Patch 2.7 | Skill System 2.0

[no longer active 734]

From what I have seen the purpose of this was to promote a more reliastic RP for the time era. However, in realism towns would have around 100 people. The average LotC town has 5-10 in different Timezones. In a medieval town everyone was always there, on LotC you log on for an hour then leave. That being said I think that this patch does increase RP but until we have a sufficient playerbase to always provide it, it limits us more then helps.

[Rhisereld 317]

Are you blind? This encourages tons of rp, I love this patch, now a blacksmith is needed, a farmer is needed, a carpenter, ect. More people will come close together now.

Being more and more limited in your gameplay does not encourage good RP! Sure, it is nice to have professions and I strive to support these. But it is a mistake to make this essential to stay alive, because there is rarely a person of this profession around! It doesn't bring people together. It makes OOCing, grinding and AFKing necessary to get anything done.

I don't want to be a jack of all trades, to be able to cook, mine, blacksmith, lumberjack, kill things and go fishing. I just want to be able to do what needs to be done, so I can get on to doing what is more important: roleplaying. Not every minute of my time online should be concerned with the gathering of materials. This new patch makes it impossible to get anything done. All and any RP is about material wealth, which is a step in the wrong direction. I want to be able to roleplay, and just roleplay!

There will be some people who belong to a large group and so have no problem with this patch. If you roleplay regularly with a person of each profession, of course you will do well. However, I've noticed a troubling trend in both large roleplaying groups and kingdoms. Most trading and planning is done in OOC, so that they can get on with RP. I don't blame them. It's necessary to get things done. But not every player has access to this. I don't think I need to remind you that:

Anybody else without a community like this is screwed. Some people simply don't have access to a fletcher, a glassmaker, a blacksmith. I simply don't have time.

And I absolutely refuse to compromise my roleplay for OOC reasons. I refuse to uproot Breva Firefist and take her to dinky little town #132 simply because that's where all the Australians are online. It is not going to happen. I would rather leave than see my roleplay become some cheap excuse to get in-game wealth. This is how roleplay is destroyed.

I thank Freya for talking to me, but I am still upset and won't be coming back unless this terrible system is fixed, or I miraculously find a way to repair my RP.

[Casamir 42]

Being more and more limited in your gameplay does not encourage good RP! Sure, it is nice to have professions and I strive to support these. But it is a mistake to make this essential to stay alive, because there is rarely a person of this profession around! It doesn't bring people together. It makes OOCing, grinding and AFKing necessary to get anything done.

I don't want to be a jack of all trades, to be able to cook, mine, blacksmith, lumberjack, kill things and go fishing. I just want to be able to do what needs to be done, so I can get on to doing what is more important: roleplaying. Not every minute of my time online should be concerned with the gathering of materials. This new patch makes it impossible to get anything done. All and any RP is about material wealth, which is a step in the wrong direction. I want to be able to roleplay, and just roleplay!

There will be some people who belong to a large group and so have no problem with this patch. If you roleplay regularly with a person of each profession, of course you will do well. However, I've noticed a troubling trend in both large roleplaying groups and kingdoms. Most trading and planning is done in OOC, so that they can get on with RP. I don't blame them. It's necessary to get things done. But not every player has access to this. I don't think I need to remind you that:

And I absolutely refuse to compromise my roleplay for OOC reasons. I refuse to uproot Breva Firefist and take her to dinky little town #132 simply because that's where all the Australians are online. It is not going to happen. I would rather leave than see my roleplay become some cheap excuse to get in-game wealth. This is how roleplay is destroyed.

I thank Freya for talking to me, but I am still upset and won't be coming back unless this terrible system is fixed, or I miraculously find a way to repair my RP.

So speaking purely Rp, if you found yourself (pretend you are your character) Unable to live in the area you are, no smiths, no cooks.. you wouldn't uproot to a place where this would be provided for you? you would be stubborn and sit around talking to people about how awesome it would be if the town had food instead of doing something about it? My character was like oh, I need stuff, guess grumpy old dwarven me needs to actually get a bit social with some random nobodies and see if I can get the goods I need. In any situation if you need something and it's not readily available, you do something about it. I have no food in my home for supper, hmm maybe I should walk to the nearest store and buy some? If anything this as planned should encourage RP, you now how to seek out people you normally wouldn't talk to, converse with them, make nice, trade, barter, and then either establish a trade deal or say hey, could you stop by this town once in so and so time to supply us? Instead of complaining about how it's ruining the server, take a pro active stance on it, and actually traverse the server, interact.

