Thread: Botting - why?
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Old 04-15-2012, 07:20 PM   #15
Jazuela
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: New England
Posts: 849
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Re: Botting - why?

I should clarify, that might've seemed weird:

Players of nobles earn their roles through sponsorship by the staff. If House Blah just lost their last noble to storage of the character, or death, the staff posts that they need a new one. They post the criteria - must know the city, must have had some leadership experience in some clan at some point, must be able to play during peak times, and must be willing to encourage both small and large plotlines. (that's an example. Not all noble roles have to be like that).

And then players send in applications, and the staff goes over it, and decide as a group which is the most promising of the bunch. Usually there's a lot of trust involved, so veteran players, or at least newer players who have already shown responsibility and trustworthiness in previous clan roleplay, will have an advantage.

What this -also- means, is that if you are constantly playing Maxy Max-Skill who thinks that gaming begins and ends at coded skills, you are less likely to ever earn a role requiring staff trust and responsibility. Showing an ability to communicate well with staff goes a long way too, and people who put more weight in how quickly they can spam-craft themselves a fortune, than in how well they can interact with the roleplayed side of the game world and the other players, are less likely to communicate to staff at all, let alone efficiently.

In short, if you want to play a noble, you have to 1) earn the trust of the staff, 2) show a serious interest in plotlines and player/character interaction, and 3) be interested in the role, when one opens up and becomes available.

The same goes for the higher ranking government. Soldiers and soldier crews are usually clanned through actual gaming and RP, but the clan boss will typically be a sponsored role.

Clan bosses CAN get killed off, they often are, and some clans are notorious for constantly having a new clan boss every month because none of them can ever manage to keep themselves alive very long. And sometimes they die to their own stupidity - going out, unarmed, thinking you're all that and then some, to punch an elf in the face. Only to discover, that elf has 4 of his best friends with him, and you're outside the safety of the city gates, and the NPC soldiers aren't going to auto-gank those elves on -that- side of the gate. So - you're toast.

Also, when you're a noble, you aren't permitted to just order your NPC guards to kill someone randomly, or because he looked at you funny. The staff has put you in a position of trust and responsibility, and this is a permanent death game. When your guard kills a PC, you are forcing that player to create a new character. So you'd better have a good IC reason, and you'd also better have a good IC reason why it has to be your NPC uber guard, instead of PC minions you can hire and manipulate, and who might betray you, because they're played by players and aren't merely loyal devoted assigned killer bots.

It gets pretty complex. Takes awhile to get the hang of it. But it was a whole lot of fun. Steep learning curve. But that actually reduces (though doesn't eliminate) the spam-bot-twinky players who feel that roleplay doesn't matter if you have 4 more levels and 5 extra ranks of dual-wield.
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