All Alone

[Doug R.]

What are your views on these isolated characters?

I like being alone, because then I don't have to worry about entertaining other player's characters.

I know this is a community game, but at times like these, the only thing keeping me playing is that I don't want to let anyone down, and my lack of RP and activity guilts the shit out of me. I'm sure I'll bounce back, but honestly, if it weren't for those other characters, I'd set all my charries on 60 day projects and disappear.

[Indigo]

I like being alone, because then I don't have to worry about entertaining other player's characters.

It's sad you see things that way.

[nateflory]

I like being alone, because then I don't have to worry about entertaining other player's characters.

It's sad you see things that way.

ditto. I'm sad now, Doug. With your sig, and my agreement that Cantr is a truly Role-played game, it seems you are implying you don't like the game anymore. This makes me sad, because even the bad RP and irritating newspawn thieves, and kill-everyone players, this is an awesome game. Scratch that, Because of the bad RP, etc, it is a dynamic and varied world, and is why I hate seeing anyone unsub.

To answer the OP, howeve,r I currently have two alone characters. I try to have one or two anyway, just to flesh out hte world in case someone wanders into those distant "empty" places. I always like running across random hermits myself, so try to have a potential hermit or two for others to stumble upon. Makes the world more alive, I think, and such characters really don't have much time required to invest in them, since there's no one else talking around them.

Longest I think I've had anyone go totally alone was before I wiped my old characters. Probably lasted a good ten game-years before having someone run through town and unload a pile of bones, then another four or five before he died alone. Was on Spice island, I think, since I found a map of it but could not figure out where that char was deep inland of it and the map only showed the northwest-ish coastline.

[Arenti]

I like being alone, because then I don't have to worry about entertaining other player's characters.

It's sad you see things that way.

Agreed.

[Doug R.]

I like being alone, because then I don't have to worry about entertaining other player's characters.

It's sad you see things that way.

In most of the places I have characters, my characters are among the few or only active ones. If I'm not awake and moving, no one else is, then people drop their food and starve. I've seen this all over. I enjoy playing about half my characters, but it takes will power to push through the summertime apathy that hits Cantr every year, and I'm honestly out of it. This puts me in a rotten mood, which then makes my characters depressed. I'd rather they just be silent and productive than take my issues out on the town, especially if they have no reason ig to be depressed - but if I do, then people start dying from boredom, because most players won't stubbornly cling to their characters like I do. Being an Admin, I know who's requesting suicides, and I know their reasons. It's a real downer when people contact you asking you to off characters that you depend upon because they're "overextended," or some other stuff like that, threatening to hit the X and kill all their characters if you don't comply. You know they're just bored with them (in most cases - there are some legit requests.)

Sorry, folks. To borrow a military saying, I've been "in the shit" for too long now, and I'm ready to down a case of beer and start shooting up base camp from the back of a stolen hummer. I'd say I need R&R, but it was the R&R that got me this way to begin with. Being without Cantr for days gives you perspective, and that's something you really don't need when you're run-down and have an "easy button".

To those of you suffering through my character's moodiness or sleepiness, I'm sorry, but that's how I'm coping. If you could reciprocate and not kill your characters off, I'd be in your debt. Fun times are just around the corner. I also apologize if this message doesn't make any sense to anyone besides myself. I haven't ranted in a long time, and I needed a good rant.

[Rumaan]

I really think Cantr will improve a lot if the max char limit is reduced to 5, 6 or 7. And it would improve even further if some islands disappeared, may be by a tsunami.

[Cdls]

I also apologize if this message doesn't make any sense to anyone besides myself.

I actually understand this all too well, and there have been a few times I have wanted to go beyond the sleepiness and just hit the "X" and be done with it. While a small bit of it is due to Cantr, I realized that a large portion is due to stuff going on in RL, away from the game. Cantr is not a game that can be played well when one is mentally drained, and that is where I have been this past year pretty much non stop...mentally drained.

It is this that has kept me from hitting the "X", the fact that RL will turn around, and that things will improve, Summer will end and Cantr will return to its active self, and regardless of how I feel now, I know that once this all happens, I would regret making that decision. So I stay, and press on.

I always like running across random hermits myself, so try to have a potential hermit or two for others to stumble upon.

I have been trying to do this for a while now, but I can never spawn in a location suitable for that. Sure, it would be easy to spawn anywhere and just travel to some isolated place, but that would certainly not be IC, and imo, would detract from the fun of doing it. So *fingers crossed* I hope my next attempt gives me what I want!

[SekoETC]

This is getting a bit off-topic but I don't think a strict limit of 5 to 7 characters would be very good, it would have to be at least 8 or 10. I think if aging caused people to grow weak and eventually die, people would put more effort into getting the most out of their lives, and also old people might sacrifice themselves in conflicts because they knew they would soon be gone anyway. Currently the longer you play, the harder it gets to let go because you gain wealth and social contacts. Characters often go through dry times during which they might think they were better off dead, but then they get new friends and maybe a goal to work towards, and life gets worth living again. When you know you can live forever unless you neglect your safety, life eventually stagnates. I am having lots of fun with my older characters but all of them have had times in their lives when they would've been happy to die. I would probably just repeat the key points of their personalities in new characters, and run into the same players' characters the old characters used to interact with and form groups and relationships, because sometimes it just clicks and you seem to get along with most characters played by somebody, even if they were a bit annoying sometimes.

[CrashBlizz]

I really think Cantr will improve a lot if the max char limit is reduced to 5, 6 or 7. And it would improve even further if some islands disappeared, may be by a tsunami.

