Rip Van Winkell

[Talapus]

If you are on the botton end of a skill... you will never see the next highest level.

Not true. I have one character that has gone from a novice to the best possible expert in one particular skill. It is a very slow progression, but if your character dedicates much time to one thing, their skill grain is quite significant.

[frenchfisher]

Everyone that is saying that if they started playing now, as opposed to when they did, would not have started due to creeping featurism ignore the fact that if they started now, they would have no idea what the game used to be like and would take the current state as normal.

True; I'm not sure what everyone is complaining about here. It would be nice if there were less pointless things to clutter up lists, and even nicer if it was easier to make some products without having to build a ton of seemingly unrelated things, but, eh, usually those products aren't *needed*. And some of the new items (instruments) have provided some of my characters with interesting ways to reach out and roleplay. I mean, sure, amnesia or whatever (all areas starting as 'unnamed location') is rather confusing (it's a pain to have to realign onesself at every new location with maps, though that might be a result of bad mapmaking more than the amnesia), but I'm more annoyed with the fact one can't even cancel one's own actions after one has used any items on them. I've wasted way too much meat by doing the action "Grilling meat" instead of "Grilling meat (dung)"

[Oasis]

Thank you for your......conciliatory words, West. Well said. No, they are not new fears or accusations, though the generalization does shed all the staff in a bad light. Which yes, Doug, I can't help but refute. We have a great group of staff that work very hard and are very dedicated to this game, and I can't help but defend them. And the checks and monitors to prevent and expose staff abuses is better than ever now, and any accusations brought forward are taken very seriously.

I do not fear we are on the edge of an abyss.......far from it. We have the best functioning group of staff/departments that we have ever had, and I don't think there is a widening us/them divide between the staff and players........we're all players, after all. It's us us, right?

But back on topic.......if I were a new player, hell yes I'd play the game. I love this game! For better or worse, whatever the changes, it is still the best game there is, imho.

[Doug R.]

If you are on the botton end of a skill... you will never see the next highest level.

Not true. I have one character that has gone from a novice to the best possible expert in one particular skill. It is a very slow progression, but if your character dedicates much time to one thing, their skill grain is quite significant.

And how old is that character?

Maybe if we knew how progression worked, or were told when our skills improved, I wouldn't have the impression that skills never change.

[nateflory]

I've read this thread with mixed trepidation and relief, for a number of topic brought up and discussed.

I'm a fairly newbie, in my mnid, having only joined the game shortly before hte food changes. My oldest character just turned 27.

I do not know of these "Good old Days", but enjoy the current game, and am addicted fully to the roleplaying within them. It's not that hard to overlook the myriad of skills, things-to-build, and such, if you try. Just because a game-mechanic says you can do these 429 projects with the resources available to your characters now, does NOT mean you must immediately engage on one of those projects.

Many of my characters are work-a-holics, who could not bear to see a lack of % next ot their names (OOCly of course). One is loving his job as constant repairman, and has accumulated better "Stuff" than many of my more ambitious characters working to earn iron themselves. And two of them just chatter with the locals most of the time, and have nothing more than a few bone knives to their name.
The point is, while this is a strategy game for some people, I beleive it was initially intended to be a roleplaying game, in the purest sense of the word. You play a role, and mechanics be darned. A good creative player shoudl be able to overlook such things as "that crowbar rots awefully fast!" and take it as the way of the Cantr-world.

...unless these comments are seen by some to be feeding into the "elitism" I hear slung about with such venom lately.

[Mykey]

In my opinion you have deceived, as child.

[Phalynx]

Trouble is there has to be *some* mechanics or some retards would be flying round on hover bikes with light sabres....

[Mafia Salad]

I haven't seen a whole lot wrong with the creeping featurism, although I think some of it is encouraging unoriginality and monotony by making built in features that everyone uses instead of creating a situation where a variety of solutions can be figured out in the game. And I'd like to see more changes that open up the possibilities of what you can do in game instead of just more patches to make people shut up about whatever the current forum scapegoat of all that is wrong with Cantr is, (currently repair rates) or additions of restrictive changes to limit people who have found ‘unfair’ advantages.

I think that there is a way to make the best of every change that comes about, hopefully several ways. Sometimes I feel that I get boxed into doing things the same way with all my characters because of the game mechanics (the fighting system is a good example, there isn't a lot of strategy or variation to how you can fight and win) and that makes me sad because I have been trying to bring more variety to the way things are dealt with in Cantr for several months.

To get off my rant, most of the changes that I’ve seen recently are - to steal an architectural term - gingerbread. Cute little things that do one thing or another but don’t really impact the game. The down side to this is the same as it is with architecture, too much gingerbread and everything becomes really cluttered and the original shape and purpose of the building can get lost in the curly cues, carvings, decorations and for-looks-only-pillars. Where the line is drawn is a matter of opinion. One person would like to bring everything down to clean lines and a sharp functional façade. Another could want to add a wider trim covered in roses, and some decorative shutters that can cover the windows in a storm, although probably never will.

