TheHopscotchCapture Settings: Changes, Improvements and Thoughts
#1
In many aspects of Eternia we find conflict and battle to be the main aspect as to how problems are resolved.
You dislike someone? You smash their face in.
You want your political career to kick off? You knock off the old leader. Combat is an essential part of Eternia and is not going anywhere anytime soon; yet that does not mean combat can not be granted a sense of tension and fear like it has for so much of the early portion of Eternia and its history.

The existence of capture setting 0 has more or less removed a lot of tension which could have otherwise come from raw and wild interactions. Making the whole of Meranthe feel much safer than it really should - It's important to be reminded that Meranthe is now a continent with undead, demons and all manner of depraved activities.

Your interactions both on an inter-personal level and in the wilderness should reflect this going forwards.

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Over the course of the Battle-Log, we have had 11,000 capture 0 battles and a little over 8,000 capture 1+ rolls.
Imagine for a moment just how different things would have gone if capture zero had never existed. How many interactions would have changed and how many stories would/could have shifted due to many differing effects.

I understand that to some; capture 0 is seen as a tool to remove griming/awkward situations for those much weaker than their opponents. No one likes being collared and captured by a settlement while your fellow faction members have little to no sway over said interactions; Which is why I propose two new mechanics in addition to removing capture roll 0 from the game.

** Mana-Ridden Blood
Throughout a conflict a message can be spoken without words. Upon the scene of a capture - The blood of the one captured will be spilled with a brief description of the setting and what occurred in the battle (written by the victor.) This will allow those involved with the character; if they want to pursue another new ruling/mechanic setting added into the game.

** Impromptu Raids / Prison Breaks
These can be requested at anytime by the admin team, provided either side has at least THREE people online at a time. Taking place during the night at higher stakes (you're in a demon capital/Aen Port) and working to aid your fellow soldier/demon to escape. They'll act as 3v3 skirmishes between the captors and opposing cities who decide to hold onto their captors for whatever reason. Back in the era of spires we had something similar, you could throw up an ahelp [DECLARING RAID] and the atl would be storming jianghu's towers or dawn would be breaking down eidolons walls. Occurring all roughly in the same night as opposed to waiting a week+ for 20v20 manned raids. (Which are good and DO serve a purpose still!)

This would allow for scenes to flow more dynamically and for those involved with the captor (Say, your brother or wife.) to have a chance to act and create a much larger scene/conflict in the grand scheme of things.

In closing, capture setting 0 being removed would not only reflect the new severity which has settled across Meranthe; But all the same allow for much more dynamic roleplay and tension to build between factions and players alike. Making people think before simply striking a stronger opponent and being able to escape with little more than a temp that will be healed by your six medics in a matter of minutes.

Of course, I would also like to hear the communities opinions on the matter as well as the current gamestate/feel of it overall.
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#2
I think, while I get the desire to REMOVE Cap 0s, I believe it'll overall hamper the game.

People will naturally be more fearful of conflict, and thusly roaming and the fights we get now (holy shit there have been so many what the fuck people) will lessen severely and people will turtle in their respective settlements.

I think a good compromise would be that if you've fought someone before you can no longer rely on the, "I want a cap 0!" and should naturally progress the cap setting to its next setting unless the pair agree on something else.
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#3
i don't think removing cap 0s wholesale is it, but i do think if two characters have enough established ic with one another they should be able to request a cap 1 even in wilderness (if one person feels this is the case and there's disagreement, they can ticket and both sides can present their case for it to be ruled).

semi-related though, i think aggressive fights can be removed. they are entirely anti-climactic and i hate them.
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#4
As someone who thoroughly enjoyed spires, I'd like to inform those who didn't play during that period that "the fear" was an immense part of the game during that period and greatly helped immersion.

Long story short? People would be scared/worried if you left your settlement - rushing between settlement and being friends with everyone wasn't possible because it was very likely that someone would attack - and possibly kill - you along the way. You had to risk your self just to establish good relations.

Every single skirmish, mugging, etcetera, was a chance you could die. It created an immense amount of tension, and, as mentioned before, enhanced immersion. 

I think TheHopscotch has the right idea - this will make the game even more enjoyable than before.
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#5
I do think impromptu raids shouldn't be called over prisoners that are of high value; a settlement leader on their way to get executed in the coming week being saved because 3 people stayed up until 5am to rescue them is very abusable from my experience.

Playing detective with blood trails seems very cool and sounds like it would definitely bring more flavor to RP; someone could literally play a creature of the night, live in a cave and bait people into its lair by leaving hints as to where it lives with those messages.

