The mail statics - keep or replace?

[Ithildur]

Nudging folks towards not solo scattering as much sounds like a good idea. It's generally counterproductive to encourage solo scatter style of play in ALFA for a myriad of reasons; hells, we designed the ruleset clearly to say 'you probably should play with a group'.

Ronan's idea isn't taking candy away, it's replacing candy with better stuff that encourages grouping up. Seems like a step in the right direction.

[Dorn]

I like your suggestion ROnan. And if people clamor for them to be kept in:

Keep them but (simple changes to allow more time for live DMing instead of technical stuff):
- make the quest giver refuse to give them to those over level 3, or
- remove all exp for those above level 3

Keep them but (more difficult changes):
- put the quest reciever somewhere slightly dangerous "take this letter to the man who lives in the woods"
- put the quest recieve somewhere REALLY dangerous (relative to a level~2) and indicate you'll need a party
- still have the level 3 cap

Keep them with no change except:
- Dms note who's running lots of statics and ensure NPCs respond appropriately. They may ask the stranger in the tavern to do a quest than the 'mailboy'. Or the Cardinal could come to town and ask the priest why he's delivering mail instead of tending shrines, converting people etc.

I say the above as i'm a firm believer that given experience results in more skills/feats/spells...that majority experience should be gained in the use of those skills/feats/spells and moderated or increased depending on risk.

So a level 1 may learn a lot from walking roads, understand about caring for their gear, watching for signs of danger, understanding what is necessary for taking on hikes and what should be left at home. But a level 5-6 would not be 'learning' anything. Noting level 5-6 NPCs are experienced mercenaries, elite guards of minor nobles etc

Simiarly, you may learn a lot about sword fighting for he first few levels by practicing , but only battle where you may actually die should you make major exp gain. Low risk, low reward.

I note Foam indicates folk only log in to BG solo becasue there are riskless ways to get levels and gold on BG, but not on TSM...(unless you are roleplaying a mailman in which case you are indeed remaining IC and in accrodance with Pillar 6 of ALFA). With all respect and friendliness (just a discussion), I dont know if we WANT to have servers that encourage people to be on at all costs (the cost of IC behaviour).

I guess until someone can help Ronan by writing RP sensible and social/RP skill/feat testing statics for wizards to use cantrips to entertain kids, priests to tend a 'flock', bards to carry a proclamation to to the noble court, rogues to help a lady locked out of her car etc...i'd prefer to see less riskless fedex statics.

Make level 1-3 a challenge. It's fun. The reward? level 4.

[kid]

Dim-ret is good, also no dim ret and simply no more XP after lvX (3-4 is good) is good. wont harm fastish leveling at low levels.
Making people do adventury stuff instead of just walking is also good.

Statics that would take time doing not only becuase of the long time it takes to walk them but becuase they might actualy be hard would be nice.
Also if its repeatble statics in the form of find the ranger in the CW and diliver him new orders... then the ranger should not be found in the same place in CW each time, forcing people to search out through the wood each time anew. (tho that might not be the best example of solo static)

[Xanthea]

People of all levels need something to be doing that gives them xp and gives them a reason to be logging in. If you can replace these statics with something similar to what there is now only with a better design that encourages people to meet up more then sure.

If this is just another "Grr people are getting too much xp grr" then no.

[Galadorn]

Dam.

What about the high levels, who need more XP to level than level 1-3, whose only XP really IS RPXP or.... statics like this when especially lately, no one is around to do anything with??

[Ithildur]

Dam.

What about the high levels, who need more XP to level than level 1-3, whose only XP really IS RPXP or.... statics like this when especially lately, no one is around to do anything with??

Bu's not even on BG anymore you! Bring him back and Aglaril will give you something to do ... like forcing him to earn some xp by tackling adventuar together!

[loulabelle]

Why do discussions in Alfa always come down to xp? Ronan's original concern was that the post delivery statics cause players to be spread out. It's not as though the xp rewards are huge anyway... 75 max... a level 1 doing nothing but mail to Nashkel would have to walk it 14 times to level! Okay with rpxp, a bit less, let's call it 10 times.

For getting people together, maybe if the available routes at a given time were consolidated by region eg, Nashkel, Gullykin, Beregost available at the same time- anyone who takes a post quest will automatically be walking in the same direction.

Is there a way the postmaster could tell a pc that another pc on the server has taken the postbag already? And make the quests available one at a time? Then you know where the pc has gone!

Maybe increase the cool down period in between taking mail quests whether the same one or different ones? (Don't know how this works, have never exhausted all the routes before they reset).

Other ideas for getting people together, I never see the harm in asking other players. Likewise sending an unsolicited tell to someone logging on if everyone else is somewhere specific and findable.

Is there a way the wandering npcs can say things to people that they just saw "a half orc" or something like that go into a specific tavern? I know that's bordering on meta so maybe not such a good idea. I'm just brainstorming!

[Ithildur]

Why do discussions in Alfa always come down to xp?

