Geas

One big PvP deterrent is also the staggering amounts of time you need to even dream of being able to do something to someone who has spent the time maxing skills. It is simply...discouraging. If the only thing you can ever see is taking beatings, it can also again lead to total indifference. Geas simply takes too much of your time. Personally I think PvP just might receive a vitamin boost if it was much faster to reach relevant levels without intricate knowledge of game mechanisms and knowing which hoops to jump through. Faster character improvement with systems more visible and understandable to players would be a winning combo.

I think there should be some differentiation between toxicity and RP. On one hand, you have Sathonys clerics whose god is literally telling them "Go kill everything and disease the world plague it etc. etc.", then you have the player who's basically spending all or most of their time playing alone. They have no opportunity to find interesting pvp since most people either run or kill them on sight. So the only way they can find some RP is to basically go attack or kidnap someone, which is reasonable considering their god's orders. The problem seems that goodies sometimes don't like their tasks being interrupted by baddies. But I think its also part of the core concept of the game, there's always the chance danger is lurking every corner and you basically have to make peace with the fact that you may die if you go too far off the beaten path. Thankfully death in Geas is really not that big of a deal, so for the most part if you die you just dust yourself off and get back to it. The same is true for the other side of the coin, imagine being a baddie and working hard to increase your character's power, then a goodie raiding squad blows through Asador, loots your locker and takes everything you've worked hard to get. It happens and its not cool, but both sides deal with really lame stuff from time to time. I only recently started lurking again though so I don't know how bad the power difference is. But I've been on both ends of a beating and it sucks. I don't know, I'm ranting at this point.

TLDR: If everyone just has a little more respect for eachother as players we can enjoy getting murdered without feeling personally attacked by it. That goes on both sides the killer and killee.

Just a reminder to everyone this thread was written about Sathos doing egregiously toxic things, like putting an instant death trap in one of the most travelled rooms in the game which many lowbies will end up dying in. It is not saying "The Sathos are toxic because they're playing evil characters."

From what I gather, there are no crusaders or Taniel clerics who play at the moment? I never saw undead last long on roads. I also vaguely remember when undeads couldn't be removed immediately players were warned to steer clear of the area or guided past until they were. Does that not happen anymore? It sucks to get 1-shot while following a road, we've all been there. But is there any confirmation the Sathos are doing this to spite new players?

The undead scale to the point they can kill old highbies very easily when you enter the room and there are two giant ghouls with twohanders and a revenant waiting. It is just basically down to luck at that point. Low tier satho created undead are cleared relevantly easily by old highbies though.

Interesting, I wonder if there was a buff to satho undead while I was gone. There was always a low chance at an undead doing a big swing, but I remember even a dreadmaster-summoned undead basically getting exploded in seconds by a taniel or crusader running through. I wonder if there was a change to their strength or maybe an unintended change that was made elsewhere that happened to affect their ability to hit targets...

Don’t go in the room, don’t sneak in the room if it’s too risky. In public areas the patrols and npcs and time will take care of them. They add to the environment like insect raids (which can also move and blow up chars). Also the weaker ones are a pushover. Negotiate IG rules for their locations and placement if you want. Toxicity averted.

I would vastly prefer a gentlemanly OOC code of conduct and placement of undead into deadly positions telegraphed loudly before the act. You know, some drama and a few evil cackles but it is the way I like to play games. With clear intentions all around. It actually is a much, much bigger thing than just about sathos and their undead. A way to act, think and behave with all things.

Geas playerbase seems to be very split between many issues though so misunderstandings and misintended actions abound with caustic fallout sometimes even. I personally do not like the "keep all IG in IG, no spills to OOC" at all but, oh well, there are tons of games out there to enjoy.

Just have to say I was in the deep simulationistic IG camp that shunned any peeps into OOC for a long long while and it is a valid, fun way to play but I just changed as a player at some point and so did things that provide maximum game fun for me. Unfortunately this does not seem to mesh well with Geas climate.

Its honestly a give-and-take relationship. Having been on both ends of these situations, I can say that the stronger party has a responsibility to play in a way that provides a fun experience for everyone, while the weaker party also has a responsibility to at least pretend like they're weaker. There's often times where a stronger person will be provoked into attacking or killing a weaker person simply because they won't shut up and act like some angry mob following them around. That being said, yes if the Sathos are dominant right now maybe they should be more careful about undead placement especially in populated areas, I don't know where the undead was placed but if it was in Amward or the Tundra I don't think its unreasonable.

If people have the mentality that they need to "win" the MUD and crush everyone else it simply is going to provide a bad experience for other players. That being said, if you lose a fight you can't immediately start complaining or calling for nerfs. I've been catching up on a lot of posts around here, and basically calling for a nerf to everything that isn't your character is pretty annoying to read.

This game has an identity problem.

It has both PVP and PVE features which do not work well together.

The long progression, abilitiy system, custom gear shop, unbalanced classes and lack of lowbie protection are PVE features. While the good and evil dynamic, easy to aquire gear, full looting, and pvp centric abilities like diguise are PVP centric. While most people don't abuse the pvp centric mechanics there will always be people who do or that feel justified full looting players of custom stuff or any number of other behavior that can fustrate other players even more so due to the addition of the PVE mechanics.

This is just reality of the world. We shouldn't get upset over a game, but our time is valuable and there are more enjoyable ways to spend it then dealing with aftermath of poorly implemented mechanics that allow others to make your experience tedious. Having seen some of that fustrating behavior against my lowbie character in just the last week, I do believe there is a problem in this game that a heartfelt post from staff is not really going to solve.

Anyways having come back after almost 20 years I was lucky enough to talk to and catch up with people that i haven't met in a long time. That made stopping by as brief as its going to be worth my while.

All the best to you all.

The most problematic places where undead have been placed are the room directly south of Bimok and the Elor stone room, just south of the gate.