How to limit small language groups to their benefit

[SekoETC]

1) The area on which characters can move would be limited by the total amount of characters in the language group. If you have a large island and about a dozen characters wandering around, people won't meet each other, get interaction and thus they are lonely. Limiting people on a smaller area makes it more likely that interraction will occur. You might say this is unnatural, but in real life few people would wander off into the unknown, leaving behind the community they were born in. Sure there are hermits but most people are social animals.

2) The amount of characters by one player in that language group must be limited. If we had a budding language group limited to say, three locations, then if one player creates 15 characters there it's rather obvious that they will have trouble not cooperating with their own, plus they'll have a huge overpower over the newbies who come in and have only one or two characters. So maybe the max amount of characters by one player would equal the amount of total locations on the language area.

And I guess that's it. Maybe this suggestion doesn't quite fit Cantr but if not, at least there's something to keep in mind when creating a multiplayer game. I know it from experience, I had a forum rpg where different forums were areas or buildings. The result was that most of the time the characters were scattered around the opposite sides of the village, rp'ing solo and interraction with more than two players was very rare.

[T-shirt]

1) The area on which characters can move would be limited by the total amount of characters in the language group.

Not true; most daily activity will only take place in a select number of locations, but for the availability of resources the area needs to be large enough. Most location could be uninhabited and only frequented for resource collection.

[Hellzon]

I agree with T-shirt on the first point. The Swedish area basically has big population centers with "outlying farmlands" where people just go to gather resources. And we're the third largest language group (counting characters). For the even smaller groups, I guess the solution would be to make their locations "larger", as in fewer, but having more resources. But I doubt that's going to happen. Anyway, limiting travel would mean limiting access to resources that could reasonably be reached, as he said.

Seko's second point is valid though.

/Hellzon - neanderthal Swede

[formerly known as hf]

Why not have 'mixed language' islands?

It might need more strict control to make sure that the characters don't suddenly speak a different language, or all suddenly break-out into English (which is most likely the common language of the players) but it'd mean that small language groups don't find themselves on an island with tiny populations.

[Jos Elkink]

Mixed language islands already exist ...

I think the only solution to the problem is recruiting more players, not limiting their access ...

[notsure]

Just take away some of the bears and boars so we can gather resources without dying. That would help.

[Nick]

Animal populations are just one example of many that is entirely english centric and not really considered, at all, for other language groups. Probably due to the primarily english RD.

In the French town I ruled, everybody was given a steel longsword upon introducing theirselves, and ordered to attack the boars and bears everyday. Regardless, they couldn't keep the population down, and people often died to the animals.

It's just the fact as I previously mentioned, reproduction and damage and whatnot... all the factors of animals, are created with the english populations in mind.

[notsure]

I agree. I have been in 7 or 8 French "settlements" in the past few days with two different French characters and all I find are dead people, 14 boars, 15 bears and other animals. I attack an animal every chance I get, but I think I'll probably die before reaching other people.