NotEvilAtAll

food decay wouldn't even help farmers b/c it's very easy to store food as blocks of hay (which obviously won't decay) and only craft the bread when you need it. better idea is to make farming productivity the same as vanilla and not let people farm the fields of nations they don't even live near with infinite durability /edit roleplay hoes b/c that is absolutely broken and has ruined all farm economy.

(insert unpopular opinion that baits you into replying to it)

my biggest concern with the lotc economy atm doesn't have much to do with how you get minas but rather how it is spent. on Almaris minas has mostly been useful for nation/settlement leadership with everyone else having few to no ways to invest their minas that provide long-term yield. Buying tiles? Nation leadership stuff Tile improvements? that was all nation and settlement leadership stuff Pastes? All leadership Warfare costs? That is also all leadership oriented for obvious reasons. Thus we have the strange meta where players give 100% of their minas to their nations treasury in the form of bank tokens because said treasuries are the only place where minas is A: not taxed at 1% a week and B: can actually be used on useful things. The more you think about it, the more stupid it is. It's weird that everyone gives their nations free zero percent interest loans. Ideally your typical player spends their minas on investments and things for themselves, and if they want to maximise their minas earning they spend their minas on things that return them more minas in the future instead of putting it in a nation treasury. in other words I also agree with @Orlanth we need more things your average, casual LOTCer can spend minas on.

[!] All around the lands of the Cloud Temple, you can sense that something greater once existed. The aqueducts by the lake and the ruined gate of the Northern Pass are not creations from this era, as any scholar of modern halfling culture could tell you. These monoliths of stone that now stand rotting in the wind and rain are but a faint memory of what came before, and of what great civilization must have built them. [!] As you come across the gate, you find a message carved onto it. Graffiti, perhaps. It reads: "What -nce w-s shall be a-ain" What a strange message.

“Ah darn… Oi was hopin’ on conver’in’ some o’ t’ose folks tae Knoxism” says Mimosa Applefoot-Nimblefoot, polishing a pumpkin-mask inside of Bywater’s Knoxist church. I’m reality, she doesn’t even know where Barrowtown is.

[!] Something peculiar is pinned to the Quest Board Find all the Birds! I will give THREE HUNDRED POTATOES to whomever can find all of these songbirds in our village first! ~Chickadees~ These beautiful birds are plentiful and their iconic "fee-bee" call is a treat for every ear! ~Black Crows~ These nasty little things LOVE to steal crops. Maybe you should go and shoo them away from the fields, or else they'll keep on eating all of the harvest! ~White-Throated Sparrows~ Almost as iconic as the chickadees, these birds love the colder, more forested parts of Bywater. ~Mourning Doves~ Although technically called Mourning Doves, they might as well be called Morning Doves, as I hear their calls every morning when I step outside of my burrow. Far more pleasant of an alarm than a rooster! ~Seagulls~ Annoying! I despise these "birds" that act more like demons with wings! Be careful of them when you are near the docks! ~Pigeons~ You can find these birds hanging out on the paths. They are used to being around halflings and big folks and thus hard to scare away. Wee-Tech keeps telling me these birds are somehow the same or similar to Doves. I do not believe it for a moment, as doves are far more majestic than these clumsy animals. ~Barn Owls~ They live in the barn. Not much else to be said. Best of luck! ~Mimosa Applefoot, Mayor of Bywater

I'd be happy with just some custom food recipes added in. Give me my cannolis back...

I think we should all live in one big city with a High School as its central feature.

Bywater made its last two activity checks but the most recent one was failed at 0.84%. I mentioned to the other main halfling leadership figure, @Hearth, to say that this is likely because we rallied for some events in Norland last weekend instead of exclusively doing things in our own village. ~Halflings in Norland, obtaining activity for something other than Bywater~ He admitted that I was right, because I (probably) was. At this moment I took a step back to think about my current server experience. 1: I am tied down to roleplaying in one location on all of Almaris. If I go outside of tile_97 where Bywater is located, I am throwing my activity metrics into the void where my playerbase cannot use it. If another nation or settlement plans a cool event, even one that I like and whose players I am friends with, it is not wise for me to attend it. 2: If my fellow halfling players and I do not get enough activity for our settlement, we will be evicted and forced to rebuild a new village near the end of this map. Whether or not we get anything settlement-related at the start of 9.0 is also up to our activity. At the moment, the answer to that question seems to be a no. 3: These activity checks and the drive to meet them do not make me happy. During the holidays when there were no activity checks bearing down upon us I was planning events and narratives with my fellow halflings and having a good time. Our raw numbers may be slightly higher than they were back then (mainly out of more people logging online and staying online out of fear of eviction), but it has not made me happy and I doubt it's making anyone else happy. I am going on hiatus because I am not happy. I am not happy with being tied down to a single area on the server and seeing myself required to spam events or see my community face eviction. This has not helped my character's narrative development nor has it helped my roleplay. We do not understand why evicting Bywater is even a consideration. Halflings will never disband their race due to losing a village. We will not spread our members far and wide into the ranks of other nations like when a human or elven location is destroyed and its members spread out as refugees. I hope other people can see that making halflings move from Village A to Village B (now a vassal!) does not improve server centralization. I've given up on halfling independence in 9.0. We'll be a vassal as was the case at the start of Almaris. All I ask of staff is to not evict Bywater in Almaris so that we don't have to make a new village that will only last for a few months before the map transition. I just don't want to give up my mineman freedom for the sake of the halflings either. I'll be gone for a few days as a break from being an activity slave. Might be a week, maybe more, maybe less, I don't know. Good luck out there everyone.

