Cantr II Discussion Forum

I killed off some of my older characters just to see what being a newspawn was like. I did this quite some time ago,and those newspawns are now in their forties.

One of them is in a town where they are in some kind of painful purgatory. They don't have all of the keys, but they have some of them and there is a sleepy town leader whom they are deathly loyal to.They were in their twenties when they obtained said keys too.

One of them has a love/hate relationship with the town leader, and has begun to realize WHY this place is empty.

One of them is on a foreign island and has the best life someone their age could have, being moderately wealthy and they stole NONE of it.They worked from the moment they spawned to mid-forties for every drop of what they have.

Slowness_Incarnate wrote:the best life someone their age could have, being moderately wealthy and they stole NONE of it.They worked from the moment they spawned to mid-forties for every drop of what they have.

Yes, I just want to point out that it is possible to get things by working for them or making them yourself. Slower, but possible.

It's a little telling that newspawn chat always turns to the best way to screw towns over and steal things, maybe they're right to be suspicious of us. Most of us posting here have experience playing newspawns AND keyholders too, so we're seeing things from both sides of the coin.

But it's just that working for things would be more far more appealing if you didn't see the accumulated wealth of centuries gathering dust all around you. And there comes a point when you're just too aware you're missing out on a big part of the game without a decent vehicle.

I think any of my characters would in their 20s been happy to own a rickshaw. If it costs 9 days, that's just a little over a week's work. Yet nobody is taking the deal. I don't understand why. Is it because they want to save up to a motorcycle? It might be faster to earn that motorcycle if you bought yourself a pickaxe and a cheap non-motorized vehicle, mined something in the mountains that the town is low on, sold it back to the town and could afford that motorcycle.

SekoETC wrote:I think any of my characters would in their 20s been happy to own a rickshaw. If it costs 9 days, that's just a little over a week's work.

Nine days isn't a bad deal. A year is what some of my chars have been expected to work, and that's just not worth it for a rickshaw.

e: in fact I distinctly remember it was one of your chars that made mine work a year for a rickshaw once

lol That's funny. I don't remember that but I wish I did.

I think newspawn thieves really do make people feel unsure about newspawns. And those guys really don't help this game. And kinda ruin the whole meaning of this thread.

One bad apple can ruin rest of the basket even if rest would be good

Marian wrote:

Axiom wrote: One problem I had in particular was that once I figured out how the economics of this game worked, namely that there's tons of abandoned vehicles and whatnot everywhere but leaders want you to work for months to get any of it, I started trying to get crowbars with all of my characters to go salvaging.

See if you were smart you'd just ask for the steel and make it yourself.

Oh, I did. I even started asked for 300 steel instead of 215 to make it look like I wanted an axe and not a crowbar. But you still have to find somewhere to make the crowbar, and often they'd ask me what I wanted it for anyway, thus giving me the choice of fessing up or leaving prior to making the item.

In my personal experience, any town that adheres to the day of work (with the exception of "unnamed financial powerhouse") is not worth my time and effort. I prefer to offer the leader a deal, whether that's a veiled "give me a tandem and I won't talk shit about your town" or "give me a car give me a car give me a car and I'll stop shouting" or the more civilised business type deals like running errands or that kind of stuff. Both of those uncivilised examples have worked.

Horses are great though, because it allows people to circumvent all the stupid vehicles and become pretty much self sufficient. The "newspawn worker" wins, because he's working the same amount for an amazing vehicle whereas the "employer" loses because he wasn't able to get rid of a vehicle that hadn't been used in twenty years.

In my opinion, if a vehicle hasn't been used in that long (that's like a real life year) then just give it away in a contest if it's a car or give it away to whoever wants it if it's a motorcycle.

Axiom wrote:

Marian wrote:

Axiom wrote: One problem I had in particular was that once I figured out how the economics of this game worked, namely that there's tons of abandoned vehicles and whatnot everywhere but leaders want you to work for months to get any of it, I started trying to get crowbars with all of my characters to go salvaging.

See if you were smart you'd just ask for the steel and make it yourself.

