Cantr Environment Descriptions (split from Wiki)

[Doug R.]

Great post, I couldn't agree with you more. I definetily feel that adding such aspects as the sun, moon, day, night, and weather helps to set a better scene for the RP. I don't think anything is wrong with that. What kind of story has no scenery? I very dull one... RPing without a visual image to go with it sucks as well.

Details about the physical cantr world can be gleaned from terrain pictures and clothing descriptions. The sky is blue - you can see it in the terrain pics. There is a sun, because it glints off of some jewelry.

I do agree that details like that would enrich the game, but consider that all of that is present in FTO, and it's almost universally ignored (possibly because it has no physical effects at present). For any of it to be meaningful, it would have to have meaning outside of RP.

That leads us to the next problem: What is day and what is night? The English group spans the entire globe. Americans/Canadians and British span a large chunk of activity, and the Aussie's fill in the rest (I feel sorry for you guys, I bet your opportunities for interaction with others in real-time are much more limited). We have English speakers from Indonesia and India. By instituting day and night, you're dooming a certain segment of the player population to role-play in the darkness. This also goes for players with charries split across islands. Would it be that for my charries on Noniwrok it's always night, and for the ones on Pok/Cantr it's always day? That would change the nature of the game fundamentally, and I think the cycles would eventually be ignored because they're inconvenient.

[Armulus Satchula]

I do agree that details like that would enrich the game, but consider that all of that is present in FTO, and it's almost universally ignored (possibly because it has no physical effects at present). For any of it to be meaningful, it would have to have meaning outside of RP.

Which is odd to say, because I was pretty sure cantr was primarly an RP game and any extra details that could be provided about a scenario or object only enrich the gaming experience and give more RP with.

[*Wiro]

I do agree that details like that would enrich the game, but consider that all of that is present in FTO, and it's almost universally ignored (possibly because it has no physical effects at present).

Because it changes like, what, every real-life hour? You say something about the warm weather, and two hours later someone goes 'omggg wut u b talkin bout, it b rainy nuuuhhh"

I say no to day/night, but yes to weather that is like, the same for two days or so.

[Armulus Satchula]

I do agree that details like that would enrich the game, but consider that all of that is present in FTO, and it's almost universally ignored (possibly because it has no physical effects at present).

Because it changes like, what, every real-life hour? You say something about the warm weather, and two hours later someone goes 'omggg wut u b talkin bout, it b rainy nuuuhhh"

I say no to day/night, but yes to weather that is like, the same for two days or so.

It would change like every 12 hours for day and night. But day and night isn't really even needed that much. Weather that lasts for days would be nice. Temperature would be neat or a short description of the climate of hte area.

[chase02]

I do agree that details like that would enrich the game, but consider that all of that is present in FTO, and it's almost universally ignored (possibly because it has no physical effects at present).

Not where I am. I enjoy and use the weather and time descriptions. Some of my siblings do as well.

the Aussie's fill in the rest (I feel sorry for you guys, I bet your opportunities for interaction with others in real-time are much more limited).

Ooooh yeah. You just naturally tend to gravitate towards those that are awake when your chars are.. some Americans don't seem to require sleep.

Anyway, having day/night cycles is nice, but I don't think it works on a standard 24 hour cycle as you end up with chars always in the same time slot.. it works in FTO because a day is an hour or so real time, so you have plenty of different times to work with.

[Doug R.]

I do agree that details like that would enrich the game, but consider that all of that is present in FTO, and it's almost universally ignored (possibly because it has no physical effects at present). For any of it to be meaningful, it would have to have meaning outside of RP.

Which is odd to say, because I was pretty sure cantr was primarly an RP game and any extra details that could be provided about a scenario or object only enrich the gaming experience and give more RP with.

Cantr is a society simulator with a strong role-play element.

Cantr is not primarily a role-playing game. It is a mixture of role-play, strategy, and simulation. There are players that play primarily to one of those categories, and then there are players like me that play an equal mixture of all three.

For any feature to be widely accepted in-game, it needs to impact players of all three types. Anything that is there just for role-play can and will be ignored by players who's emphasis is not role-play. Take musical instruments as a prime example. Mostly they're used no differently than clothing as a means to lend flavor to a character. If they actually -did- something, perhaps they would see wider use.

Weather that lasts for days would be nice. Temperature would be neat or a short description of the climate of hte area.

This is very practical, especially if it had a combined effect with clothing, in order to make clothing relevant to more than just RP (see above point). Weather for 5 days at a time would be a decent interval, I think. As for climate, it would be easy enough to simply attach a generic climate effect to each terrain type. Desert = hot. Mountain = cold. That's very simple, but should be suitable for Cantr's purposes.

[Dudel]

Well, until things are fully put "this is" and "that is" my brain sees each area in a perpetual state.

Examples:

Pak/Pok/etc... Those desert areas are seen (to me) as being in constant daylight, always hot and generally not very pleasant.

Zuzi/Kiii/etc are like a tropical paradise and it only rains once and a little while. The sun only goes away for the rain and the rain never gets "really nasty" unless there is other turmoil.

There are some areas that I see as something of a Montana town: Doryiskom, Blojt and their surrounding areas. The sun rises and sets on a normal schedule here but I've no real "time frame" for it.

Mountain areas are something of a of ghost town. :ezlol: Everything is cold, drafty and all the buildings are falling apart while the sun never rises.

However, because my view of the world may not be exactly accepted, I don't usually RP the weather or day/night. That and my views of the area's my characters are in are very based on OOC accounts of what I think should be around pineapples coconuts and toucans.

On another note: Weather could have a VERY BIG effect on strategy and simulation, provided it was implemented correctly and had + and/or - effects. Another however, other things should be looked at first.

[Doug R.]

Thank you for mentioning the animals. They may have the single greatest impact on the perception of regional climate.

[Dudel]

Thank you for mentioning the animals. They may have the single greatest impact on the perception of regional climate.

You're welcome but my brain says thats rather commen sense. It can't snow around a tropical bird!

[Doug R.]

That may be true to a large extent, but some animals are where they are because of natural barriers, not climate. For example, I discovered that parrots (what we view as a tropical bird) used to be indigenous to almost all of North America, until we poisoned them all for eating our crops (I read that they were like locusts, almost, in how they ate).

Elephants could survive fine in North America.

[Armulus Satchula]

Elephants could survive fine in North America.

And it'd be rare to find them along side the highway dead.

[Piscator]

That would be enough roadkill to feed a clan of hillbillies for a month.

Is there a system according to which the animals are placed by the way? Some general climate zones or rather like, penguins on one island and elephants on the next?

[joo]

There are penguins?

[Piscator]

No idea. Ask Doug.

[Doug R.]

Is there a system according to which the animals are placed by the way? Some general climate zones or rather like, penguins on one island and elephants on the next?

I can't speak to how the original animals were seeded, but the new ones were done based on what was there before, extensive player feedback, and my personal whimsy (in that order of importance).

There are penguins?

FOIG!