Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 6.2K All Categories
- 3.1K Everything Achaea
- 1.5K North of Thera
- 26 Archives of the Terraformer
- 257 The Matsuhama Arena
- 885 The Golden Dais of Creation
- 299 The Scarlattan Theatre
- 149 The Blank Canvas
- 2K Getting Help
- 412 General Questions
- 258 Quick Class Questions
- 1.3K Tech Support
- 313 Client Help
- 486 Curing Systems and Scripts
- 841 Off-Topic
- 255 The Wander Inn
- 586 The Universal Membrane
- 298 Class Discussions
- 298 Individual Class Sections
- 20 Alchemist
- 9 Apostate
- 30 Blademaster
- 9 Depthswalker
- 14 Druid
- 4 Infernal
- 20 Jester
- 19 Magi
- 34 Monk
- 11 Occultist
- 8 Paladin
- 7 Priest
- 29 Runewarden
- 18 Sentinel
- 26 Serpent
- 20 Shaman
- 9 Sylvan
Retirement Home Players
I've noticed quite a few players who were very active in PvP back in the day, who now login and seem to do absolutely nothing at all. These were the players who used to fight so much that some were even referred to as "griefers". They were extraordinarily good at fighting. Now, they seem to be mere shadows of what they used to be.
The point of this discussion is - why would players, who used to enjoy combat enough to drive their opposition batty, get to the point that they just login and sit in one spot without even using Achaea as a chat room, at the least? It kinda makes me sad to see them listed on CW, QW, etc and hear nothing out of them at all, not a peep. It makes me miss their antics, to be honest.
Do they get bored with the mechanics? I couldn't imagine getting bored with combat. Frustrated, and pissed off? Hell yes. But completely lose interest? That doesn't make much sense to me. Not when we're talking about those who are artied to the teeth, and used to plow down everyone in their way.
The point of this discussion is - why would players, who used to enjoy combat enough to drive their opposition batty, get to the point that they just login and sit in one spot without even using Achaea as a chat room, at the least? It kinda makes me sad to see them listed on CW, QW, etc and hear nothing out of them at all, not a peep. It makes me miss their antics, to be honest.
Do they get bored with the mechanics? I couldn't imagine getting bored with combat. Frustrated, and pissed off? Hell yes. But completely lose interest? That doesn't make much sense to me. Not when we're talking about those who are artied to the teeth, and used to plow down everyone in their way.
Give us -real- shop logs! Not another misinterpretation of features we ask for, turned into something that either doesn't help at all, or doesn't remotely resemble what we wanted to begin with.
Thanks!
Current position of some of the playerbase, instead of expressing a desire to fix problems:
Vhaynna: "Honest question - if you don't like Achaea or the current admin, why do you even bother playing?"
2
Comments
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
One thing I always think of about old comatants who were good coming back, is that there was an awful lot of broken stuff back in the day, and it was easy to abuse, and that curing was often very sub-par on a general level, so those willing to fight could win with really stupid stuff that people just straight up didn't know how to cure.
Although back in those days, spamming curare until the opponent ran out of bloodroot was a legitimate strategy.
- With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
- (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
- Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
- Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."
Also yeah, the whole growing up thing.
That love soon might end You are unbreaking
And be known in its aching Though quaking
Shown in this shaking Though crazy
Lately of my wasteland, baby That's just wasteland, baby
Also, growing up a bit meant that I didn't have the time to devote to learning how to cope with the ever-increasing pace of combat, so I just stick/stuck with big group combat.
It gives me the overall feel is that the game has gone more towards the people who just want a chat room, or log in just log enough to get a spin/their daily lessons, and an even smaller core group of combatants than before are around. Which is weird that people bitch about RP but then they don't use the built in faction conflict to do anything but make public posts (I blame the Divine for this as well - seriously, just get on CT and say "why are you all standing around and not training to <do your damn job>"). Before, I could ask, say... Cooper for a duel, but there is no reason for him to go easy (or 3/4 speed) now so I can get my feet wet so to speak - especially from a RP standpoint (I guess this could be why there aren't as many combatants too. A little bit of 'self-preservation of the pecking order'. No one in the cities like to teach on any sort of grand level, so when someone does try, they get steamrolled). I know the kill paths, and the theory, but there is NOTHING that compares to the practical application to learn the why and hows and point out flaws in curing.
I mean, I would love to say "Hey Farrah, I hear you're good. Mind walking me through some things?" but there isn't really any reason for *anyone* to say YES, other than actually diversifying the combat pool, which potentially upsets their status in said pool. And they don't like to spar necessarily because that is not as "+1" as a formal duel. At least a few years ago there was more of a community feel among combatants. I could say to @Ainly, or Proficy, @Jhui, or Rameus (ok, maybe notsomuch Rameus) - "hey man, how's this work for x class?" or "why did that just happen?" because we had fought enough to get to the point we would talk. That happened with a LOT of IG enemies and it made the combat that much better on both sides. I don't see a lot of that now, which probably has more to do with a couple semi-kept secrets to defeat the pervasiveness of cookie cutter curing like SVOF and WunderSys, which admittedly always existed but on a much smaller level before (I understand the point of it, I just don't like it). Could just be me. Could just be that I hate IG politics, and don't fight enough to get back into the "fighter community" or whatever.