With our player base and such, you can never expect all the fun to come to you anyways, I have always had to leave and travel to get materials I want (such as redstone and glowstone for redstone lamps) I myself don't live in a town, I live out in the country side with my manor, if your community can't support you maybe talk to them to plan on who will focus on what so you can be self sufficient, but even towns have to trade with other towns, it seems more like you're just complaining instead of trying to compromise.

Edit: more IRL examples, Boss gives you promotion but you have to move to town so and so, you do it and make more cash yay. No available work for your profession in said town, you research where your field is needed and go where the work is yay. You want to take a certain study of schooling but it's not available at your local secondary education institution, so you move to a nearby town that offers the courses you need yay! There are tons of reasons people move around in RL, it should be no different in the game, not every little pitiful town can have INGVAR THE GLORIOUS BLACKSMITH SHAPER OF STEEL, CRAFTER OF FINE EXOTICS, but maybe you've heard tale of this fine mans works and want something from him, do you think that by just sitting around and being like.. man I wish he would come here but I refuse to leave my home cause well the world should cater to me, isn't going to get you one of ingvar's finely crafted neck choppers now is it?

[Rhisereld 317]

I don't like repeating myself, but I will.

I don't want to be a jack of all trades, to be able to cook, mine, blacksmith, lumberjack, kill things and go fishing. I just want to be able to do what needs to be done, so I can get on to doing what is more important: roleplaying. Not every minute of my time online should be concerned with the gathering of materials.

When you are prevented from doing tasks by game mechanics, you end up spending more time grinding than RPing, simply because you can't quickly whack a few signs up on the wall, or fletch your own arrows.

As an Australian player with limited time and a real life to uphold, I am not prepared for the huge amount of grinding and AFKing this patch encourages. I simply don't have time.

It is bad roleplay to single-handedly traverse the entirety of Asulon looking for a lumberjack! In medieval times, people stayed put!

You are basically saying that I should go looking for what I need. The fundamental flaw in this is that I can never find a soul. EVER. I have no idea where you live, but it is most likely not in Australia or Asia. I do not have the time to traverse the entirety of Asulon (and breaking roleplay by doing so) looking for INGVAR THE GLORIOUS BLACKSMITH SHAPER OF STEEL CRAFTER OF FINE EXOTICS just to obtain a bucket. I do not have the time to AFK in front of a burning furnace for hours at a time because game mechanics dictate I cannot move more than X blocks away from it. I want to spend my time ROLEPLAYING, not concerning myself with the circulation of in-game wealth. This patch requires hours of screwing around before I can get to that point. Hours that I do not have.

Breva does not live out in the wilds, being a jack of all trades. I don't know if you realised that. She actually lives right next to the Cloud Temple. However, it makes no sense for her to suddenly move house simply because the game mechanics have changed. No matter what I do, travel Asulon, wander around, search for the skills I need, it will take hours for me to get what I need. Not because of where I live (which, again, is in the middle of Asulon), but because I live in an inconvenient time zone and I refuse to deal resources OOCly with OOC connections.

There is no compromise in the way you are thinking. Either you move towards limiting players and making it harder for them to roleplay, or you give the players more freedom, placing the responsibility of good roleplay on the shoulders of the players. My compromise is that if you let the players use common sense rather than constricting them with game mechanics, I won't abuse it.

[fatwampa 25]

Well I feel that mine trading company shall beset the world of Asulon with goods of finery all whilst turning a most grand purse.

But seriously, if you can't find say, a farmer and you need one, move. That's realistic. It's not realistic to stay in one place if that place is void of resources or opportunities. Find a city with people in your timezone and live there. And I get it, it's more work for you. You have to oocly converse with other players to find who lives in your timezone, move to said city IG and then you set-up shop. Lotta work? Sure. Worth it? Probably.

And you could live off of apples and raw meat, if all goes wrong. I've done it.

[Casamir 42]

I don't like repeating myself, but I will.

You are basically saying that I should go looking for what I need. The fundamental flaw in this is that I can never find a soul. EVER. I have no idea where you live, but it is most likely not in Australia or Asia. I do not have the time to traverse the entirety of Asulon (and breaking roleplay by doing so) looking for INGVAR THE GLORIOUS BLACKSMITH SHAPER OF STEEL CRAFTER OF FINE EXOTICS just to obtain a bucket. I do not have the time to AFK in front of a burning furnace for hours at a time because game mechanics dictate I cannot move more than X blocks away from it. I want to spend my time ROLEPLAYING, not concerning myself with the circulation of in-game wealth. This patch requires hours of screwing around before I can get to that point. Hours that I do not have.

