More Depth

[Waylander]

You've managed to miss the point again.

You do not know if Kran can love unless you know how Talad creates life in very precise detail.

Of course quests are background to character interaction.  I don't see how that's in question.
What's in question is what quest should and should not be.

Quest need to have some storyline in them.  At least from time to time.  I don't see how you can do it with a randomized quest system such as yours.

[bilbous]

I really have to sell my book on Kran Origin one day, you people got it all wrong If only I could cut&paste it from an old style book to a new one. Personally I thought Kran stuck together due to magnetism or static electricity more so than any social factors

[Xolani]

I agree that it might be better not to have progression points. I also think gaining progression points fighting and then using them to get better at crafting is not a good setup. I am going to kill a rat so that in doing so I will learn how to weave a basket. How realistic is that?

Anyway about Krans having emotion keep this in mind. Whenever a fantasy race is created we almost always give them very human traits. Think of each species more as aliens (I know this is a reach but do it for the desired effect). If each "alian" race develops on thier own evolutionarily, socially, cultrally and technologically why does one race Have to posses a very human characteristic? I just read a book that had an alien race that reproduced from spores so they had no emotions and very little free will. In fact they did not feel pain. You may say thats outrageos how can any creature function well without a basic HUMAN trait? The aliens did not need emotions because of how they reproduced so on a evolutionary standpoint emotions gave the aliens no edge so emotions were never developed.
I know this example isn't of somthing in planeshift but it still, at least in my mind, helps to iluminate why an organisim dosn't have to have certain attributes.

[bilbous]

Even if kran do not have emotions of which I am uncertain, at least one tried to model them by writing a love poem. Having not seen the poem in question except for snippets I can not tell if it is written to some unrelated kran or to the authors own gemmated child.

[Ralleyon]

I agree with Draklar here... I don't see a definite goal for the background/quests. Most of them are suitable in a single player environment, they simply cannot be roleplayed around or otherwise at all (although some of them are quite enjoyable).

But still for a MMORPG I think the focus should be more on quests which involve more players and that can be roleplayed. For example: A captain in the Bronze Doors fortress may request supplies as many times as he wishes. Jirosh's love story, as beautiful as it may be, has no place in a multi-player roleplaying environment.

[Jeraphon]

But still for a MMORPG I think the focus should be more on quests which involve more players and that can be roleplayed. For example: A captain in the Bronze Doors fortress may request supplies as many times as he wishes.

Thanks for the feedback. We try to have a mixture of both quests that involve just fetching supplies and ones that feel more suitable for a single player. The quests you'd like - the repeatable ones - do have their place, we agree. But we do have other considerations:

- High-quality rewards. If a quest is repeatable, rarer or high-quality rewards will be less valuable.

- Factions. We want to avoid players' obtaining faction levels so high they become meaningless, with no current way to cap factions except by limiting the number of quests in which you can attain them. Hence, you can only get a positive faction with someone via a non-repeatable quest.

A lot of the non-repeatable "single-player" quests add characterization to the NPCs. It's still quite possible to include them in your RPs without mentioning the quest itself. Does your RP really just consist of "I did this quest, I did that quest?"

[ThomPhoenix]

Jeraphon, next release it will be possible to specify max values for faction prerequisites.

[Sangwa]

So, magic and gods are excuses to have a flawed setting? There should always be a level of coherence, despite of the imaginable or unimaginable content.

You are telling me Diabolis, Krans, etc find each other attractive and can engage. Krans coupling with Krans is understandable. They could simulate carbon based emotions and feel inclined to protect their progeny in grouping, I can buy that: it's easy to grasp.
But you are telling me a Kran can feel, and it is actually normal (since it is supported by the community), attracted by a Diaboli. I doubt Krans would find Diabolis suitable mates and vice-versa and therefore there should be some kind of law established to protect each race from the demented (ie zoofilia including rational beings)

The fact that mammals in PS can interbreed like crazy logically means that they are all one species with different possible characteristics. Understand that if Race A and Race B have no problems interbreeding and creating viable generation they automatically both belong to the same species 1.
We can ignore genetics, sure. But can we ignore logic? If they can all bond and mate, and if for me, an Ylian, it is equally well to marry a dwarf, an ylian or an enkidukai (because I am able to find them attractive and also interbreed with them) then would there be much of a distinction between our races and customs? I think not.
I believe this current notion makes races more alike than they should be, and ridiculously so.

About Quests:
-High-Quality Rewards: should be offered either because of an amazing job, or because of a very fortunate situation. GM oriented events would be more suitable to distribute these than quests, though there could be some quests that only very "qualified" people could attain, repeated or not (depends on the effort involved).

-Factions: Either repeating quests does not award additional faction, or earning faction with some group should decrease the faction level the character has towards other groups.

-NPC:
There should be other ways to know NPCs other than doing quests you can't tell anyone. Yes, good I know there's a Kran which likes poetry. What good does that do to me, if I can't actually role play that it exists because I'll get a "That Kran? I wrote a poem for him not long ago." "Curious. That's what I just did." "Oh. It was just that one too..."
There is a lot more to our RP besides quests. In fact, my RP is actually everything but quests. Hence this wish.

[Jeraphon]

-Factions: Either repeating quests does not award additional faction, or earning faction with some group should decrease the faction level the character has towards other groups.

That's what I'm hoping for too, eventually, but we're unable to do that yet.

Jeraphon, next release it will be possible to specify max values for faction prerequisites.

Thom, I understand where you're coming from, but that creates whole new problems too. I wouldn't want someone who did many different quests to have the same reward as someone who gave Harnquist apples a hundred times, nor would I want someone who decided to give Harnquist apples a hundred times to be unduly penalized with a max faction as a quest prereq.

There should be other ways to know NPCs other than doing quests you can't tell anyone.

Try talking to them.

[Parallo]

The only negatives I have are with various non-intelligent creatures which doesn't make much sense to me.

[Jeraphon]

The only negatives I have are with various non-intelligent creatures which doesn't make much sense to me.

We have plans for that later, in terms of aggression and such.

[Parallo]

But how if I killed a bunch of rats how would the other rats know about it. I'd understand if they were semi-intelligent and could communicate... but they are rats

[Jeraphon]

You bear the stink of dead rats on you. That's a stink that don't come off.

[Parallo]

Eww! *showers repeatedly*

Anyway, I still don't see why but that is a whole other topic.