An Update On 2.5.2

[Enyahs V. 173]

It was also said that the centre would be the only "un-regioned" area of the new map.. How are the survivors who aren't affiliated with a city supposed to gather basic materials to survive? We would be killed before we could collect anything, causing rage quits because those smaller men and women of the community can't get started by gathering materials to barter with or use to craft.

 

From OP:

 

The new island, named Kalos, is not an island, but rather a clump of islands. There are four islands for the four main races that will be regioned, a central "Badlands" area that will NOT be regioned, as well as some tiny miscellaneous islands that will also be unregioned and up for grabs. 

[TornadoWatch 364]

Will we be allowed to take items to the new lands?

[Goblin 18]

YES, to No-RP pvp

[blindmind 350]

I'm positive the badlands would instill a certain kind of uneasiness that is easily transferable to RP.

 

I ran alot of undead events in aegis, summoning creatures, lightning and fireballs. Many players were attacked without RP and the players loved it. It was spontanious and freightning, in rp and oocly. Which really catered to what many want to feel in LoTC - Immersed.

 

The badlands gives players a place to continually feel threatened, blow off steam and engage in roleplay that is potentially unpredictable.

 

The badlands is a place to get your heart racing without any ooc preperations, if you're not forced to go there - there's no problem.

 

If it's designated well, it could absolutely be a great thing for the server - sillies

 

As for an Antagonist, 3.0 is practically designed around an antagonist - the badlands however, I doubt will never be forced on anyone.

As much as I appreciate this, good intentions aren't always rewarded, and that's what we're kind of relying on, here. Plus, there's a very different respect for random people than there is Undead. The Undead were a force recognized by the very cosmos, and as such, I'm going to take them much more seriously than I would a bandit puffing out his chest. Plus, the existence of the Undead pulled everyone into a world-spanning adventure, and every encounter with them made a character a player in the world's history. It should also be noted that the Undead had a more regimented society, and were governed directly by the admins of the server. If anything, they at least had structure to help things along. Ultimately, my point is that the context is very different, here.

This will result in players seeing players, and not characters seeing characters. The suspension of disbelief will most likely be cast off as it would in most competitive games. Only way I can see this happening is if the nature of characters were altered against their will, or if it were a place no character in their right mind would want to go (but the player might), like an island prison. I may be alone in this, but I feel like players' characters are trigger happy enough. I feel as though I have to be extremely careful, even now, just to not get in a fight. More often than not, I see other players as threats, anyway. This would just provide a place for them to be silly violent. Then again, its possible that this will take these players away to a place where they can exhaust their pent up want for violence.

Still, the Badlands sound predictably violent and inhospitable. What defines it already is its sheer potential for violence and PvP. I can already see the community getting a bit busted up over what could happen there, as the Badlands will consume itself in its conflicts. Team work will be in small degree, especially when compared to the fight against the Undead, which relied on half the world working toward a singular goal. I can see the potential for roleplay coming from this, and it's far from impossible, but I see this doing more damage to the community than it would bring entertainment.

By looking at game design, LotC had a larger focus on team work and community goals with the Undead providing a threat to everyone. Communities, in-game, were hardened by their efforts and solidarity was high. As things moved away from this, we needed to rely on smaller, more individual conflicts to push a story along. Things start to become contradictory, as the goal is still to cooperate with each other, but also fight each other. This kind of thing is exemplified in something like the Badlands.

I'm glad that this is going to be experimented with now, in a temporary map, though. It's probably the best time to see how it turns out. Long story short, though, I can't wait for 3.0 to see its antagonist.

 

[shiftnative 3103]

Too much faith then, I 'spose - but I would love to see it be viable considering how difficult it is to cover/please all the timezones with antagonist events. With the badlands, it's on their time.

 

if it was lawless in-character,  I don't know what there would be to argue about. If the players are aware that they could be attacked at any moment.

 

We did well with the undead & Ascended but we had just as many plea's of removing them as we do pleas for bringing the back.

 

But then again, i'm just an old fart who hasn't roleplayed on the server in a long while

 

Well said as always, blindmind.

[Drelik 865]

Im loving the idea for the badlands, a very feared area filled with conflict. However, I think at the least there should be yelling at the level that aegis had before pvp, simply running up and pvping is something that shouldn't happen though unless preplanned.

 

Edit:

 

Conflict is five times the fun when it done using pvp. The reason for this is because people have something to fear, they can't control there own destiny judging by how they type. Not only that, but it is the mechanic of war in this engine that we play on, Minecraft. Clashes and battles are only more epic when they are done fast pace, and the outcome is determined by skill.

 

In a wide open, kill-zone, it only makes sense.

 

I dislike the compromise, I think it's mediocre in the sense that an entire area just makes people want to eat eachother and be crazy cannibals. In the Badlands, it should be a wartorn zone struggled over between bandits, factions, and nations, a refugee place for cannibals and sadistic murderers wouldn't make sense, they would be trampled by the forces that constantly march across the badlands, the quiet collective villain should try and stay out of the middle of a warzone and go to a place like a city or town where he can prey.

[blindmind 350]

Too much faith then, I 'spose - but I would love to see it be viable!

 

Well said as always, blindmind.

*tips his hat* Much appreciated, Shift. I wouldn't say it is just a matter of faith, though, as I have put myself on the side of confidence in the community before (such as in discussions of crafting and building restrictions), and I would not like to appear hypocritical. I remember when this Badlands idea was brought up years ago in a livestream, and I had similar sentiments, then, though the Undead conflict was still in play.

