Diogen 3069 Share Posted January 27 I’ve recently been in a short discussion regarding aurum testing. I’ve heard a few sides out. Some believe it to be nonsensical to have it be a way to be cheesed and used on everyone to catch darkspawn. Others want there to be an accessible way to expose them, while others are completely against the idea of it due to the lack of pain RP and people downplaying dealing with lacerations every city they visit I believe both sides have valid reasoning, but I just opened up this discussion because i’m curious on what y’all have to say on the topic please don’t use this post to attack any community 29 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebellionlife 358 Share Posted January 27 Ok so. Irl it would make sense that if you know a certain metal hurts undead and darkspawn that you would go around using it to test people right? Like it makes complete sense to do this. Back in the old days people did witch test and trials all the time (Granted it was complete nonsense but it shows people tested for dark magic people all the time) My problem with it is that it makes sense but it ends up ruining any chance you get to rp a spook in a lot of cities. Like picture you just make a cool disguise, new name and everything. You started getting contacts and scheming. THEN BOOM a random orderman/templar/paladin was doing darkspawn testing rounds and you've just been exposed due to a metal and all those weeks of rp are gone. 25 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLThomas 1065 Share Posted January 27 Honestly don't mind it and feel like it deserves its place. In the end it only make sense to try and catch these shapeshifting demons. But what I do mind is that from a logical point of view, not everyone should just let it happen. Very simply put, having your hand slashed open hurts, and not just in that moment. No it has to heal and you have to deal with this slash in your hand that will hurt whenever you try to pick something up for at least a month. Guess this brings up a lack of pain RP and how little actual influence it has. Also let's not forget the fact that whenever you do emote having any sort of annoyance or pain when your hand gets cut open immediatly means you are infact a spook. Idk it's lazily used if anything. 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrimnyaQuorum 1036 Popular Post Share Posted January 27 I'll throw my two cents out, though I am not someone who plays a Dark MA/CA- That Aurum is a open material and salt is seemingly in unending supply - Testing RP, in my opinion, has been boiled down to a joke. Does your character not want to deal with a wound that will be painful and require stitches, at least - nevermind the risk of infections transferred for using a unclean blade and rubbing salt into a wound with unclean hands? You're a darkspawn and need to be instantly killed. Not in My OOC community! There should be tests for darkspawn, but they should not be easily preformed and done by open noded and infinitely available resources. Testing should have a cost that isn't easily replenished. You can't also ignore "Random" Darkspawn testing. 35 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SethWolf 1386 Share Posted January 27 I'm personally all for aurum testing. If you're a darkspawn then you should be focusing on raiding the villages and vassals that cities have orbiting them. On my deadmen we could still routinely capture two or three people at a time browsing the southern coast of Aevos from Balian to Helios. Also, if you're a darkspawn dumb enough to walk into a gatehouse where you know they test people then you win the prize you earned. Many darkspawn I know employ mortal, uncorrupted servants to infiltrate cities for them as to not risk exposure and do their deeds in their stead. (Kidnap, murder, sabotage, ect.) Make friends with people with keys, sneak in with them, buy a house and get keys for the citizen doors and you've just circumvented like 70% of city gatehouses and are now free to infiltrate to your heart's content. There's so many ways you can get evil done without even encountering a city guard. 20 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
satinkira 5901 Share Posted January 27 There should 100% be a way for spooks to be exposed that's available to those who don't have magicks. That said, blood testing is an easily abusable route that's historically lead to very lackluster RP. Aurum testing emotes of *slices open palms, prods with golden weapon* are all too easily abused - people who OOCly don't want to bother go 'oh they look suspicious' and proceed to ruin the character because they CBA, they want an easy win or because of an OOC vendetta. In my opinion, something a little more intricate and RP-friendly would be preferable. There are various routes to go about it - you could have a Priest conduct a rite of some sort to expose them for what they truly are, for example - but anything would be better than the incredibly lazy route of 'you look suspicious, let me cut your hand open to see if you're a spook'. 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuvas 2882 Share Posted January 27 I have no problem with aurum testing. I get to be a city leader tho where I have decided that mass testing is a ridiculous expense of time, resources, and privacy - and that individual testing is used in discreet instances where there is evidence. This is a good balance I think: If you're openly being investigated and are giving people reason to suspect you, getting caught is part of the risk. On the flip side, I've allowed you to live (in our city) by not allowing mass testing and you can keep your deeds quiet. I take on the opinion that I'm not going to allow what appears to be mass blood ritual in my city to see if a gold dagger hurts someone. 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnBaed 8951 Share Posted January 27 Bit hard to measure pain on someone when you slice their hand open purposefully - and it mixes with the issue of people disregarding pain in RP. I can't control the RP of others, if someone wants to cut my character's flesh open with a knife - she's gonna react accordingly to the pain, and be without a hand for a little while and proceed on in doing the proper medical RP. No point in trying to tell others what to do, just bring the logic of it all to them - aurum testing shouldn't be something done in the span of a moment. Also.... aurum affects everything with an altered soul, doesn't it? Not just undead. 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
