The Thurse Thread

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louis
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The Thurse Thread

#1 Post by louis » Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:02 am

I have decided to move this topic here, not saying that it was wrongly placed in the other thread, but I think, that this topic requires a different thread (since its not directly a "how how should we treat each other" matter but in my eyes more a "how should we should use game mechanics / or - how not to annoy others" matter with lots of dimensions). - Hope you agree - L
ferranifer wrote:

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You travel a long distance west.
It's Day.
 On a bridge over the river Ulflenn. The Western Road crosses over the river
 at this point, continuing to the east towards a mighty fortress. A
 dense-looking forest stands to the east of here, bordered by the road. The
 mighty Giat Mountains stand against the horizon in the distance. The river
 Ulflenn flows to the southeast into the Icecall Lake. The Amward Plains
 extend to the southwest.
Exits(2): e[r], w[r]. --
24 copper coins, a smoldering small campfire and three bronze coins.
A huge scaly neuter scrag and two large blue-bearded male thurses.
The huge scaly neuter scrag attacks you.
The large blue-bearded male thurse attacks you.
The large blue-bearded male thurse attacks you.
The large blue-bearded male thurse smashes his heavy twohander at your torso, but you dodge his attack.

The large blue-bearded male thurse smashes his heavy twohander at your head, slashes through your felt hat and cuts deep into your head, down to the bone.
The large blue-bearded male thurse cuts with his heavy twohander deep into your head and splits your skull.

You died. You can see your dead body from above.
Your ghost state allows you to travel 'start'.
Apropos, please someone remind me how this is civil, fun or fair.

rex
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#2 Post by rex » Mon Mar 30, 2015 12:37 pm

Rex also died to that thurse trap just trying to get by it. I was prepared for it and was wearing a shield and it still managed to cut my torso in half.

I really would like to see the chance of NPC instakills decreased if that is possible, its really just not fun when that happens, and it seems to happen too often. I'd rather Rex die from being hit hard 5 times and bleeding out then just seeing on my screen "you died".

Assuming the thurse trap was setup by the Sathos..why were the thurse's not sacrificed? I've been told thurse undeads are not as strong as a real thurse but that still doesn't make sense to me why they would knock out the thurse, drag it to the bridge then leave it there without sacrificing to please there God.

And in terms of giant ghouls, I do like them....just not a big fan of them being able to wield two handed weapons and any weapons for that matter. The number of kills those undeads get is really far to high. Even when fully prepared I have seen the best players die to them. I always thought of undeads as more a 'meatshield' for Sathonites as opposed to the best offensive weapon in the game and would rather see them with boosted defence and severely decreased offensive capabilities.

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#3 Post by glorfindel » Mon Mar 30, 2015 1:31 pm

Out of curiosity, isn't the insane amount of damage any thing (including halfling players) can do with a twohanded weapon the problem? A 10 hour old newbie (non halfling newbie) can cut goblins into two pieces with a run of the mill weapon and dwarves/tshaharks can cut off orc arms after about a day. So, maybe it's the twohanders we should look at? I'm not sure of the intention of this thread, so mere suggestion!

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#4 Post by ferranifer » Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:22 pm

The point of my original post was: "Why would you do this to other people?"

2handed weapons are just the gun, not the shooter. We are talking about an insta-death trap placed in a location of high traffic. With that being said, yes, 2hander damage is ridiculous and super tall monsters with crazy strength and 2handers is even more ridiculous. IMHO thurses (and giants in general) are a problem even when encountered in their natural habitat. But hey, I don't know, maybe you guys find it thrilling to play Russian roulette. I just don't find it fun at all.

About undead giants, watchtowers and the like... do we really need people this strong (talking about the Phelans and Luminiers of the game) projecting such ridiculous power remotely? Mazar advocated in the other thread that everyone should be able to project power like this. I think NOBODY should be able to indiscriminately kill other players remotely while not even been online.

If you need to project power, get players on your cause? Why do we have these mechanics in place? Aren't there other ways to project your presence than remote booby trapping and barricades?