Back then I believed the Badlands would suck away much of the conflict that happened in the mainland, and there would be a separation; that Aegis would be evolve into the safe place, and the Badlands were where the villains and fighters busied themselves. My tune has changed a bit since then, in essence, I was afraid the grand story of Aegis would be abandoned for smaller individual ventures. Without an antagonist to guide us and involve us as a whole, smaller individual ventures have dominated anyway, which leads into my post above. Unfortunately, where the Badlands would have housed these smaller ventures, they spread across the server. This isn't to say the community is responsible, though. I don't think it could have been helped.

It's less an argument against the community, and more one regarding design, I think. We're sort of like water. Without a direction, the land around us slowly erodes to form a lake, and the water tends to stand still. With direction, a channel that rushes down the mountain and through the valley, we move forward and connect with many places along the way. The metaphor isn't leak proof, as we have minds of our own, but direction bears heavy influence on how we choose.

Unless the context is altered to feature something like a story (and I can't confirm that it's not already like that) I see the Badlands as more the lake, instead of the river. I would enjoy seeing something like I've described in my other posts, as it would provide some direction alongside the option to pursue your own goals and satisfy the violent aesthetic the Badlands are looking for. In a case like this, the context is key, I think.

Still, like I said in my previous post, giving the excuse to a wealth of players already looking for any excuse won't provide much that isn't already here.

[shiftnative 3103]

I edited my previous post with a bit more, didn't see you in here responding blindmind.

 

I had GM's try their hand at asulon antagonists - it didn't work out and I decided to do it myself, i've recieved little response to my villager cultists even after running numerous drake events it seems it wasn't impactual enough.

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/72909-asulon-antagonist-lore-recap/

 

I'm just not cut out for development anymore

[o_Ben_o 193]

I edited my previous post with a bit more, didn't see you in here responding blindmind.

 

I had GM's try their hand at asulon antagonists - it didn't work out and I decided to do it myself, i've recieved little response to my villager cultists even after running numerous drake events it seems it wasn't impactual enough.

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/72909-asulon-antagonist-lore-recap/

 

I'm just not cut out for development anymore

Shift Don't be like that. The server was a lot better when you were on it! - You were a great developer and good admin. Don't let one thing get you down.

[deadoorOldAccount 5]

I think we could always try it. The villainous deeds without a va is a good. It puts danger into it but still keeps the rp element

[blindmind 350]

I edited my previous post with a bit more, didn't see you in here responding blindmind.

 

I had GM's try their hand at asulon antagonists - it didn't work out and I decided to do it myself, i've recieved little response to my villager cultists even after running numerous drake events it seems it wasn't impactual enough.

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/72909-asulon-antagonist-lore-recap/

 

I'm just not cut out for development anymore

Sorry about that! I re-read the post, for ya. It's definitely true that the Undead and Ascended caught a lot of flak. I still, however, believe they provided a lot of direction for many players and an option for all to involve themselves with. No matter what kind of character you were playing, you had a stake in the matter. Because of this, any efforts you put into the conflict were rewarded, as everyone could respect the gravity of it all. Even the smallest achievement was important to someone. Without that connection though, the world has become much smaller for players. Not all conflicts are relevant or interesting to all players.

I suppose the Undead conflict wasn't interesting to everyone who engaged in it, but at least the option was there, and they knew it wasn't anything to brush off. Again, without that option, we're left with the smaller dramas of individual characters. They can certainly be important and interesting squabbles, but it is far less likely that they will apply to everyone. Going back to the Badlands, this design in generating smaller drama allows us to more easily disregard the roleplay, as its relevance is limited.

I will admit, I had not considered the timezone bit in regards to the Badlands, and it could be useful. That said, if I were a player during the server's downtime, I would still hope the roleplay would be be a big factor, even if it's in the Badlands.

I'll give your link a good once over and leave one of my big ole comments, if you like.

[Stag 3230]

Let people get the "No-Rp" killing out of their systems before 3.0 drops

[Hobolympic 1093]

What is keeping us from having a No-RP Killing field? There's not much difference in the warring system we have anyway. You'll have plenty of RP opportunities on all the other islands, should you not want to get involved. So why would you complain about the badlands? To me, PvP is the only thing that can spark fear in me on the server, because nearly all the RP fights nowadays seem to end up with a ban report, or take 10-30 minutes to complete. PvP is quick and progressive, realtime, and to most of us, quite fun and excillerating.

This is the final stop before 3.0, why should we not at least try something different? We have mobs anyway, who we slaughter with little to no RP daily, so what's keeping the player in the shadow? LotC's reputation? The reputation will not be stained, because LotC is in truth a 'medium-ish' roleplaying server.

I say go on, laddies and lasses. Make the server more exciting.

[Sorsby 123]

Most refuse to see that PVP actually is roleplay, they fail to see that what your character physically does, whether it be hack at someone with a sword or punch someone in the face, is an emote, and people would claim it's bad RP, to which I would say no, because it's bad RP to not recognise that PVP is a perfectly good form of RP (in specific situations of course, usually of the violent nature, other situations I would argue can be just as well RP'd via Minecraft mechanics, another taboo art here on the LOTC Minecraft server).

 

And with regards to the previous posts about antagonists etc, the only way to make people respect that something is dangerous or the like IN-GAME, is to actually force them into seeing it as a dangerous thing, i.e. killing them and making them lose, if this doesn't happen then it won't be a success and it's almost a guarantee. It's important to note that RP killing someone doesn't affect them no matter how much they claim it does, even when people pull the old 'if you're a good RP'er it will!', it simply is a way to lose without actually losing, thus having no affect on them (generally speaking, I'm sure some people do it well).

[lemontide331 1615]

Depends on how we've got left until 3.0 tbh, if we've only got 3weeks left, then we may as well stay on this map.