Tryptic

Two suggestions: First, give the kingdoms some minas to hire workers and have them build their own roads. It makes sense for the roads to be built in RP, but there are also a ton of RPers (myself included) who are incapable of helping. You could create a budget and GM-gift large amounts of minas to the leaders of each kingdom, with the restriction that they must use the minas to pay people to build a road network. Then let smaller groups apply for the right to build signs and roads that connect themselves to the network and let the natural economy of Asulon build itself up. Second, create fast-travel points halfway between major cities, so that players have to walk halfway before they can jump the rest of the way. For example, each major city could have a signpost area in a central position, with a teleport option for each entrance to the city as well as the Keep. First you have to do the legwork to reach the city, then you get a free pass when you want to leave. Also you can't get lost when you're just passing through the place :rolleyes: Similarly, roads that are mostly safe could have fast-travel caravans at the midpoint between two cities. Players have to walk along the road and can run into people or be intercepted, but they don't have to spend the whole 15 minutes walking. Not to mention these points would make perfect places for stores or for RP parties to meet up. These places would all be considered "busy, public places" meaning there should be no combat near them. Even when there aren't any players around to witness the conflict, in roleplay the villain doesn't want to risk being seen and there would be guards nearby to protect people. So it wouldn't break the game for someone to teleport away from danger using these places because by all rights they shouldn't have been attacked there. The teleport-escape can be explained as disappearing into the crowd or slipping unnoticed away from the caravan.

::RESERVED::

The Order of the Silver Talon The Order of the Silver Talon is an organization dedicated to establishing an information network across the face of Asulon. Its members are of different races and come from all walks of life. What sets a Silver Talon apart from his neighbors is his access to the network of information reported by all members of the Order. The Order is not a guild, in fact its members are encouraged to join other guilds, kingdoms, and organizations as well. While it is possible for a conflict to arise, most employers are more than happy to accept a Silver Talon, as they can only benefit from the intelligence he has access to. The Order does not have a set headquarters, ranking system, or salary. Its sole currency is information, and a member will naturally gain respect according to the quality of his reports. Those wishing to join the Order will be granted full access to its accumulated knowledge, including a map of Asulon that will be upgraded and updated until it accurately portrays every major city and outpost as well as leaders and diplomatic contacts for each one. Progress reports from construction projects, reports on the movement of local bandits, and tales of battles won or lost; these things are just the beginning. Any organization or individual that does not wish to follow the code can become a Contact, sharing information on a more equal basis and may even request scouting missions to be undertaken by willing members of the Order. As much as you offer the Order about yourself, you will receive in reports about those you wish to... learn more about. The Silver Talon Code 1. A Silver Talon must wear the crest of the Order somewhere on their clothing, either on the shoulder, hip, or across the back. An organization that places the crest somewhere on the roof or walls of its building will be considered friendly to the Order and receive information more freely. The crest is small but unmistakable: http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss205/Rynx/SilvertalonCrest.png In this way we shall be known. 2. A Silver Talon will report anything important that he witnesses to the Order, understanding that his knowledge belongs to the whole. In the beginning, this will be accomplished through the buddy list and organized by the Head(me) but if our numbers grow we will get our own forum. The ongoing goal of the Order is for all Silver Talons to know what is going on across all of Asulon and be able to act accordingly for the good of the Order and the world. *** In this way we shall all be informed. 3. A Silver Talon must offer food to another Silver Talon who asks, with no exceptions. This request is not to be made lightly, but only to prevent the starvation of one's self or a friend. In this way we shall all be fed. 4. A Silver Talon must offer assistance to another Silver Talon in trouble, with few exceptions. If he is ill-prepared for a fight (or simply not a fighter) he should still attempt to diffuse the situation and help his ally to escape. A Silver Talon who gives his life in the defense of another will be rewarded by the Order. In this way we shall all be protected. ***((A quick note for those who think this sounds like metagaming; it is not. Obviously, the Order will only learn of things that were witnessed by one of its members. Any detailed or important information will require an ingame meeting of the Order before it can be acted upon, otherwise it is assumed that all communication takes place through a system of messenger hawks and communication spells))*** Joining the Order The Order is open to anyone who wishes to join, and is willing to follow the above rules. Post your application here; I submit my own application as an example: Minecraft Name: Tryptic Character Name: Endo Steel Race: Dwarf Highest Skill: Swords ((put down what it WILL be, not necessarily what it is now)) Profession: Engineer/Traveller Kingdom/Guild/house: none yet Area of Operation: usually the far north, but I travel a lot

