downfall of civilization

[kaloryfer]

hiho again

my characters have been wandering around recently, and i noticed a great amount of deserted or plain looted towns
i got a feeling that civilization is moving to main hubs of population and only some struggling small towns remain
what is even worse for these small towns, is the suspectibility to accidents
things like stray animal attacks, pirate attack, stupid or plain mischevious newspawn, or even real-life related inactivity can cause some problems
especially for towns that have 3 or 4 active persons

what will be the future?

[Bmot]

Wouldn't call that the 'downfall of civilization'... actually, in real life, exactly the same happens. Here in the Netherlands, villages are struggling to keep up facilities like schools, stores, and stuff like that, as there aren't enough people willing to live there. Worldwide, there have never lived so many people in cities. Seems like it's only logical that the same would happen in Cantr.

[Marian]

It's one of the first realistic 'society trends' (or whatever you want to call it) I've seen in Cantr, really. The world is just too ridiculously huge and the player base too small to have a town spring up in every location, and even attempting it hurts the game.

I wonder if the 'every location is a town' idea is something Jos even envisioned when he created Cantr...or did he just have much, much higher expectations as to what the player population would be?

[Chris]

The spawning algorithm, which creates spawns for towns with populations as low as two, suggests that the developers were (and are) in favor of spreading people out.

[freiana]

That's not entirely true since it is more likely to spawn in towns with more people...

[Marian]

Huh, I never really thought of it that way. It's always seemed to me the way everyone is so spread out is kind of terrible for the game, at least in the 'interesting RP and making things happen' sense.

Even a minimum of three would probably help cut down on the 'pair of travelers pass through a foreign language town and leave something behind' problem, and in general it seems it would make more sense for people to spawn in slightly more populated (and thus hopefully active) places, equip themselves and spread out more naturally from there. Though I guess the system is at least weighted that way right now since you get more newspawns in large towns...

[SumBum]

There are plenty of players who want a hermit char or just want to see what they can accomplish on their own. I really don't have a problem with there being so many empty towns. Maybe it's discouraging for newer players trying their hand at traveling but with 15 possible chars they have a very good chance of spawning in towns where there are a lot of people so they'd know the entire game world isn't deserted. With destruction of machinery and such available now, all those abandoned towns provide even more opportunity for chars to advance with their goals without having to travel all over an island to get supplies they need.

The way it is, those who want a quiet simmer life can pick a spot and those who want interaction also have plenty of choices. Just because most consider this an RPing game doesn't mean everyone wants all their chars in a lively location. It's one of the things I love about Cantr - that you have opportunities to play in different ways.

I don't consider it the downfall of society. There are definitely fewer players than in the past, but that can always change.

[Marian]

I understand what you mean, I have a character now who will probably wind up basically becoming a hermit -because- they spawned in a really populated place. I see it as a perfectly valid way to RP.

But I don't think players necessarily need to toss down the exact same law note on every single barren rock and try to run a town with a population of one or two there, and I don't think it'd be good for the game (or even possible) if they tried.

If the more community-minded characters have been starting to abandon that attitude and migrate to population hubs and places with important resources, I can only see that as a good thing.

[westonbend]

The smaller player base of course effects this. however I have seen much smaller I am sure. I am a returning player. I remember when the game was down for months in I think 09. The amount of players that didnt come back was staggering. And cause most of those empty towns you see. But over all I dont mind...it makes people work a bit more and it helps younger players. How many older players do you see with a dozen cars and three store buildings worth of stuff? A younger player can now if they look and work hard enough a decent amount of supplies to help them along in life.

[Shihad]

I always wanted to spawn in a deserted landlocked location with no buildings at all, by myself with no other people just to see what I could make of it. But the chances of that happening are pretty much 0%

[Tiamo]

I have had a character spawn in an empty location twice already, Shihad (though one had a building in the location). They both ended up ok.

[EchoMan]

There is a suggestion about desire-based spawning, that might make it possible to spawn an eremite in the future.