Oh, I did. I even started asked for 300 steel instead of 215 to make it look like I wanted an axe and not a crowbar. But you still have to find somewhere to make the crowbar, and often they'd ask me what I wanted it for anyway, thus giving me the choice of fessing up or leaving prior to making the item.

A while ago I made a newspawn, walked in and out of the harbour and asked to work for a crowbar. Surprisingly, after much interrogation (but no actual suspicion voiced) they were given one. I think it took 10 days? By then I lost interest in being a newspawn thief, though.

^^^ and yes, horses really are going to level the playing field there, it's going to be a whole different game before too long

Axiom wrote:Oh, I did. I even started asked for 300 steel instead of 215 to make it look like I wanted an axe and not a crowbar. But you still have to find somewhere to make the crowbar, and often they'd ask me what I wanted it for anyway, thus giving me the choice of fessing up or leaving prior to making the item.

Coming right out and asking for a crowbar always gets people all suspicious and asking what you want it for. 'I'm going to be traveling and need it for safety' is a perfectly legitimate and usually true excuse, some towns won't care even if you say you're going salvaging, and a few even have crowbars on a list with the rest of the tools they're selling so it's a simple transaction. But mine will usually just ask what the daily rate for iron and steel is and work awhile anyway, getting about 500 grams of each is always handy. And there are very few towns that are going to forbid you from using the public workshop to make whatever you want, even if they're paying attention, or at least I've never had any trouble with it. If someone complained, my char would just innocently point out they weren't breaking any laws, and it's kind of hard for the grumbler to do anything about that without coming off as some kind of control freak dictator.

edit: this is a great topic, can't believe we got three pages so fast

Kyriel wrote:I also found that having characters spending their first few years making custom clothes helped in not being immediately suspicious. Apparently having a stylish matching outfit and not just hide pants makes you look more respectable? It seems to maybe be the easiest way of saying "guys, this isn't just a throwaway character for the sake of causing trouble, chill."

Marian wrote:

Friar Briar wrote:I think she did.

Anyway, I also have one character who really wanted to be a professional recycler/demolitions expert/salvage operations type person, but I was deathly afraid she would be killed. Tearing down useless machines and objects in abandoned towns to reclaim the materials is seen as theft? But they're all gathering dust and nobody's using them!

Ah, but this isn't really a 20 year old thing, you'd be at risk anytime your character was asleep in an abandoned town no matter what they were doing.

Tip: make friends and get some nice gear, whether you can salvage it or have to suck it up and get a job. Doesn't matter how old you are then, two or three people with access to something they could theoretically drag someone into automatically get more respect.

More general tip: If at all possible, stay in your spawn town long enough to get decent clothes and gear. Lose the hide and fur, get an iron shield, and I'm a big fan of the pickaxe until I can get a proper weapon. Then when you travel somewhere new you don't immediately get registered in everyone's head as a newspawn. Talking about trading plans also makes you seem more legit. And I can't stress enough how far being polite and articulate can get you...though I do get that just doesn't work at all for RPing certain personality types.

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, she's got non-newbie clothes and tools and has built up enough respectability where she really just lacks friends to help her. Having a team around would really help, but I would still expect a lot of funny looks in her direction. I was planning to make her some business cards with a sign on her vehicle too to make it real professional.

sherman wrote:I think newspawn thieves really do make people feel unsure about newspawns. And those guys really don't help this game.

Why can't I be a thief? Why are criminals bad for the game?

Father Brian wrote:

sherman wrote:I think newspawn thieves really do make people feel unsure about newspawns. And those guys really don't help this game.

Why can't I be a thief? Why are criminals bad for the game?

Newspawn thieves != criminals.

The real criminals are a lot more interesting and have years of effort put into them. You wouldn't know about them because that's how successful they are.

Is someone a dumb, boring criminal who doesn't plan to put effort into anything or be interesting just because they're young?

I know some wonderful chars in their 20's and some fun newspawns. I can't say totally innocent, but certainly well balanced.

Kyriel wrote:Is someone a dumb, boring criminal who doesn't plan to put effort into anything or be interesting just because they're young?

I'm not seeing anyone arguing that.