Unwillingly

In the last few months, player retention has sort of been a hot topic on LOTC. We’ve bounced between problems, solutions, plug-ins, guides, free skins, tutorials, etc., in order to improve the new player experience here on our server. I speak from experience when I say that this task of noob interaction is by no means limited to CT or even staff alone — the average player can very well do this without even logging on. Some of you may have heard the term “noob wrangling” thrown around every once in a while. What exactly does it mean? In short, noob wrangling is best described as a player, typically one well-versed with LOTC OOCly, takes a new player under their wing and teaches them what a guide or CT member cannot. Sometimes they might teach them commands, recruit them into the military, help them find a job, partake in cultural RP, or anything else that will start the new player on their first adventure. Now, this doesn’t mean that a CT member cannot do any of these things — just that typically CT monk characters aren’t the most reliable source of long-term roleplay for new players, especially when it comes to actually getting new players engaged in any sort of meaningful experience. How exactly do you contact noobs? Earlier when I said, I meant that literally. This process of noob recruitment is one multiple nation and settlements currently use, so here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can contact these new players. Note that new players, most of the time, are younger than the majority of us. Thus, they tend to be very shy or timid, understandably so, as the LOTC new player experience still remains one of the most overwhelming facets of our server. With that being said, offering reassurance, being welcoming, open, and friendly is one of the most important things you can do to help new players feel comfortable while they’re learning the ropes. No, I’m not saying you need to put on this faux bubbly persona every time you talk to them, but We all know that LOTC has a plethora of commands, many of which even some of the most seasoned players tend to forget or may not even know at all. My word of advice is: don’t take the time to teach new players every single command you can think of nor explain every detail of the server. Instead, teach them the basics (#w, #q, #rp, #s, #looc). Allow anything else to be learned with time at their own pace. The key to new player interaction is not to be needlessly detailed nor complex — there’s already enough on their plate as it is. A personal rule I always try to follow is to never leave a new player without some sort of goal or purpose to accomplish in RP. For example, once your interaction with your new player comes to an end, they may be asking themselves the question: What do I do next? It always helps to give the player something to look forward to that will encourage them to log on next time. You could tell them to locate x character, learn about the culture, get a job, join an active guild, etc. Practically any of these things will be better than simply leaving the new player in the dust with no direction at all. We as veteran players understand that there is no overarching goal of LOTC, or that we’ll never have that one player to send us on a quest. Your story is what you make it to be. This is something I believe is important to teach new players as well while also understanding that they will not always know this nor know how to accomplish this, and thus will need that little nudge. Some new players might be phenomenal at RP, while others… not so much, but there’s nothing wrong with that. We were all in the same boat at one point. Not wanting to roleplay with new players is fine, everyone has their preferences, but harassing them for not being the greatest RPers is not fine. LOTC teaches us to become better writers either by reading other people’s emotes and style of writing or simply practicing whether or not we realize it, so it's important that we give new players that opportunity. Something else I sometimes stress to new payers is that roleplay will not always come to them first — that is simply the undeniable truth of LOTC. You won’t find roleplay by sitting on a bench for 3 hours straight waiting for someone to emote at you. While, yes, people sometimes gravitate towards new players RPly and OOCly, that will not always be the case. Your willingness to seek out roleplay interactions will either make or break your experience as a new player on LOTC. What if they want a better skin? LOTC has multiple avenues of skin accessibility such as skin auctions or skinning discords. Most skinners charge a couple hundred more for commissions, so a custom skin is likely out of a new player’s budget unless they voted for a couple of days straight. Luckily, there are plenty of ways new players can get free skins. Planetminecraft has an array of free-to-use (FTU) skins. Simply head to the search tab under the skin section and search “FTU.” From that, you’ll be shown multiple skins for free use. These skins do not require permission to be used. Please remain respectful of the skin makers, however. LOTC Skin Archive, linked here. These are also free-to-use skins made specifically for new players. LOTC new-player-skin-request channel. This channel is in the main LOTC discord server located under the Creative Cafe tab. Here, new players can request free skins from the volunteer skinners. I hope this guide will come in handy for some of you. New players will always have a special place in my heart. However, I ask that this guide and advice is used responsibly. For example, if you’re a group that serves no purpose on LOTC beyond PVP, maybe don’t recruit new players ;) If you have any advice or comments to add, feel free to add a reply! If you’re a new player reading this guide, I have some questions... What are your interactions with the general players of LOTC like? What were you feeling upon logging on for the first time? Aimless? Overwhelmed? Let down? Are you struggling to find roleplay or get engaged in any meaningful RP encounters? Anything you else you wish to comment on or relay to the server?

