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We are coming into the last stretch of the land rush. Some people have seen a lot of shakeup, some are finally settling down. These final days should prove to be quite interesting! One of the things many of us have eagerly been awaiting has really started to change landscape of the landrush, that would be companies banding together to secure a location. I would like to invite any individuals or companies who have not settled on a home yet to consider living with us. We are Lawful Neutral and we have very few requirements of our inhabitants, all of which are intended to see our city thrive without placing an undue burden on the populace. We are a hub for travel, trading and crafting among the variety of services our denizens will be offering. In short, if you do not know where you want to be already, there is a good chance you could benefit greatly in making your home with us. If you wish to see a bit more about us, take a look at our settlement thread. If you simply wish to sign on, take a look here! Feel free to leave any questions you may have below, or send me a PM if you prefer. I look forward to seeing some new faces!
Purpose: This company exists solely to network the greatest number of trade oriented characters possible. Designed to be a second or third company that never becomes sponsored. Alignment: True Neutral
Notes: No obligations towards others, save that you stay respectful in the context of company dealings. There will not be any non-aggression or preferential treatment expectations. This is simply to stay connected with others in 'the business', a place from which deals can be initiated based on advertised products or services. It is not meant to circumvent contracts, and officially we encourage such to still be used as a matter of protecting yourselves. Please respond below or pm me if you wish to join.
As many of you may know, Dagedai aims to be a place of commerce. We have seen and talked to a variety of other such settlements. We want to open a standing invitation for any other traders or trade settlements to send members or representatives to take up residence with us. Just as we expect to have scouts looking for good deals and merchants securing arrangements for goods needed elsewhere, we expect many others will be doing the same. We want to make your work as easy as possible. The more business we can promote, the happier everyone is likely to be. If there are other settlements that wish to facilitate the same smooth transition of goods, we would love to hear from you as well. Knowing where trade is more important than politics will help many in the pursuit of profits without having to worry about who they might be offending, or embargoes they might be violating. Join Dagedai in creating a strong network of commerce, whatever the political climate might be.
I would like to cordially invite any individuals, companies, and settlements with designs on crafting, trade or paid services to join us in efforts to build not only a functional, but a flourishing network of commerce. As we enter into the first round of landrush drafts we are going to gain a slightly better idea of what we may be able to provide in terms of goods, but many of us already have thoughts as to what kinds of services we may be able to provide, if any. Keeping in mind your own plans, what would you as a merchant, a crafter, or a service provider be willing to provide to the community at large? Likewise, what do you anticipate needing from the community to be successful in your endeavors? Think of this as a role call for all the various types of organizations and individuals to stand up and let others know where they stand.
I would really like anyone reading this to take a moment and think about the title. -------- Are we, as a community, heading in the right direction? I have seen emphatic assertions about how not-caustic we are. I have also seen 10 pages of vitriol and filth spewed out between factions at the behest of just a couple of individuals. That was just yesterday. We are frequently seeing entire threads derailed by people expressing opinions they have no business bringing into that particular discussion, just because they can or because they feel justified in the damage they are about to do. This has happened in several places and affected multiple groups and individuals. Not simply benign off topic chatter, this is the variety of 'we are going to drag this thread through the mud', knockdown, dragout, Chris has to get involved acid that hurts us, as a community, all of us. That was this week. Is this where we want to be heading? Engaging every troll with a contentious opinion? It has gotten so bad that Keovar felt it necessary to make a thread just to get people to laugh. We argued there too. We all need to start thinking about whether whatever it is we have to say is going to in any way be good for the community, or if it is going to do nothing more than contribute to the problem. All of us. I have seen some people I have a great deal of respect for say things they absolutely should not have. I have seen people I have zero respect for stir up the general populace into a fervor. I have to stop reading some threads just to keep myself from expressing some rather unkind opinions about the contributions of some individuals. Bringslite has had to check me once even, fortunately in time to limit the damage I was about to do. Just think about it. Ryan has made it very clear how valuable the community is to the future of the game. Right now, that is not a pretty future. I can already imagine a few people ready to lash out about being expected to keep their mouths shut. Suffice to say there is a few worlds' worth of difference between healthy discussion and knee-jerk reaction without due consideration to what is being said, both in what we have read and what we say in response.
