Author Topic: Put the Soul Mother to Rest? Maybe? Perhaps? (Read 3040 times)

twidget658 · « **on:** June 05, 2007, 09:56:13 pm »

I was thinking (which usually gets me into trouble) since all the characters will eventually be gone, can the Soul Mother take a vacation to allow the players the opportunity to enjoy this last update without the fear of losing their characters.

It is likely most poeple will NOT develope their characters much further, or even make the transition to the new Layo, this will allow them the opportunity to go out into new areas, adventure with people that have been on the back burner due to having 9 or 14 SS' lost, and to have fun whiling exploring instead of fearing every transition due to spawns being inadvertantly set too close to the transition and spawn times (which some are still around from V3).

hawklen · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2007, 09:59:13 pm »

Thats a great idea twidgy

merlin34baseball · « **Reply #2 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:09:31 pm »

I personally would love this. My main character that I played exclusivly for a year and a half just got her ninth DT. I had planned on being super careful with her and trying to nudge her to level 20, one boar at a time. This would take forever I realized, but it was something I was going to try and do espcially since Storold proved it can be done, she is 18th level now. Now with the coming end, there is no way I can get her there, which basically means she is retired.

I have never seen the East server with her and I would love the opportunity to see all the things on it, but I cannot go there with her for fear of something strange happening and having her killed due to something weird. Her last DT was due to the invis bug, and I can't risk that again with her.

I also think it would be very cool to see everyones characters with 9 DTs come out of the vault again for some well deserved touring of the world.

Another possibility that I can think of so that everyone doesn't start just running wild would be to maybe cut the number of strands that everyone has lost in half or something so the threat of reprocussions for being in over your head are still there.

Pen N Popper · « **Reply #3 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:13:51 pm »

I would rather not see the final year of Layo NWN become an OOC festival. The story goes on, does it not?

Stephen_Zuckerman · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:28:01 pm »

It wouldn't become an OOC festival... Heck, the Mother's taken a vacation (though I don't think it was her idea

) before. Deaths did rise, but... All in all, it wasn't as bad as some expected.

muaddib · « **Reply #5 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:31:56 pm »

I'd prefer she stay.

Gulnyr · « **Reply #6 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:36:42 pm »

I don't know. This gives me a bad feeling. I understand the sentiment, a sort of "since we're near-ish to the end, why not make it easier for people to see the things they may never get the chance to see otherwise?"

I'm not certain where you got your information that most players will not continue to develop their characters. I didn't see any poll on that, official or otherwise, and haven't been asked in any other way. I can say absolutely I don't intend to stop developing Jennara. I'm still here for the same thing I was here for two years ago.

I get a bad feeling about this because it seems to lessen the value of the world. Layonara is not the areas, or the monsters, or the bashing thereof, but the lasting interactions with others in a world where there are consequences. Without the consequences, the world loses something. If stuntmen (and people in general) couldn't be hurt doing dangerous things, those things wouldn't be exciting. Part of the excitement and draw of such things is the danger. God mode is boring.

In this thread, Leanthar said this version of Layonara could be around until at least December. Seven months is a long time. I'm not prescient, but I've got a strong educated guess that a sort of immortality would not be a good thing for the atmosphere and roleplay quality of the server, and the server won't last seven months if the consequences are removed.

Having consequences removed near the very, very end, after the completion of the remaining plot quests and such, would be a different matter, but this far out is just asking for a quick death to what we've got.

Acacea · « **Reply #7 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:40:43 pm »

The previous vacation was actually quite horrible for some, went on far longer than expected, and breeded the whole generation of "Chaarrge!" adventurers...and was the result of a successful ECDQ.

Some of that does not apply here, as there isn't a 'next generation' of this server.

Still, I'm with PnP. I don't play here 'despite' the risk of death; I like that it's there, even though I wish the way things were set up didn't work quite the way it did in discouraging RPers that don't have perfect numbers in their later years. But the Soul Mother is IC, and her purpose is part of Layo - I don't understand, shouldn't we enjoy what we have while we have it, rather than decide we don't want what we have since it's going away anyway, might as well run around with nothing to fear for no reason except OOC we feel like it for the next several months...

Nah, thanks. Maybe when the lights go out there can be a final run around for awhile or whatever, but I don't understand why we'd want to make it like that for the whole last stretch, which is still a good long while. It just feels really OOC to me...and while it's cool to say, "they're going to be gone anyway!" if that means shutting down things that make the server what it is way ahead of time, it's starting too early for me.

I feel like maybe that's harsh or something, and I should just say, "eh, they're going to be gone anyway," but that's exactly what I don't want. I want things to be successful and fun and in-character in the current world, not just sort of give up on them all and say "well screw it guys, let's have our last go and not give a...care!"

I just don't play here for areas or high leveled monsters... so maybe that's just different, or something.

Edit - Too slow for Gulnyr!

orth · « **Reply #8 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:43:19 pm »

The Soul Mother will be steadfast in her random ways at the present time. No plans for a change in this have been discussed.

Acacea · « **Reply #9 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:47:51 pm »

Well, to be fair, I don't think twidget would have posted if he had thought it had already been discussed and decided, that takes away the point of suggestions

We can probably read that instead as: "No plans for a change in this are likely to be discussed at present."

*ducks* hehe

twidget658 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 05, 2007, 10:58:43 pm »

Quote from: Gulnyr

I'm not certain where you got your information that most players will not continue to develop their characters. I didn't see any poll on that, official or otherwise, and haven't been asked in any other way. I can say absolutely I don't intend to stop developing Jennara. I'm still here for the same thing I was here for two years ago.

