isengoo wrote:Of course, one might say that this is catering to the hack'n'slash crowd. To that I say, so what? People who prefer to not kill monsters have other, less dangerous avenues by which to gain reputation. I am simply claiming that these avenues are exceedingly boring. Give hack'n'slashers a tangible reason to hack'n'slash, and the problems go away.
A difference of opinion. I find hack and slash to be utterly boring. I would much prefer to see something such as leatherworking, smithing, metalcrafting, woodworking, cooking, a trading system, or etc. adding into the mud than the umpteeth reason to go kill 500 goblins.
And no, I don't see the problem going away. You still have the groups that don't give a crap to RP about gods, karma, reputation, actions, or whatever else. They still only want to go out and kill 500 goblins. It's just, now maybe a few of them will say 'I do it for charts' instead of 'I do it for perfect sword'.
Basically, the problems I would like to see resolved a bit more:
People who follow a god but don't understand anything about that god, or follow the god because their friends do and don't really care if what they do on a daily basis is becoming or blasphemous for such a follower.
People who have bad karma or reputation and simply don't care. And if they're too lazy to find ways to fix it, but are afraid to explore outside of giving Volog a few coins outside of ogre and trolls hunts, then I feel it's their own faults. I've never once had a problem fixing karma, both through remedial tasks and through combat.
But most of the situations I've seen, the excuse is usually 'god xxx wants me to be evil/good, but I don't feel like adjusting what I do, so I'm just going to ignore it'. To which I then ask why they follow a god that's apparently incompatible with their roleplay. But I forgot, it's because it's what their friends do. Which brings about that other complex:
Why aren't you hunting your guild enemy? Because he's my friend.
Why are you hanging out with an outlaw of the city you're supposed to defend? Because he's my friend.
Why are you hanging out with a follower of an enemy god (or guild enemy)? Because he's my friend.
It saddens me a bit to see the purpose of some guilds become unclear because everyone's afraid of being mean to each other, even if some situations dictate it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think everyone has to be at each other's throats all the time, but things go a bit grey when friends and enemies are meshed into one, and everyone's treated the same because everyone's nice.
As for Karma: Its imperfect.
This is true for the gods that don't have absolute good or evil (in which case it's easy to keep yourself capped on that end of the spectrum) but I see something wrong when a follower of a good god has evil karma, or vice versa. Even if you're not right on the dot with karma, there's something to be said if you're not even on the chart.
I personally wont mind my char being subject to permadeath(not allowed to res) if thats the price of playing a char that thinks for himself.
If the char can't agree with any of the gods, then this sounds like someone to me who would be better suited to follow none of them.
As mentioned in another thread, favour is not what you think of the god, but what the god thinks of you. And if you do things that constantly anger the god (which is suggested if you have opposite of the preferred karma), one could ask how you're even able to stay in favour. Except, perhaps, that frequent sacrifices are just enough to keep the god from smiting you. Not necessarily because you're being a good follower, but because you're being a use even if you're repulsive.