I disagree. I have 15 at the moment and there's no where near enough going on to stop me getting bored. Not only could I handle another 5 or 6, it would also keep me lot more interested in the game.

I could, if really pushed, kill one of mine off but thats only because he's a mental physco who could easily have suicidal dendencies anyway. If I was told I could only play with 5-7 there just wouldn't be enough happening to keep me interested and regularly logging in.


(True, I'm between work right now so I'm practically free 24/7 to play, but despite this I still think my point it right)

[Rumaan]

I really think Cantr will improve a lot if the max char limit is reduced to 5, 6 or 7. And it would improve even further if some islands disappeared, may be by a tsunami.

I disagree. I have 15 at the moment and there's no where near enough going on to stop me getting bored. Not only could I handle another 5 or 6, it would also keep me lot more interested in the game.

I could, if really pushed, kill one of mine off but thats only because he's a mental physco who could easily have suicidal dendencies anyway. If I was told I could only play with 5-7 there just wouldn't be enough happening to keep me interested and regularly logging in.


(True, I'm between work right now so I'm practically free 24/7 to play, but despite this I still think my point it right)

A few players probably play all their 15 chars properly. But it is my impression that a vast majority of the players have more than half of their chars as sleepers. Some of my active chars lost interest and became sleepers because the chars around them slept a lot. In my opinion sleepers effect the chars of other players too, creating a positive feedback that is not good for the game. There were occasions when I played just one char all day long because the story would get so interesting and everyone around participated.

So, if the char limit was reduced to around 7 and if there were fewer towns I can only imagine the game and our experience getting better.

Seko's suggestion of weakening with ageing is good. But I don't think the lack of it currently is the reason for sleepy towns. Though my experience in Cantr is limited I am quite sure that chars aged above 60 constitute no more than 5% of all chars.

[EchoMan]

I think it's quite normal to maybe play half of your characters and have half as sleepers/workers/whatnot. I'm not really interested in roleplaying a sex-slave, 12th in command city guard and the likes, so those characters doesn't do much. If things happened that gave them a chance to have a more interesting life that could change though.

I really have only three (?) chars that I seriously roleplay, the rest are slaves/sleepers or simmers.

And on topic: I've had a few explorers, that sailed pretty much alone for 10+ years, since that amuses me personally (the exploration, not the loneliness). But most of them are gone because of murder, slavery (which both are way too easy) or finding a place worth staying in and developing. I only have one true explorer left, and he's been at it for 15 years, meeting only the occasional character when docking for food, and he has only once met another character of his language group.

[FrankieLeonie]

Thanks for the stories guys! I hope you cheer up soon Doug.

Someone asked how these characters play different then normal ones, and I will have to say it goes between good and bad. I mapped a whole area mostly by myself, but never got around to actually putting the map together. Then I went on a long journey to get limestone and gas which took over a decade. Then when I get back I find some bastard took apart everything he could and used the iron on a stupid boat so I killed him. Now I hate polish people and am rebuilding what was destroyed.

All in all he is one of my favorite toons because everything he has he made himself. OK I lied I did get quite a bit from finding dead people while mapping. But his home is his! Now he is just paranoid that some other polish people will show up and act like jerks again. But I often ask myself what is he working towards? No roads, no rubber, no people. So what does he have to look forward to in life? Even the animal population is getting smaller now that they dont breed.

[Voltenion]

On Topic: I had a lonely one. He ended seriously screwed up. Named Razu Zarru, he was born in an unhappy place so he left with a friend. About two years passed and Razu ended up killing his friend to get the wood he had and refused to pass. He regretted this deeply and felt guilt for the rest of his life. Since the island was Fu he just walked around completely alone, building an home and creating stuff to get some iron. He lived about 35 years, so 13 of them were alone. He was very aggressive and rude, awfully crazy and paranoid to everyone who ever passed by. I recall he tried to hunt one or two people. By the end of his life he was so lonely he started talking to his bow as if it were his long dead friend. He died because I got distracted from the game and he had no one to feed him.
It was fun to play, but I wouldn't have more than one character like this. It's really interesting when people finally show up so that you can show them how messed up your character is, but the time you spend alone isn't very fun. The only way to make the time spent alone fun is by role playing with yourself. I did this, specially when he started to think the bow was his friend.

Off Topic:

I really think Cantr will improve a lot if the max char limit is reduced to 5, 6 or 7.And it would improve even further if some islands disappeared, may be by a tsunami.

I don't agree with the characters limit, the player should be the one to be responsible and set the limit for himself and only create as many characters as he can play. If you can't play more than 7 chars, please don't. But if you can play 15, please do!
Now, I agree with a certain island being blow apart. I just find that whole island to go against everything Cantr stands for: society.
There's no society when there are 100 locations for 1 character. No interaction.

[CCGeeKee]

one of my charries is 31 and has been alone most of her life, occasionaly bumbing into people on her travels, (and one time attacked by a foreign speaking person who stole loads, blocked up machinery and nearly killed her ) Dont think she'll run into anyone again for a while as the areas she's in is empty for 3/4 towns in each direction! But she's plowing on nicely and should soon have iron production going, yay loner girl!

[Piscator]

I checked my diaries and the longest time one of my characters spent alone is at least 337 days, counting from the moment he left his birth town and the moment he met a heavily bleeding, weird English person, who continued on his way almost immediately.

If you count the time from his last contact with one of my other chars (he might have encountered the occasional Spaniard after that, but I can't recall really. He definitely met noone able to speak his language) and the second contact with a stranger, which is the last diary entry before he met quite a lot of people (and was too busy to make additional entires) it's been 554 days without any meaningful human contact. That's more than 27 years.

He's still alive, alone again and quite happy.