great swords!

[Draklar]

...Effectively creating semi-gods.
Not much of a role-playing value in that.
Too far into the combat-oriented gameplay.

[Silvermania]

GRRRRRR i meant it when there will come more gods and not that i decide that there will come more gods......

[Zan]

Originally posted by Draklar
The increase of role-play this way wouldn\'t go beyond a random item with some history. How would a weapon influence role-play? It can only add to the background, but basically any item can do that without bringing negative side-effects.
One could hope that such weapon would fall into hands of a skilled role-player, who might take the role of a dark lord or a famous hero... But possibilities for this are extremely low. Not in this community.

If stories of such swords would be to arise, they should remain simple myths, which enlarged the said power of the weapon over the long time.

I think it would add to the role-play if there was just a said possibility of existance of a powerful item. People would search for their holy grail, never to actually find it. Once someone would, the whole charm would be gone and instead of characters which dedicate their whole lives to search for the lost artifact, we\'ll have characters that are forced to cease the search after a year, because someone else found it. Either thanks to luck or large dedication.

How would a weapon influence roleplay?

Try playing King Arthur without Excalibur It\'d simply create living legends, something not really out of place in a fantasy game, no?
This is also why I have to disagree with your comment to keep such things myths. In real life we have myths and legends in a fantasy game we should be the legends. Not all of us because then you degrede into a hack and slash environment but there should be some.

As for chances of roleplayers getting their hands on such items being low ... well that would completely depend on how those objects are acquired. It could very well be that only excellent roleplayers would be rewarded with these things

Just because someone found a legendary item doesn\'t mean your efforts to acquire it need to stop either. This is part of how these items improve roleplaying. Once you posses one you\'re going to have rich merchants offering you a fortune for it, fighters that will challenge you for it and thieves that will try to get their hands on it.

I don\'t really want to see a medieval clone of today\'s world where myths and legends are just stories with no real truth .. instead I want legends to be created. Bards and gossip will spread them throughout Yliakum. Historians and scribes will write them down for future generations (of gamers) to read about them and search for a long lost artifact.

Roleplaying doesn\'t mean shun all things that could lift someone over the masses, does it?

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Zan
Try playing King Arthur without Excalibur :P It\'d simply create living legends, something not really out of place in a fantasy game, no?

Ever watched movies King Arthur and Troy? :P

Living legends there were created by their skills and personalities. Additional \"magical\" abilities came as a result of their legendary actions. And King Arthur movie proves you can role-play such character without his overpowered Excalibur ;)
Now imagine what would become of those movies if main characters had powerful weapons :P

Of course mmorpg, where magic is something mystical, where people role-play their characters in a way that magic is often creation of narrow-mindness, while magic and combat don\'t hold more importance than everyday life, is a role-playing utopia.

But I believe even though we can\'t reach that, we should try to keep some of such elements.

I believe it was you who someday said Planeshifters don\'t role-play medieval culture. Well, of course, no one will when game looks more like Final Fantasy and less like actual medieval setting ;)

Originally posted by Zan
Just because someone found a legendary item doesn\'t mean your efforts to acquire it need to stop either. This is part of how these items improve roleplaying. Once you posses one you\'re going to have rich merchants offering you a fortune for it, fighters that will challenge you for it and thieves that will try to get their hands on it.

And the actual poor treasure hunters just watching. Anyway if you say only great role-players would be given those... Should such role-player risk and sell those to merchants who might be completely irresponsible about it? Or give it away to some random power-leveler who uses role-playing excuse of attacking as a rogue, to further hack&slash with the weapon? Nope, here\'s actually high role-playing risk which often can be a lose-lose situation.

Originally posted by Zan
instead I want legends to be created. Bards and gossip will spread them throughout Yliakum. Historians and scribes will write them down for future generations (of gamers) to read about them and search for a long lost artifact.

If people can\'t role-play a bit of closed-mindness, where great deeds are seen as something involving powerful magic, then I doubt they\'ll start to role-play such characters once powerful weapons are added. They should learn to role-play their characters.
Though, are you saying such things didn\'t happen in real life?

I find more beauty in powerful items existing only in imagination. Would the ancient stories of elves, dwarves, will-o\'-the-wisps, unicorns and other fantasy creatures be as amazing if all those things were completely natural?

[Zan]

The thing with roleplaying that I noticed is 90% of them is extremely critical. If you come up with a claim there are always those people that will laugh or brush you off as a joke. Roleplaying anything above your average joe is questioned.
When you spread the word that you\'re a great warrior, you can assure yourself a bunch of people want to duel you.

If I go out and roleplay:
\"I\'ve heard of a mighty amulet once forged by a Xachan high priest but when he died he took it to the Death Realm with it and threw it in the abyss, never to be found again.\"

Tell me honestly ... how many players do you think will go looking for that amulet?

My thoughts ... not one. They\'ll question it, criticize the story and brush it off as a myth with no truth. Why? Because everyone knows there is no amulet, I am no dev so I couldn\'t have put one down there. Everyone knows they are still playing a game and nobody is going to waste their time wandering around dark abysses looking for something they know isn\'t there.

You are right that legends aren\'t only about magical items and also about personality. But I think among roleplayers, almost all of them have a very strong personality so there need to be other differentiations. In this case I prefer rare and powerful artifacts over training and leveling up. The last favors powerlevelling a lot more than the previous.

I think you are trying to keep the roleplaying a bit too pure, this is still a computer game.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Zan
Tell me honestly ... how many players do you think will go looking for that amulet?

My thoughts ... not one.