Ryan, Lee, Stephen or someone. From my correspondences so far it seems as though the confusion around the term guild is pretty bad. The problem I am seeing arises from the, vast majority of, population that backed KS2 and then went off the grid. Last they heard, guild was a backer level that appealed to player groups, be it gaming groups, clans or those that called themselves guilds. It assured them reservation of their guild name. It was a 1:1 correlation between groups of players and the PFO organization they would have. It did not mean settlement name, nor coalition of companies backing a settlement. Fast-forward a year and a half. You just sent out updates which, by the reactions I am getting, did nothing to explain the terminology shift in the Paizo community. While the same shift occurred over the course of several blogs, it also seems to have not made the desired impact. Efforts towards this shift were decidedly sabotaged when GW casually started referring to guilds again in the same posts that these returning players were referred to. No explanation that the term guild now meant something entirely different, nor what that meaning now was, and that this meaning would only apply to the landrush itself. Please do something about clearing up this confusion. Players have no sense that there should be anything other than 180+ separate groups all vying for their own settlements, many of which have just a bare handful of players. They have no reason to believe that banding together will not cost them their guild, which we now refer to as company. You are looking at a near complete lack of collaboration at this juncture. I could very well be shooting myself in the foot here, but it is a crucial piece of information that the majority of the community is missing out on to really make the landrush an exciting thing.
This is going to be a compilation of issues and suggestions for the landrush portion of GW. Issues
Improvements
A few of us are wondering if there is going to be some form of scribing planned for the game. Is this something likely to make an appearance prior to OE? It would be really nice to have things like manuals, mission statements and even literature in game prior to open beta. As a side note, will items have any persistence? Can they be placed in the game world at large? Specific locations that support item placement?
Settlement Name: Dagedai
Operated by: Audacity - LN Settlement Purpose:
Settlement Goals:
Settlement Focus:
Description:
PVP:
Note: We insist that our members maintain a positive playstyle, this does not mean you may not kill people, but it does mean you may not camp or otherwise grief them. Member Responsibilities:
Member Conduct:
Company Name: Audacity (formerly Go Rin No Sho)
Who we are: We are a group that seeks to excel to the greatest extent possible at whatever path we choose. We focus on refining our skills constantly, to push the envelope of what is possible in our chosen field. We seek mastery of these pursuits both for the betterment of our company and for the sake of mastery itself. In addition to placing a high value on skill, we equally value trust. It is important for us to be able to trust each other implicitly, and for others to take us at our word, particularly in our line of work. What we do: As a mercenary company, it is a given that we accept contracts. We wish to be viewed not only as swords-for-hire, but as specialists that will bring a wealth of knowledge to bear upon the tasks we are approached with. As a company, we do not generally enforce restrictions against certain lines of work, that is up to the units or individuals that the task falls upon to accept or reject on a case by case basis. The main restriction we hold to, is that once a contract is accepted, we will pursue the fulfillment of said contract with vigor. How we do it: We believe in mobility and efficiency, as such we encourage our members to work closely with those whom they feel they are most effective with. We give highest priority to the pursuit of open contracts, with the sole exception of critical company interests. Payment is made to the company itself, with rewards being parceled to those who took part in the fulfillment of the contract. Bonuses will be available to members that bring in contracts and also to those who meet a period goal. What to expect when dealing with us: We will offer most of the contracts brought to us to all of the members of the company, those most suitable to the task may choose to accept the contract. We will decline any contract that our members do not willingly accept. We will not field against our allies or each other. Due diligence will be done to ensure this in our approval process; however, if events conspire to have us facing our own or our allies, we will do one of two things: 1) if it is temporary, we will wait until there is no longer a conflict and fulfill the contract, 2) if long term, we will simply pretend the protected individuals do not exist. In the event of a long term conflict, we will not attack protected parties, assist them or otherwise interfere with them in any way. If we are able to we will work around them, but will err on the side of caution. Our place in the world: We have made arrangements to ensure that we will have a settlement from which to operate, the location of that settlement is as yet undetermined. Companies that share our settlement are automatically considered allies. In the unlikely event that another mercenary company allies with us, they will be exempt from the restriction of taking field against an ally, in the role of mercenaries only. We will have our own pursuits and goals as the world unfolds around us, but will gladly facilitate the aims of others in order to bring us another step closer to mastery of our trade. To apply: Please feel free to respond below, or send me a private message, expressing your interest in joining our company.
This may all have been answered while I was absent. Let's take a gang of rather merry but vicious bandits led by our dear friend Bluddwolf, cheerfully robbing the hell out of people in their travels. If BW issues a SAD to a merchant, does he go chaotic for killing them?
How far does a settlement's law reach? Claimed hexes with POI?
If I have a LN settlement, can BW wait just outside of my settlement hex to catch travelers?
What alignment shift would BW face for killing someone, in which scenarios?
Is killing someone an inherently chaotic evil act?
If I have a contract with BW's less trustworthy cohorts and they break it, what kinds of penalty are they going to suffer? If I'm good and go into an evil city, what risks am I taking and what impact is it going to have on those that act on it?