Though I think if capture 0 is removed then the outlaw mechanics should be bumped up to 2 as a minimum to reflect the danger.
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#6
Removal of Cap 0

While I see your point. The point of a Cap 0 to me is building up the fight in a proper manner, going RIGHT into a fight where there's a risk of cap with no IC or little story seems a little silly. What about the people like myself who were still learning the combat of the game? Losing a character so quickly to those who may not know that a player is new could really harm the state of things. I understand the reasons behind the possible removal but it also just doesn't seem worth it.

It allows people to feel better about trying to learn the game, even NOW with new characters/builds. I try not to perm/cap anyone because it's a little silly with not enough weight behind it. A cap even if it is Cap 1 should have a bit of weight behind it.

Impromptu Raids / Prison Breaks

Go nuts know for a fact that this was done before. Regarding maybe 4 months ago? There were random raids almost weekly. They seemed to have died off which is okay - but I'd like to see a few more random raids. Not super high risk but it gives a good enough push to a story.

Wars should be the LAST thing we do, Raids should be more common. It also shouldn't be as complex as it is now. Throw a few people at one another and then go on home, if you win - you win. Do you lose? You lose. Simple as that.
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#7
(01-22-2023, 01:05 AM)TheHopscotch Wrote: In many aspects of Eternia we find conflict and battle to be the main aspect as to how problems are resolved.
You dislike someone? You smash their face in.
You want your political career to kick off? You knock off the old leader. Combat is an essential part of Eternia and is not going anywhere anytime soon; yet that does not mean combat can not be granted a sense of tension and fear like it has for so much of the early portion of Eternia and its history.

The existence of capture setting 0 has more or less removed a lot of tension which could have otherwise come from raw and wild interactions. Making the whole of Meranthe feel much safer than it really should - It's important to be reminded that Meranthe is now a continent with undead, demons and all manner of depraved activities.

Your interactions both on an inter-personal level and in the wilderness should reflect this going forwards.

[Image: 43fe45af188e3190b12177b08c8d2814.png]

Over the course of the Battle-Log, we have had 11,000 capture 0 battles and a little over 8,000 capture 1+ rolls.
Imagine for a moment just how different things would have gone if capture zero had never existed. How many interactions would have changed and how many stories would/could have shifted due to many differing effects.

I understand that to some; capture 0 is seen as a tool to remove griming/awkward situations for those much weaker than their opponents. No one likes being collared and captured by a settlement while your fellow faction members have little to no sway over said interactions; Which is why I propose two new mechanics in addition to removing capture roll 0 from the game.

** Mana-Ridden Blood
Throughout a conflict a message can be spoken without words. Upon the scene of a capture - The blood of the one captured will be spilled with a brief description of the setting and what occurred in the battle (written by the victor.) This will allow those involved with the character; if they want to pursue another new ruling/mechanic setting added into the game.

** Impromptu Raids / Prison Breaks
These can be requested at anytime by the admin team, provided either side has at least THREE people online at a time. Taking place during the night at higher stakes (you're in a demon capital/Aen Port) and working to aid your fellow soldier/demon to escape. They'll act as 3v3 skirmishes between the captors and opposing cities who decide to hold onto their captors for whatever reason. Back in the era of spires we had something similar, you could throw up an ahelp [DECLARING RAID] and the atl would be storming jianghu's towers or dawn would be breaking down eidolons walls. Occurring all roughly in the same night as opposed to waiting a week+ for 20v20 manned raids. (Which are good and DO serve a purpose still!)

This would allow for scenes to flow more dynamically and for those involved with the captor (Say, your brother or wife.) to have a chance to act and create a much larger scene/conflict in the grand scheme of things.

In closing, capture setting 0 being removed would not only reflect the new severity which has settled across Meranthe; But all the same allow for much more dynamic roleplay and tension to build between factions and players alike. Making people think before simply striking a stronger opponent and being able to escape with little more than a temp that will be healed by your six medics in a matter of minutes.

Of course, I would also like to hear the communities opinions on the matter as well as the current gamestate/feel of it overall.

Cap0's functionality is simple, it means you do not need to be worried about being captured.

Simply put, while the risk of being captured is gone, the other risks associated with this are not.

It's removal, in my opinion would serve only to hamper the current gamestate by resulting in less overall development in character through their attitudes for other characters. If one is captured in the first fight they have, there is a very real risk, even with the systems you have proposed, of death. I can barely rely on the admins to answer a ticket half the time, generally having to prod them through discord, and I'm being asked to rely on them for a pressing last second raid? It would only serve to add to their workload, and instead, likely due to a bad decision somewhere down the road, result in another one of Eternia's classic community riots.

