Relaunch!

[Doug R.]

Oxyquan, Surly has done all the things you mention. He simply had the misfortune of falling victim to one (or more) of Yugo's massacres, which are completely unstoppable. It is a game mechanics failure that needs to be fixed. I know, I've personally witnessed two of those slaughters and lost two characters in the process, one of which was strong and skilled.

[Arenti]

Don't get me wrong. I'm completely for change. As the current system is unfair. Especially the combat system. And whether you want to play a bad guy or not. It has to be fair. Besides I will never play a bad guy.

[redRob]

Oxyquan, Surly has done all the things you mention. He simply had the misfortune of falling victim to one (or more) of Yugo's massacres, which are completely unstoppable. It is a game mechanics failure that needs to be fixed. I know, I've personally witnessed two of those slaughters and lost two characters in the process, one of which was strong and skilled.

Ditto.

To play devil's advocate, though, Yugo's antics generally made things very interesting in game. Not encouraging that style of play, by any means, but my characters killed by him were oh so fun to play until their demise....

[Surly]

To play devil's advocate, though, Yugo's antics generally made things very interesting in game. Not encouraging that style of play, by any means, but my characters killed by him were oh so fun to play until their demise....

To be honest, when you look at our declining player base... I don't think that's true.

I am all for just playing the game and enjoying it. You think I'd still be here after seven years if I didn't believe that? But if you have 50% of chars fighting against game mechanics, you'll just drive players away.

Your characters can't protect themselves using game mechanics, so you want to change mechanics. It's stupid approach in my opinion. Use your invention and create clans, hire guards, close ports, etc... There's so many possibilities. This's it. The most wonderful thing in Cantr is freedom. And sometimes someone want to play a bad guy. And you want to limit this freedom, because of your bad luck.

That's just... wow. That's completely wrong. We don't have freedom in Cantr precisely because you get randomly assigned skills with no real link to what your character does. I want a properly blank slate on spawning for the very reason of giving players the freedom to mould their characters. How does that mean I want to limit freedom?

When we had no skills, and you actually could decide everything about your character... the game was much more successful. I don't think it's unrealistic to suggest there might be a lesson to learn there.

[mojomuppet]

If all the newspawns had blank skills they would all be slaves to the older ones. How is that helping? The ones that play more will still have the advantage over the ones that dont. I have an expert fighter that has never taken a swing at anyone, she learned over time to do the things she need to survive buy taking the time to do it poorly and work her way up to getting it done in reasonable time. I have no character that has reached 40 yet and all have improved what they need to do the job they do. You are only getting a roll of the dice. Ive had chars that were good at everything die only to get the next one that can do nothing well. Get over it and play what you get.And please quit bleeding FTO crap into Cantr. The guy that owns it I swear is a crack head.

[Frits]

I'm still here too!
I'm glad you got cantr back on track.

[Alladinsane]

Well spoken Mojo! I have one that is 'much weaker than average' and an awkward fighter as well. I think that if I do manage to make something of this person, perhaps I am finally getting a handle on this 'game'. The problem is that I am still a rookie compared to some of the old guard here and nothing short of conspiracy or player boredom will ever make room for someone else who wants to rise, at least in certain locations. Migration time!

[mojomuppet]

Well spoken Mojo! I have one that is 'much weaker than average' and an awkward fighter as well. I think that if I do manage to make something of this person, perhaps I am finally getting a handle on this 'game'. The problem is that I am still a rookie compared to some of the old guard here and nothing short of conspiracy or player boredom will ever make room for someone else who wants to rise, at least in certain locations. Migration time!

Pack your crap and move, someone somewhere wants you. Trust me I know of several of my characters that would love to have anyone awake and helpful and can pay. Now find them. LOL

[DylPickle]

I used to be a vocal supporter of an implementation of a skill system originally, but the Yugo attacks turned me away too. And I'm player that supports political conflict and war in a big way. Skills play too large a role in virtually unstoppable attacks. I don't care if your org/town has 50 active characters in it, if they're all awkward and they're up against 3 or so equipped experts, it's game over. Kill/drag keyholder, then kill/drag everyone else. It's rigged in their favour, and it gets old quick. I like production skills though.... But I sure wouldn't shed a tear if combat skills were eliminated. There were bloody and brutal wars and killings before skills were implemented, but they at least felt fun. The massacres have simply become random and needless event to satisfy some player's ego(s).

@Arenti: By evil characters, do you mean a killer characters? Because there is a difference. Some characters are down right nasty, mean, rude, arrogant, hostile, treacherous, sexist, ignorant, etc, and they are amazing to have in the game. That's good conflict. Funny thing is, the the meaner characters that wouldn't actually physically hurt a fly are usually promptly murdered by fluffy bunny "good" characters. It's a strange cantr irony.

[SekoETC]

I assume that if people started spawning all clumsy, they would also learn at an accelerated rate, at least during the first years of their lives. I assume some people will have potential for certain paths such as being a fighter, but it won't be instantly visible so you might have to spend years in training before you might notice that you're learning slower or faster than your peers. Old characters could also have their skills deteriorate when not in use.

[SumBum]

@Arenti: By evil characters, do you mean a killer characters? Because there is a difference. Some characters are down right nasty, mean, rude, arrogant, hostile, treacherous, sexist, ignorant, etc, and they are amazing to have in the game. That's good conflict. Funny thing is, the the meaner characters that wouldn't actually physically hurt a fly are usually promptly murdered by fluffy bunny "good" characters. It's a strange cantr irony.

That is very true. Even more sad considering there are an abundance of the self-righteous "hero" types and so few of the well-played "undesirable" personalities.

[Addicted]

Three cheers for EchoMan.
Hip hip hooray.
Hip hip hooray.
Hip hip hooray.

Three cheers for Seko.
Hip hip hooray.
Hip hip hooray.
Hip hip hooray.

Thankyou very, very much.

(did I miss anyone?)

[EchoMan]

(did I miss anyone?)

Maybe Jos?

Doug and Theda have been very busy too with setting up all administrative people and their acess to various parts of the game.

[Lyd]

Three cheers for Doug and Theda!

[Addicted]

Hip hip hooray.
Hip hip hooray.
Hip hip hooray.