Illarion.org

I know this suggestion goes against all rping,,, but can you make the #me action automatic in certain cases? i mean you find characters for example staring at trees... and you wonder what they are doing... and THEN you realise, [when they start the #me] that they are actually cutting it down... this is a bit strange...{{i know that you are supposed to rp even if no-one's looking}

Even if there are no active graphics, there should be a way for characters to see what the others are doing, and this can eventually help theives as for example they know that someone was carving a bow, so they can steal it....

[hope no one suggested it b4]

I'd prefer sounds. Too many #me's spam the screen.

*cough* I know I've suggested this many times for the fighting system, but apparently people prefer the trend of using less and less #me's in combat and just reducing things to CTRL-click. Not disagreeing that too many #me's might spam the screen, but one or the other to hold us over for the next year or so until we can see these things in graphics would never hurt.

Oh well, it's not a complaint, just an observation.

Estralis Seborian wrote:I'd prefer sounds. Too many #me's spam the screen.

Sounds may be ok, but i dont think there will be a sound difference whether a bow is being carved, or a shield...

I suggest that instead of #me's, you click once on the person and you get a message like [you see XXXXX carving a bowl]... and if the time to produce is delayed (better than items being instantly created) you could have something like [you see XXXXX with a stick and carving knives], [you cant understand what he is making] [ it seems to be a long item] [XXXXX is carving a staff]....

My idea is also that your view depends on your skill, a miner may notice the person is mining coal, while others see just black rocks...

To M. Sian---> if you are in combat, you all permentantly worrying that your character is going to get killed;;; so most people will be totally concerntrating on the health bar, and not on the rping

Hadrian_Abela wrote:if you are in combat, you all permentantly worrying that your character is going to get killed;;; so most people will be totally concerntrating on the health bar, and not on the rping

Na, the huge majority of players of this game care more about RPing than their status bar. Anyway, I agree with time delayed production (my proposal since ages...), but I doubt that it will help the game to send a message to everyone around like "#me crafts a long bow".

There are plans to implement a system that reveals the inventory of someone by clicking on the char, but this has a) no priority b) is not yet decided. The other option that is favourized by many players is that one can choose a text that is shown when someone else "looks" at the char. So, one could use the description to add some flavour to the avatar.

Text that others see when they click you would be good. A simple command like !text would work

I think a better idea would be slots that store customized #me's

I know it can be a hassle to type something that you usually do, although it is good to vary sentence structure and such, sometimes you just dont have the energy .

This could work in a way where you could assign ten commands, each one to a number slot (i.e. 0,1,2,3,4,5...). To "access" the phrase you could hold alt+number. I am not sure how this would work out in the script but it is just my two cents.

Hadrian_Abela wrote:To M. Sian---> if you are in combat, you all permentantly worrying that your character is going to get killed;;; so most people will be totally concerntrating on the health bar, and not on the rping

That is exactly the problem, my friend. It's a roleplaying game, the player should not have to give a good God damn about the health bar, because the game is not about "winning".

I've simply been losing interest in PvP situations lately, because the #me's and strategies involved in combat are reduced to getting into threat range, having a red square around the target, and slugging until someone dies, after a measly #me swings.

Surely, not the way to go. There were times when people would move around in combat, and use very descriptive #me's which were paramount to portray the characters being martial artists.

@Cliu: I like the idea, really, it's something I greatly enjoyed about UO. UO gave the possibility to macro out things in the options menu, which I in fact used exactly how you described it. I had defined all number keys twice (one set using ALT, the other CTRL, 20 phrases & emotes in total), and more oftenly than not, they came into great use for roleplaying.

Moirear Sian wrote:

Hadrian_Abela wrote:To M. Sian---> if you are in combat, you all permentantly worrying that your character is going to get killed;;; so most people will be totally concerntrating on the health bar, and not on the rping

That is exactly the problem, my friend. It's a roleplaying game, the player should not have to give a good God damn about the health bar, because the game is not about "winning".

I've simply been losing interest in PvP situations lately, because the #me's and strategies involved in combat are reduced to getting into threat range, having a red square around the target, and slugging until someone dies, after a measly #me swings.

Surely, not the way to go. There were times when people would move around in combat, and use very descriptive #me's which were paramount to portray the characters being martial artists.

This would be done more if it wasnt possible for someone to kil lin 3 hits. If they changed the combat system a bit *ducks* it might work out that even when a master warrior was fighting a civilian it could be done with more #me's, and take a while, but in a way that tyhe warrior would still kick the civilian's rear. Easiest way is to just cut all damage by x amount. And x would have to be fairly high.

Well, there are ways to stretch a combat, like using daggers instead of double-axes...

Cutting damage is not a solution, for numerouse reasons.
1. There are moments when you actually tatically wish to knock down X player/monster fast.
2. a double axe is a fast and bloody death.
3. all combat skill equations would need reviseing as well everything taking longer my blows. I would be capping in one duel with some one lower than me.
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As sian says if you are dueling for the dramatics and show of it then use daggers rp it and #me it. I dont think combat actions are most important we use them when we can. as long as you #me draws "weapon"..so i know what your hitting me with, and #me attacks so i know your doing it. I generally dont mind, I tend to place a lot on before combat actions and after the act. Leave the actual battle to good old imigination and throw a few in if time allows.
Just my take
Brian

I wasnt suggesting it, really. I was saying that's the only real way to have rp be reasonably common among battles. Not everyone battles with daggers.

falco1029 wrote:Not everyone battles with daggers.

My point was not only -actually- battling with daggers, but that a seasoned fighter would know how to fight in a fashion causing less damage to the opponent. In other words, fighting less aggressively and putting aside the intent to kill the opponent quickly.