Skin Auction The following skins have either never been used, or are no longer being used and thus are being auctioned. This auction will run from September 10th - September 14th, 5:00pm CST Rules Bids start at 4 USD ($4.00) Minimum bid increments of 2 USD ($2.00) When bidding, post a new reply instead of editing it If you have any questions or comments, do not spam the reply section. Instead, DM me on discord at un-w#9099 If you do not contact me on discord or accept my friend request within a few days (as has happened in the past) I'll simply keep the skin and give it to the next highest bidder Bid Format: Discord: Bid: Skin Number: Skin 1 Skin 2 Skin 3 Skin 4 Skin 5

chad cultural lore that doesn't need OOC legitimacy to be roleplayed vs virgin lore submission that needs OOC legitimacy to be roleplayed

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron beautiful story and soundtrack and over all an underrated movie. has a lot of symbolism and im a sucker for symbolism. can watch it on YT for like $5

"It's nice down here, isn't it? You can certainly smell the pine trees." Seven hours. For seven hours the brothers stood. For seven hours they spoke, but the words held no importance. Even small talk was better than having to mull in silence, or listen to the wet dribble of cold rain on mud or the warbled screams that periodically, but deafeningly so, left the upper levels of the tavern. Somehow, rain was more of a foreign concept to the brothers than being subjected to this fear — this perpetual anxiety that comes with those long hours of waiting and hoping. They hadn't seen rain in many, many years, so they both relished in the relief it brought rather than seeking shelter. It didn't rid them of the grime or sweat that collected after the trek, as convenient as it would have been. · · · And for seven more hours Darcassan sat. His lips grew dry and the inside of his mouth bloody after so long of chewing the innards of his cheek. Every instinct he had was telling him to find Ryunthur, every fiber of his being telling him to make sure he was alright — but he couldn't. Nothing allowed him to stand in that moment, no matter how much his back and neck ached from his broken spot on the floor. It was wrong for him to be the one to feel this way. To be so broken — so emotionally marred, but what else was he to feel? Relief? Anger? Nothing? Maybe it wasn't her Darcassan wept for, but his brother. Maybe it was not her he wept for, but for the childhood nostalgia he could never seem to shake. The feeling of regret you get when you realize how wonderful and unburdened life was back then compared to now. What a terrible thing that has happened to us, Kindrel.

SS pillars are one of those convenience things on the server like casual birds, travel betWeen settlements, or food. I'm pretty sure most people don't actually RP their soulstones nor acknoWledge them in RP anyWays

“I lament that you wore a crown before I.” “There are better things to be proud of than Sutican royalty.” Recalling the memory nearly made Cyrene gag. Truly, A terrible period of her life — it was like being reminded of that embarrassing deed in middle school, except on a much more historically damaging scale. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help but find humor in the jest, even if she had to force a smile through her grimace. “How long have we known one another?” “Decades. Centuries, even.” And yet, even now, they spoke. What more could she be than grateful to still be able to say such a thing where others could not? Where others would be lucky to be able to see such a lasting friendship, even in everlasting life? That was the unfortunate part — she was, as some would say, a cultureless swine. She had no deity to offer her thanks to, no faith nor creed to follow where she could show some measure of gratitude. “You feel as though you have run your course?” “If I do not die now, I will die unhinged and mad, they say.” Though Malin’s children were blessed with longevity and what was practically eternal life, most perished before they could reach that point. If they did reach that point, they weren’t expected to live very long — the mind succumbs to the burden of immortality, wrought into madness after only being able to handle so many inevitable horrors that they would face in life. “Where do you wish it to be done?” “I hear the Hinterlands have much to offer.” There was a joke in that conversation at one point. Something about the gouging of eyes as to test a healing concoction brewed from the forlorn days of Axios, or perhaps earlier on. Dark as it may be, it managed to pry a weak chuckle from her throat. “You have slain people before — will you find this any different?” “Yes.” He was always known to be quite candid in every sense of the word. For him to reply so truthfully, so honestly to a question despite what she knew of him, almost made her regret making the request in the first place. To ask him to endure such a thing, knowing that he would live and she would not, made her throat ache. “I wish you better in death than you had in life.” “Thank you, my friend.” In another timeline, she would have bit her tongue and done the deed herself. This wasn’t that timeline, however. It’s easier when someone else is holding the knife. ((OOC: The knowledge of Cyrene's death is public to anyone who wishes to know))