Breva does not live out in the wilds, being a jack of all trades. I don't know if you realised that. She actually lives right next to the Cloud Temple. However, it makes no sense for her to suddenly move house simply because the game mechanics have changed. No matter what I do, travel Asulon, wander around, search for the skills I need, it will take hours for me to get what I need. Not because of where I live (which, again, is in the middle of Asulon), but because I live in an inconvenient time zone and I refuse to deal resources OOCly with OOC connections.

There is no compromise in the way you are thinking. Either you move towards limiting players and making it harder for them to roleplay, or you give the players more freedom, placing the responsibility of good roleplay on the shoulders of the players. My compromise is that if you let the players use common sense rather than constricting them with game mechanics, I won't abuse it.

How does traveling break role play at all? This I do not understand, if your character is starving and in need of food it breaks your role play to try and find food some where? what do you RP as the most slothful person in all of asulon? And if you don't care about in game wealth and such, then take up farming and be self sufficient, the only item you NEED in this game is food to live, you don't actually need a weapon, or armor, or wooden stairs, or anything else but food. So if you can make food (which you can easily RP by saying so and so sits in their kitchen, the sun has risen and a rumble is stirring in their belly, they begin preparing a morning feast for themselves) then what? and if you're not running back and forth across asulon, then you shouldn't need to "grind" at a furnace to prepare food for the day, you should barely go through it.

I live next to the temple as well, my small manor is near a little village, and no I'm not in Australia or Asia, I'm in Canada, however I work damn near everyday and by the time I get home, relax, and eat, then log on It's usually well into night time here. However even when I sign on passed peak times, I still run into people at the temple (living so close to the center of the world is actually a boon for trade, but apparently you haven't seen that yet) and I trade or travel from the temple to the nearby towns, many of em aren't much more than a stones throw away.

So yes I mean I kinda understand that you don't want to have to work, only RP, but like I said, How does traveling break RP in anyway? What reason would your character have to NOT travel if they needed something so badly, and I mean NEED not WANT. So yeah unless your RP is the most Slothful person in all of asulon and traveling would obviously break your Rp, cause well your character wouldn't be slothful if he traveled and such all over.

Edit: and you say you can never find a soul.. yet people have told you some villages where there are plenty of Australians, you have been provided with a means but refuse because it's OOC. Mostly it just seems like a refusal to cooperate or meet in a middle ground. So you're crippling yourself with some weird sense of no OOC even when it would help pride.

[TheNander 241]

From what I have seen the purpose of this was to promote a more reliastic RP for the time era. However, in realism towns would have around 100 people. The average LotC town has 5-10 in different Timezones. In a medieval town everyone was always there, on LotC you log on for an hour then leave. That being said I think that this patch does increase RP but until we have a sufficient playerbase to always provide it, it limits us more then helps.

[2]

In less populated cities this kills us. In Mt. Ire we have to wait for a lumberjack or blacksmith to get online to get anything done. This does encourage shops, however... Wait a second...

*Runs off to build the new Economy District of Mount Ire.*

[no longer active 734]

Wall of text incoming! Please read it though!

I really like this. It seems to speak for a large majority of the playerbase. Many people's argument for things is "You asked for it and they just gave you what you wanted"however, shouldn't, by that very same logic, they listen to us when we want it removed. In my opinion this new skill system does promote RP. However, it is at the cost of fun. This system penalizes you for not having something. In my opinion this same goal could be achieved by giving bonuses. I'll give two comparisons. Right now you can fail at crafting a chestplate. This makes people go find a blacksmith. Instead might it be better to encourage the player to find a smith but not force them too? Such as allow players with 0 smithing to create it. However, if your a level 100 smith you might have learned to create it with one less diamond. This could occur by giving the smith a diamond back after creation. So of course everyone would want a smith to create their armor! Or maybe for lumberjacking, instead of not allowing people to create planks allow everyone to! However, depending on your lumberjack skill you might get more. Maybe every 25 levels another plank? I feel that this addition could achieve the same goal while keeping a great majority of a playerbase happy and also continuing great RP experiences!