I said "likely" due to the posts I have read, no official poll (and the fact that some have already left, in the process of leaving, and those that state that they will not pay to play). It is almost summer and look at the server status.

As far as being here for the same thing that you started here for...I understand that. I don't expect that to change. Don't want it to change. I have player here almost every day for over two years as well. But I think it would be a treat for some players to play their other characters for a bit with the fear of perming (which will come sooner than you think, time flies when you are old). It does not have to be for the whole time, either. maybe for two months...three months...until certain emotions subside...whatever.

orth · « **Reply #11 on:** June 05, 2007, 11:01:06 pm »

It is decidedly certain that the Soul Mother is not to part these lands as discussed recently with Leanthar.

The prospect of a potential all out, no risk bashy time may be readdressed as time progresses.

Aragon · « **Reply #12 on:** June 05, 2007, 11:02:04 pm »

If you want the Soul Mother to take a vacation then do something in game to bind her powers. It has been done in the past. I remember about a 3 month holiday she took due to a player CDQ.

Filatus · « **Reply #13 on:** June 05, 2007, 11:05:21 pm »

A change like this is exactly the type of change, that I am hoping we won't see in the rest of the year that the servers are up.

Don't fix something that ain't broke.

Now there are other things that could be reconsidered, if you take into account the time left to achieve things. But taking away the meaning of death in the game shouldn't be one of them.

osxmallard · « **Reply #14 on:** June 05, 2007, 11:46:35 pm »

In Leanthar's original status of v3 post, it was mentioned that there is a system to reattach broken strands of your soul. What is the prospect of activating that system in the near future?

jrizz · « **Reply #15 on:** June 06, 2007, 01:05:40 am »

kill her! send her away! No really it would be cool to shut her down for now. The last time was not as bad as some make it out to be. Yes there were a few (just a few new players) that went nuts but most of us still respected death.

Chongo · « **Reply #16 on:** June 06, 2007, 01:26:19 am »

Quote from: osxmallard

In Leanthar's original status of v3 post, it was mentioned that there is a system to reattach broken strands of your soul. What is the prospect of activating that system in the near future?

This is actually something I'll run with on the topic. It's unfortunate to see the mix of two things: 1) a timeline on a server which ultimately encourages focus on one character, and a lack of interest in new beginnings 2) So many epics with year's investment looking at this timeline and realizing they won't be able to really begin anew and experience much different then what they already have, nor reach any comparable height of personal worth or achievment.

There's a dozen retorts to this... I don't care much for them given the two points above. But hey, maybe maintaining the theme of death for the long haul is more critical then breaking it in interest of character retention. That's an honest dunno there.

EdTheKet · « **Reply #17 on:** June 06, 2007, 01:25:00 pm »

Quote

In Leanthar's original status of v3 post, it was mentioned that there is a system to reattach broken strands of your soul. What is the prospect of activating that system in the near future?

It's not a system that got implemented in V3.

Kirbiana · « **Reply #18 on:** June 06, 2007, 01:57:52 pm »

I'd like to add a comment and a suggestion for the team to kick around (kick being the operative word, I'm sure.) And just as a disclaimer, I'm a fairly new player who levels quite slowly and has no tokens yet (knock on wood).

Comment: In the six months I've played here, I have seen a little of what could be called power gaming, despite the death token system, and I attribute that to the fact that true power gamers have no emotional attachment to the characters they create, and don't care if they run them into the ground. However, what I have seen more often is very good role players (ones who are deeply attached to their characters) get discouraged and quit playing after getting two or three tokens in a row, even when they're nowhere near 10. I understand the need for a brake on bashing, but I suspect this discouragement has always been an unintended consequence, one whose drain on the player base was not noticed so much back when NWN was new and lots of folks were flocking to the persistent worlds. Whether or not it's worth doing anything about this now may depend on whether or not the loss of players that many are predicting truly comes to pass.

Now my suggestion: in my imaginary future version of Layonara, I would like to see the Soul Mother have a kind-hearted daughter (for now, I'll call her Persephone) with the power to rejuvenate people. Persephone would mystically return people to an earlier version of themselves -- not just with fewer soul strands but with a significant loss of XP as well. This essentially would mean (I'm guessing) a system that stores backups of PC's in the vault each time they level and simply erases all later XP when rejuvenation occurs. People could choose how far back they want to go, but they would have to pay the price. If you were level 5 when you got your first token, and wanted to erase all of them, back to level 5 you go.

If someone like Miss Persephone was created, I think she should only speak to people in mid-life or later (ie, not before Level 10 or the equivalent) and should demand that they keep her company for a while (a RL month, perhaps) before she restored them to their former youth and inexperience. That should discourage people from running amok as youngsters or abusing Persephone's patience with repeated requests to be rejuvenated. A lot of fun RP could revolve around characters pondering when to go visit Persephone -- some might do it after just one token, some might wait until 9. Some players (especially those on the power gamer end of things) might not find the month wait or the backward steps in levels tolerable, and would decide to risk token 10 instead. And for them, the death system would work just as it does today.

Just my two cents -- let the kicking begin!

Kirbiana

Stephen_Zuckerman · « **Reply #19 on:** June 06, 2007, 03:06:05 pm »

That sounds very interesting... Though I don't think that this Persephone would be all that kind-hearted.

Mayhaps she just has a taste for the experiences of adventurers, rather than their souls... Knocking them back one level for each strand she reattaches, and only doing it one strand at a time, with that whole servant-for-a-month deal. As the adventurer relates his or her stories to his "kind" goddess, they flit from his or her memory...