I never understood Aegis terrain until I found the map. Good to see it brought up-to-date! In LOTC 2.0 it should probably be linked from the front page, possibly with mouseover tags to tell you which kingdom is which?

I got accepted as an application team dude. Yay fancy title!

MC name: Tryptic Forum name: Tryptic Five most important parts of an application: 1. "What is your favorite/least favorite rule?" The answer to this question tells you a lot about the player. They can't even begin to answer it properly unless they've read the rules, plus it gives you plenty of insight into their maturity and what they will REALLY be doing in LOTC. If someone gives a multi-sentence answer that mentions several different rules, I would consider that a big point in their favor. 2. "Post an image of your skin" This one is huge. Most people don't understand how important this is, not just because of the skin but because of the effort to post the picture. When I first applied, I chose a skin from the LOTC forums and posted a link to that page. That was LAZY. Then I uploaded the skin itself as a png. That was also LAZY; I was disrespecting the server by not being willing to go out and do the work out of game. Until I changed my attitude and was willing to load the skin, take a screenshot ingame, crop it, and upload it, I wasn't ready to join LOTC. Simple things like this say a lot about a person's character and whether they will be a good or bad influence on the world of Aegis. 3. Persistence. I've seen some people say they don't like it when people re-apply a whole bunch of times. I think it's the exact opposite. If someone has a teachable attitude and is willing to come back and ask for advice until it's good, I consider that a good sign. If they give up after one or two rejections, then they probably wouldn't have been very active on the server, and people who aren't invested in the world are more likely to damage it for their own amusement. Now obviously if they keep reposting without improvement they need to be told to stop, but not permanently rejected. I would tell them what they need to change and if they aren't getting it then they need to come on teamspeak and ask in person. In the same way as posting a picture, I consider coming on Teamspeak a big plus because they're showing that they're willing to get involved and talk to the people of LOTC. Now that I've covered a person's maturity and their willingness to grow into the community, it's time to ask the more obvious question: do they know what they're doing? 4. Biography and description of Roleplay A good biography is detailed in some ways and vague in others, and a person who's roleplayed before will know that. Things like your family and your character's personality should be as detailed as possible, while larger events in the world need to stay vague. If a person talks about large events that directly contradict the lore of Aegis, they're done. Still, just reading the lore online won't give a person a full sense of the world, so I don't mind if they use generic events without going into the details ("My younger sister was killed in a war, so my character despises war") If the player has shown that they care about the world and its story, they will figure out which war killed their sister after they've played on the server long enough to make a good call. The best stories aren't created all at once, they evolve over time and I respect that in other peoples' stories. That said, every bit of backstory needs to be creative AND affect your character properly. Having your parents killed by orcs isn't creative, for example, and it doesn't mesh too well with the world. Having your parents disappear and your character BLAMES the orcs is better, but then you're in a bind. It's easy to talk smack about orcs in RP, it's a completely different thing to walk up and attack an orc when it will probably result in your death, or turn down a well-paying job from an orc player that you really want to take. As a member of the Application team, it's my job to make sure you're willing to make the hard decisions and stick to your roleplay, and I've only got a text application to base my decision on. So don't bite off more than you can chew, because I don't know you personally and I will be forced to deny it unless your application practically shines with overwhelming maturity. 5. "Can you _____?" This one is similar, but I don't think it's as important. Suppose you make a cookie-cutter character who can mine, build, chop trees, and fight but you can't farm. You get into the game and you're starving to death when you find a convenient farm in Elven lands with a sign that says "take what you need, as long as you replant." At that point, I don't believe you should have to starve to death because you didn't want your character to be perfect. These are sort of trick-questions, because we're not looking for a yes or no answer. I want you to write how your character would react to the job in RP. Maybe you can do everything, but you don't enjoy farming and will complain constantly about getting your robes dirty. Maybe your character THINKS he's a much better woodcutter than he really is. These questions are about your roleplaying skills and your character's personality, and if you realize that then you're one step closer to being on our server. Obviously when the skill system is re-implemented, there will be actual limits on what you can do that will add a lot of depth to the game, but everybody will still be able to mine stone and dirt, and plant wheat. Your starting skills will never be affected by the way you answer these questions, they're just a guideline and a chance to show off your RP skills. Final note: spelling. I know it's not a big deal compared to others but I still want to mention it. If an application is good and misspelled, I'd probably accept it. If it needs changes, I would mention the spelling mistakes to them. If they then repost without fixing the spelling, I would reject it instantly for not listening to me. For me it's all about the attitude, not the level of skill. Yup, that's me in a nutshell. Which is appropriate since I'm a bit of a nut. Hopefully this doesn't catch you at a bad time, what with Minecon and the 1.0 release, since I'm looking forward to helping out.