[Brokencrowe 111]

It breaks roleplay because we would have these things readily available to us in the towns we currently inhabit. It wouldn't make sense for us to leave our town and travel for x amount of hours simply to find the woodworker, or blacksmith, when he is right at home in roleplay, but OOCly is offline. We shouldn't have to go and find the farmer we need, because in roleplay he's right there tending to his fields. This patch cripples smaller communities who already heavily relied on each other for survival. It's not about making it more difficult or easier for the player base; it's about realism to our needs. Sure someone who didn't have the profession of a blacksmith made a bucket using iron and the crafting bench, the way we do it is we play it off as the local smithy made it for us, or if we get bread the baker did it. We never say we did things we couldn't do in roleplay.

It simply saves time and energy which will lead to what is more important, the actual roleplaying. As was stated before me several times.

Further more, there are several things Levant has learned to do in roleplay over the years, and I had to give up my major rp skills such a mining and excavating to simply be able to sit down and make a chest or bake some ginger bread. As a woodsman, living in a gypsy camp he learned many of the skills needed to survive, does that make him an isolated turtle hermit? No. As was stated before me, it should fall upon the backs of the players to be a good roleplayer. There are going to be bad ones, always, but the good ones should be worried about :P.

This patch could be a step in the right direction, but it is too limiting. Perhaps loosening up the permissions some for the more basic of tools. Perhaps limit the permissions to only gold and diamond tools and armor. Professional grade gear, you know? What I do enjoy is the perks of being a master in your profession, you make triple or double of what you had initially.

I am by no means leaving the server because of this update, but it has had some profound effects on my roleplay group and several other players from what I can see. The only one's who truly benefit are those with centralized player bases, and can find what they need at the drop of a hat. For the smaller roleplay groups, such as the Nawari, many of our members had to grind out stats to do what they were able to do prior to this patch again, comfortably.

My main note is, sure this is Lord of the Craft, but it is also minecraft. It's the reason I joined the server at least. A minecraft roleplay server, elements of minecraft: the open ended sandbox game that allows you to do nearly whatever you want with roleplay, that only enhances the open endedness of minecraft. Currently you're sealing us off into a box. The only suggestion I can make, is not so much make it easier on us, but to loosen up some, and rely more on the player base's common sense, as opposed stat constraints. I know many players just do it themselves anyways, that should be frowned upon. Profession based roleplay should be encouraged, and even advocated, but it should not be forced upon us in this fashion, as on occasion we cannot find our local blacksmith (As he is offline due to being asleep at 4 am his time) when he would normally be around in roleplay. If you understand my meaning, it's not about going to find what is not available to us, as we already have such a person with that skill set in our roleplay groups. It's about letting the fundemental roleplay occur. The very thing that is the driving point of this server. The very essence and heart of Lord of the Craft.

That is all I can think of to say in my drowsy morning hours, but as always I Love you all with varying levels of intensity. <3.

- Brokencrowe

[fatwampa 25]

Anyone can build wooden tools and weapons. Pretty sure the same goes for leather armor but I could be wrong. But if you wanted to be on your own you could spread out your own stats to be able to farm wheat, make bread, build stone weapons, make planks and maybe wield a lesser weapon. You won't excel in any one area but you would be fine enough on your own.

They didn't take out self-sufficiency. If you want to be on your own, become the dreaded "jack of all trades." You'll never be able to craft a diamond axe but at least you can make all the necessities. See, you can't become a master lumberjack unless you decide to abandon some other trades.

You have 275 skill points. If you want to live alone, or live in a bad timezone, don't max out two fighting skills and smithing (or something). Work on farming and wood working or maybe cooking and archery (for those hunters). You don't have to limit yourself to your original character sheet. If mining just isn't keeping you well fed, leave that profession, become a farmer instead. Just like in real life. If a professional soldier couldn't put food on the table, he'd probably go into agriculture.

Not meaning to step on anyone's toes but that's how I see it.

[Casamir 42]

I think the issue is, that it's new, and it's change, people are not used to it yet. Give it time, let your towns / villages/ communities adapt to the change, talk amongst your close friends and plan who will take what task, that way there will always be someone available in your area to do a job that is needed. This is why I figure a server wide skill reset is needed, to give people the chance to adapt and change to help them become integrated into the new system.