I will say thanks to @Proficy for a simple "Nice!" when I made one attempt at defending myself in Moghedu. Made me feel like at least it was something he hadn't seen much of and made me think this old dog still has some hunt left. Had I known about melodar at that point, I would have killed him. The ensuing runes all over Moghedu showed me that my writhing was boned and I fixed it.
You know what, whatever. That's a lot of fucking excuses. Time to get back to work, and then go home and use the 1 or 2 spare hours I have to learn to digitally transmit kill orders.
That said though, you should be able to ask most any of the big names for pointers. I've never said no to anyone who's asked, I doubt Farrah would either. Dunn if you can catch him is solid for it too.
As far as the popular systems go, you can't install them and run out of the box to 1v1 and expect to win. There is likely always something you're going to need to fix priorities wise, regardless of which system or how long you've had it.
Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
Basically, I hate the fact that prep classes are even a thing that exists, much less a thing that's so widespread. I hate the fact that momentum classes are balanced around this idea that their enemy will just do a slow prep route to avoid the kill. I hate the fact that most 1v1 fights I see are seemingly balanced around the idea that somebody is gonna do the hit/hit/leave dance, and I hate the fact that this shit makes fights take forever.
I'd much rather just do small group fights. Skill still matters there, but the ability to focus multiple offenses on somebody means that the fight doesn't turn into a chase scene.
In Targ, there is -tons- of support for Targ up-and-comers. We want more fighters. We want good fighters. I think people would agree with me here. I can't speak as to what's present within the other cities.
Even outside Targ though, I can say that I personally have no interest in preserving some kind of "status" by excluding others. I play for entertainment, which is only present when there's competition. So I have a strong interest in even IG enemies learning to fight on an OOC level. That being said, I do have time limitations, so I can't really spend enormous amounts of time OOCly helping people outside Targ with combat.
I would strongly recommend trying to break things down though. Find test targets in your own city who cure well but just stand there and practice killing them until offense is second nature. Then go fight and you'll feel much more comfortable in the fight.
I know you can't run the systems out of the box, which is why I said prios get passed around. It essentially removes an entire aspect of combat (ie, curing and defence) from the equation for people. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to trying to learn how to abuse the ever-loving shit out of them.
edit: @Nazihk - That's what I like about it. It gets "boring" and that's when people slip. It requires focus and in some cases endurance.
@Farrah - I usually try and catch Exelethril, and he's been a big help in just showing me the new knight stuff (seriously? WTF?!) and having people stand there is how I learned the kill paths (and some friends giving me a couple pointers here and there). My issue is, I don't "RP" much / well as I prefer combat, but I always feel weird cold-calling on someone to ask for help. I don't want to risk ruining THEIR RP. Especially when I have had very few interactions with them previously. I mean, I've known of/fought Dunn a fair bit before I was dormant, but it still feels weird saying "Hey Dunn, wanna make it so I can learn to kill you?" even if it is meant entirely on an OOC level, it is still being done IC (if that makes any sense)
ETE: Thanks though. I will ask you guys IG when I see you around. If there weren't so MANY changes, I'd be alright but it isn't like maul-prep works all that great now.
Next.
-we used to have runies. Period. Now we have DWB, SnB, DWC, 2H variations of them. All different mechanics. I want to get my head around them but they're so confusing. And they seem so common throughout the realms now too.
- curing changed. I used to have a good system. I ported IMTS (the one from imperian) and added my triggers to it. Having a system that cured you fast was good enough back in 2005. Now I have lost myself in my prio-handler script for svof more than I can count on both hands. Prio asthma over paralysis? Boom, @Kalila roflstomping me. 1v1 turned into two things: who has the best prios and who knows the most kill routes. A fine example is @Lylith locking me in under 15 seconds as an alchemist. That's just depressingly demotivating for anyone, but a comeback kid remembering the old days may toss the towel right then and there.
- thats just the first two big items that spring to mind, there's a lot of stuff (20 year old dragons, really?) that was changed over time.
I still like 1v1 though. I got a shitload of crap to learn, stuff I'll never gonna come up with myself. If it wasn't for some people I'd still be axewhoring and ambushing you all. But I like tinkering with systems, it's partly why achaea is such a great game for me to play. (Although I just haven't got the motivation @Caelan has to write up a system from scratch.)
I used to spend hours upon hours theorising ways to trick people's systems and messing around with illusions. I got most of my 1v1 kills with what many combatants consider cheap or cheese strategies. With serverside curing most of these aren't possible anymore, so I lost interest in 1v1.
I'm sorry
@Tecton @Makarios @Nicola @adminInGeneral Keep up the good work. Don't let our whiny bitching stop you (except, apparently, when it comes to the Wheel of Whining..then change the hell out of it NOW!)