Things that annoy or puzzle you about Cantr

[Marian]

The Cantr world is out of balance. On the one hand you have people in town who can't reach their goals because of poor leadership, and on the other you have towns with competent leadership that are full of people without goals.

This has always been an annoyance of mine, but it's very much one of those problems that would be solvable IC with enough dedication. And people being more easily able to travel now than they used to might eventually be able to help with some of this. Or at least I've got my fingers crossed and I'm hoping.

[Slowness_Incarnate]

The Cantr world is out of balance. On the one hand you have people in town who can't reach their goals because of poor leadership, and on the other you have towns with competent leadership that are full of people without goals.

So true. I have characters who I look at and I say to myself "You would have been perfect for XYZ town, but instead you're all the way over here." Then again I am guilty of having characters who have depleted their goals but mostly because they lose their motivation somewhere along the way or the people needed to help them.

[Moonflame]

^ I like this discussion, and it's about a lot of factors. I won't gabble on about how it's difficult for people to settle in their spawn towns (or sometimes any towns) but I think it's a thing. Balance between a newspawn working to own resources and being given things that are otherwise collecting dust. Balance between accepting part responsibility for the life of the town from the day you spawn, and expecting others to pull their weight too. Those things are difficult to solve, I've already seen a conversation on this thread lately about how different people expect different things from the game.

It also must be about player experience, when I started I spawned 10 characters in the first few months and was on this learning curve towards understanding that I needed fewer characters, ones with unique goals and personalities. I'm still working on mine expressing their personalities more efficiently. I'm not saying players with 15 can't do a good job though I do think fewer is better, sometimes I feel like some of the players around me must have a tonne of characters distracting them from having focus and responding well.

[Marian]

All but one of my characters have goals that will take, conservatively, ten or twenty years to achieve, or even just start to achieve. Though of course, often there are wild life-changing events or opportunities that can pop up when you least expect it, one of the things I love/hate about this game.

I should probably do something about that last char.

But it all goes back to the subject of what different people play the game for, and how players will pretty much get what they put it. I've accused people of stalking before because it seems like I'm [i]always[/] running into their characters. But it's just that there are some people who want their characters to get out there and accomplish goals and make interesting things happen, but so many more that are content just to let them stay home and sleepwork or gossip. ('squawking dolittles' I've heard them called ) But. my experience, the former are usually much more mobile and active than the latter, so crossing their paths isn't unexpected. It always amuses me how I'll meet a char with one of mine, and then one day they're suddenly introducing themselves to another clear on the other side of the island, or on another one entirely.

I'm not saying one playstyle is more valid than the other, but every time I hear someone complain the game is boring I'm raising every eyebrow I have and wondering why they don't just have their chars go and do something more...not boring, then. Even small goals can get your mind working and keep you interested, and there's no lack of things to build and create, or places to go, or people to meet.

[hyrle]

It also must be about player experience, when I started I spawned 10 characters in the first few months and was on this learning curve towards understanding that I needed fewer characters, ones with unique goals and personalities. I'm still working on mine expressing their personalities more efficiently. I'm not saying players with 15 can't do a good job though I do think fewer is better, sometimes I feel like some of the players around me must have a tonne of characters distracting them from having focus and responding well.

It's very rough, because every day is a different Cantr experience. Some days, 15 doesn't even feel like enough characters because every town seems dead. And on some days, 15 characters is too many and I feel so glad that some of mine are quiet simmers and hermits! I'm actually down to 14 and thinking I may continue on with the reduced character count.... but then the boring night comes and I have a character idea and I just can't help it... *SPAWN!* Ugh. I'm such an addict.

[Axiom]

You know what annoys and puzzles me? The really bizarre time system in this game. It makes coordinating unnecessarily difficult. Like, okay, one "hour" per tick I can sort of understand since everything is on a three-hour schedule, but what in the world is up with the minutes and seconds?

[*Wiro]

Haha someone's upset the downtime messed up their tick schedule. (I know I am.)

[Axiom]

That's actually not why. I've recently been trying to organize people being online at the same time, which is already hard when you're dealing with different schedules and timezones, but then you factor in weird conversions with Cantr time and it becomes a nightmare. I seriously don't understand why the time is like it is. It's just really confusing.

[Marian]

I haven't had too much trouble with it, the ticks are a pretty good basis. 'Do you think you can be awake at hour four a little before the tide comes in?' or something similar is usually close enough. If something really vital is going on that needs to be timed to the exact minute...well, if you can trust another char in something like that in the first place, you can usually trust their player to be able to know when they can and can't be on. The server ticks page on the wiki is available even if they're playing from something without Cantr Enhanced installed.

[*Wiro]

There is no reason it couldn't be RL minutes though, is there? It confuses me as well. That said I don't generally enjoy the whole awake/asleep thing and dislike how the game favours this kind of micromanaging. Of course whenever there's a dangerous situation I'll play according to the ticks, but I just wish it wasn't necessary.

[Axiom]

Yep, I'm making do. It's just annoying when you're trying to time something that isn't tick-based and then you have to try to convert some RL time to Cantr time. It's not the end of the world, but it is really strange. I wouldn't mind if the hours were each three hours long if the minutes just followed RL minutes. I'm sure that someone had a good reason to do it this way at some point, but I really can't figure out what the point is.

Also, I have yet to figure out a good euphemism for project tick. I've seen people call sea tick tides, but how do you refer to project tick IC? Also land travel tick. Yeah guys, we better leave before the...uh...land...tides...

[Kyriel]

"That minute of actual work that I do between screwing around."

[*Wiro]

I don't refer to ticks at all. One time I remember someone said that the fishes were about to take his bait, and others have said things like hauling in the latest batch of produce.

I do enjoy being able to walk around for three hours and then pretending that my character forgot their shoes in the room where their project was.

[Snowdrop]

Also land travel tick. Yeah guys, we better leave before the...uh...

Rush hour

[Marian]

I never say 'tick', there's usually some handwavey way to refer to whatever. Even if it's 'come on come on guys hurry hurry get in the ca--' 'ummm, you know what, never mind, suddenly I'm thinking we might as well wait around another hour *shrug*' And again, the Server ticks link is a really useful one, it matches itself to your timezone and everything.