Let's just play the game with no assumptions, please!

General out-of-character discussion among players of Cantr II.

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Leo Luncid
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Let's just play the game with no assumptions, please!

Postby Leo Luncid » Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:27 pm

Ever wondered why there aren't any astromoners or astrologers or any people who seriously study the skies?

That's right, nothing is said in-game when you try and do so. In fact, nothing is said in-game about the sky existing at all, nor the sun, the moon. And yet most of us make the assumption that there is a sky, that there is a sun, and that there is (for some) a moon.

Don't you find it nice and pretty to just use your magic fingers to have your character point out something of which its existence could be challenged?? I don't, and that's what I hate most right now about Cantr.

And it's not just about the sky either! There is no official in-game information anywhere that every character in this world is bipedal, and yet most of us make the assumption that we do! But someday there's going to be some noob who going to use his magic fingers and say that he has an infinite amount of arms/faces/legs.

Yeah, the best thing to do about that is to simply have your characters think that person is, fact or not, bipedal and insane, but who's really at fault here? Yes, I'll say it for you, the game itself.

This may be a minor issue for some you, since nobody could assume a thing like that, but there are people who don't want to make assumptions anymore. Obviously I'm one of them. And personally, I don't care if the game says that you see two suns or two bright moons or even a completely white sky. All I want is for the information to be there, in the game, and not said from some fan thread or something.

This game is certainly giving us way too much freedom, and the chaos needs to be limited.
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Sunni Daez
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Postby Sunni Daez » Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:47 pm

Read the discriptions of clothing... shoes come in pairs... gloves in pairs... hence we must have 2 if cantrains had 4 hands or 8 legs... we couldn't have a pair of pants, they would just be pants, a quartet of gloves...
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the_antisocial_hermit
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Postby the_antisocial_hermit » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:01 pm

I don't think it gives too much freedom.
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Chris Johnson
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Postby Chris Johnson » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:02 pm

Some of the clothes descriptions also refer to the sun and sunlight and Cantrians defiantly have ears and a nose or their spectacles would fall off (and both are explictly mentioned as well as arms and legs)

They certainly have sight because they see so much

I'll give you the point about the moon - but that will be implemented :) ... when we have tides
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Postby El_Skwidd » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:58 pm

I thought there was a line in the game description about all characters being assumed to be "normal" human beings. I guess there isn't, after reading it. Perhaps it should be added?

Or maybe normal human beings with green skin?
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Postby Sicofonte » Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:42 pm

I think Leo Luncid is not talking about clothes and the sky. These was just examples.

Leo Luncid talk about the assumptions (or doubts, depending on each player's way of think) that each one have to do in order to roleplay its characters.

Some people have more imagination than others, and this people feel like to imagine all the environment and the characters while roleplaying, not just thinking of numbers and the amounts of resources you have in your vault.

And the problem comes when someone imagine one thing different than the others, and this brings problems. More examples (unreal):

1555.5-6: Another character says: OOC: it is forbidden to smoke in Cantr, you don't have a lighter, even you don't have smoke, nor a fence.
1555.5-5: A character says: -he rolls a spinage joint and starts relaxing besides the fence-

No one there is trying to fuck each other, it is just that "A character" thought that if you can smoke meat, without a lighter, you can smoke. And "Another character" though that if there is no tobacco in Cantr, and drugs are forbidden, to smoke anything is forbidden.

1555.5-8: Newcomer says: OOC: c'mon, man, the floor is full of English notes, how could I know English is unknown here?.
1555.5.7: Oldman says: OOC: sorry, but you can't use English here. German, Dutch or Spanish only. English is unknown here (yet).
1555.5-6: Newcomer says: Hola, hallo, hello. I'm Pepito.



Assumptions, we all roleplay with assumptions that can be different of each others'. And can bother each others.


A more specific rules in the main page can be usefull.
Last edited by Sicofonte on Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby SekoETC » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:04 pm

I hate it when things clash... If something isn't included in the game mechanics because it would be trivial or boring, people should still be allowed to rp it. But people have different views of what's allowed and what's not. Some people assume nothing worth mentioning means rags and stuff. But we really cannot have that. For clarity's sake it should just say naked. ...And then we would get a bunch of famous American child protection agents flooding the game with crime charges for insinuating nakedness and not giving people a chance to get clothed without going through days of trouble.

Another problem with rp is that even if you paint an image of your character's current status, only people in the same space will get it. Every newcomer will be without this knowledge. Either you need to repeat yourself every time someone new arrives, or just let them assume what they wish, and that may lead into conflicts later on.

