The Draft
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So having played it for a bit, here is my takeaway:
The Purple Dragons right now are a huge faction because of the draft. There is a lot of room internally to push plots, and I think it's cool that we're allowed to still 'go our own way' once we're in. It's cool that the Purple Dragons are a 'just mention you want to join and unless there's a huge problem we'll let you join' faction. I liked this about the Brethren, and I like it now about the Purple Dragons, the whole draft aside. But when I came back, I got the immediate impression that the server had collapsed to one-faction, one-party PvE, and I've not yet shaken that strange feeling.
On the flip side, I love the fact that we seem to be moving towards "Earn in game" instead of "App only". Having a faction like the Purple Dragons open to just about anyone who wants to join makes sense to me in the current setting, especially for the war.
However, I think the waived application requirement would have been enough. Let just anyone join a faction as cool as the Dragons, and they're going to join it. So an NPC who sells draft waivers for like, 200-300 gold a pop, would make people "feel the draft" without having to participate in the plot if they don't want to, could be enough to solve this problem. Further, I'm sure that criminals accused of crimes, or anyone who can come up with a decent reason, would rather join the Purple Dragons than be locked into the Penal Legion.
The Penal Legion is a separate issue that I would like to address in a different thread, so I will address it there when the time comes. However, throwing everybody who doesn't want to join the Purple Dragons into the Penal Legion and then forcing them to assist the Purple Dragons anyway or lose their characters is forcing people to take on with your plot. If I didn't find the plot entertaining (I do, but if I didn't) I just wouldn't log in after that.
I log in now and all I see are Purple Dragons.
I'm not saying we can't get creative with our rebellions/crime/shenanniagns (I am!) but having a 10+ player faction and them being the only ones online most of the time does tend to cut short a lot of interactions that players might otherwise be having.
So thematically, a draft makes sense.
But 2,000 gold?
What you're saying is that you're drafting -every single peasant and worker in Cormyr-. I realize that the setting is very heavily Law oriented right now, and that the Law is whatever the (usually evil) guards say it is, but come on now guys.
-No craftsman- can buy out of that, according to the DM Handbook for 3.5, and a lot of the common tables for wages. You are literally telling the -entire- country to mobilize for war or go into 'the Penal Legion'. Adventurers are -very rich-. 2,000 might not be much to an -adventurer- but it's totally unreasonable to ask more than most commoners make in years no matter what the current IG economy looks like.
The reason those stupid goblins you kill only have 12 gp and a medium healing potion is because they covetously stole it from other goblins, and were saving it for a rainy day when they accidentally stabbed their leg and were bleeding out pathetically on the stone cave floor. A farmer might have a bull's strength potion a year he sets aside for harvest time, because it costs him three months wages but makes ploughing so much faster.
I mean, we carry literal fortunes with us, but the commoners don't. That's easy to remember when the only currency that matters in NWN is GOLD, but there's also SILVER and COPPER and a LOT of stuff in the PHB's, especially mundane stuff, inn stays, and so on, cost sp instead of gp, if not just cp. Ever wonder why there's only three rooms in the spire and they cost 15gp? Ever wonder why you don't see filthy peasants using them? Because they're filthy peasants.
And to put that in perspective, Shylocks charges, what, 8gp or something? Guess who you don't see in there? Filthy fucking peasants. Those guys are ALL cutthroats, criminals, or someone on the take from someone, in that bar. That's why it's so flipping dangerous. And -they- get a crappy little bunk bed next to a piss pot. So that's just about how rich -that- district is.
Just make it easier to buy out of the draft and I'm sure you'll see people coming back while still keeping the draft thematic for the story. Chaotic will still be able to legitimize its rebellious stuff, because the draft is still going to hit the poorest people in Arabel (everybody not Hardcastle). Neutral characters or characters who are just quest dummies get to NPC out of it, and don't have to worry about PCs threatening them or breathing down their necks. Good characters get the option of volunteering, which most good characters have apparently done anyway, draft or not.