You give possibility of further developement of one\'s character. Yet no one uses it. That means role-playing input of players is seriously lacking. If not a single player can catch such a simple concept as to make his character wander around Death Realm, searching as far as possible and fighting monsters while doing so, then you can\'t possibly expect them to role-play in a proper mannar once powerful weapons are added. No, it would cause further degradation of role-playing. It is already happening. Even the situation you gave as an example is absurd when it comes to role-playing and wouldn\'t happen in rp-healthy environment.

When role-playing in tabletops I don\'t want super powerful items. Was there such a quest to arise, I would happily go for it due to role-playing values, but actually getting the item? that\'s a no-no. I don\'t want my game wasted by having everything made easy. When role-playing a mighty dwarf, I was known to charge into battle with no thoughts of the actual tactic, nearly dying this way. There should be a balance, no all-mighty characters. Otherwise the game is helluva boring.


Also, powerful weapons is about the absolute least you can do to create legendary characters.
I would question importance of those if instead you can just add alument that makes you control certain creatures, or summon ghostly inhabitants, only seen by you, with whom you can talk (about how many creatures are in your presence, what characters and such), yet other players would see all that you ask the ancestors (and no response)... starting to believe your character is either insane or can communicate with the dead. Honestly, compared to that, what good are powerful weapons?

[A_passing_lunatic]

I agree with Draklar that there shouldn\'t be any super high-powered items. It would make planeshift \'generic\'. A rich cahracter may have a ruby encrusted hilt, but the sword should essentially be the same (It could be a little lighter or stronger, but not that different). I find it tiring (and a bit boring) always having to upgrade one\'s weapons so that you can go on better quests to get better weapons etc. Less high powered weapons would also encourage teamwork, as it would become very difficult for a player to handle everything on his own.

On the other hand, it is somewhat rewarding to go an a long, difficult quest, and get some sort of super-item at the end, and a good-looking helmet probably won\'t feel worth it. But in a mmorpg, you would inevitably end up with lots of players with \'legendary\' items, and they would quickly lose their uniqueness.

I think a different focus than powerful weapons would work better in a mmorpg context.

Anyway, that\'s quite a lot of words which really say nothing much, so I\'ll shut up now.

[Silvermania]

why my ideas never pass the rounds and are always not chosen......


well it wone affect it much because only a few can have the weapon when found its not my meaning like find a stronger with a stronger found by a stronger etc.

it is just to make it a great idea for people to try to find it!

but i dont realy care alot when this is not placed in the game it was just my idea....

[Keyaz]

we have enough weapons as it is, for now

[Cherppow]

Hi everyone

I agree with Keyaz that we currently have enough weapons.

About the idea though:
I personally think there shouldn\'t be a weapon or a spell that is simply \"the best\". Sure there should be generally better weapons than others, propably with stat restrictions, so that a soldier can move on to more expensive equipment with time. But the unique weapons should have more personality; great swords for example would be very devastating against big and slow enemies, while hitting a rat with a greatsword would be quite hard. Daggers on the other hand would be perfect to plucking out the eye of a rat, but would have little effect against the thick skin of an ulbernaut. Experiance would help, but it wouldn\'t totally negate the weaknesses in a weapon.

Same goes for the magical weapons. Hitting a dark necromancer with tainted darksword, would make him grow stronger, while a scratch from laanx\'s light dagger would send him crying for his beloved parents. Both weapons would be useful in the right situation. Neither of them would be sold by shops. (Maybe a high quality dagger could be bought, and blessed in a temple eg. after a quest.)

And magics; Trying to harm a slime with watery blast sends it flying in the air, only to drop down with twice the volume, but introducing the jelly with a little flame would make it all crispy and crunchy.

Creating these unique strengths and weaknesses for weapons and creatures would take a lot of time and balancing, but I think it would be worth it. Much like in Final Fantasy, this would make combat more strategic and less straight forward, planning would be crucial before big battles. You can create a well balanced party or a party with specific, yet immense, strength. You can lean towards anti-magic equipment, or collect all \"innocent and flowery\" cute looking garments, striking the crowd with your charm.

[Zan]

When I was talking about legendary items the thought of making them uber powerful didn\'t even occur to me once. I thought it was obvious something like that would be bad for roleplaying and for the game balance.

Legendary weapons to me are unique weapons with their own name and own look, weapons of which there is only one in the entire game and there can never be another just like it. Sure those weapons could have some special atributes that no other item has but nothing that would even come near making a character invincible.

I hope that makes it clear that my idea of legendary and all powerful aren\'t even related. Having said that I still stand by my previous thoughts and would like to see legendary items in Planeshift.

PS: Draklar, the situation I gave as an example is how it would be now and you know that. I never said it is how it should be. All I want is to change how it is to how it should be.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Zan
PS: Draklar, the situation I gave as an example is how it would be now and you know that. I never said it is how it should be. All I want is to change how it is to how it should be. ;)

Yes, that\'s why I said the role-play in Planeshift is already degrading.
Planeshift went in wrong direction, giving fighting/looting the upper importance. Adding special wepons would only make that worse.

[Zan]

I\'m sure things will work out in time. I trust the devs with that.

You are right though that there are a whole lot of other things to do first but I still don\'t think legendary items would be harmful.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Zan
I\'m sure things will work out in time. I trust the devs with that.

I envy you ;)

[Silvermania]

i got the fealing that no one agrees with me......
but like i said before it doesnt matter when its not placed in the game it was just an idea.......

(too be onest im playing so much online games that i got this idea already in an other one)