Right, that makes sense. But the progress shown here is not on that test map. I really hope they allow you guys to copy/paste it, otherwise that's a lot of work to do twice. It looks amazing by the way :D

woah, a test city? You mean you're going to rebuild this entire thing on the new server when it comes?

Can somebody explain to me where this will be? Is it on its own server, and people go back and forth between this place and the rest of LOTC? Will people be able to transfer items and minas between the two? I would offer my services as a builder, but it looks like you're staffed. Still, if you need more let me know. I'm playing a relatively new dwarf character and I'm still deciding whether I'll fully align myself with the dwarven kingdom or join a guild instead.

Sorry, I don't mean to add insult to injury but I think you misunderstood a bit about the character info. Roleplay balance is a weird concept if you haven't done it before. You aren't writing about your personal accomplishments or the things you've done on other servers, you're writing about a made-up character's abilities. Your new character is a warrior, so he probably wouldn't be able to mine the hardest resources in the game. Also this roleplay world isn't at war right now, so his profession would probably either be a guard or a bandit. I don't know what the infrastructure is like in LOTC (I'm still an applicant myself) but I don't believe it has an archmage college. A good entrance bio only covers a person's personality and some very basic info about his past, you'll be discovering the way society works AFTER you get into the game. The thing about a roleplay world is, it's only as strong as the respect people have for it. I don't think you meant it, but your application comes off as a bit disrespectful and that's probably why it was denied. The first one is always the hardest, but I hope I get to see you in the roleplay someday.