You made my day Lou

[Brokenbone]

All the rewards are "reasonable" except Nashkel to be honest. Kind of too good to be true. I think second highest is 35, maybe 30, I think it's Candlekeep, which does have trail spawns and occasional trail death (including a 7 or 8ish this week). I think the methods so far to kind of "contain" rewards have been slow resets for routes. Reward thinking though isn't exactly what seems to be on the mind right now, it's more congregation-thinking. What would make hubs more hub-like?

Do there need to be XP-spitting combat dummy versions (with lowbie only cutoffs, like in WHL) at say, the Tempus Temple? "Job-like" statics where maybe you're spending time as a smith's assistant honing Craft Weapon or Craft Armor skills for some minimal pay / xp? Or flipside of the law, using some thiefly training trials to hone nefarious skills? Sembia had a couple of play areas for thieves, tests of silence, balance, battle, series of progressively harder locked doors, jumping challenges, corridor of traps, etc.

In minor discussion with Ronan, there are possibly some cool ideas to think about, but in cases they're also exclusionary by like, "how well authorities would look on them", where it might take many hours to build something, but just one of the wrong kind of PC saying "oh, there is a big nest of thieves (whose statics I am ineligible for), I am going to tell the watch, and offer to kill all the local criminal underworld." Then oh well, out goes the content.

[dirsa]

how about replacing mail deliveries with say supply deliveries to some dangerous area? here, this is a letter to the crazy chap who lives in wood of sharp teeth... now go gather up five folks and go deliver...

[Brokenbone]

I sort of think a garrison that SE pays for in a dangerous spot, could be a supply destination. Whether for merchants who need to go there, or the Fist themselves. But again, that's a "takes people away from hubs", although it may also mean "yes it takes them away, but it takes them away in a group if they're smart." Same would go for a Sharp Teeth idea or other danger spot, yes it takes you from a hub, but bet you're going with a group.

That "bet" may be off though if talking high levels who can go anyplace with impunity, or excellent stealthers.

[Blindhamsterman]

Dim-ret is good, also no dim ret and simply no more XP after lvX (3-4 is good) is good. wont harm fastish leveling at low levels.
Making people do adventury stuff instead of just walking is also good.

Statics that would take time doing not only becuase of the long time it takes to walk them but becuase they might actualy be hard would be nice.
Also if its repeatble statics in the form of find the ranger in the CW and diliver him new orders... then the ranger should not be found in the same place in CW each time, forcing people to search out through the wood each time anew. (tho that might not be the best example of solo static)

I agree with kid <3

[t-ice]

how about replacing mail deliveries with say supply deliveries to some dangerous area? here, this is a letter to the crazy chap who lives in wood of sharp teeth... now go gather up five folks and go deliver...

This, too. Only that such should be available in addition to single-player statics (which mail, in all honesty, is). The "needs a group" should not be implemented by IC danger, though some danger should be along the way, but the quest-giver simply refuses to give the quest to a party of 1. And the same party must complete the quest in a fixed time (like, 24 RL hours). You can't do the "needs a group" by danger alone, because a lvl8 can easily do alone what 4 level 1s couldn't hope to. These group jobs (deliveries, patrols, whatever IC hook is invented) should give clearly more rewards than the loner mail jobs, too.

[Galadorn]

Dam.

What about the high levels, who need more XP to level than level 1-3, whose only XP really IS RPXP or.... statics like this when especially lately, no one is around to do anything with??

Bu's not even on BG anymore you! Bring him back and Aglaril will give you something to do ... like forcing him to earn some xp by tackling adventuar together!

Earn? Please.

And Bu is a WORLD PC...no mere single server PC *tsk tsk*... he is gladly shared with all the little girls and boys all over the known Realm. He could never punish those upon any server without his presence laddie.



((and he's back on BG again now --- OH THE META!! see? tsk, tsk, now everyone will flock to BG again to see him...sorry))

[gonz.0]

I like the mail statics and think they should be kept.

As a low level character they provide some safe content that can be enjoyed or at a minimal used to pass the time when logged into BG awaiting the arrival of more players to play with.

As for characters running mail instead of RPing or adventuring, or being DMed....they are doing that for a reason...maybe they think mail running is more fun then the current players logged in are? maybe they only have a short bit of time to play and do not want to get truly engaged? Regardless though of their reason, I do not think the Mail should be deleted because it is good content for low levels to enjoy. If anything maybe put a level cap on it?

As for making a few areas more level 1 friendly....that I am all for.

+1 It is possible to make mail running part of, instead of a hindrance to it. But it takes effort to rp it, and I remember taking mail runs together as a reason for many hours of RP in my time on BG.

I would like to suggest if I may.. a new type of static that inspires grouping but is still relatively safe. Caravan guarding. Make a series of caravan runs that are doable from the Merchant League, that require a group of 3 or more to accept the quest. Then guard it from beginning to end of the run for the reward, with penalties for bagging out in the middle such as being suspended or black listed by the mercenary organization.