I am sorry. I will request a ban for toxicity I should be gone for several months.

Three event ideas yet not a single one efficient at moving a storyline forwards or generating good character development. You don’t have to write a guide on how to grind activity we already know that. I’d love to see this server move away from event spam but that’d take a lot of change.

[!] A message is nailed to the Bywater Notice Tree Brewin'! ~Trading for Wool!~ We have a tavern here in Bywater, yet we hardly have enough fresh booze to stock it, what with all of the recent banditry and thievery stealing our alcohol reserves! If we just brew a little bit more, we'll have something to sate ourselves besides imaginary ale and non-real cider! Gather in the bar next Pumpkin Day. We've got work to do. ~Mimosa Applefoot ((Event 9 PM EST, Tomorrow (Tuesday) on February 20th, 2023 (2/21/2023). Located within Bywater, the home of the halflings on Almaris.))

"Oi feck! T'is ou' o' season! T'ah poor taste! 't ain' even tha' toime o' year!" comments a horrified Mimosa Applefoot, soon running off to seek help with curing the afflicted tree.

[!] Letters are spread around Almaris JUSTICE SHALL COME ~Capturing one of the Cultists (see below for better description of their appearance)~ ((skin blanked out b/c you should be a true gamer and use my ms paint drawing instead and not metagame based on a skin from a screenshot)) Recently, one of the Darkspawn-loving cultists returned to Bywater, complaining that our missive ruined their ability to settle any place else and that multiple darkspawn-hunting groups have been after them. Knowing this, as an act of mercy, us halflings of Bywater hereby offer a FAIR AND HONEST TRIAL to the cultist coven. The terms are simple. Come to trial and ye shall be offered a chance to make your case, argue your innocence, and make your pleas. Refuse to come to trial and ye shall be HUNTED BY ADVENTURERS AND DRIVEN INTO THE UNCIVILIZED WILDERNESS where unrepentant cultists belong. The following groups are called to observe the trial: ~The Druids of the Vale, who originally drove these cultists from their lands~ ~The Shamans of Krugmar, whose knowledge of darkspawn will serve the trial well~ ~The Paladins of Almaris, for similar reasons~ ~The halflings of Bywater, who will provide the jails and courtroom for the trial~ ~Adventurers and friendly bigguns who can keep the peace~ ~The Cultists themselves, who are to stand trial~ ~Any lawyers and legal experts of Almaris who wish to serve on the prosecution or defense~ In the event that ye cannae provide a lawyer of your own, us halflings can offer you a public defender. The trial is to take place next Pumpkin Day. Be there! ~Mimosa Applefoot, Mayor of Bywater. ((EVENT 1 PM EST TOMORROW, SUNDAY THE 19th OF FEBRUARY, 2023. Not guaranteed to occur, keep that in mind)) [!] An additional sheet of paper is attached: TO YE DARKSPAWN HUNTERS: In the event all of the cultists do not come to trial, use the below descriptions to find them and bring them to justice! SUSPECT 1: An elven man with grey pupils and fair skin colour. He usually wears a grey shirt with a green sash and darker grey pants. He was recently apprehended in Bywater yet escaped from jail due to poor jail security. I don't know much of his personality besides that he doesn't burn when aurum is thrown at him. He will try to run away from you if you ever see him. SUSPECT 2: An elven woman with pinkish purple hair equally colorful clothing, and darker skin tone. She is frequently barefoot. I've forgotten their eye color, t'was probably a bright color of some sort. She is missing a hand due to fights with Necromancers (I think it was? Or was it snakes?), probably over dominance or something. She has some old religious trauma or something. You could probably convert her back to the way of the light with enough effort. As it stands, she has some strange psychological complex which convinces her that her soul is damned no matter what and that she is beyond saving. This is a lie that the others tell to her and that she tells herself. SUSPECT 3: The blue-skinned horned devil is so iconic as to not need a drawing. He is a 'cursed child' or whatever, as the druids say. It has nothing to do with him being a darkspawn; he is cursed to look like a devil due to his unfortunate birth, yet he chose to walk the path of darkness later in life. This is the darkspawn to which the cultists pledge their souls out of fear of the afterlife. He is beyond saving. SUSPECT ???: There's probably more. I don't remember all of them. I will let you monster-hunters know if any of the suspects clears their name through the FAIR and JUST Bywater court system. ~Mimosa Applefoot, Mayor of Bywater.

