure they know the rules as well, make up a test for them to take.

Finally, about "Tredon's level of cynicism". Tredon almost seems to suggest that all the admins are out to deliberately make people miserable. That is, to put it politely, a retarded idea. Only one of the admins is like that (you know who). I don't share his level of cynicism either. But I do feel a bit frustrated because I think the admins no longer put any serious thought into changing things. I don't play Nanny anymore. I don't think I will, I already play another game and I don't think I can play two at a time. But I do care about this game and I would like other people to be able to enjoy it.

Eresh

Just a disclaimer: My suggestion for vampires was just in case the guild becomes too inactive for anyone to play. I know creating the option of dueling an NPC might mess with the guild atmosphere. But IN CASE the guild becomes unplayable, this would be better rather than let the guild rot. So... please don't bother writing comments of the "you don't know what vampires are about" sort. ;) That would piss me off.

Eresh

I am saying you are totally wrong in saying that dark rituals are "incredibly rare". I actually thought it was pretty clear...

Dark] Loque sighs darkly.
[Dark] In the void, a voice speaks: There were no worthy dark ones logged on!
       Thus there cannot be any Midnight Ritual.
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: There were no worthy dark ones logged
       on! Thus there cannot be any Midnight Ritual.
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: There were no worthy dark ones logged
       on! Thus there cannot be any Midnight Ritual.
[Dark] In the void, a voice speaks: There were no worthy dark ones logged on!
       Thus there cannot be any Midnight Ritual.
[Dark] Loque smiles happily at Pyttska.
[Dark] Pyttska tickles Loque.
[Dark] Loque goes 'ah' and gives Hammar a dark greeting.
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: Loque is the leader of the Midnight
       Ritual!
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: The darkness is soon upon us all!
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: The wonderful night is upon us!
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: Follow your leader towards the darkness!
[Dark] Loque: 2w and north from green...
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: The last warning has been issued. The
       ritual can start at any time!
> You have unread news about the dart club, use 'dartnews' to read.
[Dark] In the void, a voice murmurs: The ritual starts now!


1/5 isn't rare. No.

Not sure why you try to convince people dark rituals are "incredibly rare", but they are not. Not now, perhaps six months ago or something, I actually don't know. If you think 1 out of 5 is "incredibly rare" there is a language problem rather, and you might be the one being correct.

Also, at weekends it's pretty natural that the attendance (nowadays when most players in RL are more like 30-45 having families and other things to tend to when being away from work) gets lower, but normally in the weekdays I'd still say the ritual ratio is about 50%.

This said, I don't object to the idea that rituals could be done alone, that would obviously help my dark chars, making it much easier.

It's time for plain speak then.
I almost never do innuendos or suggest things and not say it plainly.
I do not think that the nannymud administration are out to screw with the players
or to make them miserable or to make the players suffer or not enjoy the game deliberately.
It was a joke which said many DM's and administrators, if I thought the nannymud admins were out to get the players and to ruin their playing experience then I would have been specific.
It was just an ironic joke.

Finally I would suggest a thing for the vampires guild based on the new white wolf edition of vampire.
In vampire the requiem a vampire gains blood potency (which is the equivalent of age for nannymud vampires) with time and experience .
Diablerie is another valid way of increasing blood potency-age but it has a social stigma attached to it.
In requiem blood potency can be increased by aging only to a certain point and also blood potency gained would drop if the vampire sleep for extended periods of time or is otherwise unconscious for a long time.
This idea that age could be gained by being active and would lose age by being inactive or being in a state of torpor would promote active playing and participation in the guild.
Maybe this is how the guild works these days, it was years since I played a vampire.
As I remember the only fun part was the duels against other living opponents as opposed to killing monsters and NPC's.

http://www.worldofdarkness.com/dailies/FriJul30-2004.html

http://www.worldofdarkness.com/dailies/MonJul26-2004.html

I like your ideas, but I fear they would mean far more extensive changes than can be
expected these days.

With regards to rituals, surely its the amount that are missed when Dark is on alone
thats important, and I guess that can only be measured if you are that Dark, or you look
out for the event from other guilds. I choose to log on my Dark and help, even though
its not my guild particularly.

Btw Carrion, I'm curious, if you like playing Darks and have no real interest in Knights,
why did you make your place for their benefit?

You mean my area? I can honestly say I had no thoughts on what guild could benefit from it, I just had a somewhat "evil" theme as I thought that worked best with my own image. I had probably not been in any guilds beside Adventurers', Mages' and Musicians' at the time. Even Musicians' might have come later, and then probably Damneds'... Somehow I get into nostalgia no matter what :)

(About Knights', I _do_ have a knight, but he has no say in the guild, as an RT or anything, I mean...)

 Hey Tredon, are you trying to get me demoted?

the abomination

No.
I don't even know you and I certainly do not hold any grudge towards you.
I hold no ill will towards anyone who play nannymud.

Torpor in the new vampire game Vampire the Requiem from white wolf takes years and even centuries to lower blood potency-age.

Your suggestions are good T, but I think the required changes would be too extensive for
anyone to want to do these days.

The one big piece of work that seems to be being done these days involves opening old areas. This is lovely
to see, as these areas are missed, but it does mean that the admins code base becomes even bigger. I have
a fear that the MuD will get increasingly difficult to mantain, again with less and less wanting to do it for less
and less players.

Excuse my pessimism, but its the first day back after a holiday  :sad:

M

Well, it should be pretty obvious why I try to convince people that dark rituals are incredibly rare - because I think they are. Yes, 1/5 is pretty rare in _my_ opinion.

However, that was not the point. My point was that things are a lot different than they were a few years back and so a few changes would be good. If you don't think they are necessary, that's fine. You are the one playing, after all.

Anyway, this is a dead issue. Discussions on this forum are purely academic. Its pretty hard to have a discussion like this on Nanny since the people who can change things rarely take the time to even express an opinion if an idea is put forth. I guess one can't really blame them. As Maggs said, it probably gets hard to work up some enthusiasm about coding for less and less players.

Well, talk to you guys on Nanny some day. Bye.

Eresh

Yes, a dead horse, I know, no flogging required...

But... "pretty" and "incredibly" are just not the same. Really.

Anyway, I'll try to do my part in succeeding in as many dark rituals as possible and I actually think it's easier to get another dark to log on now than a month ago thanks to several players.