satinkira 5901 Share Posted January 27 4 minutes ago, SethWolf said: I'm personally all for aurum testing. If you're a darkspawn then you should be focusing on raiding the villages and vassals that cities have orbiting them. On my deadmen we could still routinely capture two or three people at a time browsing the southern coast of Aevos from Balian to Helios. I disagree. Villainy can and should extend beyond the current Necromancer niche of raiding villages and vassals - more complex narratives involving political intrigue and conspiracies are perfectly valid and fine and should be pursued, and they are all too often scuppered by poor quality random aurum testing that's only ever done because the tester OOCly knows the tested character is a Darkspawn. 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimberBuff 2105 Popular Post Share Posted January 27 oh this world where I go "ouchie" when someone cuts me open and then burns me alive for being a witch 31 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unwillingly 11175 Popular Post Share Posted January 27 the ones who complain abt dark mages/creatures never leaving their lairs or not doing any villainy are the same ones who do everything in their power to bubblewrap their communities by constantly leaving their gates closed, spook test literally every single visitor, and confiscate every weapon in their inventory to ensure absolutely zero chance of any villainy being able to happen and they can just RP in a big padded box 24/7 I don't believe for a second either that it's something people do because "it's whats most realistic" because if we did everything by the standards of realism this server would be an infinitely more miserable and unenjoyable place to RP on. choices on this server shouldn't be made to adhere to realism, they should be made to foster RP. and also some of these places have been doing this since last map they aren't my favorite thing on the server but spook tests are a necessary evil bc if they weren't accessible then you'd never have a chance at seeing another dark mage/creature. but I loathe the sheer state of laziness it's festered into. if you want some perspective on the level we're at with some of this stuff, there have been accounts of players having their character's hand slit open, and when the person emotes pouring salt inside it, they're called a darkspawn for reacting in pain. like no shit. or even when a character refuses to have their hand cut into at all netphreak gave some great examples of how spook tests can be done in an objectively more enjoyable, less effortless fashion for both parties, and how the end-all solution to catching dark mages doesn't have to just hoping by chance that you catch an unexpecting spook in your gates and 3-emote kill him through the bars with a crossbow before telling him to either d40 or SS 38 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Netphreak 449 Share Posted January 27 Darkspawn (Spook) testing should be allowed.. HOWEVER I firmly believe that there should be much more roleplay involved with this type of testing that is and can be abused. Let's say the Paladins or Templars or whatever Canonist authority comes along to an allied City; and they wish for spook testing the citizens.. They should have to go to the council or the board or whomever is the head authority of that City and get a writ or permit for conducting such activities signed by the head authority at the time. If there is no head authority at the time then the decision should be made by the next in line. This will not only make things a little more challenging for the holy groups to go around and just proclaim ultimate authority in whatever City they're in and be able to dispatch citizens of that City based on their 'findings', but it will also provide roleplay for diplomats and darkspawn alike. Personally I do not like the Aurum blade method, because all too often as many people have stated previously, there is no pain rp, there is no risk of infection rp; the wound is healed darn near instantly (in most cases). This has become repetitive and stale and can arguably stated being used for OOC vendetta means and ruining a fresh disguise based on 'a hunch'. Adjust the testing parameters, get diplomats involved, get City counsel involved and implement a permit system; hell.. Set up darkspawn testing booths where people who are paranoid that they've been infected may come up and get tested of their own free will! Just remember that this is a place where we all come to, to enjoy good RP and hopefully provide good faith RP to others; don't let this spook test be just a weapon that is ooc'ly against one side, because it doesn't make sense if we make a holy test now does it? XD 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SethWolf 1386 Share Posted January 27 12 minutes ago, satinkira said: I disagree. Villainy can and should extend beyond the current Necromancer niche of raiding villages and vassals - more complex narratives involving political intrigue and conspiracies are perfectly valid and fine and should be pursued Sure but I'm speaking in the context of people arguing that aurum testing may be too easy and it stops roleplay from happening when it really doesn't. There's a thousand ways to get around a border guard aurum test, and a place that gets routinely raided by darkspawn will obviously do routine darkspawn testing. Quote they are all too often scuppered by poor quality random aurum testing that's only ever done because the tester OOCly knows the tested character is a Darkspawn. Metagaming would happen if aurum wasn't a thing anyway. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carson 936 Share Posted January 27 23 minutes ago, NLThomas said: Honestly don't mind it and feel like it deserves its place. In the end it only make sense to try and catch these shapeshifting demons. But what I do mind is that from a logical point of view, not everyone should just let it happen. Very simply put, having your hand slashed open hurts, and not just in that moment. No it has to heal and you have to deal with this slash in your hand that will hurt whenever you try to pick something up for at least a month. Guess this brings up a lack of pain RP and how little actual influence it has. Also let's not forget the fact that whenever you do emote having any sort of annoyance or pain when your hand gets cut open immediatly means you are infact a spook. Idk it's lazily used if anything. yeah, I for one would never voluntarily allow my hand to be sliced open. why should a character, assuming they feel the same things? 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrophysical 1003 Share Posted January 27 Knight: "Hey, I'm going to spook test you!" Me: *logs out* Honestly, I personally find aurum testing, salt testing, fire testing, and whatever an essential thing to the server, but it is executed in a very lazy way. As Unwillingly said these people who want interaction with villans are the same people that try to make their communities a "safe-zone." Due to this, darkspawn won't interact with that community. So who is really at loss here? I found the best way to avoid these roleplayers is to not include a ca tag since shift right click meta is very real, and blend in with large groups (if you even can with all the settlements right now). 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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