Things that annoy or puzzle you about Cantr

[saztronic]

In all my years of playing on Cantr, off and on, probably two dozen characters in all at least, only one has spawned on an island other than Cantr, Treefeather, or Noniwrok.

And still, never even one on Aki or Burgeo or Shai or Fu or whatever else there is, I wouldn't even know.

I don't know how spawning works, but this seems very odd to me.

[SekoETC]

People are more likely to spawn in highly populated locations than low. Burgeo is full of rats. There are also elephants, and other nasty animals, so unless someone gives you an iron shield as soon as you spawn, you're likely to get a lot of scars during your earliest years. The basic resources are good but there's nothing really special.

Noniwrok has a long history but I've always found it sort of boring. Kwor works because Litta and Boneman have such winning personalities. I steer clear of the Blackrocks, which leads into avoiding half of the island.

I've never had a character living on Shai, I've only visited there.

[saztronic]

People are more likely to spawn in highly populated locations than low.

Um... what?

Doesn't this seem like the inverse of how it should work? With the above principle, populated places will invariably tend to become more and/or overpopulated. And less populated places will stay underpopulated and endure constant struggle. What exactly is the point of this?

[oddedd]

Realism? I agree it sucks but you can't deny the logic. More people = more babies/spawns.

[saztronic]

Realism? I agree it sucks but you can't deny the logic. More people = more babies/spawns.

This assumes there is anything 'real' about spawning in terms of correspondence to numbers. Procreation in Cantr has nothing to do with sex, therefore why should it have anything to do with numbers? Hell, if numbers was all it was, people could and should spawn on longboats that had 8 people on them, or in buildings with a lot of people, or whatever. But oh yeah, people always spawn outside, in the middle of town, at the age of 20. That's... real?

Point being that spawning is whatever the programmers want it to be. I can't see how numbers leading to a greater spawning frequency is any more 'real' than several other options I could suggest.

[Tiamo]

In fact a newspawn does 'inherit' some 'genes' from two characters in the spawning area, being the basis for their starting skill levels.
So there is some kind of connection between spawning and kinship (the sex part is left out, it could be two chars of the same gender, and you don't know your 'parents' as such).

But there is a logical reason for the spawning chances, too.
If the chance of spawning in a small town would be equal to he chance of spawning in a large town, Cantr would eventually end up with all towns having about equal populations, spreaded out equally over all locations. That is boring and bad for gameplay, as there are way too many locations in the game (more than there are characters at the moment, i suspect).
With the chances connected to the population size, spawning in itself has little effect on the size of towns over a longer period of time. Characters moving and towns being more (or less) interesting to live in have a lot more influence. As should be.

[saztronic]

In fact a newspawn does 'inherit' some 'genes' from two characters in the spawning area, being the basis for their starting skill levels.
So there is some kind of connection between spawning and kinship (the sex part is left out, it could be two chars of the same gender, and you don't know your 'parents' as such).

But there is a logical reason for the spawning chances, too.
If the chance of spawning in a small town would be equal to he chance of spawning in a large town, Cantr would eventually end up with all towns having about equal populations, spreaded out equally over all locations. That is boring and bad for gameplay, as there are way too many locations in the game (more than there are characters at the moment, i suspect).
With the chances connected to the population size, spawning in itself has little effect on the size of towns over a longer period of time. Characters moving and towns being more (or less) interesting to live in have a lot more influence. As should be.

Except that, as many players on this thread have already expressed, the net result is that we all keep spawning in the same damn places and we hate it.

Has anyone ever done a poll on what players would actually prefer? Why do you say that it's 'bad and boring for gameplay' to have more towns, in more places, with more equal numbers of players? What evidence do you have to back up that assertion? I can tell you anecdotally that I've been in many well populated towns that are about as exciting as a hangnail, and many lightly populated ones that are among the most fascinating I've played in.

If you want to convince me there is logic to this system, or that it's preferred by players, please back it up with data. Bad assumptions are the leading cause of bad design.

[Vega]

Right now I'm really annoying because that char is starving. *Grumblegrumblegrumble.*

Don't let it starve, please!!! Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top!!

[Tiamo]

All towns being of about equal size (and quite small) is generally boring because there would be very little variation in what the towns would look like. Whether the game still would be interesting would depend on other factors (mainly what the players contribute themselves).
It is bad for gameplay because all those small towns will not have the manpower to become more advanced (technologically AND organisationwise) and maintain this higher level over a longer period. Also, the chance of two or more interesting/inspiring characters (the ones that make the game flourish) ever meeting will be small with the population spread out in small towns.
Of course there always will be exceptions, but math dictates chances will diminish by spreading out the population.

Having your characters spawn in the same few towns every time is annoying (it happened to me either), but this is mainly due to bad luck and a limited number of available spawning options. There has been discussion in the past about choosing to spawn in a larger town or in a smaller town before spawning, but i don't think any real consensus was reached over this. There also would be the problem of every language group having different needs.

[SekoETC]

I think a system where you could choose for each character whether they want to attract newspawns or opt out would be the best solution. That way places that wanted newspawns would get them, while groups of travelers wouldn't cause newspawns to appear because they would be opting out.

[CrashBlizz]

All towns being of about equal size (and quite small) is generally boring because there would be very little variation in what the towns would look like. Whether the game still would be interesting would depend on other factors (mainly what the players contribute themselves).

I disagree, compare a forest nowhere near stone, or a mountain nowhere near wood (there are plenty of them) and see the variation. Spawning in a town close to the resources to make iron, steel or aluminium will make the experience of the game drastically different to spawning in one of the many, many towns that require years of travel to make them. And they'll be varying degrees inbetween no doubt. Its the resources and how/why/if/when/who/how much to get that will make it interesting.

[catwill]

Right now I'm really annoying because that char is starving. *Grumblegrumblegrumble.*

Don't let it starve, please!!! Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top!!

Um, what?

[Marian]

The spawning system has always been this way, and I think it works, though of course it can be a little annoying when you have a specific idea for the type of character you want to play and you wind up somewhere completely unsuitable.

Still, no one wants a new player (we still get those occasionally right?) to land their first characters in tiny towns populated only by two or three sleepers, surrounded by locations with more of the same...and actually new or not, that would suck for pretty much anybody. There are waaay too many huge empty areas in the game as it is, even if the entire world were limited only to Fu, evenly spreading people out like that would just be a bad idea and it would take RL years before you could collect enough interested people (who were not also played by you) to build an actual functioning town.

If your character doesn't like living in a big busy town, take advantage of the opportunities there to quickly get a vehicle and get out.

[Vega]

Right now I'm really annoying because that char is starving. *Grumblegrumblegrumble.*

Don't let it starve, please!!! Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top!!

Um, what?

I wanted to say really annoyED... But, yes, I'm a bit annoying too. But I don't want it to die

[catwill]

Oh no, actually I got that part :p, is it someone's char one of yours is watching starve? That's the part I'm confused about :p