Win-win for everyone.
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The draft has been retired and we are looking into special support for anti law
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"What do players want, if not a way to be involved in the biggest plot happening?"
As a player returning after years away I recently created a character just to get a feel for the server again. I have to admit first hearing there was a draft that required a 2000 gold payment to avoid had me a little surprised. Not everyone is keen on being involved in these mega server-shifting plots and I know I am certainly not right now when I am still hashing out a few character concepts. I never really thought of the "just avoid it by not logging in" but that's sounds a little cheap if that's really the reason numbers have dropped.
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To be honest, All I have gotten from all these arguments is that people are unwilling to play Unlawful. Most of our players who are known for playing Outlawed PC's have basically left because of lack of support because no one is willing to play a PC that doesn't have access to Easy Quests, RP, and Plots. Then when faced with plots literally being shoveled onto their plates, they freak out like it's too much being forced upon them.
We are all rather veteran players by now, even the newbies have learned it's basically learn fast or drown. Not all concepts work in certain Server Environments. I can guarantee you almost every person reading this has had a concept over some time or another that they tried to play and realized it wasn't right for the current Setting of the Server. So most people are "protesting" OOC because they're unwilling to bear the IC punishment, which robs other players of the conflict that we also were forced into because of the draft to deal with "draft resisters."
I understand it's a pain in the ass for your PC's but it was also a pain in the ass for the law enforcement PC's who were assigned dealing with Said draft. We had to put a lot of IG time following NPC orders to enforce the draft just to be blamed and complained about OOC just for Role playing our damn characters according to the setting.
Instead of complaining, how about people actually do something IC or stop wasting other people's time when they're trying to roll with the punches when it comes to an ever changing and fluctuating Roleplay setting. Not everything is going to go as planned, that's the fun of roleplaying in a multiplayer setting.
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People did do something, It was called not logging in and it caused numbers to plummet even more than normal for summer
So steps were taken to fix it, It's a game at the end of the day people play for fun and if people aren't having fun and not logging in it hurts the server.
Also until theres actual support for unlawful concepts it basically means sitting in Old Town being really bored since no one interacts with you much so death by bordeom
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"We had to put a lot of IG time following NPC orders to enforce the draft just to be blamed and complained about OOC just for Role playing our damn characters according to the setting."
Noone is complaining about the characters or players enforcing the Draft nor the Roleplaying side of it.
It simply comes off as more of an OOC hassle then is necessary for little -In Game- benefit.
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To be honest, All I have gotten from all these arguments is that people are unwilling to play Unlawful. Most of our players who are known for playing Outlawed PC's have basically left because of lack of support because no one is willing to play a PC that doesn't have access to Easy Quests, RP, and Plots. Then when faced with plots literally being shoveled onto their plates, they freak out like it's too much being forced upon them.
We are all rather veteran players by now, even the newbies have learned it's basically learn fast or drown. Not all concepts work in certain Server Environments. I can guarantee you almost every person reading this has had a concept over some time or another that they tried to play and realized it wasn't right for the current Setting of the Server. So most people are "protesting" OOC because they're unwilling to bear the IC punishment, which robs other players of the conflict that we also were forced into because of the draft to deal with "draft resisters."
I understand it's a pain in the ass for your PC's but it was also a pain in the ass for the law enforcement PC's who were assigned dealing with Said draft. We had to put a lot of IG time following NPC orders to enforce the draft just to be blamed and complained about OOC just for Role playing our damn characters according to the setting.
Instead of complaining, how about people actually do something IC or stop wasting other people's time when they're trying to roll with the punches when it comes to an ever changing and fluctuating Roleplay setting. Not everything is going to go as planned, that's the fun of roleplaying in a multiplayer setting.