Additionally, as other have mentioned, the inability to fight without a non-zero risk to one's IC via capture, which typically results in STALLED development for a character, rather than actual meaningful development. We saw it countless times in Spires wherein a player was captured, and either RB'd due to a complete lack of interaction, or simply rotted for several years in a cell without any form of relief. Major characters would result in quick action sure, but those minor characters with potential will probably be forced to rot... of course, there's also the annoyance of ten million corruption arcs followed by redemption arcs, but i'll not delve into those. I don't like them as a personal taste.

Cap0 permanent injuries though? I've seen countless of these, and they all came with some development from a character perspective, generally to positive ends as far as interactions with others go. They establish some sense of rivalry and further sow the seeds of discontent amongst players, leading to a feedback loop wherein one permanent injury caused by a Cap0 can lead to several days of consistent RP, and generally results in more fights down the road, not all of which are typically going to be Cap0.

Essentially, what I'm getting at, is that Cap0 is more valuable than it's being given credit for, it does it's job perfectly as a story creation tool. Cap risks above this may create stories too, sure, but they also run the risk of ending them.

TL;DR

Whilst I understand that ending stories is as important as creating new ones in Eternia's environment, I believe that the existence of Cap0 as a tool to push along narratives when people otherwise -wouldn't- due to risk, is overall healthy to the state of the game.
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#8
On Cap 0's:

Most of the time it's done by newer/ weaker characters. I don't think it serves much narrative purpose if a new character captures another new character and they get killed off, thus ending their story prematurely- in rare instances that they would not (i.e it's not demon fighting one of Aen, or two factions at war, etc) cap 0 would suffice from the very start.

I've also had my fair share of experiences with grime on different iterations of Eternia, whereas more established characters would attempt to kill off younger generation before they get anywhere at all, so I don't think Cap 0 removal is actually good + like Milly pointed out it'd make combat less common. Less combat = worse game. I want my danger high.

But rules could probably be revised that if there's some established reason then you can request cap 1+. Making cap 1+ more common in that regard seems fine, but outright removal of cap 0 seems not fine.

On Impromptu raids/ prison breaks:

Only for non-high value targets. Some soldier or common faction member getting rescued or other similar faction member is fine. Leadership figure or other important person getting rescued because it's late and most are asleep? No, that's not fine with me. There must be a limit to just whom you can rescue and what you can accomplish with these - because let's be 100% honest, there will be people who will wait until opposite faction's strongest are offline then do raid when it's more favorable to them. It sounds good to be the one who does it to another faction, but it tends to feel bad when you're the one who gets that done to them.

On Mana-Ridden Blood:

I'd actually extend this suggestion and maybe create a whole system with various clues/ messages/ leftovers from various events/ aftermath of something. I think it'd add to the world a lot if you could observe the world and actually find something cool rather than go out only to roam for dangers/ gather stuff/ potentially stumble into an already active scene. It'd serve to add to immersion as well IMO.
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#9
As someone who played during Spires, I cannot stress how badly it felt to have a random pack of 5 dudes roll up on you unannounced, and chain-verb you to death. I personally feel that removing cap0 would serve as nothing more than to end characters prematurely, not increase the overall enjoyment of the game state.

People will roll in doom-squads more than they already are, because a lonely miner just trying to gather stuff would be be tantamount to suicide if he gets rolled up on by a legion of the opposing faction. It would completely stall the early game of a character until they were capable of standing on their feet, and create scenarios in which there might be awkward OOC-feelings mixed into it, because Evil McBadguy captured Holy Steve (Even if in a fair fight with an appropriately levelled minion), and Steve is only RPL 100 because he made three days ago.

So now Steve is going to sit in jail for a while until rescued, or an admin greenlights an escape (Which can be great character-building, don't get me wrong), or if his captors aren't so merciful, just off him before the opposition can properly mount a rescue, which obviously sucks for Steve because he just made, and was looking forward to playing the character.

Obviously the goal is to have fun with the fights we do, but dying to a random encounter in the wilds to someone you've never met before because the rules arbitrarily told you to have that risk on your first go, is not good game design, it's just a punishment for not being prepared.
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#10
Honestly, the game is already kind of rough enough on peoples schedule. Forcing people to be on at 5AM to prevent impromptu prison breaks sounds absolutely hellish.
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