Shattered Kingdoms

I don't see where you argue with me, evena. Did you read my post?

Yeah. I did: You were supporting Baldric's suggestion that players can handle this without code.

The only reason he was able to do what he did with Aldric was because people were scared of him, as you, yourself, pointed out -- he roleplayed AND could pack a punch. Characters that don't currently have both are ignored or just killed. I'm trying to suggest a way to get more people involved so that there aren't just three or four power players controlling the whole game.

But it seems you guys like it that way.

*shrug*

I don't like it that way, but I think that if the majority of the pbase does not already conceive things in this way, no code is going to enforce this into their minds or playstyle.

This is a reality of SKs and I don't see it changing.

I see where you're coming from and agree to a certain extent that the game should be more open to -everyone- that wants to get involved but I think this is where a lot of people need to look for example. The difference isn't in how well you can or cannot PK it's in how your character conveys themselves. I don't know a single "PvP vet" that is not willing to bend over backwards to accomodate RPers that "want to be involved." People need to be realistic about what they're trying to accomplish with their characters and learn to be okay with the fact that it's okay to RP loss/defeat in the game and until people -can- do that, I don't think that we need to make changes where we implement penalties/debuffs for PKing certain people.

It's a reality of life that the powerless get trampled on. You can RP being a diplomat. You can abstain from fighting, from giving away enemy positions, etc. You can RP your face off until you are one of the most respected characters in the game. People might still choose to kill you. If you represent a PK powerhouse, your own country will rally the troops and go mess people up. If not, other factions might recognize this dishonorable action and withdraw support from the people who killed you. This will only happen if you were a good diplomat, and if the faction you represent is respected as honorable. This respect is earned with RP as well as PK choices.

If Aldric went to an RP for diplomatic talks, and got ambushed and ganked, that would have completely reshaped the whole PK scene. Aldric would have been able to isolate whoever killed him, and get other lightie factions to sit out while he rallied the darkie factions to do some roflstomping. Hell, people would have rerolled just to be a part of that. This is different from saying, "If they had jumped me, I'd have unleashed my awesome pk skills on them." I'd have gotten things done with diplomacy because my RP made it so that Aldric was respected by many of his IC enemies. If I led FactionA, and factionB was killing diplomats (and the diplomats were legit), I wouldn't be allied with factionB.

This is something that players can and should handle without coded changes.

This is the most important point to be made here, I think.

This isn't true.

Unless these characters are trying to RP that they are some badass tough guy leader of an army. Or are Kinaed. (Anyone want to explain how this character was ever given a leader flag?) Then yes, they're going to get PKd and not RPd with. Noone is willing to make RP concessions even though they are losing the PK aspect.

And that was brought on by your RP, so you can't really complain about it. If you are the 'diplomat' of somewhere that is getting rolled pretty regularly, maybe you should try acknowledging that in your RP. Currently, noone does that. Nobody on SK is willing to "lose". It's always either 'we're going to kill yoooouuuu!!!!!' or ignoring the other people. Not much incentive from an RP standpoint or any other for the opposing faction to take it easy on you and we shouldn't be coding in a Diplomat position when it's not going to do anything anyways.

Evena, perhaps you should try doing something like this. And see how it goes, rather than come say there needs to be a hardcoded system.

It is both ill-conceived and unnecessary. Everything that you have proposed can already be accomplished in the game.

As a player whose characters have been involved in exactly such a set-up and have also roleplayed defeat, I feel uniquely qualified to suggest these things don't work. Partly, it's because there's no real point or value in roleplaying a win or a loss. Great, you got a surrender. You can't actually WIN anything from the opposing faction, like territory or something of that nature. Cool, you lost. You can't do anything meaningful with your current position. Partly, it's because winners AND losers on SK aren't gracious with the current restrictions.

It's much more common to see something like, "LOL I peekayed this fool into deletion," than it is to see, "Hey, we roleplayed some serious/deep conflict over the course of several years."

But I won't suggest any more interesting/flavorful changes to ya'll. It's cool; I get it. You acknowledge that there won't be a shift in the mindset of players, but rail against players who try to think outside of the current box.

That's a flaw in the system and one that should be addressed, if anything is. Creating and hard coding a position where people are penalized for PKing a fountain RPer by marking them an outlaw in their home kingdom is simply assinine. All that you're doing is giving people even more incentive to hide behind a position, crybaby and throw a fit when they get their [REDACTED] shoved in for acting donkey.