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#5 Post by ghalt » Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:53 pm

I know like: if things are set up in a border area, or in the tower of pain or whatever, then that makes sense: someone's trying to control the area or even "lure out good guys to pvp." And I'll maybe get way frustrated when they inevitably kill me but that's the game.

If there's like a supertrap in a high traffic area or at the top of the orc tower, it really really just looks like it's made to rack up a kill count? I mean like in this instance: why is koschei being killed of all people? He's literally the creepiest mage? And the reason is probably just because he was there, and that's a fairly frustrating reason to die?

And if the point is to create more danger, which is probably a good thing, maybe that amp ain't got to be turned to 11?

I will say though this is: this isn't the most jerky thing to do in game? And sathonites (I'm going out on a limb here and guessing sathonite ^^) are supposed to be jerks? I do appreciate though when things are done to "look" like jerks more than to indiscriminately murder--faun ghouls and zombiefied patrol and so forth scattered randomly. (Like, seriously, nontwohander wielding elf zombies are fun for midlevel players to fight? please?) ^^

(Also, just to pick a fight with Delia for no reason: Amward really isn't that dangerous. I've died more in elvandar forest. I would describe it, and even the tundra/arctic really, as "dangerous if you don't know what you're doing", not "dangerous unless you're really high level." Sometimes people seem to suggest staying out of those type of areas if you don't have a team/support/super trained skills, and that's fairly disheartening to me? ^^)

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#6 Post by ferranifer » Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:58 pm

There's a difference between dangerous areas and unattended deadly projection of force from a select handful of players that have access to it.

May I suggest to restrict these kind of measures to defensive purposes only?

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#7 Post by Aslak » Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:30 pm

May I suggest to ban such code and powers from the game all together? Rather give the guilds some other (less annoying) stuff. If that is not an option for whatever reason, at least put a heavy cost for "loosing" undeads, towers etc by the enemy.

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Delia
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#8 Post by Delia » Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:08 pm

To Ghalt:

All depends on what kind of risks you are willing to take. Amward has always been a dangerous place for Delia. Those dark elves can do some serious harm and even a normal orc can rough her up pretty badly given the chance. Other areas have their own challenges. Guess I tend to play it safe as I do not think she enjoys becoming mangled routinely or worse.

When deliberately taking a risk player knowledge becomes highly important. For example, knowing roughly the propabilities for the giant to hit you and knowing your weak and strong points in general in relation to the danger you face.

As for towers, I think a more proper question in general would be to as what would control the crusader's placement of those towers. Meaning...they can pop one up practically anywhere(?)and if you keep a dedicated effort towards removing them you constantly risk becoming a permanent target for Luminier's spear.

With the undead, more extensive and varied(and specialized)necromancy would be cool which would offer more tools and adaptability while sacrificing the apparent ease of undead giants wielding giant swords(or atleast making it a serious choice).
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mazarmormuk
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#9 Post by mazarmormuk » Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:57 pm

hmm, i still like these things and i ll try to describe why:
Some time ago Asrals EP was on a really good level, we had -like always- some enemies and well..yeah..lets..hmm...what now?
Go hunt phelan somewhere in forostar when you dont even know if he is awake?
Forostar didnt even notice that situation, noone got limited in his actions, noone under pressure, nothing. Sathos did take the patrol and insects invaded arborea like before.
Thats why i generally like those towers and undeads, they are the real visible EP of a group, protecting their home town, spreading over forostar taking action radius from the enemy, increasing encounters between the enemy parties, and even if not, giving the enemy a challenge to beat them back to the borders.

I guess the negative point -and the reason why many dont like such stuff- we nearly all agree to:
undeads crit to instDeath, deathtraps are easily buildt,
towers take @20mins of repeating message:
"You smash the watchtower with your axe.."
"You smash the watchtower with your axe.."
"You smash the watchtower with your axe.."
But thats a reason of rediculous power and how it is used, not of its general existance.

