The Direction of CotH

[Aruen]

Warning: I haven't really read anything but Grakor's post, so this is just responding to the question of whether or not we should have generally more 'special' characters.
Opinion: I think we should let any people role-play anything so long as everyone involved is having fun with it. There's no need to say that CotH should be specifically for or against OPed or normal or any certain type of characters. Personally I've never really cared how realistic the RP is or how unrealistic it might be because it's RP and it isn't real. So as for what direction I think CotH should move in, is more freedom. Keep the quality of RP, and wonderful quality of nice players, but let 'em RP whatever they have fun RPing.

Please.. No, just no. People should -not- roleplay everything and everyone with insanely amounts of powers. I do believe (Although I can't be sure) that a lot of people, including me got sick of that and left retail. (In combinations with other factors) This idea would from my point of view, kill the entire server and make it as crap as the rest out there. Keeping quality of RP, means in my eyes realism. Perhaps it is -too- much at this point, but doing as what you describe results in .. well, the end of this server. At least for me. I don't mind changes, but if we all going to roll a big OP lore figure then I'm making all my chars stab themselves. Hurr.

What Amerason says is what I think as well. (Besides the whole gunman thing)

It is possible to become prestige classes now, but it's just too much work for too little a reward, and that same concept follows into other things such as the storylines as well. If players put in a good ammount of their time, IC and OOCly, they should be rewarded with what they want so long as they don't go crazy. (Which I don't think will happen too often.)

Agreed with this and plenty of other posts that speak of "increasing freedom" but not getting rid of the entire realism, despite having not much to add again I felt the need for commenting on Shivali's post. Hurr hurr. <3

[Shivali]

I don't really think realism and quality of RP are the same thing. By quality of RP, I personally mean -how- people play their characters. As in, how they work out to make their characters add to the fun of RP. If someone is playing an over-powered character and they aren't contributing to the fun of the whole RP, then they obviously aren't very creative and that isn't the type of people we want on the server. However, if someone is playing a powerful character and it ends up adding a very fun dimension to the storyline I would think we should keep it. It's isn't like every single powerful character you see is going to ruin everyone's game.

[Aruen]

I don't really think realism and quality of RP are the same thing. By quality of RP, I personally mean -how- people play their characters. As in, how they work out to make their characters add to the fun of RP. If someone is playing an over-powered character and they aren't contributing to the fun of the whole RP, then they obviously aren't very creative and that isn't the type of people we want on the server. However, if someone is playing a powerful character and it ends up adding a very fun dimension to the storyline I would think we should keep it. It's isn't like every single powerful character you see is going to ruin everyone's game.

Ah!.. Hurr, now I understand. Fair enough, you do have a point.

[Vorce]

I've only read grakor's post, so please excuse me if my idea has already been brought up, or the issue I'm addressing has already been dealt with.

I propose that for character profiles, instead of just receiving GM approval, that they should receive a 'Combat Rating'. Allow me to explain. Combat RP here on CotH mostly revolves around /roll fights. Therefore, in order to prevent a scenario where a normal person without fighting experience entirely beats a hardened and trained war veteran, it all comes down to the rolls. Combat ratings would be used to determine the effectiveness of a character in combat. For example, a character with no fighting skills -at all-, would receive a combat rating of 20, while a character who is a war veteran and undergoes continuous training, would receive a combat rating of 100, and maybe prestige classes could receive combat ratings of up to 150. How would this work? A person with a combat rating of 50, would /roll 50 for all of his fights, and the combat rating effectively becomes the extent of which a player can roll during a fight.

The system for combat rating allocation would be left to the GMs to decide on, and the combat ratings would be shown clearly somewhere on the character profile. I understand that there are two main problems behind this. Firstly, that there are over 200 approved profiles and even more on the way, taxing the GMs even further. Therefore, manpower for implementation becomes a problem which I have a minor solution for. Active players could PM a GM to be issued a combat rating, so that the active characters could be focused on first. This helps increase efficiency, yet it is still lots of work to read a character's profile and decide on a rating for the character, so whether this idea is implemented or not, I'll leave to the discretion of the GMs. However, since the server is going to experience a 'restart', this system could be implemented after the restart. Still, this is not my decision to make, so I won't push for it.

The second problem with this system would be characters who's profile haven't been written / approved, and would still like to /roll battle. Honestly, I cannot find a solution to this, other than banning combat RP for unapproved characters, which would be unrealistic.

How else could the combat rating be used ICly? Think of NPC interaction. If a player has a low combat rating, he wouldn't be picking fights all the time, despite any personality traits. Also, NPC reaction to a person in a fight could be greatly determined by the person's combat rating, allowing a reference for all forms of combat RP, be it /roll, trust, or any other method. Also, it wouldn't be impossible to lower or increase one's combat rating. IC posts / In-game RP training / lack of training could have an effect on a person's combat rating, to be decided on by the GMs.