EDIT: Expanded Bio per request Out-Of-Character: -Minecraft Account Name: Tryptic -How old are you?: 23 -Time-Zone/Country of Residence: -7GMT (Colorado, USA) -Do you have a good grip on the English language/good grammar?: Indubitably! -Small 2-3 Sentence Description of yourself: I’m a Computer Science student in college, looking to go into game design. Right now I only play Minecraft but I'm hoping to start modding it after a while. -How much time could you be on the server weekly?: Somewhere between 2-20 hours depending on how busy my school schedule is. I promise nothing, graduating is a bit more important to me :) -How long have you played minecraft?: About a month now. -What do you know about roleplaying? How long have you been doing it? What kind?: I’ve been in a few roleplays starting around 3 years ago and I GM’d one with my roommates. The system was mostly L5R but I've played a bit of D&D and LARP'd with my sister and her friends. I have an engineer's perspective on roleplaying: to me it isn't so much about becoming your character as it is enjoying your character and making sure that everybody else enjoys theirs. People take turns showing off the quirks and abilities of the person they created and everybody comes away with fond memories (and some good inside jokes). To me roleplaying is about having fun through experiences you wouldn't encounter in real life. -What do you expect this server will be like?: My roommate just joined so I’ve been watching over his shoulder. I'm looking forward to exploring the massive cities and seeing some cool stuff; the architecture interests me a bit more than the roleplaying but I'm totally willing to get into character to enjoy it. I'll just be a dwarf who is fascinated by architecture! :D -What other server(s) have you played on and why did you leave them?: This is my first public server, I’ve played SMP and on a private server with friends. Not my first time roleplaying in an MMO though. -Have you read, understood, and agreed to the rules? What about the lore?: I have read and agree to all the rules, as for the lore I’ve picked up the basics. I’d rather discover the world by living in it than reading about it on the forum. (also easy, my character has simply led a sheltered life in his home town and is setting out for the first time) -Name the 4 races on this server: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs? Are players not allowed to start out as Undead? -How did you hear about us?: through my roommate -Did you vote?: Yes, three times in fact. It was a lot of work. I worked up a sweat. -What was your favourite Law?: The one about following your Kingdom’s laws. I like the fact that there are different places for people who want slightly different rules and experiences. -What was your least favourite Law?: Well, it seems like “no destroying the world’s landscape” is a bit vague, after all you have to destroy the existing landscape to build anything. But I can see why you wouldn’t want people making changes just for the heck of it. -What is your The Lord Of Craft forum account name? Tryptic In-Character: -Character Name: Endo Steel -What is your Race?: Dwarf! :D -Lordofthecraft.net/forum forum account: Still Tryptic -Biography: An only child, Endo was the son and apprentice of a renowned builder who always aspired to take over the family trade. Several months ago, his father died when a tunnel collapsed around him, leaving behind a steep gambling debt. The debt was too great for Endo to pay off himself, and since his mother had passed away several years before he had no living relatives. In honor of his father’s great contributions, the crown took all of his possessions and pardoned the remaining debt. The king offered to let Endo keep living in his father’s house as a guest for the final years of his apprenticeship, but he declined. Overcome with shame, he took a job as a miner and worked feverishly to make enough money to strike out on his own. Now he is heading out into the world, determined to improve his engineering skills and make a name for himself that will bring honor back to the Steel family name. His father was devoutly loyal to the king, and Endo has always shared this sense of loyalty. However, his father's death has left him with a distaste for the kingdom of Kal'Urguan and he longs for the chance to build new cities in faraway lands. His father's death has left him with a fear of weak materials and he refuses to work with anything other than solid stone. When he encounters dirt or gravel he feels compelled to either avoid it or replace it with stone. He is a bit socially awkward, having always focused on his craft to the exclusion of everything else. As a personal rule he never uses slang and it bothers him when others do around him. -Character Age: 29. I couldn't find any information on how old these races live to be, if necessary I'll adjust it to whenever Dwarves are approaching the end of their apprenticeships... -Character Appearance: I’m using a dwarf skin found on the LOTC wiki (by jackie1st) It has dark clothing and a brown beard, and I'm planning to personalize it a bit when I'm confident I can make it look good. -Character Personality: Ambitious, and he doesn't have much to lose. Endo has lead a relatively easy life up until now so his newfound determination and excellent building skills are about to clash with his lack of experience in the world. -Your ambitions: I want to engineer things with redstone: hidden doors, traps, minecart routes, etc. if this is possible within the RP world. I would like to eventually strike out on my own and create a new town/city for the Dwarven empire; if I am accepted we'll see how far I make it. -Can your character read or write?: Yes, he can do both quite fluently. -Can your character mine?: Yes, but he's used to having his building resources given to him. He'll need to learn the finer tricks of the trade. -Are you a capable builder? Oh yeah. -Can you wield a sword?: If he has to, but he's never been in a real fight. -Enjoy Farming?: Once again, he knows how but hasn't really done it before. -Does your character have any special skills?:] If using redstone is a special skill, then yes. His training is more about engineering (moving parts) than masonry (static objects). He (and I as a player) knows how to engineer some really cool things. -A screenshot of your skin: I added it as an attachment. -Other Information: I’m looking forward to joining your world and having a good time with everybody!