I've had to ask a person OOC if their female character was topless (wearing a loincloth) because they might have been so obsessed about their chastity that they would've imagined some additional piece of clothing that isn't included in the game. They laughed and said that she has long red hair that covers most of her breasts, but yes, there is no top. Then she left and my charrie was drooling after that memory for years.
(Queries like this could be prevented by allowing everyone to write anything about their own character into their character description, but this was rejected because of course someone would abuse it.)

Sometimes it feels like "screw imagination, game mechanics are your limit".
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Sicofonte
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Postby Sicofonte » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:11 pm

SekoETC wrote:(Queries like this could be prevented by allowing everyone to write anything about their own character into their character description, but this was rejected because of course someone would abuse it.)

We have to do some noise, yeah? Players abusing of game mechanincs are punished... so players abusinging of their descriptions can be pusnished aswell, and everyone else would be happy
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Postby wichita » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:28 pm

I am moving this to General Discussion from the Suggestions forum. The recommendation is very broad and philosophical at this point. I am pretty sure we have had this discussion ad absurdum in gd GD numerous times in the past.


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Postby Phalynx » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:38 pm

The whole charm of cantr is the balance between mechanics and freeform roleplay. If the game went totally freeform the PD would be struggling to cope nonstop and tha game would be chaos, to much mechanics and the game becomes MUD like and frankly boring.
I was always under the assumption that the Wikki was effectively innate knowledge for newspawns but there is a lot more that is a given. For example fields and forest, very much open to interpretation. Of course people's perception rarely clash because of mechanics because RP is limited..

No onw will argue wether you ae chopping down Scotts Pine, Oak, or Cantrian HooJoo tree, simply because you just start a collecting wood collecting project and get grams of 'wood'. That sounds like a negative but it is not... the game would just become frustrating if you had to describe, or even argue about every aspect of cantreality.
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Postby tiddy ogg » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:50 pm

How about removing the tedious clothing descriptions, then your naked Cantrian could carry 5 stone hammers, a pickaxe, shovel, 3 shields, a sword, a crossbow and a pile of gas in his many tentacles without problems.
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Postby Missy » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:52 pm

And it's not just about the sky either! There is no official in-game information anywhere that every character in this world is bipedal, and yet most of us make the assumption that we do! But someday there's going to be some noob who going to use his magic fingers and say that he has an infinite amount of arms/faces/legs.

Yeah, the best thing to do about that is to simply have your characters think that person is, fact or not, bipedal and insane, but who's really at fault here? Yes, I'll say it for you, the game itself.



I don't know where the hell the page went. People have re-written things and done so much crap with the wiki and this or that that I can't find a damn thing anymore. However, there used to be a specific rule page you could link to from the main log-in page on cantr.net that said something along the lines of: "Your characters are not super-human, they do not possess special powers or make magic." It was a section of the rules and I think that clearly defined that it couldn't grow twelve arms or become invisible. lol


Edit:
And well, just because I can't find it anymore, doesn't mean that doesn't still apply. Just means someone forgot to mention it.


Could be that I just haven't looked in the right place too.
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Postby Valsum » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:09 pm

Phalynx wrote:The whole charm of cantr is the balance between mechanics and freeform roleplay.


I concur!
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Postby Arlequin » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:17 pm

tiddy ogg wrote:in his many tentacles without problems.


You know, if you let people choose their appareance they are going to start claiming they are elf-like, orc-like or even worse, dragon-like!

And that would ruin the mood.

I wouldn't mind, tho, if people with similar strength claimed to be a different human race. If all newspawns are going to inherit the local average strength without big variance, that would be somewhat of an advantage for local politics and to optimize their weapon production. :?
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Postby Spider » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:09 pm

Missy wrote:I don't know where the hell the page went. People have re-written things and done so much crap with the wiki and this or that that I can't find a damn thing anymore. However, there used to be a specific rule page you could link to from the main log-in page on cantr.net that said something along the lines of: "Your characters are not super-human, they do not possess special powers or make magic." It was a section of the rules and I think that clearly defined that it couldn't grow twelve arms or become invisible. lol



"ALSO: Cantr II is set in a fairly realistic world. The technology level is strange - it is possible to build cars and helicopters in a world where a state-of-the-art tool is likely to be a pitchfork - but there is no magic of any kind built into the game. (Now, if your character wants to pretend there`s magic, or believe things have happened by the power of some god, that`s another matter...)" - Newbie Guide


By the way, if you want a sun or a sky, look at the location and at the picture, a forest has a sun...more like a light prenetrating the forest and a few show a sky, yes, it is blue.

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