Has there been much in the way of details released about how combat is going to work? Are we going to see the traditional targeting and possible sub-targeting along with stand there and do your action, move and do another action, rinse and repeat until fight is over? Something more along the lines of Tera? Dare I hope for something as amazing as Dark Souls' combat system? Seriously, it might be the most nuanced hack and slash combat system I've ever seen. We talked a little about how this might work in another thread about handling passive griefers, and how combat might look. It would be really nice to know what the current vision resembles to some degree.
The idea that came to mind as part of discussions on deific favor is that possibly the ultimate favor one would find with their deity is to become their Champion. This would necessitate a great deal of time and effort, would probably need to be a term limited job (either by length of time, or perhaps even through challenge by .. well, whatever it is the deity values). It would provide an excellent focal point generally outside of the Alignment conflict for players to strive towards. The advantages of such a position could be more than simply "x% stronger" .. but be tailored to the principles of that deity. Combat, trade, crafting, magic are all domains of various deities, and important domains to various players. Actions associated with a deity's domains could be a means of gaining favor, longer quests, tasks or trials could also be another means. Ideally each deity would have its own path to gaining, overthrowing and losing the title of Champion. Being a Champion could also tie in with the Reputation of a settlement/kingdom hosting the Champion. Most importantly, it's another means for meaningful player interaction while providing a very handsome reward. Anyways, I really don't have a solid concept to present here, just an idea that I thought could really be run with. What do you think?
Per Nihimon's request.
@GrumpyMel Switch/Case statements are still around and kicking ;) My thoughts for a Casus Belli fall more in line with your second suggestion, a much higher concept than whether a settlement is at odds with your Alignment, but a valid reason either way for declaring war. The game would need to track events and statistics for things like who has been fighting around resource nodes, or current density of Criminals, or even a settlements laws in regards to the WarDec's owner.. if they are completely excluded from being a lawful citizen or visitor under that settlement's laws. Where things get interesting is what you mentioned about who has been taking out which contracts and such. It would be a matter of course to have the data for open and completed contracts a player has taken part in recorded, perhaps this could also be attached to a character's in-game statistics. A book keeping, little black book in a safe sort of thing. How this would be accessible by other players would need to be dug into, my initial thoughts lean towards thievery/infiltration sort of skills. How and where to acquire them? Not so sure. It seems a bit too easy to just be able to go rob someone because they're standing around, but maybe that's the answer. Now, not everyone is willing to leave behind a record of their dealings. Destroying individual records should be allowed, and it should be a Chaotic action being that is interfering with a system of order. So in addition to the records of contracts you've dealt with, you should have an additional section (separate from your own dealing) to contain the dealings of others. Any dealings, yours or others', should be something you can transmit in person to another player. A carbon copy of a contract if you will. This in turn can be attached to a CB during WarDec. Note on destroying records, it should not be a Chaotic action to destroy carbon copies, or at least not as chaotic. Something similar to this can be done where settlement laws are concerned. Once a settlement's laws are discovered, these need to be posted somewhere by the way, this could be trackable in a sort of journal (which would be very helpful in avoiding unfortunate deaths from lack of regional awareness) and perhaps automatically update or update upon entering that hex any changes to a settlement's laws. This could also be attached to a CB. I'll take a breath and let some constructive criticism occur over what has already been presented in these three posts worth of information. ;)
Has this been answered? Or even asked? Most games these days allow only for a very minimal amount of player interference on non-hostile NPCs. I find this very limiting. A good example comes from my days in EQ, there was a quest that involved a rather large amount of walking, and stopping, and talking, etc.. and the NPC was not terribly fast, what with his short stubby little legs and all. (Coldain 8th ring quest for the curious.) It was possible through the mix of magics to charm said dwarf, making him a pet temporarily, which allowed the grouped druid to cast a movement speed enhancement on him, and then to break charm and memory wipe the dwarf so he didn't remember aggro from the charm. From this point forward the quest proceeded at a MUCH faster rate. Will this kind of manipulation be possible? I would also like to know if this extends to monsters. It was possible (yes, this was griefing, albeit a highly entertaining form of it) to charm a low level bat for instance, load it up with all sorts of buffs (strength, movement speed, hit points, damage shield) and mem wipe it, effectively setting it loose in a newbie area (usually we gave it some treasure to drop if a kill was successful, usually after the buffs wore off) and watch panic ensue, and usually groups form to take down this new menace. Will this also be possible? Will it carry with it a Criminal flag for assisting in the death of a PC? I know that not having the ability to affect members (npc or otherwise) of my own alliance in ways of my own choosing has chafed greatly on occasion in the years spent playing WoW and clones.
