The possibility of spawning as someone's child?

[SekoETC]

This has been discussed several times but I'd like to bring up the topic again.

Here are some possible alternatives. Maybe people could quote me and write good idea/bad idea after each point. That's easier than coming up with a poll.

1. Children would look like a newspawn and have stats assigned the same way, but they would know who their parents are.

2. Children would appear a few years younger than 20 (maybe 14, 15, 16, 17 or 18) but otherwise point 1 would apply.

3. Children would start out with awkward to efficient skills, but the skills they would practice during their early years would develop faster than those of regular characters, allowing specialization.

4. The child's player could choose their character's starting age between 1 and 20.

5. All children would start at a set age. If someone didn't like it then they shouldn't play a child.

6. The youngest characters would have some limitations such as reduced strength, but would develop up to the level of a regular newspawn by age 20.

7. Children would be born to random parents who had chosen to have a child.

8. Prospective parents could describe their family/town and what they have to offer, and the child's player could pick a promising family based on the descriptions.

9. Like point 7 but players who want to play the child would have to give a short rp sample/a description of their playing style, and the parents would pick the most promising player for their child based on the applications. This way for example if the parents were grammar nazis, they wouldn't be stuck with a child by someone who writes in all lowercaps. Likewise if someone was planning to abuse or exploit their child, they could pair up with a player who's ready to play along instead of taking it personally OOC.

10. If there were underage characters, it would be against the rules to get them involved in sexual situations. Both the player of the child and players of adult characters would be forbidden from making initiative.

11. Alternative to the previous point, pedophilia/child abuse could be implied, as long as it wasn't acted out in detail. In other words, if there was a scenario, it should always fade to black.

12. Existing characters could choose if they're breeders or spawners, and breeders could only mate with each other, while spawners would continue to attract newspawns at random. There would be no interbreeding.

13. Breeders and spawners would have some visual aspect separating them, so if people wanted to drive away one or the other from their location, they could tell the difference somehow.

14. Children and newspawns could choose after a while if they want to be breeders or spawners, so that even if you were born to a family, you could become a spawner if you noticed mating/giving birth wasn't your cup of tea, or you could have children even if you never wanted to play one.

[ObsessedWithCats]

I don't think I'd really use any system of spawning as someone's child in either direction, but it would stop me being so annoyed at all the family relationships that pop up without making a lick of in-game sense and might attract some more players.

My thoughts on each point:

1) There's no logical reason not to do it this way, but I don't much like it. I kind of feel like a child should have somewhat increased vulnerability over your average newspawn.
2) I think children should spawn younger than newspawns regardless of what else we're doing.
3) This seems fair enough. Might be tricky to balance though.
4-6) I see no reason not to choose age, but I'd want characters under a given age to have, for example, the ability to use large machinery and vehicles with engines locked (or maybe it's possible with a high random chance of serious injury). Rough examples: a four year old can't shear a sheep, an eight year old can't use a distillation stack, a twelve year old can't drive a van.
7-9) I would vastly prefer it to be random, or decided but using a dropdown list of qualities you do or don't like in others' RP. Doing it with completely customisable explanations would make it too easy for people to deliberately spawn as a kid to a friend's character and puts a lot of emphasis on a one-time attraction effort which could easily be dropped once succesful. One thing I would be happy with if there were an element of choice would be a counter for each location that records the total number of events that occurred there in the last 24 hours, either entirely unfiltered or using your own filter settings.
10-11) My preference would be no sexual situations in the same location as underage characters at all. This would hopefully have the extra benefit of meaning more people will get a room rather than whispering in a field.
12-14) This is really creepy. I like it >:] I have a feeling it wont be popular though, because it has a supernatural kind of vibe and the whole kids thing seems to be popular with the realism-at-all-costs types. I assume 12 and 14 aren't mutually exclusive? Not a problem if they are though I guess, since with 12 you'd still get to choose as a player but through the way the character comes into existence rather than at a point after they've been around a while.

[AniCator]

Sleeper babies would ruin so many lives. :3

[Bmot]

Very interesting point

I think for now, it'd be best to not start with babies, let's keep from like age 10 and up, or something like that. That would give people the ability to play a "real" child, but not be endlessly stuck with a char that can't do anything but cry and eat for the first 5 years of their lives. If anything, let them at least choose the age themselves. I like point three, making children quick learners, but not very good at anything yet.

Besides that, I don't think people should be able to choose either child or parent, cause, well, first, it can call for some interesting RP if they didn't like eachother much, and second, IRL you can't choose your parents, either.

I think a couple should decide to have a baby (a mate-button or something?), but I don't think separate "races" or something should be put in...

I haven't formed an opinion on point 11/12... On one side, I think the game should be as free as possible, with as few restrictions as possible. On the other hand, we should keep it legal, and maybe some boundaries should be placed.

Last but not least, I think there should be some thoughts about pregnancy, as well. I assume for now only female chars can get pregnant, and only through mating with a male char. But, might be worth thinking about still. Also, would pregnancy have any effect on being able to work, vomiting, eating?

To conclude: I like the idea but this isn't something we should rush into, it should be done just right

[SekoETC]

The thing with 10/11 is that if there were no rules, undoubtedly there would be a small minority of players who would get a kick out of playing pedophilia with X-rated details, and Cantr wouldn't want to attract that sort of an audience.

