Less Conflict?

[Kyriel]

The real problem is that the world is so huge, which makes it feel empty. If the world was way smaller we would feel like the game is thriving - keep in mind there are over 1,000 English characters alone!

The areas people spawn in most frequently are already too small. If the world were smaller, people would hardly be able to do anything for fear of their alts constantly tripping over one another.

[MattWithoos]

I guess I've been lucky then. I've had two or three characters visit the same location as the other in the entire course of me returning. I think I'm going on almost 2 years.

That aside, there's nothing wrong with your characters being in the same place or even interacting, as long as you follow the guidelines, and if trading or politics will occur, just let the Players Dept know.

[Swingerzetta]

I actually think one of the reasons for the rarity of conflict is because of Cantr's Success as a society simulator. Just like our own society, power and defense structures were created and kept in place. Violent characters are usually stopped pretty efficiently. And there's a lack of scarcity which would otherwise drive characters towards immoral acts.
I have never seen this as boring. Being locked in a room and hoping that your captor is just pretending to intend to kill you certainly isn't boring, but it's not fun, either. Having characters who form connections with other characters has been most of what Cantr is as a game, for me. The other part is world-building (which really means town building). If this game changed and moved back towards conflict-oriented gameplay, I'd quit.

[Alladinsane]

All right, this thread is locked and moved.

Until we can treat each other with respect, we need to cool off.
I understand that a few of us are frustrated and it pains me to see the reasons.
This is not a punishment, its just that we need to step back and put ourselves in other peoples place.

Thread locked and moved for now.

God bless you all... nobody needs this.

[Snickie]

This thread has been reopened for its original intended discussion.
Please keep it relevant.
Let's keep personal (player) conflicts out of this thread or we will be forced to shut it down again.

[Rmak]

The language sections are not relevant to the opening posters question - can we split it out into two - Conflict and languages ?

Also - Either all the posts are deleted or split off into separate statistics thread. Removing all of the discussion about statistics but leaving one favorable interpretation of a single language group is misleading.

[Snickie]

The language sections are not relevant to the opening posters question - can we split it out into two - Conflict and languages ?

Done
(as well as a little more cleaning out of irrelevant posts by PR)

[knazari]

There were several reasons I left Cantr and only came back years later. One of them is that I suspected the game was slowly dying, and was under too strict of control by the staff who oversee it. Since I've come back I still believe those to be true, but this time around I've got slightly different tastes, so the game is worth playing again. At least for now. But I have been somewhat disappointed by the decline of conflict. Especially since I feel that those who wish to stir up conflict aren't taken seriously anymore. Or that causing a bit of conflict isn't even worth it anymore because of how sparse the population has become. That is my only concern. But I haven't been back very long, so maybe I'll discover my assumptions are wrong.

[viktor]

I guess I've been lucky then. I've had two or three characters visit the same location as the other in the entire course of me returning. I think I'm going on almost 2 years.

That aside, there's nothing wrong with your characters being in the same place or even interacting, as long as you follow the guidelines, and if trading or politics will occur, just let the Players Dept know.

huh? I thought it was a lot stricter than that. I did not realize legitimate fair trading was allowed under any circumstances.

I've had characters in the same town before.. even right now, but they act as though the other does not exist, they don't trade, spar, pass anything to eachother or even work on a project the other had ever touched nor even talk to eachother.. though I've had instances where.. being able to trade would have made sense (only under proper guidelines, treating them the same as though they were someone else char, no advantage or special consideration or anything) but, instead.. didn't make contact for cr and thus effected in game (sometimes I even put a char to sleep while one is in visiting their home town)

[MattWithoos]

I think there's a lot of context behind a PD decision to let your characters trade or not.

For example, if you were sent by your town leader to trade with X town, and your other character is told by X town to facilitate the trade, you can check in with PD to see if they'll authorise it (it's likely).

If you happen to find your trader in the town your character is in, and there's really no motivation or driver for your trader to trade with your character, PD probably won't approve it.

In all scenarios I think if you are really keen for it to happen, have an open dialogue with PD and it's 100% legitimate and there's virtually no perception of you having influenced the situation, it will be fine.

[SekoETC]

I've had several of my characters trade with each other, usually because "X trades with everybody". Generally when ever one of my other characters went to Klojt, I tried to do it while Coventina was away or indoors, and there was someone else to handle the trade. As a result, most of my characters got the impression that Klojt is inefficiently managed, the leader is always absent and covered by inefficient substitutes who don't know how to do their job. I have one that if he were to return, he would ask for Emerald because he doesn't know she's dead.

[Rmak]

Maybe we can steer this back on topic ?

To me the issue of conflict is simply due to risk, your most likely to already been running into alt issues (Either your character or one of your group) thanks to spawning or if not running into some other unexpected interference. Add to that the likely-hood of anyone actually being awake and be willing to take part is another factor. I remember being involved in a small conflict and it always bewildered me why it never really went anywhere, but now I know the reasons why and it was doomed from the start. So, why would one bother when the result will be far worse than what you expected ?

It would be interesting to see if there is any difference in the Polish Language Zone, as they seem to have a much better grasp of the game and operate in a different environment by all accounts.

[sherman]

What I have been seeing Polish actually have so much more unique stuff than English area. Probably because they are mostly all from same time zone unlike English folks. They also seem to work way better together to achieve bigger things (like improving roads) where as english folks tend to go for smaller things that affect only their town. Now I don't know about conflict but certain places are really hostile for english newspawns which I guess is kinda conflict too on small scale. On bigger scale I think Rmak said what's the problem.. We seem to have playerbase that mostly doesn't have time for conflicts nor much reason for them when we already struggle to run towns. On this matter polish do better to as far as I have seen. I even saw a large town with 0 sleepers... Something I don't see on English towns

So my two cents for lack of conflicts: We have not enough active people for them, with limited (active)population most places can't really think about much else than about their own town so they have no reason nor will to fight. This applies actually to larger co-operation too. Then of course with smaller playerbase we have problem that you might end against your own char so people tend to avoid those situations. And then of course most are kinda made of conflicts (as far as I have seen personally) with no real need other than doing it for just doing it. So people don't feel like they want to join them cause they have no real reason. And of course when we have lack of active people those who seek conflict will give up when they don't get people for them.

Why would you seek conflict when you don't gain anything with it? Anyone can claim empty town but it's completely different thing to get people live there. Why seek conflict for resources when you have easier ways? If we had empires still they would have reasons but we don't have enough people nor willing people for them. I tried to do one but it failed when simply nobody was interested.

[Rmak]

Good point, the EZ is spread across every continent.

[Alladinsane]

I am struck by the paradox that we run into where some say that we enforce too strictly on chars being too close together.

Then there is another thread that questions if the world is too big?

The decreased population does make one want to cluster chars I think, but I am never really faced much with the first problem.
So breaking the pseudo-syllogism down seems to support the idea that there is less conflict. Why fight over resources when there are piles of them everywhere and few characters are in need except maybe the ones who choose to venture out into the "too big" world?

There have been a few new implementations to address the excessive resource problem in a way that is not -too- drastic of an impact.
There are also a few new items on the wiki that have not so far reached discussion here, I would have thought they would be discussed.
I know that fyig can be tiresome sometimes, but it seems to get people to read the wiki.

Have fun!