Citizenship Perks

Nim

I just had an idea which I don't know is good or terrible, but before reading this, the idea is for minor perks rather than anything else - not to give people a reason to join one city over the other, but to just translate flavor in game mechanics. I'm a huge fan of game mechanics and flavor being connected. Ideally, these would be no better than a minor trait, perhaps a bit weaker. I think it would be acceptable to have disadvantages attached to balance them a bit, although I haven't included any in this post.

Basically, the idea is that after being a citizen of a city for so long, you could get a minor perk related to that city. I could see a point in non-citizens having some perk as well, if something could be dreamt up for them. Perhaps after five years of non-citizenship, you would lose your old perk, and after five years of citizenship, you would gain a new one (meaning if you change cities every four years, you would never have such a perk).

For Cyrene, the advantage would probably be extremely minor cold resistance, or, if weather ever becomes relevant, perhaps improved resilience to cold weather. I'm iffy about any city gaining a combat advantage, but I think it would be ironic to give it to Cyrene, since they're likely to get the least use out of it. Being able to see better in blizzards could also be something, but it'd have to be minor, rather than outright making those artefact glasses redundant.

For Mhaldor, I think some sort of reduction in EXP loss from death would be cool, given how death, murder, and suffering have a strong place in their culture. I think EXP loss in cities has been turned on, so maybe they could have an exception to that - when a Mhaldorian kills another Mhaldorian, there could be no EXP loss or gain, or something, letting them be as gruesome to one another as they want without OOC concern. Of course, that might also reduce the impact of such executions.

I can't currently dream anything up for other cities. Ashtan and Hashan are exceptionally difficult, given their open-ended nature. Perhaps someone who knows more about Achaean lore can think up some geographical advantages related to where they live.

Eleusis could have some minor advantage related to concoctions, but that seems a bit obvious and combat advantage-y. Perhaps they could just have the ability to swing up into trees before learning the appropriate ability, and be a touch faster at it once they do?

Jonathin

why does everything need perks these days? Back in the day, you joined a city/house simply so that you could gain rank and lord it over the rabblemake the decisions.

Kayeil

The cities already have these:

Scimitar of Yen-Sorte

  - A giant statue of the legendary Aldar weaponmaster's scimitar. Grants approximately a 7% bonus to all types of damage dealt by citizens against players, but not against denizens. A city may only have one of these.

  - Cost: 3 million gold, 5000 wood, 4000 steel, 5000 iron, 5000 obsidian.

Pillar of the Moon

  - A graceful pillar that will grant a 10% bonus to the max mana of all citizens. A city may have only one of these.

  - Cost: 1.8 million gold, 1000 platinum, 2000 silver, 300 gems.

Plus they can try to earn the Effigy in world games. Being in a city also comes with such perks as city credit sales, and various other things that cityless have little to no access to since they're basically on their own.

Nim

@Kayeil: Those are economic advantages rather than cultural advantages, and they do little to distinguish cities culturally or geographically. Furthermore, there's a very strong PvP implication. The scimitar directly and specifically only benefits PvP, while the effigy is a direct result of having a powerful military (or being willing to ally with other cities in spite of the general consensus that cities should not do that).

The max mana thing is very strange to think about in roleplaying terms. It's an artifact of sorts that increases every citizens' mental capacity just by existing. I suppose it makes complete sense to employ something like that if it's proven its ability to do so, but it's hard to use that as a roleplaying mechanic.

Credits are a weird thing to consider in IC terms, even though city credit sales ultimately are an IC mechanic, so I don't know what to make of that, but it's still definitely more of an economic advantage than anything else - and, given how cities gain credits to begin with, a very borderline OOC one at that.

Sylvance

I see the OP as being less about 'perks' (yes, despite it's title) than an extra layer of character customization. I like it in principle.

Nim

Yeah - careless naming on my part. City traits or something might be better.

Disadvantages (eg Cyrenians are good in terrible weather but bad in hot weather) might be cool too.

Iocun

I like the idea and I wouldn't even mind the differences being substantial. I actually think there's too strong a trend to equalize all cities currently, out of an excessive desire for "fairness". But fairness and balance are boring and can only be gained by making everything the same, just named differently.

Achaea should dare more to keep some classes/factions/houses/characters OP in some aspects.

I definitely like the idea of city-specific disadvabtages as well. Those often tend to particularly fun.

Siduri

While Kayeil is right, that citizens do have perks, I think the flavour that could come from Nim's suggestion has potential to be interesting, while remaining minor.

We just have to find a perk for targs that revolves around being set on fire.

Mathonwy

Iocun said:

I like the idea and I wouldn't even mind the differences being substantial. I actually think there's too strong a trend to equalize all cities currently, out of an excessive desire for "fairness". But fairness and balance are boring and can only be gained by making everything the same, just named differently.

Achaea should dare more to keep some classes/factions/houses/characters OP in some aspects.

I definitely like the idea of city-specific disadvabtages as well. Those often tend to particularly fun.

OP only works if there's either a strong disincentive to avoid min-maxing (and/or if min-maxing isn't that impactful) and other ways of gaming the system or a principled enough playerbase, and I somehow doubt that would ever be the case in Achaea.

Daklore

Cyrene's city trait should obviously have something to do with cupcakes. And throwing piles of paperwork at people ... oh, wait, that would be an ability, wouldn't it? It would like, hinder you for a minute and a half and inflict confusion, justice and uh... recklessness. And you couldn't cure them. And then you'd be able to pull off this super-awesome-instakill that makes them sho-oh, wait, that's enlightenment... never mind.