whats with all of the bad shitposts lately :(

because none of these things you listed are combat related a bell can only be run within a city or settlement as well and are typically only used to defend against raids on that city, where as birds are typiclly used to acquire foreign aid. elvenesse cannot use their bell to get military aid from haelun'or for example, but they could definitely do this with a bird while locked behind 20 iron doors in a bunker below the city besides @monkeypoacheralready explained all of this, im basically just repeating it at this point "my contention wasn't that it is impossible to stop a bird from being sent, it's that there is no compelling reason why I should have to"

From somewhere in southern Almaris, Brother Wildfire throws his head back with a wild cackle. "That city made me sick! Literally! We should be thanking those, erh.." he'd wave a hand about, snapping his fingers a few times, "... Lizardkin for what they've done! I do, at least! Death to all voidal mages."

the crux of not wanting birds to be used for combat isnt "I don't want my enemy to get aid," its "where is the logic in a random fuckoff bird being able to travel across the continent and locate a specific person like a bloodhound so they're able to summon an entire rally and show up to my exact location in 5 minutes?"

"removing birds would incentivize interaction with other players / strangers in RP" Yes it would but what are the chances of you actually being able to locate the person you're looking for by asking tens of people in RP? unless it's someone well known like a leadership figure or something or if you're in a small enough playerbase, you're probably not going to be able to actually track down the individual you're looking for the legit way by doing this. Sure it's fun to interact with strangers, I've done it myself before, but I can say with 100% confidence that over the course of time that I spent in Helena last map asking strangers about a specific person who had attacked my character a few days prior, I got absolutely nowhere. It was fun but I made zero progress on that small arc despite asking stranger after stranger in RP. But lets say you do find someone who happens to know who you're looking for - what then? Is every person you ask who knows the character you're looking for expected to know the whereabouts of them, whether they're on or offline? What are the chances of the character you're looking for actually telling someone, "Hey, I'll be going to x city!" every single time they go somewhere? It's good for interaction, but not if you just want to track down one fkn person but will have to spend days doing it. At that point like I said it just becomes seen as an OOC hassle and not an RP one when you want to do one basic thing but can't because HURHURUHRUH METAGAMING "but not being able to find someone is part of roleplay isn't it?" also yes however it will never change the fact that most people will not view it as "just roleplay." It will be viewed as an OOC roadblock by most players trying to track down their friend without "metagaming." trying to prioritize immersion or whatever this much over OOC convenience does nothing other than irritate people no matter how much it's played off as "figure it out in roleplay bruh" there are a million other avenues of interaction that could be made (such as incentivizing merchant and shop RP with the removal of the AH wink wink nudge nudge ;) ), but preventing players from being able to accomplish something as unproblematic as meeting with your friend in another city shouldn't be one of them

I agree that for conflict like CRP or PvP birds should be stricly disallowed in exchange for a better method of getting backup, but for something casual such as meeting up with your buddies in roleplay for a chat about whatever, it shouldn't need to be a hassle. At that point it'll just irritate people more than anything like imagine trying to meet up with your friend for casual RP and then a mod bans you for metagaming

"OH NO!" brother wildfire cries out, falling to his knees dramatically. "This is terrible! I hope the wasps nest I saw there is alright. Those poor things must be traumatized."

Gailien shook his head, disgust tugging at his features. "I'd rather live in a city of tyrants than a city of mages. Utter nonsense, this woman speaks."

im proud to say I've only ever posted [reserved] once ever and when I didn't get to it after a few hours I deleted it

Brother Wildfire, very bitter in his words, scoffed and babbled to himself elsewhere in the world. "Death to all who speak this degenerate tongue. How many of our kind need to be slain under the boots of valah for them to realize the treachery in identifying as 'imperial'? When will they learn? "

pretty dope, I really like this concept my bad if this is clarified somewhere, but if a weapon has the same functionality and abilities as normal CRP, how can this be countered? is the weapon able to be broken or warded away (since it can't exactly be "disarmed" from someone to my understanding, as there's no hands to disarm it from)? or is a player just endlessly stuck fighting a telekinetic sword until something saves them or they're able to run away?