"Slandah! All lies!" replies Mimosa Applefoot "Fake g-news!"

"Wai', bigguns marry t'eir cousins?" questions Mimosa Applefoot

[!] A new paper hangs from the Bywater Quest-Board Investigations Earlier today, a frog hopped towards me and whispered in my ear of the coming danger to Bywater. We all are well aware of the cultists who abused our hospitality to hide among us, yet not one of us knows what strange things these people were hiding. They have left our village, yet their cottage remains. I am commissioning a group of adventurers to search the cottage and find anything off about it. This is a level B quest, suitable for beginner adventurers. May Knox save us all! ~Mayor of Bywater, head secretary of the Quest Office Mimosa Applefoot. ((8 PM EST, Tomorrow on Thursday the 16th of February, 2/16/2023. Located within Bywater, the home of the halflings on Almaris. Directions to Bywater: ))

"Oi'm mos' surprised tha' nay more folks vo'ed fer Dolleh Peregrin! She's ah Peregrin! Tha' famileh t'is well known for producin' lo's o' leadahs" remarks the newly re-elected Mayor, Mimosa Applefoot.

[!] A note is pinned to the Notice Tree of Bywater! Election Results! ~One of the new gardens!~ The election has concluded, and the results have been tallied up! Mayor: Mimosa Applefoot: 5 votes Xob Wobson: 0 votes Dolly Peregrin: 1 vote Sheriff: Breasal Nimblefoot: 3 votes Taylor Woodrun: 4 votes The results are conclusive! I, Mimosa Applefoot, shall continue to be your Mayor, and Taylor Woodrun is to be the new Sheriff! Knox bless Bywater's Democracy! Glory to the Wee, and to our Republic! ~Newly Re-elected Mayor and local halfling, Mimosa Applefoot

[!] You find a note in your aviary mailbox. A Warning! A group of deceptive, darkspawn-loving cultists have been running from settlement to settlement to escape judgement. They are bitter and resentful of the afterlife and believe they will find no place within it, and so they offer their souls to darkspawn to “save” them in a crude mockery of the natural order. Do not listen to their pleas. They are not being persecuted for their birth or appearance, but rather actively choose to walk the path of damnation and exile and refuse any attempts to save their souls through traditional methods. They will take advantage of your hospitality and good nature to continue their abhorrent beliefs and shelter darkspawn with them. Do NOT let a purple-haired elven woman named “Kira” or “Phaedra” (as the Druids call her) enter your settlement! Be wary of the blue-skinned horned devil that they offer their souls to! May Knox help us see through the deception! Do not let yourselves be deceived as we have! -Mimosa Applefoot, local halfling and Mayor of Bywater.

[!] A note is pinned to the Bywater Notice Tree Gardening Plots! ~The newly restored fields of Bywater, no longer a fair area~ The fair is over, and with its passing our daily lives return to us. There is still more land to clear and put to good use. To anyone willing to pitch in some labor, I'll offer them a garden plot to grow vegetables, spices, herbs, and whatever else comes to mind. Knox bless the shire! ~Mimosa Applefoot ((Event 8 PM EST, Tomorrow on Tuesday the 14th of February, 2023. Located within Bywater, the home of the halflings on Almaris. Directions to Bywater: ))

Name: Mimosa Applefoot Race: Halfling Mayor Vote: Mimosa Applefoot ( ) Xob Wobson ( ) Dolly Peregrin (x) Sheriff Vote: Breasal Nimblefoot (x) Taylor Woodrun ( )

[!] A note is pinned to the Bywater Notice Tree The Second Bywater Election! ~Fun times at the fair!~ Now that enough candidates have come forwards, it is time for us all to vote on them and see who shall lead our Grand Republic! Each halfling, gnome, biggun resident, and officially registered Adventurer is to receive one vote each for both Mayor and Sheriff positions. Votes are to be cast through the following prompt: Name: Race: Mayor Vote: Mimosa Applefoot ( ) Xob Wobson ( ) Dolly Peregrin ( ) Sheriff Vote: Breasal Nimblefoot ( ) Taylor Woodrun ( ) May the best candidates win! Voting will run for three Pumpkin Days, and the votes tallied at the end. ~Current Mayor of Bywater, Mimosa Applefoot