I'm going for humour here. I have seen MUDs were cities did have minor perks associated to them, such as +15% damage while wielding a two handed weapon, increased damage at night(decreased damage during the day), better fighting ability in forests, etc etc etc.

Either way, I don't really care. Because, obviously, Ashtan will get the ridiculously OP one that everyone complains about anyway. And Cyrene will get the cupcake one.

Jules

Cyrene should get the ability to "pack iceball", as well as the exclusive secret to making Karbaz's burnt custard.  

Wei

There was talk on another thread about an entire skill for each city (or possibly house), which I think is a cool idea.

Sylvance

I hope this isn't a derail, but how about making the perk specific to the City (or House!) Patron? This would mean that changing Patron had a tangible effect and would nix the problem of min-max/unfairness because it would only be a semi-permanent perk.

Blujixapug

I like this in theory. But stuff like damage resistance or stat bonuses seems too gamey. If you decide to create a whole system for city-based stat bonuses, I think it risks the opposite outcome, where all the benefits become less special because every other city has perks that mirror yours.

The other problem with passive benefits is that they're instantly taken for granted. City improvements suffer this failing. When was the last time you even realised you were gaining 7% PK damage from your city's Scimitar? If you didn't have to actively switch between primary and spheric Icon powers, the same would happen there, too. They just fade into the background. Give Cyrenians 10% cold damage reduction and it would instantly be forgotten.

Things like city mounts, city equipment, faction classes, and faction class buffs (Harmony, Bliss) do fill this role to varying degrees.

Something I would likee to see is city-specific commodities used in tradeskill designs. For example only Eleusis able to use leaves in Tailoring designs, only Hashan able to use moonsilver in Jewelery designs, only Cyrene able to use sea lion in Cooking recipes. Imagine the local cuisine and regional fashions that could arise.

Ernam

What he said.           ^

Florentino

Every time Blupikachu posts I lament the fact that he isn't a Garden volunteer. Sigh.

Silas

Cities already have massive perks. They don't need more. I can't think of a single established rogue nowadays besides Santar (is Bonko remarried yet?), and he's been doing it for years.

ETA: Blujixapug is basically a genius. Sarapis and Tecton should keep him on retainer for whenever they need a brilliant but slightly flawed and ill-considered idea for an event/class/whatever.

Nim

Blujixapug said:

Things like city mounts, city equipment,

While this is cool, people will generally use whatever mount or equipment they want to anyway, and city-specific mounts/equipment are often fairly outnumbered by neutral stuff. I do heavily agree, though, that having city culture show up more in player designs would be great. It's probably one of my favorite things about Mhaldor, but I just don't see any other cities doing it all that much.

faction classes, and faction class buffs (Harmony, Bliss) do fill this role to varying degrees.

I agree. Cyrene's faction classes are really amazing and flavorful and I can't wait until multiclass comes out so I can swap to them... although Hashan's faction classes kind of make me want to start an alt there, since Nim isn't very Hashan-like. Surprised Shallam just didn't stop with all that silly devotion nonsense and collectively go Cyrene instead of making Targossas, but I guess high fantasy needs some Good to match Evil and whatnot.

(we have faction classes right? i'm not crazy... right? T_T )

Also, that being said, I honestly wanted less number-y, more unique advantages, like being able to see in blizzards or being able to kill your city-mates without EXP loss (though I still don't know if Mhaldorians would want that), rather than having +0.5 con because Cyrenians are tough versus +1/3 str and int because Ashtani will wreck you.

Jhaeli

@Nim Cyrene and Hashan do not have faction classes. You could go Shaman or Alchemist anytime you wanted without leaving, heh! Also, Cyrene is easily one of worst/best for city-specific designs, though this may have died off a bit since the last time I was active. The One-Stop is usually a haven for Cyrenian designs.

Like Blujixapug, I like the idea in theory, but don't think we need more "gamey" perks. Finding ways to enhance the inherent cultures within the city (like unique materials for crafting) would be awesome though. 

Shirszae

I think the idea of faction-specific items for crafting and the like has a lot of promise. However ,that would put a lot more strain to it, and probably much more delays between approvals and such

Iocun

Jhaeli said:

@Nim Cyrene and Hashan do not have faction classes. You could go Shaman or Alchemist anytime you wanted without leaving, heh! Also, Cyrene is easily one of worst/best for city-specific designs, though this may have died off a bit since the last time I was active. The One-Stop is usually a haven for Cyrenian designs.

For a long time, there was much too great a focus on boring stereotypes (blue/snow/ice/blu) for my taste, but it's gotten better.

Daklore

Obviously, Cyrene's factional class should be the Blue Mage.


I'll be off now.

Silas

Cyrene just strikes me as imperial; I associate snow and ice with Caer Witrin and the Tundra.

Nellaundra

If Cyrene gets Blue Mages I'm coming back there fast enough to leave fucking skid marks.

Synbios

I'm up with city-only crafting materials and/or designs. Should release that along with the crafting skill rework and multiclass.

Sena

Nellaundra said:

If Cyrene gets Blue Mages I'm coming back there fast enough to leave fucking skid marks.

Bards have something like blue magic, in Imperian.

Iocun

If Cyrene gets blue anything, I quit.

Tharvis

how about a red mage @Iocun?

Iocun

No complaints there.

Kerria

I've always said that Cyrene should be given some advantage over everyone else in a blizzard... I mean they live in the snow.

Daklore

We do have an advantage. ... Well, we did before mudlet mapper. In that raiders/trespassers couldn't find their way around the city while Cyrene's defenders just ran around like it was nothing and stuck them with sharp-pointy-objects.

Topographical(is that the right word?) knowledge is an advantage... right? :P