get paid to RP

[Mythryndel]

That is fine. I can, and am, doing this right now. I have offered several other suggestions on how to get more RP back into the game. I am also ok with having a test server to help iron out the wrinkles in things like the introduction system before it goes to the players on the production server. I am offering to assist in any way i can in a non-programmer capacity (bound by no-compete with my employer). I am a qualified systems administrator (Linux and Unix) and I really enjoy this game and want to see it succeed long-term.

If i am causing too much ruckus... let me know and I'll go crawl back under a rock... and wait to pounce someones ankles as they pass by.

[Mordaan]

To the original post, we already have this.  They are called events.   
At least that was their intended purpose, more or less.  I have heard they exist yet I seem to have only gotten in on 2 since CB was introduced.   

[Leama]

Frankly I love to see such enthusiasm from a new player. I hope you do not get discouraged because people do not want two servers. Personally I look forward to hearing more of your ideas Mythryndel. Welcome and enjoy the game.

[Mythryndel]

I'm not going anywhere... I deal with much worse abuse on a daily basis... I have some pretty tough customers to deal with. It is also a challenge for some to distinguish between constructive criticism and bashing when it is a pet project or something they have been attached to for a long time. I'm guilty of not being able to see this myself in some of my projects.

Hopefully people will take what i say and either discard it completely, or think about it and get a dialog started about what really needs to happen with the game. I don't pick a contrary position just to be contrary... well... not too often.

I haven't heard any real feedback yet on:

1. Occupations
2. Merchant

I'd really like to hear some opinion on those. It would free up a lot of time for RP without some of the current grind.

[Mythryndel]

Some thoughts on the occupations and merchant:

---------------------------
Occupations:
- required to have a certain lvl in appropriate skills.
- required to perform some activity
- paid a daily or weekly salary for each time period those duties are performed.

Examples:
Miners Apprentice (requirement mining lvl 5)
- Weekly requirement: Mine 5 Gold, 5 Silver, 8 Iron, 2 Coal
- Weekly salary: 3000 trias

Miner (requirement mining lvl 10)
- Weekly requirement: Mine 10 Gold, 10 Silver, 16 Iron, 4 Coal)
- Weekly Salary: 9000 trias

Miner Senior (requirement mining lvl 20)
- Weekly requirement: Mine 20 Gold, 20 Silver, 32 Iron, 8 Coal)
- Weekly Salary: 27000 trias

EDIT: All items acquired in this way would be placed on a merchant for sale at average price compared to those listed. If Gold ore is offered at 400, 425, and 450.. the Gold sold from this occupation would be sold for the average of 425. This way it is set dynamically and does not influence the overall economy.
------------------------------
Merchants:
- Minimum of 1 in every major city
- Each merchant (in-game) would have established trade routes with the other merchants (or this could be another occupation, runner, required 80 Str, 80 Endurance)
- An item would be listed for sale and transfered to a merchant from the sellers inventory.
- Any player could approach a merchant and search for items for sale.
- Buyer would then purchase the item for the price listed and receive the item.
- Seller would be able to collect their money from any merchant after the item is sold.

The BIG advantage to this is that it saves time doing three things:
1. Getting sellers and buyers together
2. Reducing the amount of time travelling to acquire items
3. Allowing an economy to grow even when specific players are not online.

[Hersh Kooh]

I can see some benefits about it, and some interestings approaches.
But important to me is: Whats making it different to any other grinding, ie wheres roleplaying required or at least emphasized?

[Mythryndel]

That is just the thing. It levels the playing field. Right now it is not cost effective or PP effective to ONLY mine. Likewise, I cannot currently ONLY craft, etc. With the combination of these two things you can actually RP being only a miner or ONLY a crafter. You could also then ONLY be a fighter.

I find that right now, unless i have another character that can do specific things really well, i end up having to play a generic character with a specific personality. The example i used would give enough trias to make a only miner viable and free up time in-game to RP. Not everyone would WANT to be a miner, but mining is required to support crafters. Crafting is not required, but crafters are almost required to support fighters... etc.

My purpose in proposing this is to support a real economy, a REAL ability to not have to RP a fighter/misc profession, and being able to focus more on player interaction than grinding. As with any job, there would be requirements to "grind" through...

more feedback?

[Prolix]

About your miner: PS miners are different than any realistic model would be. Typically miners would be poor workers digging wealth for someone else's benefit and not the fabulously wealthy drones we know in the game. They would work from dusk to dark for a pittance and likely spend that on staying alive with whatever is left guzzled down their throats. And that is if they were not outright slave labor. Crafters would be slightly higher on the totem pole but still would likely starve unless they were good. Also they would do all their work for a master until they learned enough to go on their own and he might well throw them out or refuse to teach them much.

Good thing the game is not too realistic, eh?

[Donari Tyndale]

Mythryndel, your suggestions are nice, but senseless. Once everything is fully implemented, these things will balance themselves.

[Scarn]

While I can't say i'm completely opposed to this suggestion (invite only =D), I can say that I doubt it is going to happen.  In general elitism is frowned upon here.

*Cough* *cough* ...oh, you said in general... 

[Eolius]

Hmm... get payed to RP...
I want to ask you, why do you play a game? Any game.
For the loot? For the currency (trias in this case).
In my oppinion you play it because you (the person behind the character) enjoy it.
Of course, you feel some inner joy when you happen to find an incredibly rare item, or when you make a certain ammount of ingame currency but those are some of the reasons behind the game being exciting for you. And if you think about it... here's the bad news... the loot is only pixels. So, I guess it is not the loot that makes a game worth playing, it is the feeling you get while playing it.
Ok, so my point is: You play the game for a moral reward that is in some cases related but not strictly to pixels.
On the other hand, you get the same reward when you RP. You meet people, you have fun with them, you have fun being inside the skin of a character that you try to role play the best you can, in short, you are enjoying the game.
So, why would you need pixels to feel enjoy something that is enjoyable anyway?
If somebody doesn't enjoy RP, you can give them all the trias in the world and they will still not RP. Or they will do that for the trias and they will suck at it.
So, IMO, we should leave RP to those that like and want to RP and not force it by making people do it, or by giving them rewards. RP is a reward by it's self.

[Mythryndel]

The miner is just one example, but right now if i spend all of my time mining, i cannot progress. I do not make enough PPs even if I make all the trias in the world. The way the game mechanics work right now it forces you to be a fighter in addition to whatever other profession you might want to be, unless you really don't mind gaining even 1 level of mining every couple of days, even starting at lvl 1. The occupation idea would need to balance this out as well. I could see an occupation of armor smith, weapon smith, cartographer, etc. In the spirit of being compensated for RP, this would help give more realism to the game and encourage people to help the "global" in-game economy, not just their own endeavors.

[Caarrie]

The miner is just one example, but right now if i spend all of my time mining, i cannot progress. I do not make enough PPs even if I make all the trias in the world. The way the game mechanics work right now it forces you to be a fighter in addition to whatever other profession you might want to be, unless you really don't mind gaining even 1 level of mining every couple of days, even starting at lvl 1. The occupation idea would need to balance this out as well. I could see an occupation of armor smith, weapon smith, cartographer, etc. In the spirit of being compensated for RP, this would help give more realism to the game and encourage people to help the "global" in-game economy, not just their own endeavors.

no those are all balancing issues the devs are aware of, and in time they will be fixed/worked on, but not just yet do the devs have time to work on redoing the lvling system to make it better.

[Mythryndel]

Are we beating a dead pterosaur here then?

[Zan]

You're beating the bonedust that once was a dead pterosaur, years ago.