In conclusion, this system is going to be more work for the already burdened GMs, so I would understand if it is not implemented. However, it does address the issue mentioned in Grakors post, so if it were to be considered, I could help out with the specifics and the details, if any help is needed. This idea is just that, an idea, and like any other idea, it can be improved. So... yea. XD

[Roobald2]

I've not been around quite some time, I know, I've skimmed trough the first page.

I agree with you for 50%, Grakor, one of the reasons why I hardly come here nowadays is because player progression stopped at some point. It's probably also why I was always having so much alts, because a character you can't develop can get boring. Back before Wrath, my main character Roobald was childish, curious and had dreams which he tried to achieve, but he was a wush, so he did not put to much focuss into it. He didn't need progress because he was fun to play OOCly. I think it would be the best if people could decide if they progress their character or not, GMs could watch over them, so that they do not become OP or godmoders.

That's my two cents.

[NoSecrets]

I read Grakor's post, and a few random following ones. Typically I keep my head down, and pretend as best I can that I am entirely invisible here---if I close my eyes, you can't see me sort of mentality.

Every once in a while, though, I speak. I'll keep it brief, and just give a firm nod to Grakor. Thank you, and I'm glad someone who can meaningfully work to usher in change has noticed this. A few times I've opened my mouth to say precisely the same things---rp stagnates because no one can be interesting. There are plenty upon plenty of reasons why everyone is supposed to be stuck in the Joe/Jill-normal realm, but stating that mentality plainly really makes the problem obvious:

Your character is not allowed to be special. Now, another point I've beat over the head of anyone who'll listen is that character ability barely even matters if the player behind them has a lick of common sense. The proof? Jinet---she's a mage by make, and very talented in certain magics. That to some means that by extension she can level ANYONE who doesn't use mana, and most who do as well. She would, but her player is not a moron.

Jinet is very talented in arcane/translocation...with or without server permission for her to be special in that way. On the other hand, she does NOT use other magics. At all. And she can't carry a great deal of weight/items with her to blink/port as much as she does. And she's lightly addicted.

The point is, the problem we have to contend with is not characters being overpowered these days. It may be something that crops up and will be dealt with, but right now? The problem is characters being bloody boring. There is nothing to do. Fights with Jinet have included her blinking around with her sword, doing all sorts of 'woah' things---and not a single complaint. Why? Because at very least she is interesting, and I have the sense not to play her as invincible.

No matter what your personal oppinion may be, the purpose of rp is entertainment. Realism? Only to the point of it no longer being entertaining. Wanting to win? Great, only to the point of it no longer being entertaining. Maintaining lore balance? VERY important---only up to the point where it stops being entertaining. This isn't a real world we're dealing with, people. This is our vacation from the real, boring, magic-and-space-goat free world we really live in.

Here, none of us have a choice but to be Jill and Joe normal. It's hilarious that in a medium where we have a choice, we marvel at why there's less fun to be found than expected meanwhile that choice to be special is strongly prohibited.

...anyway...

It's a good step, CotH! RP is a realm of creativity, and I'm honestly excited to see where, if allowed some room to function, that creativity could take people. I notice everyone panics about people playing godly characters but...really? If everyone's panicking about that possibility, that means our patronage is collectively not stupid enough to make that mistake. Congrats on that.

It's a self checking system. We KNOW what's unfair or rediculous, and it won't be allowed to linger. If I know anything about the patronage of this server, I know that when a collective judgment is made---right or wrong---it will not be stopped. So use the tendency to be judgmental to curb people's godly ideations, won't you? Aside from that, let the fun flow.

...on a side note... I love Grakor noting so simply what rp is designed as from its most basic. There is not a single rp anyone would play where you aspire to be unremarkable. If you think player characters are not treated with favor anyway? Anyone who's participated in an rp event, count how many NPC were slain by your character.

Right. You might not have been able to one-man-army, but the ratio was still around 2-5 to 1. Because your character is, in some way, more special than a Defias Bandit.

That's my once-quarterly input! As usual, I see the recent hubbub as our community rattling itself around to churn out more awesome! That's what always happens, once the bitching and moaning stops! (Can I say that?)

Create something interesting!

~ NoSe----...okay, a few secrets. But drastically reduced these days.

[Vorce]

Btw, should I post that combat rating idea of mine under 'GM Requests and Suggestions', or would it be fine staying here? I posted it here because the problem it solves was one brought up by Grakor in this post, although, I have been thinking of the idea for quite some time now... So yea, hehe, I'm a newb ><

EDIT: Meh, I did it anyway ~