Regarding the Magical communication system skill values that Darkhawk gave, I'd suggest that while the concept is good, the numbers could be a bit high. The system as it is would mean that nobody who isn't a magician and not just a magical dabbler could communicate effectively IC. Given that this is what a large number of the people posting here seem to want, this may be acceptable to people. But personally, I'd split 1-50 into 1-20 and 21-50, and move the catagories down one step.

The main concerns regarding this seem to be that many people are, strange as it seems, having trouble separating what their character perceives and what they perceive. In Seed, everything you saw on the screen was visible to your character as well. In other games, this is not the case. A lot of posts seem to imply that people think that anyone who uses something your character doesn't have is ruining the RP experience for everyone.

I don't find this to be the case. I can filter what I see on the screen into what my character perceives without difficulty. But then, I'm a veteran pen-and-paper RPGer who's used to translating notes on a sheet of paper and the results of a dice throw into a game world inside my head. So using the "Radar" around the compass and telling myself that my character in the game is just hearing the sounds of their movement or following the creature's tracks is second nature to me. I fail to see how this mindset can't apply to everything in game, as long as we're not talking about game stats or real-world events around the campfire.

Are there people who feel violently opposed to this point of view?

Since there are questions about it, I'll do a small summary of the opinions I've found expressed concerning OOC.

First (because we were first to mention it, as we tend to be) there are people like myself, who for one reason or other has trouble filtering OOC out and/or want to get very 'deep' into our character. We like to keep in-character and talk as such as much as possible and often do our best to completely ignore OOC if it can be done.

Then, there are people like Tantavalist, who process OOC into IC and still stay in character. A useful trait, undoubtedly. It seems people of this category prefers having some OOC to simplify game-play.

Third, there are people who just play their character, as Kryigerof so well put it, as a "puppet". For these people, OOC is probably just as wanted and useful as for the former category.

Fourth, we have people who only arbitrarily consider their character's role and plays it all by ear, from situation to situation. These people most often seem to like OOC a lot, to the point where it becomes a cause in itself and a part of the game that they appreciate. In this category are most roleplayers I've met in other MMOGs. I think we have a couple in our gang as well.

Now, the issue isn't that one of these are more right than any other. The issue is to find a way for all four categories to play well together. In Seed this was easy. There were no OOC channels and everything had an IC explanation. I would say Darkhawk's proposition, as it looks now, should give space for all the different play styles. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

This is becoming more complicated, when people tries to find how we do the communication. Notting has changed after Seed, we just have more channels, that's all. We have all kind of players in our communuty, from hard core roleplayers to pure OOC players. We did have these same players and playing styles in Seed too.

SIMPLE QUESTION:

Is there anyone who wants to talk OOC in /around /tell /guild /team channels without using (( )) for ooc talking ?

( No, I don't think you'll confuse me more. I live in a permanent state of confusion but it's rather impervious to outside influence. )

Hm. I definitely see your point, though I am in favour of some level of restriction based on how good a magician your character is. I also see how limitation is not as necessary if actual telepathy is restricted to epic magicians. I can't help but think that this is pretty similar to the other suggestion, with the difficulty scale eased off. I think both ideas are great though, and I'm happy with either.

And Victoria, if this group/community reverted to using unbracketed OOC liberally in /say (/around), I would most likely quit.

[Edit: End quote ended up in the wrong place.]

I can buy the idea, that your skills in magic could affect your aptitude for ´sending´ images, emotions or thoughts to another homin. But when it comes to Darkhawks scale I think we should see it, not as actual rules - more like guidelines (to quote from Pirates...;)).

Besides other factors could have an influence as well: how close you are to the person you communicate with, your state of mind, how strongly you feel that which you try to send etc.
As long as it doesnt limit the roleplay its ok with me.

And I must say that I really like the idea that you can send various tidbits of feelings, impressions etc. to another character. It opens up a lot of possibilities for the RP.

Finally ill say, that it is my impression, that every member of this community is able to use this feature responsibly - without it evolving into walkietalkie-OOC- lets-take-down-this-überboss kinda thing... :mrgreen:

Its gonna be fun!

Oh you will, Darkhawk. With all the grinding you're doing

Well, before thinking about that Wheri, I was thinking. We already have a forum, here. Shouldn't we use that one instead of the ingame one, also to draw people? Or would you argue the opposite?

I'd say, as with other things, put OOC in (( )), no matter if it is an entire letter or not. Avoid the use of brackets when possible, but do use it when needed. So, for this. Yes, post a list of materials you want for example, and be as creative as you like (I.e. bracket the whole letter, or bracket just the cold, hard material quality level numbers. For example).

And maybe only use the ingame forum for things that are convenient to use there and not on our forum, and make duplicate posts whenever possible. Several reasons for that. One is that our forums will stay, but the games might not, and I'd like to see what we've been doing in games I was fond of Ah, also the more practical reason that you can't be sure who sees what where, and having more than one forum leads to more splitup and confusion.

Well, not that big an issue really. Do as you think best?

The next issue I'll bring up has taken a lot of discussion in the past though. Let's see what it'll do now.

Having suddenly telepathic abilities just because we have formed a guild (and decided on the colors of our coat of arms *grins*) seems silly to me. That being said, I see no reason why the members of a guild could not, over time, develop a bond that would allow easier communication.

As I mentioned earlier I think the ability to communicate mentally (be it feelings or words) could depend on both the skills of the sender, the physical distance to the receiving homin, the strength of the emotion or thought, as well as how close the sender and receiver are too each other on a personal level. Communication between close friends, lovers, blood relatives, and fellow guildmembers ought to be easier than between complete strangers.

The guidelines of skill level in magic (20 for control, 75 for words) are ok to me. But Im gonna break them as needed if its in favour of good roleplay.

I would imagine that even a skilled magician could loose control with his emotional outbursts if he is aggitated enough, or that an unskilled homin could project a feeling or sense of warning to his closest friend from across a distance.

So basically what Im saying is that we should continue with our present ways.

Last edited by Frakel (2006-11-20 01:07:58)

I mostly agree as well. Even if it is a bit restricting. And yes I have played it as not solely depending on magic but also on relation and the like.

I certainly don't think there is any reason the guild-channel should be much different at present. I don't know if it would be harder or easier to use the guild-channel.
For one your relationship with guildmates would make it easier.
The fact that you are sending to several people could make it harder (as there are more) or easier (as you are broadcasting instead of focusing on one individual).

-Miho

Ok, I'm glad that's what you think really. You're not taking the easy route out, hehe.

So we'll continue as before, modified a little to what each of us thinks about the lose rules we have in place.