followers of who?

[lili]

I am unsure if this is the right board, I'm sorry.

With this new change to clergy aura spell, is there another way to see if an NPC follows a certain god or not? I can understand to a point why the change was made for PC's. But I don't think it would hurt for npcs, seeing how not every religion has a clergy to run out and check the favour of things.

[fernao]

Hmm, all religions give out symbols of their faith to their followers for a little fee.
Maybe those symbols could be used by a follower to identify himself as a follower to an npc who in return could show his or her own symbol if they follow the same god. If not, the npc could growl, in case of adversity between the deity the player and the npc have, smile, in case the deities have similar goals or just nod.

Evren/Taniel/Sathonys/Lilith <-> neutral deity -> nodding
Evren <-> Taniel -> smiling
Lilith <-> Sathonys -> smiling
Evren/Taniel <-> Sathonys/Lilith -> growling

For the priests amoung the players, displaying a holy symbol should do the same trick. Should check the symbol, not the actual faith though, so e.g. a Satho could run around and show e.g. an Asral or Gwen symbol etc.

Just an idea.

[Drayn]

That's a pretty good idea, have more NPCs have pendants/marking etc. But I wouldn't suggest making it a universal thing. There are some NPCs that work best if they're mysterious.

Alternatively and a little more simplistically perhaps have the NPCs respond to an:

ask <npc> god

With a response best suited to their personality. Either:

Truthfully: I am a follower of Taniel
Brush off: That's none of your business!
Lie: I follow the Lady Gwen (says the Lilithite)

NPCs might give a brush off answer if the PC asking has a bad reputation. However there should always be the element of uncertainty, otherwise you're likely to get:

Bob the Mighty asks the one eyed black toothed elf : God?
One eyed black toothed elf: I am a follower of Lilith
Bob the Mighty says in common: Die in the name of the Crusade evil doer!

Which sort of negates the point of removing the aura checking in the first place.

[fernao]

Hehe, sure, the npc's could also attack or lie too. None said they have to reveal the truth, whatever that is anyways. *cackle*

[lili]

I have played muds where everything had a symbol of the faith, either worn on them or tattooed on their skin. They sucked, and there was piles of faith symbols all over the place. I like the idea of more things to talk about with NPCS, but the thought of someone going in and programming that to every mob is a bit tedious. I guess I just liked it the way it was. It was nice to say 'Hey Drayn, can you tell me more about this faerie' and him being able to tell me if she followed Evren or not.

*shrugs* Putting a complication on every single thing doesn't really make the game more fun, it just makes more complications.

[luminier]

It's certainly an interesting change in RP to being able to check karma and favour on the fly to only being able to see favour in the God that the checker follows.

but it certainly helps those who want to stay hidden. Favour checks were deadly to the identity of some individuals.

I am a fan of the change, it will take some getting used to for sure. What is described in this topic is a small con for a big pro IMO.

[Drayn]

We're mainly talking about NPCs, PCs are capable of choosing to share their beliefs or not. Just now there's no real way of knowing who an NPC follows. Being able to ask, or if they wore a holy symbol, would give you more of a feel for the local beliefs. So for example Elvandar is likely to be mostly dedicated to Taniel so lots of arrow pendants about (or those crystal collars).

Arborea you would expect to see plenty of Asral worship. Obviously we sort of already "know" this is the case, but it'd be lovely to see more of it IC.

[glorfindel]

Hi,

Am not really sure if this removal of the favour check really adds to the game. Yes, I know how it feels being always cautious about clerics walking into you and doing favour check, but this has been dealt in an IC way.

And if you have managed to arise the suspicion of the legal authorities so they let the clerics do the favour check without permission... I think you have already other problems as well.

I think favour check was too much back when clerics were not kept by ingame laws and stuff to do checks without it. For me it feels it makes staying hidden with an evil deity too easy.

Hiding the following of a deity like LIlith or Sathonys in one of the big cities will require effort by the player to stay hidden. They'll have to outsmart the authorities, crusaders and clerics.

As for npcs, I do not like having differences between whether a char is a player or not. I
generally think it should be restored back to the old way, maybe make it a little random chance whether or not the cleric can sense the deity (possibly depending on how smart/wise person he wants to check is? So like people who have done this for years, might have learned to close their mind so it's harder to find out whom they follow... but that's just an idea)

Another problem I see this rises, is that clerics now can't tell anymore if an ally is really still an ally. Refusal to be favour checked should not be a problem as well. I think everybody would refuse to be checked unless there's need to and maybe, if people would refuse rather depending on the reason of the cleric checking then based on a 'I have nothing to hide' mentality, then the few evil ones refusing would not peek out as much.

Just my 2cc