[Duckers]

...is poised on the edge of an abyss...

Now, that's the best metaphor I've seen for a while. It describes the current situation quite nicely, don't you think?

[Black Canyon]

...is poised on the edge of an abyss...

Now, that's the best metaphor I've seen for a while. It describes the current situation quite nicely, don't you think?

No.

[Marian]

...is poised on the edge of an abyss...

Now, that's the best metaphor I've seen for a while. It describes the current situation quite nicely, don't you think?

No.

What I was going to say, only you did it in a lot less words.

And I don't have time for a long post right now, (maybe tomorrow) but I'll just point out that my oldest chars have just recently turned thirty, and I started playing after all these changes everyone's been complaining about. Yeah, I agree that some things, like repair times, are a little annoying, but despite having spare weapons and shields and several tools each my chars still have plenty of time for other things, so I don't think it's really the disaster so many people are claiming it is.

[The Sociologist]

Please bear in mind that if you are on staff, you can arrange to have a character terminated whenever you like.

This is not true. Special privileges such as this are NOT given to any staff. Staff who have the ability to do so themselves are not allowed to, and if they wish any characters deleted, must go through the same process as anyone else.

I know what I've seen. It is not wise to take me for a fool.

I have no idea what you could mean by "database poisoning", and I find it very unfair that you make accusations without explaining yourself. If there is ever any situation where you feel that staff have abused their privileges, etc., this should be reported to the GAB immediately so it can be investigated..........do not let these things build up and fester inside you until you're forced to post something like this.

It was reported and investigated, also by Jos. I had been in the habit of letting Fran eat leftover foodstuffs--odds and ends--to make it easier to calculate the 10-day distributions for the rest of the Commune. That day she wouldn't have had enough grilled meat left and would have gone hungry for a bit, even though she'd eaten full helpings of grilled meat for the previous five days and was not at all hungry. Life was hard and food was not plentiful...factors which were to shape what Fran became.

I had been aware before then that certain of my "power" characters were being spied on, even to the point of having their inventories read. This was because of something let slip on an earlier occasion. I was also aware that there were suspect characters present in New Xanth at that time. Now on that occasion, someone must have decided to starve my character to death, and adjusted the "hunger" level to just the exact point at which not having enough food would have caused her to drop dead. This was done after I'd logged off.

Now it just happens that I logged on the next morning before breakfast, something I rarely if ever do. And by pure luck I went into her character page to check visible tools instead of into her inventory (which in those days was huge...keys! notes! incredible!) Had I not done so I would not have noticed the massively long bar of red and she would have died within hours. No more Comrade Fran. Keys almost certainly picked up by a certain "visitor" from Akypor within minutes of the eating process, and so on. That would have been the end of the Commune. Anyhow, the matter was reported and Jos reduced hunger to 50% while he investigated whether she should have been at all hungry or not. He never got back to me further and I was reluctant to waste his time. Certainly, such a "bug" had never before been seen and apparently not since.

Please bear in mind that players who created "power characters" or who expressed certain sentiments on the forum, or who were suspected of being pirates or potential pirates, came under very intense scrutiny in those days. They were spied on daily, and on occasion interfered with. My thesis is and remains that the nice placid friendly Cantr one experiences today is an artificial product of PD actions.

As I've said before, I'm not here to win friends or popularity contests. I do like telling things the way I see them, though. And if you think me paranoid, just reread the above and ponder a moment.

Finally, I must emphasize that I've no sense that very much of this sort of thing is still happening. Chris in particular, has my full confidence. I am aware, however, that certain elite players are still accorded the option of having their characters individually terminated, a benefit not apparently accorded to the likes of me. It would be quite interesting, though, to take the combat/strength/dragger average of characters belonging to members of staff and compare that to the average for the database as a whole.

[Surly]

It would be quite interesting, though, to take the combat/strength/dragger average of characters belonging to members of staff and compare that to the average for the database as a whole.

You mean PD staff, right? Because otherwise I'd screw up your theory...

[the_antisocial_hermit]

It would be quite interesting, though, to take the combat/strength/dragger average of characters belonging to members of staff and compare that to the average for the database as a whole.

You mean PD staff, right? Because otherwise I'd screw up your theory...

Breathe, Surly, just breathe...

[Oasis]

PD staff? And what do we have to do with setting skills?

Sociologist, I have no idea who you suspect of tweaking your characters, or having a vendetta against chars in New Xanth. I really hope whoever it is is no longer on staff, as the GAB is not aware of any of these issues or suspicions, other than what you've said on here. And this happened what, a year ago?