It's a down right lie though to say that people in other time zones or small communities are screwed, use the forums (either in character or out of character) to advertise your needs for a smith / baker/ lumberjack With a note about your time zone or area. These forums exist to reach the people you normally wouldn't find in game! Utilize them, for example someone before mentioned a town that is mostly Australian based for players, Don't outright refuse to use this knowledge, if it helps you with your RP and lets you meet new people whilst allowing your character to survive why not? It's when you refuse to find a middle ground, or to give it a chance that you're just being ignorant and afraid of change. People keep complaining about not being able to make themselves stuff, well that was the purpose of the skills in the first place, this just limits it even more, if RP is all that matters it shouldn't matter if you can or can't craft that fancy diamond axe, what should matter is how you plan to sweet talk that dwarven warrior out of it with a silver tongue and some fancy trading.

My character is a dwarven merchant... I'm already "crippled" RP wise because I cannot mine ores and such to sell, I cannot forge weapons and armor to sell. But you know what, I deal with it, I picked a niche and stuck to it, I work on hunting, and farming. I have 80 + archery with 80 + farming and a few misc skills to get some things when I dig (I chalk it up to my survival training) as well as a few points here and there (like lumberjacking just for a better shot at logs opposed to planks) and even then now that my home is built, I find all I need is cooking, farming, and archery.

My main point is stop complaining for a moment, look at what this patch actually brings, stop trying to be the do it yourself be all self sufficient person, start relying on the community, both in game and via the forums, this is meant to bring us closer, but it seems the community has split with people who enjoy what vaq is doing, and people who just want to complain instead of giving it a shot. This patch has been live for what maybe a week? give it time folks, like I said if we get a server wide skill reset, work with your friends, fill up job professions and niches, so that your community can work together and thrive.

Edit: and I don't see how this patch makes things grindy or breaks RP, My character gets up, makes some bread for the day, and still manages to RP. I shoot monsters I see with my bow on my way to towns and such, gather some goods. If you are a smith, yes it will feel a bit grindy, but once you have a surplus of goods (unless everyone wants an iron chest piece every damn day) You should still have plenty of time to RP, also you can stand next to the furnace and RP smithing whilst talking to a friend *Hammers the iron into shape, wipes the sweat from his brow and pauses catching his breathe* "And then he said, thats no orc, thats my wife! *enjoys a chuckle and then returns to hammer the iron listening to the mans story* Like seriously, I've hear talk about "I"m not traveling to go get wealth, RP is all that matters" Well then how does this break it for you? do you need to be able to craft wooden planks to have a conversation with someone? Do you need to spend an hour mining just to get the ability to mine diamond instead of RPing? no, jesus people some of you seem to argue and complain for the sake of complacency!

Other edit: But seriously folks, communicate better, I want to know how a Knights RP is broken, because he cannot craft planks.. clearly he would have had Sword skill before patch, so whats the complaint? How about Blacksmiths? Oh I'm unable to wait.. I can cause I have the skill, I'm trying to understand what is wrong... I think you guys are mostly complaining about lack of other players with the skills needed when you are on right? But now how does that break RP (unless you are a merchant or a knight in need of this armor or something) but most of you are just townsfolk who want fancy things it seems, I don't feel those two are related at all, Just because you have to find a blacksmith now instead of making your own bucket? I'm not trying to start fights, but I don't understand the issue with RP, I understand the issue with not being able to get the items you want, I would say NEED, but the only item actually NEEDED that even remotely reflects to RP would be food. I think you guys are just complaining about one problem, but attributing it's dmg to RP. My character lives in an isolated (ish) place, and I enjoy traveling, asulon really isn't all that big, atleast not to get to a few larger cities. SO I mean instead of saying "games ruined" compromise, advertise for your city "blacksmith needed!" use the forums, travel and meet new people to get the goods you need. The game isn't broken, there are solutions to some of the problems you people have mentioned, but you all seem much to stubborn to attempt any of the solutions because it's not your solution. Try and work with the community here to make things better guys.

TL:DR There are solutions to the problems, use the forums, communicate with people, advertise you need a professional (insert crafter) in your town. Work with the community, don't fight against it.

[Brokencrowe 111]

My point was limiting people with gameplay mechanics is only a recipe for disaster. I've always relied on the community around me, that's what I've been saying all along. I am not about to compromise MY roleplay character due to a limiting skill system. Feats he SHOULD be able to do in roleplay, he cannot due to the limiting skill system. But, that is just one case. Our group is hardly crippled, we just had to give up time from our rp, and time from our building to get the stats we needed to function comfortably.

