Things that annoy or puzzle you about Cantr

[Rebma]

I've been surprised by the number of unlocked vehicles newspawns have found this weekend!

See now, in these cases I can't even blame the newspawn. What's the point of having guards if they don't check for basic things like that?

And once you find an unlocked vehicle, you kind of have to grab everything you can and run at that point, because how are you going to explain away walking into it?

It just makes me wish I'd thought to check them.

[computaertist]

Actually, why don't the people giving out the free stuff ever make it clear that what the free stuff is for is to get the newspawn to live there? I think contracts might seriously be missing. Societies are based on contracts (not always written; usually worked-into-the-young-mind societal contracts, and Cantr lacks truly young minds since every spawns an adult so there's no real chance for that). Without the contract, at least a spoken one, why not behave exactly like those two newspawns?

[Marian]

Actually, why don't the people giving out the free stuff ever make it clear that what the free stuff is for is to get the newspawn to live there? I think contracts might seriously be missing. Societies are based on contracts (not always written; usually worked-into-the-young-mind societal contracts, and Cantr lacks truly young minds since every spawns an adult so there's no real chance for that). Without the contract, at least a spoken one, why not behave exactly like those two newspawns?

Let's flip that last question around: why would they leave the place where everyone is being friendly and supportive to walk off into the unknown?

The player knows you want them to stay, just like they usually already have another destination in mind when they have their char walk out. They also know they're 'entitled' to a knife and food and a shield and clothes immediately upon spawning and I expect attempts to withhold those would only have them complaining and spreading around rumors of how greedy and stingy your town is and how newspawns are kept as slaves, and all that other hyperbole Cantrians enjoy so much.

[sherman]

And then there's newspawns that spawn and right away walk away (sometimes not even saying their name) Seen that couple times this week already

[computaertist]

If a character spawns with a curious and/or adventurous spirit and no one makes any attempt to put a restraint on that or is capable of satisfying it in another way, the natural reaction to running out of very obvious things to explore/discover in the place where everyone is friendly is to strike out on one's own.

Not wanting them to spread rumors of greed and slavery is a good answer to my question though. Perhaps now I understand there's almost never an attempt to establish such a contract because no one knows how to do it in a way that would result at all like real societal conditioning. Perhaps I'll take a crack at it one day.

[Marian]

There was nothing like that in both of the examples I originally complained about though. Nothing to indicate a desire to explore... which in at least one case my char would have been happy to help out with. It was just... introductions, get stuff, goodbye. I wouldn't have posted in the 'annoyance' thread if there had been RP involved.

Oh well... newspawns. Who can ever figure them out?

[computaertist]

Badly rp-ed curiosity is still curiosity. When I was new I had a curious character strike it out on their own to explore without explaining that's why they did it, and it wasn't until much later I had any idea what bad rp even is.

Unless you are expressly told why something harmless is done, I think it might be bad practice to judge the person harshly. And if taking free stuff and leaving is harmful, then there really needs to be better IC expression of that before they leave.

[Swingerzetta]

When my first, doomed character spawned and walked down the road, it was due to MY curiosity, not my character's. In almost every text game, you don't just stand in the same room all day. You walk around and see what else the town has to offer. Only, in Cantr, going 'west' doesn't take you to a different section in the town, it starts the lengthy process of walking to a new town. It's a surprising difference.

[*Wiro]

When my first, doomed character spawned and walked down the road, it was due to MY curiosity, not my character's. In almost every text game, you don't just stand in the same room all day. You walk around and see what else the town has to offer. Only, in Cantr, going 'west' doesn't take you to a different section in the town, it starts the lengthy process of walking to a new town. It's a surprising difference.

There's buildings to explore! Like, what's this storage place for? Oh what a cool house this is. Are those real silk curtains? Why am I in jail?

[Marian]

Nope, sorry, I have zero pity for newbies. I was a newbie once too, without a tutorial island or an extensive wiki to explain things for me. If you can't figure out how roads work or that you should turn around by the time the first travel tick hits and you see 5%, you're going to have issues with a lot more than just walking.

Besides, these obviously weren't real newbies, they neglected to steal all the notes and meat and bones off the ground before they left.

[Swingerzetta]

I did have more issues than just with walking. That was just my first issue. I waited for the tick (managed to figure that much out) and saw the 5%, turned around, and saw 95%... waited an hour, it didn't change, and figured if I had to wait so long I might as well stick it out. A week went by...
This was before I discovered the Objects page, though, so I didn't take any notes or meat.

[Rebma]

Why don't newspawns steal notes anymore?

[Marian]

I'll make ten newspawns tonight and have them all steal notes. Just for you.

I'll have them slap a few people too, for old time's sake.

[Rebma]

You make me very happy, dear.

[LittleSoul]

What often puzzles me is when a player feels it's necessary to OOC message to the entire group that they made a mistake and their previous post was supposed to be a whisper. It's makes it seem like they expect your character to ignore it when it was clearly said out loud.

Why should that be expected of all the other characters? Why shouldn't that just be dealt with in character like they spoke so loudly by accident everyone could hear (like a group wide overheard whisper)? Even if the 'whisper' is acknowledged in game by other characters most of the time unless you're trying to take over the town or something people don't care, or don't understand the context of whatever your character said so they don't care anyways. If they -are- trying to take over the town, I'm pretty sure no one will care about an OOC message either - they're going to react to that 'whisper'.

So why bother? Seems like a very unnecessary use of OOC messaging to me.