In the course of catching up on my reading here, and developing a mental map of how I believe events will play out over time, I came to the conclusion (and found that at least one other seems to share my concerns) that in the line of work we follow, two things are likely to become obvious. This is by no means a complete list, just the obvious points that stood out to me.
Here is what I am proposing: We either form a loose alliance among companies, nothing that would stop us from conducting business on mutual or opposing interests, but rather one that puts emphasis on not working to eliminate each others' home settlements. It would be naive to believe that we are not going to jocky amongst ourselves for influence and prestige in our chosen spheres, but neither does that mean we should pursue the deterioration of our business rivals to extinction or otherwise collapse of home settlement. We should also work at standing together against those who seek to take down any of our number. It will be far more apparent to any who believe us to be individual and easily singled out weaker targets that, we as mercenary companies, are not to be trifled with when a much larger force than they expected arrives to put down such an attack on our mutual peace of mind. To an even further extent, we could take things as far as retaliating on the offending company / settlement / kingdom as the need arises. I do not particularly support the notion of wiping out another group's home, but neither do I particularly care to have mine threatened. Or we can take things a step further and set up our own kingdom or series of kingdoms to blanket the gamut of alignments. The control structure is in place to keep this type of arrangement from being a hinderance to any of us. This I believe would need to be a step taken down the road, if at all. It certainly offers a more cohesive appearance and I believe more substantial benefits, but at a cost of freedom that we may very well not be willing to accept. I do not propose these options merely to encourage poor choices among our numbers with an inflated sense of security against the repercussions of our actions, but as a means for us to keep an eye out for the preservation of our way of life. It would not do to see an overconfident or ambitious kingdom being to wipe us out one by one, nor to be forced into alliances or kingdoms we do not wish to be a part of. If we feel that one of our numbers has become a liability through their own actions, then we are free to take a vote and cut them loose as needed. We would primarily be offering each other a sense of security that we are not going to be picked off without any assistance, and that we are not going to aid in the destruction of each others' livelihoods. Thoughts?
Name: Go Rin No Sho
Who we are: We are those who seek to excel to the greatest extent possible at whatever path we choose. We focus on refining our skills constantly, to push the envelope of what is possible in our chosen field. We seek mastery of these pursuits both for the betterment of our company and for the sake of mastery itself. In addition to placing a high value on skill, we place an equally high value on trust. It is important for us to be able to trust each other implicitly, and for others to take us at our word, particularly in our line of work. What we do: As a mercenary company, it is a given that we accept contracts. We feel that with our breadth of skill sets we are able to fulfill a wider range of needs than our brothers and sisters in arms. We wish to be viewed not only as swords-for-hire, but as specialists that will bring a wealth of knowledge to bear upon the tasks you approach us with. As a company, we do not generally enforce restrictions against certain lines of work, that is up to the units or individuals that the task falls upon to accept or reject on a case by case basis. The only restriction we always hold, is that once a contract is accepted, we will pursue the fulfillment of said contract with vigor. How we do it: In practice we operate in smaller units for most things. We believe in mobility and efficiency, as such we encourage our members to work closely with members whom they feel they are most effective with. We give highest priority to the pursuit of open contracts, with the sole exception of critical company interests. Payment is made to the company itself, with rewards being parceled to those who took part in the fulfillment of the contract. Bonuses will be available to members that bring in contracts and also to those who meet a period goal. What to expect when dealing with us: We will offer the units or individuals we feel most suitable to a task the decision on whether to accept a contract brought to us. As we contract on a per unit/individual basis it is entirely possible that we will face our own forces on the field at some point, with the exception of any alliances we have in place. We will not field against our allies. We do not feel that this is a conflict of interest as units are available first come/first serve, and in the pursuit of excellence we will regularly pit our skills against each other. If anything these forces will have the best advantage possible against each other in being familiar with their opponents beforehand and expected to execute their tasks to the fullest of their abilities. Our place in the world: We will work towards quickly establishing a base of operations in the form of our own settlement. We will ultimately be in control of this settlement, but will sponsor other companies as suits our interests. Companies that share our settlement are automatically considered allies, with the understanding that our rewards and rules extend to them as well. In the unlikely event that another mercenary company allies with us, they will be exempt from the restriction of taking field against an ally, in the role of mercenaries only. We will have our own pursuits and goals as the world unfolds around us, but will gladly facilitate the aims of others in order to bring us another step closer to mastery. To apply: Please feel free to express interest below for the time being, I am working on setting up a community site for us to use going forward. |