This is not true Drip. The reason people like me have mostly stopped playing the exile card has nothing at all due to with losing access to easy plots, quests and RP. It's due to the current server environment, unlike before, is murder for those who DO find themselves exiled. The moment it happens, your character starts dying. It is also very easy for people in those positions to end your character in such a way, because that is what exile currently is. Some people try to ignore the problem until they actually play one, but the truth of the matter is that exile is bearable if you do not play long hours almost every day, but the history of those who make for the biggest villains of the server is that they usually spend a lot of time in game.
The boredom, nothing else, kills those characters and it does so in an OOC way. So you don't get to blame people who want tot ride it out because they don't want to lose their character over a plot they may care nothing about, IC or OOC.
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I saw there was draft when I returned. I rolled a character for the draft. It was fun for the tour.
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It's the hard life when DMs make it possible to be directly involved in some cool server plot but it hurts your OOC wants to sit around spamming quests and doing nothing else. I feel the pain.
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Can we… Stop now? It's over already! Sand over it! Bury it! Lock this tread for goodness sake!
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There's much more to be learned in failures than there ever will be in successes.
At least that's what my parents told me. Maybe why I'm an only child. :shock:
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@Selene:
Can we… Stop now? It's over already! Sand over it! Bury it! Lock this tread for goodness sake!
Rabble rabble +1.
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@Selene:
Can we… Stop now? It's over already! Sand over it! Bury it! Lock this tread for goodness sake!
I dont see why people cant continue to discuss for the benefit of future similar situations….
I didn't log in, but it had nothing to do with the draft.
As far as the draft, and "having to join"... It seems to me that it was an golden opportunity for those who might want to act against the Crown from within, whether it being spreading discord, selling information on Cormyr plans , corruption, etc etc. Or even outright poisoning, murder, etc in barracks.
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This is the kind of thing that sounds like a good idea on paper, but in reality, people want to play games how they want to play them. Forcing things on people only works for a specific type of player, and we have a lot of types of players here.
Feedback has been heard and taken into account and implemented.
Now is probably a great time to make large overarching suggestions on how the server can be altered and what features could be added that could improve the server. One of the main reasons I say this is because we recently brought on a fresh new DM who happens to have some pretty sick scripting skills which I find pretty exciting, as there are lots of things I've wanted to implement on the server for a good while but not had the time to script.
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Now is probably a great time to make large overarching suggestions on how the server can be altered and what features could be added that could improve the server. One of the main reasons I say this is because we recently brought on a fresh new DM who happens to have some pretty sick scripting skills which I find pretty exciting, as there are lots of things I've wanted to implement on the server for a good while but not had the time to script.
Is a disguise system out of the question still even with this DM and their sexy scripting skills? >.>
Disguises would help outlawed/exiled PCs find fun things to do while their allies (if any) aren't IG since they could disguise up and go join that quest group that's meeting in the Spire or they could join the events designed for the Citadel factions to gather information.It's likely tricky since to make it harder to metagame you'd need to be able to change the name floating above the PC's head, but from experiencing an implemented disguise system on another server it'd be well worth the hassle in my opinion.
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It's a complete git to do because the only thing available to do it nwnx_names, which was designed to work off of a database system, and everyone start out with "person" above their heads, then you learn their names, which, really, isn't what we'd want to do.
I will…. try.... to take a look at it. It's really a case of time which I have so little of these days.
I could turn the new guy loose on it with some pointers on how I was going about it though, could work.
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Seems a good idea Zool, Give Strife some pointers and see what he cooks up.
It'd certainly aid criminal concepts
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From my point of view, even if playing a PC opposed to the draft, I find it exciting. Instead of my character having a casual nada's run he has to face adversity right off RtA and all sorts of players have a reason to interact with him. The draft was shunned, but I feel like it kind of should have been embraced.
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My player started as opposing the draft, but despite all my forums posts, IG posters dropped around the module, talking to other players, sendings etc…I couldn't get anything to come of it.