Concerning pregnancy, since Cantrians are already used to spawning, no one would see anything weird in children appearing out of thin air instead of being pushed out of a vagina. Sure including pregnancy would be interesting, but that would lead into what to do with the child while it's still too young to be assigned a player? Would it age as an NPC or magically pop from a newborn into a ten year old, leading into an age inconsistency with the parents.

[Bmot]

The thing with 10/11 is that if there were no rules, undoubtedly there would be a small minority of players who would get a kick out of playing pedophilia with X-rated details, and Cantr wouldn't want to attract that sort of an audience.

That's pretty much what I said, or at least tried to say. I usually think it should be as free and rule-less as possible, on the other hand I don't want to attract such an audience either

Concerning pregnancy, since Cantrians are already used to spawning, no one would see anything weird in children appearing out of thin air instead of being pushed out of a vagina. Sure including pregnancy would be interesting, but that would lead into what to do with the child while it's still too young to be assigned a player? Would it age as an NPC or magically pop from a newborn into a ten year old, leading into an age inconsistency with the parents.

This seems fair enough... Still, would there be some waiting time? Or, is it *click* and as soon as both the child and parents are ready, the child is spawned? (obviously, if there's either no parents or no child ready, some waiting-list will be there)

[NancyLee]

For me that would turn cantr into some sort of FTO or other RP games I've played and I like cantr for its uniqueness and little quirks, so I wouldn't vote in favor of that.

Sure it would make less ooc the ones who like to play the mom and dad thing, but in all I don't like the stereotypical family roles shoved into cantr world.

[Snowdrop]

Sleeper babies would ruin so many lives. :3

That would allow for others to adopt them...or, OR for some more evil type characters to set up workhouses and go around collecting the unwanted/abandoned kiddies as labourers...



As for the pregnancy thing? Just...no. Keep it as spawning, it'll continue to allow for interesting theories in RP - think along the lines of storks delivering babies as RL kids are sometimes led to believe?

[kicking jay]

I don't know... I like the idea, but somehow...

It just feels "off", rather. I personally am happy with the spawning system, and I kind of feel that if breeding is ever done, a -looot- of thought will have to be put into it. None of the rules I particularly have any problem with, but as a whole it just feels... I don't know, tacked together, almost?
No offense to your suggestion meant - I know this is really lousy criticism, ut it's just my gut reaction reading through it and I can't really get rid of it even though I don't see any real issues.

Wow that was unhelpful.

[SekoETC]

It's not a plan because it contains a lot of points that cancel each other out. People would have to vote about which ones work the best for them.

[Uma]

I like the idea.

I think it would be interesting if two adults could kind of pray for their own little spawnling (I presume we aren't simulating pregnancy here). This would spawn a 10 year old. beholden to certain rules. like no combat till 20, and low skills (but fast learning). Nothing sexual. if they spawn younger they have proportionately less natural skills.

I like point 8 because they would get a hint of what they're after.

spawnlings should be really really bad at combat and have VERY POOR carry weights. this is important because it makes them have to attach to adults to survive. they can't carry very much. no child traders. maybe they shouldn't' be able to drive most vehicles because they are small. maybe some skills should be off limits to them until certain ages.

I think it would be neat if the parents could spend a day 'teaching' a skill. and the kids go up a rank or two in it. this has two benefits. 1. the parents can direct their child to suit their culture / family needs. 2. the kids listen to their parents or they don't get free skill ups.

I think this would be fabulous to help reduce the 40 year old child-adults we see running around they could get that out of their system AS children.

[Ericis]

I had a character spawn not too long ago. The guy called me his son so I went with the idea. He and his wife ended up locking me in a room and killing the character.

Cantr style abortion I suppose.

[Shedevil]

I had a character spawn not too long ago. The guy called me his son so I went with the idea. He and his wife ended up locking me in a room and killing the character.

Cantr style abortion I suppose.

That's horrible.. I have a few characters that would gladly welcome someone calling her mom.. So I'm for the idea of spawning children, though the entire idea reminds me of FTO, and I haven't quite gotten into it completely.

My thing with the spawning of children, is what would this mean for those already at character limit, who want to try having a child character of their own? Would they need to kill off one character just to try?

[Alladinsane]

In a good rp environment why would we want to add a special spawning in? That sounds like a program change.

I think Ericis has it right... if 3 consenting chars want to do that... just play it!
no need to change code (I think thats the proposal, I mean 14 points?).

I would vote against it.
I know how to play a role without adding in a 'genetically' handicapped char.

==================
"can I call you Daddy?"
"yeah kid... say my -name-!"

[BosBaBe]

I think we could have a system similar to FTO, (as much as I hate that game) but make it a lot better. People could choose to just spawn at the age of twenty (regular spawns), or be born to a pregnant mother. There would be a waiting time, sure, but with the amount of couples in this game, it's not like people are going to wait months. And since only a few would choose to play a child anyways, it won't be clogged up. Sure, this would need a system change, but I think it would be a much better solution as opposed to the current families that don't make any logical sense. I have nothing wrong with it, but it also sucks if you WANT your characters to have kids, but no one ever spawns around you that would be happy to play that sort of character. Which is sad.
One of my characters, he found a newspawn that acted like a toddler/young girl right off the bat. And she adopted HIM as her father, which made him and myself quite ecstatic admittedly. That was great, and I would love for a roleplay like that again, but it just seems like it's never going to happen.