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#10 Post by Allurana » Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:36 pm

Reminds me of a situation a few years back when I walked into the Cumberly post office to find a revenant, two giant ghouls (with twohanders of course), and 2-3 mercenaries blocking the way out.

I do feel there's a large difference between making one's presence known through interesting/'dangerous' set-ups, and simply flipping a middle finger to the rest of the playerbase.

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#11 Post by luminier » Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:49 pm

Towers and revenants are limited in their ability to be placed.

Towers only shoot if someone is an enemy or attacking the tower.

I can do an analysis of towers and revenants if people wish.
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#12 Post by ferranifer » Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:01 pm

luminier wrote:Towers and revenants are limited in their ability to be placed.

Towers only shoot if someone is an enemy or attacking the tower.

I can do an analysis of towers and revenants if people wish.
A) It's about how you decide to use your weapons.
B) Nobody else has a weapon.

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#13 Post by luminier » Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:25 pm

ferranifer wrote:A) It's about how you decide to use your weapons.
B) Nobody else has a weapon.
I don't really know if I agree with that.

Isn't this thread all about how you use your weapons? I would agree that no one else has revenants or towers but I wouldn't say they have no weapons.
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#14 Post by ghalt » Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:48 pm

I think the important thing to note in towers vs. revenants is that both can be used in utterly degenerate ways and neither should be?

(Golems are frankly probably something that could be as well, I've simply never seen it done?)

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#15 Post by luminier » Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:43 pm

Revenants I could see. But towers? How
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Delia
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#16 Post by Delia » Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:48 pm

Tower gauntlets to block an entrance to an area?

Revenants, to my knowledge, cannot insta-kill you when you enter.

Golems could be used pretty roughly, they are no different. They are also propably, when you compare a tough golem and a tough undead, harder to handle than the undead as they do not have the undead vulnerabilities.

Setting them up is bit of a pain though(which is good), a golem generally lasts for four hours, you cannot team with one, have placement restrictions(which can be ignored to a degree with doing stuff), require either a powerful mage or a dedicated mage to cast reliably, require multiple casts(time, failures, mana burns), the final casting is not a given(you can create a pile of rocks and dust) and even if all goes well you can fail to control it for a chance of minced mage.

So atleast there will be no golem spam. Also note how difficult it is compared to towers and undeads. Not complaining here though :)
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#17 Post by luminier » Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:59 pm

A gauntlet of towers would be a vast waste of potential IMO. Having scouting intel is much better than blocking off one way to one area. Keep in mind they can only be placed outside.

Since logs are too heavy to be moved these days even less versatile than they used to be.

I know it's been done in the past, and I know that I asked for a way towers could be abusive, but it won't be happening again.


EDIT, Alright towers could definitely be abusive. Even without the bolt.
Last edited by luminier on Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#18 Post by Delia » Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:41 am

I have to agree though. That crossbow bolt is completely inconsequential compared to the intel for the crusaders.
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Re: The Thurse Thread

#19 Post by glorfindel » Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:33 am

Delia wrote: ... the final casting is not a given(you can create a pile of rocks and dust) and even if all goes well you can fail to control it for a chance of minced mage.
Heck, the only thing I miss about dabbling in magic is a powerful setup that could very well blow up right into your face. The two times my char succesfully created a golem were, very much up the 'minced mage' alley. It's a painful process, though I would believe a pure mage has it easier then a scribe-mage like my character had. If the golem is created though, it outshines both the tower and the undead in terms of punch.

The reason why I brought the twohanders to the discussion, I don't think, personally the problem is the trap - unpleasant / dangerous setup. They do make the game more interesting. What sucks are the one-hit kills from afar. And that's the part that should, in my opinion, change.

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Re: The Thurse Thread

#20 Post by Delia » Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:37 am

Since logs are too heavy to be moved these days even less versatile than they used to be.
You mean the logs cannot be moved at all anymore? What a bummer if that is so. What will the Arborean woodcutters with their tshaharks for beasts of burden in my imagination do now?
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