You know how some people cheat with the armor by quickly switching different types on and off to gain maximum advantage? I don't think many people will complain when you "cheat" and use a dagger instead of a double-axe, but RP the dagger to be a double-axe, if you get my point. Well, maybe thieves would complain about that, but a day without complaining on the Illarion forums? Unthinkable.

Moirear Sian wrote:

falco1029 wrote:Not everyone battles with daggers.

My point was not only -actually- battling with daggers, but that a seasoned fighter would know how to fight in a fashion causing less damage to the opponent. In other words, fighting less aggressively and putting aside the intent to kill the opponent quickly.

You know how some people cheat with the armor by quickly switching different types on and off to gain maximum advantage? I don't think many people will complain when you "cheat" and use a dagger instead of a double-axe, but RP the dagger to be a double-axe, if you get my point. Well, maybe thieves would complain about that, but a day without complaining on the Illarion forums? Unthinkable.

True, but then you get into the fact that daggers arent slashign weapons, so it may be a major difference. Also, you get "What's the point of having technial weapons then".

People just shouldn't "battle" with daggers. Daggers make more sense to use as weapons that take people by surprise, or parry a weapon while holding a bigger weapon like a sword or mace.

Not trying to unleash the Realism Bug again. But seriously, a sword just makes more sense. Why would somebody choose not to have that distance advantage?

Substitute "daggers" for any low-damage-dealing weapon in the game, for Christ's sake.

Yeah.

Off subject: Now that I think about it, the biggest, baddest weapon should hurt like the biggest, baddest weapon.

If you put the complicated variables aside, in the end, balancing the combat system means equipping any armor or weapon and getting the same result. Boring.

I think players should just be more tolerant to events that end in bloodshed, but aren't fights...know what I mean?

Example: a mugger threatening to cut somebody's throat. This isn't a fight. The victim isn't going to resist because he can be killed easily. A dagger or any other low damage weapon would be enough here.

A fight only occurs when both parties are aware of the danger and both react. A big fuckoff two handed sword is definately the winner here.

But that doesn't mean knives suck. They're just not fighting weapons is all. They're for concealment, assassination, mugging, parrying, something different from fighting.

As a role playing game, not all dangerous events should be made into a fight. The players could even use #me statements to do it all if they agree.

I actually learned "RP-fighting" without CTRL-clicking from Talaena, until then I had never considered the possibility, but it is a choice. I don't know, I just think it's kinda detrimental to my RP if an opponent just dies because of the fuckoff two-handed sword slipping and splitting his skull, thus turning him into a puffy white cloud and making all previous RP void of any special "character".

(Is that Raiden in your avatar Sian?)

I can see where having separate choices of weapons gives individuality to characters...two silver daggers for the fast and accurate, a two handed for the big and powerful, et cetera. This is often seen in anime and other mediums too.

But, I'm just afraid of logging in one day and finding that no matter what weapon/tool somebody has, there will be no weapon or armor advantage because everything is balanced to the point of basically being the same. For example - a dagger could be fast but low damaging. A hammer could be slow but high damaging. But if both continue to hit a guy for 10 seconds, the same damage would be done eventually.

(No idea who the guy in the avatar is, I googled for a pic under the key phrase "straw hat" and out came the pic I used for it. )

I agree with you there concerning balance.

And, returning on-topic, I sure as hell would not say no to pre-definable "quick #me's" which I could use to trigger cool moves in a combat just to teach some people what it really means to "fight".

Sure, one could argue that some would abuse it and spam in-game, but there is already some word concerning that...

The problem with the #me in combat is that...

1) you wont really have time

2) Sometimes things wont make sense, #me dodges the sword [and you take damage anyway]

3) Personally i do that, but only when i know the fight is going to take long...

4) Daggers i dont see as very good weapons of choise, i see them as weapons for assassins

5) To solve the axe problem, cant the axe be made a little useless, ie cant be used in closed spaces or underground [its heavy]

1) As I said, question of playing style. The trend lately is apparently cutting things down as quickly as possible, rather than developing style. The statement of not having time is, in general, silly, because there is no such thing as having no time. You take time, or you don't.

2) Even if it does not make sense, neither does the system. Someone with high agility does not dodge every blow either, but you can express in a #me that the character dodges a blow even though you see a red 'x' on the character model, just in order to express that your character is more nimble and swift than brute and brawn.

3) Right. I was speaking on a general basis, not on a case-by-case basis. Of course there are fights where the idea is to cut down something or someone as quickly as possible. But as we're speaking about an RPG, and conflicts are more PvP than actually PvM, there should be a margin where a player respects that the other needs some time to react appropriately. That's why what I was speaking of was on a completely general basis.

4) Like the rest above, this is all pretty off-topic, there is a thread specifically for the fighting system. I do however wholeheartedly agree what the daggers are USED for in reality, but what I was proposing was that you can extend a duel by using the weakest possible weapons against eachother (even if you, the player, LIE, and state that you are using heavier weapons in a #me), allowing both to use more #me's and make a combat unforgettable and unique.

5) See #4 concerning the fighting system thread.

Idea...

Could we have a sort of duelling arena? time could move slower there, and allow more #me in the time

Sounds like a bunch of work, till then—if such a thing even arises—I'd recommend my strategy of using least-damaging-weapons for more stylish PvP battles, so you can get in more #me's. It works for me, at the very least.

IDEA-->

You are able to 'USE' the other character character.. a submenu crops up giving you the following options--> Health and Body, Describtion, Weapons, Actions

Health and Body allows you to view the person's health, and if s/he has some form of defect...[based on the properties]

Description -> Tall, brown hair..ect...age

Weapons-> Stocked weapons, armour ect...

Actions -> Person is doing ect...

And if each text had a different colour, the screen wouldn't be soo spammed