I am not saying to pull away from the community, or be solely self sufficient, nor am I even disliking of the change. Change can be productive. This change just happens to be counter productive to the server's needs. We're a Minecraft roleplaying server; roleplay shouldn't be restricted by game mechanics. That's what always made Lord of the Craft beautiful, you could be or do whatever you wanted to be! Now we're boxed in based upon our stats.

I gave the update a chance, but groups like mine are suffering. We manage on our own, but it takes far too long to get things that used to be quick done. Not to suggest I am lazy, or rushing; I just think the focus should be around the roleplay and not the material conquest. You're telling me to give up mining and excavating and take on farming and cooking. Levant IS NOT a cook or a farmer. He is a miner and a smithy. He can't cook for his life. He can make bread, and basic stuff to survive sure. With this update I have to give up the skills that made my character the way he was. That isn't roleplaying if I have to conform to limited skill system. You're telling us to just deal with it, and move on, but in doing that I cannot play the character I had chosen for myself. Your roleplay may not have been affected, but obviously other people's have been.

As I stated before WE DO NOT want to be solely self sufficient. We rely on the group to get things done. That's how most small towns are. With the time zones, and playerbase spread out as it is it is simply difficult to get what needs to be done, well done. And the suggestions offered state that we should simply uproot where we've been since the start of the server and go to another rp group to get what we need, which wouldn't make roleplay sense in the context of the world. If it were roleplay terms we would not be having these issues. For the ingredients we required would be immediately available to us. Through our smithy, our woodworker, our hunter, our fletcher, our farmer and cook. We have all those players, and all those professions. We are simply not on at the same time.

It isn't unbearable, I just think the system needs to be adjusted some. I've given suggestions in previous posts, and I cannot think of much more to add in that regard, other than scaling the permissions. You should make it a challange to get what you need, sure, but not down right impossible; unless you explicitly break your roleplay and travel someplace you would not need to go to otherwise. I have no gripe with traveling, or trading with other towns. Surely, the roleplayers should take into account the landscape around them and deduce what they would or would not have readily available. For instance if you live in a desert, I do not see a farm being a viable form of roleplay, you'd have to seek out someone who had this resource to trade things you only got from a desert. If you catch my meaning? It should be left up to the playerbase, and these cases of bad roleplay should be frowned upon, and dealt with accordingly. Limiting our creative mediums with a stat system such as this just seems needless.

- Brokencrowe

[Casamir 42]

snip

alright, would you side with me in saying maybe a skill reset would help the transition? even i find myself /delevel ing some of my skills to up cooking more to get bread. I feel communities and the like can adapt better with a skill reset to help drop side skills for more useful skills. vaq has said maybe but I feel it should be a yes. Thoughts?

Edit: not saying rework your character from the ground up, but a reset allows you to put more points into a skill you do, but need more in, while removing it from skills that you don't need so much, for example my guy has 20+ lumbering and I don't actually use it, I just got it from gathering wood for my home, same with excavation it's at 40+ I could easily move those points into cooking (to up my %) and even farming and archery (for more arrows)

[fatwampa 25]

I feel my previous point is in need of restating...

You don't have to be a master at anything. Your character is a miner or a smith, right? Well you don't have to max those out. Why not just level to about 60 or 70 and then start working on other, more economical, skills. That way you can kind of farm and still maintain a profession. Sure you won't be as good at your preferred profession but at least you can survive. And I think that whole less rp argument is, frankly, bs. Role-playing isn't solely based on imagination or story-writing. Sometimes there needs to be constraints to avoid unnecessary fights and problems.

For example, I bumped into a player the other day. No names but his character made me cringe. The guy was good at everything and had no faults. Now while some people may see no problem with that, I can't stand that. I'm pretty sure if this kid had it his way, his char would have had maxed stats and been king of everybody.

So stats do limit rp, sure but they create a more realistic setting for it too. You can't be the best at everything. Limits are realistic and as long as we have young or selfish players, we'll need these limitations.

[gabriel101x1 463]

Using the forums ruins the fun of the RP. Say you want buy 1 plank to patch up a hole somewhere. You make a post on the trade forum, wait days for a reply, someone replies, you reply to them, wait another day for them to reply back, after that it takes a week before you are able to arrange a suitable time to trade with them. This is a situation that I find myself in all the time whenever I need to buy something.