Let's talk about 20-year-olds

[NikkieSheepie]

These snowflake traits could be treated the way adjectives are in stories, if they don't serve a purpose then they're just annoying and it reads like poor fanfiction. I'm sorry if that's harsh, but you did ask. It's difficult to say what the problem is in your case without knowing what the character's traits are. Feel free to PM them to me, but I won't pretend to be an authority on good RP.

It's not so much a problem with my character not going well. I didn't necessarily expect her to have a long lifespan, but to be totally ignored? Not quite what I had in mind to say the least. I had in mind some character development that with a little TLC perhaps she could become a more normal member of society, it's not like she's going around killing people or anything.
It's more a comment of how newspawns are sometimes treated, especially the less normal ones.

[ObsessedWithCats]

That is very strange. I've spawned in miserable, sleepy nightmare towns but never had (or even seen) an emoting character entirely ignored. And I've spawned some pretty weird characters.

[LittleSoul]

Were they just sleeping? Or were they also emoting, and actually purposely not acknowledging your character at all?

[NikkieSheepie]

Were they just sleeping? Or were they also emoting, and actually purposely not acknowledging your character at all?

Without revealing too much:
My character would interact with the environment etc. and for about a day she was interacted with. Then the others around the place would carry on around her, more newspawns arrived and my character was literally shunned, no matter what I done. Seemed like a fairly wakeful town (albeit small).

[prometheus]

I feel like a lot of times you have to insert yourself into RP if you feel like it's happening without you. Don't make it all about you, by any means, but like any society you should contribute, whether it is intelligence, or time, or simply a different point of view. Sometimes just a *stretches* or *watches them [adjectively]* Says "hey, I'm awake, just quiet! I'm here if you want to interact!"
One of my worst newspawn situations when I first got back, I thought it would be fun to be a historian. I happened to spawn in a sleepy town, on a mostly empty island. I was prevented from exploring the town (I didn't start running in and out of buildings; I asked very politely and even offered to be supervised, I was just curious and bored). Then after several days of basically nothing, I was given an outrageous price on a vehicle...which I earned on a dull task, by myself. That char later ended up going down a bad road (metaphorically) and dying stupidly.
What bugs me a bit about things like that is - people tend to look at the DoW cost they can get off of vehicle, instead of what the long term benefits are, and most of these vehicles are inherited or abandoned.
By contrast, one of my more recent newspawns on the same island was given a powered vehicle within two days of spawning, with fuel and tradeable items, just because they wanted to leave. There were no stipulations given, only keys, no qualifiers or demands to come back. And you know what? That character now has a fondness for that town, and consistently returns, bringing things with them for the town, and is a good representation to other people what the town is like.
I'm also posting a newspawn specific example once the 4-day runs out, that we all heard, I think.

[Marian]

Towns are getting a lot better about vehicles lately, I've noticed. Though you still find those few wanting to sell tandems for two years of work or more...

What most of the holdouts are failing to get (and not wanting to generalize here, but many of them are 'very old' and set in the ways of a world and culture that no longer exists) is that any active newspawn they choose to rip off or neglect can walk down the road and be welcomed in the next town with open arms, or assuming they don't have any kind of overly abrasive or whiny personality, simply hop on the radio and have people tripping over themselves to come and pick them up. Those people get it. They know what's actually worthwhile and valuable in the Cantr world, and it's not one of those 16 tandem bikes sitting around or the dozen unused ships rotting in the harbor.

There's some lingering idea I think that denying even the most basic transport options will force newspawns stay in a town. When in practice all I've seen it do is lead to sleep, or resentment from the ones that do finally manage to escape. You've been jingling your keys in their face and lording over them for all their formative years, after all, and keeping the relationship a haves and haves not one rather than making them feel like a part of any kind of actual community.

You need a vehicle to get the most out of this game. At the very least a tandem bike or rickshaw; I'd consider it a necessity, after a shield but before weapons. No one gets to choose where they spawn, but everyone wants to find a community that fits them, and better that they do than sleep to death or hang around bored and annoyed and triggering unnecessary drama because they're stuck around people they or their player can't stand.

[prometheus]

Not to mention denying ships to those who want them actively strangles cross island trade and makes it that much harder to find the rarer resources.

[Marian]

It's crossed my mind before that if any of mine ever inherited one of those towns with a bunch of excess rakers, something fun to try might be 'ok newspawn, take this tandem bike, find at least one other person not from this town to crew it with you with the understanding they have to be awake enough to walk on the ship under their own power, and it's yours. Oh and you have to promise to sail back here and trade me [rare resource] someday and radio us once in awhile to let us know how you're getting along.'

It's still making them jump through hoops, but at least they're more interesting ones. I don't know, I just like the idea of sending someone out on a little quest, and I'd hope they enjoyed it more than having to work X amount of hours. Plus it'd be a reassurance in a way that they're active and determined and willing to participate in the social side of the game, which to me means they're more likely to put a nice ship to good use.

[ObsessedWithCats]

That is very strange. I've spawned in miserable, sleepy nightmare towns but never had (or even seen) an emoting character entirely ignored. And I've spawned some pretty weird characters.

*resurrects thread*

Quoting myself to say this is no longer entirely true >_< I really hope it's 'cause my characters look like I'm not new or easily discouraged from the game because there's 'character is ignoring your character' which is potentially entertaining and 'player is refusing to interact' which could easily get alienating.

[SekoETC]

That sounds pretty bad. So the people are doing stuff and ignoring your character? Or just sleeping?

[ObsessedWithCats]

Waking up, moving resources, changing and starting projects, going in and out of buildings and ignoring my character. I've entertained the idea that perhaps they're a group of travellers who don't speak any English? None of the people with significant character descriptions have woken at all, though all of the descriptions are in English, all the notes etc are in English, all who woke have emoted briefly in English and it's not the kind of place I'd rank high on a list of likely places to find non-English travellers. One told his name early on but now for days of wakeful activity has now ignored repeated attempts at conversation and requests for information.

Well my character is about as confused as I am if not more XD But if said character doesn't starve it'll be an interesting story to remember.

[MonkeyPants4736]

One of my younger ones was ignored for three days by four active people. A fifth person finally acknowledged my char, after my char began talking aloud about how he/she must just be a spirit that nobody can see. That char never fully recovered from the blow to that critical initial excitement for life.

[LittleSoul]

This just makes me sad to read.

[witia1]

But that can be also funny Ok, I agree that being ignored is not nice, but once in sleepy town where one of my chars lived new spawn just claim we are his imagination and that's why we are not talking with him. He did this quite clever way
And I think biggest polish city elected some 20 year old as their Prime minister. I agree that there is lack of trust for new spawns, but sadly one or two trolls are enough to chaise them for next few years across whole island which can be annoying as hell.
Also lots of new chars just live for few years and then fades that also make harder to invest in their ideas.
This problem sadly have two sides of coin and yes I would like to see better chances for some success in game for new players as that could keep them playing but I also feel that for me is hard to trust them usually

[LittleSoul]

But we aren't even talking about going as far as trust here. We're talking about ignoring another new character entirely for what seems to be no reason. I can't think of one good justification for that.